A break in Cambodia

We only spent one week in Cambodia but we packed a lot in, dividing our time between the capital, Phnom Penh, and the Temples of Angkor outside Siem Reap. I (Neil) even managed to break my arm in the process, but more of that later!

For a moment we thought we wouldn't get into the country at all because they took a dislike to a small tear on one page in Jason's passport and refused to issue him with a visa, but thankfully after some deliberation they let us in, and we didn't even need to resort to bribery.

Thailand is sometimes called the Land of Smiles but we think that accolade should be shared with Cambodia. From the moment we arrived by boat on the Mekong River we received warm smiles and waves from the people on the river bank and we found a gentle friendliness from most people we met there. Even the hawkers, beggars, and tuk-tuk drivers are fairly gentle in their approach.

Phnom Penh is a mix of urban poverty alongside rich and beautiful palaces, temples and museums; street living alongside slick modern establishments. There is a large ex-pat community here which can partly be explained by the many charities and NGO's working here in a country which is still struggling to recover from it's past. The good thing about coming here is that you can make a difference through the way you choose to spend your money. The 'Friends Project' is a wonderful example of the work being done to help the people of modern day Cambodia. It runs a school for street children and then helps to train them for employment, running a local shop and restaurant where the staff are identified as teachers or students by their t-shirts; either way the service is excellent and the food is great.

A visit to the Tuel Sleng Museum, and later to the Killing Fields just outside the city, were a sobering reminder of the horrors of the country's not so distant past. Under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge a staggering quarter of the Cambodian population was wiped out during the late seventies, and cities like Phnom Penh were emptied as people were forced into the countryside. Tuel Sleng was originally a school but was used as a concentration camp by the Khmer Rouge and thousands of people were tortured and killed here. It's a difficult place to visit, especially the torture cells, grim spaces with iron beds and a single photo to show how the bodies of the victims were found. The killing fields where thousands more were killed and buried in mass graves is today a quiet green area scarred with pits showing where some of the graves have been excavated. In the middle sits a chilling memorial made up of glass sided tower filled with the skulls, bones and clothes of the victims. Bizarrely, a popular thing to do here is to go to a shooting range and fire American and Russian guns of war, Each to their own, but definitely not for us after what we had seen.

A six hour bus journey took us to Siem Reap, a pleasant and lively town serving the hoards of visitors who come here to see the Temples of Angkor. We had booked into a hotel called Earthwalkers which had come highly recommended; slightly out of town but with a pool and very clean and friendly. They sent a smiling tuk-tuk driver to meet us who spoke great English and was pleasant and knowlegable so we decided to hire him for the rest of our time here, which later proved to be a good move. There is so much to see it's impossible to do it justice in a day so we brought a three day pass for $40 and went off to see the sunset over the jungle surrounding Angkor Wat from the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng. The next day was a full day out in the scorching heat visiting Ta Prohm (the dramatically overgrown 'Tomb Raider' temple) and the ancient city of Angkor Thom with its magnificent temples and terraces. The plan for the third day was to visit some of the more distant temples and return to see the highlight - Angkor Wat - in the late afternoon. Things didn't quite go according to plan!

Our first stop on day three was at a huge crumbling pyramid shaped structure which had served as a crematorium to the kymer kings. Our tuk-tuk driver - Chenda - told us that there were great views of the jungle if we climbed to the top. The views were indeed great but like many of the temples here involve climbing very steep and worn steps. It's fine going up because it's possible to use hands but coming down is another matter and I lost my footing and bounced my way down.

In addition to being covered by cuts and bruises I managed to break my arm (the other one this time). Thankfully my head got away with just a small bump and scrape, but it gave me quite a fright and our camera is a gonna. Chenda was a star and rushed me off to the 'International Hospital', a small clinic where they patched me up and sent me off for ex-rays at the Local Hospital - quite an experience as the ex-ray department was at the back of someone's kitchen!

The next day we decided to continue on and fly to Phuket in Southern Thailand, as arranged, but we couldn't come all this way without seeing Cambodia's star attraction, Angkor Wat. Chenda picked us up very early so we could see it before catching our flight and Angkor Wat definitely didn't disappoint. Unfortunately though, with our camera out of action, we only have one photo taken from a distance on the day we arrived.

To cap it all, just before leaving Angkor Wat I was attacked by a monkey who seemed to take a dislike to my plaster cast and Jason had to batter it off me with a bottle of mineral water. It was time to leave Cambodia!

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