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Published: January 9th 2007
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We wrote a massive long blog for Cambodia but somehow it crashed so here we go again. We were in Cambodia for nearly 3 weeks and absolutely loved it. The place is amazing with a very interesting yet tragic history and amazingly friendly people. We first arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. The first thing that amazed us was just how many mopeds were on the road - thousands with a few tuk-tuks and a couple of cars. The secong thing was just how many people or how much stuff they could carry round on a moped - we saw 5 people on one! The third was how chaotic the roads were with people going about in all directions but there seems to be some method to the madness as miraculously we never saw any crashes or accidents. We went to the National Museum, the Grand Palace and Silver Pagoda, some temples, the Killing Fields and S21 Genocide Museum. It was such a contrast to see such beautiful places and the horrors of the last two sites where some 22 thousand Cambodians were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. We won't go into it because it really
Is that Lara Croft bounding up that temple?
No, that's Kerry going up the steepest steps ever built. When you look down, it looks like a vertical drop. When we came down, our palms were sweating and our muscles were quivering!!!! is horrific and the images we saw there will never be forgotten. On a lighter note, we went to a hairdressers so Rich could get his mullet sorted out. Laughed, I nearly died, it was hysterical (look at the photo). Afterwards, to show off his lovely new haircut we went to the Foreign Correspondents Club which is quite posh to make the most of happy hour.
Our next stop was Sihanoukville, a smaller town on the coast which has a nice beach. We stayed there for a couple of days just lounging on the beach, swimming in the sea and having a Thai massage. Its a hard life this travelling lark so you have to just chill out once in a while! Then we went to Kampot wher we met a lovely local guy who teaches english at the local high school in the mornings and drives his moped round for tourists for a bit of extra money. He was so nice and so happy to meet 2 english people to help inprove his english that we both got on the back of his moped for a ride around the countryside. He was very chatty the whole way while
Rich makes a friend
This big fella took us for a ride around one of the temples Rich grimaced in pain on the very back because my feet were on top of his. We eventually came to the waterfall which was actually a very small rapid and the driver literally made Rich get in for a swim as little boys with spear guns swum around catching fish or the odd tourist perhaps. The next day we went to Bokor National Park in the back of a 4WD pick-up truck that kept overheating, had no brakes and the bumper fell off. But that was no problem as went up a mountain on the worst road imaginable for 2 hours bouncing around like Tigger the whole time. At one point, we went over a massive bump and Rich headbutted me quite hard by accident, well, that's what he says anyway. Eventually, we got to the old hotel and casino built in the 1920s by the French which was abandoned and then used by the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese armies. There are bullet holes in the once majestic hotel and it is quite an eerie place as the mist creeps up the mountain. Then it was back in the pick-up truck to downhill for another 2 hours but it was
a bit quicker going down - especially as we had no brakes!!!
We then headed north to Kratie where we went to see the river dolphins. They are quite shy animals but we saw quite a few and met a crazy Tasmanian girl who is about twice the height of us. On the way back from seeing the dolphins, we had the worst moment of our travels so far. The moped I was on run over a small puppy and I have never felt so guilty in my entire life even though I wasn't driving. Rich saw everything and we were quite down for the rest of the day.
We then headed to Siem Reap with the Tassie girl which is the base to explore the Temples of Angkor which were made extra famous by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. The first night we went out for dinner with our new friend who even by our standards was a massive drinker. Rich made it until 2am and I once again stayed out until 5ish after a lot of wine and tequila. The next day was a write off as I spent the whole day in bed whilst Rich
went out and bought me some birthday pressies for the next day. On my birthday, we got up at 4.30am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat which was amazing except for the several other hundred tourists there. We spent the day looking around different temples and went on an elephant ride where Kerry was terrified. The next 2 days we spent visiting the temples as there are quite a few and by lunchtime, it was way too hot to be walking around. It is also very dusty here and everday when we got back we were covered in a layer of bright red dust from head to toe.
Our final stop here was a town called Battambang where we had a cookery class. First of all we went to the market to buy the ingredients. Thankfully, we didn't have to buy any deep-fried spiders, deep-fried chicken heads, skinned frogs or things we do not even want to know what they are!! We made a curry, a stir-fry and a soup and got to eat it all afterwards which was very nice - even Rich's dishes! We also went out twice with 2 local guys who are studying english
on their mopeds around the local villages. We saw how they make rice wine, spring rolls and sticky rice and went on the bamboo train. This is literally made of some bamboo, some wheels and a small engine that can be taken apart in a minute should a real train come along!
Sorry that it has taken so long to put this blog on and we have been a bit slack at sending emails. There was a massive undersea earthquake and landslide near Taiwan that severed some undersea cables so access has been pretty bad lately! Until next time chaps, take care.
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Mo
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hey guys, good job going up those steps i got stuck for half an hour casue wwas too chicken too come down-and i didn't my lucozade or my lara croft outfit on so.. Hope you having fun. Back at work.its shit. worse than fish head soup. take care xx