Cambodia

Our cheap flight from Bali to Siem Reap involves a long stop over in Kuala Lumpar, so we spend a good 12 hours people watching, sleeping on the floor and trying to find working charging stations. We touch down in the morning, completely shattered, and are welcomed by a blistering heat. We decide to have a chill day at the hostel. After lunch, the blue sky clouds over and, whilst we're sat in the sheltered patio of the hostel, the heavens open and we get our first taste of monsoon season. The rain is torrential, neither of us have ever seen anything quite like it. It's not long before we have to raise our feet above the floor to avoid getting wet. 

What follows for the next three days is being driven around the various temples of Angkor Archaeological park via Motodop (a motorbike with a little carriage attached). These temples date back to as far as the 9th century and whilst most of them were originally Hindu, they were re purposed as Buddhist later on. The temples are uniquely beautiful, and it's especially impressive how the stones stay in place without modern building materials such as cement, but I couldn't possibly list them all here. We visit Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world, on the second day and decide to shell out for a guide who gives us a bit of history and religious context. He also points out some bullet holes, one complete with lodged bullet, that was a result of a civil war battle fought nearby. 

Strong and stable

Ta Prohm

I can't remember what this is

Angkor Wat

Neak Pean

Our next stop is Phnom Penn, which is 6 hours away by bus. Here we visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. In 1975 the Communist party of Kampuchea, the followers of which are known as the Khmer Rouge, took power. It's leader, Pol Pot, had a vision of a pure communism by forcing everyone into a rural lifestyle and moving them from the cities into the countryside. In addition, monks, intellectuals, artists and anyone else who was deemed to be an enemy of the party was killed. Depending on who you ask, somewhere between 2-3 million Cambodians were killed and it is now known as the Cambodian genocide. The bodies of those killed were piled into mass graves which were all over the country - Choeung Ek has now been turned into a memorial and information site about this horrific part of the countries history. An audio tour narrated by a survivor guides us through and tells us stories from the sites and others like it. It is truly horrific and I don't feel much like taking pictures of the tiny grave sites where hundreds of men, women and children (including babies) were thrown in like rubbish for political idealism. The last site is the memorial tower itself, which contains excavated skulls and bones from the site. I can't bring myself to even look at the skulls, so we don't even go in. The next stop is the S-21 prison. This was the prison were enemies of the police state were held until being taken to the fields to be killed. It is, once again, a monument to human misery as we're shown how people were tortured for little to no reason. 

Near Phnom Penn there is a shooting range where tourists can fire AK-47s and rocket launchers. I was originally thinking of popping a few rounds until we discovered it was quite expensive. But I don't think I would have really been in the mood after today.

I hear there's a popular T-shirt in Phuket that reads "No, I don't want a f**king suit, tuk-tuk, or massage, thank you very much". I really could have done with this on our last day in Phnom Penn. It's possible the hottest day of our travels yet and as we head over to the Royal Palace, we our hounded by moto drivers. It's a short walk but I'm dripping with sweat. When we get there one driver tells us it's closed this morning and tries to get us to go on a tour with him instead. I had read about this scam but totally forgotten, so we wonder round the outside for a bit until another driver tells us it is open (and tries to get us to go with him to the entrance). We walk back and wonder round the palace, which has stunning architecture. We don't have a tour so I can't say we learnt all that much, but it was still worth the price of admission.

Not a bad crib

Neither Siam Reap or Phnom Penn strike us as amazing cities to visit - there's not a lot in the cities themselves and the lack of pavements makes getting about a bit tricky. Nonetheless, what we have seen and done hear has been amazing and enlightening. That, coupled with 30p draft beer and great food equals a pretty excellent week.

Next time: Vietnam!