Phnom Penh

Trip Start Jan 22, 2008
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15
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Trip End Mar 21, 2008


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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Alrighty so we are safely now in Cambodia and we really like it so far!! We were scared @ first because we caught a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, and on the way our bus tour left behind 2 passengers and didn't realize until like an hour later so had to drive them back on motorbikes, which is really scary arund here cause there's basically no road rules @ all. Good lord. ANYWAY once we actually got here we realized it was all good, and because Phnom Penh is the capital city and also really large (2 million ppl about), it's got all the touristy stuff. We're staying on the lake, our hotel actually is built ON the lake, and we're paying $4 per night to stay here lol. Our room has a fan and a private bathroom. Its' pretty funny. In this area is where al the backpackers stay and it's nice cause it seems like your at some private gettaway cause it's wayyyy quieter and chiller than the rest of the city.
Day one we didn't do much, found a place, met sme people and had some drinks. One guy we met was from California and was a big stoner, and was telling us that as soon as you walk ut of the hotel, 5 guys will be lke, you want pot?? and it's really cheap lol. We didn't bother checking but the next DAY we went out to explore and had people asking us if we wanted pot. It's crazy. Anyway
Day 2 was the really interesting one.We went on a one day sight seeing tour. We got to see the Royal Palace (where the King lives sometimes) and it was HUGE and had tons of temples and wats (another word for temple) and was really nice. We also saw the National Museum, which would have been really interesting if Cammy and I did'nt both kinda hate museums and find them very boring. It was cool though cause there were some artifacts that were from like the 3rd century. That was neat.
We also saw the S21 museum...really, really disturbing and very sad.  Basicaly in the 70's, there was pretty much a holicaust in Phnom Penh where a group of Cambodians went after the rest of the country tryig to convert them to their way of thinking, and brought all the 'rebels' to this highschool. They converted the highschool into a torture chamber, where they treated the other cambodian people in awful ways and tortured them to death. The museum is ACTUALLY that highschool, and they've left everything the same as when it was found in 1979. There are pictures of every single person being checked in and they all look terrified and depressed. There are pictures of them being torutured, each picture in the actual torture room that it happened in. There are terribly graffic paintings, and people sculls, and stories from that war. Cammy and I both didn't know if we should cry or what but it was just awful.
We also saw the Killig Fields, where hundreds of thousands were killed in mass genocides, again just like the holocaust. Mass graves, everything. Of the thousands that died, ONE survived...he was shot and burried alive, and dug up bythe Vietnamese a week later barely concsious. Very scary.
Anyway today is our last day and we've just been bummin around, TANNING (yeah baby, cause we can, although I hear it's plus 5 @ home!!!! WOOO!! hopefully it stays that way!!!), eating...Just got a massage that cost me $6 for an hour but it really hurt and now I can't move. Tomorrow we go to Siem Reap, the city where Angkor Wat is located. Angkor is supposed to be one of the new wonders of the world or something, so we're REALLY excited to see it.
Oh yeah aside from that we also noticed the Cambodian people are sooooo nice, they leave when you say no, they go out of their way to make people happu, and speak goood english! It's a really nice break from all the other countries, Jesus. And they accent American money more than their own so we do'nt need to convert anything!! WOO! lol wow the things that become exciting!
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