Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia

13-17/12

Inaspettatamente il viaggio e’ tuttosommato decente, arriviamo e abbiamo gia’ un tuk tuk che ci aspetta per portarci in un Hotel prentato in precedenza, Hotel centrale, pulito e carino, per fortuna!

40$ il prezzo del biglietto per tre giorni per entrare a vedere le rovine di Angkor Wat, una vera meraviglia del passato, uno spettacolo. Un mondo immerso nella foresta e avvolto dalla vegetazione che l’ha preservato dal passare dei secoli (nonostante le incursioni dei Khmer Rossi) il passato glorioso di un popolo ricco, colto e grandioso; che sfortunatamente non rispecchia affatto la popolazione cambogiana dei giorni nostri. Vediamo sia il tramonto che l’alba da Angkor Wat, indimenticabile.

Vicino al nostro Hotel poi c’e’ un orfanotrofio e decidiamo di avvicinarci per sapere se possiamo aiutarli in qualche modo, ci chiedono tende per le zanzare, matersassi, coperte, cuscini, Autan….servirebbero alter mille cose ma non possiamo comprare tutto, facciamo quello che possiamo anche se sappiamo che non e’ comunque abbastanza. Una sera mangiamo in una delle bancarelle locali per strada e non finiamo tutta la cena, dopo pochi minuti si avvicina a noi un bambino di neanche 8anni, piccolo, magrissimo e vestito di stracci (la famiglia lo manda di sicuro a mendicare) e ci fa capire che vorrebbe finire I resti della nostra cena…..a me viene da piangere rendendomi conto del cibo che ho sprecato, della fame di questo bambino piccolissimo…..lo invitiamo a sedersi con noi per mangiare, gli compriamo altro cibo, acuqa e poi l’indomani mattina lo vediamo dormire per strada….straziante. Ci rendiamo conto di quanto poco potrebbe bastare per aiutare questi bambini (come tanti altri in tutto il mondo) ed e’ ancora piu’ difficile accettare il fatto che per qualche “strano” motivo non e’ cosi’ semplice o qualcuno non vuole che lo sia!

Il viaggio per andare in Thailandia e’ quasi ancora piu’ assurdo di quello con cui siamo arrivati. Incontro alle 87.00 partenza alle 9.00 dopo aver perso ore a stipare I baggali nell’ultima fila di sedili e non solo…..molti ammassati nel corrisoio centrale tra I sedili, per cui per sedersi dovevamo tutti calpestare I vari zaini, niente aria condizionata, caldo torrido, strada schifose. Prima inutile sosta in un baretto lercio in mezzo alla strada, dopo neanche mezz’ora altra inutilissima sosta in una specie di ristorante dove nessuno (a parte gli autisti) ha voglia di mangiare, sprechiamo un’altra ora li. Arriviamo al confine, dogana: sbattuti dopo ore di viaggio terrificante in mezzo a una piazza puzzolentissima, in mezzo al traffico e sotto il sole per fare la fila per il controllo passaporti, sudatissimi e stanchi morti. Quasi un ora di fila in mezzo alla strada sotto il sole e finalmente abbandoniamo la Cambogia e entriamo in Thailandia!!!! La differenza e’ immediata, gli uffici thailandesi hanno l’aria condizionata, sono dei veri uffici con scrivanie, computer e sopratutto mini bus super comodo e moderno! Sfortunatamente il viaggio era stato organizzato in Cambogia e fino alla fine ne paghiamo le conseguenze…..infatti abbiamo sprecato troppo tempo tra caricare I bagagli e le varie inutilissime soste che arriviamo al porto dove dovremmo prendere la barca per Koh Chang troppo tardi, la barca e’ gia’ partita quasi un’ora fa!?!

Cercano di rifilarci una guesthouse costossisima affianco al porto, in mezzo al nulla, un solo ristorante che non sembra granche’. Alcuni ragazzi che sono con noi non hanno neanche bath per pagare quindi decidiamo tutti insieme di andare a Trat, una cittadina poco distante nella speranza di trovare qualcosa di meglio. Inutile dire che il Tour operator si e’ rifiutato di pagarci la guesthouse per la notte e tanto meno il taxi, nonostante la colpa del ritardo fosse SOLO la loro!!!!

E con quest’utlima avventura chiudiamo il capitolo Cambogia, dove non so se tornero’!

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Travel Location: Phnom-Penh,Cambodia

I arrived at my hotel, the Billabong, at about 9. Very early, but the check-in staff were very nice and told me to walk around a bit and come back in about an hour, when my room would be ready.

A quick walk revealed a lot about the neighborhood, roughly defined as “Central Market” due to its proximity to the landmark located a few blocks away. Phnom Penh is easy to navigate as the streets are numbered. The hotel was on Street 158, with street numbers getting higher as one proceeded to the south, and going from low to high east to east from the river.

