Cambodia

After a last few days in HCMC, we set off with Caroline on a bus across the border to Cambodia. First stop the capital of Phnom Penh. After the 6 hour bus ride, including about an hour getting through the border, complete with a rather scary gun-like thermometer held to our heads to check for swine flu, we checked into our hotel, with a great view of the National Museum and the setting sun. We spent two days in Phonm Penh, which was a really interesting city with its history from the Khmer Rouge era. Personally, I didnt know much about it so it was all new. We visited the Killing Fields, which is an area just outside of the city where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge buried over 8000 bodies. Seeing the excavated mass graves, and the stupa containing over 9000 bones, including skulls, of the victims, was very moving. We saw the tree which was used to throw children against to smash their skulls, and the area has been preserved in a way that you can still see remenants of bone and clothing sticking up from the ground where graves still exist. We also visited S21, which used to be a school, but during the Khmer Rouge period was turned into a prison. The classrooms were divided up into tiny prison cells, about 1m x 2m, and some of the childrens playground had been modified to be used for torture (water-boarding). To see what still very much looked like a school building, turned into such a place of terror was quite tough, but the exhibits also gave us a good insight into that period in Cambodia's troubled history.







After Phnom Penh we took a 4 hour bus ride to the coast, to Sihanoukville for three full days relaxing on the beach. Our hotel was a stones-throw away from the beach so this was a VERY relaxing few days. Although becoming more so, Sihanoukville is still quite undeveloped so the beach is lined with shacks. We picked our favourite and barely left it or the sunbeds in front of it. The beach is covered with children trying to sell bracelets, books, fruit... some of them could be quite persistent, but generally there were not too much bother, and their adorable faces meant you couldnt be too angry. There were also middle aged women walking around offering a mobile beauty parlor - manicures, pedicures, waxing, threading, massages - anything you want. Needless to say, to support the local economy (of course!) we indulged - i had an amazing 30 min massage (for $3!) and Em had her legs 'threaded' (which looked kinda weird!). The sea was gorgeous, and although we never manged to get Caroline in the water, Em and I spent a lot of time splashing around in the warm clear ocean.






Good thing we had some relaxing days as after the beach we embarked on a mamouth 10 hour bus ride up to Siem Reap. This was the first day of Chinese New Year, and valentines day - can you think of anything more romantic than sitting next to the one you love on a bus all day?!? (yeah, we could too...!). Siem Reap is the base for getting to the Angkor temples. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries, the temples were once the cultrual , religious and political center of the region. We hired a tuk-tuk for the day to take us around the temples and spent about 7 hours in total walking aronud in the hear. Em and Caro were getting a bit fed up by the 5th or so, but like a true Workman, I kept plowing on, reading the guidebook out to them, whether they liked it or not! The most notworthy have to be Bayon, the one with huge faces carved in the stone, Ta Prohm, where the tree roots are overgrowing the buildings, and Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world - this was impressive, but not quite as much as it had been built up to be (no Taj Mahal!) but impressive all the same. We also enjoyed seeing many of the smaller temples and structures, mainly as these were away from the crowds and tour groups which kept getting in our way elsewhere (the problem with traveling in Asia around Chinese New Year!). Tomb Raider and some of the Indiana jones movies were filmed here, so if you have seen those it gives a good idea of what it was like.







Siem Reap itself provided us with some of the worst restaurant service ever experienced, but with great frozen margaritas so we were happy nonetheless, we also saw many people having their feet 'massaged' by fish (they bite away at the dead skin - but the owner couldnt explain how they know when to stop biting!) I knew Em had drank too much, or was over taken by heat stroke when she contemplated getting in (with her fear of fish)... luckily she skipped it.

Caroline left us yesterday to go back to HCMC and work (we're not sure what a job is anymore) and we moved on to Battambang, a much less touristy town in western Cambodia on the way to the Thai border. We are off to do a Cambodian cooking class this afternoon and then tomorrow we are on a 10 hour bus ride to Bangkok and the next leg of our adventure. We are loving traveling so far - it is very very hot, but we are slowly getting used to it, to the crazy roads, to finding our way around new cities, and to negotiating the price on everything we buy! Roll on Thailand...

Places we stayed:
Phonm Penh - The Bright Lotus
Sihanoukville - The Crystal Hotel
Siem Reap - Five Star Angkor
Battambang - Royal Hotel