Chi Cha Hotel Phnom Penh

We took a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh on our way to Siem Reap. We decided that there wasn't really anything there that we were very interested in seeing. It was a huge city with LOTS of congestion. We decided that we didn't need to make another 6 hour bus journey to go back from Siem Reap. So we had a few hours in the city to cruise around in between bus rides. We feel that we got a very vague feel for the city, which is good enough.

... the boy with the moto, the word mortified doesn't come close. Scott made a few bows and apologies then quickly sped off as she wheeled my bike into the kitchen and I mumbled about another hundred apologies then sheeped off to bed. Not until the next morning did she explain that the electricity had gone out, hence no lights, and the boys must have thought that meant that we were already in bed so they locked the gate. We had a good laugh, some nods and smiles, I'm sure it will happen again.

... V’…. I was getting the taxi back with Claire, a friend of Man’s I had met the night before and she had initiated things really, it was at her suggestion, and quite frankly it was to be a long journey and what better way to pass the time? I popped my pill and within 5 minutes I had… NOT, a raging bulb-on, but a snoozed gob and wabby legs on my way to the great stasis chamber in the sky. You see the little blue pill was VALIUM…. What you ...

... zeker wanneer er na 2 uur rijden zonder tegenliggers plots een brommertje aan 30 km/h van achter de volgende scherpe bocht zou opduiken. Ik had een wegenkaart van Noord-Thailand gekocht maar de wegen stopten soms uit het niets of werden geblokkeerd door een gigantische rots en andere wegen waren ronduit onberijdbaar door de talloze putten. Mensen keken altijd verwonderd als ze ons zagen passeren en kleine kindjes op hooiwagens of op de fiets zwaaiden immer ...

... friends. They had burnt the market place, abolished the monetary system, eliminated books of rules and principles of national culture, destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas and beautiful monuments, such as Angkor Wat temple which is the source of pure national pride and bears the genius, knowledge and intelligence of our nation..."

It is said during the Khmer Rouge's reign, they killed, or caused the death, of a quarter of the population of Cambodia, or in excess of 4.8 ...

... Kratie to visit one of the Cambodian Rural Development Team projects at Kao Pdao. Conversations with Foreigners channels funds into CRDT.

There is a memorable bus stop on the way, where you are greeted by children with tarantulas crawling around on their bodies, faces, hair. One girl even put one in her mouth! They are considered to be a delicious nutritious snack, although I cannot attest to that personally. Lisa and Andy were brave enough to try some though. Also plenty ...

... school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison where they tortured thousands of people. The classrooms were turned into cells and theres even the beds and chairs they tied people to still there with the photos of the people they found there. Another room is full of photos that they took of all their prisoners - just thousands of faces staring back at you, so so heartbreaking.

... I coaxed him into taking part by drawing something unfinished so that he could complete it. He got very good at finishing my work (although often not in the way I expected which was quite fun). By the end he was drawing full picutres on his own and would not hand over the paper and pencil. At our rest stop I walked over to the market and bought a small pad of paper and some crayons for my little Picasso! Again... the littlest moments seem to be the most memorable.

... guy was like "why no way, yes way"). We had an early dinner, walked around for a while before crashing into bed.

18/02/09. Very productive day today. After breakfast, we headed towards the genocide museum, which is located in the buildings of one of the prisons where they interrogated, tortured and killed anyone opposing the regime of Pol Pot. Quite impressive to see the old cells, the rooms where they tortured people, some skulls from the killing fields and especially ...

... Kep was dead. We returned to our guesthouse, still quite unable to take in the fact that we were in Cambodia.

During the night it turned quite cool; a welcome climatic surprise that we couldn't quite figure out the reason for. Breakfast was dragged out of the boy manager, Saree, in the form of a glass of lukewarm coffee and a baguette. Once we had finished eating we set out to explore Kep - an easy task given its size. We discovered a few of the aforementioned rotting ...