Phnom Penh

Struck down by a mysterious and vicious traveller illness (I'll spare you the details...), Ben and I spent two nights in Phnom Penh. With no appetite for food and unable to enjoy a chilled beer, we found ourselves at a slight loss for what to do... While we gathered strength, we luckily managed to catch a string of old films from our hospital - sorry, hostel - room, before heading out on a brief trip to some of the sights after the heat of the day had died down.

It being Phnom Penh, the main tourist 'attractions' lie in the Choeung Ek killing fields and the S21 prison which now houses the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. We fist visited the killing fields, and Ben and I both found the experience incredibly upsetting. I was in particular very impressed by the way the area functions as a beautiful and peaceful memorial for those who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, with landscaped areas and trees in flower, while also highlights the atrocities that took place in an informative and interesting way. The unearthed and emptied mass graves remain, and are harrowing reminders of the genocide and the tragedy, and the exhibition and accompanying video provide raw facts for the visitors to digest. The memorial itself is a tall white building, filled on every layer with hundreds of skulls - an arresting visual reminder of just how many people were brutally tortured and killed on this piece of land, and elsewhere in Cambodia.

It is almost impossible to comprehend how somewhere in the region of 2 million people were killed under the reign of the Khmer Rouge, whether by execution, starvation or disease, at a time when the entire population of Cambodia was around the 7 million mark. Furthermore, that this could take place just over 30 years ago (1975-1979) is mind-boggling.

The S21 prison held additional information and personal stories about the genocide, an contained a haunting display of hundreds of the individuals that were imprisoned there, adding a very personal perspective to the history. The former school was converted into a prison, with several mass cells and most other rooms converted into around 18 tiny brick or wooden cells. The balconies around the building were blocked off with barbed wire to prevent suicide attempts. Playground apparatus was used as a torture instrument, and the atrocity of this was highlighted by the artwork on display that simply was horrifying to look at.

Together, these exhibitions and the memorial gave a touching and distressing insight into the turmoil Cambodia and its people have faced and continue to live in the shadow of.

Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples

We spent the entirety of Tuesday at Angkor Wat, leaving at 5am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat itself, and then exploring another four temples in the complex over the course of day, before watching the sun set from the top of another temple - unfortunately I have forgotten almost all of their names... They included Bayon and Angkor Thom. We took a tuk tuk around and the breeze between temples was very welcome - it is over 35 degrees at the heat of the day and I feel like I am melting! we also had a very entertaining guide, who spent a fair amount of time telling us ancient contraception stories and his own 'intimate' stories, as well as explaining to Ben how best to pick up Cambodian prostitutes and demonstrating some strange 'dance moves'.... The rest of the time we found him to be very informative and knowledgeable, just with a large dose of bad taste. Luckily, we managed to share him around between four of us, as Ben and I had met up with Tola and Christina for the week.

The sunrise was really nice, but marred only by the several thousand other tourists who had also got up to see it - but for a World Heritage Site that sees over 2 million visitors every year, I guess that's to be expected. We had tea or coffee with condensed milk after sunrise, and eventually got breakfast at about 9am, after having walked around Angkor Wat, and marvelled at the impressive structure and the intricate detail in the bas relief on the internal walls, telling stories of the battle between Cambodia and Thailand in the early 12th century. Siem Riep, the nearest town to Angkor Wat, actually means 'Thailand defeated' with reference to this same battle.

The particularly interesting thing about the temples of Angkor is that they have both Hindu and Buddhist significance, as the king changed from Hinduism to Buddhism, also in the 12th century.

The temples surrounding Angkor Wat cover a huge expanse (it is the largest collection of religious buildings in the world), and so we headed to some more temples on Wednesday (this time in an air-con minivan - bliss!), including Banteray Srei. I found these smaller temples almost more enjoyable than the 'must-sees' of the first day, because each one was slightly different and unique - be it in colour, structure, disrepair or intricacy.

We also saw a fountain and an engraved river bed (at the top of a 2km walk up Kbal Spean in the heat!), which were very different and interesting. The river bed was engraved with 1000 lingas (small round pillars) and several statues of Vishnu and Brahma under water, and it was fun to spot them under the water. We also came across a group of men throwing things at a big green snake up a tree, which was entertaining! However, the promised oasis of a waterfall for cooling off in after the sweaty hike turned out to be shallow, dirty and almost entirely dried up - not to mention directly beneath the above mentioned snake!

Scam Central

After a night in Bangkok where we indulged in a streetside pad thai and some beers on Khao San Road, we took a cheap bus to Aranya Prathet, the border town near the Cambodia, and hopped in a tuk tuk towards the border. So far, so good.... but of course a scam was waiting just around the corner, when we arrived at a fake border station, selling overpriced visas. *sigh* Of course, there was a 'processing fee' but, with no idea about whether or not we could actually get a visa further on, we ended up bargaining them down to about an extra $5 each. Irritated, hot a sweaty, we headed onwards and crossed the border, and on the way met some friendly Brits who were also facing scam after scam... Their story made me a feel a little better about ours, so here it is!

After having bought a ticket one way from Bangkok to Siem Riep in Cambodia, they decided to get off the bus on the Thai side of the border, having suspicions that it was a 'scam bus' that would deliver them to a certain hostel in Siem Riep. Sure enough, the driver confided, "shhh! This is SCAM BUS!! hahahaaaa." Feeling pretty good about themselves, they headed on to the border, from where they intended to get a shared taxi to Siem Riep. Instead, we all ended up on a bus (due to lack of numbers for the taxi), for which they had to pay a further $9. They then discovered it was the same bus that they had got off on the other side of the border, with the same people, but for which they had handed in their tickets. And the hostel it was linked to was in fact the same hostel they had booked into already! Wound.

Anyway, we finally arrived, found our room had been given to someone else, so checked in to another hostel and went for some well deserved cheap beers and food. I'd forgotten about the stress involved in this 'backpacking' malarkey!