Saturday 1sy May - HCMC to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
We'd booked our bus to Phnom Penh with the same tour operator as the Cu Chi Tunnels so were surprised when the bus was running. Although we were told it had air conditioning it didn't! Just three tourists on the bus despite a sign in the travel agents saying the bus was full. The third passenger, Kris, from Malaysia had also had his trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels cancelled yesterday. The girl on the bus who worked on behlaf of the tour operator said that they are reluctant to run any trips during the holiday as they have to pay the drivers 5 times the usual rate - that's why all the trips were being cancelled. Great sevice!!
No organisation at the border as you come to expect in this part of the world. Just push yourself into the scrum, throw in your passport and hope to get it back at some time in the future. There were initially two men processing but as the number of tourists in the scrum increased the number of men processing decreased to one. Lots of bribes were going on to through 'the back door'. A few dollars seemed to hasten the process for some! After about 1 1/2 hours we got our passports back - suppose it could have been worse.
A half mile treck across a building site bought us to our new bus. We waited an hour and then the bus left. No sooner had we set off and we were pulling into a rough piece of land. This was of course to top up the fuel. No pumps just barrels of fuel and a funnel - Oh and five people to carry out the procedure. Four or five barrels of fuel are also loaded into spare seats on the bus! No smoking please for all our sakes!
The countryside we travelled through was very flat and very poor looking. Reminds us of India, but not so many people. After a bumpy ride (the roads aren't great and are still being built in some places) we finally arrive in Phnom Penh at 5.30pm. 8 1/2 hours after leaving HCMC. Check into hotel which isn't great but does have air con (although when we put it on it was so noisy Sue had to put cotton wool in her ears to be able to sleep). The bathroom has two showers, one hot (too hot) and one cold.
Met up with Kris for evening meal - didn't venture far, just went across the road to a local restaurant.
Sunday 2nd May - Phnom Penh
Kris joined is in hiring a taxi for the day to take us around the sites of Phnom Penh. Namely the Choeung Ek Memorial aka the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum.
The Killing Fields is one of the many mass burial grounds in Cambodia where Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge disposed of the bodies of the thousands of people they killed. It's unbelievable what went on during this time. At the end of the USA/Vietnam war the Khmer Rouge arrived in the towns and cities and told all the families that they had to leave for three days as the USA were going to bomb the areas. They marched them off to the countryside where they split up the family units and then went on to kill those considered intelligent in the most horific manner. The site houses a memorial to the people that were killed . There is a tall temple like building, inside which a glass structure holds hunreds of human skulls on differnt levels. Each labelled with the sex and age of the skulls contained within.
The Genocide Museum has basically been left as it was found when the Vietnamese arrived in 1979. The building was a school before the Khmer Rouge arrived. They turned it into the 'Toul Sleng Prison' and interrogation facility. Inmates were tortured to extract confessions and then executed at the Killing Fields. Each class room was divided up into small cells where the prisoners were kept like animals - these can still be seen today.
Before we arrived in Cambodia Sue read a book called The Children of The Killing Fields. Child survivors of the Killing Fields telling their individual stories. The stories really are horrific - it's hard to beleive it actually happened, especially considering the fact that it only ended in 1979. (Our guide at Angkor Wat, see Tues 24th May, told us that he had to join the army from 1989 - 1981 at which time he was still fighting the Khmer Rouge in the Jungle. This went on until Pol Pot died 1997).
Of all the places we have visited so far Cambodia has definately had the greatest impact. We feel quite priveledged to be able to visit this country. All credit to the people of Cambodia, despite all that has gone on in their lives the place seems to be very upbeat with the people looking forward to a brighter future.
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