Highway Hotel Phnom Penh

... had cadbury clusters (courtesy of Loz- thanks!!) for tea and watched some films. Theres such good tv out here- just movie after movie!!! Today we got up half 6 and had scrambled eggs on toast (which was the most English thing we have had so far.) We then went to visit the museum of the Pol Pott reign ( a girl in our group thought it was the Britains got talent opera singer!!). It was horrible- had pictures and clothes of all the ppl that died and ...

... Museum, the Russian Market, and the Vietnamese and Laos embassies to get information about visas to both countries. We spent Friday morning researching our travel options. At that point, we kind of stalled out: due to a recent typhoon that flooded large parts of central Vietnam and southern Laos, we weren’t sure what travel conditions were like in those areas. We wanted to head to one of those two countries, but we weren’t sure which. Complicating matters, we ...

... the border broke down. That after 90 mins of chucking water over the engine gave up. That was continued on another bus headed for Siem Reap. That the drivers had to bribe to go to Poi Pet. That I hit the second Valium on. That I was rocked awake by the bus attendant to expose me as the only passenger still aboard after sleeping the whole way there. That I left my book on. That I cursed my mashed potato brain on.

Back at Poi Pet and my last minutes on Cambodian ...

... te worden... Onderwijs werd afgeschaft en de kinderen werkten ofwel op het land of werden samen met talloze babys afgeslacht aangezien ze zich later mogelijks op het regime zouden wreken. Alles dat naar intellectualiteit rook werd geschuwd met het gevolg dat ziekenhuizen en geneesmiddelen vervangd werden door "revolutiekruiden" en mensen die meer dan 1 taal spraken of een bril gegarandeerd vermoord werden... Vandaag bezocht ik het Tuol Sleng museum dat vroeger een school ...

... I think he was grateful for the company!!

So now we are in the backbacker area and have booked into a nice guesthouse for a few nights... only problem is the tuk tuk drivers again..... they're like bloody stalkers. They follow you from when you step foot outside to when you finally get back inside!!! And you have to keep saying "No", "not today", "maybe later" over and over before they try on someone else. Then you are met with the next ...

... classes ring the top of the stadium, while a soccer match goes almost unwatched in the stadium itself.

All ages and getups involved. Nearly all the instructors were wearing jeans and even thongs and working up a healthy sweat... as did I.

We took along Soriya, Sraepao and Seanglay from the house and school and achieved ...

... Neue. It took us a little while to find it but when we got there it was amazing, plus a great distraction. There were eighteen girls being looked after by one woman and they were chosen because they were in a situation where they could be trafficked. The woman told us that in the area they lived almost 80% of the girls were trafficked. The girls all were learning English so they were really excited to practice. They showed us one of their dance routines and ...

... including myself being called a "pretty, charming woman" and "beautiful", and our driver encouraging it's foreign passengers to get out (although this wasn't where we were suppose to stop!), a debate ensued between passengers and driver demanding that we be dropped off at safer grounds. The driver rescinded and we were back on the busy roads of Phnom Penh making our way to the riverside area. We consequently found an AMAZING guesthouse ...

... and the heat. This was a temple with really detailed reliefs so it is suspected to have been carved by a women, who had smaller hands than a mand. Very very pretty to look at and totally unbelievably how this could have been achieved so many centuries back… Impressed by all the culture we had soaked up the last days we made to Pnohm Penh, the capital. We visisted the Palace there, which was among the few cultural heritages that go not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, and ...

... begging or selling stuff. They are so young but already act like little adults, little merchants. It is frighting. One of them was quite clever. He arrived next to our table and tried to sell us books. He took a look at our South East Asia travel book and started laughing, saying his is much bigger. Basically he was implying that we got ripped off with our small one, except what we did was to tear it apart before leaving Europe and only taking with us the relevant countries..