Up and off to Udong – the former capital, to climb 500 steps (really not far at all!!) up to a Wat. We got a 4 person tuk-tuk with two lovely Kiwis we met on the bus from Poipet – Marius and Xania (from Whagamata).

Had a lovely day hanging out with them..

Kids materialise and fan you (whether you want it or not (you want it)) all the way up the stairs. I had a go at fanning them too :) It had some good views out – though still quite hazy.

Then back to town, lunch, a little shopping for fake photocopied guide books before the main attraction of the evening – traditional dancing from an orphanage.

There’s a Canadian guy who runs a restraunt called the Lazy Gecko. He has become involved in helping out at an orphanage (mainly bringing backpackers for recruits and donations I think). Anyway, we were treated to an evening of music and dancing from these kids (each of which has lost at least one parent to AIDS). They seemed like genuinely happy kids though, and danced beautifully.

Content Advisory Warning – contains text and graphics not suitable for those who only want to see the fun parts

After arriving in Phenom Penh we were up early to visit two of the more horrible places I hope we’ll see on this trip, though Vietnam is sure to have a few too. .,

First we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, It’s a place with a crumbling school courtyard and childrens swings (well, the supports are left), which the Khymer Rouge put to brutal use converting it into a detention and torture centre – killing over 14,000 people here.

There’s a one hour video at 10am, and another at 2pm I think it is, worth catching, though again utterly depressing. The film focuses on a couple – probably fairly typical of the time, and how their lives were torn apart, she being abused by soldiers, and eventually how they both were relocated to S21 (not that anyone was told this – they were usually told they were to work in a new rice field from then on or something)

They did have the oddest regulations – well, odd except when you understand that they were just trying to destroy all social cohesion, all independence. Besides killing all intellectuals (even the engineers), people were forbidden from showing love, (any emotion but esp. that one), from looking anywhere but straight ahead (you weren’t allowed to turn your head) etc. etc. Any infringement would at best get you a beating, but more likely get you killed.

It’s hard to describe going through the rooms where they document the torture, pulling fingernails off and covering the fingers with alcohol, they way they used to string people up from the childrens swing (frame) before pushing them head first into barrels of effluent before continuing the torture.

It’s simply staggering that this went on until 1979 (the year I was born). Pol Pot, the leader of this regime died under house arrest a year later, but was never indicted for genocide (As far as I know) and declared ‘My conscience is clear’.

You’d hope in this day and age that these things no longer happen.. and while I’m sure nothing as permanently damaging happens on a small base in Cuba.. Sometimes you wonder (well I do) and I’d imagine China might have some pretty nasty things going on in there… Maybe I’ll have to go look up Amnesty International and stop complaining!

After our energy had been totally broken by S21 (after only three or so hours) it was off to the Killing Fields. Each detention section had an associated execution centre, and the Killing Fields was the one for S21.

Looks quite nice really, until you realise this where the 14,000 bodies are.. all in mass graves, they’re still uncovering more all the time. The stupa (pic on the right) contains 17 levels of human skulls (8985).

I wasn’t really sure whether to write up about this, but it is important. And, in a way, it makes Cambodians all the more impressive that they are fundamentally a pretty happy bunch of people!, especially in the country at any rate.

Just a couple of quiet quiet drinks this evening.

Mhairi got up at 04:15 to check out the sunrise over Angkor Wat, I would have gone too but was still feeling rough. Unfortunately there was too much cloud so no views :(

At midday we got the bus down to Phnom Penh. It’s a much better road so it should have been a fun trip. However, they made up for the good roads, by playing *the worst music* I’ve heard (with accompanying videos). Now, I’m all for seeing and experiencing other cultures, but not when I’m trapped in the back of a bus!! And I think they played it as loudly as they could… It’s at times like this that a decent mp3 player and headphones come in handy. I think there was too much noise, so the video didn’t come out too well, but still..

Oh, this was our lunch stop… (they have feet)

After arriving in Phnom Penh we had our first crazy tout experience, comical in retrospect, but after 5 hours of that music it certainly didn’t feel like it… once you stepped of the bus about 20 touts materialised and started waving guest house brochures in your face.. Mhairi and I had just collected our bags but could hardly see eachother just ‘cos they held these cards in our faces! Arrgh! I know I know, it’s all part of the experience, and it is, and it was funny, and yes, we laughed heartily about it later, but sheesh.. I don’t think they understand the concept of personal space. Eventually one tuk-tuk guy said ‘Just come in my tuk-tuk and they’ll all go away’, so we did, and he took us to the Lakeside area – backpacker central, but actually quite nice.

Again a fairly early night for me, still not feeling 100%, but think I’ll be back to normal in a day or two.

The next day we hired a tuk tuk and went to explore a couple of the further temples (and, I really didn’t feel like cycling I must admit)

We headed out to Ta Prohm, one of the temples which has been kinda left to the jungle, it’s what the temples would have looked like when the temples were rediscovered I guess.

It was definitely worth seeing this one, there were lots of people offering tours (didn’t seem to matter how many times you told them you were happy to just wander around!)

After that it was on to a silk factory, I was feeling *quite* rough by this stage, so I’m afraid I wasn’t really concentrating too much on the whole tour, Mhairi has a much better write up here.

Once we got back to the hostel at about 3pm I just went straight to bed, slightly headachey and just generally not feeling quite right. I think it was just the heat though, it’s now 2 days later and I’m feeling more or less human again.

So after quickly changing hostels in the morning (the bus dropped us at one and it was passable enough, but we checked out other hostels yesterday evening so we could change in the morn).. anyway, hired bikes to tour around Angkor

After having to make a slight detour to get the pass, we arrived at Angkor Wat. It really is an impressive place, though perhaps (well, definitely) the huge crowds that it now attracts do detract from the experience.

But, that said, it’s still amazing. Absolutely amazing. I mean these places are *huge*, made out of limestone, and in the middle of the jungle. The sheer scale of the construction is staggaring.

The largest series of reliefs in the world are here, the pic on the right is a depiction of one of the 40 or so hells that they have..

We just timed the afternoon rains incorrectly (though we had good shelter in Angkor) as it lashed down for an hour or so.

Then it was back to the bikes and on to Angkor Thom, which used to be the capital of the khymer empire I think, anyway, firstly it was to the Bayon, an impressive ruin in the middle of Angkor Thom.

Then it was on to The terrace of the leper king and the elephant terrace.

before it was time to cycle back. Well, I cycled back, Mhairi went up Phnom Bakheng which has nice views out over Angkor Wat. I was feeling a little tired after the heat!