Only mad dogs and Englishmen . . .

Central Market is an interesting building where one can shop, but not for the best bargains (those are at the Russian Market, which is a little farther out from the center). The building itself is has a strong art deco influence and strolling the stalls that radiate from the center is fun.

I made it back to the Billabong at 10, when I was shown to my room, which was located on the third floor. It was spacious, with tile floors, a king-size bed, a big bathroom and a balcony overlooking the pool. Definitely worth the price, which was higher than some in Phnom Penh but lower then most in the rest of the world.

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Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia

Tempel und ein Dollar

Siem Reap bedeutet wörtlich ‚Ort der Niederlage der Siamesen’ und bezieht sich auf einen Sieg der Khmer über das Heer des Thai-Königreiches im 17. Jahrhundert. Bekannt ist sie vor allem als die der Tempelanlage Angkor Wat nächstgelegene Stadt, in der die meisten Besucher während ihres Aufenthaltes naechtigen. Heute so touristisch, daß es mehr Gästhäuser als Tempel gibt. Siem Reap hat Architektur im kolonial- und chinesischem Stil. Die Stadt mit ihren alten französischen Läden, baumumsäumten Alleen und ihrem langsam fließemden Fluß ist ständig am wachsen.

Angkor mit seinem hunderten von Templen im Hindu und buddistischem Stil war einst eine florierende Millionenstadt während London nicht mehr als 50.000 Seelen zählte. Angkor Wat, der bekannteste Tempel ist das größte, religiöse Gebäude der Welt. Seit Jahrzehnten schon werden die Ruinen von einer Gemeinschaft verschiedener Länder wieder in ihrem ursprünglichem Zustand versetzt. Die zwischen dem 9. und 12. Jahrhundert errichteten Tempel wurden in den 60er Jahren des 18. Jahrhunderts von den Franzosen wiederentdeckt.

Durch Couchsurfing hielt ich schon Tage vorher mit der Chinesin Yin Kontakt. Gleiche Zeit, gleiches Ziel; also haben wir uns ein Tuk-Tuk (Motorad mit Anhänger) genommen. Drei volle Tage sind wir durch ein Gebiet von hunderten von Temple gebraust und haben mehr als genug Hindu und Buddist Tempel gesehen. Der erste Tempel ist nur 6 km von Siem Reap entfernt. Am ersten Tag sind wir den grossen ‚Circle’ (Kreis) abgefahren und haben neun Tempel von innen, aussen, oben und unten gesehen. Bei ‚Angkor Wat’ und weiteren neun Tempel und Konstruktionen waren wir am zweiten Tag.

Alles Sehensswerte haben wir gesehen, daß wir am dritten Tag bis zu 50 km weiter nach Norden sind, um vier weitere Tempel und ‚Kbal Spean’ ein Fluss weit im Dschungel mit Felsbildern zu besichtigen. Die Tempel sind ein Muß; nach den drei Tagen hatte ich dann aber auch genügend alte Tempel gesehen. Da gerade Nebensaison ist war es nicht überfüllt. Essenstände gab es genügend und nicht zu vergessen die tausend Kinder, die versuchen dir Souvenirs anzudrehen, alles wurde mit einem Dollar angepriesen. Teilweise fragten sie nach deinem Namen und woher du kommst; sie wussten immer deine Hauptstadt und einige auch die Einwohnerzahl und konnten bis zehn zählen oder sogar ein paar deutsche Sätze nahezu akzentfrei aufsagen. Ich war erstaunt. Damit es nicht langweilig wurde habe ich bei jeden Kind Ursprungsland und Namen geaendert, um zu testen wie gut sie in Geographie und Namenbehalten sind.Unglaublich.

Zurueck in Siem Reap haben wir uns eine Massage gegoennt. Nachdem Abendessen wurde mir leicht schwindelig, so daß ich ins Bett bin und es auch in den nächsten vier Tagen so gut wie kaum verlassen habe. Nur um mir ab und an Wasser oder Essbares zu besorgen, einmal wurde mir dann auch im Getränkeshop schwindelig, daß mich die Frau dort auf eine Liege verfrachtet hat und überall mit Tiger Balsam eingerieben hat. Sehr freunliche Leute hier. Keine Ahnung warum ich Schwindel, Kopfschmerzen, Durchfall und etwas Fieber hatte. Kommt ab und an vor, daß Reisende das Essen nicht vertragen.

Nach viel zu vielen neun Nächten ging es mir wieder gut und ich war reisetüchtig.

—— E N G L I S H ——

The name Siem Reap means ”Siemese Defeated” which comes from the victory of the Khmer over the Thai’s in the 17th century. It is famous for the temples of Angkor. The town today is so touristic, there are more guesthouses and hotels than temples. Siem Reap with its old French shop-houses, shady treelined boulevards and a slow-flowing river is growing constantly.

