Tommy in China

We went to a lot of temples whilst at Angkor and I have no intention whatsoever of listing them all. One of the most famous and a fairly spectacular temples was Ta Prohm, referred to by a lot of people while we were there as “The Tomb Raider Temple”. After getting back I watched Tomb Raider as apparently a lot of it was filmed in or around Angkor and Siem Reap; it’s a bloody awful film but I did see a lot of places from our trip in the backgrounds and sets. One of the things that makes Ta Prohm so popular are the huge trees growing from the temple’s walls. During the centuries Angkor was overgrown with jungle and not all of the trees were cut back when Angkor was “re-discovered” by the French.

Our next stop was Angkor Thom and Bayon, one of the more famous temples in the area. Angkor Thom was the ancient capital of the Khmer empire and is littered with temples in varying states of repair. Of these temples Bayon is probably the most famous and impressive, well known for it’s over 200 huge stone faces carved into the sides of the numerous stone towers which jut out from the upper part of the temple. 

This was one of my favourite temples from our time here and parts of it felt almost maze like. We parked our bikes outside and had a wander around the temple. I had bought a book (which I initially didn’t really want but which turned out to be really informative, if vastly overpriced) with information on all the temples and things to look out for the night before whilst heading to the temple to watch the sunset. I think in retrospect I should maybe have read it more thoroughly before visiting the various temples and other buildings that we saw whilst in Angkor but I still have it and it makes for fairly interesting reading and also serves as another little memento of our trip.

After Bayon we headed to another nearby temple where we saw a few monks in Buddhist robes walking over the causeway from the temple’s entrance. Some of the temples in Angkor still serve as places of worship today, mostly as Buddhist shrines, regardless of whether they were originally built to worship Hindu deities.

I may have neglected to mention in the last post that when we bought our three day tickets to Angkor (which we did the day before) they actually came with a free sunset. Which I should really clarify means that the ticket includes entry to one of the temples on the evening before the three day time period commences for s view of the sun setting over Angkor. So after riding our rented bikes around the countryside we rode them (I think we rode the bikes rather than getting a tuk-tuk) to this temple just beyond the main entrance to the Angkor Wat to have a look. The steps up to the temple were insanely steep and although the view of the surrounding countryside was nice enough I don’t remember the sunset being particularly spectacular (I do tend to have quite bad luck with witnessing sunsets/sunrises on holiday for some reason), at least it certainly wasn’t spectacular enough for me to remember it very well.

And that brings me on to the final episode of this utterly wonderful little trip of ours; we got up painfully early the next day in order to head to Angkor and see the sun rising over the Angkor Wat. We way well have stopped at the supermarket for provisions on the way (it was an awesome supermarket), but we got there well in time to see the first hints of dawn as the sky over the causeway turned from black to a sort of bruise like blue.

The Angkor Wat is huge and just in front of it are a couple of Barrays (at least I think that’s what they are) which are like small reservoirs. Anyway, as it wasn’t the dry season, and neither was it a particularly wet part of the wet season the lake things (as I shall call them) were more like small garden ponds. They were still big enough, however, to create a beautiful reflection of the Wat as the sun began to climb beyond the trees and temples in the background.

Once the sun had come we went to have a look at the stalls near the main causeway leading to the temple, and to have some breakfast, after which we looked around the temple itself.

Their had been many upsides to our travelling in the tourism off season so far; cheap prices, room at all the hotels, having temples and sights all to ourselves but one of the downsides (and it’s not a huge downside in retrospect) was that there were repairs going on to the Angkor Wat and so part of the temple (the main entrance to the temple proper in fact) was covered in scaffolding and green tarpaulin.

Once inside the temple, which I would like to again point out is huge, we had a walk round looking at the wall carvings and stopping to watch a monkey that was sitting in the middle of one of the corridors. We also climbed up to the top where the five central towers stand in representation of the mountain home of the gods. There’s a limit to the number of people who can go up at once, so we waited to climb the steep steps up to the top and look around the very centre of the temple.

