Blogs from Phnom Penh, South, Cambodia, Asia - page 5

We have planned a day sightseeing in Phnom Penh today. We start with a visit to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. In a site a few miles out of town are the mass graves of up to 20,000 victims of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. An audio tour takes you round the site of the graves. Some have been excavated, leaving huge dents in the ground, others left untouched, meaning bone fragments and teeth are randomly scattered around. The tour finishes at a memorial to the victims, which contains over 5000 skulls. After this, we move on to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This former school became a prison during Pol Pot’s regime. The 4 main buildings can be visited. Building A was used for interrogation. Each former classroom contains a bed. Just before the regime was ... read more

It was now time to head back to the frenetic city of Phnom Penh. Once again, I arrived at that swelteringly hot bus station, but this time I had available funds and cash to burn. The tuk tuk whizzed through the city streets. Well actually, it mostly sat stalled in the midst of belching traffic. I realized that I was no longer in the peaceful side of Cambodia. I hoped my body and mind had recovered enough for what lay ahead. I was staying at the Vacation Boutique Hotel in downtown Phnom Penh. After stocking up at the local convince store for snacks and supplies I retired to my room to rest up for the night. At around 9pm I decided it was time to venture out into the awaiting darkness. The first bar I stopped ... read more

So I ran out of steam blogging in Phnom Penh, you may be relieved to note, mainly because we didn’t do much, didnt like it much (for the second time) and I didn’t feel too great for 24 hours of it. Sam was ok with the hostel, but for me I was at the edge of ok-ness. We will not be staying at the Lucky Gecko again. The room only had a window onto the corridor, this was a bit noisy but not too much of a problem, and there were no bedbugs as I thought there might be but the sheets were covered in stains. They had been washed but were still very off putting and the bathroom was horrible. The bath mat made your feel black when stepped on with wet feet, the grout ... read more

Our first trip to Cambodia was in 2004, but we only visited Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. So we thought it was about time that we revisited and saw the rest of the country. Mention Cambodia and most people will associate the country with Pol Pot and the Killing Fields. Pol Pot was a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During that time, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork. It seemed fitting that after arriving in the capital of Phnom Penh we went to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. In just this one small area outside of the capital it was almost unthinkable to imagine that to date nearly 9,000 corpses have been exhumed. Scattered everywhere about ... read more

Day 8 Phnom Penh Not the best hotel I have ever been in but we must acknowledge that we are in Cambodia and off the tourist track. The room Roger and I were given was on the front and extremely noisy with traffic, smelt of bad fish, loose wires everywhere and filthy with grit on the floor under the windows. There was also a void going down to ground floor level behind the wardrobe echoing noises from below. The windows were also absolutely filthy And I had to fix the toilet seat to stop it floating around. Dire. We asked to move and got a family room with two large double beds after much hard bargaining. The beds were very comfortable and slept well despite being woken at 2am with lorries passing by blowing their horns. ... read more