Birthday treat: Killing Fields and mugging

Tuesday 9th October

AM - Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre - another dose of horrendous, Cambodian history - the killing fields of Choeung Ek. We got a moto there - our first while sitting on the same bike, so we had the added excitement of making sure Briony, who sat at the back of the bike, stayed on the bike.
Near the entrance of the site is a memorial which is very splendid on the outside. Inside, it is filled to the brim with human skulls. The site is quite small, with one mass grave close to the next. Beside the graves, there are signs with brief messages about who was buried there. There were also a couple of other signs next to trees, saying something like "Tree which children were held against while being battered to death". Another: "Magic tree - on which a loud speaker was hung, to drown the moans of victims".
But most disturbing of all, are the clothes and bones poking out of the ground, which I assume have been left there on purpose, but I'm not sure how they have survived. Really horrible.



It was my birthday, so we went out in the evening and had a really nice time, until we were mugged. When we were on the road, Briony, who was carrying all our possessions in one bag, felt a hand slide over her shoulder, slippping her bag off. Two guys on a moto drove by us very close and fast and snatched her bag. Briony was very confused and called out my name. I was disorientated and firstly thought that she had been hit by the bike. Then I thought they had grabbed her wrist and were dragging her away. But then I saw the green strap of her bag stretched out in front of her and watched in horror as she was dragged into the distance, still keeping hold of the bag. It was probably foolish to try and retrieve the bag but it was just instinctive to keep hold of it. And it really looked like Briony had a chance to snatch it back again, especially at the beginning of the struggle. But afterwards, she thought that perhaps they were even taunting her. They were going quite fast and it was hard for her to keep up with them as she had flip-flops on. She decided to let go when they turned a corner, even though she knew that she would fall over. And she did, rolling across the floor, bruising and scratching herself quite badly.
Briony cried out after a tuk-tuk driver going the same way, asking him to try and follow the moto which, thinking about it now, is quite comic - but he started driving after the moto! Of course, it was all in vain and the tuk-tuk turned around back towards us, and I decided to finish my rant of 'You stupid fucking bastards! You arseholes! You FUCKING BAAAASTAAAARDS!!!', etc.
Luckily, the tuk-tuk driver was nice and so were the two men inside it, who gave us a lift back to our guesthouse and gave us a few dollars to be getting on with. The driver informed us that the area we were in was very common for robberies - of local people as well as tourists. And it was a holiday in Cambodia too, so muggings were even more common. We are normally so much more careful than we were that night. We've learnt the hard way not to be complacent!
We arrived at our guesthouse, minus 2 passports, 2 mobile phones, lots of money, an expensive camera, bank cards and various other items of monetary and sentimental value :-( It was stupid to carry that amount of stuff around with us, but then items get nicked from guesthouses all the time too. The gate of the guesthouse was locked, even though the night was young, due to its rude interruption. So, we had to humiliate ourselves further by shouting from the street. The owner of the guesthouse was also very kind and took us in his car to a 24-hour internet cafe, so that Briony could cancel her bank cards. We eventually got to bed, tired, shaken and severely pised off.