There was another, much smaller temple near to the Angkor Wat, and after looking around the main attraction we headed here for a quick rest before heading onwards towards Wat Thom and the numerous temples contained within.

Looking back it seems like we had a lot of lazy days towards the end of this holiday, and this was another. We rented bikes from a little shop near our hostel and had a little cycle around town and out towards the countryside. Cambodia does not have a particularly large population and most of the people who live there still live a rural agricultural life subsistence farming or otherwise in the countryside. Apart from the capital Phnom Penh, which is actually quite big, the next biggest city is Battambang, which is not. By the time you get to cities like Siem Reap, which would be a small town in many countries, you are never far from the countryside, even in the city centre.

We rode our bikes out along the main road leading towards Angkor and stopped of at a cookie shop (complete with free samples) and supermarket (with the best selection of ice cream I’ve ever seen) on the way for provisions. We then turned off the main road and into the surrounding trees. We spent a while cycling around inside the semi-jungle stopping to walk through tiny little hamlets where local kids were playing football in bare feet amongst the trees. As can be seen from the pictures above my body does not cope well with heat and this was a fairly normal level of sweat for me throughout the trip.

We also cycled around some back roads on the other side of town, passing fields and villages and slightly more upmarket houses but it was emerging from these trees on the road outside of town that we suddenly got our first glimpse of Angkor. We were slightly disorientated from cycling around winding dirt paths under the cover of trees and emerged at a roadside cafe/rest stop where they sold fanta in glass bottles from ice boxes and cold water. On the other side of the road there was a huge wide moat and looking further into the distance we could see a causeway and a huge stone structure which turned out to be the main gatehouse leading to the Angkor Wat. On realising where we were we decided to turn around as we wanted to save the sight of Angkor for the morrow. But seeing the gatehouse in the distance gave me a sense of excitement that we were finally at the last stage of our trip and the main attraction was within walking distance of where I stood. All the mystery and wonder of Angkor was just over that causeway. We cycled back to town and (quite possibly) had a relaxed evening, excited about the last 3 days of our holiday which we had set aside for the worlds biggest temple.

Our trip to Kompong Phhluk did not start off quite as well as we may have hoped; we had a slight misunderstanding with the tuk-tuk driver who ended up taking us to a place which was not that which we had planned. This was only a slight setback however as we quickly realised what had happened, sorted everything out and got back under way. The driver had taken us to a ferry peer for a place much further away and I hadn’t quite got my information right when I planned everything (this was in part down to the fact that vastly differing levels of water at different times of the year mean that some of the floating villages only exist, or are easily accessible, at certain times) so we wasted a little time, but it was a pleasant enough drive and it didn’t really affect our plans.

Once we got near to Kompong Phhluk we swapped our tuk-tuk for a boat, which we would eventually swap for an even smaller boat, and headed down river through villages built on huge stilts which towered over the river banks. During the wet season the water level rises dramatically and the stilts are necessary to stop the houses from being submerged. In the dry season (I think we were there in the dryer part of the wet season, although I’m not actually sure) this leaves many buildings standing tens of feet in the air with ladders and stairs leading down to the streets (which are all underwater in the wet season).

At this point I should probably point out what Kompong Phhluk actually is. It’s a submerged forest. During the dry season it stands, like any other forest, on dry land near the edge of the Tonle Sap lake; but in the wet season, as the lake expands it becomes submerged by increasingly large volumes of water. At the time when we went the trees were not so deep underwater but the water was still deep enough to allow us to paddle through the forest in a small wooden boat. It makes for quite a surreal sight, having all these trees growing out of the huge, brown, murky lake.

We also headed out towards the middle of the lake, where the trees give way to a huge expanse of muddy water, stretching to the horizon. We stayed there awhile and Persy went for a brief swim before we headed back to one of the stilt villages for a walk around.

The stilt village comprised one long main street which the houses looked down on from either side. Some of the buildings were really quite large and the intricate webbing of stilts that kept them up also supported wooden platforms for storage and hammocks for sleeping in the burning mid-day sun.

