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Monday 19th May

We got to the coach in good time and set off at 0900. We had the front seats on the top deck - great! We arrived at the border crossing at 1130 and everyone on the coach had to hand over their passports and wait for them all to be stamped and handed back. The coach then drove to the Cambodian checkpoint and we had to hand over our passports again and get off the coach and wait for our name to be called to go to an official for confirmation we were the person on the photo!!! After this drawn out procedure the coach took us to a restaurant for lunch. We only had a can of beer as the food looked a bit ordinary and the chopsticks, spoons and forks were in a jug of water in the centre of the table - not too hygienic!

It was pouring with rain as we arrived at a ferry crossing over the Mekong River at the small town of Phumĭ Prêk Khsayd. The country is so very poor; we think they couldn’t afford to build a bridge and the traffic used a very old ferry - but we got to the other side safely. The road was very bad and the traffic chaotic the closer we got to Phnom Penh, everywhere looked so poor.

Phnom Penh (official Romanization: Phnum Pénh) is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Once known as the "Pearl of Asia” in the 1920s, Phnom Penh, along with Siem Reap, is a significant global and domestic tourist destination for Cambodia. Phnom Penh is known for its traditional Khmer and French influenced architecture and home to more than one million of Cambodia's population of over 14 million.

The city takes its name from the Wat Phnom or Hill Temple), built in 1373 to house five statues of Buddha on a man made hill 27 metres (89 ft) high. It was named after Daun Penh (Grandma Penh), a wealthy widow. This is a very busy place and amongst the vendors and beggars there is even an elephant offering rides.

Phnom Penh was also previously known as Krong Chaktomuk meaning "City of Four Faces". This name refers to the junction where the Mekong, Bassac, and Tonle Sap rivers cross to form an "X" where the capital is situated. Krong Chaktomuk is an abbreviation of its ceremonial name given by King Ponhea Yat that was "Krong Chaktomuk Mongkol Sakal Kampuchea Thipadei Sereythor Inthabot Borei Roth Reach Seima Maha Nokor"… Phew!

Eventually we reached the coach depot and got a remorque moto (motorbike pulling a covered carriage) here to our hotel, a very large place on the banks of the Mekong River. Our room had a great view of the traffic in the distance that was fun to watch as bikes and cars seemed to use both sides of the road even though it was supposed to be drive on the right. Our driver didn’t charge us as we asked him to give us a city tour and take us to Choeung Ek tomorrow.

We settled in and then went off to find a supermarket for Beer Angkor. This we did but the supermarket had a very poor selection of food for sale - another hint as to the poverty of the country.

Tonight was the first buffet of its kind in Cambodia and at our hotel too. This was a taste of southeast Asia with food from Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Brunei cooked by chefs from each country. We had a great meal but had no idea what we were eating as none of the chefs spoke English!!!

Tuesday 20th May

Today we had a harrowing tour of the Killing Fields at, Choeung Ek, a former orchard, which has a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa . The stupa has perspex sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.

Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge (while estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million). In 1979 Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called Democratic Kampuchea, and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Khmer Rouge judicial process, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity, or having had contact with a foreign source, such as a US missionary, or international relief or government agency, or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean". This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.

In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. Some victims were required to dig their own graves; their weakness often meant that they were unable to dig very deep. The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families. The tree where children and women were beaten to death still stands and there are bone fragments surrounding it.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Chams (Muslim Cambodians), Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution.

A 1984 motion picture, “The Killing Fields”, tells the story of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, and his journey to escape the death camps. He coined the term 'Killing Fields' during his escape from the regime. He died Sunday, March 30th, 2008.

We were pleased that we had taken the time to visit this dreadful place and felt we had shown our respect to the people of Cambodia.

We came back into town and went to ‘Friends’ for lunch. We found this little restaurant in the Lonely Planet Guide. It is run to help street children learn a trade and we had a really good cheap meal with wonderful service.

After lunch there was even more harrowing things to see, we were taken to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Formerly the Tuol Svay Prey High School which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) Tuol Sleng] means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill".

The five buildings of the complex were converted in August 1975, four months after the Khmer Rouge won the civil war, into a prison and interrogation centre.The buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes.

From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, though the real number is unknown). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of betraying the party or revolution. Those arrested included some of the highest-ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vetand Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage," Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot may have viewed these men as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later murdered at the Choeung Ek extermination centre.

Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, foreigners were also imprisoned, including Vietnamese, Laotians, Indians, Pakistanis, Britons, Americans, New Zealanders and Australians.

Most non-Cambodians had been evacuated or expelled from the country and those who remained were seen as a security risk. A number of Western prisoners passed through S-21 between April 1976 and December 1978. Mostly these were picked up at sea by Khmer Rouge patrol boats. They included four Americans, three French, two Australians, a Briton and a New Zealander.

Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and required to give detailed biographies, beginning with their childhood and ending with their arrest. After that, they were forced to strip to their underwear, and their possessions were confiscated. The prisoners were then taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls or the concrete floor. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars; the prisoners slept with their heads in opposite directions. They slept on the floor without mats, mosquito nets, or blankets. They were forbidden to talk to each other.

The day in the prison began at 0430 when prisoners were asked to strip for inspection. The guards checked to see if the shackles were loose or if the prisoners had hidden objects they could use to commit suicide. Over the years, several prisoners managed to kill themselves, so the guards were very careful in checking the shackles and cells. The prisoners received four small spoonfuls of rice porridge and watery soup of leaves twice a day. Drinking water without asking the guards for permission resulted in serious beatings. The inmates were hosed down every four days.

The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who tried to disobey. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. When prisoners were taken from one place to another for interrogation, their faces were covered. Guards and prisoners were not allowed to converse. Moreover, within the prison, people who were in different groups were not allowed to have contact with one another.

Most prisoners at S-21 were held there for two to three months. However, several high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadres were held longer. Within two or three days after they were brought to S-21, all prisoners were taken for interrogation.The torture system at Tuol Sleng was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes they were charged with by their captors. Prisoners were routinely beaten and tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Some prisoners were cut with knives or suffocated with plastic bags. Other methods for generating confessions included pulling out fingernails while pouring alcohol on the wounds, holding prisoners’ heads under water.

Out of an estimated 17,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, there were only twelve known survivors.

The prison had a staff of 1,720 people. Of those, approximately 300 were office staff, internal workforce and interrogators. The other 1,400 were general workers, including people who grew food for the prison. Several of these workers were children taken from the prisoner families. The documentation unit was responsible for transcribing tape-recorded confessions, typing the handwritten notes from prisoners’ confessions, preparing summaries of confessions, and maintaining files. In the photography sub-unit, workers took mug shots of prisoners when they arrived, pictures of prisoners who had died while in detention, and pictures of important prisoners after they were executed. Thousands of photographs have survived, but thousands are still missing.

Some of the staff that worked in Tuol Sleng also ended up prisoners. They confessed to being lazy in preparing documents, damaging machines and other equipment, or beating prisoners to death without permission when assisting with interrogations.

We were both very affected by our visit here but were again glad we made the effort as a tribute to the people who died.

We were given a tour of the waterfront; this is the main tourist area with lots of bars and restaurants and not to our liking.
We finished the day by going to the Royal Palace to lighten our spirits. It was not until 1866, under the reign of King Norodom I that Phnom Penh became the permanent seat of government, and the Royal Palace was built. This marked the beginning of the transformation of what was essentially a village into a great city with the French Colonialists expanding the canal system to control the wetlands, constructing roads and building a port.

The Palace is well worth visiting as is the “Silver Pagoda” The main building houses many national treasures such as gold and jewelled Buddha statues. Most notable is a small 17th century baccarat crystal Buddha (the "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia) and a near-life-size, Maitreya Buddha encrusted with 9,584 diamonds dressed in royal regalia commissioned by King Sisowath. During King Norodom Sihanouk’s pre-Khmer Rouge reign, the Silver Pagoda was inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles and some of its outer facade was remodelled with Italian marble. The pagoda was refurbished in 1962 and all the silver tiles replaced. Visitors are free to wander round and walk on the 1.2 kilo tiles. Our driver Polo made us aware that the Cambodian people are not too happy about all the wealth displayed here when the country is so poor.

After we had been dropped off at the hotel walked down to the Phsar Thmey (Central Markets). The structure was built in 1937 in Art Deco style on an area that was until 1935 a lake collecting the runoff during the rainy season. The entrance to the markets is lined with souvenir shops and inside is a warren of alleyways. No purchases were made!

