Cambodia

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After an easy border crossing I arrived in the capitol of Cambodia: Phnom Penh. People warned me it was a horrible place and get out of there straight away after I had visited the most important sights. When I got there I wasn't looking too impressed.. it was dusty, busy and 20 tuk tuk drivers standing around me wanting to give me a lift to my guesthouse. I ended up going to the backpackers area and when I got there I noticed that the people were friendly and everyone was very chilled out (i do believe that the weed helped) and also a lot of Cambodian people spoke good English! With some people I met on the bus we decided to go for a walk around the city. The temples they have here are beautiful and the parks nice and green with monkeys running around. After our walk we decided to have a couple of (very cheap) drinks and relax.

The next day we visited some more temples and I just couldn't believe the heat! We had decided we were going to walk all day to do the sightseeing but as I felt like I was going to melt we finally got a tuk tuk. We drove to the Tuol Slang museum also known as S-21. Here we found out that thousands of prisoners during the Pol Pot regime were tortured. In the torture rooms were photos on the wall of the last people found dead on the torture beds.. very creepy and depressing I can tell you! And in other rooms I found snapshots of all the people who were taken to that prison to be tortured... not very nice.

After the museum I wanted to go to the Killing Fields but the people I went to the museum with didn't think they could handle it. So I went by myself. When you first arrive it looks very peaceful.. lots of trees, butterflies and then you come across a glass tower with 8000 skulls. The people who were tortured at S-21 were brought here to be executed. There were mass graves with hundreds of bodies found and as I was walking along there was a sign next to a tree: babies and children had their heads bashed against this tree until they died... it was so sad. They killed all these children because they didn't want them to take revenge of their parents' death later on in life.. it was just unbelievable... It was horrible to see, but I am glad I went so that I could actually see with my own eyes what had happened and be thankful I've never lived through a war.. and I hope I never will. Someone later on told me that at Cambodian schools they have only now inserted a chapter of the Khmer Rouge and their tortures and that after 30 years! I couldn't believe it.. apparently some people deny it ever happened!!! In the end.. during the Khmer Rouge regime 1/4 of the population died.

After seeing almost everything in Phnom Penh (the tuk tuk drivers leave me alone now) I went to Battambang for 2 nights. There was not much that I wanted to see but I just wanted to get out of the city for a couple of days. Tuk tuk drivers surrounded me everywhere I went to take me on a tour. Unfortunately for them, I had already seen 'floating' villages, wineries, bats etc. on previous travels. What I did go and see where the Killing Caves. After 25 minutes on the most bumpy and dusty road I had ever encountered we reached a mountain with some nice temples and Buddhas. Eventually we found the cave. Just like the Killing Fields there were skulls on display and even some bones lying around. People were thrown into the cave to die..

After 2 nights in Battambang I went back to Phnom Penh and stayed there with a friend who had moved there with his wife and child a few months ago. It was nice to stay in a proper house again and not in a hotel/guesthouse. He showed me things in Phnom Penh that other backpackers like me wouldn't see so that was very nice. We also went to the trial of Duch. He was responsible for the killing and torturing of people at the S-21 prison. It was a very interesting day and it's just unbelievable how such a small man is capapble of doing such horrendous things!!

While I was in Phnom Penh I tried to arrange my visa for Burma... and that was not easy. I was questioned why I wanted to go there, what I was going to see, what I knew about their politics etc. And as long as I couldn't prove that I was working in Switzerland they would not give me a visa.. So after e-mailing my bosses back home I eventually got my visa after 2 weeks and 5 visits to the embassy.. very frustrating. I just hope that the Burmese aren't like that.

My next stop (while I needed to wait for my visa) was Sihanoukville. This is a beach resort and I really longed to see a beach again... After I had arrived I bumped into some people I had met in Battambang and spent my days there with them. The beach was nice, but definitely not as nice as the ones in Thailand. But at least I had some sun to work on my tan ;-)

After returning to Phnom Penh and picking up my visa I was headed to Siem Reap. From this nice little town (although a bit dusty) you can go to the famous temples of Angkor Wat. So yesterday I went and it was amazing! I didn't see the sunrise though (a bit too early for me) but the temples and surroundings were fantastic. We got a tuk tuk driver to take us around the temples because it was simply too hot to cycle around there. It was a very good day and I'm lucky that I've been able to visit the temples.

I'm still in Siem Reap and I'll leave here in a couple of days and head to Bangkok from where I will fly to Burma.

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