Rory's Pub and Guest House Phnom Penh

... vehicles are governed by two principles:<br>1. If you're bigger, you have the right of way<br>2. Offense is the best defense (aka. brakes are strictly only for illuminating the pretty LED light show on your rear end)<br><br>Of course, these lead to the roadway melee that our North American eyes initially perceive, but a few tuk tuk rides and consequent leaded gasoline inhalation later, one realizes that there is more at play. But despite the chaos, there is scant ...

... Vientiane while he was there for work and dropped by the Childsafe HQ to say hey, but he was still in Laos trying to get Childsafe off of the ground and running up there. <br><br> It rained that evening, so we took it easy and hung out at the guesthouse. The next morning was nice. We needed to go by Rogue and get some music and movies. It&#8217;s brilliant, you take a flash drive or ipod in there and look through a huge catalogue of music, tv shows, movies, and audio books and pick which ...

... s purge in the 1930s and 40s, the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 60s and 70s. The Khmer Rouge followed the same pattern, but they did it much, much more extensively and brutally. In their zeal to create an agrarian society that has no classes, they targeted not only the former government officials and politicians, but all intellectuals and people who lived in the cities and those who they thought had been influenced by western thinking. And the rest of ...

... carriages used for ceremonies and the countless solid silver elephant statues in the royal collection. Then there were the street children trying to sell water and drinks to tourists, instead of going to school and learning. We had a bit of fun today and decided to cycle to and from the palace! The roads were crazy and it doesn't seem to matter which side of the road you choose to cycle or drive on! We dodged and wove our way amongst the traffic at one point stopping ...

... ho driving, on roads where anything goes, saw us collide with a second risk-taker, and sent Finola and me flying from the bike, to collect cuts, bruises and grazes from the tarmac road surface. Shaken, and stirred (I was a little dazed from hitting my head on the floor, Finola saw that we were safe!), we applied half the contents of our medical kits to ourselves, stunned by what had happened and grateful for only minor injuries, we felt very foolish for not having worn helmets (the ...

... a security prison by the Khmer Rouge in their reign from 1975-1979. Tuol Sleng in Khmer means, "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" and this complex was pretty much a prison, used to torture and interrogate men, women and children. The classrooms were converted into Torture chambers and tiny prison rooms, windows barred and electric wire everywhere to keep people from escaping. It is estimated around 17,000 people were killed at S-21 during these years. The prisoners were predominantly ...

... by the way, the same day a Swedish couple and their 4 kids who're travelling the world in a jeep arrived at the border and had to stay there for 5 days - in no man's land between the 2 borders - because they wouldn't bribe the customs guy to let them and their vehicle through!)<br><br>After finally leaving and arriving at border town Stung treng, the Ban Lung 5 as we became known, were dropped at a random restaurant and told that our bus would arrive in 45 mins.... 4 hours later and ...

... and Sarah was too spooked by some areas to come with me. The cells were in converted classrooms where they made dozens of 18&#8221; by 36&#8221; cells out of wood to separate every single prisoner to ensure that they didn&#8217;t communicate. Some areas were a bit different, but this was the most common set-up. The spaces were dark and cramped and were creepy to walk through. There was a documentary video at the museum that was ...

... me, as we driving away there was so many children running after me asking for money. We then went on to the S-21 museum, as soon as got out of the tux tux I was besieged by beggars asking for money. Since I have been in Cambodia this has been a common theme of beggars every where, poverty is all around you. The museum was a former detention centre where people where tortured and in some cases killed. It is now a museum. There are rooms where on the wall ...