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Published: April 30th 2009
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Getting on the bus in Ho Chi Minh we were pleased to be leaving Vietnam. Although we have enjoyed the last couple of weeks we don't think it is a place either of us will be returning to! Just to send us on our way we experienced yet another scam, this time the woman in the travel agency (also a currency exchange service) telling us we would not be able to use Vietnamese Dong to pay for the visa at the border as they only accept dollars to then get on the bus from the conductor to find they do accept dong! Next we were then told to give the conductor our passports along with 25USD dollars each (the visa is only 20USD). When we asked why we had to give our passports to him and why we couldn't go through immigration ourselves we were told it was much faster if he did it and far too complicated for foreigners to cope with!
We had little choice but to hand over the money however as all the locals agreed to this but surprisingly when reaching the border we were the only people there and it seemed the extra 5USD were
to pay for our stamp (which is free) and for the gentleman in question to hand our passports to the man behind the desk and then give them back to us! How we have gotten through border crossings without this help before we shall never know!.
TO add insult to injury everyone on the bus was then given a free bottle of water...except for the 8 of us a french couple! When asking why we weren't given any water the water man suddenly couldn't speak any English and didn't know what we were talking about! Strange how once we kicked up a fuss 10 extra bottles appeared from nowhere....bye bye Vietnam!!!
Crossing the border into Cambodia we were surprised at how in just over a matter of a few kilometers from the border how the landscape changes. The land is much flatter and at this time of year a lot drier and hotter! The cows are practically walking corpses due to the lack of food and everywhere they seem to be munching in rubbish.....pretty grim stuff.
On the bus on the way to Phnom Penh we stopped at a bus stop to wait for the ferry to
take the bus over the Mekong river. Children and adults swarmed around the bus selling deep fried frogs, water lily seed pods and a number of other foods we were unsure of! The bus guide (who had since redeemed himself) kindly bought us a bunch of the lily pad stem pods to try and once we realize you were supposed to peel the pods before eating them they were actually quite tasty!
Arriving in Phnom Penh we were dropped at a shady looking hotel and immediately the tuk tuk drivers surrounding us each hoping to get our fare. It can be a little intimidating to suddenly find yourself being shouted at by 100 people all at once when you have just got off a bus after a long journey in the stifling heat, although the fact that most of them were smiling and having a laugh made it easier to deal with! With our bags safely on our backs we headed into the hotel cafe to split into our boy girls teams with the girls staying to look after the bags and the boys heading out to find a hotel.
Sitting in the cafe we noticed that almost
straight away that people here (on the whole) are more friendly and helpful (we were able sit in the cafe for almost two hours without being hassled constantly to buy more food and to ask how to say please, hello and thankyou in Khmer without being charged!) and far less obvious about trying to rip you off despite the obvious hardships many of the people living here face....a refreshing change from Vietnam!
After a couple of hours the boys returned having found a fairly decent option down by the river and once fighting our way through the swarming tuk tuk drivers who appeared as soon as we stood up we got into 2 tuk tuks the boys had found to take us back to the hotel. The lead driver was very sweet and we arranged for him to collect us tomorrow.
After a quick snooze and a shower we headed out to get some food and I think we were all shocked to see how much more noticeable the poverty is here than any of the other places we have visited in SE Asia. Although we had tried to prepare ourselves we are still hard not to be
sad to see the number of street children, amputees and young working girls roaming the streets. Eating dinner whilst a small child no older than 8 years old who should be in bed is trying to sell books to foreigners makes you feel pretty guilty, but sadly are only so many books you can read at one time and you can't give to everyone. It makes you feel pretty helpless.....
Day two in Cambodia and we like this place a lot already. After heading ot the Thai embassy to sort out visas for Thailand our friendly tuk tuk driver from the day before took us off to see the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields are ont of the hideous remenants of the Khmer Rouge regime headed by Pol Pot only recently in the 1970's. It is part of Cambodias history and for that reason we felt compelled to go and see it and although we tried preparing ourselves for what we would see, it was still possibly the most bonechillingly shocking place we have ever been to. Very briefly Pol Pot and the Khemer ROuge took over Cambodian rule in the mid 70's with the idea of creating
a new country, completely self sufficent from the outside world. The aim was to creat a communist utopia where everyone works on the land and is given an equal share of everything. As such money, religion and music were banned and anyone found to be more educated than farmer or peasant were interrogated at prisons such as S21 and then taken to the killing fields to be executed. Thousands and thousands of people were tortured and brutally murdered during the regime and the killing fields remain as a memorial to those that lost their lives.
Walking into the killing fields is suprisingly peaceful, but seeing a huge glass tower filled with the 8000 skulls of people that were murdered there is overwhelmingly sad. We hired a guide to talk us through everything and walking around the mass graves where the victims clothing and bits of bone still remain was unbearable. To think such a cruel act of genocide happened so recently and that noone did anything to stop it for such a long time is unthinkable....
Returning to Phnom Penh later that afternoon we realised yet again how lucky we are to be born into a civilised society
and how perhaps the minor things we stress about in everyday life really arent that important...it certainly gives you a different perspective on life..
The following day we visited the S21 prison - formally the Toul Svay Prey high school. It was taken over by Pol Pots and transformed into a prison and place of unimaginable torture, known as Security Prison 21. This became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Between 1975 & 1978 more than 17'000 people held at S-21 were taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. S-21 has now been turned into a museum which serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Like the Naziz, the Khmer Rouge leaders kept records of their barbarism. Every prisoner that passed through S-21 was photographed sometimes before and after torture. The museum displays all these photographs in room after room. Out of 17'000 people who were held at S-21 only seven survived through skills such as painting & photography. These people were given jobs within the prison to record the cruelty that was taking place there. Again we hired a guide to explain things to us and I think that
the thing that shocked and saddened us the most was not only seeing these horrific images of cruelty but seeing how many of the Khmer Rouge soldiers were just children themselves. Listening to our guide talk about how her own 6 month old baby girl, husband and parents were brutally murdered during the regime was a sad an humbling experience and one again that again gives us such an appreciation for the lives we have and for the resililance the Cambodians have to get on and rebuild their lives.......
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