We arrived in Phnom Penh on the 12th of December. As soon as we crossed the Vietnam/Cambodia border we noticed how much poorer the Cambodians are as most of them live in shelters or wooden huts by the side of the road. We checked into our guesthouse as soon as we arrived, it was called "Spring Guesthouse". We went for a traditional Cambodian chicken Amok curry next to the river, which was amazing, then went for a walk around the city, there were lots of children selling copied Lonely Planet books and novels. There were also lots of children begging for food and drink.
The next day we got a tuk tuk to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. This a site where, during the Khmer Rouge leadership of Cambodia from 1975-1998, nearly 17,000 Cambodian people were killed in order to create "a giant peasant-dominated agrarian co-operative, untainted by anything that had come before." Basically a country rid of intellectuals or anyone slightly considered intellectual. In order to do this they arrested anyone they considered to be in this bracket and tortured them at S-21 prison in Phnom Penh centre then killed then at the Choeung Ek site. People, including children of all ages and even babies were brutally and fatally beaten and buried at the site in mass graves of over 100 people a time, one even containing 450 bodies. It even got to the point where even if you wore glasses or spoke a foreign language you were considered an intellectual and would be brutally tortured then killed as a result, by your own people! Whole families including the children were killed so as to prevent any future revenge attacks against the Khmer Rouge members.
Skulls of the victims inside the memorial
Jaw bone that had risen to, and was still in, the ground during the wet season
Mass Grave
Our trip here was a real eye-opener as we were both unaware of these goings-on before arriving in Cambodia and it was shocking to learn what the Cambodian people had been through as recent as 40 years ago. The killing fields themselves are now a kind of open-air museum with a memorial building to the tens of thousands who died there which houses over 8000 of the victims skulls as well as some of their clothing they were buried in. The site displays the mass grave sites as well as killing sites and other key sites and you can still see remains of bones and clothes in the surrounding soil which are bought to the surface with each new rainy season and yet to excavated. We spotted a jaw bone in the ground along with a couple of pieces of clothing. It was a very surreal experience walking round the whole site, especially seeing the remains still in the ground. Afterwards we had a look around the small on-site museum which housed information about the Khmer Rouge members as well as tools used for the beatings and killings. One KR member has recently been found and sentenced to life imprisonment. When we got back we went to 278 Street which has lots of bars and restaurants. We went to a bar that had a swimming pool there because it was too hot to walk around.
Battambang
We got picked up from our hostel in Phnom Penh about 8am. As always with South East Asia they try and fit as many people in one vehicle! Morgan had to share a seat with another man which he wasn't too pleased about! Luckily the minibus was only dropping us off at the bus station so we weren't on it for long. After a 6 hour journey we arrived in Battambang. Our hostel was called "Royal Hotel". The town was very small and all within walking distance, so we ventured out after we had a shower in search for some food. We found a cafe called "Smoking Pot", we ordered traditional Cambodian dishes - Chicken Amok (spicy egg curry) and Lok Lak (similar to sweet and sour chicken/black bean sauce).
The next day we got a tuk tuk to the bamboo train, which is literally a bamboo platform resting on 2 axles. It was a funny experience, when one train meets with another the train carrying the least amount of passengers has to stop and everyone has to get of while they dissemble the train so the other train can pass.
Bamboo Train
The train being dissembled
The track
After the train ride we hiked up a huge hill (almost a mountain) to see the killing caves which is related to the Khmer rouge regime. The walk was horrendous as it was about 30 degrees and the walk was very steep but when we got to the top and saw the view it seemed worth the walk. There was as a monkey at the top of the mountain, one of the children said it bites so I was paranoid it was going to bite me and I couldn't be bothered going to hospital for all the rabies shots so I stayed way clear of it! One little boy at the top of the hill asked us if we had a pen so he could learn to write, so we gave him one we had spare in our bag.
The 'mountain'!!
Siem Reap
We arrived in Siem Reap on the 16th of December. Our guesthouse was called "The Jasmine Lodge", it did a nice breakfast which was included with the room! We hired bikes on the first day and cycled around the city. We went to the barbers and Morgan got his beard trimmed because he kept complaining it was too long! We had some lunch down "Pub Street" which is where everyone ventures at night to eat and drink.
