Killing Fields

When you travel in Cambodia everyone tells you that it is best to fly as the roads are so bad…..they are right. A bus journey that should take 6 hours takes 8 and the journey is bumpy to say the least. We knew this ahead of time as we had done it before, but this didn’t keep us from the cheap ($4 per person) locals bus again as we headed south to Phnom Phen. I have to say it again; the countryside is beautiful and dry with basic huts and entertaining scenes of daily life. Like 30 chickens hanging from motorbike handlebars on their way to market, or a straw barrel full of piglets on their way home (again on the back of a motorbike)

Or a cow taxi!


This is a typical petrol station in Cambodia… the two BP geeks had to take one!


Phnom Phen is completely different from Siem Reap and (personally speaking) not as nice. Arriving fairly late in the afternoon and finding a place to stay we headed to the riverside for a bit of sophistication and a few cocktails. Comedy would have it that we had been sitting in the very smart Foreign Correspondence Club, overlooking the river, mojito in hand, for about 5min when I noticed the lovely leather chair I was sitting in had gifted me with hundreds of fleas – back to the simple locals bars from now on!

The two main reasons for visiting Phnom Phen were to better understand the Pol Pot genocide by visiting Toul Sleng Prison and the ‘Killing Fields’. To write that feels so strange, but the terrible recent past for Cambodia (late 70’s) is still very raw. Toul Sleng was a school, but converted to a prison in 1975 and housed many local people before they were either tortured to death or sent to the Killing Fields and massacred. Lets just say that they have left it ‘as it was’ and the images of what happened there are truly shocking. People were rounded up and killed for being educated; speaking more than one language, wearing glasses…I would have been an early victim. Pol Pot’s propaganda and reasoning and regime seem so crazy, but it lasted for years.

After Toul Sleng (S21) people were sent to mass graves by their hundreds (300 killed per day in the height of activity) and walking through the graves and seeing the clothing (and some bones) still sticking out of the ground is quite shocking. Mass graves (129) of which 85 have been excavated to reveal 9000 remains. I found it quite hard to see
- the tree where they threw the babies against to kill them
- the speaker hung from a tree to play music over the screams of execution
...and when the executioners (most child soldiers) had done their duty, they too were killed to prevent them escaping and telling the world what was happening!! You can’t win. Enough of that – very shocking and thought provoking. Highly recommend everyone reads “First they killed my Father – a Cambodian daughter remembers”

Fantastic dinner at a restaurant/school called Friends – some of the best food we had in Cambodia. It is also an example of how many businesses are set up. Getting street children off the streets by educating them and teaching them trades (this case is catering and cooking)

In summary we loved Cambodia – it may not sound like it from the two blogs! It was moving, thought provoking, beautiful, wild and the people are wonderful.

Cool veggie market


Off to Thailand for some beach action, elephants, cookery school and perhaps a trek?

Cambodia - one dollar?

Why 'one dollar' - because every time you ask how much something is, that answer is 'one dollar' - tuk-tuk rides, fruit, postcards... until you get into serious silk buying that is!

Cambodge (the French word for it) is wonderful. Dirty, rough around the edges, colourful and witty. We decided to travel like the locals and caught a rickety old bus from Saigon to Siem Riep (home of Angkor Wat) Possibly the toughest 14 hours of my life in a hot, noisy, bouncy bus with almost no aircon and terrible local music (whining in anyone else's language) No regrets for catching that bus - the best way to throw us into Cambodia boots and all.

As soon as you cross the boarder from Vietnam the roads are bad and the scooters are replaced by bicycles. The countryside is dotted with simple huts made from wood and palms and people are living mainly off subsistence. The strange thing is that I looked though the camera lens for hours trying to find moments or images to 'capture Cambodia' but you can't - you really have to absorb it where you are and just remember it (this is not an excuse for not many holiday pics!!) Eyeopening poverty, the signs of a war not long gone, but full of charm.

Siem Riep is definitely our favourite place in Cambodia. It developed around the tourism industry attracting people to Angkor Wat and is full of funky art galleries, bars, restaurants and people. We should have stayed here a few days longer, but we did love every minute of the 4 days we were there (that could be because your dollar goes a lot further here and we stayed in a REALLY nice guesthouse with amazing local Cambodian cooking)


Our day at Angkor Wat started with a 5am wake-up and we were on the road at 5.30am. Through the guesthouse we arranged a tuk-tuk driver for the day and this is the only way to see the temples (they are spread over hundreds of kms) We did as most tourists do and stood at the gates to Angkor for the sunrise - not romantic at all as there are about 200 people there all waiting to take the same pictures as you!! Our Tuk-tuk driver knew a lot about the temples and the history, so he was a very useful guide too and over lunch we learnt a lot about him and 'real life' for him and his family. One problem we noticed with it was that people are allowed to climb all over the temples and this is clearly damaging them. In years to come some of them will be lost forever, but Cambodia does not have the conservation money or infrastructure to spend on their preservation.


