Cambodge

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After the terrential rains, storms, mud and powercuts on Ko Chang we decided to return to the next tropical Island outside of the monsoon sesaon! So we set off on our long trip to Cambodia. The journey there was a memorable one as well, the driver decided to stop every half hour for breaks or to swap busses. The border crossing was relatively smooth with another 3 bus changes, the border town was the most horrible place ive ever encountered, dust, mud and rubbish everywhere and some extreme poverty to add to it! (And I thought Leominster was bad!!)

The roads here are totally mad- they are mud tracks with more pot holes than road! They made for a comfortable 6 hour journey to Siem Reap!! It was rediculously bumpy and more like a fair ground ride than a bus journey! Its amazing the tyres made it. After my first meal of water and noddles with a maggot in it and many flies, we then got stuck in what looked like a lake across the road! The driver had to get out and someone push the bus! It was slightly worrying late at night, in the middle of nowhere and I cant imagine there is any roadside assistance like the AA out here!!! So we finally arrived in one piece 15 hours later! (I will never complain about public transport in England again!)

We spent a long day temple spotting around Angkor Wat, some of the temples are truely awesome- one of them is where Toom Raider was filmed and looks amazing, with massive tree roots growing all over the ruins. Angkor Wat itself was pretty spectacular - we had to crawl up almost vertical steps- not for the faint hearted!

Yesterday we had a wicked 5 hour cruise to Phnom Phen, (except getting up at 5am!) on a very noisy, but speedy packed boat, sat on a curved roof the whole way. Uncomfy to the extreme but great scenery.

The poverty and history here is all rather disturbing. Its shocking to learn about the history of the Khmere Rouge and to see what the people have gone through. Today was actually one of the most disturbing days Ive ever had. We visited the Killing fields where over 9000 people where brutally murdered. Then we went to S-21, the Torture (Genocide) centre, an old school converted into small cells for interrogation and torture of thousands of more inconnent people. The hundreds of photos of the prisoners and those lying in their death cells will remain with me forever.

Anyway despite the depression it is an interesting country. We are heading to the coast in a few days and hopefully we might escape some of the beggars and poverty.

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Photos

Cambodian roads
In Phnom Phen, on our tuk tuk (a motorbike bike pulling a small carriage holding about 4 people) journey!

Angkor Wat
The king of all temples