After we got back we went out in Siem Reap for some food and visited the night market, where I bought some hand-puppets (I have a thing for buying things I have no need for) and I imagine we ended up eating some ice-cream at some point (there was a nice ice-cream bar in Siem Reap and although I can’t remember exactly what I ate and when I’m pretty sure I ate ice-cream on at least a few occasions). Anyway, it was a good day and we had another easy day planned for the next, renting bikes and exploring Siem Reap and the surrounding countryside, where we would get our first, brief glimpse of Angkor. 

Siem Reap kind of reminds me of a music festival, it has that kind of atmosphere to it, lots and lots of people who are there to have fun, no one has any cares and there are lots of arty, tasty, creative, boozy, fun and novel things to do. Like the Dr. Fish massage, which apparently is quite popular, and expensive, in Western health spars and such. In Siem Reap it’s very cheap and as I had never heard of such a thing as sticking your feet in a tank full of fish and letting them nibble away at all the dead skin (which is a fiendishly ticklish process) I thought it was jolly strange.

When we got into Siem Reap we headed straight for the Siem Reap Hostel and checked in. The hostel is very nice and has a swimming pool and bar/restaurant, movie room, nice, clean, comfy rooms and an agreement with the local tuk-tuk drivers (as did the hostel in Phnom Penh for that matter) to fix a price for trips in return for recommending their custom. All in all an extremely good hostel for only $8/night.

Siem Reap isn’t very big although it’s packed with bars, restaurants, massage parlours and other things to do, including a few markets which are nice for a stroll and perusal on a lazy afternoon. We spent most of our time in Siem Reap getting about by bicycle. I think the bike rent was about $2 a day although I’m not quite sure if this is accurate, either way, it certainly wasn’t expensive.

We had a few days (possibly 5) in Siem Reap and wanted to leave Angkor until the very end (obviously) but there were still other things that we wanted to do and see first. We took the first day easy, as we had arrived from Battambang in the evening, and then on the next day set out for Kompong Phhluk and a trip to see the Tonle Sap lake.

And to finish off our adventures in Battambang we got up nice and early for a cooking class at a place called The Smokin’ Pot, here we learned to make Spicy Chicken, Beef Lok-Lak and Fish Amok (I think). The class included a trip to the local market to buy ingredients and a recipe book with information and tips for cooking Khmer Cuisine. The food we made was good and filling and it was a nice, relaxing way to spend a morning.

We had booked the bus for around mid-day and were a little bit worried that there might not be enough time to get from our class to the bus stop but in the end we made it with plenty of time to spare and when the bus set off we were safely on-board for Siem Reap and the last leg of our journey.

…I thought I’d continue in a new post as that one was getting quite long.

Phnom Sampeau was probably the least interesting of the three temples, although the area had a much more sinister claim to fame than the other two sites relating to Cambodia’s more recent history. As the tuk-tuk was not going to be able to take us up to the top of the hill we had to change our mode of transport and hop of the back of a couple of motorbikes, ridden by locals who would also act as our guides. And that more sinister aspect of the area’s past would be our first stop. The killing cave of Phnom Sampeau.

The killing cave is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a cave, about half-way up the hill, that in the 70s was used for disposing of the bodies of the Khmer Rouge’s victims. The cave opening is of a somewhat vertical nature and soldiers would lead their captives up to the top of the cave mouth and throw them in. Sometimes they would kill them first. Hundreds and thousands of people were killed in this manner and there is a memorial in the cave below containing some of the bones that were collected later, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

Visiting the cave was a very sombre experience. Not all of the victims were dead by the time they landed in the cave below and many would have had slow agonizing deaths far from their loved ones and homes (during the forced ruralisation of the population many people were separated from their families and sent to provinces far away from their traditional homes). The needlessness of it adds to the sadness and the sense of incomprehensibility that anything like this could ever happen on such a massive scale.

