Hi Again!
Our next stop was Cambodia. We got a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, over to Phnom Penh. We had heard horror stories about this trip, and we even contemplated paying $200 for a flight over instead. But we went for the $10 bus , and it was amazing! The people giving out about this journey must have gone on public buses or something. It was a bit of a trek alright as it was 6 hours, but went very smoothly.
As soon as we got to Phnom Penh we checked into an Aussie Hostel. The owner is from Melbourne but his parents were Cambodian and left for Oz during the time of the Khmer Rouge. It's called 'Me Mates Place' I'd definitely recommend it if any of you ever come to Cambodia. We decided to go visit an orphange after we had checked in. They recommend you buy them rice when you visit because if you give them money, well theres no guarantee the owners will even put it towards the kids. So we got 50KG of rice and off we went. And I must say it was the most thrilling thing we've probably done since leaving Ireland. We only stayed there about 40 minutes but the kids were unbelievable. They were so friendly and were getting us to play games with them. They all spoke fluent English and Khmer (Cambodian) and could also speak French and Japanese. I think we might just have been lucky in the orphange we visited. They were definitely well looked after kids.
The next day we did all the tourist things. Well we started with go-karting, just cuz it's so much fun :) But then we went to do the harsh stuff. We first visited the Killing Fields, and then went onto the S21 Prison. I'm not sure how aware you are of the Khmer Rouge's reign, but it lasted from roughly 1975-1979. In that time over 2 million people were killed. They mostly killed anyone who had any chinese or vietnamese background, as well as anyone who was educated - lawyers, doctors etc and any of their relations. Their plan was to have 2 classes - the working class (worked in factories) and the peasants. They used bring people to the S21 prison (which used be a high-school before the Khmer Rouge regime, as all education was abolished) they would torture them here for information, and then they'd bring them in trucks to the killing fields and then beat them to death. The killing fields we visited (Choeng Ek) has already uncovered 20,000 skulls. But there's still a lake there yet to be excavated. Words can't describe how you feel walking around the fields and the prison. It's just shocking how evil these Khmer Rouge people were.
We had one more day left in Phnom Penh so we spent it wisely, and just chilled out and then went to all the markets.
Next day we got the bus north to Siem Reap. Theres not much to do in Siem Reap really, except for Angkor Wat. So the next day we got up and headed out to Angkor to see the sunrise (people had recommended we do this, we're not usually in the habit of getting up at 5am!!! ) So we got to see Angkor Wat, Bayon, Angkot Thon, and temple of Ta Prohm. These were all built around the 12th century, but some were only uncovered recently enough. The temple of Ta Prohm actually has trees rooted in the middle of it! So no-one knew the temple was there until they started cutting down some trees and uncovered it. Some of these temples were the ones used in the Tomb Raider film. And they were destroyed a bit during the time of the Khmer Rouge, because they were Buddhist temples, and the Khmer Rouge didn't believe in Buddhism. It was all cool to see, but by 11 o'clock I think we were all templed out.. So it was off to town for some more shopping :)
Next morning it was a flight down to Kuala Lumpur and back to westernisation!!
Cathy x x
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