Foreign Correspondents reporting

Once we arrived in Phnom Penh we managed to negotiate a tuk tuk fare to our hotel - luckily the guy who owned the hotel had told us what we should expect to pay.
We'd booked the hotel on someone's recommendation while we'd been in Saigon and it turned out to be OK.  Basic but very clean and large bedroom with an attached bathroom with hot water and very near to the riverfront.
On a recommendation from Pauline who we'd met on our trip to China we went to the Foreign Correspondent's Club for Happy Hour (had to go a second time just to make sure it was good!)
Phnom Penh is (in)famous for the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's regime, so although it's pretty grim we visited Tuol Sleng prison (S21) where people were held and tortured prior to being taken to the Killing Fields.  Prior to 1975 it was a primary school and now it's exactly as it was in 1979 at the end of the regime.  Only 7 people survived S21 and that was because they were photographers or artists and were useful to Pol Pot and his cronies.




  The next day we went to the Killing Fields and that was just as grim.  So many mass graves have been excavated and the skeletons have been put in to a shrine which is the centrepiece of the Killing Fields.  Although grim it is something you have to see if visiting Cambodia if only to make you aware of history and what some nutcases are capable of.  It is amazing that the Cambodians have succeeded as they have after only 35 years of freedom from the regime.  During the 4 years of the Khmer Rouge something like 23% of the population were killed throughout the country.  The manager of our hotel was born in 1973 and his family escaped to the country in 1975.  He said they were always hungry and finally (because his mother spoke Vietnamese) were able to escape to Vietnam.  Once there, via the Red Cross they wrote to various countries.  France were the first to reply so in 1978 they all went to Paris.  He returned to Phnom Penh a couple of years ago to run a guesthouse but most of his family are still in France.
We also visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which was much nicer!

From Phnom Penh we went to Siem Reap and stayed in a hotel recommended by the guy from PP.  This hotel was really good - large twin room with A/C, breakfast and swimming pool all for £10 for the 2 of us.  Actually breakfast wasn't great but it was free!  The hotel also provided free tuk tuks in to town whenever you wanted!

The main reason for visiting Siem Reap was to go to Angkor Wat.  We hired bikes one afternoon and cycled out to buy our tickets (purchased after 5pm they can be used that evening and all the next day) to see the sunset.  Unfortunately sunset wasn't great (too cloudy due to the rainy season) but we got a taste of the temples.
The next day we were up before the crack of dawn and had hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us in for sunrise at Angkor Wat and then to take us around all the other main temples.  We were there by 5.30am and following sunrise (nothing great!) we looked around Angkor Wat, Angkor Tom, the Bayon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King and various other temples.  Books recommend spending 3 days at the temples and suggest you are very unlucky if you only have 1 day there.  By 2pm we were really 'templed out' and were more than ready to return to our hotel and the swimming pool!  Maybe we're just heathens!

 One plus point of both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is a French Bakery called the Blue Pumpkin.  At 8pm each evening they reduce the price of lots of pastries (croissants, Danish pastries, etc) by 50%!  Loads of backpackers are in there then buying up the bargains and we were no exception!
From Siem Reap, the Lonely Planet guide suggests the boat ride to Battambang is a 'must do', so we did it.  It was OK but ......... the views were nothing extraordinary, the boat would have failed all safety tests, it was VERY noisy and the only place you could see anything was on the roof which had no shade so was extremely hot!  Oh well, you win some and you lose some!

 In Battambang the main thing to do is to ride on the bamboo train.  This is due to close in 6 months once the line has been upgraded but in the meantime it was great!  A tuk tuk took us to the line.  The 'train' consists of two sets of wheels on axles and a bamboo platform on top on which you sit.  It is powered by a motor bike engine!  The trip is about 30 minutes each way and is very noisy and bumpy (noisy due to the engine and bumpy because the joins in the rails are not at all aligned) - great fun though. 

 If you meet a 'train' coming in the opposite direction then the least laden train has to be taken apart and then reconstructed on the far side of the laden one!  At the end of the line there are refreshment stalls (fresh coconut - yum) and also a brick 'factory'.  Then a noisy/bumpy ride back to the tuk tuk.

 Later that day we had booked to do a cookery course.  It was completely different to the one we'd done in Chiang Mai, but just as good. 

 There were only the 2 of us which was a shame but we still thoroughly enjoyed it.  Again, we began with a trip to the local market and then we cooked 3 dishes (no choice this time). 

Once cooked (spring rolls, fish amok and beef lok lak - the last two being traditional Khmer dishes) we sat down and enjoyed the fruits of our labours!


 

The next day (Tuesday 28 June) we bade farewell to Cambodia and travelled back in to Thailand, to Kanchanaburi (River Kwai) via Bangkok.