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Published: March 5th 2006
Well I've had a very eventful time since my last blog.
As I said on my last entry the next day I was due to see the sights. I'd organised for transport to take me to the places i wanted to go and was with 2 Swedish guys who were pretty cool. We started off at a shooting range as we'd all said we wanted to fire guns. I got 30 bullets with an Ak47 and 8 with a handgun, it was fun to do, but no-one has to worry, I'm a shit shot. They offered me the chance to shot a chicken, but I couldn't even hit a target, so if the thing was moving I'd stand no chance. The Swedish guys fired Uzi's which was cool.
Glad we'd started the day there as after the stuff I saw next I don't think I could have fired the guns. We next went to the killing fields. There isn't that much there actually. There's a monumnet in the middle, it has the skulls and clothes of the people that had been found in the graves. That was pretty soberring to see. The graves were really small though, maybe 3-4meters square, considering hundreds of bodies were found in them. As you walk round there's stuff to read about what happened and it's so terrible, the regime there makes the Nazi's look ok.
After the killing fields we were taken to SL21, it's a school that was converted into the main Kehmer Rouge prison for political prisoners, it's no a museum. It was a very strange place to be and I felt physically sick going around the place. There's lots of pics of the prisoners and you told what happened to them. Out of about 10,000 people that were inprisoned there, 7 survied. The place must have beem so horrible, as you went road you can see and go in the cells that were used for torture, they still have the beds in and some of the tools used to torture people. If you wanted to do something you had to ask the gaurds or were beaten, this included changing position in your sleep. I think that's what got me the most about the place, there seemed to be no logic, no reason to why people were there or what was happening to them it was just evil. Most of the people were Kehmer Rouge, but had been accused of working against the government in. All it took was 1 person to say something about you and that was it, you were taken for questioning and didn't comeback. The cells they were kept in were there to and again they were just brick built rooms 6x2 ft, can't imagine how horrible it is and when you see photo's of the prisoners, you can see the horror and fear on there faces, these are little kids to. I think the worse thing was that sometimes kids would be taken there as there parents had been accused of something the kids were made into the gaurds and would be taught the most evil and sadistic things and would then tourture there parents.
This had all taken place in the morning, so after lunch, and I didn't have the biggest appetite after what I'd seen, we went to the National Museum. It wasn't to most intresting museums, unless you like Buddha, they had lots of statues of him, in fact that's pretty much all they had. For the final part of the day we saw the Royal Palace, it was pretty impressive, but there wasn't too much to see and it was about 35 degrees, we'd been out all day so were pretty fed-up by this point and didn't stay too long.
That eve was pretty chilled, just had dinner and some beers with one of the Swedish guys. I was going to have a "Happy Pizza," but had to be up early the next day to get a bus to Sien Reap, so thought it may not be the best idea. So next morning I had another bus journey, this time just 6 hours so it wasn't to bad. When I got to Sien Reap the bus terminal was crazy, it was full of motorbile taxis and tuk-tuks wanting to take you to a hotel, the police had cane's and were beating them back so we could get of the bus.
I didn't do much the 1st night in Sien Reap, there wasn't much to do. I arranged to go to see Angor Wat, a group of temples and the driver said he'd take me in the eve for the Sunset as the ticket is still valid the next day, so that was about all I did. It was very impressive though.
Next day I was up early again to go back to see somemore temples. The guide books recommend 3 days there even a week, everyone I spoke to said a day and they're right. Unless you are mad about temples, once you've seen 3 or 4 they all blurr into one, although it was good and i did enjoy myself, just too many Korean and Japanese tourists. After being taken around the temples all day i wasa pretty knackered and just chilled at the hotel bar, the Swedish guys from before tuned up to so chilled with them as again I had another bus journey the next day, this time to Thailand.
The bus journey to Thailand was pretty horrendous. I'd been told the roads were bad, but so far they'd not been crate, some potholes, but most were tarmac. The road from Sien Reap to the border isn' a road, it's just a dirt track and it took 7hrs in the sweltering heat to get there not fun. I was very glad to see a nice A/C bus at the other end a a proper road, the journey to Bangkok was bliss. So that eve I get to the famous or infamous Koh San Rd.
The Koh San Road is pretty cool, very busy and loads going on from the bars to vendors in the street, but my first job was to get a hotel, the problem is they gop very quickly so I ended up staying in a bit of a hole. It was very basic and the worse place I'd stayed, but I didn't have much choice and would have to find somewhere better the next day. Luckily I met a guy in the bar who was aso on his own so we decided to get a room together as it would work out cheaper, which was good as got a pretty good room.
I'll be brief about Bangkok as didn't really do much, a bit a shopping, a lot of drinking and a Ping Pong ball show. It had to be don as I was in Bangkok, but it was very weird to see the ladies and the tricks they could do. It was strange to as there were lots of girls there and couples, think you hear about it and people want to go and see just what happens. It wasn't that great the, just more intruging. The Tuk-Tuk ride there was better, well scarier, the guys are crazy.
That brings me to today. My plan was to get up early go to the airport and fly to Koh Samui and then get the boat to Koh Toh, sadly I went out last nigh again with the Swedish guys and the guy I was sharing a room and after the Ping Pong show we didn't get in until 5am, that meant I didn't get up untill 11.30am so didn't get to the airport till 1.30pm. Luckily there's loads of flights so I didn't have to wait long.
Koh Samui airport is interesting, it consists of a runway and some wood huts and that's about it. When I got there I asked about getting the boat to Koh Toh and was told I'd missed it, this meant I know had to try and get somewhere to stay in Samui, the problem is it was about 4pm and all the budget stuff had gone, so sadly I'm paying over 10 pound for a beach hut, it's ok, but not great, well cobsidering you can get them for about 3. It is only for 1 night as tomorrow I got to Koh Toh for 4 days and learn to dive, it sounds pretty cool as whale sharks have been spotted in the place I'll learn.
As I have another early start tomorrow I'll have to end this now. Hope your all good and will update you on my diving soon. Ade.
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Mike Strutter
non-member comment
Blue Whales are no longer gonna be the largest animal in the ocean, eh ade??