Phnom Penh

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Phonm Penh

3rd April

So we had to get a bus over the borders into Cambodia which was an interesting experience as soon as you get over it. All these kids with no arm or legs were all coming up to begging for money - was a bit hard to see and watch at times. Any we went over on this ferry after the border which was only a 10min crossing but again these people were on board harassing you. When we arrived at our destination in Phnom Penh we got a tuk tuk to lakeside - the place to be - and resided in a plce called floating island hostel. At this hostel was on the lake which gave the most amazing sunsets which you will seen when we upload them. anyway as the hostel goes we paid $4 which for us in 1 pound a night and boy did we get what we paid for. The room wasnt that nice had holes in the floor but we didnt really mind. We then went out for dinner to the elephant bar - good food, and randomly in walks dave and jen who i was with in laos so random as we didnt think we would cross over again, was unfortunate as the other boys i was with had left that morning. They were with another two girls (sarah and claire) and it was Sarah birthday so we ended up staying out drinking with them... we went to elephant bar, lazy bar , sponge bar and Mosquito. We also walked into a couple of boys we went to the cu chi tunnels with who we ended up going out with the next night. ( Dan and Tim)

Lakes side in Pnom Penh where we were staying was a crazy place... to say it was drug filled is an understatement, every where you walk you got hassled by people wanting to sell you drugs and i am talking everything - weed to heroin - was crazy and very stressful at times. Also Pnom penh was a sweat box the humidity was unbearable! i dont usually sweat but i was dripping a josh just couldn't handle it with his allergies as well. He couldn't sleep all night as we only had a fan room which was rubbish, i on the other other hand slept ok. we had also booked a tuk tuk driver from our hostel - tom - to take us around all the sight the next day

4th April

So we arose early to be eaten and showered to leave by 11 - that was good for us 😊 our first visit was Russian market as jen had recommended it to us. It was massive and sold anything you could think of, me and josh werent so bothered about it but thought we should go anyway plus we wanted to buy some head-bands for the shooting range we were going to later ( the rambo look). The next stop was the S21 museum as soon as you went in you were welcomed by big walls with bar while . In the 1970s there was a period of genocide in Cambodia, so crazy that was only 30 years ago. Anyway this museum initially was a school for children but later the regime changed it into a torture camp which is how it is still laid out today. They sent ordinary people and official people to get information out of them and execute them. Thsi place was horrible no sound just so morbid! the first building you walked through were cells where they tied there victims to beds and tortured them - i say beds but they were just metal constructions. Here they were cut off limbs, electrocute them, drown them till they go unconscious and then revive them to continue interrogation etc...They even had rules in this place " whilst getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all ' Crazy the others were just so in humane as well. josh was finding this hard as you can imagine so at time was taking a few min out. The next building had photos of all the victims, i say photos but i mean mug shots. Apparently they all got one so they could be documented and it was very strange as after these photos they were interrogated and executed some of them were just kids. Also there was one photo that stood out because it was an Aussi guy who looked just like us was scary to see that. They also had paintings and photos of how they tortured them as well in this building - not nice. After this you walked passed some gallows, this is where they drowned them to unconscious and shocked them back to life to carry on the interrogation crazy. the next building has all the cells in. There were three floors, ground floor had single cell made of brick, they were so small, the first floor were single cell made of wood which were even smaller, and the a second floor was used for mass detention which were braided with barbed wire to prevent desperate victims form committing suicide!!! And finally the fourth building had photos of the victims with there story written beside it, written by their family member by this point we had both had enough. It was weird whilst walking around this place it was so silent and felt like you could here the victims screaming, it was just horrible, When we got outside people beg for money as per usual but this one guy cam up to us who basically had lost half of his face... possibly a survivor ever way hit was horrific so josh gave him some money.

We then made our way to the killing fields, which basically is explained in the name. They just brought people here and executed them and then threw them into mass graves annd i mean mass graves!!! Usually the victims were executed immediately, however as the number of victims to be executed increased, up to over 300 per day, executioners failed in attempt to kill them within a day. As such they were detained for execution the next day. the detention centre was constructed from wood with galvanized steel roof, walls were built with two layers of flat wood and completely darkened to prevent prisoners form being able to see one another. So these people were waiting to be executed just horrible!!! As you walked around this site you just saw massive holes in teh ground like bomb craters where which were the mass graves these were by no mean big but contained over 450 victims. Also amongst some of these holes in teh ground there were also clothing of the individuals still stuck in teh ground and to the point where you just couldn't pull them out - horrible. We then came across a tree, named the 'magic tree' which was used as a tool to hang a loud speaker which made sound louder to avoid the moan of victims whilst they were being executed. We then came across another tree, named 'killing tree' this was where executioners beat children to death. After this they had a cabinet filled with all the teeth and bones they had found around the place. So the killing Fields is seen as a monument as in the middle of the place there is a massive tower which contains all the human skulls of whom they found in all the graves, and there were hundreds and hundreds of them, you will have to see the pics to understand what i mean. They also had all the clothes they found underneath these skulls just crazy. The horrible thing as well is that they believe there to be 1000s of more bodies around this area as apparently it spanned kilometers 😞

After this horrible ordeal we went to the firing range, which was awesome and made me and josh feel much better - like real men!!! As we go there we both fired hand guns... AK47 (awesome) and then we both shared a tommy gun (say hello to my little friend ) now this gun was the best as there was just know way of controlling it. Our guide had bullets in his ears as ear plugs haha awesome!!! The menu you were given offered everything under the sun... for $300 you could fire a rocket launcher at a cow or shoot an AK47 at chickens - jokes. Josh was planning on firing a rocket launcher but thought it was only $200 so didnt have enough in the end!!! We got some hilarious pics dressed up as rambo with all sorts of guns and some awesome videos of us firing the guns themselves!!!

After this eventful day we went back to the hostel got some food and chilled and waited for the sunset which was amazing as it all reflected off the lake we were staying at. Jen and dave had left in the morning so we went to Elephant bar to meet dan and tim. We had some lunch then went back to shower and recommenced our drinking in Mosquito bar. After this we then went to sponge bar for a few buckets which wrecked us!!! Once a month there is a massive pool party in a old french colonial mansion called elsewhere and is where everyone was goign this night so we felt like we had to oblige... On the tuk tuk on the way there was hilarious as the two boys with us were smashed - lots of abuse was thrown as was water bottle very amusing. As we got there we went straight to the bar where dan disappeared to throw up haha. We then went for a look around the place and eventually made base by the pool where dan found us and immediately undressed and jumped into the pool. Me and josh then went to the toilet and followed suit got into our boxers and jumped in. Now to the set the scene this pool was so small and we were doing back flips into it bad idea in hindsight but was well fun. In fact we met some lads in sihonkville who were at elsewhere and mentioned some guys back flipping into the pool - yes that was us boys - that made it all worth while haha. Tim meanwhile was throwing up all over the seat he was on - nice.... these kids just couldnt handle there drinks. So after being soaking wet we put our clothes back on and went to another club called heart of darkness. We walked in and practically walked straight back out as it was filled with prostitutes and filth old men - not our scene so as we were smashed we called it a night.

Me and josh had to get an early one to sihonkville the next day.

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