Next stop Sihanoukville a beautiful coastal area in south of Cambodia. We found a cute little bungalow resort at Otres Beach, where our bungalow was only ten meters from the shore line.
You may find this hard to believe but traveling is quite tiring! This was a perfect way to chill out, read and recuperate before leaving for our city break in Bangkok. We also haven't seen a beach since India so it was great to spend some time by it.....just to make you jealous...the sand was soft, the water not too cold, and the waves entertaining. We ended up staying for 6 nights because we loved it so much.
We passed our days by reading, swimming, eating and sleeping...not necessarily in that order. One day we had what seemed to be a sitting marathon, we literally moved from our hut to a sun lounger, to a hammock, to a table, back to the hammock, to the table, and then back to bed. It's a hard life!
Oresti went for a jog along the beach, but I did not move from our resort until it was time to leave...very unlike us!
We then jumped on a bus and headed to the capital Phnom Penh. We really enjoyed it there, and learnt so much about Cambodia's harrowing recent history. We visited the 'Killing fields', where in the 1970's people were executed and thrown into mass graves, often still alive. Even today human bone and clothing are brought to the surface after a heavy down-poor, and these are collected and preserved in the museum. The center of the museum is a monument dedicated to those killed, and it is a large stupa, with the center made of a tall glass box. It has 4 levels, with approximately 200 human skulls sitting on each. We went inside and could feel the death around us, some skulls were children's and the method of death could sometimes be seen by the damage to the skull. It was horrific and quite overwhelming.
On the same day we also went to a former high school which was turned into a prison. We saw horrific photos of the prisoners, and many instruments and methods used to kill and torture. At least two huge rooms were just filled with portraits of those killed prior to execution, and it was like we were seeing the faces that belonged to the skulls in the killing fields.
In addition we saw the execution rooms, where suspected traitors (or simply those who worked for the ousted Lon Nol government)where held for weeks, starved, tortured and left to rot once they died. When the rooms were eventually found months later (when the Khmer Rouge were forced out by the Vietnamese), photographs of the dead where taken and are now shown in the museum. One prisoner had his whole face removed.
A very very depressing morning, but we definitely learned a lot.
We also went to the 'Russian market', where we updated our wardrobes (or backpacks) a little, practiced our haggling, and had some local food. On the last few days we found a couple of local food stalls, where restaurants would appear and disappear on the side of the road daily. We sometimes had noodle soup twice a day, and at only a dollar a pop we could hardly resist...tasted great too!!
Next stop Bangkok!!
