After chasing down the bus on our hastily commandeered moped we crusied through the cambodian country side towards phnom penh. We'd heard that cambodia was the third poorest country in the world. True or not, it was soon pretty obvious that vietnam was doing slightly better for itself than it's neighbour.
Arriving in phnom penh, we went in search of a half decent place to crash for the night. Unforunately the best we could do was a room with no windows and floor boards that you couldn't help but feel were hiding something slightly distrubing.
Quickly escaping this luxury we ventured out for a bite to eat and some cool beverages with an irish couple we got chatting to on the bus. Got some good tips on diving courses in Koh Tao (on the agenda in a couple of weeks) before myself and Dom played out the longest and most painful game of pool in history. Some may say I'm out of practice.
Regretting the few extra beers of the night before we rose at a unforgiving 530am to catch the fast boat to siem riep. $25 each turned out to be a complete rip off when we discovered there was a bus for $4 that took roughly the same amount of time. The very faint silver lining was chilling out on the roof as the boat powered up the Tonle Sap lake at brisk 100mph (well that's what it felt like).
Siem riep gave the impression of being so laid back it was almost horizontal. Plenty of relaxed bars and restuarants with sofas out the front and ice cold beers standing ready. More tourists than in phnom penh, mainly due to the temples at Angkor, but it still had a decent local feel to it. Food was also some of the best we'd had so far. I'd heartily recommend the amok fish and khmer curry. It was good to finally find some spice in our food.
Continuing the theme of abnormal wake up times we met our tuk tuk driver the next day at 6am to head over to the temples of Angkor. This one was definitely worth it as we arrived at Angkor Wat just after sunrise. This was, quite frankly, a spectacular site. Also, there was the added bonus of missing the hordes of korean and japanese tourists that had arrived 30 minutes earlier for sunrise and had a habit of making the place seem like disneyland.
Aside from a brief repremand from erica for taking more pictures of the monkeys than the temples, we were both suprisingly cultured and took an active interest in angkor wat, the bayon and ta prohm - the main sites to visit. We even went to the extent of buying a guide book (rrp $27, offered for $10, bought for $3 - now that's my kind of discount).
Ta prohm was probably the favourite with enourmous trees growing throughout the ruined temple. When the french found it they decided to leave this one site in it's original state, rather than restore it. Some may say lazy cheese eating surrender monkeys but after wandering through the place i'd say it was pretty good shout.
The day finished atop the highest temple (50m climb in the heat of the day - bloody knackered). Here we had an interesting chat with a local lad who told a touching story about how someone had fancied his girlfriend so he "boxed" them. Apparently he didn't get any trouble after that. True romance is alive and kicking in cambodia.
Culture out the way, we headed back to phnom penh. The prospect of a 10 hour bus ride to bangkok from siem riep was quickly rejected for the comfort of a one hour flight from phnom penh.
A very sombre morning was spent visiting the killing fields at cheung ek and the toul sleng genocide musuem, also known as s21. These are the two most significant sites that reveal the attrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge during the late 70's. A tour guide at both locations made it a very real experience, both of them being survivors of the genocide. It's easy to forget that many people you see on the streets lived through the regime. Estimates of the dead during the 5 year rule of Pol Pot range from 500,000 to 3,000,000.
The afternoon was more light hearted with a visit to the royal palace. compound and the silver pagoda. We even saw a glimpse of kings left shoulder as he was whisked from the palace in a limo for the ceremonial lighting of a flame. We think it was cambodian independence day, but it could have easily been liberation day (a volatile history would be an understatement for this place).
Phnom Penh finished with, the next morning we were on our way to bangkok. But not before being stuck in a rush hour jam on a tuk tuk for 2 hours on route to the airport. Made check in by 2 minutes. Phew!
Thailand next...
