Cambodia

Headed on a gruelling 12 hours bus journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap. You meet so many great people out here and trust me to sit next to most irritating couple on the planet...thank the lord of MP3 players!!!

As we pulled up to the Friendship Bridge, the man in charge stated that we should be weary, as when we cross the border we will be approached by lots of children who will pick our pockets and are on drugs (I always knew children were the root of all evil). Passed through Thai immigration with no problems, lovely air-conditioned building. Crossed the Friendship Bridge which seemed to be over a landfill site, as oppose to a river into Poipet. Entered this little shack with a tiny little opening where your passport was taken off you, stamped, looked at, stamped, looked at...eventually, we got our passports back and sat outside while we waited for an Iraqi guy who was in our group to pass through immigration.

Poipet felt like a post-apocalyptic hell. There was a steady stream of solemn looking people pulling wooden carts across the border. The place was a complete mess of mangled concrete and dust. People maimed by I assume landmines shuffling along, children walking around with their eyes rolling into the backs of their heads and a huge fade sign stating, "Please protect our children from sex tourism, report all cases of child abuse." I was so close to turning back around.

Once we left Poipet, it was a totally different story. Miles of green paddy fields, dotted with little wooden houses built on stilts, each with an enormous bale of hay, pond, chickens, cows and children running around. I can totally understand why Anglina Jolie adopted one, they are the cutest kids!

Siem Reap was the first port-of-call, we were offered a free tuk-tuk into the centre of town, provided we looked at the some guesthouse, I shared one with a couple of guys. The driver took a bit of a detour and as we were marvelling at the amount of posh hotels, a moped came screeching up besides us and tried to grab the guys bag. Luckily they didn't succeed, but shook us all up. The guesthouse ended up being great, got a massive room and en-suite in the centre of town for $4 a night...apart from a dreadlocked Italian dude who insisted on playing his guitar and singing constantly?!

Angkor is absolutely majestic, the site is huge! Despite is being ransacked by war, abandoned for centuries and ravaged by the Khmer Rouge, it's very well preserved. All of the tourists and hawkers, didn't really take away from the peace and tranquility of the place. I don't know enough about Hinduism to fully understand the meaning of the place, but in the middle of the jungle these monuments to Khmer architecture and empire looked very much at home. So much so, that one of the temple had tress growing on top of it, the roots straggling the structure - man and nature as one. Ended up watching a rather unimpressive sunset from the top of Bakheng Hill. It was cool, loads of people congregated, but getting back down really steep narrow steeps with hundreds of other people was a bit scary! The most annoying thing about Angkor are the hoards of children that run up to you as soon as you arrive at a temple. One girl introduced herself to me as Spidergirl, I fobbed her off but she remembered when I came back and called me a 'fucking liar', another 6 year old girl went to the extremes of telling me that Pol Pot killed her father...hmmm, didn't Pol Pot's regime get over-thrown 30-year-ago? It's a miracle!!

The bus ride to Sihanoukville was a bit scary, at Phnom Penh bus station the inspector looked at my ticket and flapped about a little bit, finally putting me on the bus, sitting on plastic stool in the middle of the aisle. Half way into the journey, we stopped for comfort break only to have our tickets checked by a very scary woman. She stopped the bus from moving, saying that I didn't have a ticket; 'that's what the tickets inspector at Phnom Penh gave back to me' I told her. The driver and his assistant got off the bus, argued with her a bit. Meanwhile I was munching on some fruit that a Cambodian man offered me. Finally she stomps off and we get on our way. Once I settled into guesthouse, I found the correct ticket in my back pocket, oops!

Sihanoukville is more laid-back with a beautiful beach and cool cafe-bars, mostly run by ex-pats. Got to top up the tan and drink lots of Cambodian coffee, which is good. Met lots of cool people, including this crazy artist guys who chatted to me hours about life, science, religion, etc.

Headed to Phnom Penh and the Happy guesthouse which backs onto the Boeng Kak lake, which is extremely polluted. The room isn't the nicest, but it'll do, it has a steady stream of travellers and great communal area. Went to see the Killing Fields and S21 prison, the fields were a series of shallow ditches where the Khmer Rouge buried the people they executed. A tree that was used to kill children was pointed out. Then headed to S21 prison, just to add to the misery, which is converted school, chopped into cells that was used to detain and torture people. It was horrible, the steel beds and medieval instruments were still there. It made me feel sick thinking about all the pain and suffering that was inflicted in those cells. People really are cruel. What made me more sick was bring ripped off by the tuk-tuk driver. I should have been more forthright and told him to fuck off, but after seeing the Khmer Rouge's legacy, didn't really want to mess with any Cambodians!

So, New Lunar Year is the last day I spend in Cambodia. It is a fantastic country, so interesting and friendly. If you can get over the pollution and dust and the fact that Cambodian ladies wearing pyjamas as day-wear?!