Thursday August 11th (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -> Phnom Penh, Cambodia) Bus left at 8 AM to go to Phnom Penh. It was a four hour bus ride that included crossing a river using a river ferry. The border crossing was really smooth. The current immigration on the Cambodia side is a shack, but they are building an impressive building that should be completed in the next few months. Cambodia's unofficial currency is the the US dollar. There are 4,000 Cambodian Riel = $US1. No one accepts US change, all change is provided for in Riel. For example if something costs $US1.50 and you give them $US2, you will be given 2,000 riel as change. The amounts are completely interchangeable. However, because of this and other economic policies, everything in Cambodia is much more expensive than the rest of IndoChina by a factor of 2-3 times. For example, breakfast costs $US2-4, dinner $US7-9 and mixed drinks $2-4. We arrived at our hotel, the Indochina II around 1 PM. Phnom Penh (population: 1 million) is the capital of Cambodia. It is surrounded by the Mekong, Bassac and Tonle Sap Rivers. The Mekong is the same river that I have seen throughout this journey. It is a relatively small city that has a lot of charm which is mixed by its checkered past. We went for lunch and drinks at the swanky FCC (Foreign Correspondence Club). It was where all the reporters stayed and ate during the 1970s. We then strolled along the main street of Phnom Penh which is right on the river. It was spectacular, the beautiful view of the river and its calming breezes mixed with the 70-80s degree temperature. It was also very comfortable at night time. We went to the Viet Toy restuarant for dinner where I had the Cambodian specialty Chicken Amok, a type of curry. It was really nice and not as spicy as Thai coconut curries. We then went to the Riverside bar which played live western music, and played pool. The bar closed at 12 and we were going to go dancing at a famous bar called the Heart of Darkness. However, sleep deprivation was taking it's toll so we decided to make it an early night. It was a good thing too because the next day we found out that there a shooting at the bar! Brief history on Cambodia: Cambodia used to be known at the Khmer empire. Over 95% of the population is Khmer and the national language is Khmer although English is the unofficial second language. Even the 5 year kids selling books and flowers speak fluent English. The Khmer empire dominated this landscape during the Angkor region (9th to 14th centuries) and ruled much of present day Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. They are known more there remarkable architecture and famous temples which I will be seeing in Siem Reap. The Thais sacked Angkor in 1432 and the Khmer empire slowly began to crumble after repeated attacks from various nations. The French controlled in from 1864 until independence in 1953. At that time, it was headed by King Sihanouk. The King had both erratic and repressive policies and in 1970 he was overthrown by his army. Under pressure from the communist Chinese, the King supported the Khmer Rouge meaning Red Khmer for their communist stance. It was headed by Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge began what is known as the Year Zero campaign, , one of the most radical, brutal revolutions mankind has ever seen. For the next 4 years, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge committed some of the worse attrocities known to man including killing 3 million of his own people from a total of nation of only 8 million. During this time, the Vietnam war was brewing in Vietnam and with the Ho Chi Minh trail overflowing into Laos and Cambodia. US planes heavily bombed the Vietnamese trails. However, in 1975, the Vietnamese overtook the Khmer Rouge and took over the country for the next two decades years. The killing would have continued if it were not for the overthrow by the Vietnamese. During the two decades of Vietnamese rule, the UN and US backed the Khmer Rouge in their fight against Vietnam. The thought at the time is that if two communist countries are fighting themselves, they are less likely to attack other countries like Thailand. Either way, it is hard for me to believe that the International community backed this pychopath even after learning of his horrors. He finally died in 1998 without ever being convicted. Due to the pestroka of Russia during the 1990s and the fact that it cut off funding to the other communist nations, Vietnam needed to embrace the West and capitalism. One of the international demands was removing soldiers from Cambodia and the first real elections were in 1995. So Cambodia has only been free for 10 years and is slowing rebuilding. The government is thought to be very corrupt, but at least the country in moving in the right direction. Friday August 12th (Phnom Penh, Cambodia) Woke up early and then went to a restaurant for breakfast. Decided to visit the Russian market for some serious shopping and so caught a Tuktuk with Dom and Yaz. The rest of the day took on a more macabre tone. We then rested for an hour before heading to the Security Prison 21 (S-21). S-21 used to be the Tuol Prey High School which in 1975 was taken over by Pol Pot's forces and turned into a detention and torture center. Almost all the people who entered S-21 were later taken to extermination camp at Choeung Ek, aka, the Killing Fields. Some of the walls still had blood on it. This was over 30 years after the holocaust when we repeated the phrase "Never again!", 3 million people died during the Khmer Rouge's reign. We then went to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. This is where the bodies where taken when they left S-21. They were either already killed or slowly killed when they arrived. And the