Cambodia

Angkor Beer on the Mekong
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By now you would have thought we had become accustomed to slow boats on the Mekong and with only 5 of us in our boat up to the border of Vietnam/Cambodia we thought we were going to be treated to some relative comfort. Unfortunately, after stopping for lunch and to purchase a visa, we were herded to another boat with the most uncomfortable seats we had encountered and had to share them with 25 other particularly sweaty travellers. Common sense prevailed half way through the journey when Clare and I slapped on the factor 30, bought a couple of cold Angkor beers and splayed out on the front of the boat watching and waving to the locals and their livestock at the waters edge.

Cambodian Water Buffalo
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First stop was the capital Pnom Penh where we learned about the country’s harrowing past under dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. From 1975 to 1979 this loon of a man ordered the deaths of approximately 25% of the population and brought the country to its knees in an attempt to make Cambodia a self sufficient agrarian country.

we were herded to another boat with the most uncomfortable seats we had encountered and had to share them with 25 other particularly sweaty travellers

Clare's band
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We visited Tuol Sleng, otherwise known as the S21 death camp, where he imprisoned and tortured many of his victims before carting them off to Choeung Ek (which we also visited) for execution into mass graves. The majority of the people murdered were not even shot because bullets were too precious so they were led to the side of pits in large groups and one by one took a club or machete blow to the back of the head before being buried.

After having seen all this death and destruction it was nice to get back to normality in Pnom Penh where we also visited the silver pagoda in the royal palace, the national museum and got well and truly hammered on cheap cocktails and wine with some new found friends in the posh bars by the riverside.

Inmates at Tuol Sleng
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It had been a while since we had any rest and relaxation and with time in our schedule we made our way to Sihanoukville for some sun, sea and sand. Sadly mother nature was not on our side and the cloud and light drizzle (should have listened to sheephead’s weather report) settled in for the next two days. For the Khmer people it was a national holiday so the beach was packed with locals and their relatives eating, drinking and letting of fireworks at all hours of the day. For us it was nice to sit on our veranda reading, listening to tunes and catching up on this travel blog.

it wasn't just adults :(
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12 hours on a cramped bus with broken air conditioning took us to Siem Reap and our guesthouse “The Golden Banana”. This place had been recommended by two couples we had met whilst travelling through Vietnam and so we decided to give it a whirl. The rooms, staff and pool were all really nice but something about the place wasn’t quite right in my mind. The next day, when laying by the pool and reaching for one of the free magazines, it all become perfectly clear. The magazine was called “Out”, the next one in the pile was “Gay Times” and although there were lots of couples around, 50% of them appeared to be men. I guess the clue should have been in the name of the place but we had managed to stumble upon the only gay friendly guesthouse in town.

Tuol Sleng
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Over the course of the next 6 days and with the help of our tuk-tuk driver Pauli we visited some of the most amazing temples your ever likely to see on the planet. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the “biggies” that some people will have heard of and they didn’t disappoint but there are so many others in the region that took up a few gigabytes of memory on my camera. Built between the 9^th and 14^th century these temples were works of art and after being abandoned were not rediscovered until the late 1800’s. Carved out of huge sandstone blocks a lot of them have needed jungle clearance and restoration work but others like Ta Prohm and Beng Melea have been left virtually untouched which means climbing through walls divided by huge trees and roots with large piles of rubble all around- we were like big kids for the whole week!

Mass graves
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The Tonle Sap lake is nearby and with the monsoon season in full swing it had flooded huge areas of farmland making roadside bamboo bars into lakeside bamboo bars! So after all our exploring it was cool to chill in hammocks, drinking beers and fishing with Pauli.

Tip: If you ever find yourself in Siem Reap look out for a hotel (I can’t remember it’s name) that does $1 (50p) Wednesdays. Tapas dishes $1 dollar each! Cocktails $1 each! Wine…well I sure you get the picture, $15 filled us to burst and would have made walking home somewhat wobbly, thankfully out on the street…

The remebrance pagoda - its full of skulls of the victims and really eerie
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Tuk-Tuk Driver: “Hello, Tuk-Tuk?!”

Alex (in a dodgy gay welsh accent): “Yes please, to the only gay guesthouse in the village!”