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Published: April 28th 2011
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Siem Reap - Sihanoukville - Phnom Penh
15th April to 26th April 2011 The border crossing from Laos into northern Cambodia was the most troublesome of the whole trip. We got off the bus to get our exit stamp from the Laos side, for which we were asked to pay $2 each, for what no one had any idea. After this it was to the Cambodia side where just before entering was a 'health stand' where we had to declare if we had any illnesses (the runs etc) and they took our temperature before one of the girls on our bus asked what this was for. They couldn't really answer us so when they asked for a dollar we just walked off despite the shouting after us. Next up was the Cambodian entry stamp, supposed to be $20 but charged $23 (the $3 obviously going straight into a holiday fund or something), Kate $25 because she had no passport photo. At this stage we were bled of all money and were $2 short so they were happy with what they could get.
With still no money and no sign of stopping at ATMs we were soon on the road
with a very hungry day ahead of us. As per usual the driver stopped every half an hour for toilet breaks and food but we couldn't take advantage. After an unscheduled bus change after Phnom Penh we arrived in Siem Reap just after midnight. After fighting off the tuk tuks we got dropped off at pub street and went walking from there and found a place for $10 to rest for the night. The next morning I went for a walk to see if there was anywhere else and found a lovely place in East Bank area ($8), Sam So Guesthouse, a lovely family run place a short walk from the centre. We spent the morning walking around the city, to the markets and avoiding the non stop offers from tuk tuks. All of a sudden those t-shirts in Bangkok with the slogan "No I don't want a fucking tuk tuk" were sounding very useful. Angkor beer was 50 cent in most places providing huge relief from the heat. We organised bikes the next day and set off to explore the temples. I've no idea how far we cycled but the heat made it seem ten times worse. We saw
some smaller temples first cycling the Grand Circuit: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Pre Rup, Sra Srang, Banteay Kdei, Phnom Bakkeng to name a few. We came across some monkeys along our way which provided great entertainment as well as some other cheeky monkeys, the children, constantly trying to sell post cards, bracelets and books using some serious insistent charm. After a day of sun blazing while we cycled around it was disappointing when it came time for sunset to see it turn very cloudy and overcast. But we weren't done here yet. The next morning we got up at 4am (in hindsight probably a bit too early) we cycled out to Angkor Wat for sunrise. We were out there in loads of time as more and more people arrived for the spectacle. And spectacular in was as at 6.10am the first ray shone and sun worshippers frantically started snapping. After this we explored the temple and were back in the guesthouse, fast asleep by 10am after some breakfast. We had a few beers that night and were home in the nick of time before massive thunder and lightening struck cutting the power to the entire city. Before the power went
I also got to see Man Utd unceremoniously dumped out of the FA Cup by a Yaya Toure winner for Man City.
We got a bus the following evening for Sihanoukville arriving early the next morning at the beach town. We each hopped on the back of a motor bike (way cheaper than taxi) and they brought us to a place we had looked up but when it was full they brought us to another guesthouse, GST1, across the road from Serendipity Beach. The beach was lined with bars doing food and Seafood BBQ and the good news was the 50 cent Angkor beer was to continue. We spent 3 days here chilling by the beach and trying to find out the best approach to get rid of the local kids and women trying to sell fruit, massages, bracelets and books on the beach. This was literally non stop all day long but I think we just got used to it. By night we would bar hop availing of our flyers handed out during the day for a free drink in some places and depending on where the cheapest booze was (25 cent beer was the best it got
- good times).
After this it was back to more real travelling getting a bus to Phnom Penh, a monstrous city, but the place where we would learn all about Cambodias horrific history during the Khymer Rouge period (1975-1979) where an estimated 2 million people of all backgrounds, ages or gender were murdered. We stayed at Sunday Guesthouse and they showed a documentary on S21, the school transformed into a prison where the Khymer Rouge kept and tortured prisoners before tranferring them to Choeung Ek, The Killing Fields. This gave a great insight interviewing some of the 7 survivors aswell as some of the prison officers who were only kids at the time. The next day we went to Tuol Sleng Museum (S21) and were in constant shock as we walked around the rooms where prisoners were tortured and chained down in tiny cells. Some rooms are filled with passport type photos of the prisoners as the Khyker Rouge kept a profile of each prisoner and documented almost everything. The faces of babies, mothers, children, film stars all stare eerily back from the walls as no one seemed to be spared under this psychotic rule. I couldn't understand the
few signs asking people not to write on the walls or photos. I saw why though when one wall paricularly had some grafitti, including one embarrassment from Ireland: "Dan was here Cork 2010" (nice one dickhead). On the way out we saw one of the men from the documentary who now works in the museum, one of the only 7 survivors and couldn't help think how difficult it must be for him to be there everyday having gone through what he did in the late 70's.
The followng day we took a trip out see The Killing Fields. Again this was horrific as we were immediately drawn to a huge monument housing the skulls, bones and clothes of excavated bodies found at the site. We walked around where the different areas are sign posted, e.g. the killing tree where they killed babies were beaten against, areas where when it rains bones and clothes continue to rise to the surface,some of which we could see. Although a very morbid trip it, along with the visit to S21, gave great insight into this sick period of war crime and genocide that we previously knew nothing about. As Europeans we're aware of
Hitlers reign and the nazi's but in some ways this was even worse.
While in Phnom Penh we ate at some places by the riverside, Cantina and Happy Herb Pizza which had about as much 'herbs' as my mothers Pasta bake. One night we stayed neaby our guesthouse eating at Phnom Pehn Sea Food which was delcious, apart from the ear busting karaoke going on in the restaurant. Again on our last night there was massive thunder storms, one of the rooms in the guest house getting flooded. Hopfully this wasn't to be the start of the wet season! We got a midnight bus to Saigon, Vietnam.
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