Chrimbotron 2008 in Phnom Penh

Late entrant to the moto competition
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Our trip to Cambodia was absolutely fine...no hassles whatsoever, including the border crossing.  We booked one of those buses which takes you directly from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh; we boarded the bus (cheapo so we were the only tourists), handed our passports and visa dosh ($25 each) to the driver man at the start of the journey, arrived at the Vietnamese departures part o'the border, got waved through (they let us cut the queue), got our passports back, got back on the bus, got off the bus at Cambodian arrivals, gave a woman our passports, got back on the bus, drove 200 metres, stopped for lunch, got our passports back and then we were on our way to Phnom Penh.  The dodgy money-changer people are the most persistent that we've come across...doesn't matter how many times we said no, they'd keep trying, and that's kinda the way it is in Phnom Penh.

Jo, Chip and Quyhn - Royal Palace
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The scenery in Cambodia is really beautiful...not quite a green as Vietnam; much more dusty, but there are rice paddies and houses on stilts and we're back to Wat territory with random wats all over the countryside.  The people still try to fit FAR TOO MUCH on to their motos here which is hilarious...see the photos.

Tuol Sleng and Choung Ek

Arrived in the centre of Phnom Penh, met Chip and Quynh - a couple of Vietnamese girls on a long weekend break, and we checked in at the Spring Guesthouse.  First impressions of Phnom Penh...it's pretty dirty, lots of people begging on the streets, LOADS more cars than Vietnam/Laos, and it's definitely less touristy (we copyright that word) than any of the other Asian capital cities we've visited.  Not that that's a bad thing...it's definitely more of an authentic experience, if you know what we mean.  I don't know what we mean, but there you go.  Oh, and it's expensive too...the 'un-official' currency here is the US dollar, which makes this the most expensive country we've visited in South East Asia.  The ATMs all dispense dollars, and change is given out in combinations of dollars and riel.  It's fairly simple to calculate as everyone uses the exchange rate of 4000r - 1 $, but it's a pain in the ass having two currencies on us all the time!  Oh, and most of the atms charge a WHOPPING $2 fee every time you use them!  GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Swinging my pants at the Tonle Sap
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So we headed off with Chip and Quynh for a wander around...went to the nearby market and tried some ominous looking fresh sugar cane juice.  As soon as we'd taken the first gulp, Chip turned to us and said "Yeah, it's not very clean so we hope you have a strong belly" hahaha!  After that, we decided not to drink any more, but we were surprised to find that what we did drink didn't give us any kind o'food poisoning whatsoever.  The area - Psar O Russei - was pretty built up and it was easy to get disorientated, so we took a trip down to the riverside which was, if we're honest, much nicer.  The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda are here, and we managed to take some amazing sunset photos.

Royal Palace sunset
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On the 24th we moved to our Christmas present, the BlueLime guesthouse near the riverside.  This place was pretty swanky, and they had a POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL which was amazing!  Checked out the Royal Palace and Silver pagoda complex which was gorgeous...monkeys roaming around, a buddha statue made entirely of emerald, amazing architecture and beautiful grounds so well worth the visit.  And there was an hilarious baby monkey kicking about.  They also have some examples of traditional art; you can watch women weave silk scarves, and we got to play some Cambodian percussion with Cambodian musicians.  So we think it's worth the $6 entry price just for that.  Bumped in to Chip and Quynh again and arranged to meet them later on...

Jodieeeeeee
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...for dinner!  Met a bunch of their Cambodian friends, and an American UN journalist who gave us some interesting info on Cambodian politics.  One thing we've realised since being away is that we definitely know more about world issues and politics; a good thing as we've seen some horrific stuff i.e. the War Crimes museum in HCMC and something we'll mention below.  Anyhoo, headed off to one of the Cambodian guy's clubs which turned out to be a hostess bar!  20 beautiful Cambodian girls with skirts just a wee bit too short, having to make conversation with some HORRENDOUS, pervy tourists.  Disgusting.  Luckily they made a room for us upstairs where we had some amazing Khmer style food in what turned out to be an impromptu Christmas eve party!  Lots of fun.  We really like the Asian style of eating...lots of different plates o'food and everyone helps themselves.

BlueLime
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Later that night we headed back to the guesthouse and spent a few hours in ze pool 'til it was Xmas day...pretty good way to spend Christmas we think!

Christmas Day was a lazy one for us...watched muppets christmas carol, but it was too warm for it to feel Christmassy.  Wandered around the Central Market, had cake at a wee cafe, had a random Christmas dinner of Vegetarian Lasagne and Amok fish (they were all out of turkey), then spent the last few hours of Xmas calling home and swimming in the pool.  Things we learned:  Jodie taught Nichola to do somersaults underwater, Nichola taught Jodie to dive and swim underwater.

The artistic direction was "Be an orange"
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On the 26th we moved hotels to Sokha Heng (which was surprisingly nice) and we spent the rest of the day learning about the Khmer Rouge regime.  This was pretty horrific actually, so we're glad we left it 'til boxing day as we were definitely not feeling festive after this.  We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day ($9); visited Choung Ek which is also known as the Killing Fields, just south of Phnom Penh.

Hold on, we'll give you all a wee bit of info re: Khmer Rouge so this makes sense.  They were an ultra-communist political party run by Pol-Pot who came to power in 1975 after a 5 year civil war.  In April of 1975 they abolished money, markets, religion, teaching, community, books, family; everything the Cambodian people valued was abolished.  They evacuated the cities under the pretense that the Americans were going to bomb Phnom Penh, moved everyone to the countryside and forced men, women and children to work excruciating farm work from dawn til dusk.  People were seperated from their families and made to live in the KR's version of community.  The KR started incarcerating suspected enemies of the revolution; they were taken to S:21, a former secondary school transformed into a prison/extermination camp.  People were either tortured and killed here, or taken to the Choung Ek field to be 'destroyed'.  Obviously these people didn't know what was going to happen; they were told they were being taken to re-education centres which would transform their political and social views.  Soon, innocent people were being taken to these centres and killed in their hundreds, then thousands; over 2 million men, women and children were lost to this horrific regime.

Biggedy Ballth and Jodie
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First we visited Choung Ek where we saw the Memorial Stupa to the genocide; the building has glass on all 4 sides and contains the skulls found at the site.  We walked around the field and saw the pits which were mass graves.  We saw clothes partially buried in the earth.  A large tree had a sign next to it which told us it used to have loudspeakers blaring sounds which would cover the noises of people being killed, thus avoiding suspicion.

We then visited S:21, now known as Tuol Sleng.  This was pretty horrific...you can walk in to the rooms used as cells; some of them contain photos of the dead bodies found in the particular room, along with the original bed and shackles.  The KR took mug shots of all people entering the facility and these are displayed in parts of the complex; some unsuspecting people smile for the camera, while women, holding their babies, look into the camera with terror.  It's honestly an awful thing to see.

Jodie getting down with his funky self and some Cambodians
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So yeah, we learned about the horrific regime, got a vague idea of what it did to the Cambodian people, and it made us appreciate how lucky we are to live the lives we lead.