Cambodia

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Sorry its been a tad long since i updated this but its been a bit hectic recently and cambodia doesnt have the best internet in the world.
So i met up with my tour group for the next month around cambodia vietnam and Laos. Luckily there are two other english guys otherwise it would be all norwegians with a few austrians and a tocken frenchman. First night with the group was strange as we were staying in a nice hotel in bangkok compared to the cheapest hostels that I can find on Kho San Road. think i prefer cheap hostels to be honest. We left Bangkok at 7am on the 26th for the 6 hour drive to Siem Reap Cambodia with about an hour to get over the border. the change in country was immediately noticeably. Mainly because Cambodia is dirt poor after the whole Khmer Rouge regime and is still getting back on its feet from having 3 million people killed and the cities emptied to try and create an economy based purely on rice production. The other major difference between the two is the people. I meet many unfriendly thai's but so far ive only meet one unfriendly cambodian. Their always smiling and laughing and joking with each other and seem generally happy. The landscape is also a bit of a shock, with huge areas of nothing but empty fields fragmented with the odd tiny village all built on stilts to protect from the monsoons. But even in these regions you see the kids running around and playing or the men laughing whilst working on their scooters. After what seemed like an eternity in our private bus (at least it was comfy with aircon) we arrived at our hotel in Siem Reap in the evening with the intention of getting up at 5am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat the next morning. That night has provided the best meal of my trip so far as we went to a "locals"(organised by our tour guide so not sure how many groups he takes there) but they were really friendly and the vegetable curry was in another world. The next morning came around far too quickly and there were a lot of blurry eyes at 5 that morning as we borded our bus with a local guide for a full days templing followed by sunset on the floating village of south east asia's biggest lake. Our guide convinced us not to go to angkor wat for sunrise as it would be packed and they were doing restoration work so there was a lot of plastic on bits so it wouldnt be that impressive at sunup. So instead we went to the tomb raider temples which were about 5 minutes from angkor wat and completely deserted at that time of morning as the hoards of tourists headed for angkor wat. The temple was very impressive and after sunrise we headed back to our hotel for breakfast and a nap before heading to angkor wat at 9:30. The Scale of the temple was amazing and it wasnt to busy so we had plently of space. 2 hours and after being blessed by one of the holy men we headed for the bayon temple (smiling buddha temple). This was in a pretty bad state at first look as there were piles of fallen stones but the buddha faces, of which there are loads, were in all pretty good shape so provided some good photos. After this it was on to the elephant temple (built to the elephant that helped in battles and building. this also doubled as the terrace for the king when he welcomed home his army. By this time we were all dripping in sweat and frankly had had enough of temples after 6 hours of walking around. So when Soa (guide) asked if we wanted to see another temple of head back to the hotel for a sleep and then head to the floating village at 4 it was a no brainer.
The floating village did not dissappoint and the sunset was amazing. so day one in cambodia finished and 250 photos taken- gonna need more memory cards i think.
We had the morning in siem reap to wonder round the markets, which have now completely put me off cambodian street food when you see huge hunks of chicken beef and pork hung from hooks covered in flies and blood, and fish in trays also covered in blood and flies and bare handed women with big knives cutting them up for customers. Unfortunatley street food doesnt seem to be big in cambodia which is a shame as the food is great.
At lunch we borded our public bus for the 6 hour journey to Phnom Phem. the bus was more comfy than we expected but it was still a long journey. In Phnom Phem, Bom (our tour leader) offered to take us to a good restaurant that he knew. we all went but were very annoyed when we came into the cambodian FCC that offers very very expensive western food and only few asian dishes. Trying to charge $9 for padthai is outrageous when on the street in thailand you pay $1 and its probably better. That coupled with the fact that the food was crap and expensive meant that we werent too happy with Bom and told him not to take us to those sort of places again.
The next day in Phnom Phem was killing fields and the genocide prison from the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979). As we anticipated this was an incredibly emotional day and meeting one of the 3 survivors from the prison was very strange especially as he was selling his book at the prison museum for tourists. Pretty sure if id managed to live through that then i would never go anywhere near the place again. The warden of the prison was sentenced last year to 30 years in prison by the special court with the UN, but this has been reduced to 19 due to cooperation, showing of remorse and time already served. Somehow doesnt add up that he controlled the torture and killing of 20,000 people and gets 19years. He is still the only member of the Khmer Rouge to be sentenced but others are in trial and Duch (warden) is the only one who was taken to the killing fields in his trial, where apparently he broke down in tears and prayed for hours for the forgiveness of his actions (bit late me thinks). the prison was a weird place to visit and the only place i think ive ever seen with no smiling or laughing posters, although not one of us even had the thought. The killing fields were also very surreal as it was a pretty small plot of the 84 mass graves that had been excavated out of the 124 that are known to be in existence in that area and hundreds more around the country. Still 9,000 people are in those mass graves and due to the monsoon rains bones come up from the ground and have to be walked around. We saw at least a dozen bones, a skull and several teeth. the bus ride home was silent, end of rather a depressing day. I think it hardens you as a person when you see what a mad man can do when he gets power and has enough military support to do as he pleases. Its also odd to think that if America hadnt been annoyed at cambodia helping vietnam in the war then they could have pushed for more UN involvement and action against the Khmer Rouge at the time. Probably why Americans arent very popular with tour guides here.

After a very good cheap meal and a heavy night on way too cheap vodka (its $4.50 a litre for a reason) we headed to Sihanoukville for a few days at the beach to relax and do nothing but drink and tan. However the weather had another idea and the rain clouds closed in. So me and Archie found a gym for a few hours and then we headed to the beach for a BBQ and a few drinks. Due to the up and coming nature of the beach resort all of the clubs and bars are hiring western staff- think might be an idea for a summer at some point. I asked one of them if i could work tomorrow night but you need at least 3 so that failed. Several beers, lots of UV paint and a few whiskey coke funnels later we stumbled back to bed in our hotel. Whoever invented Whiskey coke funnels is definitely evil.

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