After the cave we headed on up to the temple which is fairly modern and has some  interesting scenes depicted on the walls. From here there was a perfect view of the surrounding countryside which we stopped to gaze at for a while and wonder why the hills seemed to rise as if from nowhere in the middle of such a perfectly flat land. Nearby there is an old artillery piece facing in the direction of an old Khmer Rouge stronghold. Although the Vietnamese army invaded towards the end of 1978 (according to Wikipedia they invaded on Christmas day) and liberated Phnom Penh in 1979 parts of Cambodia remained under Khmer Rough control into the 80s and 90s and there were many cases of protracted battles and artillery exchanges, as in the case of the Bokor hill station where the Khmer Rouge retained a garrison inside the abandoned hotel for a number of years.

This was our last stop of the day, and our last sight to see in Battambang. The next day we would set off for Siem Reap and the final part of our journey, one step closer to Angkor Wat.

And when we finally, reluctantly, finished playing at the first of the days three temples we got back in our tuk-tuk and headed to the winery (apparently the only one of it’s kind in Cambodia).

The winery was a nice stop and a chance to sit and relax in the shade for a while as by now it was mid-day and rather hot. Again, as we had managed to come in the tourism off season (quite fortuitously) there where not many people around (this may also have to do with Battambang not being that high on many tourists’ lists of destinations, although I consider this a mistake for anyone who overlooks the city and surrounding area). In fact, I believe we were the only visitors there. The winery is a small place and uses grapes from a number of vineyards situated nearby. The wine we tasted was very smoky but nevertheless quite pleasant and I purchased a bottle as a present for my Dad. I’m not sure if he drunk it or what he thought of it (or the Kampot pepper that I bought back with me to England shortly after completing our Cambodian trip) but I figured it would be a fairly unique gift regardless.

There was also some locally made apple juice although they were all out of the apple brandy that is their other main product.

We didn’t stay too long at the winery, we had a look around, tasted some wine and apple juice, bought a bottle each of the wine and then headed on to the second temple of the day on the top of a cliff, relatively nearby.

The temple, called Phnom Banan, is situated on the top of a cliff/hill and is accessible via a set of rather steep stairs, which in the heat of a Cambodian day can prove rather tiresome. I believe the temple is about 800 to 1000 years old and compared to Ek Phnom it’s in a fairly good state of repair.

Upon reaching the top we decided to have a look around and as we were wandering in amongst the ruins we noticed a small child watching us, whenever we turned to look at her she would instantly hide behind the nearest ruined bit of wall or temple. Eventually I decided to hide as well and managed to sneak up on her causing her to run and hide behind Persy, where she kept peering round and then hiding again whenever I turned to look.

We had brought some provisions with us for the day as we were expecting to be out in the countryside for a while and so we decided that now would be a good time for something approaching a picnic. We invited our new friend to come and eat with us and she eventually accepted some bread. In the end she followed us around the temple, mostly doing something akin to playing hide and seek and only left as we got in our tuk-tuk and had to say goodbye. I don’t think she ever said a single word, I don’t know if she was just mute or shy, although just like the kids at the first temple she seems just content to find some people to play with.

The temple itself isn’t too big although the hill it’s on affords great views of the surrounding Cambodian country. Cambodia, or at least large swathes of it, appear to be almost entirely flat except for a few isolated hills which rise out of the surrounding countryside at infrequent intervals. I think I remember reading somewhere that during the wet season when the Tonle Sap lake swells and the fields are all submerged a fish can swim from one side of Cambodia to the other, as the countryside is so flat that almost everything is under just enough water (except the roads and houses, which are mostly built on stilts) for a fish to go almost anywhere it wants. 

After we finished looking around the temple and admiring the views of the countryside disappearing off into the horizon we headed down to our waiting tuk-tuk, accompanied by our new friend and headed off to the third temple of the day, which was significantly more modern that the other two, having been built over the last few decades and is named Phnom Sampeau (I think I’ve already mentioned that Phnom means hill in Khmer, although if I haven’t then that’s what it means, Wat, incidentally, is the word for temple).

