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Published: March 17th 2009
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I looked over and noticed that our driver, who was swinging on the door of the minibus at the time, passing something to someone in uniform on the street as we drove by.
Strange.. it's just happened again.. and he is at it again. I try and figure out what he has in his hand but he keeps it a secret stuck between his thumb and his palm a bit like a magic trick. Unable to see what it is I try and figure out who he is passing these mystery things to. The receiver dressed in all black with a white helmet look's so much like a police officer.. maybe our co-driver is just showing cops his magic tricks he learned at the pub the other night.
When we arrive in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh I suddenly realise whats going on. Our overloaded minibus (overloaded being an understatement - 11 seats, 26 passengers - some who had forgot to wash for the last year) was illegal. The only magic trick he was performing was making the police officers salary double in size, and not just one but the 20 or so we passed on the way. It works
out that if we were stopped we would of been fined for overloading the bus. Easier to bribe the officers at the numerous checkpoints instead!
After the driver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere we managed to secure a shared tuk tuk and headed for the rather brilliantly named OKAY guesthouse.
This place was a backpackers magnet. It has over 100 rooms and 90% of the clientele are travelling the world in search of finding themselves (or somebody!) Our room was an icebox thanks to the air conditioning which was amazing!
We spent 6 nights in Phnom Penh and managed to see quite a bit of the city. The main street is set right on a river and a host of places to eat and bars line up for business. Each part of the city is split into sections and you can choose between the markets, bar street, happy herb pizza street etc etc. The only dilemma we encountered was the streets were numbered rather than named making map reading a whole new challenge.
Many tourists visit S21 and the rather horrific Killing fields, both reminders from the Khmer rouge and Pol Pot era.
We originally set off in the morning to the Thai embassy to sort our visa's only to be told to come back in 3days when we could 'get them for free' (some kind of promotion??) RESULT! and then headed off to visit the S21 museum.
Anyone who has read anything about the Khmer rouge, or Pol Pots regime will be able to appreciate how disturbing this whole story is. S21 used to be a primary school and was converted by the Khmer rouge into a holding cell for prisoners who they suspected were corrupt or did not adhere to the rules of the regime. Different methods of torture were used and one of the rooms had graphic pictures explaining how prisoners were beaten to a state of unconsciousness. Another room had pictures of everyone who was murdered and that particular room was rather scary. Looking into their faces and trying to understand the pain they must of suffered stirred emotions.
We also hired a tuk tuk to take us to the fields where prisoners were executed and thrown into a ditch (a hole in the ground the Khmer rouge dug) Bullets were deemed too expensive so the prisoners
were hit on the back of the neck or head and then sometimes still conscious thrown into the grave. Prison rules forbid them to scream, shout or try and cause any disturbance, if so they would be severely beaten. In remembrance of the 20,000 innocent people who were buried here a memorial has been erected with all the victims skulls on show (see pic).
We spent a day wat hopping which was cool, and en route to the Japanese bridge we were faced with a dilemma. Just passing a wat and walking across a paved area Michelle's flip flop gave in to all the miles we had covered! The middle bit that goes between your toes had come away, making it impossible to walk any further. No shops or markets in sight we paused in thought and suddenly a young lady out of nowhere appeared insisting on helping. After unsuccessfully trying to assure her there was nothing she could do, assuming she didn't have any flip flops to sell, she went about looking for a piece of wood!??? Armed with a straw, stone, and a bit of random stick??? a bit of magic and two minutes later she had
fixed the shoes!!?? (see pic) - Genius!
Without turning this blog into a full blown book, some other bits we would like to mention..
*There is a huge divide between the rich and poor, some in Lexus jeeps, others who lay on the street in rags with nothing to eat
*Cambodian people are the most friendly so far
*We found 'The cavern' copied from the original one in Liverpool - lacking the same atmosphere
*We also found a huge air conditioned shopping centre with a free demo seat massage
Next stop is Siem Reap our last stop in Cambodia - lets hope the journey is easy on the bum.
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anonymous
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hope you are both keeping ok all ok at home lots of love miss you love mum