Angkor with its hundreds of Hindu and Buddist temples used to be a million city while London did not had a population more than 50,000. The most famous temple, Angkor Wat, is the most religist building world wide. Since centuries different countries are renovating the ruins. The temples were built between the 9th and the 12th century and were recovered in the 1860s from the French.

Through couchsurfing I got in contact with the Chinese girl Yin. We had the same aim at the same time. We hired a tuk tuk. We passed for three full days hundreds of Hindu and Buddist temple ruins. The first temple is just 6 km from Siem Reap. The first day we did the so called bis circle and saw nine temple from the inside and outside. We saw ‘Angkor Wat’ and nine other temple and constructions at the second day.

We visited everything what was interesting in this area that we went 50 km to the north to see four more temples and ‘Kbal Spean’ a river with rock carvings inside the jungle.

The temple at Angkor are a must do but after three days it is enough of old temples. Because of the low saison it was not very crowded. There are many many food stalls and restaurants and hundreds of kids who try to sell you souvenirs – for one Dollar they say. Some of them ask for your name and country and they tell you your capital and a few know the population and can count till ten. One little kid was able to speak some sentences in nearly perfect German. I was really impressed. Not to get bored I changed my country and name every now and then to check their geology knowledge and their memory. Incredible.

Back in Siem Reap we treated us with a massage. After dinner I felt so dizzy that I went straight to bed and hardly left it in the follwing four days. I only got up to get water and a bit of food. Once I was so dizzy at the way out that I found myself laying on a divan bed in a litlle shop. The woman put also Tiger Balm all over me. Very nice people here. Do not know why I got dizzy, had head ache, diarrhoea and little fever. It is not rare that travelers has problems with the food.

After too many nine days I felt good again and was able to travel.

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Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia

Photos STILL won’t go in the right order! I have never had problems with the photos on this site before and this trip they are driving me crazy!

I expected to wake up more sore this morning than I did following the hike yesterday. Today is our last full day in Cambodia and we are actually going to do something besides look at temples! We started with our routine breakfast. All the other days, there have only be a few of us breakfasting (is that a word?) at any given time, but today it was really crowded. We were almost done eating when a gentleman showed up and there were no tables left. They seated him at a table in the lobby, but we were at a table for four, so we invited him to join us. His wife joined us shortly as well. They were from Munich, Germany and headed home this evening. We enjoyed chatted with them for a bit while we finished our breakfast. After breakfast we headed out. Today is a much slower temple day than the previous ones.

To start with we visited Pre Rup which means “Change the Body”. It was built around 961 by King Rajedravarman II. This temple is near where the East Baray (reservoir) was and the area around it was probably fields that were irrigated by water from the Baray. This temple was used as a crematorium (hence the name). It is built in temple style and of course symbolizes Mount Meru, located at the center of the universe. Our guide told us quite a bit about common funeral and cremation practices now and talked about how this would have been used then.

Our next temple was East Mebon. This temple used to be located in the middle of the East Baray and only accessible by boat. It too was built by King Rajedravarman II around 952 (right before Pre Rup). There is also a West Mebon temple located in the middle of the West Baray, but the West Baray still contains water and I think that you can only get to West Mebon by boat, especially now, right after the end of the the rainy season. East Mebon was built as an ancestor temple and was dedicated to the king’s parents. The two Barays here are amazing. The Eastern one was 2 by 7 kilometers (1.2 by 4.3 miles) and was filled by the Siem Reap River. They used the water for irrigation for the rice fields to feed the huge number of people that lived in this area. The Baray was about 3 meters (9.8 feet) deep, so you have to use a bit of imagination about how this must have looked when you approached by boat. This temple, is also a mountain style temple for Mount Meru. We actually ended up sitting by an elephant sculpture while our guide told us the tale of this temple and then we ended up chatting about a variety of things for the next 30 min or so. We then walked around the temple before heading to our next stop.

Ta Som, which means “The Ancestor Som” was built by King Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century. Ta Som is a bit of a tiny temple compared to the ones we have been visiting. The central area is quite short and small. Like Bayon, it has faces (most likely King J VII’s face) throughout the temple. Restoration on this one didn’t start until March of 2001 and it has trees growing on it similar to Ta Prom. Although the temple was designed and built by King J VII, it is thought that the outer enclosure walls were added by King Indravarman II in the 13th century. Its an interesting historic note that King J VII (I get tired of typing his whole name) built the most temples of any king. King Indravarman II built basically nothing, but spend a lot of time removing all traces of Buddha from everything that King J VII did build. Perhaps its better to do your own thing that destroy what others have done? I enjoyed this temple as I like the ones that are tumbling down with trees growing on them. You walk through a courtyard area with trees growing along the path and the denseness of the trees, even this close to traffic again demonstrates how easy it was for all these temples to be hidden for so long. The carvings here have held up really well, so took some pictures before we left.

