Okay, so 10 days since the last entry and most of that I have spent in a whole new country so think its time for another blog update. So after 3 weeks dashing around Thailand, Mark finally headed back off back to Liverpool and the daily grind leaving me on my own in Bangkok. Although we'd had a few good days in the city to be honest I couldn't wait to get out of there. Its busy, noisy, smelly, dirty and breathing the air can make you feel pretty sick so I was happy to head off early the next morning (even with minimal sleep and a pretty sore head) to Koh Chang, an Island to the east near the border which would be our last stop in this stint in Thailand. Met up with the others no problem and spent the next 3 days chilling out on a beautiful beach and not doing much else. It was great. Out hostel (which was painted in bright blues, reds and yellows and essentially made out what I imagine was mostly driftwood) was a set of treehouse type things which which literally came out of the forest and onto the beach. Less than 20 steps to the sea I'd say! Anyway, Koh Chang was amazing but not much else to report and so on the 3rd night we arranged our trip to go over the border into Cambodia.
The trip didn't start well the early the next morning as in the intervening hours Lisa had managed to lose the one scribbled receipt/ticket which was for all 4 of us, but we somehow blagged it and headed off on our way. The trip was fairly uneventful bar messing around at the border for a while sorting out our visas while being constantly pestered by people trying to sell you stuff or generally just beg. This, it would turn out, is representitive of all of Cambodia. After a quiet night in the border town of Ko Kong we headed off to our first stop, the beach resort of Sionokville. Similar in some senses to Thailand except that you can't chill out there for more than 1 or 2 muinutes at a time before a local comes up to you for money. Its mostly little kids (7 or 8 years old) selling fruit, who wont take no for an answer, even when you have already got some fruit which you brought from the previous one 30 seconds before. Their English is really good and if you say no thank you its always "Why? Why not? Okay, I'll come back later then you must buy" (they then stick out their little finger saying, promise, promise, making you swear you will) Its really tricky seeing all these kids working like that, as well as a stream of beggers with missing limbs, so although it was a quite a nice place it was hard at the same time.
This is generally the vibe for all of Cambodia, much less underdeveloped than Thailand and although its trying to offer essentially the same thing its set against a backdrop of extreme poverty, and children out of school begging on the street or selling books and trinkets. Without getting stupidly cheesy, it does make you reaslise how ridiculosy lucky we are in England... (especially if you live in Leeds - lucky people!)
Anyway, moving on. After 3 days in Sionukville we took a bus north to the capital Phnom Penh (which is where I am now) Similar to, but not as big or built up as Bangkok, (which as I said is representive of all of Cambodia) its again a dusty and polluted city, with an unbelieveable amount of little 'Moto' bikes driving around, they probably out number the cars by at least 10 to 1, maybe more. I have pics but internet here is too slow to upload them right now.
Yesterday we visited S21, which is the detention centre in the city where thousands of people were held by the Khmer Rouge in the mid to late 70's when Cambodia had be taken over and was undergoing "revoloution." What happened to the people there was so so horrible and I'm not going to talk about it here, you shuold look it up if your interested. After they were held there for a while they were taken out of town to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (where we went today) where the mass genocide of thousands and thansands of Cambodians took place (most of them were the educated people like teachers/doctors/professors etc) Again, it was a chilling place to visit but remarkable too. The memorial garden which is there now is so tranquil and serene its nearly impossible to imagine what was happening there only 30 years ago except that you can see the thousands of human skulls on display as a reminder and allowing people to pay their respects. I couldn't really bring myself to take any pictures of this place but its not something I'm going to forget.
Right, bringing things to a close (and I realise now I have written probably my longest entry so thanks for sticking with me if you have) We also visited the grand palace today which was nice, many ornate bulidings and photo ops so a generally good trip. Tonight is our 3rd night in Phnom Penh and in my entire time away so far (which is a month to the day!) I am yet to stay anywhere for more than 3 nights, however we have no plans to leave tomorrow so this will be the longest I have stayed anywhere yet. Our next stop will be the Templors of Angkor which I can't wait for, so as always, thanks for reading and I'll speak to you soon!
So this is my travel blog. Thanks for coming and having a look. Over the next few months there should be entries from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Bourneo and Hong Kong - so hopefully some good pictures!... full info
Joe
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Sounds awesome man, booking my tickets to canada today! :) Miss ya man.