Cambodia

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Due to our limited time remaining to get down to Singapore in time for our flight to Australia we decided we would only spend one week in Cambodia. This tuned out to be plenty of time for us to do the things we wanted to, but it would have been nice to have a little longer so we could could have explored the country more. It definately seemed that Cambodia still has a lot to offer and the people are very friendly, considering everything they have been through.

Our bus trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh involved me sitting next to some Chinese guy. Nice enough, btu turned out he didn't have a clue about anything that had happened in Cambodia in the last 35 years or so. With my basic knowledge and the help of the lonely planet i tried to explain who Pol Pot was, the Khmer Rouge and what they did to their own people, S-21 and the Killing Fields. In the end i gave up.

We arrived in the capital and found a guest house. We strolled around that evening and ventured down to the river where we had dinner. Turned out to be lots of kids selling stuff and lots of amputees, which was quite hard to ignore but if you buy something form one then they flock to you.

Our only full day in Phnom Penh started early with a walk to S-21. Previously a high school, the Khmer Rouge turned it into their main prison where people were sent for re-education. Thsi was a very eye opening and sobering experience. We watched a documentary that followed real experiences from within the prison and then walked around the cell blocks. These contained anything and evrything, from torture equipment, photos, accounts of what happened, skulls. It was pretty horrific to see all this especially as it was only 35 years ago!

We left and had lunch in an attenpt to smile again. Lunch had the desired effect and then we were off agin. We hired a tuk tuk and headed off to The Killing Fields. These are some of the mass graves where prisoners from S-21 were taken to be executed. It contains a large monument to the thousands of victims. Inside the monument, thousands of skulls and bones that have been excavated are piled up to remeber the victims. There were lots of grave sites, not all of which have been excavated yet. The most haunting thing about this visit was hearing the children from the local school playing just beyond the site.

That night we watched Man U play Arsenal at the Foreign Correspondents Club and as a result of us liking football they gave us happy hour prices on beer all night. We cashed in!

We left the next day for Siem Reap where we planned to see Angkor Wot and the other temples there. We arrived in the middle of a powercut and were shown to our room via a mobile phone light. Our guest hous ewas pretty sweet, cheap beer, free internet (slowest ever), pool and a roof top bar and restaurant. We met soem people that night and headed into town. We came to what we thought was a nightclub with flashing lights and loud music so we headed in. Turned out to specialise in massage and other 'exotic' activities. We stayed and danced, making use of the poles scattered around, before curiosity got the better of a few of us and we ventured through a door labelled 'Massage Kareoke'. Eventually we tracked down a kareoke room and we set up camp for the night. this was great fun, however the girl attendant we had was not best pleased with our singing voices at 3 in the morning. Next day was a wash out.

The following day we had booked a tuk tuk to pick us up at 5 am to go to the temples for sunrise. We arrived and the sunrise was a non event so we were all kicking ourselves for getting up so early. We spent half the day being driven around a numbe rof the main temples. Angkor Wot was very impressive as were many of the other temples. We visited one still covered by the jungle that they used in Tomb Raider. After 8 hours of temples and sweating ridiculous amounts we headed back. When visiting the temples you get a lot of attention form young kids selling you things. This was actually quite entertaining bu ttiring by the end. They just dont understand NO!

Spent the next day chilling out in Siem Reap before heading off the next day, back to Thailand and the islands!

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