The following day we woke up at 4.30am and got a tuk tuk at 5am to watch the sun rise at Angkor Wat. It was absolutely freezing on the tuk tuk, i only had a scarf to keep me warm which didn't really do anything! When the sun did start to rise it was cloudy so it wasn't that impressive and we couldn't tell if the sun had risen, which was annoying! So we headed into the temple. As we were walking we saw Renee Zellweger, I could not believe my eyes! I kept looking at her thinking it couldn't be her but then other people around us recognized her too! I wanted to get a picture but I didn't want to bother her!
After Angkor Watt we went to other temples including the one where Tomb Raider was filmed, which was very impressive. After 8 hours of looking round the temples the tuk tuk driver "Paris" asked us if we wanted to go and see anymore but we had had enough of looking round them!
The next day we had a lie in then went to use another hotels pool which was only $3. We spent most of the day there catching some rays. In the night time we went to the night market which was pretty impressive. Morgan bought 2 tops for $3 after some decent haggling! We're finally getting better at this whole bartering thing. After, we went and got a fish massage which cost us a $1 each. You basically put your feet in a fish tank and the fish eat the dead skin off your feet, it actually works too!
On our last day in Siem Reap we decided that we wanted to go to a children's orphanage. We had seen a leaflet in our hostel for one called "COFCO Orphanage". We looked on their website and it said that they need things such as toiletries and outdoor toys so we went to the shop and bought some hula hoops, a football, some small bouncy balls and these other outdoor toys, kind of like a big weighted shuttlecock, we had seen the Cambodian children play with. We also bought them some soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste. When we arrived at the orphanage we were greeted like a honoured guests, the kids ran out and crowded around us and were grabbing onto us pulling us in. It was a bit overwhelming but it was funny at the same time because every kid kept asking me questions at the same time and i didn't know which one to answer first!
When we were got into the orphanage there was another English couple in there and a man who helped run the orphanage. We said hello to them and then the man started to tell us about the orphanage. He explained that there were 30 children currently there both girls and boys aged between 5 and 18 years old. Some of their parents had passed away, some of their mothers were alone so couldn't afford to keep them and some were just too poor to keep the children. They persisted that we ate with them even though we weren't very hungry and knew that they didn't have much money! After we had some lunch with them we got to play with the children for a few hours. Morgan played football with the boys and chased them around the orphanage, while the girls took me round their bedrooms and drew me pictures and looked at my photos on my camera. They also plaited my hair and we played a Cambodian ball game with them which I didn't really understand but just went along with it. They called me "sister" and they called Morgan "brother". One little girl, nicknamed Sabrina wrote me a note that said she loved me and can I be her sister, which was very cute! The children's living conditions are very basic, but they do seem very happy there which made me feel better! They put on a dance show 3 times a week and luckily they were performing one on that day so we said we would come back in the evening to see their show.
Our tuk tuk picked us up in the afternoon and then we decided to cycle back to the orphanage in the evening as it was cheaper and we now knew where it was. When we arrived back at the orphanage all the children were dressed up in very fancy traditional costumes. Some of the boys were dressed as Santa and the girls had Christmas dresses on. They performed some of their traditional dances and even performed a Christmas dance. This was probably our best day spent in Cambodia!
The next day we were due to leave Cambodia for Thailand. We got a bus from Siem Reap which would eventually end up in Bangkok. The Cambodian/Thai border was a nightmare passing through it as we had to wait for over an hour to get through passport control. They made all the foreigners wait in a queue which didn't seem to get any smaller in a hurry. As we were waiting in the queue our biggest fan Renee Zellweger strolled up to the security guard giving it the whole "do you know who I am" as she was at the back of the queue, but the guard wasn't having none of it! So she had to walk to the back! We were surprised she did the overland travel as its not the glamorous way of travelling! When we got over the border we were due to get on another coach but we were told that it had broken down so we had to get a 13 people minibus. To the Thai's 13 people min bus means 13 people and all there luggage and a funny local named Kay. In the end though it wasn't too bad after the American behind us stopped moaning and we got talking to Kay, who wanted us to teach him some English (swear words and pick up lines)! He made the journey a lot quicker because he was so funny and random!