Neak Pean, which means “Coiled Serpents” was our last stop before lunch. This was built by (guess who?) King J VII in the second half of the 12th century. This is a fascinating little temple. It was built in the center of what was the Northern Baray and placed on an artificial island. It was assessable by boat. The Northern Baray has been dry for a long time (for the most part), but due to all the flooding from the storms along Indonesia’s coast, a long makeshift walkway of two boards has been made to get you to this temple. It was kinda neat in some way, because even though we were walking and not boating, it still gave an idea of how it used to be. After we all made it across the boards, we took a look around. The main temple sits on a little island in the middle of a pool. Around it are four other square pools, each with a chamber opening into its pool. This temple was thought to be used for the priest to cleanse themselves. There was a cleaver little hole cut in the top of the chamber, that when water is poured in, it is dispensed through the mouth of a sculpture inside of it. A priest would sit under the sculpture and be cleansed with the holy water. There are little buildings next to each of the four pools where he could meditate after being cleansed. The four sculptures were of a horse, elephant, lion, and human. Its hard to look into each chamber to see the sculptures well, but some details are visible. Heading back across the boards, we saw some cute little ducklings, that didn’t want to hold still to have their pictures taken.

We weren’t all that hungry at lunchtime after our huge breakfast, but our guide and driver were hungry, so we had cold drinks at a little food stall across the street from Neak Pean while they ate. Again today, our schedule and location doesn’t lend itself to a trip back to the hotel. Like our lunch the day before, we were entertained by some of the local animals while a chicken and a few dogs came through. Two little cats came through chasing each other and one very friendly one ended up in my lap. She had similar coloring to our cat at home, but was way shorter in both length and height. Oh and of course she was quite a bit lighter Once the guide was ready to go, I had to evict her from my lap, although they offered that I could take her home with me. Since we go from here to Thailand and the US government frowns on bringing in animals, I had to decline.

We had one more temple to see this afternoon, Preah Khan, which means “The Sacred Sword”. I hear you wondering if this temple was also built by our good friend King J VII, and the answer to that would be yes. He built it in the second half of the 12th century around 1191. This temple is dedicated to his father. This has to be one of the most complex temples that we wandered through. Its grounds cover 138 acres total and the temple itself is huge. It is surrounded by a moat and walls that are about 6 feet high. The balustrade of the bridge over the moat is the gods and demons churning the Sea of Milk. This is an important story and pieces of art everywhere throughout the temples illustrate it. I have already written a novel for all these temple days, so I won’t retell it, but I am sure that google with be happy to share it with you. This temple is doorway after doorway, drawing you deeper and deeper until you finally reach the center. The central sanctuary was probably once covered with gold, bronze, or gems, from the remains left. This temple is built on a very significant site to King J, as this is where he defeated the Cham army and became king.

This ends our tours of the temples of Angkor. Each temple has much more history and interesting building points than I have described in the last four days. If any of them interest you more, there is a good amount of info available on the web about all of them. The best complete book of the temples, if you are planning a trip, is by Dawn Rooney. Its called “Angkor, Cambodia’s Wondrous Khmer Temples”. I didn’t find it at any of the local book stores, but the latest version was readily available on Amazon. The book is written so that it will guide you through each of the temples if you want to visit them without a guide. I found it a good resource to look back on when writing this, and to look up the temples that I knew we were going to visit. I find the guide very useful and at only $25 USD per day (arranged through our hotel) it was well worth it. I am sure that I have missed things about all the temples that others think are important, but hey, its not a history lesson, its just some random info. I hope that you learned something and are perhaps inspired to want to explore the temples yourself!

Now back to our day:

A very smart company has a large tethered balloon that gives you a great view of Angkor Wat and we really wanted to do that before we left. When we got there, the balloon was already up in the air, and it needs some time once it comes down, so we settled in to wait. Other than our park passes, this is by far the most expensive thing that we did here, at $15 USD per person. Once the balloon was ready we climbed in the cage and were off. The cage is circular around the balloon. It was only us and the operator, so it was very easy to move around. The ride is about 15 minutes and you can walk around the cage and take in all the views. My camera battery died on the way up and I impressed myself by changing it without dropping anything. The view of Angkor from this height was absolutely amazing! You can read the statistics on how large it is, but being up above it like this, really gives you a way better feel for how large it is. We spied the temple that we climbed up to the first night through the trees and the view of Tonle Sap Lake and the Cambodian countryside were great as well. Jeff was happy since we had a nice view of the airport too . The 15 minutes went by all to fast and we headed down.

