Cambodia

As it turned out we didn't spent too much time in Cambodia, the people there were alot nicer than those in Vietnam dispite the troubles they've been through as a people, but alittle more on that later..
Cambodia is the sort of place i used to think of when i thourght of budget traveling, it has virtually no roads just big dirt tracks everywhere that get very dusty.. no air con busses and proberly the main factor being that its bloody cheap, because before i came away i thought as id expect most people do that all of Asia is really cheap an u can live here for sod all, and you can... if you want to eat super noodles every day. not so in Cambodia as most places give you free beer with any dish over $2 you can get by quite well.
anyhow we came through the border and crossed into Cambodia with what seemed like military organization compared to getting into Vietnam.. they even had a nice big duty free shop.
we then transfered to another bus and made our way to out guest house in phom phen which was, well.. good for the price i
S21
one of the buildings in s21think the best way to describe it would be, although it did have a really nice atmosphere and cheap food as iv already mentioned. the reason we came to phom phen apart from getting back to Thailand was to come and learn alittle more about S21 and the killing fields..
now im no expert on the events leading up to the atrosities committed but i now know alittle more than i did and proberly more than id like to know about the acts themselves... but it went like this... The king of Cambodia placed the country under French protection; it became part of French Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia became independent within the French Union in 1949 and fully independent in 1953. After a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh in April 1975 and ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns; at least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, enforced hardships, or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. (i copied that part from travelblog intro on cambodia) S21 was a school before it was tranformed into a prison and holding station for the killing fields and is
known as the genocide musiem and parts haven't been changed since the 1970s.. i wont go in to any further details as its a very sad subject, il just say that it wasn't one of out cheeriest days.. and if you want to know any more there is plenty if information in the net
from phom pen we bussed it up to siem reap to go and see ankor wat but was pleasantly suprised buy the town as its a really nice place lots of nice shops and lil bakeries along with some pretty good bars.. but of course the main reason to go is ankor wat.. we decided to only get a day pass (they go up to a week) and hired our chauffeur in the form of a smiley tuk tuk driver as theres a few sites spread out we needed him..
now before hand id only seen a few pics of ankor wat and i was expecting a few crumbling ruins amid the jungle i couldn't have been more wrong (and right) = ) the main bit being ankor wat (they all have different names which iv forgotten) is absolutely huge with a massive walk
this place had trees growing all over itway coming up to it, il let the pics do most of the work but its damn impressive from not just the size but all the detail on the carvings which are everywhere.. the other sites are all really different from each other some have big faces carved into them others are as i would have thought and are crumbling with trees growing out of parts and others look like a scaled up temple made from lego. and as were not really into looking over every nook and cranny (much to the suprise of our driver) we got through them quite quickly.
so we headed out from siem riep in a lil bus for the border of Thailand where we were were to be picked up but a big air con coach.. and when we got there we were covered in orange dust from the road as the lil bus's air con came in the form of an open window.. we arrived in bangkok for the 3rd time and like the junkie westerners we are we headed straight for the golden arches and got ourselves a big mac..
From Bangkok we came straight back down to out favourate island
Ko Tao and booked into a bungalow for 3 weeks (joy) and we went on out first fun dive today which was great ! il try and get some more underwater pics pics for those of you who like em, and when iv seen some cool stuff = )


(Due to some problems with the travelblog server i think one of my blogs may have been lost and i cant remember the titles to the past blogs i think iv managed to sort everythin out ok but if people see any faults (bar spelling mistakes) please send me an e-mail)

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