We caught the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh to meet up with our Gecko tour, the trip took about 6 hours and crossing the border was an interesting experience....you first stop at the Vietnam border, get off the bus and then line up with your passport to go through a departure proceedure, you then get back on the bus drive 5mins through no mans (a patch of land that neither Vienam or Cambodia want to take care of) and then stop at the Cambodian border, get off the bus again hand over your passport to an official looking person, get back on the bus and then it starts driving off....needles to say we were getting a bit worried wondering if we would ever see our passports again! The ended up just taking us up the road to this very dodgy pit stop for food and toilet break while they process the visa's, we were very relieved when the man came back with our passports.
We met up with our tour group that night and went out for some dinner and drinks together. The next day we went on a cyclo tour to see the Royal Palace and the Russian Markets. After lunch we had a very sombre afternoon visiting S21 and the Killing Fields to learn about what Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did to the people of Cambodia, it was horrific and an extremely sad afternoon. Nobody could understand how the rest of the world could let this happen....it's estimated that 3 million people were killed by the Khmer Roughe which at the time was 1/3 of the population of Cambodia. Our tour leader was 16 when it all started and told us his personal story of the time.
Day 3 we left Phnom Penh and travelled to Siem Reap....temple country! Along the way we stopped off to use the happy room (toilet) and eat some tarantula black spider and let a couple of live ones crawl on us. I only ate one of the legs..crunchy! We then stopped at a silk farm and learned how they make silk and then watched some ladies weave it into scarves. After we arrived in Siem Reap we checked into our hotel had a little bit of free time and then late in the afternoon went and climbed Phnom Bakheng temple to watch the sunset.
Day 4 was a FULL day of temples starting at 5am for sunrise at Angkor Wat! It was an amazing day and it's hard to believe that they still let you climb all over these ancient ruins....I dare say in years to come they will change that. After lunch we stopped outside Angkor Thom to feed the local monkeys some fruit, they were so gentle and would just come and take it straight out of your hand. They're ever the opportunists though as I found out when a couple of them jumped on my back while I was squatting down and then one of them stole my sunnes and ran off, luckily one of the local boys ran off after it and got them back for me...I'm really not having much luck with sunglasses! That night we all went out for dinner and drinks....I drank way too many buckets of cocktails and was very very ill later that night....I did get a free shirt though...bonus!
Day 5 was a free day to do whatever whcih was good as I was feeling very delicate. Deb and I sussed out the local markets, bought some goodies and then later in the after some of our group took a trip out to visit a floating village for sunset. It was unreal, they live on Tonle Sap Lake and the whole village floats...everything you could want is there, mechanic, pool/snooker table hall, bar. People grow gardens off the back of their floating house and we even seen a floating pig pen complete with 2 pigs....just no mud. It really needs to be seen to be believed! Totally awesome!
Day 6...today we said goodbye to our group and travelled back to Saigon
Ciao for now,
Beck
