Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Cambodia, what a bliss!
First of all Cambodia is a bliss for the ears: traffic is just as crazy, but they do it without honking. Thank you!
Second: Khmer people speak quite a bit of English, which naturally makes it easier to communicate.
And third: I spent my far away from home Queensday completely painted in orange (and some obscene symbols, seriously?) so really, Cambodia couldn't have offered me more ;-)
But, still with Sophie at that time, we first forced ourselves to go and visit the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh. It has by far been the most depressing thing I have done on holiday/travels.. To refresh everyone's memory: in 1975 a man known as Pol Pot implemented the Khmer Rouge rule, and brought on Year Zero. All those living in cities were forced to work as slaves on the countryside. But the biggest tragedy was him killing all intellectual people, and simply wearing glasses would suffice as such. He first sent them to a security prison, built in a school building, and would torture them all. After that they were sent in trucks to the Killing Fields, as there was no more space for the bodies near the prison. Here they would be beaten to death directly after arrival.
Walking around the mass graves you can still see pieces of clothing or bones and teeth, displaying the horror of not so long ago.
It was a very quiet bus ride back..
Our next stop was Siem Reap, so that we could see the literal display of (Hindu) heaven: Angkor. The three popular temples are Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom with The Bayon temple and Ta Phrohm, the famous 'Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones' temple. We got to do sunset and sunrise in 2.5 days, and it was amazing. It's like one big playground. There are hardly any restricted areas and you are free to wander wherever you want inside the temples. This results in crawling through pitch black narrow passages or climbing onto fallen rocks. The grandeur of the temples is obvious to everyone, and especially The Bayon with its 216 faces of a king was a personal favorite.
From here I went on by myself again, as Sophie had to fly back home. As I had in Africa as well, I was a bit nervous if I was going to meet anyone fun the next days. But there was no need for this: as soon as I arrived at 05.30 am in Sihanoukville, a coast town in Cambodia, I met up with a Dutch girl whom I met back in Hanoi. This quickly expanded to a group of 4 Dutch girls, and it felt as if we had been friends for years and years. We spent a night on Bamboo island, an island with 1 guesthouse and nothing else. Just picture a beach, blue ocean, coloured bungalow huts and hammocks everywhere. And that's exactly how it was.
Luckily for us it was Double Drunk Day when we arrived (you get drunk in the afternoon, sleep it off in hammock, and get drunk again in the evening), and if that wasn't enough it was also Super Gay Sunday, specially for the two Dutch gays. Obvious to say we had a wonderful time at the island :)
And than it was April 30, QUEENSDAY!! Sadly our group was short by one, as Brechje had a flight to catch. Luckily our spirit remained strong, and thus we took on some strong spirits (haha :P) to cheer to our queen and king. I went from being painted completely orange (there were some arrows here and there) to black (??) to eventually 3 types of neon colours that lit up in special light (again there were some artistic drawings involved..).
We went with 80 other (mostly Dutch) people on a boooooz cruise, and that is all I should be sharing here haha. It was such a fun day, and it felt as if we were spending it with our best friends from back home!
My next stop was 4000 islands in Lao and further north, but I will share more Lao stories in a few days!
Still doing good, still having the time of my life EVERY DAY and still no desire to come back :)
- comments
Snoek Heerlijk verhaal weer hahaha! Ik had het laatst nog over the killing fields, lijkt me echt heeeeeel indrukwekkend! Gelukkig was het vieren van koninginnedag een wat luchtiger onderwerp ;) LLL!!!!!