The following day we visited Cheung Ek killing fields, where thousands of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime were killed and buried between 1975 and 1979. This was a depressing insight into the brutality of the madness behind the Pol Pot oppression. This was reinforced by the newly introduced audio tour which included a number of survivor stories.
From here we headed to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, otherwise known as S21. This was originally a school, converted by the Khmer Rouge into a torture prison. Political prisoner were among the 17,000 prisoners estimated to have even held here. The victims were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. The buildings have not been altered much since the overthrowing of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and therefore, although depressing, is quite interesting.
That evening we decided to take a stroll down the river towards the Royal Palace, to be greeted by thousands of Cambodians wearing white and black. It appeared the whole of Cambodia had come to Phnom Penh literally by the truck load, to pay their respects to their ex-king. Roads were closed and there were candles,incense sticks and flowers all over the place - it was mayhem!
For our final morning in Phnom Penh, we decided to do a Khmer cooking class. Here we learnt to make chicken sausages in banana leaves and a chicken curry, both of which were delicious!
From Phnom Penh we took the bus down to Sihanoukville. We were only here for one thing and that was to get our PADI Open Water Diver certification. This took us 3 days, one day in the classroom and 2 days diving off a gorgeous island named Koh Rong. Obviously there were some skills involved but the dives were all really fun, especially the last one where we had a school of Jack fish swimming round us in circles! Our instructor is a professional photographer and took a number of videos of us diving which are all pretty cool and you'll hopefully be able to see shortly! You'll be glad to know that we both passed and are now certified Open Water Divers! We decided to celebrate with a BBQ and drinks in a restaurant on the beach. As Em has been here before, she noticed how much more built up Sihanoukville is in comparison to 2 years ago. Koh Rong island had also changed as two more dive centres have joined the island and a number of restaurants and bars have sprung up on the beachfront!
Our final stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat. On our first day of temple visiting we took the 'grand tour' ending with some of the temples in Angkor Thom. The temples we saw were: Prasat Leaven, Banteay Kdei, Sras Srang, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean, Preah Khan, Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace and we watched sunset from Prah Bakheng. The following day we got up stupidly early to watch the amazing sunrise over Angkor Wat. Despite the fact Em had done it before, it was still just as amazing and something you wouldn't grow tired of doing! After a few days hours walking round this temple we headed back to Angkor Thom to see Terrace of the Elephants, Leper King Terrace, Tep Pranan, Preah Palilay, Chao Say Tevado, Thommanom, Ta Keo and finally Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider was filmed!)
All in all our two days of temples were hectic but very good fun. Although there are way too many children offering various things for 'one dollar, one dollar' especially postcards which they try to sell by shoving in your face and saying '10 for one dollar; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10' (whole flicking through the pack of ten). Saying no does not seem to be a phrase any of them are familiar with and by the end of the two days, even James was getting pretty irate with them.
For our final night in Cambodia, Em took James to a restaurant she had been to a number of times before, which has 2 hours of free Apsara dancing while you eat which was a rear way to end our time there!
Our next destination was Bangkok and the Thai islands all of which you can read about in our next post. Hopefully we'll be able to make you all jealous with our pictures of gorgeous sunny beaches!
We realised we forgot to keep you update with our 'facts from South east Asia' so here are a couple more (hopefully we're not repeating any) :
- Vietnamese schools close if the temperature falls below 10oC (if only that was the case in the UK!)
- Lots of locals walk round in what we can only assume are pyjamas
- Cambodia's ex-king was loved a lot by the whole population
- You can buy almost anything for one dollar in Angkor
- 'No' is not a word anyone in Angkor understand or is familiar with
- When it rains it truly pours
Think that's all for now so take care and hope the cold November weather isn't too bad yet!
x x
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