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Published: November 5th 2006
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Leaving our Bangkok hotel at 5am, we felt prepared for the extremeties of the journey ahead, having been warned to expect delays at the boarder (due to all the Thai's going to Cambodia to gamble!). The journey to the boarder was fine, and as it happens so too was the boarder crossing - spotted those pesky Cambodian attempted scams a mile off (ie. pay extra to get the visa application processed ASAP, despite there being no que!). You're immediately struck with just how poor Cambodia is, and it's something that doesn't go away whilst you're there. We then teamed up with a Spanish couple & hired a share-taxi to take us the remainder of the way to Siem Reap. The price for the taxi was higher than expected, due to the water-logged conditions of the roads we were told - despite our doubts we paid the extra, as we didn't fancy 6hrs in the back of a pick up! Unfortunately, they were actually telling the truth, and their were times that our Toyota Camry would have been better off being a ToyBOATa!! (sorry about that!). At one stage the "road" (a dirt track) was actually covered by a stream/river - our
fearless, wanabee rally driver decided to drive through, and we broke down right in the middle, with water up to our ankles (in the car) and up to the window outside! Luckily there were tractors present to tow people out, but we then had to wait whilst the car dried out & the engine got fixed! After some further flying along the dirt roads (and really not looking out for the bumps - a bonebreaker!) we then hit another delay. This time it was running repairs on the road, and we had an hour wait whilst they laid more dirt over the road to make it passable! Still, our taxi driver barged his way to the front of the que, which was good work. We eventually arrived in Siem Reap about 4pm, fully 11 hours after setting off - quite a journey!
Next morning, with the batteries charged after a long lie-in, we headed into the centre of town for some food. On the way we had to try to bypass all of the kids trying to sell you postcards & bamboo flutes - they spout off random facts about England to try to get you to buy things
(amusingly, some even claim to be from London!). We then took a tuk-tuk to watch a show at a local orphanage in the afternoon - show was really funny, and the organised chaos (cartwheeling into each other) made it even better. We then took a look around the orphange, and met some of the kids - unfortunately, these are the lucky ones, & when you hear stories of babies being sold for $30 to be a begging tool it's easy to see why. Later that day our faithful tuk-tuk took us for our first taste of the temples of Angkor - went to a (very) popular hill-top temple to catch the sunset, which was great apart from the hoards of people (including a Korean kid who tried to push Zoe down some really steep steps!).
Next morning we got up super-early (much to the delight of our tuk tuk driver) to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the most impressive of all of the temples in the area. Unfortunately the cloud meant it was not a great sunrise, but being able to stroll around somewhere so old whilst it was empty of the crowds was a real treat. The
sheer size of Angkor Wat makes it awesome, and the age of it (800AD) makes the condition it is in absolutely incredible. We later went to Angkor Thom, a further temple complex, where Bayon (with lots of faces carved in stone) was a hickledy-pickledy joy. After a much needed pit-stop back at the hostel for lunch & a shower we hit some more temples - the highlight being Ta Prahm, a temple left as it was found which still has trees growing on it. The best compliment I can pay to the temples of Angkor was that we spent a really long day looking around temples, but still were hungry for more, with no sign of being "templed-out". We weren't even too annoyed with all the kids trying to sell us stuff - Amazing!
The next day we headed to Phnom Phen, the Cambodian capital - this was a further 5hrs on a (hot) bus - my friendly local next to me offered to share his food with me (had to pass on the deep-fried bugs though - once is enough!). It's much bigger (and more developed) than Siem Reap, and we spent the first afternoon walking by the
riverside (and dodging mopeds); also went for a posh feed at the Foreign Correspondant's Club (FCC) of Cambodia to celebrate the engagement - lovely stuff! We also managed to take in the Grand Palace & Silver Pagoda (lovely gardens, but not as impressive as Bangkok's namesake). Then we watched some kids playing in the river; all very pleasant stuff until one refused to get in & pulled a razor-blade in the ensuing argument - time for us to make a hasty exit!
Feeling refreshed the next day, we headed off to probably the most harrowing place we've ever been - the Choung Ek killing fields of the Khemer Rouge. The bumpy tuk-tuk ride there was bad enough (sure Jabba the hut was driving!), but the first thing you see there is a monument/memorial complete with 8000 human skulls. Around 20000 people were murdered in these fields alone, but not all of the mass graves have been exhumed, and as you walk around the paths there you come across bits of bone & clothing pushing up the dirt - no image can be stronger than that, and it left us both speachless. Returning to Phonm Phen in truely philosphical mood, we then went to S-21, the Khemer Rouge prison. Here they have left the cells as they were found, and there are pictures of some of the thousands of Cambodians to be tourtured (and later killed) here - even little children. The regime of Pol Pot & the Khemer Rouge was something that neither of us knew too much about before coming here, but it's definitely something that we'll never forget.
We've now arrived in Vietnam, and plan to spend a few days in Ho Chi Mihn (Saigon) before making our way up country. Look out for the next exciting installment....
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bankok
it has been noted how you "lost" your family on the last day