From Vietnam to Cambodia - we've done it all!

Nah Trang was another busride away from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. Apart from being extremely commercial and Americanised, they do have the Cu Chi Tunnels, what the local militia used during the Vietnam war. Unfortunately a bout of flu floored me the day we were meant to go, so Matt traipsed off without me, and by all accounts I think it's the best thing he's done so far. Otherwise Saigon is a place to go and eat and drink.


Matt snoring in Saigon (with Batman Returns in the background)

From Saigon we took a 6 hour bus across the border into Cambodia, stopping at their capital city Phnom Penh (Phnom is pronounced 'Nom'). I took an earlier bus than Matt, and so booked us into a decent if slightly out of the way guest house. On going back to the bus station 5 hours later, I befriended a few tuk tuk drivers, one of which had amazing English thanks to spending 3 years in a grammar school. He told me that where we were staying wasn't all that, and suggested we move to another place closer to the lake the next day. We took him up on this, and he came to collect us. The new place, named simply 'number 11' was a more backpacker oriented place, and had a restaurant and bar on stilts over the lake itself.

For those in the dark, Cambodia suffered from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime back in the 70s. He is credited with killing 2 million Cambodians, waging war on the rich and the educated. Around 20,000 Architects and Engineers were murdered during his reign. This is memorialised by 2 sight-seeing areas. The first is the S21 Prison, where around 20,000 Khmer and 7 foreign journalists were incarcerated. The buildings used to be one of the leading schools in the region, but were converted into prison use in a rather barbaric fashion. Out of the 20,000 prisoners, only 7 are thought to have survived.

Most prisoners weren't killed in the prison, rather bussed to what is now known as the Killing Fields, the most famous about 15km outside Phnom Penh at Cheong Ek village. This particular killing field has approximately 86 mass graves, each of which holds between 50 and 400 bodies. One particular one contained solely women and babies, next to which you can see a tree, and a mark on a tree. The soldiers would hold the babies by their legs and swing them against this tree head first, hence the mark. My camera died that morning, and so unfortunately I have no pictures, but suffice it to say the whole experience is very chilling and sobering.

After two days in Phnom Penh (and having won $5 in a poker tournament, enough for a decent meal and a night's stay!) we took another bus to Siem Reap. The famed Angkor Wat is here, but again you can see the destruction caused by Pol Pot's government. While they are now restoring the monuments, a lot of the statues had their heads cut off by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. We did however get to see the temple used in the Tomb Raider film, an extremely impressive structure with huge white trees protruding from their roofs and entwined around struts. We got up at 4am to go and see the temple for sunrise, and when I get my pictures online I'll add some as they are truly spectacular.

We are now in Sihanoukville (pronounced Sin-ook-vill), a beachside village which is extremely chilled. Cambodians in general have extremely good English, but the towns themselves are extremely dirty, and ridden with hawkers trying to sell you things. I did however have one interesting chat with a girl of 10 who was trying to sell me something as I had a drink at Angkor Wat:

Girl approaches: You want buy something, only $1 (she pulls out various bracelets and trinkets)

Me: No thanks, I don't want anything

Girl: You want nothing?

Me: Yes I want nothing

Girl: Nothing costs $1, you buy this, better value

Me: Ate-Okun (no thanks)

Girl: Ah you speak Khmer, where you from?

Me: London

Girl: I tell you name of Queen, name of Prime Minister, how many people live in London, you buy something

Me laughing: No thanks, that's alright

Girl: You know capital of Madagascar?

Me: No I don't

Girl: I tell you capital and you buy

Me: How about you tell me capital and I tell you capital of Alaska?

Girl: I already know capital of Alaska, is Juno

Me: *speechless*

The patter this 10 yr old had, plus her intelligence left me dumfounded. Obviously they go to great lengths to try and sell things, but this one hawker had a lot more in her head than the average Khmer I'd spoken to.

There's also a lot of beggars in Cambodia, a lot more than I've found anywhere else so far. It's difficult not to give to everyone you see, and I've given to one person who approached while I was actually eating, but unfortunately it's not possible to make a habit out of it.

Otherwise the Khmer people are extremely friendly and helpful, if a bit on the aggressive side. People travelling in Cambodia seem to be more grass roots kind of people, and there are very few western holiday makers. I'd definitely recommend it however to anybody thinking of taking a vacation in this part of the world.

We're going to stay in Sihanoukville for a few days now, recharge after a few very early morning starts (4am and 5am two days running with little sleep inbetween) and then begin to island hop our way back to Thailand.