Us at our romantic sunrise - this was at 5.30am and before Simon had much needed haircut.


Our secluded spot.


The money shot!

Pra Thom is where they filmed Tomb Raider (which I have not seen) but Simon made me do all these silly Angelina Jolie running and jumping moves - I think I looked more like a monkey than a film star! The amazing thing is the temple is overrun with forest and has been allowed to stay that way so we took hundreds of funky pics of this temple.


My Lara Croft impression


Dribbly tree

Further outside the main temple area is a lovely old temple made of red sandstone (Bantay Sureay) and harks back to a more Hindu influence with deep intricate carvings. This would be a silly place for BOTH of us to run out of camera battery wouldn't it! We did climb Pra Rup to watch the sunset, but it was not a very impressive one (good thing as we could not take pics)


Sandstone loveliness


Sandstone lovely

Landmines are still a very big problem for Cambodia and we did meet people who had lost limbs from landmines. They estimate that they have only recovered 3 million of the 6 million landmines laied in Cambodia - an expensive exercise as the NGO's charge $1000 to remove a mine. There is a man (ex child soldier) who is an expert at removing mines (mainly because he lay hundreds of them) and he does it for free - we visited his small museum in Siem Reap - truly shocking stuff those mines are.....and countries are still making them!

Final reflections on Vietnam

One thing that Simon failed to mention in his last posting was that the country seems to be run by women!! Not that they govern it, just that EVERYTHING is done by them. Roadworks, cement mixing, building, restaurants, shops, cooking, hotels.... women are doing it!! Where are the men you ask? They are tinkering with their scooters in the workshops or riding around on their scooters hassling tourists for lifts. The locals all say about the men: 'No scooter, no girlfriend. But many bikes, many girlfriends!'

We really liked Vietnam, other than the rain in Hue and the dirty train journeys. But Cambodia awaited and the real adventure felt like it was just starting.

I'm glad we didn't miss Saigon

It now seems quite a time ago, Saigon (as the locals still prefer to call it) was our first sign of some real Asian heat with daytime temperatures reaching just high enough for us to really need our cheeky little afternoon naps.

We arrived on the overnight train (a somewhat quieter affair than previous trips allowing a reasonable amount of sleep) at 5.30am, the taxi ride through a waking city was quite remarkable as within the 30 mins it took we saw darken deserted street come to life with mopeds, cleaners, vendors and all kinds of folk practicing their thai chi in the parks. We had some fun with the taxi driver into the city, with the first wanting to charge us $10 and then the second telling us to ignore what the meter said and to give him $3 (3 times the $1 we eventually paid after sticking with the meter and lot's of tutting!!)


Me doing my hot tortoise impression

We sat wearily on a park bench for a while to catch our breaths and then headed to drop our bags at the cute homestay / guesthouse that was our base for 3 nights. In order to make the most of the city we then headed out to explore, taking in 3 of the main sights before an ice cream lunch.

Saigon is a good place to learn a lot about the Vietnam war(s) and we feasted on museums and palaces explaining how the Vietnamese coped with the events and one particular museum display which detailed the work of the war reporters / photographers many of whom perished whilst trying to bring the true stories out of the middle of the fracas! It was very interesting to hear some of their comments about why anyone would do such a job and indeed whether they should even be there. there were also numerous tales of these "civilians" leading rescue parties once separated from their main groups.


The "War Command Centre" complete with matching phones for ladies!


The underground government bunker even had it's own cinema - old school projector room

Continuing the edutainment we headed out on a little trip on the follwoing day (complete with the obligatory stops at the government run jade / lacquerware / silk factory on the way and way back.) It was a boggling mix of war and peace, the main destination was the Cu Chi tunnels which the Vietnamese used to hide during the conflict with a side trip to a temple that is the base for Caodaism which is a great religion that is a mix of Christianity, Buddhism and Taosim and has Victor Hugo as one of it's saints!!


