So, after 2 and a half months of Malaysia it was time to leave again, after one of the most journeys through security i will ever experience (my friend Helena was having her bag searched and the security officer promptly went off to eat a doughnut halfway through). The airport also happened to have a very interesting shop, a large sweet shop. The brilliant thing was the free tasters of every single variety they had available. We probably ate 3 days worth of calories each and didn't spend a single penny, win! It was like any other flight, however i was a little apprehensive as i wasnt sure what to expect from Cambodia and backing being so young and having just settled into a new county and life. I didnt worry for long tho.
When we landed in Phnom Penh we had to go through immigration. It was a bit of a nightmare! First after filling in a small form our passports were taken by a grumpy desk officer and taken into the back. They then reappeared 10 minutes later 50 metres away down the hall with a short Khmer man holding them up and trying to pronounce our names (Vickerstaff proved a little to much for him). We were then charged $20 and we were in, expect for tom who managed to get charged twice, but when an armed Khmer man as your passport and asks for $20 you give him $20. After an ridiculously long wait in the rain for a taxi we arrived at our hostel, The Mad Monkey. It had everything, beds so big you could get lost in, BBQ dinner and cheap beer! I even tried my hand at beer pong. It was great to be able to meet so many people doing exactly the same thing as us, relaxing and spending money on the other side of the world.
The next day however was a rather somber affair. For anyone who doesn't know of the troubles in Cambodia during the late 1960's Pol Pot came to power. His idea was to build a completely self sufficient Cambodia run by a communist government. This meant everyone would feed and support themselves, working the land. Everyone educated or in an advantageous position was marked an enemy of the regime. The people were sent back to the countryside and the cities became ghost towns. Schools, hospitals, temples and landmarked were destroyed. Over just3 years 3 million Cambodia people were killed, over one third of the population. The day we visited the
Choeung Ek killing fields outside Phnom Penh where over 18000 were brought and killed with spades, hoes and swords. Today there is a Buddhist Stupa containing over 5000 human skulls to mark the site. The most thing of the day however was the killing tree which was were the Khmer Rouge would kill infant children by repeatedly swinging them against the trunk. It was an incredibly humbling and disturbing place and I really struggled to believe that people could do such things to the people of their own country. We also visited the Tuol Sleng genocidal centre which is a converted school which was called S-21. Prisoners here were starved and tortured until they confessed to a crime, even if they were innocent. They were then taken to the killing fields to be executed. I didnt sleep very well that night.
The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was spent recovering, it was quite nice to be able to enjoy shorts, beer and pork again. I think we all had our fair share of bacon rolls in those first few days. Our next stop was the seaside town of Sihanoukville. We had been warned by a few travellers that this place was a little crazy, we were about to find out just how crazy!
Imagine the typical lads holiday, now imagine it in Cambodia were everything is really cheap, that was Sihanoukville. We were told that the local drink, Mekong whiskey can be as cheap as 40p a bottle and orange just is $4 a carton. Every drink was cut at least half and half, coupled with promotions and the horror that is buckets i swore after one day I would never drink again. I was in far too far over my head, it was a long way from the local pub in Gairloch for a pint of An Teallach. We decided to spend our time on the ridiculously chilled Otres beach were I tricked Danny into buying a pair of sunglasses when he was already wearing a pair. The Khmer people had worked out a while ago that white tourists have lots of money so you are constantly badgered for Tuk Tuk, massage and to buy crap you don't want.
After Sihanoukville we felt we need to chill so we headed for the riverside town of Kampot. We hired a bungalow and for three days and night we sate on the riverside in our own hammocks reading books, playing guitar and watching the sun go across the sky. Bliss. We also took to trip to the world famous Kampot pepper fields were I bought a small wooden pot of Kampot pepper, judging by the price it better be as good as they say it is! The trip to get to this field took us through proper rural Cambodia so we got to see the country away from the tourist hotspots and see what ordinary people live and work with. It also our spines a workout as our Tuk Tuk had no suspension and the track felt like we were driving over a teenagers face.
From Kampot it was back to Phnom Penh to catch a bus to Siem Reap but since we had a free afternoon we went to the local shooting range. Now i have shot a rifle before, it took 2 full days of safety drills, exercises and tests. here in Cambodia you walk in, hand over some money and they give you a loaded AK-47. The 12 year old boy inside me was in his element, all those hour playing Call of Duty and annoying my mum with stick guys, this was the real deal. The guy briefly motioned to the safety regulations however they were all in Khmer so it was less than useless. After draining an AK-47 magazine into a couple of coconuts and having to drag Tom away from the RPG (for $400 you could fire an RPG rocket at a cow, which I decided was completely horrific but Tom said 'no one could ever top that story' ). Our bus to Siem Reap was only 5 hours long but it ended up being nearly he most terrifying thing I have ever experienced, including Mum when she hasn't had coffee. Cambodia has just over 38000km of public roads, less than 2000km of that is tarmacked. Even the moon rover would have struggled on these roads but our bus driver was determined, he would off road, drive on the wrong side and basically do anything to get their. We even came across and accident were I swear I saw two dead bodies in the road. The bus just swerved around and kept going.
Finally we made it to Siem Reap in one piece.
This was to be a very interesting evening for as we arrived at our hostel, I looked to my left and thought 'no surely not'. It turned out to be Gino, someone from three years above me at school. What are the odds of two people from Gairloch possibly the smallest place in the history of existence meeting on the other side of the world at the same hostel, weird. Couldn't dwell for long however, as when we went upstairs we were presented with a challenge. Our hostel ran a competition known as the grenade challenge where during your stay you must drink 10 grenades to earn a free t-shirt. A grenade is a Jaeger bomb with an added shot of tequila, were you 'pull' the pin by drinking the tequila which then makes the Jaeger bomb. I am proud to say I did earn the t-shirt.
The main attraction in Siem Reap however are the world famous Temples of Angkor. It is considered the world largest single religious monument and were built from the 9-15th centuries. The main Temple Angkor Watt is the largest and was the seat of Khmer Empire. Seeing these great structures in real life is amazing and it is difficult to believe that people actually built these hundreds of years ago. The others highlights were the temples of Ta Prohm, which has been partially retaken by the jungle and was featured in a Tomb Raider film and the temple of Bayon which has a central spire carved with giant human faces supposedly Buddhist prophets. We ended the day by climbing the hill to watch the sunset over the vast Tonle Sap lake. The day would have been perfect if it hadnt been for the ridiculous amount of Chinese tourists. They move in packs so you cant move through or round them. They also take pictures of anything and everything so the narrow tunnels were a very log and tedious nightmare. Some even stopped and took pictures of me at one point.
Th remainder of our time was spent relaxing poolside in our hostel. One afternoon we bought a bag of 200 balloons and filled them all with water, sparking a mass battle. Other highlights involved burying an Australian man in the sand, tom buying 3 buckets at once and waking up wearing a different t-shirt and on the final night someone we had met at the hostel buying an extra large pack of Viagra and spiking everyone's drink at the bar, oh dear.
There are so many other stories from my time in Cambodia but hopefully this has given you a good overall impression, ill let your imagination do the rest (or worst). We boarded the plane to Bangkok knowing we would miss this beautiful country. The people here have suffered so much but they are some of the most kind and caring people i will ever meet and the country is a wonderful place because of it.
The final instalment of my travels, Thailand, is coming soon.......
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