Cambodia

Made it to Cambodia! The bus trip was grand, not that many on it so lots of spare seats and space, airconditoning worked great too. It took about 2 hours to get to the Cambodian border, had to get a visa there, things seemed a bit chaotic but the bus company sorted it - glad I didnt have to! It was interesting going through all the towns along the way.  Cambodia has its own currency but everything here is quoted  in the US dollar and thats what you get from the ATM machines, so it makes it easy to work out prices. It seems to be priced similar to Vietnam.

Cambodia seems poorer than Vietnam, a lot of begging in the streets, sad to see young children begging. At night people come up to restaurants begging and making signs that they are hungry. Despite the poverty there is a good feel about the place, its very laidback and the people seem quite genuine (compared to some of the scammers I met in Vietnam). Its also got more of an edge to it - there are signs all over the hotel saying 'No Drugs'  and 'No Sex Tourism'!

Today I went on a tour of  the 'Killing Fields' - its about 15Km outside of town so I hired the local transport for a day - a Tuk tuk!

Its a great way to travel, especially in the heat as there is a lovely cool breeze but its also very dusty!

The Killing Fields were used at the time of the Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s . It is estimated that 1/3 of the population (2million people) were wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, 20,000 of these executed in the killing fields I visted today, most of them were beaten to death to save 'precious' bullets. Its very errie there because it seems so peaceful and birds are singing but as you walk around you pass the big holes where the mass graves were found (over 100 of them). Here's a picture of the memorial 'stupa', which displays the skulls and clothes of 8000 of the victims..

I also went to the genocide museum, known as S-21, this used to be a school but was used by Khmer Rouge as a detention center where they interrogated and tortured victms before sending them to the killing fields. The tour guide told me that at her Brother and Father had been killed by the Khmer Rouge. She explained that most of those who carried out the executions were young uneducated teenagers (aged between 13 and 18yrs), who were taken from their families, put in camps and brainwashed.

All very gruesome and depressing and its hard to imagine this only happened 30 years ago.  

Here's a pic of some of the houses and shops I passed along the way..

On the way back to my hotel along came the rain - a torrential  downpour! No problem for the tuk tuk driver through - he pulled over, covered the area where I was sitting with a plastic cover, put on his plastic coat and off  we went. Managed to get back dry!

I've got another 6 hour bus trip tomorrow - going to Siem Reap for a few days. Its north of where I am now and from there I can check out the temples in Angkor Wat, which are apparantly well worth the visit. I'm also going to treat myself and stay in  swanky  hotel  with a swimming pool (yippee!)  the room I am staying in now is far from swanky - it hasnt even got a window! Its clean though and only cost $15 a night but I am looking forward to a bit of luxury although not sure how much luxury $40 a night will get me!