Altar at the temple


Monks and nuns entering for worship - the different colours represent each parent religion


Lots of sitting nuns

Despite the slightly rushed tour of the tunnel complex, it was an fascinating place to visit. We got to see how everyday tasks were carried out whislt hiding as well as some of the more horrendous traps they set for the US forces. The real experience was a short stretch of tunnel which had been cleaned up of creepy crawlies yet still gave a very hot and claustrophobic sense of what is was like to live in the tunnels...we lasted about a minute before heading up for air!!


A non-tourist tunnel entrance


Hot and cramped

On our third day we decided to shift down the gears a little and visit a beach island / outcrop which was so great that we have both forgotten the name...half an hour walk to one of the worst beaches I have been to...you live and learn!!

To ready ourselves for the trip into Cambodia we rounded off Vietnam with a nice meal in a restaurant where you barbeque your own food on a little hotplate in the middle of the table...I have to say that the chef did our little beef skewers to perfection.


Our Chef

All skyped up

By the way we are now on skype...finally.

You can look me up using my full name or username of simonocc!!

A different perspective

This is an experiment, my first beach-side blog entry. Most times I update this I am sat on a wonky chair in front of a flickering screen trying to remember our adventures from the previous couple of days...not really a conducive environment (actually as I am copying this from my notebook the chair isn't wonky but certainly not as comfortable as the couch I wrote this on!!)

Well this is much better...I am sipping tea (yes some things never change) in a place called the Lousiane Brewhouse, a beach club / bar that has a microbrewery, free pool and great sounds.

We are due off later tonight to Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon on our 3rd night train ride and have found that the perfect way to get ready for such an event is to find the right venue and while away the hours reading, playing games as well as the obligatory eating and drinking both for sustenance and to also permit us to remain in said joint.

When in the rather damp Hue we spent a quite impressive 8hrs in Bar Why Not (rather fittingly) comprising 2 full meals, countless pineapple shakes, lessons in othello and pool for Cath, shithead galore (it's a card game) and a fair few beers.

We made the 2am train happy little campers with full bellies and ready to sleep...which is just as well as the entertainment system on Vietnam Railways consists of Kenny G meets Abba piped into the carriage...AAhaa!!

This time around the weather is much better and if we had wanted to we could have visited some Cham ruins or hopped off on an overpriced boat tour of the islands but we again find ourselves trying very hard to be able to honestly say "we just chilled out." I am not sure if this means we are bad visitors or that we are moving slowly from being tourists to travellers...(I haven't got dreadlocks yet although Cath has been dropping hints about me needing a trim!!) I do know however that towards the end of Japan and certainly in China, although that could have been due to the cold, that we started rushing through the temples with one seeming to blend into the other. We both want to make the most of everything we do which has lead to balancing the cultural excursions with the odd days in mud baths or doing not much at all...

...I think I can live with that.

Kick back and relax!

From rainy Hue to very sunny Nha Trang.... we like this place a lot. Our 2am train journey from Hue down here meant we gathered a Danish friend Rune (neither of us can say it properly). He is very interesting and told us many tales of crazy adventures he has had - mainly in Eastern Europe to some fairly obscure locations.

Nha Trang is a beach town and the dive capital of Vietnam. With the beach comes long stretches of beach bars, lots of gorgeous seafood and an array of dive shops and boat trips on offer. So happy to be here we walked up and down the length of the beach about 3 times to feel the sand between our toes before we stopped to register that it was 4pm and we had not had any lunch (breakfast was a box of Oreo's and some Pringles as we didn't want to brave any of the train food on offer)

Lets just say this picture sums up how we have spent our evenings in Nha Trang.


This bar is actually a little brew house on the beach (there behind the palm trees are the waves) and the band starts at 8pm - really, really tough to make big life decisions about which beer to try next under these conditions!



The daytime in Nha Trang yesterday was spent in the Thermal Springs Mud Baths - Thap Ba. I am still not sure about the sitting in mud pools, but Simon was happy as a pig in ....
I was however amused at the enthusiasm with which Simon threw himself into the whole thing....I am not sure if it was the 'cleansing effects' or playing mud monster that really attracted him!

Thap Ba is very cool and we spent most of the day either in mud or hot springs or having a massage - it was a rather warm day too, so we are both a little pink today!

With seafood being right on the doorstep, there are lots of sellers touting fresh lobster, crab, conch .... you name it! We were not brave enough yet to buy from them for fear of 'bad belly', but the picture of them wandering down the beach with their steaming crab, conical hats and baskets was worth a photo.




Another day of long, palm-tree-lined beaches awaits - hope you are all having fun.