Blogs from Phnom Penh, South, Cambodia, Asia - page 218

"Nous sommes maintenant au Cambodge, ce petit pays qui vient à peine de s'ouvrir au monde, après avoir vécu le terrible génocide des Khmers rouge, dirigé à l'époque par Pol Pot. "Et nous voila rendu au Cambodge, après deux jours de bateau sur le fleuve Mékong, le courant d'eau le plus important de l'Asie du sud-est, qui prend sa source au Tibet, soit dit en passant. On dit du Cambodge, qu'en faire la visite, consiste a faire un bond de 100 ans en arrière!!! Donc nous nous laissons aller au gré du pays et on vous en redonne des nouvelles bientôt." "Un trop court moment passé ici, dans ce pays ou les gens sont particulièrement attachants!! Nous sommes arrivés, il y a quelques jours dans la capitale, Phnom Penh, où nous avons visite les quelques ''attractions ... read more

We have been in Phnom Phen for 5 days now and feel that we have taken in more images in the past days than what we have the rest of the time we have been on the road. It is hard to try and explain what Cambodia is like - the best way to describe it is perhaps by saying there is so much human suffering here and it is all right in your face from the moment you set foot outside your guesthouse until you return in the evening. We are staying in a nice little guesthouse along the river and literally cannot walk for 10 meters at the time without being stopped by people with horrible disabilities, street children who look desperate, filthy and are quite often naked and other people who are begging ... read more

Walked to Capitol to see if our day trip was a go, but no one else showed up, there had to be a minimum of 6 people. Had breakfast and walked back to Michelle’s. Read about Viet Nam and tried to form a rough itinerary. Went out to get Chinese massages and then back to Michelle’s to relax. These massages were different than any other massage that I had because in the beginning and end of the massage they pile on heaps of scalding hot towels all over your body, it actually got pretty hot and heavy, but then it was complete relaxation once they were taken off. Ordered a pizza for delivery and watched DVDs. By the way, if you haven’t figured it out, you can get anything for delivery in Phnom Penh. We went ... read more

This was our “Genocide Day.” Hired a tuk-tuk at the Golden Gate Guest House to take us to Choeng Ek (the Killing Fields). On the way out of the city, we saw that it doesn’t take very long to start seeing rural areas. We passed fields and a bunch of garment factory workers on our way out to the Killing Fields. Cambodia is home to many of the mass produced clothing that we wear…I won’t name any names, look at your labels. We were told it was a bumpy ride out there, but we had no idea it would be so bad, bone rattling would be a better description. If you’re going to go there, ladies better have your sport bras ready! It was also incredibly dusty, since half of the ride is on dirt roads. ... read more

So we finally got to see Phnom Penh and it was great! We started by visiting the Cheung Elk Killing Fields, 13km out of the city. It was pretty horrible stuff, seeing the exhumed mass graves and the trees where prisoners were tied and beaten. There was also a 7storey high stupa filled with skulls, bones and clothing that was found in the mass graves. A truly horrific sight, but a good way to remember the dead and give them and their relative some sense of peace. We visited the Russian market on the way back into town - a seething mass of stalls of everything; food, clothes, household items and motorbike parts. Our favourite area was the food (of course) where little old ladies cooked over flaming woks and the scents mixed in the smoky ... read more