Welcome to Cambodia, a land of real surprises for both of us, from the simple border crossing where only $1 was needed to oil the wheels to the colonial/riverfront architecture and boulevards of Phnom Penh.
Slightly relieved to swap the touts of Vietnam for the easier to deal with meeters and greeters its western neighbour, the relaxed and friendly atmosphere made a pleasant change from the constant negotiations of the past four days. With less tourists than Vietnam, and an obvious hangover from its violent past still affecting international perception, the majority Khmer people seem out to impress the virtues of their country looking firmly (from the impression we got) towards the future and away from the horrific 1975 - 1979 Khmer Rouge period where up to 4 million people were brutally murdered by the Pol Pot regime, and many live on today scarred and maimed by the on going toll taken by the period's landmines.
It is sad that Phnom Penh's major attraction is a trip to the "Killing Fields" of Choeung Ek only 15 km from the city centre where nearly 9,000 bodies have been recoved and many thousands are still left buried in mass graves. There is no easy way to explain the feeling of entering this seemingly peaceful and, from the surroundings, idillic tree lined two hectares of land in the middle of paddy field, in the ghostly and haunting knowledge of what went on, with human bones still rising up through the mud of the paths we walked along and a pagoda filled with 5,000 human skulls. However horrific this story is to tell, it's something I don't think can be ignored - the photos below give a much fuller sense of the site for those of you with the stomach to have a look.
Leaving this great but scarred (as is the whole country) city behind, and with it the opportunity for Will to spend his birthday firing bazooka's at buffalo or trying out AK47s on watermelons, we headed for one of the highlights of the trip, the temples at Angkor Wot near Siem Reap in western Cambodia.
Day 25 saw us, with the help of our tuc tuc, soaking up the beauty and solemn grandeur of the stone temples built by Cambodian kings between 1,100 and 1,500 A.D. in honour of first Hindu then Buddhist gods and figures of worship. Despite the beating sun and the return of Chinese style tourist groups, the complexes of temples provide hours of exploration, from the tourist filled and largely restored Angkor Wot main temple to others almost lost to the jungle. Largely unscathed by Pol Pot (apart from the beheading of most of the buddha statues) the temples are a true wonder and a place to return - just next time with an umbrella!
Fuelled up by another night of good Khmer cuisine, and our first "two nights in the same place of the trip so far, we caught our next bus to Bangkok.
Saigon - Phnom Penh: 6 bus hours / 237 km
Phnom Penh - Siem Reap: 6 bus hours / 315 km
Siem Reap - Bangkok: 10 bus hours / 535 km
TOTAL TO DATE: 13,400 km
FUND RAISING TOTAL: GBP 3,200 including Gift Aid - please keep these Doctors of the World donations coming!
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