I heart Cambodia!

Hey Kids,

This is going to be quick as I’m just in a gaming cafe taking advantage of some super quick internet and computers.

Here is Cambodia in a recap…..

We arrived in Phnom Penh quickly and easily.  We made it to our hostel and were all a little unimpressed (especially after our last two extremely nice experiences).  We didnt spend much time there, so it doesn’t really matter.  We made our way to the riverfront and walked around the area.  It was a really nice waterfront with a lot of old French colonial buildings.  We spent the majority of our time at the riverfront.

The next day Theresa and I made our way to the Killing Fields and to S:21 – the torture camp and prison.  If you don’t know much about Cambodian history (I did not until looking into travelling here) it is very sad.  In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh and caused a mass evacuation of the city.  This new regime wanted to bring the society back to a pure agrarian society.  The Khmer Rouge displaced families into the countryside and everyone was subjected to force labour. New agricultural ideals (trying to make Cambodia self-sufficient and come out from underneath ‘western’ influences) led to widespread famine.  The Khmer Rouge killed educated people, doctors, lawyers etc. to try and create a classless society.  About 1.5 million Cambodians died of starvation, diseases, murders and torture.  The killing fields is basically what it states.  People were taken from S:21 and killed.  Mass graves were uncovered and there is a memorial dedicated to the dead.  They wanted to display everything to the public to make people aware and to remember.  I didn’t take any pictures as it was such a sad tour.  S:21 (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) is an old school that was converted into a prison and torture/interrogation centre.  The prison had about 17,000 inmates and there were only 4 people to survive this brutal prison.  Walking through this complex was very eerie and disturbing.  A lot of pictures were displayed of victims and ‘mug shots’ of inmates.  I have learned so much from this part of my trip, it’s heartbreaking.  You should all read – “First they killed my father” as it is a memoir of a girl and her life throughout the Khmer Rouge empire.  It’s hard to believe it happend not that long ago, and that not may people know about it.

After that we needed a little brighter afternoon and toured the  Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.  The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was just spent touring temples and the area.  We then made our way to Siem Reap and the 6 hour bus ride was awful as I developed food poisoning on the way…..it was awful!  I spent the first day and a half in bed trying to not make it worse.  Our second day in Siem Reap we went to see Angkor Wat at sunset….well we had thought we were.  We ended up going to another temple and it was crazy! SO many people and a not so good view….  The next day we made sure we got to pick where we wanted to go and saw the temple Bayon at Sunrise and then toured the rest of the complex.  Angkor Wat was not what I was expecting.  It was still amazing to see – but was a lot smaller in person.  I  think the first temple we saw (Bayon) was the best as there was only the 4 of us wandering the complex and taking pictures.  It was a hot, sunny day and it’s crazy to walk around this amazing complex that is so old and rich in history!  The rest of our time in Siem Reap was fairly low-key and seeing the city.

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday night after a crazy long journey from Siem-Reap.   Our bus ticket included, a ride to the border in a car, a 2 hour wait (for no reason) at the border, and then a over-crowded bus that almost didnt fit any of our luggage.  Veronica and I had to sit in the back of the bus, on the engine, amongst everybody’s backpacks…..it was ridiculous! At the start of the bus portion of our trip I was saying we should have spent the $200 on plane tickets…..  When finally getting off the bus (6 hours later) we made our way to our super-nice hostel and it gave us a happy ending to our crazy day.

We’ve just been touring around Bangkok doing a crazy market yesterday and today we met up with Tarcy in town.  We’re planning on doing more touristy things tomorrow and flying to Chiang-mai on Wednesday to go play with elephants!!!

Anyways, I should go.
The crazy gamers around me are starting to scare me…..

Love you all,

Miss you!!!

I’ll try and add pictures soon!