Chaos Crossing Cambodia


Okay, so after crossing the boarder into Cambodia we were about half way to the city we wanted to go to. The mini-van that took us thus far stopped for us to have a bite to eat before continuing on for the rest of our 5 hour journey to get to Vang Vieng. After eating lunch we were ready to get back into the mini-van (a different one that took us the first part of the way) only to find out that there was no mini-van, but that they actually expected us, all FIVE of us (not including the driver), to get into a CAR!!! After arguing with a couple of the guys for a while and trying to explain to them that we are not small thai people and that there isn't even enough seats for all of us, we had no other option but to get into the f$%## car. Needless to say we were all pretty pissed at the whole situation, but none of us had it as bad as Jess. Unfortunately she's the smallest of us all, she had the luxury of sitting in between the driver and the passenger, strattling the gear shift for the 5 hour ride. As you can imagine I was not about to complain about the seat I had when it was all said and done. This takes the cake when it comes to our worst travelling experience thus far.



Phnom Phen

The first place we stayed in in Cambodia was it's capital, Phnom Phen. This city is just overflowing with history, most of which many aren't even aware of. From 1975-1979 approximately 3 million educated Cambodian people were killed by the Khmer Rouge Regime. Surprising that this could have went on not so long ago and yet not many people even know about it. We went to the Killing Fields where many of the people (women and children included) were taken to be killed and buried in mass graves. As we walked around the fields with our guide who gave us the history on it all, we saw many disturbing things. There were mass graves that were labelled as 'mass graves of victims without heads', as well as a "killing tree" which is a tree that was used to bash babies on until they were dead. Words cannot discribe how disturbing and sad it all was.


As well as the Killing Fields, we also went to a school that was turned into a torture camp. Inside you could see the rooms that the prisoners were held in as well as the instuments used to torture them with. Other space was used to display pictures of those who had lost their lives. In these pictures were thousands and thousands of victims, both men, women, children and even babies. I could hardly keep myslef together to view the even more disturbing pictures of those who were already dead.
Despite having the history that Cambodians do, they are very wonderful, strong and postitive people.






Here we are at a bar/club called "Heart of Darkness". This is a popular bar among travellers, but also has many locals, fairly wealthy locals, that fill the place. We hung out at this bar a few nights during our stay in Phenom Phen. With a bottle of wine costing only $10 you know that even if I was drinking it on my own I couldn't pass up a deal like that. Unfortunately the first night there Jess wasn't feeling very well, and the next time we went there it was Gabe who wasn't feeling quite right, but we did enjoy the music and interesting entertainment of drunk foriegners and roudy locals.



Siem Reap/Ankor Wat


If you're ever in Cambodia the one thing that must be done is a trip to Ankor Wat. Here there are ancient stone temples built as far back as 879 AD by the Khmer Civilization. Here is how you get up these temples...yep, that's right no railings and it's steep as hell! I was sweating like crazy it made me so nervous, and getting down is even more fun.











Unlike other temples at Ankor Wat, Ta Phohm has been left pretty much the way it was found. It just goes to show what a tropical forest will do to an ancient monument over years and years. This temple was built in the eariler part of the 12th century and leaves many parts of the temple in the strangehold of the trees. This was also where the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed (woo hoo!). It was pretty amazing to be walking through these stone buildings especially since Ankor Wat may be closed to the public soon to preserve what's left of it.





Here is yet another image from Ta Phohm (Tomb Raider ruins). I still can't get over how we were just allowed to wander in, on and around these historical ruins. Not only was it some of the climbing dangerous, but it seems as though something like this should have a fence around it or something.





Okay, so I guess I lied. This is the one, and only place that we weren't allowed to go.

So here we are hanging out with monks at the top of steep climb on one of the temples. Jess took the picture so that's why she's not in it. It was cool talking to them and finding out that some of them have been monks since they were ten years old and want to be monks until they get married. Sounds crazy but they're happy and I guess that's all that matters.





These set of ruins have the ruler's face carved into each side of the stone and were unlike any of the other temples at Ankor Wat. During our exploring it was so unbelievably hot (about 40 degrees)! Near the end of our day at Ankor Wat it started raining. We took shelter under one of the ruins until it slowed down before hopping on our electric bicycles (yeah we're cool) and heading back. Not an experience to be forgotten that's for sure.




When we weren't checking out tourist attractions, we were checking out some of the many, many stunning restaurants that they have in Siem Reap. Similar to home, but a quarter of the price. It was pretty surprising actually to be in restaurants that look like they belong in Toronto, while outside of them there are small children that follow you around begging for money and food. Some of the kids have little brothers or sisters hanging off their hips while they tug at your arm.




It's also been pretty interesting travelling during the world cup. Soccer, or as they call it 'Football', is really popular here so when the games are on the bars are filled. Unfortunately (for Walter), Portugal was illiminated by France and when this happened we were in a bar surrounded by French people. We were the only ones cheering for Portugal so it really sucked when they lost. It was really wierd, after France won, one of the French guys started singing "I will Survive". And I don't just mean the chorus, but he knew the words to the entire song!!! Bazzare French dude! When Italy played for the final game it was us cheering for my team, Italy of course and the rest of the bar cheering for France. It was awesome when Italy won just to shut them up! We had some fun times watching the games. Walter found a pair of really tacky bright coloured shorts with soccer balls, players and referees on them to wear during the games...and I must admit that I too bought a pair- my dad can have them when I get home. Most of the time we stayed up until 2AM to watch them.

And no, there were no Brad or Angelina sightings while in Cambodia!!!!!!!