City Central Phnom Penh

... site pretty much in silence. We were just taking in the history and trying to understand what went on here. I can always remember as a little girl being fascinated by history and wanting to go back in time and be able to walk through the places I had learnt about in school. I had my chance at the Genocide Museuem, but it was so hard to deal with. I was really scared walking through the old classrooms, the whole place had a really eerie ...

... no you don't! I paid Sinh Cafe for this bus and you will wait for us. I do not have to use your 'service'. He finally agreed to wait but to be on the safe side I made Tom follow him to make sure he didn't try and ride off with the bus. At one point the immigration officer asked for the money (which I had already paid to our guide) so we had to bring him back again - you have to give them credit for trying it on at every opportunity. When we were given our visas we were ...

My bus to Phnom Penh left at midday, so I didn't have to get up too early. I had breakfast about 10am, packed my stuff, then went on the internet for a bit. The place I'd emailed the previous night had rather annoyingly replied to say that they had no room at the inn, so I just asked a bloke on reception to call a few other places in my RG. When the first two failed to even connect I was unimpressed, but luckily, third time lucky, the next place answered the phone and I made a successful ...

... roads here are mental...their zebra crossings may as well be invisible!

We are now gonna chill out for a bit I think. At 5 i'm going to go to an Orphanage. Everyone's doing their own thing for dinner tonight I think, and then have an early one as getting up early and traveling to a place which I can't pronounce- a small beach town- still rather French I have read, so yet again it's going to be completely different. Will update when I can xx

... the prisoners are in display, taken when they were first brought in. I felt uneasy when looked at their blank, hollow stares. Yet more rooms are devoted to document the killings: pictures of mass graves; reports of forensic studies of the remains; history of the Khmer Rouge government; names of the victims; lists of the more than 300 killing fields in the country, etc.

Yes. There were more than 300 camps where the Khmer Rouge government executed ...

Had a fun last day in Phnom Penh going through villages & the countryside on an ATV Quad bike ride. We booked this through Blazing Trails (www.nature-cambodia)
& it cost $35 US for the half day ride. We were picked up from home by motorbikes & I had the fastest ever ride going out to their location near the Killing Fields.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia hilaryramsey

... indrukken. Dus besloot om naar de 4 duizend eilanden helemaal in het zuiden van Laos op de grens met Cambodja te gaan.

En dat was een goeie keus het was er ontzettend mooi en ontspannen. Het is een gebied met heel veel (niet 4 duizend maar wel heel veel) kleine eilandjes waar de Mekong omheen stroomt. Het is moeilijk voor te stellen, maar deze rivier is zo inmens dat er een eilanden gebied in kan ontstaan. In het gebied leven de zeer zeldzame Irriwaddy ...

... someone to run activities like face painting and craft projects in a toy store - but by chance or serendipity the day that my application went in the company had a staff member leave suddenly and so they called me in to interview as a replacement for her - as a stock merchandiser, event planner and in a kind of brand development role! Cool huh!

So things are all coming together and I'm in for another Southeast Asian tour of duty!

... up the speed of killing at the end)
The big U N Tribunal is ongoing now.

What I found most upsetting is that this all only happened 30 years ago, and I can't understand why it was allowed to continue. I know the borders were closed and fear ruled all through the country, but its within my life time - I was doing my O land A levels whilst this was happening. I obviously need to read up more, as I don't know enough to ...

... this point the United Nations stepped in, creating UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) which was set up to create a stable climate for free elections to take place and for human rights to be practised. In 1993 elections took place with a very high turnout. The result was split almost equally between FUNCINPEC and the Cambodian Peoples Party, led by ex-Khmer Rouge Hun Sen. Two prime ministers were declared and this led to some rather disastrous ...