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Published: September 6th 2008
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Arrived in Cambodia on the 1st of Sept and went to Siem Reap. When we arrived at the airport had to get our visa sorted and i had left my passport photos in my luggage which i couldnt get to - fortunately however, this is still a fairly corrupt country and an extra 2 dollars meant i could pass through without a photo!!! Took a taxi to the town, the driver was very friendly at first until we refused to stay at his friend''s guesthouse at which point he basically dropped us off in the middle of nowhere!! Not exactly a great start, and then we were constantly asked if we wanted a tuk-tuk or a massage!! Finally found a decent guesthouse very centrally located and went for a walk round. Really like the city despite the hassle, although have parted with a lot of money as finding it very difficult to say no to the child beggers. It is so different to anywhere i have ever been before, there are so many very poor people, alot of them have limbs missing due to the landmines in the country. But there are also many nice bars and restuarants that are really
Jenny
Cambodian girl who came out with us every night! trendy, slowly the tourism industry is growing, but still many unemployed people as hard to find work and difficult to use alot of the land due to the landmine risk. It is estimated that there are still 3 million landmines in Cambodia and there is no record of their location so finding them is going to take a very long time.
The next morning Sak out tuk tuk driver for the day took us to the temples at Angkor. They are amazing, unfortunately only spent one day here but still blown away by them. The size of some of them is incredible especially when you consider that they were built in the 12th century. Angkor Wat, the main temple, is the largest of them all and is very impressive, especially as there was a mare and foal outside and I hadn't seen any horses since leaving the uk!! Some of the other temples have been overtaken by the jungle with large trees growing through them. I think it is somewhere that you could quite easily spend several days.
The only downside is the constant hassle from the children at the temples who are trying to sell you things, even
if you already have something then the 'same same but different' phrase comes into play!! I ended up with bracelets which are very pretty and a wooden flute!! Very random i know but the 6year old boy selling it would not give up and gave a good chase! Plus he knew far more about England than i did so it was worth it for the history lesson.
In the afternoon we went to the floating village which is just outside Siem Reap. It is very pretty with lots of houses on stilts all accros the water. We stopped to get some food in a hammock bar, which as the name suggests has no seats just hammocks. Joel ordered a roasted chicken and se got the whole thing including the neck and both the feet!! Our tuk tuk driver was very keen that we should save the neck for him - of course there were no arguments from me as i can not bare to eat meat from the bone, let alone the chicken's neck!!! OUr driver for the day cost us just 6quid plus the chicken's neck and a beer!!
The next day we went again by
tuk tuk to the Aki Ra landmine museum. Aki Ra is possibly one of the most amazing men i have ever heard of. He lost both his parents at the age of 5 and then at the age of 11 he was forced to join the Khmer Rouge. He does not know exactly what year he was born and his name was given to him only fairly recently by some Japenese journalists, as all his previous names had come from other Khmer Rouge and Vietnam soilders. After fighting with the Khmer Rouge he became excellent at laying landmines, he later joined the vietnam army and continued to set more landmines. All the time he was doing this he was aware of the destruction they were causing but had no choice, if he did not fight he would be killed. As soon as the Vietnam army defeated the Khmer Rouge Aki Ra began to dismantle the landmines in the area. At first he was working by himself, local villages would just call him in and he would go and check their land often just using a spade to dig for the landmines. No however, he is officailly licenced and estimates that
he has cleared 50,000 mines already. At the same time he began to take local children who had been victims of landmines and let them live with him, providing them with food and education and an alternative to the otherwise certain life of begging. He has now, with the support of other countries, set up a landmine museum which displays many of the landmines he has dismantled. The profits from the museum go to help towards providing food and education for the children that now live with Aki Ra and his wife. Unbelievably, the Cambodian government have on many occasions tried to shut him doen and refuse to let him advertise the location of the museum as they are afraid it will scare tourists from visting the temples at Angkor. I have been unable to find out if it is still the case, but as of 2004 USA had still not signed the anti landmines treaty and continued to produce them! In the afternoon i decided to be brave and hire a bike to go back to the floating village. It is crazy on the roads especially as i stupidly ended up coming back in the dark with no lights
and hardly anyone else uses lights either!! The children all found the western girl on the bike very entertaining and kept running out pointing and waving at me!! On the way back i had a narrow escape with a cow much to the amuzement of the farmer!!
4th Sept we left Siem Reap at 6am and headed, by bus, to Phomn Penm
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Magpie
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I have decided....LADY BOY!!!