29/10/09 Saigon to Phnom Penh

We went to our bakery for breakfast then went to check out of the hotel. The receptionist said we owed him $122 for the phone calls!! We knew we hadn't made any and he printed out a breakdown of the bill and it was several long overseas phone calls. Phil said we weren't paying it and he said your company can pay!!! Some error in the system but thankfully he dropped it pretty soon and we didn't have to pay...we wondered if he was pulling a fast one!! We made our way to the tour office to meet the bus but it was parked a little further down the street so we loaded up again and after a long wait to cross the busy road finally made it to the bus. The staff were all Cambodian and didn't speak any English but we were handed the usual entry and exit forms for Vietnam as we would be crossing the border into Cambodia later in the day. A man came along and took all the passengers passports which we weren't too sure of but according to the English speaking Cambodian in frnt of Phil it was normal. We would get them back once through Vietnams border then we could sort out our Cambodia visas. Once at the border we went with our bags to get them xrayed in a haphazard system of random queuing. After the xray we all stood round like lemons not having a clue what to do next. The melee of people seemed to be going towards a passport control but without our passports we wouldn't get through. After a short while waiting we were called forwards by our man and had our passports handed back. It seems all the bus staff run to the passport control and its all a bit of pot luck. All the people to whom the passports belong just hang around waiting..crazy, bonkers. After putting our stuff back on the bus we were directed to the Cambodian side to sort out our visas. The buildings looked completely different to those on the Vietnamese side and you immediately knew you were in a different country. It all appeared verymuch more well kempt than Vietnam so first impressions were good. We sorted our visas without too much difficulty but Liz managed to lose $5 somewhere in the various transactions. Once through the Cambodian formalities we boarded the bus again heading to Phnom Penh. Liz was pretty unconcious for most of the way still feeling pretty exhausted and unwell. Phil saw many impressive looking temples in destinctively Khmer style and many farm workers ploughing using water buffallo. He really enjoyed the scenery and Liz had missed most of it unable to keep her eyes open. We pulled into Phnom Penh and we both immediately liked it. It was low rise and very quiet compared to the chaotic Vietnamese cities. We were driven to an office of the bus company and the bus was surrounded by what we thought were tuk tuk drivers but turned out to be staff to unload the bags into the office. Very civilised. One chap approached us and asked if we had a place to stay and if we needed a tuk tuk just let him know then left us alone again. We arranged with him to find a hotel for $15 and he drove us to the palace area by the river. The first place was $20 and the next was up 5 flights of stairs (no lift). Apparently Phnom Penh is very busy as it the river festival Bon On Tuk and millions of people come from all over Cambodias 24 provinces to see the action on the river where hundreds of boats compete in races. We drove around for about half an hour looking for another place but in the end realised the five flights place was the best so went back there. The exercise will do us good. Our tuk tuk driver, named "Santaclaus" then asked us if we would like a tour to the killing fields and the S21 prison the next day. We definately wanted to see both of those places so we agreed to meet him the next morning. We climbed the stairs to our room which was fine and had great views to the river and the royal palace from the outside balcony. We sorted our stuff out, had showers then went out to walk along the river and nearby area. We stopped in a restaurant where Phil had a happy herbs pizza with special herb toping which left him pretty giggly for a while !! We bought the Killing Fields book from a poor chap who had blown both his lower arms away in a land mine accident.The US planted many mines in Cambodia to stop the Viet Com from using the Ho Chi Mihn trail to get arms and we have seen many people with missing limbs here as well as in Vietnam. As we were sitting eating our meal there was a huge firework display over he river opposite where we were sitting. It was the anniversary of the Kings coronation so they were in celebration of that, we thought how good our timing was to have managed to catch the display. We went to an internet cafe to try and call Lizzies mum whos birthday it was the day before but she was out again unfortunately. After that we went to De Javu bar for a drink before we went back to the hotrel to bed.

