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Published: July 29th 2006
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After a nice bit of breakfast at a cafe called 'Sunrise' we met our guide, Sam.
We drove into the countryside, passing rice fields that were being worked in by women and children who smile and wave and all look really happy but well worn with their hard work. The roads were bumpy!!
Our first stop was Phnom Sampeau, Phnom meaning hill and I think Sampeau means sail.
This is another place in Cambodia where normal everyday people were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. There are a couple of caves at the top and Sam took us inside one that contained a cage full of skulls and bones. Apparently 10,000 people were brought here and killed. Another gruesome piece of Cambodian history.
Whilst up this hill we started to get a funny feeling about Sam! He still seemed a really nice guy, but as with most people we have met on our travels so far through Asia he started to speak about money, or his lack of it. This turned out to be his talking point throughout the day. This annoyed us as we had hired him for an agreed price and we would give him a
tip for being such a great guide, but we resented giving him a tip as he went on so much.
He told us a lot about the Khmer Rouge, most which would take too long to write and we want to still make the blogs interesting, but we found it really interesting.
He told us his brother was sent to work in the fields, as with most people. Whilst in the fields the people had a choice of working in the day for 12 hours and for very little food, or in the night for 2 hours and good food and drink. BUT!, if you chose to work in the night you would be asked loads of questions about friends and family. If you didn't give the answers they wanted, serious things happened. In Sams brothers case, he was asked whether he had any info on anybody, to which he gave a made up answer.
The Khmer Roge were not happy so in front of his brothers eyes, they executed around 40 people, the ones he had lied about!!! HE DIDN'T WORK NIGHTS AGAIN!
We also got the feeling that the current situation with the goverment in charge is
not a million miles away from back then. Lots of people in power have connections with the Khmer Rouge, including the king and prime minister, hence why no one has been trialed. Sam was also nervy and quiet to talk when he spoke about politics. Apparently now it is a democratic country, but Sam believes no matter who won the vote the CPP party would still be in power. Leading up to the last election another party were doing well so the leader of the CPP part (currently in power) sent an order out to kill the leader of the other party, so he fled the country.
Up the hill there were some pretty cool views of the surrounding area, again very flat with the odd hill poking up.
Back down the hill, where there is a small village, that seems to revolve around tourists coming to the site, we had lunch.
Our next stop was Wat Banan, a temple on a hill, with 359 very steep steps. It was good and we thought this gave us a good insight to what we could expect to see when we see the temples at Angkor.
At the top
The cage with some of the 10,000 victims
Before the Khmer regime, these caves were used for theatre . This was the dressing cave. we spoke to a girl who had come from Siam Reap, we asked her about the journey as the roads are supposedly shocking but the boat ride scenic if not expensive. The temple was very old and again with great views.
We had thought about looking at a Bamboo train but at around 12 dollars we thought it was expensive, so our next stop was a monastary that contained a bunch of fruit bats in its trees, so we headed there, now with our backside begining to ache.
After our stop here we headed back to town, struggling to get of the bike with our sore bums, but having had a good day.
We gave Sam a 2 Dollar tip. Perhaps he had influenced us???? He was a good guide but he needs to leave the money subject alone.
Again as with last night we had a nice dinner at a restauraunt called 'The white Rose' THE EMBLEM OF SOUTH YORKSHIRE. Then after much thought, bought our expensive 15 dollars express boat ticket to Siam Reap, home of one of the wonders of the world. Angkor Wat!!
Question again, was what kind of boat would we
Notice the bowl in the bottom left?
This is where they slit the persons throat! get for our well earned money???
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