Blogs from Cambodia, Asia - page 783

11.07.06 We had a bit of a lay in this morning until 9am. The 4 of us then headed off for a day of shopping! First stop was Psar Tuol Tom Pong, the russian market. It was ok, we bought another christmas pressie and a little something for ourselves, but the pathways are so narrow and it's so hot in there that after an hour or 2 we had to get out into some fresh air. As it had been a long walk to the market we treated ourselves to a tuk tuk ride to Psar O Russei, another market where they sold mainly electrical goods but also they had the food section. There were lots of live chickens, ducks and geese. I say live, they were very deffinitely not doing so well. Time for lunch ... read more

Booked a tuc-tuc driver (Wei) for our 3-day jaunt of Angkor Wat temples (thanks to Andy for the tip!), and for $10 a-day, we had our own personal chauffeur who dutifully carted us all over Siem Riep and the Angkor complex in the pimp-mobile chariot with white faux-leather seats! God bless Wei, but we worked him hard, with sunrises and sunsets, plus lunchtime trips back to town for some cold fruit shakes. The begging in Angkor was possibly the worst I have seen to date, with children mobbing you thrusting trinkets in your face or worse, just following you, tugging at your hand and clothes, whining "one dollllaaaar, give me moneeeeeey". The saddest sight was watching a policeman who was keeping watch at one of the temples trying to sell his Police Badge to tourists as ... read more

Sunday 9th July Paul - Had a nice day in bed as I was ill. I bet you all really wanted to know that. We were thinking of catching the bus to Bangkok tomorrow but we decided against that now as I didn't really want to be needing to go 'poo' in the middle of a 12 hour bus journey. Hold that sexy thought... Laura - I'd just like to add a little message to Mark here. I hold you fully responsible for Paul's illness as when I spoke to you on the phone the other day the first thing you asked was "have you got the shits yet?". CLEARLY you tempted fate. Paul - Felt better by the end of the day and we went to get something to eat. The children here really are ... read more

So today we were going to do the main things people come to Phnom Penh to do, the Killing Fields and S21. So not a happy day of fun ahead. After breakfast the 4 of us (Andy, Kylie, Jon and myself) walked to S21, Toul Sleng Museum. Straight away we were hounded by tuk tuk drivers, motos and beggers showing off their missing limbs and burnt faces. For those of you who don't know what this museum is I, Melissa, shall tell you. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. Pol Pot, the guy in charge, wanted to make it a communist country so everybody was equal, but still there became 2 classes, everyone and the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot abolished all money, all food and put the calender to year 0 and wanted to ... read more

Alright everyone... attached below are some more pics of the Angkor temples, as well as a few pics from my days in Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia). As you can see from the pictures, the Angkor temples were truly amazing.. (note: i visited about 12-15 different temples/sites.. and so i don't remember where i took some of the pictures).. also. as you can see from the pictures.. even though phonm penh's recent history is very dark, the country, and the city itself has changed drastically over the past 3 decades.. as evident by the ability for foreigners to pay a small amount of money to fire crazy weapons. Rocket Launcher was on the menu (no joke), but, i couldn't quite afford that much, so I had to settle for the 47.... read more