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Published: February 17th 2011
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So our journey through Laos has come to an end 😞, but now the Cambodian chapter has begun!
We crossed over the border with no problems and made our way into Stung Treng, the first major stop in Cambodia. We stayed here for 2 nights after only planning on staying for the afternoon! We really liked it here, the town is still itself with an amazing market, where the locals go about their daily lives, unaffected by tourism. We loved that only four westerners got off the bus here, with the majority going straight to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap", keeping on the "tourist route".
We spent our mornings exploring the market, surrounded by fish flapping, chickens dying and the odd woman trying to sell monkeys on a stick (disgusting)! The rest of the day would be spent cycling to nearby villages and visiting local development centers such as "Mekong Blue". Mekong Blue is a brilliant place where poor, uneducated women are taught the skills of silk weaving, giving them a job and a means of becoming self sustainable. We had a tour of the entire silk making process and were amazed at how much effort it takes to
make a finished silk product. The business is really well run and has expanded to have an online shop as well as a store in Phnom Penh... check it out online, there are really great products and the profits go to a great cause.
From Stung Treng we made our way down the mekong to Kratie. We only stayed here one night in order to see the Irrawady dolphins.... (again)! This third dolphin experience was by far the best of all. The ecosystem on the Cambodian side of the Mekong supports around 90 dolphins compared to a mere ten in Laos and therefore sightings are much more regular. The dolphins were coming within metres of the boat so we got to see them really close up which was amazing!
We then arrived in the capital, Phnom Penh after a 6 hour minibus journey that packed 18 of us into a 12 seater- nice and cramped. We are not really city people and at first we wern't too impressed by the city but as usual, after exploring it, we grew to like it quite a lot. The city is really large and constantly bustling with cars, motos, people, tuk-tuks
and street vendors but has very elegant areas such as the riverfront where many boutique hotels and plush restaurants are situated. During our stay we visited the s-21 prison and the killing fields; two key places during the brutal khmer rouge era. The s-21 prison, which was once a school, was used as a torture prison where thousands of innocent Cambodians were severely tortured and killed. The place was extremely chilling, you can walk around the whole place, going into the cells and seeing the environment they were kept in. It was disgusting and really horrific, pictures of each prisoner were also on display as well as photographs of murder scenes and the equipment used. We also met one of the only 7 survivors of S-21 and listened to his account of his time in the prison, really awful.
The killing fields were also very eerie, you can walk around the mass graves where hundreds of the S-21 prisoners were taken to be murdered and dumped. It was a trip that we felt needed to be done, but we were glad when it was over.
On a brighter note, we spent Valentine's Day relaxing in the city, followed by
the most amazing meal we have ever eaten. We went to a really posh restaurant on the riverfront, which was decorated beautifully.... the nicest restaurant we have been to. It was a really romantic setting, the food was spectacular and the service was fantastic! It was a huge contrast to the street vendors we have been used to dining at!
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robyn
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hey
sounds like your still having an amazxing time! is tha lil cake from a really great lil bakery in phenm phem? me n ja went there 1 day for a lil treat!.lol. where u off to next? keep in touch xxxxx