Cambodians Capital

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Hello everyone,

So we have not entered a blog for a while and we are currently sat at Changi airport (having just had swim in the rooftop pool) waiting to fly to Medan in Sumatra as we start the Orangutan volunteer programme tomorrow. So in a way part of our trip has come to an end and we start another adventure which is going to be hard work (and yes we are getting worried!) and we will not be able to contact the email or use the phone as far as we can tell. So we thought we would write quickly and say Hello. No pictures on this blog at the moment as we cannot download on these machines...but we will add planty when we finish the volunteer programme.

So we moved from Siam Reap to Phonm Penh and enjoyed 2 days there, trying to fit in all the sights. We visted the 'Killing Fields' and 'S21' which are the places where many Cambodians were held in nprison, tortuered and then murdered by brute forse. This was all part of the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Campaign which was a sick campaign by the leader (Pol Pot) to cleanse the Cambodians. The victimes included men, women and children and often whole families. It turned both our stomachs and made us feel very angry and amazed to think that this happened only 25 ish years ago. In fact (being older than most of you!) the Blue Peter appeal for aid to help the Camdoians who had fled when the famine stuck after the campaign of terror was finally stopped. Worth seeing just as a reminder how sick humans can be. And I suppose that is the reason they have these places as museums and as a memorial to all the victims. Really heartbreaking.

There are also lots of beggar children at all the tourist sites and they speak brilliant english and probably many other languages too! Waste of talent really. One such bunch tried to get money of us when we were leaving the National museum (beautiful building with many artefacts from the Temples of Angkor and other arty type things but did not interest us much in all honesty!). The children were begging for money and it is not encouraged as the government are trying to ensure the children gain an eductaion rather than work on the streets. When we refused to give money (we had given pens to previous children) one of them started to pull James's leg hair (I don;t think they had seen blonde hairy legs before!) and then they slapped me! Charming!

We then flew on the 28th Feb to Vietnam and the capital Hanoi. We will write in more deatil on the next blog but after arriving in Hanoi we spent 2 nights there, headed to Halong Bay for an overnight boat cruise and then headed on the bus to Hoi Ann for a night and then 2 nights but one day in Saigon where we manged to meet up with Jord and Brittany from Canada and sink some beers. Some funny pictures of that evening to come next time we blog but that be in a few weeks.

Oh yes and just to let you all know, in case you did not already Mum/Dads dog Megan had 6 pups on the 2nd March all doing well. Well done Megan! Cathie you are next with a human baby! :-)

Hope you are all well, take care and reply and let us know how you all are. Clarey Bird Thompson happy birthday for the 4th March (sorry this is late) and Robert Clark Happy 30th birthday for the 13th March!

Loadsa Luv Cinders and James X

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Photos

Pictures of the victims
These pictures were taken of the prisoners before they were tortured. Made us feel really sick looking at these.

Torture chambers at S21
These rooms were used to hold captive influential people within cambodia. They were tied to the beds with iron manackles and beaten. The picture on the wall is a picture of a prsioner being tortured. Truly horrifying.