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Published: November 26th 2006
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Hi all. Told you there was lots to catch up on. This computer I am on is so c rap so I'm going to save the rest till later as it takes me ages to write one. Hope you all good and we miss you all. xx
Waking up early gave us enough time to go and find another hotel before we had to check out of this one as it wasnt the nicest for Boucs and Leena to have to stay in for their first few days. We went back next door to double check they had no record of Leenas email - which they of course didnt, but luckily someone had checked out that morning from the room Boucs had emailed us about... the Penthouse. Maz, my little negoitator, managed to get a good rate and it was really nice. Basically its the top floor. Theres 2 seperate double bedrooms and a rooftop garden. Bargain.
We went for breakfast - A FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST with hash brown, sausage the works... we deserved it (and we were celebrating for not being food poisoned from last nights meal)!
Back at the hotel we waited for Boucs and Leena
to arrive... they were very tired as they had spent the night in Hong Kong waiting for their transfer plane but the 'little' ones had got a bus to the nightlife and drank and danced all night. Everyone that knows them knows that they have alot of stamina and like clubbing so we were extra happy to have them around to push us to a bit more in the evenings as we were beginning to get knackered from all the exercusions (i know i know!)
So after we caught up and we waited for them to shower and rest up and then we went to start our sightseeing... we walked 100 yards got hot (its soooooooooooooo hot) and decided to 'rest' and have a drink where one waitress took a 'liking' to Leena and couldnt stop starring at her, claiming she was the most beautiful girl she has ever seen.
After our drink we began walking to what we thought was the National Museum but it wasnt... we did however 'bump' into a man who took us into a little room and blessed us by sprinkling holy water on us and praying in front of a buddha. It was really nice and unexpected.
Walking to the real National Museum we got a coconut to drink and Maz got harrassed by little kids wanting him to buy stuff of them. He ended up getting 3 lonely planets for 4 dollars (photopies but who cares)!
The National Museum holds all these ancient buddha statues, pots and pans, elephant seats etc etc. It's interesting but we were really hot and bothered so didnt stay that long, plus once you've seen one..... so we walked to the royal palace and nearly never got in as we..okay I was inappropriately dressed - I didnt have any sleeves on so I had to rent out a white T-shirt. The Royal Palace is amazing architecture. Its beautiful. You cant actually go near the building the king lives in but we got to see the Thrown room and the silver Pagoda. The Silver Pagoda is described and famous for having pure silver floor and all 4 of us expected something completely different from what we had read so we were disappointed. We expected to look into the room and see glistening silver floor but instead it was like silver plated dull tiles. BUT STILL, I guess cos the whole floor is pure silver makes it special.
Now we were hot and hungry so we decided to go and eat at the infamous happy herb pizza : )
Everyone ordered medium and I ordered small. Nothing really happened so we ordered a happy milkshake too..... waiting, waiting, waiting... we went to the hotel about 7ish to get ready for the evening and wait for the happiness. We all fell asleep at 7.30! SO MUCH for Boucs and Leena the 'ravers'!
In the morning we couldnt believe we had all fallen asleep so early but it was good as we were well rested and could fit in more sightseeing and playing time today. After breakfast we got a tuk tuk from outside our hotel and we went to the Killing fields. This is basically where thousands of prisoners, esp from S-21 during the Khmer Rouge where taken and killed. This includes children and women as well as intellectuals and anyone wearing glasses. Most of the buildings have been destroyed now but they tell you where they were. Its really disturbing. You walk through the grass to see the various mass graves and see a tree where kids used to be taken against and beaten to death. One man there said when he was younger he went to see another similar tree and there was a boot mark in the tree and the bark was full of blood. : ( Then you see another tree where a huge microphone was hung up to drown out the cries of the victims. In one mass grave only bodies were found as the heads were cut off and thrown into the river behind. You can still see pieces of clothing on the floor from that time but yet its also got some twisted grace to it as you see loads and loads of butterflies flying around the graves (which people say are the souls of the dead) and the sweet innocent laughter of local children nearby. They;'ve now dug up the skeletons and have erected a tall glass building in the centre where they keep all the bones and clothes. You can see how most of them died, as the soldiers didnt want to waste bullets they would hit people in the head with axes, bambo sticks etc etc. Its so awful. I cant believe it was only 30 years ago that this barbarism was allowed to continue.
After the killing fields our tuk tuk man took us to the school which was taken over and made in the prison for interigation and holding until death. This is even more daunting then the killing fields and what is very sick is that there is a sign saying pls do not laugh?????? WHO WOULD LAUGH?????
First you see all the cells with the beds and pictures of how they died in that cell and the tools used. Then you see sports equipment which was later used to hang people and then you go into a room with thousands and thousands of pictures of the victims on it. They used to keep records.... The eyes of these people say it all. The fear, the confusion... children, babies...even pictures of them after they had been beaten to death.... We all started to feel really down and in the exhibition area... as soon as I walked in and saw a guestbook with the simple words ''I'm sorry'' written on it I just broke down and had to leave the room but the rest continued and basically theres stories of some of the familes who died during the Khmer rule. Its all so sad!
We then got our tuk tuk man to take us to the Russian Market to see what was on offer and thereafter back to the hotel where we sat outside and began to drink, and drink and whilst Maz watched aston villa we also had some sambucas.... we actually got quite drunk then decided to get a motorbike to visit Mr Happy. The motorbike men must have thought we were freaks as it was only 1 min away but we still wanted to ride the motorbike so each couple got on the back of one motorbike each...zzzip there and zzzip back. We all slept well again that evening!
XX
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