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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Arrived Phom Penh on the 2nd Dec, didnt want to spend too long there its another big dusty city - so did an afternoon's sight seeing and booked a boat to Siem Reap for the following day.
I hired a Tuk Tuk driver and headed out to the killing fields just outside Phom Penh and the Genocide museum. As you can expect this is quite shocking and just so difficult to comprehend even when you see all those hundreds of faces of the missing people and the terrible conditions which they were kept before being brutally murdered. And it only happened in the late 70s.
Unfortunately by the time I had finished I missed seeing the Palace - which is supposed to be good but did manage to walk around the National Museum - although there were some impressive budda sculptures etc I really liked the building and the beautiful grounds.
I then quickly retreated to the hotel and well needed air con - this place is hot!
Boat trip to Siem Reap is early morning - less expensive than flying, more expensive than bus - but I really enjoyed it. For the six hours I kicked
back on the roof, listening to the Kings of Leon (currently my soundtrack to the trip!) and took in the beautiful scenery - along the river and then into the largest lake in Cambodia before reaching Siem Reap. Everyone along the route were very friendly - all the kids wave to you as you go by - I was already begining to think I dont have enough time in this country.
Siem Reap is a lovely town but very commercialised - full of tourists as a base for Angkor Wat. I bumped into another single woman traveller Max whilst looking for accomodation and we headed for dinner - had a great night out - the restuarant closed around us as we were talking too much!
Back on my own again - headed to the temples - a 3 day pass - definately think you need at least this time to get round a good proportion of them - I was just blown away by the scale of the place.
As much as I would have loved to cycle - I am so glad I opted for the Tuk Tuk option - it was sooo hot it takes
an effort to walk around the temples let alone cycle to them..
I got my own guide for the first day - not that keen on guides - but thought I should learn a little bit about them and the carvings etc.. It was OK - but had a bit of difficulty understanding the guy so not sure it was really worth it. But he did take lots of pictures for me, showed me the best parts of the temples and introduced me to Fish Amok (lovely!!).
In 3 days I just about did all the major ones and a few quiter ones - think 8 temples in one day must have been a record! - I was just about templed out by the end of it! Ta Prohm the tomb raider one was one of my favourites, and you cannot fail to be impressed by Angkor Wat itself. But I also enjoyed finding places where other tourists were not - and taking in the atmosphere.
Unfortunately after getting up at 4:30 am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat (oh note torch would have been handy!) and waiting with much anticipation. The sun only appeared in
the bottom left before being covered by a mass of cloud. Shame as this is supposed to be a great sight. Plus I was not going to risk that again the next day.
After my temple days just spent some time in Siem Reap did the food markets and more shopping...and got a couple of $6 massages - which were fab. I also went to Beatocello - its a free Cello concert by a guy called Dr Beat Richner from Switzerland - at a local hospital. He has dedicated his life to providing free healthcare to children in Cambodia and most of the money comes from tourist donations and though him doing these concerts twice a week. I have never met anyone so dedicated and passionate about what they do it was quite inspiring. He has set up 3 hospitals in Cambodia and each have queues around the block daily. He showed this film about the hospitals and the difficulties they have raising money. I must admit I had to go back to the hotel a bit to regain my composure. The website is www.beatocello.com.
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