30/10/09 Phnom Penh Friday Santa claus picked us up at 8am for our tour with him and we set off for a 13km drive out to the killing fields of Choeng Ek. We went into the site and firstly were shown to the Stoupa erected as a memorial to the 17000 people executed there by the Khmer rouge between 1975-1978. The memorial is a huge white tower encasing the skulls, clothes and bones of approximately 9000 victims. As you can imagine it is pretty shocking to see and very sobering. We walked around the site to see the areas where the mass graves were dug out. They are a series of wide holes accross a field dotted with pieces of clothing, collections of bones and teeth and signs describing what/who exactly was buried in each one. There was a grave with 166 headless victims and ones filled with women and children. Our guide showed us a tree which small children were delibrately smashed into in front of their mothers to kill them. The Khmer rouge had a policy of killing all the children too as they may want revenge later. The people killed were educated, professional people as the Khmer rouge wanted all people to be equal and no one to have more than anyone else. They killed anyone with a qualification or a professional job including teachers, journalists, doctors and lawyers. They would usually be tortured in S21 prison then taken to Cheong Ek to be killed. There are another 43 graves which are yet to be cleared. Victims were either clubbed or suffocated to death to save weopons and bullets!! We walked around the site for a while taking it all in and reading all the information. Despite the fact there is little left to see there you get a feeling of the horrors that must have taken place there. On a slightly lighter note as we walked around the site some children were playing along the perimeter fence and a small girl pointed at Phils tummy and said" baby...two" while rubbing her tummy!!! Poor Phil, the locals are quite fascinated by his tummy as all the locl men are really thin and hes had it patted a few times now!! After leaving Cheong Ek area Santaclaus asked us if we would like to visit an orphanage on the way back into town. Both of Santaclaus parents died during the Khmer rouge time with its famine and he was bought up by monks in a Buddhist monastery. We stopped outside the orphanage to buy some rice which Santaclaus said would be a good gift for them but when we checked the price it was $50 a bag !!! There is rice everywhere in this country and its cheaper to buy in Tescos but we hadn't enough money for a whole ba so ended up with a half one. We felt really tight turnng up with only half a bag but $50 is alot of money for anyone. Once at the orpahange we met a few of the childrena dn one of the volunteers who wshowed us round. There are 103 children between 3 and 18 years who live there. Some are disabled or their parents are unable to look after them and others are orphans but they all seemed quite happy. They are educated every day and are fed and clothed through charity donations like ours. We spent an hour or so there playing and talking to the children and volunteer , they really loved to take photos with our cameras and were fascinated by them. We left to go back towards Phnom Penh to visit Tuong Sleng genocide museum. We stopped in a Khmer restaurant and ate lunch with Santa, Phil tried a Khmer curry which was lovely, Liz had no appetite so didn't eat. Tuong Sleng or S21 prison was converted from a school into a detention and torture centre during Pol Pots reign of terror. During the frist part of 1977, 100 people a day were killed there. The cells were left as they were found with iron beds and bloodstained ceilings,floors and walls. The prisons final 14 victims are buried in the grounds after their bodies were discovered in the cells. There were rooms full of rows of photos of victims including many women and children who had their hair cut all the same in keeping with Pol Pots regime of equality!!! The prioners were tortured into confessing to being traitors and also giving names and whereabouts of family members who were then rounded up too. the used electrocution, water torture and beatings and there were many shocking photos and paintings demonstrating activities there. Only about 7 people survived S21 and others who died during torture were buried in a mass grave within the prison. All the prisoners were shackled and put into sinlge cells which were tiny before being taken for torture. It was all pretty shocking and the reasoning behind it all so crazy, as with all genicides a really pointless waste of life. We watched a documentary while here about a family who lost two members of the family in S21. They were a couple but were made to live apart as the Khmer rouge banned expressions of emotion,looking at each other, singing, music , money and banks and expected the people to mass produce food in the fields and all live in a cooperative society togethwer in harmony !! In reality most people were living in fear of their friends and neighbours as there were people spying on each other and reporting to the Khmer rouge. Once the harvest failed in Cambodia and the people began to starve Pol Pot decided there must be traitors in the party who were trying to make the system fail. He then turned on his own staff and had many tortured and executed too!!! It was a pretty shocking visit but really interesting. Our next stop was to see the Russian