Holiday Villa Phnom Penh

... was a little surreal to be there; my mind couldn’t wrap itself around the stories and relics of torture, interrogation, starvation, and fear.

On Saturday, we left. We didn’t want to hang out in Phnom Penh for the weekend, waiting for the embassies to open on Monday. Tired of the noise, chaos, and pollution of the city, we decided to take a break. So we took a bus to Kampot, a small town on Cambodia’s southern coast, to relax a bit and figure out our next step.

... Rouge omgevormd tot maltertuigen... In de 3 jaar, 8 maanden en 20 dagen dat de Khem Rouge het land domineerde werden bijna 2 miljoen mensen vermoord, 1/4e van de bevolking. Ook vandaag de dag, 30 jaar nadat de Vietnamezen de Khmer Rouge overwonnen, lijdt de bevolking nog immens *******der de gevolgen van het regime. Jaarlijks sterven 100en mensen, voornamelijk boeren, ten gevolge van de duizenden landmijnen die de Khmer Rouge, samen met de VS in de Vietnamoorlog iets ...

Alright there folks, Before we get started on this blog I would like to correct myself on a point from the last blog where I said that Angkor Wat was one of the seven wonders of the world. While our guide told us this fact I checked it out there and it is not on the original seven wonders list but is included in the list of new wonders on some sites and not even that on others. So there we go. Anyhoo wonder or no wonder we spent another day at the temples ...

... Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 & 1979. They are still seeing the effects of this today. Pretty sad really.

At the Guesthouse we are staying at Noma Says the resident dog, "Lucky". reminds her of Nessie...yes love....

Tomorrow we try to get our Visas for Vietnam so we can get outta here.

Keep in touch,
Mark and Noma

PS Mum and Dad, can you please text me your work email addresses. Also, did the foxtel box get sent okay?

... of heat exhaustion

Close call for volunteer who was threatened by a rubbish collector with a big spike at 8.30am

Fear and loathing between 2 volunteers resulting in a hasty exit from the house

Gunfire outside the restaurant where 2 volunteers were eating - can you believe that while they were hiding in the back rooms, the staff set up a table to serve them their noodles??

Phnom Penh, Cambodia stilllooking

... at the back of the property I became very angry because all of a sudden all along the fence children kept running up to talk to me. I was at the killing fields and children were asking me for money. I was not angry with the children, I was angry at the fact they were there and that someone had taught them to say, "Hello. How are you? Where are you from? I like President Obama. I need money. My papa is dead and I need to go to school." They did not even know what they ...

... on the walls, the last inscriptions left by the victims, still remained as well as cell numbers etched with paint. A stench of damp air, urine, and blood greeted one as they entered each room. Although the open windows provided much air. Pictures were on display in the lower level rooms showing the many victims who had been photographed, still thinking they were just being transferred to other villages, before their executions-men, women, and ...

... there, even the coconut snail was yummy (however, I avoided so far googling pictures of it, since the chunks of meat we were served were gigantic…). We also had some kind of soup in a Khmer soup shop, where the soup already boiled in a pot at the table and you then get all kind of ingredients to add, however, one had to be careful what to eat, since the Khmer kitchen is a bit too much into serving intestines, not really my favorite (we told ourselves, that whenever we ...

... from the centre!

We did see some interesting things though. From the chaotic looking floating market to the beauty of more rural parts of the delta, a visit to a Cham village and a fish farm. Also one couple on the tour were from France but the lady was actually Cambodian and the man was Vietnamese so that invited myself and another lady to a really authentic meal just eating street food. It was a very good ...

What's there to see and do in Phnom Penh? Visit temples, the National Museum, the Royal Palace...Not in one day, though, and not before you've become acquainted with the notorious S21 prison torture place, a primary school building which Pol Pot and his thugs, particularly a guy named 'Dutsch,' or 'Dutch,' from the Khmer Rouge days, used to interrogate suspects they thought were renegades, backsliders, or those in the Communist regime who were considered not fallen into line ...