Cambodia

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Right then...Cambodia.

We made our way from phuc coq island on a ferry and bus that were booked so that we could cross the boarder into Cambodia with no problems. Little did we know that they attempt to scam you at every turn! Wanting us to pay extra for the privilege of them taking our passports to get stamped and then extra for a visa that cost $30. Some people may be reading this and thinking we're being stingy, why didn't we hand over the extra $10 to get us safely into Cambodia? Well I'll answer. firstly we are stingy! ? we've been travelling the world so it's not like we can afford an extra $10 when that's the price of a room over our heads and a meal! Secondly we were fed up of people thinking it's okay to be scummy gits that rip people off!! Cambodia is a poor country but the people who are ripping people off are not!! The visa patrol all had huge fancy cars and to know it would be going into their pockets bothered me so much that I would have happily sat in the border control all day!

So after them refusing Rob entry (with the correct visa money) I then went up. I pushed our passports and money over the counter and as he refused to look me in the eye I put my best acting skills in to place as I cried and wailed how we were going to be stuck there and how we had no money. As soon as my tear fell he began telling me to hang on a bit as I mumbled how I'd been in touch with the embassy bla bla bla. I knew I wouldn't have got anywhere shouting and these people generally never gave a shit about us, so I was thankful that the tears worked.

We finally made it into Kep on the south coast of Cambodia. It was new years weekend and we had heard there would be lots of water splashed about throughout the streets but unfortunately we only came across one child with a water gun. We presumed maybe this was the place people came to to get away from the continuous water soakings. We would have been grateful for it as the temperatures were reaching 45 degrees and higher as they were having a heat wave in the midst of their very hot summer. We stayed in a little cabin about 3km from the town and got free bikes to travel round on which we were thankful for as we literally couldn't walk 10 steps without feeling like we were going to shrivel up from the heat.

We moved on from Kep after a couple of days and went to stay in a hostel in Kampot. This place had a real European feel about it as every pub and restaurant seemed to either be owned by an old balding brit or other form of European. It was nice to have some familarities and we found a nice Irish bar that did Bushmills so we treated ourselves to a couple...or so ?. We then thought we'd hire a moped and explore the national park. It was a great drive and we got to see some beautiful scenery. Including a very eery old church that the fog half consumed as we reached the top of the mountain.

After a couple of days of exploring Kampot we moved on to phnom penh.. Cambodias capital. We were starting to lag a bit at this point and we just didn't feel we could appreciate the culture, scenery or pretty much anything as we were just to hot and exhausted from all the travelling. We just seemed to mope about a bit at this point and didn't really explore anything until we decided to do S21 (a prison that has transformed itself into a museum depicting the sickening atrocities of the 1970's khmer rouge and the mass genocide of their people)

This museum has affected me for the rest of my life and I can't believe it's something that we don't learn about in our history books at school. It's haunting. We never forget world war II and the mass genocide of millions of Jewish, gay, disabled and German people but somehow the majority of the world hasn't even really heard of the 2 million Cambodian people that were murdered by their own government. In a country that only had 7 million people in the first place! S21 was a place they took people to torture them. They bludgeoned most people to death in what's known as the killing fields where men women and children were attacked with hammers instead of guns to save on bullets. S21 imprisoned supposed traitors to the government and they would not only starve people but torture them in the most horrific ways to get a confession before then killing them. It was not only Cambodians that passed through this prison but also many foreigners including British and new zealander men who accidently sailed into their waters. They were integrated and one man who was asked who he worked for told them colonal sanders. He kept his humour til his death. In the museum there are literally thousands of the headshots of those that passed through there and the fear in their eyes is just inimaginable. Pol potts was the leader of the khmer rouge and he sent out letters to Cambodians all over the world asking them to come home and help to make they're country a better place. Many of them went back and were never seen again. In fact any professional inside the country was killed even those that wore glasses as it was seen that they must be intelligent. They sent everyone out to the farmlands and turned them in to slaves. Many died from starvation. To think that this all happened in 1975 onwards and that only now some are being brought to justice for this is just horrifying. How people move on and begin to trust each other again is beyond me but they have, and it just shows that courage and forgiveness instead of fear can build a country up.

We moved on to siem reap and the incredible angkor watt. A beautifully designed temple. We travelled round and got to see many of the ancient temples with their Buddha statues and ancient carvings. It's also where tomb raider was filmed. The whole area had so much history and the atmosphere of the buildings made us feel like we'd stepped back in time. It was unbelievably hot though so I don't feel we appreciated them as much as we wanted.

We stayed in a lovely guesthouse with a pool.(much needed). The town again had a European feel to it with many bars, gifts and souvenir shops. We were having ourselves a cheap beer when a man with no arms and scars all over his torso approached us with a sign and a box full of books attached round his neck. He explained how he had been the victim of a landmine when he was younger and that if it wasn't for charity he would not have learnt skills to work, that he still wanted to make a living instead of begging. (America literally spread landmines all over Cambodia and Laos in their war against Vietnam). He recommended a book to me called "first they killed my father" which we bought from him. I think this is a book everyone should read in the western world. It's the true life events of what happened to a little girl and her family during the reign of the khmer rouge. It truly puts perspective on how blessed we are and how quickly we could be bought to our knees with a corrupt government in our countries. Really makes you think about the real sickness in people which is ego and power and how even the most 'civilised' of people can turn into monsters under the right amount of pressure and fear. Syria is a prime example right now. People just like you and me. Families just like our own displaced in no mans land whilst countries argue about who should have them. I just pray nothing like that should ever befall our country as then we'd really understand how it feels to be labelled as refugees.

Anyway back on track... We decided to have a night out in siem reap and we tried ourselves a 'happy' pizza and shake. I won't go into too much detail about this but let's just say the main ingredient is oregano.....which to be fair most probably was as a part from wanting more food (which is nothing new for me) nothing else happened. Regardless we still had a nice night out and the bars had a great party atmosphere about them. The next day we caught out coach back to Thailand. Rob will fill you in with that adventure :-)

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Comments

[Jayne]

About time ?
Been waiting patiently for another entry in your blog ! I enjoyed reading about Cambodia but very very sad as well ? Really does make you realise how blessed we are. Love and miss you both. Keep safe xxxxx