Toul Sleng

Before heading to Vietnam we took a short stop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. A charmless town, but still a lot better than Vientiane, which I still maintain is the most boring capital EVER.

One of the important things to see here is the Toul Sleng genocide museum. This was the most notorious prision during the Khmer Rouge reign during the late 1970's. Under Pol Pot's rull more than 20% of the population of Cambodia were murdered. Pretty horrific stuff and the museum is worth seeing even if it is a little hard to take.

Of 20,000 people who went through the place only 7 survived. One was a painter who painted a lot of the scenes from the prison since.

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

Delhi Belly

I'll spare you all the details, but it did happen :-) Had to spend an extra day in Sihanoukville recovering.

The Snake House

On our last night in Sihanoukville we went to a restaurant called the "Snake House" on the recommendation of our moto driver. It was really strange. I didn't like it. A glorious display of undue cruelty to animals. Huge snakes were on display around your table in tiny, tiny glass cages. You could constantly hear the croaking of parrots from their tiny cages. And these are big birds, being kept in a space the size of a monitor.

The place seemed to be owned by Russians. Good family men lets say ;-). Parked outside were their Hummers. The biggest cars I'd ever seen. Monstrous 7L cars.

From Cambodia Photos

Sihanoukville

It was very, very hot in Angkor and we were wrecked from walking around, so we said we'd head to the beach to sea what it was like. Sihanoukville is Cambodias only sea side resort and was our first time on the coast since we'd gone away. Six white sand beaches - very beautiful. We had met another Irish girl (Anita) in the bus station and tagged along with her to find accomodation at Serendipity beach. By the time we got there it was dark but we headed down to the beach anyway. It was really cool, the beach was lined with bars and restaurants and we had dinner that evening on the sand, less than a meter from the waves.

From Cambodia Photos

During the day this beach is thronged with people trying to sell you stuff and it gets a little annoying after a while, so during the day we took a quick motorbike ride to Otres beach, which was deserted and we lay there for the day ... How bad?

From Cambodia Photos

The Temples of Angkor

From Siem Reap we made our way to the Temples of Angkor each day. This was definitely one of the best things I'd seen so far, they're amazing and nothing prepares you for the scale of some of them. The temples are spread over 300 square kilometers and some are over 1000 years old. This was the Manhattan of south east asia back in its prime.

We hired a driver for the two days to bring us around. 13USD for a day - not bad. We were in a tuk tuk for the first day, but we went a lot further the next day so it was myself, Nici and the driver all on the back of a motor bike for the second day! That was fun ;-).

I won't bore you with the details of every temple we saw, but here's some of the highlights below ...


The Angkor Wat

This is the postcard temple and you might have even seen it before. The thing is huge (63 meters tall!) and the approach is so long - first it's surrounded by a gigantic moat, followed by a massive outer wall, with the temple itself deep in the center.

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

Angkor Thom

Lying north of the Angkor Wat is a much larger, walled collection of temples called Angkor Thom. Very impressive. The centerpiece temple, Bayon, is covered with very errie carved faces looking in all directions. This is repeated at the entrance gate. Imagine how intimidating this would have been if you were a visitor coming here a thousand years ago.

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

Banteay Srei

This temple was a lot further away but worth the visit. Made from a red sandstone, the temple has very nice and very detailed carvings everywhere. It's strange how things change - Rob visited here six years ago and the temple was virtually untouristed. Today this was very much part of the beaten track and pack to the brim the day we visited.

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

Kbal Spean

Further still past Banteay Srei was Kbal Spean. This isn't a temple, but a series of carvings made directly into the river bed. Quite nice. The river was one of the water sources for Angkor. The idea was that as the water flowed over the carvings it would get blessed, before flowing into the city ... I like it.

From Cambodia Photos

Ta Prohm

This temple is worth a mention as it looks like something from Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider. Just look at how the Jungle has taken over the temple.

From Cambodia Photos

From Cambodia Photos

Siem Reap

From the airport we checked into a guesthouse in Siem Reap. This is the closest town to the temples of Angkor and we used it as a base for the next few days. The town is a smelly, dirty, hectic town with little charm whatsoever. The town had swelled in size due to the tourist interest in Angkor and prices had swelled to match it seemed. This was the most expensive place so far. Meals here, for example, were making their way back to western prices.

From Cambodia Photos

We quickly noticed that Cambodia's own currency is rarely used. Everything was quoted in dollars. This also had the effect of pushing up prices. Services that may have cost less than a Dollar before were round neatly up to a Dollar.

Onwards to Cambodia 9-3-2007

Flying from Vientiane we landed at Siem Reap airport in Cambodia. We'd spend almost a week in this country. One of the main attractions here are the ancient temples of Angkor. After visiting them we would head on to Sihanoukville - Cambodias only real seaside resort, boasting six white sand beaches. Then, after a short stop in Phnom Penh we would travel onward to Vietnam.

Very noticeable here is the poverty. Cambodia still, very much feels scarred and in recovery from its recent past. Land mine victims in every town, lots of begging, orphans and very, very persistant street vendors. A little bit of a shock coming from the other countries we'd been in.