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Published: December 11th 2008
The tour group met in Bangkok for a 41 day tour around Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The first day involved crossing the border from Thailand and straight away you could see a marked contrast. Cambodia reminded me very much of Africa with its wooden houses and pot holed, muddy roads. Although this isn't typical of Cambodia and it has been suggested that the airlines are opposed to their tarmacking to encourage more air travel.
The first city was Siem Reap which has quickly developed into a major tourist stop servicing travellers to Angkor Wat. We had a very early start to catch Angkor Wat at sun rise, although now a veteran of temples this was one of the most impressive. The day continued with more temples and we visited Preah Khan which is the much viewed temple used in the Tomb Raider film. The temples look as if they have been abandoned as no repairs have been made and trees grow precariously on the top.
A second stop was Tonle Sap which is an inland lake that is serviced by the Mekong and covers 16,000km during the monsoon season. The lake supports over 3 million people and the
village floats to allow for the change in season and height of the water.
During the trip we had a few days to kick back on the beaches of Sihanoukville and two of us went diving for the day. The visit to Sihanoukville ended with a very damp passport due to a water incident my chances of getting into both Vietnam and Laos looked slim.
Phnom Penh
Cambodia has had a very dark past and was heavily bombed by the US towards the end of the Vietnam war, as well as being attacked by the Vietnamese. In 1973 Pol Pot 'liberated' Phnom Penh. the army quickly turned on the people who were evacuated from the cities to work in the fields as peasants. The peoples belongings were taken away and then to create a classless society anyone with an education were massacred in the 'killing fields'. S21 was a prison where people were interrogated and then sent to their execution. Every year the guards were changed as they had seen to much and many of them also ended up in the killing fields themselves. In total from 1975-9 it is believed that about 30 percent of
the population were killed and this explains why 50% of the population is under 17 years old.
Despite Cambodia's past the people that we encountered on the trip were very friendly and although they had relatively little the villagers looked very relaxed and happy.
The tour guide was exceptional on this trip, he started out as a tuk tuk driver and then went to university and now he is a guide as well as mentoring a local orphanage. This made a significant contribution to the Cambodian trip being a success.
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