From horror to hairy to bliss and back to nasties

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Breakfast at our hotel was fantastic. Andy had bacon and sausage so he was over the moon, Claire and Helen enjoyed their pancakes and I got exactly what I was hoping for which was congee. What better way to start the day!


Sustenance was needed for what was to follow as we headed out to the Killing Fields. Let's get some educating done for those that don't know. They have so far dug up the graves of 1.7m victims of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. They believe that up to 3m people were actually killed though out of a then population of 8m. The current population of Cambodia over the age of 18 is just 40% which shows just how many people were slaughtered. And I do mean slaughtered as bullets were expensive (equal to two bowls of rice) so they beat people with sticks instead; after they had tortured them.

Anyone who was anything but a farmer was killed as educated people were considered a threat to the government. It was all done in secret and pretend evacuations were really to separate families so they could be killed separately and use their family ties to ensnare the rest.

Our guide lost 16 members of his family and, as an 8 year old boy, was made to toil in the fields all day collecting buffalo dung for a meagre 'payment' of a watery bowl of rice. Somehow though he manages to take people around these places without being too biased when I'm sure he is. He should be.

And all the time the perpetrators of these crimes mostly get away with them. Pol Pot died just three days before his trial was about to start but he'd got away with it for twenty years. Two leaders have been prosecuted, two are are still on trial but some....are still in government today!! And calling yourself the Democratic Party is appallingly shameful before we even begin with the atrocities perpetrated.

So we started at the killing fields where the monument contains skulls and bones piled high of the victims. And then there are mass graves, some containing hundreds andpotentially thousands of victims. These people had been taken from prison between 9 and 10 at night and beaten to death while music was played to drown out their screams. There's a tree where they beat children and graves where they slung babies.

Our guide book said there may be times when teeth and bones rise to the surface, and they did. Clothes as well....and you're walking on the bones of the slaughtered innocents....and it's awful. And I was worried about taking pictures but then the pictures will educate people and people need to know what happened because the same things are happening today. And they need to stop.

This all happened in my lifetime which is a dreadful thought as well. Next stop was the prison where the innocents were kept shackled in filthy conditions and tortured before they were taken to the killing fields. Tiny cells and then walls of pictures of some of the victims and some of the Khmer Rouge soldiers as well. Some of whom will still be alive today. And at the end, in this prison hell, only seven people were found alive; two of whom were there today selling their books.

There were pictures of the victims too how they were found, malnutritioned, skeleton like and still shackled. It wasn't a pleasant morning but it is important to have these places so the memories of the victims live on and we teach people the evil that man is capable of in the the vain hope that these things will never happen again.


After that sobering start to the day our next visit was to Wat Phnom which is the main worship place of the Cambodians. Nicely decorated and with a tree full of fruit bats visible it is well worth a visit. You can even take pictures inside where the wonderful smells of Buddhist temples is a nasal treat.


Next stop was Spiderville!


Our itinerary said we would have the chance to try deep fried tarantula so vegetarians and the squeamish....look away now.....
Spiderville was actually a market where the wares were various small creatures deep fried. And pride of place was taken by piles and piles of deep fried tarantula with accompanying cockroaches, frogs, crickets, slow worms and grasshoppers.


So yes, I had to try something and, after having a live tarantula crawl up my hand, it was time to try the deep fried variety. Cameras were snapping as I was the only one brave/daft enough to try. I followed it with a couple of crickets and a grasshopper and, to be honest, they all tasted the same. That being of not much. Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity though but I won't be rushing out to find a supplier at home.


The restaurant we stopped at next sold dogmeat omelette. I opted for the local stew which was lovely and tasty. No-one had the dog.


Three hours later we arrived in Kompong Thom where we would spend the night. On the journey, houses were one storey of living space which was the second storey of the house. Some of these were really high so it shows how bad the flooding must get at times. (Sorry I later found out that the houses were built that way for luck....?!)


I also saw a man waist deep in a pond herding hundreds of ducks. Again, you don't see that every day.


The hotel had a pool and the water was just the right temperature so we all piled in for a refreshing dip. Lovely. By the way, whoever had day 7 of which day I would get ill, you win! It's only a bit of diarrhoea at the moment but I reckon it still counts so collect your winnings from bet365. Oh, and this started before the spider episode....in case you were wondering!

I think it's time we had a chat about organised tours/trips as this is the first time I've ever done this. I usually sort most things once I get to a country and maybe have day trips or two or three day tours whilst there. Never have I given over two weeks of my life to a travel company so how are they doing? Fine actually.

There is no way we could have seen and done all we have done so far in such a short space of time if we'd done it independently. When I was travelling round the world, time didn't matter but when you only have two weeks holiday time is of the essence. The transport has been varied which is good, the hotels have been good to great, the included food has been excellent and the things we've seen have been amazing. There are only six of us in our group which is brilliant oh and our guides so far have done a good job and been very informative.

I would never have contemplated doing a holiday like this previously as it seems like cheating to me but we aren't in some fancy coach being fed whatever Western food we desire thankfully. We're seeing stuff and getting around and so, so far, I'd even consider doing something like this again.

Anyway, after a bit of a rest, we went down for dinner in a fancy looking dining room. The food was quite bland but the worst thing was the amount of various bugs in there. The lampshades were half full with dead bugs, they were crawling across the floor and the table and I felt like I was being eaten alive. When I got back to the room and saw huge cockroaches in the bathroom I was even less enamoured with the place. At time of writing there is something incessantly chirruping outside our room that almost sounds like an alarm going off it's that loud. I guess it could be a cricket the size of a tuk tuk come to get revenge on me for chomping on his mate earlier. Justice I guess.

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