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Published: January 13th 2007
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Phnom Penh Maybe I should explain the bizarre and wayward travel plan thus far. The reason I headed down south straight away was ‘cos I met the lads, and frankly I needed some social interaction! Once up in Chiang Mai I could have traveled over to Laos much simpler, but my ticket to Cambodia was prebooked and I didn’t want to waste my cash!
Anyway, I arrived into Phnom Penh, (Cambodia’s capital) on 28th December. At the airport taxi rank I met an old Swedish chap who seemed to know what was going on, and I bundled into a taxi with him. Grabbing a pair of rooms at the OK Guesthouse, I had a nap and wandered round the city. Phnom Penh is by far the poorest place I’ve been so far, so much begging. Generally, not a nice place. The evening picked up though when I headed out to the FCC bar with Bert, and we got talking to an American and Australian. It was a damned nice bar, and we, well I, got gradually hammered. I got on well with the dude from Boston and agreed to meet him in Siem Reap for a bevvie.
In Phnom
Penh I did the tourist thing and went to the Tuol Sleng museum and killing fields; remnants of the Pol Pot regime (look it up you uncultured bums!). The museum used to be a school before Mr Pot took it over and tortured people here in appalling ways, before shipping them off to the killing fields. The torture methods were interesting, but what brought it home was the fact that this was only 30 years ago, and blood was still stained on the floors. Mr Pot was a bit of a psycho. Then the Vietnamese came in and kicked his ass. Good lads.
The killing fields were pretty crap, what with it just being a field. The only part worth seeing is the monument in the centre with thousands of skulls retrieved from the fields kept inside. 17,000 people killed just because one guy didn’t have his way. Nuts. I paid my respects and left.
On the way back (it was a fairly hefty motorbike ride) I decided, after some persuasion from my driver, to take a small detour and… fire an AK47!!! Oh my god, the sheer power. I got about 30 rounds. Even with the ear
protectors it was still bloody loud. The whole experience was something new. The smell of the gunpowder, the recoil of the rifle, the squeeze of the trigger. I felt like a man. Grrr. Maybe I should join the army…
Siem Reap Onwards to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat! I met a nice young Vietnamese/American girl on the bus called Di and her cousin. We headed off to find a place to kip. In the end we split up and I found a dorm room to sleep in for $1 (50p!!) and met up with them later. She was keen to travel through Vietnam with me when I got there; and I reciprocated deciding that the company would be nice. That night I went to bed early ‘cos the day after I was up early…
At 4.30am (!?!?) I rose to head on over to the Angkor Wat temple for sunrise. It was a bit keen in hindsight; the sun didn’t rise until about 6am, so I was stood in the dark for about 45 chuffing minutes. Nevertheless when it came it was spectacular, as you can see from the pics. My moto driver drove me around all the
temples I wanted all day, but by about 2 I was shattered and all templed out. The temple which was in Tomb Raider (and the one which I was most looking forward to) turned out to have half the population of Japan dawdling around with cameras glued to their face. This detracted from it somewhat, and I found some much nicer temples where I could sit and chill in amazing surroundings, without some retarded tourist stopping to take a picture of fifteen other touristswho decided that the middle of the path was the best place for a group photo. Every single temple was amazing.
New Years Eve and I cruised over to a local, and only, swimming pool. I had a great day, spent between propping up the bar with the few people who were there, sunbathing and having diving competitions with the local kids! They clapped and cheered every time I did a massive dive bomb, and then out ran me when I chased them round the pool for spashing me. Also played kick ups with a shuttle cock type thing, the Cambodian version of football kick ups. The bar girl insisted I went down to Funky Monkey
that night, and everyone else said they’d be there, so that was my plan.
Back at the hostel (Green Valley), I met some other people in the bar. They turned out to be banter, and in the end about 8 of us headed into Siem Reap centre (a single street) and had a bloody great time!! We danced on the street drinking beer and pulling random people until about 3am, by which time I’d lost everyone and was all partied out. A cracking new year, but alas I never made it to the Funky Monkey or the bar girl.
New Years day was spent watching films and meeting everyone from the night before. It was class; we watched about 3 films including Borat - without doubt the best film this year! Chen Qui! The following day I cycled to the landmine museum with Morla, during which I got hit by a motorbike who sliced the back of my leg open. Well, I took the pain and desinfected the bugger when I got back to the hostel. In the afternoon we headed over to a hotel swimming pool, who let us use their luxurious facilities for $5. I loved
it in Siem Reap, always knowing someone in the bar, plenty of banter, but it was time to move on.
Sihkanouville A 10 hour bus journey later and I was in Sihkanouville, south Cambodia coast. Spent a day chilling on the beach being continually harassed by beggars and some shapely Cambodian girls. I preferred the latter. I lost a t-shirt to a girl who made borrowed it then insisted I come back that night to retrive it. I didn’t go back. Also went on a day trip round some islands, doing a spot of snorkelling.
6th January; to Ho Chi Minh. Now the pace really picks up!
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Ruth =]
non-member comment
HIYA CUZ
i op e ay avin a gr8 time cause it sounds like ya av lol cani boring were i am so av the fun for me =] luv ya xxxxxxx