Cambodia

Monday I was up early to get the bus to Phnom Penh. It was a
rickity old thing but there were a few other Westerners on board. A
girl who was travelling with 2 guys sat next to me. We got chatting
and she has just done what I've done, quit her job and is travelling
around for 7 months with her mate.

When we got to PP I shared a tuk tuk with her and her mates and we
stayed at the Happy Guest House on the lake which was really pretty.
I shared a twin room with her to lower costs and we even had our own
bathroom, luxury!!

We then got 4 motobikes to take us to the S-21 jail where the Khmer
Rouge detained and tortured loads of innocent Cambodians. It was very depressing, and to say that it all happened not so long ago. Then we went to the Killing Fields where they found all the mass graves. The ones that they have dug up are not very deep at all and they packed loads of bodies in. There are still clothes and bones embedded in the ground between the graves of some of the dead which made walking around the place a bit uncomfortable, to be walking over the dead. And there are still around 45 graves that they haven't dug up. Not a fun sight seeing experience.

Then we motored back to the guest house in rush hour traffic. That
was a little more scarey than Siem Reap as there are plenty of
vehichles on the road in PP and my driver wanted to be first all the time - we had a few close calls but they don't seem to worry about it at all. The road system is very much organised chaos!! We had dinner at the guest house and played cards and I lost.

Up early to catch another bus to the beach. Only 4 hours! We have
stayed at a nice place again with our own bathroom and TV - hooray!!!
Spent the past few days chilling on the beach and having dinner out in the evening. Already got quite a nice tan!!

Today Fiona, Gary and Olly all went back to PP and then they are off to Vietnam. They are doing a similar trip to me but a bit faster as they only have until July to fit it all in!!

So today I chilled on my own on the beach. It's not massively developed yet which is nice but you can see the potential. There are a lot of holida makers here from all over the world.

Tomorrow I am heading to a different beach, at the moment I am on
Serendipity Beach and tomorrow I'll head to Victory Beach which has a
few more guest houses. We got handed a flyer about an open air cinema which is showing 'Memoirs of a Geisha' which I really want to see so I am going to try and stay at the guest house where they are showing it!!

I have my Vietnam visa although a girl I was taking to on the beach
was saying the weather is crap there at the moment. I had planned to
leave here on Monday but maybe I'll stay a little longer...!!!

The place I am emailing from were just playing a Christmas CD but now they've put Michael Bolton on, awesome!!!

Impressive.

I had 2 days at Angkor Wat, visiting a lot of the temples, but not all as there are so many, spread over miles and miles. It was really
good, very impressive structures, all massive and I got a bit scared climbing up them as they were so steep and the stairs were really narrow and a bit worn, well, a lot worn.

I don't reckon it will be long before some of them are given the Stone Henge treatment and roped off. Hundreds of people climb all over them everyday and a lot of them are already in a pretty derelict state... At least I've done it!!

And so many tourists!!

Today was a day to just wander around the town so I got my little map
out and thought I'll just walk down this road until the bridge then
head back and buy a sun hat and go to a museum.

So I walked, and walked some more and after about an hour I checked my little map again and realised that I was walking down the wrong road, going right out of town to god knows where! So, I cooly turned around and started walking back, happy that I had put lots of sunscreen. About half way back on old man had just parked his moto and said hello to me so I said hello back. Then he said bonjour so I said bonjour back and then he started chatting to me in French and invited me to come and have some dessert with him, so I did. We sat for about 10mins eatng fried banana and chatted about nothing much really, he was just glad that he could speak a bit of French again because nobody spoke it that he knew, English is the language that is taught now.

My wrong way didn't turn out too bad!

Then I decided to go to the landmine museum, it wasn't on my map so I
took a tuk tuk. The guy who establised this museum was brought up by
the Khmer Rouge, his parents vanished (killed) when he was very young. Now he spends his time scouring the countryside looking for mines and disarming them. He set up the museum which is run on donations to show people what is happening in Cambodia and around the world. He also looks after children who have been maimed by the mines and whose parents send them away. Some of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking. The museum (which is really just a shack) is founded by donations and the things the children make to sell, it was very moving.

Then it was off to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. Me and a million other people!! I took a motobike there (just a little one) driven by Sam who is going to be my guide tomorrow. The little I saw of it was amazing, a massive structure at the top of this big hill - how they built it I cannot imagine.

Looking forward to seeing more tomorrow.

In Cambodia now after an interesting journey to get here, Siam Reap,
where the Angkor Wat temples are.

I set off from Bangkok yesterday lunch and took the government run
bus, a suggestion from an internet site so that you avoid getting
scammed on the tourist buses. It was a smooth 5 hour ride. We got
stopped at the police check point and they took 2 guys off the bus as
they didn't show any ID. Not sure if they were Thais or Cambodians
but apparently they get annoyed if they find a Cambodian in their
country without a visa, even if he is on his way back to Cambodia....

Arrived in Aranyaprathet which was very small and took a tuk tuk with
a Norwegian couple to the hotel. Then we went for dinner at the night market, I had thai green curry something, really not sure what is was but touch wood I haven't seen it again!!! The they gave us dessert which was white and milky and sweet with some small round soft fruits in it, nice, but again, no idea what it was!

We arranged to meet at 7am the next morning to go to the border together. I got up at5.30am thinking it was 6.30am so was downstairs for 6am and had to read my book for an hour as I'd already handed my key in at reception - do'h!!!

The border crossing wasn't too bad, loads ot Thais and Cambodians
passing back and forth, but glad I wasn't on my own! You arrive
in Poipet which is a dodgy lawless town apparently and it stinks. I was almost sick with the smell! We went to the taxi depot (a
1km walk as we didn't see the free transfer buses) and we shared a
taxi to here. $40 between 3 for a 3 hour trip....

However, the road leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, it wasn't
really a road, just a dirt track with a lot of pot holes for 3 hours and our driver drove at about 70mph all the way there, beeping so that all the bikes would get out of the way. Having said that,glad we paid a bit extra for a taxi rather than the bus becuase now I would have a really sore arse instead of ust a slightly sore arse!

I also have myfirst friendship bracelet that is uniform for all travellers - I bought it off a little Cambodian girl when we stopped to use the loo!

So, now staying at the Popular Guesthouse, I have a room with a bed
and a fan. The "wet room" is next door and is shared but at leat it
has a proper toilet and not a squat as they take a bit of getting used to!! I'm paying $3 a night, which is about 1.75GBP.

1GBP = 100bhat. The last room I had in Aranyaprathet cost 30bhat....

Tomorrow I am going to chill and wander around a bit and see the Land Mine museum. I can't see that there is an awful lot to see though and again, there are no real roads, just dirt tracks! Not sure how safe it is to wonder around the town at night either so might have to have an early night tonight.

I hope that after a bit I will stop pointing out what they don't have in SE Asia and only talking about the good things but at the moment it's such a big big difference to anything that I am used to that it's taking a while to adapt!