Le Cyclo Phnom Penh

after a long time discussing "how do we get out of thailand today as our visa has expired" we got on two flights, breaking the budget just a little, to get to phnom penh. thailand only give you a 30 day visa and we didn't want to overstay incase we needed to use thailand on our way back to singapore so we decided to just fly. much easier to get a visa on arrival at the airport in phnom penh and also way less time on my ...

... 1975-1979 roughly two million people died as a direct result of the Khmer Rouge which came to power then. Hundreds of thousands of people were tortured and executed, hundreds of thousands more died of malnutrition, disease and mistreatment. Those who were tortured and/or executed were the intellectuals – doctors, professors, lawyers, people living in the cities at the time, anyone associated with the former government and their ...

... was to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek which was the ultimate destination for those not killed at Toul Sleng (S- 21). Toul Sleng had been a school but was turned into a prison of unimaginable horrors which curiously, is just opposite this Guesthouse, and is now The Museum of Genocide which I've visited. It is a truly graphic memorial to the unimaginable tortures and torments perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge and I am haunted by the ...

A Mandarin and I parted like two people that knew they would see one another again, but were just unsure when that would be. I think one of the harder aspects of our division was the fact that I was off on an exciting journey home, a far off land that would be new and brillig, to see friends and family and have adventures through the streets of London, and on the streets of Cambridge…. Whereas she was still just in Kratie, in the house we had shared for 5 months ...

... move from the Thrashing Snakes me thinks!

We made it to Phnom Penh with little other adventure other than nudging the bumper of someones very flash car and deciding to do a runner and look for a hotel in another area of town! Opps!

Anyway the next few days where loaded with sad visits to the Killing fields and the Tuel Sleung Museum. So after a visit to the Palace we decided to lift the mood by heading to the beach for a few days of course!

... and trinkets and more delicate things found in all the Angkor temples, which gave us a greater understanding of what the temples would have been like.

After the museum we went to a Wat on top of the only hill in Phnom Penh, where we also saw lots of monkeys and a man watering the grass with a crash helmet on. They don't wear them on the roads just to water dangerous grass. But later I ...

... vat. As I watched an entire foot float by, I pretty much wrote that one off, although it wouldn't be the first time I had found a bird foot in my food unexpectedly. Which left me with a dish which looked even worse, in the fact ti was totally unidentifiable. The final dish, looked like at least parts of it were edible, if not palatable, so I went for that one. I wouldn't exactly call it my favorite meal since I've been travelling.

And then comes the serious bit. The Killing ...

... 20,000 victims met their demise here after extensive torture and interrogation. The killing fields became public knowledge only after the liberation of Cambodia in 1979. Eighty-six of 129 mass graves were excavated and a large memorial containing skulls of the victims was erected in honor of the countless who were murdered country-wide under the UCKRR's rule.

It's remarkable to think that this happened in my lifetime.

... at home but here I had rivers running down me!!




One day we bought some ice to run over our arms to keep cool & we drink so much water. Love the food - great curries.

... by a sharp slap administered by her mother who had noticed the girl drooling over my right knee. I sought to reassure the anxious mother that this kind of thing was always happening to me and there was no cause for alarm.

It wasn't until 4:00 pm that we arrived in the old French riverside town of Kampot. Since we had set out at 5:45am, it had taken us over ten hours to travel 105 kilometres and cost us about 50 pence each. We were apprehended by some moto boys who soon had us ...