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Day 30 The Journey to Cambodia (Siem Reap)
Up and managed to have breaky in time for our boat departure's from Mr. Mo's. We crossed the border hassle free and arrived at Stung Treng where they advised us we were not able to go as there weren't enough people and we would have to stay there the night. After much debating and utter defiance towards staying a night, two hours later they finally agreed to providing a mini bus at an extra $6 each if we all agreed to go to Phenon Penh. So to Phenon Penh it was. A long eight hours later we arrived, tired and cranky. We took the first room we could find at Number 10 guesthouse (later not such a good decision) and crashed.
Day 31 Phenom Penh
Less then impressed we moved next door to number 9 guesthouse had some breakky and negociated the best price with the Tuk tuk drivers for a trip to the prison and the killing fields with our bus buddies.
Six of us cramed onto the tuk tuk which would comfortably seat 4 and took in the sights of Phenom Penh.
The Genocide Museum was formally the S21 prison
doing the period of Khmer Rouge (A tragic period of dictation where the Khmer rouge attempted to wipe out Cambodia's educated and turn the country people into slaves in order to increase their rice production to rediculous levels, coinciding with the brutal torture and poverty), prior to that it was a school. We wandered around the museum slightly shell shocked for a couple hours reading the posts from both prisoners and guards and seeing photo's of the victims. The prison cells were left in exact state some still with dry blood and the torturing euipment; one which resembled a coffin that secured both the prisoners hands and feet that they then filled with posionous snakes or spiders. We left feeling empty but more educated towards the extreme suffering the entire country suffered so recently.
Next stop was the killing fields. We purchased our tickets and waited for the morning shower to pass before setting out on our self tour only to turn around in search of a guide. Given the small amount of signage we found the guide invaluable. The centre monument was erected in honour of those who died and is comprised of seven levels, the first the rements
of the victims clothing, and then 6 other levels of skulls catergorised according to age and sex. The remains of the fields are various large pits some which have been excuvated and others not.
Back to guesthouse we all went our various ways, we set off for a late lunch some more blogging and phone calls home for mothers day.
We met back at the guesthouse for dinner and drinks. Feeling we needed to explore beyond the guest house we stopped at the Flying elephant Bar. Here we tucket into a couple Vodka and Redbull buckets and a game of "Ring of Fire"to get the night firing. With the Flying Elephant closing for the night we headed to the Yellow sponge. Here Liz and Carly we convicingly beaten by some locals who clearly did nothing but play pool, after we were left all but pants down following our first game we then beaten both left handed and single handed. Clearly time to call it quits, our German friend had a a little nap at the bar, we were beyond embarrassing ourselves at the pool table we headed home. Only to decide we needed some late night snacks and another highly
skilled game of pool before finally calling it quits at 4.30am!
Day 32
After a little lie in, adament not to waste the day feeling worse for wear. We hit up the hugest club sangers ever for brunch and set off with a list of things to achieve. First stop... The Bank. After getting the run around by the first two banks much to the annoyance of our tuk tuk driver that had warned us we finally got some cash and headed to the Vietnamese embassey to find it at lunch then to find out its cheaper and quicker in Sihanoukville our next port of call. We aborted task two and headed to the Royal Palace. To find Jez had accidently taken his tee shirt out of his bag and wasn't allowed in his singlet so three bucks later he purchased a "hot" one size fits all royal palace tee and we were in. In order to make the most of the visit we hired a guide. We watched a escorted entourage enter for a meeting with the king himself who was on the grounds at the time (unfortunately no sightings).
However we were in awe at the Silver
palace, firstly the floor was made of 2cm square silver tiles, one buddha weighted 90kgs of pure gold and "blinged" with multiple diamonds the biggest checking in at 25caret.
From here we got a tuk tuk to the market, we got a couple souveniers and decided to walk to the bus station. Only to find they were at least double the price compared to our guesthouse and there were only afternoon tickets left . However the epic walk was worth it to see one building laden with Monkeys! In the middle of Phenom Penh, there were monkeys swinging on washing, sitting on the balcony and scavengin food from the street. We crossed over Phenom Wat temple where they have one huge watch face on our way home and madeit back to the guesthouse without getting lost, we bought some cheap bus tickets, had some pasta for tea and an early night before the next big bus ride.
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