Cambodia 1 - Goths 0

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We left Vietnam excited about the prospect of Cambodia. Our journey from Saigon was a pleasure, the coach was plush and the bus boys did all the annoying boarder crossing rigmoral for us. We arrived in Phnom Penh relaxed and hopped into tuk tuk which took us to a hostel which initially we thought seemed quite nice and cheap but later discovered it really stank as we were right next to a huge local street food place and the room was sweltering hot to top it off, so not so charming in the end. We booked our tuk tuk guy for the next day as he seemed really sweet and it was the easy option the way both Sam and I like it. That afternoon we just took and stroll along the river and decided we quite liked Phnom Penh.

We got up early and set off to visit the Killing Fields and the S21 Museum. The Choeung Ek commune was the site of some of the most crual and barbaric killings. Between 1975 - 1979 the Khmer Rouge Regime used the the area for murdering prisoners transported from S21 and other places in the country. Im not sure what i expected maybe just some big open fields but in actual fact it was located within a beautiful sureane orchard and you could just not believe that all these hurrendous things happened there. Its insane to think that over 20 thousand people were murdered at the killing fields and 129 mass graves were found, 86 were excavated with 8,985 corpses being exhumed.
As you walk through the fields you can still see bones and clothing emerging from the dirt paths. Several of the trees had been used to aid the torture such as the Magic Tree where a loud speaker was hung to try and mute the victim's moans, i'm sure that was for the executioners benefit not the prisoners. There was also a killing tree which was used mainly to kill children, what made it worse was the fact you could hear children playing and laughing at a school near the fields.
At the site a memorial charnel house has been built for recalling and honoring the spirtis of over 3 million people that lost their lives in this regime and houses 8000 skulls of the victims.

We then visited the S21 museum, which is still housed in the school that the Khmer Rouge took control over. The school was specifically used for the interrogation, torture and extermination of prisoners. All the classrooms were coverted into prison cells and interogation was conducted in the houses around the prison. The victims in the prison were of all ages, some as young as 10 and from all backgrounds. In 1975 there were only about 154 prisoners but by 1978 this ha risen to 5765. The total figure not including the children that were killed at S21 was 10,499. Before the prisoners were placed in cells the Khmer Rouge photographed and detailed biographies of their childhood up to date of their arrest were recorded. As you walk through the old prison cells the rooms have been used to display these photos and life stories. The faces looking at you some still smilling but others looking petrified haunt you, woman and young children having their mug shot taken when they should be at home playing with a carefree lives.

The whole day was so thought provoking and sad. I cant believe that these atrocities happened and so recently. Since visiting the sites Sam and I have read couple of books written by people who survived the Khmer Rouge regime and their stories. It is amazing how much Cambodia has moved on and tried to rebuild itself since this happened.

The next day we chilled out and planned to go out for Sam's birthday (again). This is when the bloody scallies stole Sams bag containing both our purses and my camera. So the next day i had to try and sort out the loss of my cash card, credit card and driving licence plus my camera. I took a trip to the tourist police who were very helpful but would only give me a report to provide for my insurance if i coughed up $25. Not only had we been robbed but the police take piss and charge you more, insane. The only lucky thing in this whole mess was that a computer i had used the previous day had worked with my camera. Since Chang Mai I had been having major problems uploading photos on to my tru print account so had given up in a girly strop. But i had put some photos on the blog and had some how saved nearly all of them onto one of the pcs in the internet cafe. So the next two days Sam and I spent 6 hours each day sat in a smelly internet cafe slowly saving the pictures to the web. It well worth it and I am just glad for the camera finally deciding to work before it was pinched.

After the incident with the tea leafs we were happy to be leaving Phnom Penh.

Next stop was Siem Reap to visit the Angkor Temples. We hired a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 5am so that we could watch the sun rise over the main temple Angkor Wat. It was a very early start for us but well worth it. We didnt expect there to be so many people with the same idea but the place was rammed. We hadnt done our homework so didnt really know much about the temples so just wanted to visit the main ones really. The tuk tuk guy didnt seem very impressed when we told him, and proceeded to give us a lecture but we stuck to our guns. We still saw quite a large amount of the temples some were being renovated and others just werent so impressive after seeing Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm. My favourite was Ta Prohm which was the temple in Tomb Raider, i havent actually seen the film though. As my camera was stolen Sam and I had bought two cruddy disposable cameras to take photos at the temples. We did look rather stupid but hey we have managed to get a couple of good pics.

We felt that one day was plenty at the temples so booked our ticket back to Thailand for the next day. We had heard lots of stories about the roads in Cambodia being horrendous but hadnt really experienced it up until this journey. The government in Thailand (alledgedly) give Cambodia money not to improve the roads so that people will choose to fly instead of taking the bus to the boarder. The journey was certainly interesting, we got into the smallest mini bus which they packed full to the brim with our bags squashed in between us and the bus boys sitting on the steps by the doors. The road was just as people had described. It was a dirt track with the biggest crater like pot holes in it the whole way. The driver still bombed it along, im suprised the bus survived it. The journey took hours as when we arrived at Bangkok we discovered that it was the Kings birthday and that the celberations were in full flow.

We stayed in Bangkok for a day and spent lots of money and then caught the bus to Ko Lanta. We have been here since the 9th of December and are loving it hence me not completing this blog. Sam will update you on our Lanta antics another day, we are definately beach bums at heart.

I am struggling with the photos again so will post the Angkor ones at another time.

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Comments

[Delicious Garford]

I know it's Christmas Time...........
...but you need to get off the beach - are you brown yet Sam? Need some more pictures of stuff please. Good new year news - Mrs Dfire has left the building - cannot say more Sam in case she stumbles across this blog. Joy to the world - la la la la.