Blogs from Cambodia, Asia - page 773

Last episode: Full Moon, Daniel tog hjem, turen gik til Kuala Lumpur, saa Petrona Towers og var oppe i TV Taarnet (276m)! Paa varmt vand og kiks! - en novelle fra august 06 ... read more

There are no words. We're a few days late in publishing this blog entry because, frankly, we didn't know what to write. Before I get into it, I'll just warn any readers about the rather disturbing pictures you're about to see and horrifying things you're about to read. If you're not ready for it, don't read any further. From 1975-1975, the Khmer Rouge regime, led by dictator extraordinaire Pol Pot, undertook one of the world's worst mass genocides. It's estimated that 2-3 million people (nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population) were exterminated for reasons that are beyond our comprehension. In a nutshell, all educated and intellectuals (doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people, etc) and their families, including babies, as well as dissidents and anyone else the Khmer Rouge felt like killing were rounded up and systematically murdered ... read more

Last entry only took us up to our first night in Houay Xai, the border town in Laos. We booked up to catch a bus north to Luang NamTha which we knew could take a whil longer than anticipated due to rain. The weather was not too terrible though so we went for it which meant a 20 hour nightmare journey driving through what looked like stroganoff but was in fact the clay soil in the region. The road on this route is under construction so it's pure clay with scattered bits of aggregate and random bits of machinery. We didn't have a bus as we were told we'd have, we had a big tuk-tuk. They fit 20 people, falang and Lao, and heaps of luggage onto this 4WD with a tuk-tuk carriage on the ... read more

So I finally have some time to sit down and share a few things about the past week or so. I think I left off in Nha Trang where we spent a few days out in the sun (or clouds) and after that we headed to Ho Chi Min City, the capital of Vietnam... on yet another bus. I am going to be honest and tell you that I didn't get to explore or experience the city and appreciate the mass amounts of people and surrounding sights/activities because I was crazy sick!... sick from what I thought was drinking too much BAD Saigon beer but that was not the case, I have never felt so shitty in my life! Couped up in the hotel for 2 rainy days was not fun but part of the ride ... read more

We arrived in Siem Reap with about 5000 misquitoes to bring along with us from PP. The bus was loaded with bugs and at 7am no one was happy to get on the 'malaria bus' however... when in Cambodia! Siem Reap is a little more of what I expected it to be... a little less developed but in the works with hotels popping up everywhere, dirt roads with dust blowing, tiny shack side road shops and houses with people riding bikes and motobikes. Getting off the bus was a feat that I conquered quite well considering how I feel about getting harassed every 5 seconds. We arrived and the bus was literally swarmed by people with signs for their hotels, tuk-tuk drivers screaming at you to go with them, whispering in your ear free this and ... read more