Cambodia

We arrived in the city of Phnom Penh late in the afternoon after a long and hot bus ride. On our bus we met Lee, a guy from South Korea, who had been there many times before and knew of a good cheap place to stay on the Boeng Kak lakefront. This area had guesthouses, bars and restaurants lining the lake. Our guest house was $3 USD a night for the two of us. It was extremely hot in Cambodia and even 2 fans in the room did not do much to cool you down. While I really enjoyed Phnom Penh, we only had 2 nights there as we wanted to have enough time in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat properly. Even with the little time we had, we still managed to get a taste of this lovely country that is still struggling to recover from its horrifying past that was not too long ago. We went to see the Toul Sleng Museum which upset us so much that we could not bring ourselves to go to the other places of interest that we had on our list for the day. Toul Sleng was originally a high school that Pol Pot's security forces made into S-21 (Security Prison 21) as a place for detaining and torturing the people. It was so hard for me to grasp that this place that caused so much suffering was made into this nightmare in 1975. You can read about horrible injustices that happen to people in your history books in school, but they occurred so long ago that it seems more surreal than to see this that happened during our lifetimes. As you walk through in silence (silence is requested to pay respect for the souls who suffered and lost their lives here, however, the devastating reality seen here almost knocks the wind out of you making speech almost impossible anyway) you first make your way through the classrooms that were turned into individual interrogating/torturing rooms. There still remains the single bed in each room where these poor people were chained to and tortured. On the wall in each room is a photograph picture in black and white of the detainee that was chained to that very bed. Some rooms even had the remains of the rusty box they were forced to used as a toilet as well as some still with a tool that was likely used for torture. The second building contained pictures of prisoners, including children and babies, and individual prison cells, and the last building consisted of big rooms where mass prisoners were held and displayed pictures of those that survived and their lives both of the victims and perpetrators. We caught the government bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and met Jackie who was on his way back from a wedding but managed a guesthouse in Siem Reap and said he'd give us a good deal. We agreed and were glad because as soon as the bus stopped in Siem Reap, it was completely surrounded by locals trying to get you to go to their guesthouses, and it just so turned out that Anna and I were the only tourists on the bus so the mass chaos was directed entirely at us. Jackie taught us how to say 'no thank you' which is 'Te aw kohn', and that is what we continuously had to say until we got our bags and made it to the tuk tuk. The hotel was really nice and a short walk from the old market. From our hotel we booked a driver for 3 days to take us to the temples of Angkor. When arriving at the check point on the road to Angkor, you can either buy a 1 day, 3 day, or 1 week pass. Since we wanted the 3 day pass it requires a photo that if you do not have one, they will take one of you there. The first day we began around 10 am and our driver took us to Angkor Thom which is an area enclosed by walls and has 5 gates for which you can enter and exit. Within its walls are many great monuments. One of my favorites, Bayon, is within the walls of Angkor Thom. This temple was built around 1200 and while exploring you are amazed by the intricate carvings done that long ago. There are 216 faces carved in this temple giving you the strange feeling of being watched, which may have been the idea back then to suggest the king always kept watch over his subjects. I felt like I was in Indiana Jones. That first day we learned our lesson as our late start made walking around in the extreme heat and humidity almost unbearable. After exploring Angkor Thom our driver took us to a few more temples and we ended our first day by climbing up to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. It was actually not the easiest climb up since the steep stairs were barely wide enough to put your toes on, and it was as if you were climbing vertically...no real incline whatsoever. It was worth it though as the views were spectacular. The next morning we decided to begin, believe it or not, around 5:30 am so we could get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. It was magnificent watching the sun come up over the largest religious building in the world...not to mention it was built in 1112. We spent some time walking around this massive monument and its many levels and rooms. After we were driven to Ta Keo which resembles a massive pyramid at 50 meters. While it was early when we got there, I was the only one climbing up it which I have to admit was a little scary since the stairways are worn down and with little to no incline to help keep you from falling (it was built in 968 after all). The sun started getting to us and after seeing a few more temples we decided to call it a day- funny since it was not even 10 am. We sadly left Siem Reap for Bangkok on a long and bumpy ride to the border. When we had one of the usual food/bathroom stops, we randomly ran into Paul and some of the other girls from England we met along the way. Actually I guess it wasn't so random for Paul as he must have known we'd cross paths and brought some things like my phone that Tovah gave him to give me. It's funny, cause we left not more than 15 minutes after Paul's bus left, yet we arrived in Bangkok 3 1/2 hours after they did. It was probably due to being held up at the border waiting for the next bus to fill up so that we could leave.