Wednesday 21 May

Today we caught the bus to Siem Reap at the huge cost of $11 each. The name Siem Reap means the 'Defeat of Siam' —today’s Thailand. We left at 0930 had a short stop and arrived in Siem Reap on the Siem Reap River at 1515 and well worth the six-hour trip as we saw a lot of the countryside. Cambodia still has lots of unexploded landmines and there is much work to be done before it will be safe to travel alone.

We were met by a friend of our driver in Phnom Penh who took us to our hotel along pot-holed roads and flooded areas (there had been a downpour). The hotel was a lovely oasis in the midst of chaos and poverty. There were only 64 rooms on two storeys all facing the pool and gardens. We had a beer and a snack before walking into town to find beer and Johnny Walker whisky - at $13.00 a bottle!!!

Siem Reap has colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter, and around the Old Market. In town, there are Aspara dance performances, craft shops, silk farms, rice-paddy countryside, fishing villages and a bird sanctuary near the Tonle Sap Lake. There is also the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, which opened in 1929 here; Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Onassis have stayed. We walked passed but didn’t go to the famous Elephant Bar.

Our room had a balcony overlooking the pool and gardens and we could sit out of an evening and listen to the boy playing a xylophone-like instrument. The hotel caters for Europeans - mainly French were staying whilst we were there and the menu was in French.
Like the rest of Southeast Asia, Cambodia is very corrupt and will never get on its feet until this is stopped. Many countries are giving aid but there seems to be a lot of backhanders including many up-market cars with no number plates!

Thursday 22nd May

Angkor and Angkor Wat (City Temple) today and we are really excited. Angkor is 5.5kms north of Siem Reap. The whole area takes about a week to see properly but we opted for the one-day pass, complete with our photographs. Our remorque moto driver dropped us off and picked us up at all the better-known sites and was very knowledgeable too. We had been warned in the Lonely Planet Guide to be aware of the children begging. We were only accosted once, by a small girl who asked which country we were from and when we told her she recited by rote all the facts and figures pertaining to Australia and then asked for $1.00!!!!

The whole area is absolutely remarkable and totally fascinating. Angkor Wat itself was left until last, as it is so huge and awe inspiring. The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres (203 acres), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest.

The outer wall, 1024m by 802m and 4.5m high, is surrounded by a 30m apron of open ground and a moat 190m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. Built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.

Howard was really keen to see Ta Prohm (originally named Rajavihara and built in 1186AD) as it is still mostly taken over by jungle and is one of the best known temples. Two tree species predominate: the larger is the silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra), and the smaller is the strangler fig (Ficus gibbosa). We also visited, amongst other sites, the 350m-long Terrace of Elephants that was used as a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies and served as a base for the king's grand audience hall - an amazing place.

Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished from approximately the 9th century to the 15th century A.D. (The word "Angkor" itself is derived from the Sanskrit "nagara," meaning "city.") More precisely, the Angkorian period may be defined as the period from 802 A.D., when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself the "universal monarch" and "god-king" of Cambodia, until 1431 A.D., when Thai invaders sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) - the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and south of the Kulen Hills and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture.

In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 400 square miles. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala, was roughly 50 square miles in total size.

We had a very enjoyable time doing the smaller 17km circuit - just enough for us in our remorque. You can walk/bike it or, as we saw, take an elephant, or see it from a hot air balloon, but we liked our little remorque.

Back at the hotel Howard had an aromatic oil massage ($17 for an hour) and Linda went to the pool.

Friday 23rd May

Lazy day today as not much to see in Siem Reap but we did visit the markets and buy some Christmas presents. We walked into town and stopped at the Internet Café to buy our e-tickets for the flight to Bangkok - 30 cents for ½ hour!

Tonight we went to the restaurant next to our hotel where we had tapas of Khmer foods plus ‘beef cooked 7 ways’ from an ancient royal recipe for cooking tiger! Howard had pork!

Saturday 24th May

Flew Bangkok Air at 1255 from Siem Reap. Flight was fine but very expensive. Apparently the road into Thailand is in a very bad state of repair and quite dangerous too. The Cambodian and Thai governments want people to fly and not travel by road/rail. Hence the air carriers charge exorbitant prices for the short trip of an hour and five minutes.

……. But this is the end of our stay in Cambodia. Very poor, plenty of rubbish - we thought Thailand was bad but this takes it to a new level, lots of corruption but the country and people are rather special and we loved it. The beaches are prettyspecialso, maybe, next time........

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