We didn’t plan our trip this, but we just happened to be here during the 12th full moon of the year. In both Cambodia and Thailand (and I am sure other countries in Southeast Asia as well) this is a time of celebration. Historically this time of year is when the rice harvest would be done and everyone would have more time. There is a multi day celebration to give thanks to different gods including the gods of water and fertility. In Thailand, the celebration is called Loy Kratong (and you will hear more about it in the coming days). I am not sure what the holiday is called in Cambodia, but it is celebrated similarly, but a huge part of their celebration is boat races. The boats are paddled by large teams (I think about 30 people) down the river and the winners of each round face off until their is one winner. The winner then travels to the capital in Pheom Phen and races against the winners from all the other regions for the ultimate prize. There were both women’s and men’s boats and I was never clear if there was both a woman and man winner or if at some point they raced each other. Today was the start of the races, so we headed to the downtown river area. They had streets blocked off and many food vendors selling things. We hung out for a bit and then all the boats headed down the river to hear opening announcements. Both Jeff and I got a bit bored by the time announcements were over, since they were all in Khmer and they lasted almost an hour. Finally, they were done talking and the races started. Wow, some of those teams could really paddle! I stressed out our guide again, when I went after a kid selling bags of popcorn, but I lost him in the crowd. I then wandered around trying to find another popcorn vendor (sadly for me, without success). Jeff said that he was quite worried the whole time I was gone. He and my dad would get along well! Jeff is pretty easy to pick out in a crowd here since he is so much taller, so I had no doubts that as long as they stayed where I left them, I could find them again. After watching the races for a little while, Jeff and I decided we were hot and sweaty and ready to go home, so our guide led us across the river to where our TukTuk was. Our driver navigated all the people and closed roads and got us back to the hotel.

Our plan had been to have a swim, but the German couple that had joined us at the end of breakfast was in the lobby area having a drink, so we joined them. We compared our thoughts on Angkor and heard a bit about their trip to Vietnam, where they were prior to Cambodia. We had just ordered some drinks as well, when suddenly part of the drywall on the ceiling came tumbling down! No one was hurt, as it missed the German man’s head, but it startled all of us. The staff rushed over, moved us to another table, and practically before you could blink, they had a ladder and were doing a quick repair job. It appeared that perhaps an animal or something ran over it when it fell as the drywall piece broke in half. Sebastian, the manager, was there before long to check on everything. We were laughing about it by that point and were glad that everyone was OK. They headed off to catch their flight soon and we headed to our room.

We showered and put on about our last bit of clothes that weren’t covered in sweat and decided to be different tonight and go out to eat. I think that our TukTuk driver was shocked that we were actually going somewhere and happily took us to the Khmer Kitchen, which has cheap local food. We thought for some reason that it was on the same side of the river that we were on, but we had to cross the river, around which people were still celebrating. Our driver dropped us off and we arranged a time for him to pick us back up and we headed in. Jeff got something with Cambodian curry and chicken and I got fried garlic with shrimp. Both dishes were very good. I have to admit though when I read fried garlic with shrimp, I assumed that it was a translation thing and it really was shrimp with garlic. I was shocked at the amount of garlic present when it was served! The shrimp were very good though, so I worked around the garlic. Even though we were done before our set time, our driver was nearby when we came out of the restaurant, so we headed back to the hotel. It was peaceful to ride on the TukTuk in the dark without our guide. He has an amazing amount of knowledge and stories to share, but it can get exhausting to listen all the time. We headed to our room and packed to head back to Bangkok tomorrow.

We both greatly enjoyed our time here in Cambodia. When we planned our trip, we figured that four full days here would give us time to do everything that we wanted, but I could have easily spent more time. I would love to come back, not just to see the temples, but to see more of the surrounding areas as well. We were both very aware of the standard of living here, which is so different from what we are used to. Many families struggle to even have clean water (hand pumped from a well). There are many orphanages around this area as well. We didn’t get a chance to research the many different groups that are here to help, but plan to do so once we get home. We plan to do something to help make a difference for someone here. We did tip our guide and driver quite well and felt very good about that. I think if we came here again, I would find an orphanage or school that is reputable and bring them supplies. Our trip here has certainly made us feel very lucky and very grateful for what we have.

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Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia

Getting in to Cambodia meant a long bus journey from Bangkok to the border of Cambodia. Here we had to get out of the bus and formally leave Thailand by having our visa stamped. Next we had to walk over a bridge in a place between Thailand and Cambodia known as ‘No-man’s Land’ – I didn’t want to drop my passport in the river there!

After we got to the Cambodian border we queued and got our passports stamped to let us in their country and then travelled to Siem Reap in a very old taxi driven very quickly along bumpy roads.