market but we were both very tired so only spent about ten minutes there before getting back into the tuk tuk to go to the hotel. We had a quick snack at the hotel then finally managed to call Lizzies mum then went into the town to see what was happening ahead of Sundays festival. The town was filling up with people and there were temporary canvas tents going up and many country people had made their way to town and were cooking and sleeping in th streets where they could find a space. The atmosphere was great and we spent quite a while just watching life go on. We sat and chatted to a couple of lads who had just arrvied in Phnom Pehn and Phil shared a bag of fried crickets with them. Liz declined using her dodgy guts as a good excuse.On the way back to the hotel we called into De Javu bar again for a quick drink. Pete the Bulgarian owner bought us a couple of drinks and we had some Tequila slammers...oh dear!! We ended up leaving there at about three feeling pretty drunk and woke up the night staff to let us into the hotel. 31/10/09 Phnom Pehn Saturday We woke up at about 10.30 but only ventured out at about 12.30. We spoke to Diamond the local travel booth owner about buses to Siem Reap and Sihanoukville where we wanted to visit over the next week then walked down a backstreet to see Wat Cunalom near or hotel. It is a big buddhist temple and there were many monks there as well as plenty of cheeky little street kids all saying "hello" to us. We found a nice resturant near there and sat watching the action near the river as crowds started to build up. A few boats were practising along the Tonle Sap river for the huge boa racing competition the next day. Teams from 24 provinces race each other along the fast flowing river a bit like dragon boat racing, they go very fast with the current but are almost stationary against it. The river looks very dangerous and is quite dirty so anyone falling in wouldn't stand much chance. We went to am internet cafe where Phil did his photos and Liz wrote the blog. There was another huge firework display which was great to see and was to mark the eve of the festival which lasts for three days. We were staying in Phnom Pehn to enjoy the festivities until Monday when we were off to the beach at Sihanoukville for a few days. We walked back to the hotel via petes bar, stepping over the many people who had set up kitchens and beds in the streets, It had transformed sleepy Phnom Penh into a party town.

1/11/09 Phnom Penh Sunday

After another lazy start we got a tuk tuk to see Wat Phnom which is Phnom Penhs most famous Wat standing on the cities highest point,25 meters!!It is said to be the place where 4 Buddha statues were washed up from the river and found by a woman called Pen. Phnom Penh means hill of Pen. Because of the festival the Wat was swarming with people all cooking up different foods and just having a good time. Cambodians are very happy people and will always give a broad smile. Up near the main temple area were children selling birds out of small cages, for a dollar they would release four!! It was poretty cruel as the birds couldn't fly around and were sititng in direct sun for most of the day with only a small bowl of pretty stale water. The poor little things were covered in sores and were missing lots of feathers so must have been there a while. After the visit we went to the banks of the Tonle Sap river to watch the race preparations going on. Lots of multicoloured teams were racing up and down the river and the atmosphere was good. We sat and watched for a while on the river wall with the crowds of teams and spectators watching too. Then we got a tuk tuk to drive us to the national museum near our hotel where we planned to visit. We were hoping to see the royal palace complex too but after lunchg it was getting a bit late. We decided to see the palace first but as we got close to it realised something was going on as there were loads of military and police there. There were diplomatic cars from all countries parked up and apparently the king and his guests were going down to a riverside pavilion to watch the races. Unfortunately the palace was shut for the duration of the festival so we wouldn't be able to go inside and see the Silver pagoda and beautiful buildings etc. We left to go round the museum. Much to Phils annoyance he wasn't allowed to use Pammie inside the museum and had to pay mto take photos in the small courtyard garden area within the museum. Despite his disappointment we walked round looking at the huge collection of Khmer art and sculpture they have on display there. It was 5pm and the museum was closing so we left. The security were still letting people stream in through the gates whilst telling us the museum had closed...weird. We crossed over to our hotel and got showers after a hot, sticky day . We could hear some bacging again and wenty to the balcony and had a birdseye view of nother fireworks display and a procession of lit up boats going down the river. The boats were carrying huge light displays depicting many religious and symbolic images. They looked really amazing sailing along with the fireworks above them. We stood outside watching for a while and then went out for dinner but were drawn to the waters edge to watch the procession go by. We sat in the restuirant with the good river view again and people watched for a while then went to bed as we had an early start the next day.