We are in Cambodia!!

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Well, we arrived safe and sound yesterday lunchtime and our hotel was beautiful, it overlooked the river and was very nice. We had a very quick check in before we went straight out to the Genocide Museum (S21).

We were prepared for a harrowing day but it was truly horrific, to see for ourselves what the Cambodian people went through and what terrible suffering they had at the evil hands of Pol Pot. It is a very graphic portrail of the attrocities that occured here and no one was spared, men, women, children and even new born babies. I had to hold back tears the whole way round and it was a struggle not to break down and cry. We are glad that we went (thanks Jez) as it makes you realise that no matter what we have thrown at us at home its nothing compared to what happened here.

Our tour then took us out to one of the Killing Fields, again this was terrible. I think that at this particular site they have found SO FAR 8995 remains in mass graves, and as you walk around you see teeth, bones and scraps of clothing that are finding their way to the surface. In the 3 years and 10 months of Pol Pot's reign 1.7 million people were murdered. I asked our Guide if he minded me asking if his family had been affected, his mother was murdered when he was 2 years old. In total he lost 5 immediate family members and 1 extended member. His father had to destroy all family records to try and protect themselves from the Khmer Rouge's campaign of terror, consequently he can not remember ever seeing his mother and there are no photos of her at all. To make matters even worse there are no accurate records of where his mother was actually killed, they believe it is in one of two 'Killing Fields'. Each May monks from the Temples go to the Fields and bless them along with all of the families who have lost loved ones. He told us that nearly every family in Cambodia has lost at least one family member at the Khmer Rouge's hands. His family originated from Phnom Phen and when the Khmer Rouge entered the city they forced all inhabitants to leave for more rural areas. When people were allowed to eventually return 70% of the buildings had nobody to inhabit them. The buildings were left empty for a while and when no-one returned people claimed the properties for themselves. 48% of Cambodia's population are under 15 years old and you just don't see any old people, they have all been killed. It sounds horrendous and it is but we feel very humbled to of been here.

This morning we flew to Siem Reap and came to the Victoria Angkor Hotel WOW The one hotel that Simon chose and boy is it amazing, a fabulous hotel to spend our last couple of days at. We have been out seeing Angkor Wat today and other Temples but telling you about them will probably bore you, so we will have to post some pictures up for you...not sure when as we want to cram as much as we can in before we leave tomorrow. Angkor Wat at Sunset tonight was beautiful and hopefully it will be as beautiful when we see it at Sunrise tomorrow. We have seen where they filmed some of Tomb Raider and tomorrow after Sunrise we are off to the Jungle Temple where they did a lot more of the filming!

We can not believe that tomorrow is our last day :-( although we have of course missed everyone there is still so much to see and do here we need a couple more weeks! (Johnnie how many diggers have you lost!!) We are leaving here tomorrow evening though and flying into Bangkok before catching the Red Eye and coming into Heathrow at 6.30 ish on Thursday morning. You may have to wait for photos until then as they take ages to do here, Simon can do that to keep himself awake on Thursday afternoon!

Simon has finished transfering his 800 photos from the last 2 days (I kid you not!) onto his hard drive thingy, so I am going to sign off and we are going to walk along the river and find a restaurant that has recommended for dinner.

As usual,love to you all and we will see you soon

Lots of Love

Nikola & Simon xxx

(From Simon!) To those that made this trip possible, thank you for realising my dream. I could of never of imagined exactly how awesome Vietnam & Cambodia have been but Nikola & I have both fallen in love with Asia and will be returning. Once again thank you xxx

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