Siem Reap is the nearest modern day city to the old Kingdom of Cambodia dating back to around 800-1300 AD known as Angkor.

We got up early and had to hire a Tuk-Tuk to get there and around because it’s so big – our driver was called Borath and showed around. The Tuk-Tuk’s are slightly different here and are like a trailer for a motorbike – they much more comfortable!

Cambodia at this time was a very powerful and wealthy country and many people wanted to live there. This meant that the kings were able to employ lots of people to build their palaces and temples.

It’s very difficult to take photographs that show how big these buildings are and how big the whole Angkor region is. We spent a very full day there and saw so many things, but it is possible to spend an entire week looking at all the temples and palaces.

Our favourite temple was the Terrace of Elephants where when the King had a party his guests would arrive by elephant and walk along the 350 meter terrace with tigers roaring below them!

One of the temples called Ta Prohm was used to film Tomb Raider. I felt a little like Lara Croft exploring the temple and climbing the walls, fortunately I didn’t get chased by any wolves, but unfortunately I didn’t find any treasure either!

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Travel Location: Phnom-Penh,Cambodia

In this blog I am going to attempt to explain what happened to the people of Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime. While we were in Phnom Penh, we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. When we arrived in Cambodia we were unsure whether it was appropriate to visit. Having spoken to local people they actively encourage the people of Cambodia and tourists to visit the sights, learn and understand what happened in the hope that this will never happen to any country ever again. The entrance fees to the sights are small they are clearly open to share the experience, not to make a profit.

As with every huge event in history there are always many factors which influence and lead up to the main event. Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge, he managed to manipulate and persuade many uneducated people who lived in rural areas that the current government was not in control and that he could change things and do lots of good for the country. This gave him a large a large following and an army of soldier s.

After the Khmer Rouge soldiers had raid the parliament in April 1975 the people of Cambodia thought they were finally safe and the country could look forward to a brighter future. However, Pol Pot had a different plan. He lied to the people living in the capital city of Phnom Penh saying that the American army was planning to bomb the city in two days time. People were forced to take what they could carry; that they would be able to return to their homes in a few days. This was a huge lie the people would not be allowed to return home, instead they were forced to work in the rice fields or murdered.

The Khmer Rouge had a vision of making Cambodia completely self reliant and to detach the country from the rest of the world. Pol Pot and his officials believed that American influences and all modern technologies, the media and advances in health care were no good for the people and renamed Cambodia the Democratic Kampuchea. Pol Pot wanted to erase all the past history of the country and separate it from the rest of the world so he decide to start the calendar on ‘Year Zero’

The vision was based around the production of rice. His aim was for the country to yield double the amount of rice in one year. The plan was to have enough rice to feed the people, save some for seed the following year and sell some to China so they could by some more agriculture machinery. Unfortunately this was not realistic and they couldn’t produce the quantity of rice that Pol Pot demanded, but rather than tell him and risk being killed, they gave him the rice that was supposed to feed the workers so that it could be sold to China, leaving many people to die of starvation.

Pol Pot diminished all the money in Cambodia and banned people from bartering (selling and trading things). He shut down all forms of electricity, media-including newspapers and banned all travelling. They killed anyone who was seen as educated so they murdered all the doctors, nurses, dentists, Buddist Monks, people who had worked in technology and teachers . They even murdered people who had previously been farmers but had fled to the city thinking it was safer than the rural areas because Pol Pot saw them as city dwellers, classed them as the ‘new people’ and saw them as worthless.

They closed all the hospitals, schools, temples throughout the land and the capital city became a ghost town with just a hand full of people working there in a rubber factory.

People were not allowed to wear glasses and were all forced to wear the same clothes; a black top black trousers/skirt, the same sandals and a scarf. People were also ordered to have their hair cut in the same style. Everyone worked the rice fields, the days were very long and the people had very little food. At meal times they were not able to sit with the families they had to sit by gender and by age.

The Khmer Rouge soldiers were very cruel and were everywhere. They would move people in the middle of the night so they did not know where they were, often separating families and friends.

The soldiers would collect people that they thought might be trying to escape, not working hard enough or be plotting against the Khmer Rouge and would take them to a very scary prison called S-21. At the prison the guards would hurt the people- men, women, children and even babies until they would confess to things that they had done or things that the guards thought they might have done. They would make people say names of people they knew which might not have been doing what the Khmer Rouge wanted.

When the guards had finished with the people they would take them to a field and kill them. The bodies would land in large pits with other bodies. The soldiers didn’t want people nearby to hear any noise they would hang a music speaker from a large tree and play music.

People were very scared to talk to each other about how they were feeling in case somebody was listening and told the Khmer Rouge. Listening to people who lived though the regime they all said the hardest part was not being able to trust anyone, even your own family. This meant that people stopped talking to each other altogether because people even feared there were people listening under their beds at night.