prisoners were never just killed, they were tortured to deaths, limbs whacked off one by one. Saturday August 13th (Phnom Penh -> Siem Reap, Cambodia) Left the hotel at 8 AM, took a bus to the airport, had a 10 AM flight on Siem Reap Airways and 55 minutes later landed in Siem Reap. Siem Reap was captured by the Thais and the King fled and made Phnom Penh the new capital, but then regrouped and defeated the Thais and took over the Siem Reap. And that is how the city got its name, Siem means Siam or Thais and Reap is Khmer for defeated so the city's name is "Thais defeated". Siem Reap is known mainly for one thing, the magnificent temples of Angkor which are some of the best in Asia. The city is really small and can be walked really easily. Angelina Jolie made Cambodia famous because parts of Tomb Raider were filmed at some of these temples. However, we were going to be see the temples for the next two days. Nick, Jason and I went to the Children's Hospital. The Hospital is in a desperate need for blood so the 3 of us donated our blood. It was quick, relatively painless and best of all, we all received free cookies. The cookies were green, but they tasted yummy. The Hospital also tested our blood for HIV, Hep A, Hep B and Syphilis and we received the results two days later. And I am proud to say that I am still 100% clean. Yay! (Not that I had anything to worry about of course, I had been reassured the sheep in New Zealand were clean!) We then went to our hotel, the Freedom Hotel which was great. Good A/C, a swimming pool and a nice restaurant. For dinner, we went to the Soup Dragons restaurant. At the restaurant, I ordered some local Khmer cuisine of Chicken Amok again! We all went to bed early tonight because we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Sunday August 14th (Siem Reap, Cambodia) Our bus left the hotel at 4:45 AM. We headed to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise over temple. However, it was cloudy and we never got to see the sunrise. Everyone was not happy about this, but no one wanted to wake up tomorrow morning to try it again. We then headed for some breakfast before walking around the Angkor Wat. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the Khmer (Cambodian) kings used their vast wealth, power and labor force to build a series of monumental temples vast in both size and details. The earlier temples are Hindu and the later ones are Buddhist. Angkor was the name of this region. Unfortunately, most of these temples were sacked by the Thais in 1432. The Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious building. It was built in the 12th century to honor the Hindu god Vishnu. The temple has 3 tiers with the tallest representing heaven. There was a stairway to the third level so we were all singing "Stairway to Heaven". The temple is surrounded by a vast moat. The most famous walls are covered with a huge fight scene called "The Churning of the Ocean of Milk" which is from a Hindu scripture from 400 BC. The temple architecture is very original, but does have influences from India, Indonesia and Malaysia. We then headed to another temple that was mostly in ruins but still had a lot of original sections intact. Over the last 600 years, huge trees have grown through the temple and created a very cool effect. Monday August 15th (Siem Reap, Cambodia) We left the hotel at 8:30 AM, relatively early compared with yesterday. The itinerary was to view 7 or so more temples. We viewed most of them, but we were getting a little templed out. Some of the more famous ones were the ancient fortified city of Angkor Thom and the Bayon which has 216 huge faces staring at you and over 11,000 statues and carvings. We also went to see the 4 faces which is high up on a tower that you have to pass under. Each face is 5-15 feet in size and faces the four directions. The faces stand for compassion, charity, sympathy and inner peace. We then went to the Terrace of the Leper King. During the afternoon, we had the choice of more temples or R&R and almost all of us chose the latter. I took a nap, headed to town and pretty soon it was dinner time. Marlo had arranged for us to eat dinner at one of the local's house and it was interesting to see how she lived. She shared a house with over 20 people, mostly kids. I think I read that the average Cambodian couple has 5.2 children and that over half of the country is 15 years or younger. Well, her house was made of wood and on stilts. The food that she and her aunt and brother made was some of the best food I had on this trip. It was then off to the bars. Tonight we were going to the Angkor What? Bar. Cute huh? We ordered as many drinks as we could during Happy Hour and listened to some great music. We were right on the street and enjoyed watching the slow traffic of people. Managed to drink enough cocktails to set me up for the 14 hour bus ride the next day!! Tuesday August 16th (Siem Reap, Cambodia -> Bangkok, Thailand) Waking up at 4 AM was certainly very difficult and still feeling a few of the cocktails from the night before! Set off on the 12-14 hour unpaved, rocky bus ride to Bangkok. Lucky for me I slept the whole way to the Thai border and then most of the last 4 hours enjoying the traffic jams of bangkok! We arrived at about 4pm and so plenty of time for a freshen up before hitting the town again for a farewell dinner. Best bit was enjoying the street bars. Sitting on the pavement, drinking and chatting, some even have a portable music too! 17th August - Last day of the trip!!!!!! I enjoyed a nice lie in and then shopping until I dropped! Dom, Yaz, Nick and I caught a taxi to the MBK shopping mall and then about 3 hours later and with a much lighter wallet headed back to the hotel. Just finishing up a few things and then off to the airport to fly home.