Advertisement
Published: July 26th 2010
GEDC1264
1 2 3 smile!Hello again. After a slightly delayed southern Vietnam blog our hotel in Siem Reap has fast and free internet so we have been getting things together bit by bit.
We arrived into Cambodia and Phnom Penh on our bus from Ho Chi Minh. We handed in our passports and $20 for the border crossing. The journey took about 6 hours and the border was more efficient than we thought. We had to get out of the coach and take our bags through a x ray machine before getting passports checked, it was quite surreal. After getting back on the bus we drove past a strip of casinos that stood in the middle of nowhere which was also odd. Cambodia is similar in its scenary to Laos but on a slightly more even plane. We arrived into Phnom Penh on time and greeted by a group of Tuk Tuk drivers all wearing yellow football shirts of their Tuk Tuk company with different names and numbers on the back. We spoke to a nice one, John, a incredibly common Cambodian name, and trundled off to our chosen guesthouse location. Phnom Penhs doesn't have a strict traveller only area so we found ourselves
GEDC1224
My country my Beer on a street that had a few and picked the cheapest.
We agreed to meet John the next day for a tour to the killing fields and the S21 prison. We explored during the rest of the day and found a really nice restaurant that was quite cheap and had dinner. In Cambodia everyone uses US dollars. It seems strange as they have their own currency and the Riel to the dollar is only 4,000 compared to Thailands 20,000 baht to the dollar. It seems an easy way to round up and charge tourists slightly more for most things, which is slightly scandalous.
The next day we got picked up and headed out of the city center to see the killing fields. We both didn't really have much knowledge of the atrocities that occured in the 1970's and were shocked to when we learnt about Pol Pot and his rouge. The country is steeped in such a sad history with millions of Cambodians being killed, mainly the educated people of the countries elite, during the dictatorship. It seems terrible to think that such crimes could be committed so very recently. The killing fields are the place where many
GEDC1230
Preying Mantis on a side street thousands lost their lives and after being executed were poured into mass graves. We watched a video that told briefly of terror involved and after we were able to look around the grounds. with over 100 graves some filled with over 450 bodies it was a very sad place. A tower was erected that holds and showcases many skulls, and other bones of bodies as well as their clothes. Some skulls had clear signs of bullet holes as well as blows with hammers etc when ammunition was running low. It was a trully horrifying place and despite pleased of going and learning about the atrocities, we never want to return there. Afterwards we visited the S21 prison, A place where the Khmer Rouge held the prisoners before they were executed. The prison was a converted school and consists of small and quite large cells, rooms partitioned using crude brickwork leaving little space. In other rooms large photo boards show every person that was killed there as well as other graphic pictures of tortured bodies and paintings. It was a very harrowing place. It was again horrifying to understand that such a place existed such a short time ago. We started
to notice that there were a lot of people with body disfigurements and a scary number amputees with injuries suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. It was a very emotional day and felt confused by mans lack of basic compassion, by wanting to learn about it all and at the same time wanting not to immerse ourselves in the horrors. It is hard to get across the feelings that the two places gave us, the saddest place we have ever been to.
Despite this the Cambodian people are looking for the future, and so their views of tourists seem very positive. They are a friendly people looking for a fresh start. We also visited the national museum, which was slightly disappointing in light of the other museums we have visited mainly showing statutes of religious gods. We stayed a few more days, taking our time to explore the city, before heading onto Sihanoukville on the south coast of the country.
This is a small port town that attracts tourists due to its nice beach and good weather. We found that at the time to beach was a little dirty due to recent heavy rain, but other
GEDC1246
Killing Fields Memorial tower than that the area was quite nice. The beachfront is made solely of bars and restaurants meaning a drink was never far away during the day and the night time had a lively atmosphere. Mark ran into two friends from university that he was in halls with (James Elborn and Alex Galvin for those uni readers) as we were walking down the beach! It is a very small world. They are doing a similar thing to us, but got trapped like many travellers do, having been there for 7 weeks! Although the area was a nice place to visit and relax we could not see ourselves staying anywhere for nearly as long. Unfortunately we didn't share their opinions that it was the "best place on earth" but never-the-less it was a nice stay. We did little but sunbathe and it was a nice stop coming from the killing fields and Cu Chi before that. We said goodbye to the boys and headed on a night bus to Siem Reap and the land of Angkor.
Our night bus arrived at 5am in Siem Reap province - 5km out of town- where we had to get a Tuk Tuk in. Tired
and very very annoyed we had no choice but to comply, unfortunately not the first time we have found ourselves in a hopeless position in Asia. We found a nice hotel anyway and agreed to use our driver, not part of the scam, for our tour the next day of Angkor. We agreed the price would come with a vat of cold bottled water, a rather ingenious bartering tactic if i do say so myself! as the weather was very very warm. Again not England warm, properly hot! There are numerous temples in the area, the most famous being Angkor Wat. We managed to see a few and found that one day was sufficient. Angkor Wat is huge. We were left to explore for ourselves the area which took a couple of hours to walk round, climbing up to the top of the lofty central section where four Buddhas were alcoved. The views were stunning. Unfortunately a few running repairs were underway, but it didn't cause much of a distraction from the remarkable craftsmanship. On our way out we were lucky to literally run into a few monkeys or gibbony creatures. Suz was able to get fairly close, but Mark
GEDC1276
S21 Prison was not so welcomed, with the big male taking a dislike! Quite scary. We left and went to Angkor Thom, an even bigger area that had a few temples within it's walls. Bayoun was the best of these, that has 216 enormous carved faces in the walls. It again was stunning. It was strange as some of the structure had fallen leaving walkways only partially clear making for a very bizarre obstacle course.
Then it started to rain. Hard. We sheltered under a tree for a while and when it lifted slightly made a dash for more substantial cover. Our driver, seeing us in despair trundled towards us where we found the shelter of his now waterproofed and enclosed Tuk Tuk welcoming. After a brief lunch we headed out of Angkor Thom to Ta Prohm. This temple is famous for its trees that climb out of the brickwork. It was a remarkable place with trees a hundred feet high rooting in nothing more than cracks in the masonry. The rain left the entire place partially submerged making the spectacle more striking. Here we really felt the loss of the previous camera, but our cheap new one did ok. After
Mark thought once we made our snaky course for the exit that we had missed some and headed back in to investigate. The place is like a maze and we found even more fantastic trees and crumbling temple remains. We left after a long day, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm are two of the most breathtaking places we have visited.
We spent the next couple of days relaxing and walking the large market where we were able to get a couple of bargains. It is good fun to barter with the sellers, and most are friendly and a couple really funny. We also found a nice restaurant on "pub street" where we had a good meal. Siem Reap has a great atmosphere and along with the temples rates as one of our faves. We left for Bangkok and our second spell in Thailand in the morning. We are both looking forward to getting back where it is slightly cheaper and hope it will be like before, "same same, but different!"
Advertisement
Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0783s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Joe
non-member comment
Crikey!
Hey guys, Loving the blog. I have to say I am very jealous of all that you two have seen - (Angkor Wat!) and once again want to set off and go travelling again! It's good to hear that you've got your bartering hats on. Jenni and I were pretty useless at first, there's definately a knack to it! Enjoy the rest of the time you've got out there, you'll miss once your back :) See you soon. Joe.