The first few people that managed to escape and cross over to the boarder tried to explain what tragic things were happening but the people didn’t believe them because what they described was so horrific.

Eventually the Vietnamese ‘liberation’ of Phnom Penh, the capital city happened in 1979. It was only then that world sat up and listened to what had happened to the people of Cambodia , in the 44month reign of terror inflicted by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge approximately 1.8million people died from the original population of around 7million.

The next few years were incredibly hard for the people of Cambodia, they did not know whether loved ones were alive or dead and where they might be. There was not enough food and everyone’s belongings had been taken from them, the countryside was covered in land mines and people were very poorly because there had been no medical treatment.

Thankfully now thirty years on the people of Cambodia have rebuilt their lives and are now able to trust again. The Cambodian people that we met all had a great sense of fun, a very strong will to survive, a great love of their family and an amazing ability to over-charge!

Molly’s Mum I am sure your gift aid will have helped made a great difference to those children in Cambodia.

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Travel Location: Siem-Reap,Cambodia

We booked an all in deal from Bangkok to Siem Reap for our first land border crossing of the trip as we were slightly anxious about it, especially as we’d heard a few stories of petty corruption on the Cambodia side and because we’d heard of people getting huge amounts of hassle once in Cambodia from touts and hawkers… not really surprising given the history of the country when you consider that only 30 years ago they had just come out of a regime that had abolished currency, bartering, any technology, medicines – in fact anything, so we were braced for another encounter like our first day in Delhi.

So for 30 quid between us we shared a minibus to the border and were guided through and met on the Cambodian side – funny watching a number of people getting ‘fast-tracked’ in return for a small payment, but coming out the other end before them. After border control we got a bus to the taxi rank and shared a taxi with a couple of larger than life Russian guys staying in the same hotel as us who had also paid for the same package. Our 15 year old taxi driver took us at speed in his battered early 90’s Toyota Camry directly to our hotel where we had a room for the night as part of the deal – probably paid a bit over the odds, but hassle free and thought good value for 15 quid each.

After sorting out a tuk-tuk for the following day to take us around Angkor Wat we went out drinking with our new Comrades – we learned about Siberian weather and got an insiders view of the rise and fall of communism – these guys had lived and worked through both sides so told a good story.

Early next day we were picked up by our driver who spent the day with us driving us around the Angkor complex. We’d seen pictures and travel programmes about Angkor, but nothing really can describe the scale and detailing of the place – to have the vision to design any of the temples is one thing, but when you consider the scale of these things and the intricacy of the stonework you can’t imagine how the vast teams of people who must have been required to do the building were actually directed to do it – and all a thousand years ago.

In a full day we only visited Angkor Thom – The Bayon, Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King and The Baphuon. We also visited Ta Phrom (where Tomb Raider was filmed – Charlie did manage a couple of cartwheels and commando rolls), Ta Keo, Ankor Wat and Phnom Bakheng.

There’s a few programmes of work ongoing to restore a number of the temples so unfortunately we weren’t able to enter some parts or climb to the top of Angkor Wat – a little disappointing, but hopefully the restoration with be sympathetic and keep the place standing for another thousand years.

Next day we left for Phnom Penh.

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Travel Location: Phnom-Penh,Cambodia

After arriving in Phnom Penh we did a quick city tour and took in the sights of the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and Victory monument – then headed to the riverside for a beer – we found a better place to stay for the next evening and arranged a tuk-tuk to take us out of the city to the killing fields of Choeung Ek and then to the Genocide Museum back in town.

The recent history of Cambodia has been horrific. Three years, eight months and 20 days from April 1975 until 7^th Jan 1979 Pol Pot was leading the Khmer Rouge with the vision to create a new beginning – banned people from doing everything but work to produce rice, he created two classes of people – those that were already farmers, working the land were deemed pure and labelled ‘The Old People’ and the deeply despised educated city dwellers were labelled ‘The New People’. Phnom Penh and other cities were evacuated, all technology and machines no longer required and people were sent to produce rice – everything being done by hand, currency, travel and even loyalty to family abolished – he even turned back the clock and started the calendar at year zero.

The new people were in a very tricky situation – they were told that to keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss – consequently almost 2 million people out or a population of 7 million were slaughtered during this time.

The Killing Fields is a memorial on the site of the execution centre for those prisoners detained in the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh – A huge Stupa has been built that contains the skulls, bones and clothing of over 8000 bodies exhumed, they are visible behind a glass wall – just over half of the mass graves have been emptied, the rest not touched. We watched a documentary about the methods used to ‘liquidate’ people and walked through the mass graves, even today able to see teeth and bones poking up through the soil. Probably the most disturbing sight is a tree next to a mass grave where only women and their children were buried – the tree was used beat babies to death, them being held by their ankles and heads smashed against the trunk while their mothers watched before being killed themselves.

