Cambodia

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On entering Cambodia, we made the short journey to the city of Siem Riep. As we pulled up to the hotel, I think the majority of us were surprised at how nice our hotel was - this was actually a good indication of what the majority of our hotels would be like during the trip. I for one, was expecting to be 'slumming' for the majority of the tour. Anyhoo, after a few free hours settling into our new surroundings, we all went out for the evening. Before dinner, we went to visit an area of the town where its inhabitants were living in abject poverty. It goes without saying, that it was a very humbling experience. Nevertheless, the locals were friendly and welcoming. Despite their circumstances, the children all seemed happy and playful; and loved seeing themselves on our digital cameras after we'd taken their picture. After saying our goodbyes to the local people, we made the short journey to a nearby restaurant. However, this was no ordinary restaurant; it was a subsidiary of an organisation which sought to give the local youths a skill of some sort and to provide education, which they could potentially use to earn a living. All the chefs, and waiting staff were local young people who had been trained and educated by the school. The organisation also had foreign medical staff, who had volunteered to help the local community. The meal itself, was a traditional cambodian affair (which included numerous whole fried eels), and was mightily tasty.

The next day, we got up very early and made the short journey to the temples of Angkor Watt. These temples were featured in the 'epic' that is Tomb Raider I. The various and differing temples where magnificient, but come 1700 when we had had been on our feet for 11 hours we were all when and truly templed out. That night, we went for dinner at this place called The Temple Bar. During our meal we were entertained by some traditional Cambodian dancers. After dinner, we went downstairs to the bar, where we would spend the majority of our night partying it up! They had a special promotion on cocktail 'buckets', so I took full advantage of this, and consumed about 5 in the process of the evening. That night was our first big night out as a group and we all concluded that it would take some beating during the remainder of our tour.

The next morning, despite feeling as rough as a badgers, I decided to have a massage at the hotel to help ease my hangover. Prior to my massage, I was sure that I would fall asleep during it. How wrong i was; the massage was more akin to what I think colombian drug gangs do to hostages when they are trying to extract some vital piece of information. Anyway, after that ordeal, I joined the rest of the group as we boarded the bus to make the journey to the capital, Phnom Penh. We arrived late afternoon, but the majority of us just spent the remainder of the day relaxing and sleeping of our hangovers.

The following day, we had a rather harrowing, but very interesting trip to the prison where thousands of Pol Pot's victims were incarcerated prior to being taken to the 'Killing Fields', where their sentence would be fulfilled. Our guide for the day, explained with horrifying detail the astrocities that so many people encountered in that terrible place (there is still blood stains on the floor where the soldiers killed the remaining prisoners, before fleeing from the advancing Vietnamese army). Almost every prisoner was innoncent and only there because they were educated, were deemed 'middle class' or had fallen into Pol Pots paranoid gaze. However, it seems you cannot find a Cambodian who is alive today who did not lose a relative in those 4 years (1975 - 1979). Afterwards, we went to the infamous "Killing fields'. The first thing that struck about the place, is the silence. Our guide took us to the various graves, where people would be executed depending on your age and sex. The mass genocide that occurred there was of such a scale, that as we walked we were coming accross bits of human bone that had not yet been collected. A horrifying, yet dramatic sight, is the tower of skulls of some of the people that were executed. Despite all these indicators of the scale of the atrocities, I certainly found it difficult comprehending the level of death that occurred at this place. Unsurprisingly, no one was in the mood to talk on our bus back to the hotel.

The following day, we had a long bus journey to the coastal town of Sihanoukville. After settling into our lovely hotel, we all went down to the nearby beach to have a look. The beach has a plethora of bars on it and would be great, were it not for the hordes of people (mostly kids) trying to sell you stuff. That in itself would not be too bad if they left you alone after you said no, but my goodness, many of them are persistent, cheeky little buggers. So after our not so relaxing afternoon at the beach, Kevin (our guide) had arranged for us to go for dinner in a local Cambodians home. The meal was delicous, and you certainly would not get the chance to have dinner in a private home unless on a tour similar to ours, and with a guide like ours. The following day we took an hours journey to a different, much more secluded beach. The weather was awesome, and we all embraced it (maybe all a little too much) by sunning ourselves on the beach or having a wee game of football. It was topped off by having a delicous grilled lunch right there on the beach. We then were taken to a nearby large waterfall to frollick in the water. I felt like I was in 'Last of the Mohicans' standing in in the cave behind the water, as it thundered an inch above my head. Afterwards we went to a nearby Pagoada which gang of cheeky monkeys seemed to be the caretakers of. They are certainly not as cuddly as the movies make out, and we all had to keep our distance from them, for fear of getting bitten.

That night, the group went down to one of the beachside bars for dinner and cocktails. After dinner, we walked along the beach to another bar. The drinks were flowing and all of us were trying to show off our best dance moves. After a few hours, some were ready to go back to the hotel, but the other half of us were up for continuing the night, so walked to a pub in town. The night was excellent, but in the pictures from that night you can certainly see we had spent the day in the sun, as we are all glowing red!

The next day, we woke up very bleary eyed and unfortunately had an 8 hour bus journey to the Cambodia/Vietnam border. After reaching the border and completing the usual formalities, we stepped foot on Vietnam soil for the first time. As we boarded the bus for the hour journey to our first hotel of Vietnam, I had time to reflect on the short, yet fantastic time I had had in Cambodia. Without a doubt, it had been a great start to the tour; it remained to be seen whether 'Nam' good equal Cambodia, let alone surpass it.

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