Goodbye Vietnam, hello Cambodia

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Public bus today, to get across the border. So we were told we had to walk to the bus station, just round the corner, but our luggage would go by rickshaw. We walked and walked, not to the bus station, and it was obvious that our new "leader" didn't know were we were but assured us this park was the bus station, and no luggage. After 10 mins he talked to someone, and suddenly we had to hurry across the park, and there was the bus, we had to assume our luggage was on it.

3 hours later we got to the border, all our passports were taken off us on the bus, and we were led into cages within a warehouse! Had to stand in female and male lines and then waited for 40 mins. Suddenly they started calling names out and you were handed your passport and told to go -not sure what the segregated lines were for. 2 min bus journey and we were at the Cambodia warehous, but this time we were straight through, partly because we had already got Cambodia e-visas, but even those getting their visas there were through quickly. Then we had to have all our stamps and signatures checked, how they found this lady is a miracle, I bet she had never smiled in her life. She almost threw my passport at me because it was all in order, such disappointmen.

3 more hours and we arrived in Pnom Penh, hot, sweaty and tired. The riverfront here is full of bars and restaurants so we soon recovered with a cold beer. I was a bit taken aback by the hotel rules, such a classy joint!

Early next morning we went to the Genocide memorial at the Killing fields and then to the Tuol Sleng prison memorial. Didn't take photos, too shocking. Our Guide was 10 years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power, and in 4 years they estimated that 3 million Men, women and children were slaughtered.

His family had escaped to the jungle when his uncle was accused and then executed, and that meant they would then execute every relative they could find, so they ran. sometimes you just cannot comprehend the madness of mankind!

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