The Genocide Museum is in fact the site of the S-21 prison which was previously Tuol Sbay Prey High school. The classrooms were turned in to cells and torture chambers, the tools used on show and the cells there to walk in – most only 0.8m x 2m. There is a wing of larger cells with glass windows – these reserved for military people deemed to be plotting against the regime (Pol Pot being more than a little paranoid) – the glass windows stopped some of the noise while those people were tortured, the standard in-mates just got barbed wire to stop them from jumping out and committing suicide.

The material of the day was pretty hard to take – especially as it happened so recently and you feel so close to it having lived during this time and because what you see hasn’t been changed or weathered over a long time.

However – we’re glad to have visited and to have learned without feeling voyeuristic – in fact the Cambodians actively encourage people to visit so that the same mistakes aren’t made again.

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Travel Location: Phnom-Penh,Cambodia

Well we are here at last! The trip from the airport to our guest house – Cafe Korner was filled with “Wow’s”, “Check that out” Did you see that” etc. The kids were gobsmacked and in awe. The Cambodia as I knew it 12 years ago still exists although there is certainly more infrasture and wealth. The poverty remains evident though everywhere you turn. The roads are full of 4WD, tuk tuks and motorbikes – there doesn’t seem to be many of the cyclos left. The smells are the same, the wonderful consistent smells of street food which is neverending no matter what time of the day.

The kids have woken us so I will sign this off and enjoy them. It is an absolute pleasure to experience Cambodia a second time for me but a first thru them and Tim. It is also interesting how much my Khmer language has return, I often surprise myself and the kids just look at me strangely when a mouthful of garble comes out. The worse thing with that though is the kids think I know exactly what everyone is saying – they don’t quite get it that my language skills are not that extensive!!

Anyways I will try to connect this movie I took early this morning and explain the “lessons learnt” bit later when the kids are asleep!

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Travel Location: Phnom-Penh,Cambodia

Day 2 began with purchasing a new wallet – yes my lesson learnt – don’t leave your wallet even for a second. Most of our cash gone – in a second. Main issue being the inconvenience of cancelling cards etc. Hopefully it will be reimbursed via our travel insurance. Just hope the guy makes a new start and doesn’t have to resort to theft again – and yes it was that much $$$! Anyways it could have been worse – could have been the passports!

So moving on as one must…..! We started the day by going to the market. Zara is missing her all her friends especially Emily – most things she sees she comments that Emily would like that Mummy! (So Em – really think she is missing you too and she has had fun spending some of her money which you kindly gave her – I think you will like what she has bought for you!). Sienna – Zara had some cut sugar cane from a kid street vendor – she thought of you and how much you would love it! She has really taken to the street vendor food – just hope the acidophilis powder holds off any tummy bugs!!!!

The rest of the day was spent roaming around P.P. in a Tuk Tuk (Theo is hooked!). We went to the Boeng Kak Lake and then visited the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This was originally a high school pre Pol Pot era. When the Khmer Rouge invaded it was used for detention, interrogation, inhuman toture and killings. Very graphic and emotional. The kids were left a bit gob smacked and like us all cannot understand why anyone would do such a thing! We felt it was too much in the same day to also go the Cheung Ek (the killing fields) so have left that for another day. The kids crashed early tonight – probably still tired from the travel and also emotionally exhausted by the visit to the museum. Whilst they slept Tim went to the local sports center for a gym workout and sauna and I had a foot massage. A great way to unwind after a very emotionally draining afternoon. Can’t wait til Day 3! Oh and by the way – I couldn’t download the movie so photos will have to do at this stage.

From Zara’s diary:

Day 2.

I woke up really late to the sound of noisy tuk tuks and motorbikes beeping. After breakfast we caught a tuk tuk to Boeung Kak lake, the Independant monument and Toul Sleng Genocide Museum.

From a child who was about my age, I bought a bag full of sugar cane pieces. The child seller spends her days pushing her trolley along the street, selling sugar cane. I paid 1000 riels, which equals about 30 cents in our money, for about 20 bite size pieces. I don’t think she goes to school because her family is too poor.

While we were having lunch a small child was leading his blind Dad who was playing a Cambodian instrument which sounded like a violin. They were begging for money, so we gave them some.

At the Museum, when we were walking in, there was a man that had a burnt face. It was a bit scary to look at him but he was a very nice man and asked me how old I was and what my name was and what country I came from. He was also asking for money so we gave him a little bit too.

The museum was a sad place because it showed all the people who died and the horrible ways that they died. The bad people – called Khmer Rouge – even killed the babies and children.

It was such a big day, Theo and I fell asleep really early and didn’t even have any dinner. We woke up the next morning really really hungry!

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