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Published: March 10th 2006
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Good day to you all from here in hot hot Cambodia. The last few days have been very humid and sticky, with temperatures reaching 32-33 degress. Sweat has enveloped my body like the plague as I reel off another perspiration-entrenched t-shirt. Ive started being a minger as I have been washing my tshirts in the shower (no washing powder), drying them and wearing them again the day after- bootiful!
So anyway, i follow on from my last blog when we arrived in Cambodia. From Kratie we took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital city, and found a beautiful hostel on the lakeside in the middle of the city. The little alleyway we stayed on was pertty dingey- full of either tuk tuk drivers or moto drivers harassing us for business, or Cambodian gangsters selling opium or weed to us at a knock-down price. Thankfully we werent persuaded by any of it (incuding the happy pizzas that have a layer of weed topping!).
The main reason for heading to the capital was to find more about Cambodians history, and the gruesome story of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. In Cambodia, between 1975-79 it is estimated nearly 2
milion people were murdered by this regime, in a frenzie that tried to rid Cambodia of all the educated people. Our first destimation was a school called S21, and was used as a torture camp smack bang in the middle of Phnom Penh. Here we saw the many 8000 faces (in a kind of photo gallery) that saw pain and torture in this concentration camp, and included people from all backgrounds- from educated students, professionals right through to people who just wore glasses. The classrooms were turned into small cells for individuals, or large cells of 30 people, all made to lie in silence on the hard floor.
The next destination were the killing fields, whereby the people from S21 and from other concentration camps were sent to be "exterminated". The location is about 15km from the centre, and involves an area of land that had mass graves- from people with no heads, to people with no clothes, to a childrens grave. By this one, a tree stood which was used by the Khmer Rouge guards to beat the children to death with mallets and such sort. Truly a gruesome thought. In all 8900 bodies have been found, and
a memorial has been made to commemorate this- showing all the skulls in a glass case. This is my first contact with genocide, and it does make me think how can man be so evil?!
So away from the disturbing scenes the day has produced, to the bars and the football (a bit of normality me thinks!). We ended up at a Cambodian nightclub where we danced the night away, until it was time to get back for the Barca-Chelsea match- dull gull!!
Phnom Penh is a city full of contrast- you have the relatively rich individuals, working and driving their motorbikes around, and then you have the dark poor side of the cpaital, with people and children constantly harassing you for money. Then you have the country's past with the above murderous regime of Pol Pot, in contrast to the beautiful sights I saw- the parks full of children feeding monkeys, families taking elephant rides and the magnificent royal buildings. However, the one thought that does set in my mind is that Phnom Penh is full of victims with lsot limbs- from arms to legs, to hands to feet. We saw one begger with one leg, no
Cambodian Traffic
Organised random chaos!!! Wrong way mate! arms and a face burnt to smitherines. And that was after we left S21- get us at our most weak eh???!!!
So anyway, we have left Phnom Penh and arrived in Siem Reep in north Cambodia- here we are planning to see the great Angkor Wat ruins, built between the 9th-13th centuries by the Khmer kings. Supposedly they are one of the great wonders of the world at present- we shall see!
In other news, will has had his camera and phone pickpocketed or knicked- the worse thing is he has lost all his photos. To compound this, my camera is buggered and wont turn on. So we will both be shopping for new stuff. Bully is joining us on Sunday and then its partay partay partay for a few weeks. We have so much travelling recently that im used to the odd 7hour bus journey.
Hope everyone is good back home and that this new site is breath of fresh air, and improves your day so much so it puts a smile on your face??!! Hakuna matata!
Jonny x
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schmane
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so much better!
hey hey jonny boy! first things first...u sound like some of my old history lecturers from uni....i thought these "blogs" were supposed to be funny...but no...u filled my head with historical facts and made me feel depressed by the sad stories! pretty harsh stuff though but im glad you are using you're time over there taking in some real culture! and it just solidifies my thinking that you will actually be a hippy when you get back home...in those distant months! not missing anything at home dude, keep on keeping us all posted!!