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Published: November 12th 2008
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We took the bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh and as soon as we crossed the border it was easy to see we are in a new country. Thinking back, we realized how comfortable life was in Vietnam compared to Cambodia. It's much poorer here, and it's more apparent how much the people have suffered. Although there were about a million people selling things in Vietnam, we never saw a person just begging for money. But here, there are people everywhere just asking for money, most of them have obvious deformities from landmine accidents, so it was a big change for us to experience this. When we first got to Phnom Penh we only stayed one night, at a super cheap hostel. Before we went to bed we put a roll of toilet paper between our beds in case we needed to blow our noses. In the morning it was gone, so we were a bit confused but didn't think anything of it. Then when I went to get my backpack out of the corner of the room I saw the roll. I picked it up but it had been pulled through a hole in the wall and
was stuck... so there must have been a rat in our room that came and pulled the roll across the room and up into it's little hole. so we peaced out of there pretty quick. Although we did see an elephant walk down a main street in PP so that was pretty cool.
We grabbed a bus to Sihanoukville, 4 hours south, right on the coast. It probably had the best vibe out of any city we'd been to, except maybe Nha Trang. Two of Jac's friends from St. FX were there with a bunch of people they were teaching english with in Korea so it was awesome to hangout with them. We stayed at a guesthouse right by Serendipity Beach. It's this small bay filled with restaurants and bars. At night all the restaurants set up chairs on the beach, and have BBQs, its incredible. so beautiful and relaxed. Went out for Halloween, dressed as Lifeguards. Two local girls took me into town to buy arm floaties and whistles. They couldn't speak english, but one spoke french so that's how we communicated. Tons of girls and women spend their days selling everything you can imagine on the beach..
bracelets, headbands, sarongs, fruit, springrolls, lobster, massages, pedicure, manicures. But they get a bit aggressive. We made friends with a few who would always hang out with us a bit during the days so we got to learn about their life and families, which was really cool. We really liked Sihanoukville and it was hard to leave because we got so comfortable there, but we did have something bad that happened. One night Jac's purse was stolen. EVERYTHING was in it.. passport, ipod, camera, money, visas, etc. But we went back to the place we were at that night the next morning and they'd found her purse on the beach. Someone had stolen her ipod, camera and money. But thankfully not her passport, otherwise we would have been stuck in Cambodia for the next 3 weeks! Anyways Jac bought a new camera when we got back to PP, so now she's on her 4th camera this trip!
So we headed back to PP and got a great guesthouse this time. We went to the S-21 Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields to learn about the genocide that happened in Cambodia in the 1970s under the Khmer Rouge. The S-21
used to be a school, turned in a prison that held 20,000 prisoners. It was so sad to see. Apparently only 7 people survived S-21. All sorts of torture techniques were used on the prisoners, it was hard to see some of the rooms. The Killing Fields were where prisoners were taken to be executed and was a mass burial ground. There is a large memorial building full of rows of skulls. Nearly 2 milllion Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Needless to say it was an overwhelming day.
We went to the main local market the next day, which was surprisingly clean aside from a few putrid smells. They sell everything from produce and meat to kitchenware and electronics.
We took the bus up to Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor. Somewhere between the 9th and 13th century Cambodian "god-kings" built hundreds of temples here. The temples were discovered by French explorers in the 1800s, and now a world wonder. Last night we went to the Phnom Bakheng temple for sunset. It was beautiful, although packed with tourists. We got up at 4:30 this morning to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the most impressive
temple. It is absolutely incredible. We also saw a few other temples, each incredible in their own way. Bayon has faces carved amongst the rock staring down at you. Ta Prohm is slowly being overgrown by nature, trees have grown right through the stone.
Cambodia was great, but we're definitely ready for something new. Tomorrow were off to Bangkok, so i'll put up more in a few weeks. Lots of love x
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Eric Proulx
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Sounds like your having alot of fun, and learning alot about the history of Indo-China. I found the tounge picture really funny for some reason and laughed in class when I saw it... strange.