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Published: December 30th 2007
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Mekong Tour
Riverside shanties It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .
Highlights have included boating through the Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh to Cambodia, the temples of Angkor and the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. We also had one bus break-down (on arrival in Cambodia), one bus crash (on travelling to Siem Reap, near Angkor Wat), money stolen from our hotel room in Siem Reap and saw some truly disturbing sights relating to the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot.
This summary paints a very unfair picture of our time in Cambodia, as it's been my favourite country so far, and Sarah also really enjoyed it. The people are very friendly, the sights interesting, the food great and the weather fantastic. Just avoid the buses and don't leave your wallet within reach of the window when you're asleep (even if the curtains are drawn and you've locked the window!).
We arrived in Cambodia after a 3-day Mekong Delta tour, eventually being deposited about 20km outside our intended destination of Phnom Penh when our bus broke-down. The tour up to that point had been great. Whilst the "genuine" minority village or "traditional" Vietnamese craft demonstration
often seemed little more than a series of souvenir stalls, the trips along the river were very enjoyable, as was the opportunity to meet a few locals whilst biking round the Mekong islands or visiting a local market. We also met lots of fantastic people on the trip, and if our time on the Mekong hadn't bonded us sufficiently, having to negotiate (both navigationally and financially) the last 20km of our ride into Phnom Penh - and the beers that followed our safe arrival - certainly did.
The Temples of Angkor were truly inspiring, and very much lived-up to high expectations. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries, the hundreds of temples that survive today (in varying states of disrepair) are all that remains of the ancient Khmer empire, which stretched from Myanmar to Vietnam. At its zenith, Angkor was home to 1 million people, at a time when London had only 50,000. Angkor Wat is the focal point of the temples, and the largest religious building in the world.
We spent the best part of three days exploring the temples, using a mixture of bikes and tuk-tuks, and seeing 20-25 of the temples in total. We particularly
enjoyed sunrise at Angkor Wat, the intricate carvings at Bayon and Bantaey Srei, the inter-play of stone and tree at Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider was filmed) and the quiet solitude of some of the smaller temples.
We also very much enjoyed Phnom Penh, which has the ability to both amaze and horrify. The amazing was the National Museum, with a good collection of ancient artefacts displayed in beautiful surrounds, and the Royal Palace. The shocking were the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21).
From the time of their 1975 victory in a 5-year civil war until the Vietnamese invasion of 1979, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians either directly at sights such as Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng, or because of the widespread starvation which Pol Pot's regime brought to the country. Those killed included sections of the educated classes, those who wore spectacles, those who spoke foreign languages, and those suspected of being party traitors/CIA-spies/affiliated with the Vietnamese. The regime also emptied towns and cities, abolished money, schools, private property, law courts and markets, forbade religious practices, and sent everyone to work in the countryside.
S-21 is
a former primary school that was used to imprison suspected 'traitors' during Pol Pot's regime. Upwards of 14,000 prisoners were held during his reign, of whom 7 are known to have survived. Many of those killed - assuming they didn't die during torture - were taken to Choeung Ek for execution. Choeung Ek is home to 129 mass graves. Of the 86 graves unearthed to date, almost 9,000 bodies have been found - some headless, some naked and some suggesting the victims had been buried alive. Given this history, it was fantastic to see how Cambodia has recovered since that time.
Our time in Cambodia wouldn't have been complete without one final, horrific bus ride, this time from Siem Reap to the Thai border. The bus had no room to store luggage, other than behind seats and in the aisle, and also lacked air con with temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Throw in a road which is reportedly kept in an appalling state to encourage air travel (money allegedly passes from the airlines to the government), and you have a loooong day!!!
We did, eventually, reach Bangkok and spent a day catching up on admin. I also ran
round Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho to re-take a few photos, having lost those from our 1st visit at the start of September. I hope you enjoy them.
Happy New Year to everyone reading this.
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