The next day was planned to be fairly busy, there were a few places we wanted to visit, including three more temples and “the only winery in Cambodia”. This was one of my favourite days of the whole trip, although, as I’ve said before, it’s hard to think of a single day which wasn’t amazing and special in it’s own way. Every day was different and everyone was incredible. Nevertheless this was definitely one of my favourites.

It started with a trip to a rice paper “factory” on the outskirts of town. This was not in the itinerary and wasn’t a particularly memorable experience but it was nevertheless interesting to see how people make a living and learn something about how people live in Cambodia. The factory was little more than a house and there’s a picture of the rice paper sheets drying in the sun above, the sheets are later sold to restaurants and used to make spring rolls.

The reason we visited the rice paper factory is because it happened to be on the way to the first of three temples lying in the countryside just outside Battambang, and I think it’s one of the stops on standard tours of the area.

The first temple, Ek Phnom, is a run down, partially (or mostly) collapsed temple dating back almost 1000 years. It’s a very popular picnic spot although as we went in the tourism off season and not on any sort of religious festival there was almost no one there. In fact we seemed to be the only tourists there.

The only other people around were locals selling drinks and souvenirs and three little girls, who I think were relatives of a woman with a stall not far from the temple and ancient reservoir (baray?) nearby.

These girls greeted us as we approached the temples and although my first thought was that they wanted to sell us something or act as guides it turned out that they merely wanted to play. So in between exploring the temple and taking photos we were required to give piggy backs and such. They even borrowed our cameras and ran around excitedly for quite a while taking photos (after getting my camera back I discovered most of these photos were either off their feet, the sky or one of the girls throwing ridiculous poses) and left a big impression on my day. I don’t normally like children very much (as anyone who knows me can probably attest to) but I rate this day, and the little friends we made (no matter temporarily) as one of my most enjoyable experiences in Cambodia.

One of the things that struck me, in both Cambodia and Vietnam, is how friendly everyone is, especially the children. I still remember riding through Vietnamese villages on a motorbike with hordes of children running alongside to high-five us. Children in China are ridiculously shy, and will run away if you ever tried to say hello, and they spend so much time in school that the only hobby any of my students ever claim to have is sleeping and so there’s something really heart-warming about seeing kids carelessly playing and really enjoying themselves. Not begging or trying to sell you souvenirs or flowers, just having fun.

And from Kep onto Battambang. Battambang is Cambodia’s second biggest city, although it is considerably smaller than Phnom Penh. Even so, it not normally high up on anyone’s list of places to visit and lack’s the youth hostels and backpacker jaunts that are easily found in both the capital and Siem Reap. I have to say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Battambang and that it was the base for some of my fondest memories from my time in Cambodia (although I honestly can’t think of a day that wasn’t in some way absolutely brilliant).

First though, before getting onto Battambang itself, I guess I should mention how we almost didn’t make it there (or at least, almost didn’t make it there on time). As I may have mentioned (I’m not sure if I have and I can’t be bothered right now to go back over my previous posts) both me and Persy are essentially useless when it comes to organising things, or not losing/breaking things, and that I had a very real worry that at some point (if not at frequent intervals) something would happen that could be suitably classified as a disaster. The most surprising thing about this trip was probably that it all went smoothly, and that nothing important was lost/stolen/forgotten in a hotel or bar somewhere. In fact the closest we came was in Kep.

We were waiting for the bus, in a cafe that overlooked the bus station, knowing exactly when the bus should turn up and yet somehow we missed it. It was the last bus of the day and we would have to wait until tomorrow if we couldn’t catch it. So we got in a tuk-tuk as the driver made a call to the bus company and began to chase the bus (tuk-tuks aren’t really that fast) in order to try and catch up with it. Luckily the tuk-tuk driver managed to make contact with the bus driver and he agreed to wait for us at a stop somewhere down the road. At this point (or possibly just after) Persy managed to drop her ticket; the ticket for the bus that we were chasing; the last bus of the day. In the end this didn’t prove to be a problem as she just bought a new one on the bus but in our two weeks+ in Cambodia this was the closest we came to something going wrong (which is pretty damn close to a miracle).

Anyway, we got into Battambang pretty late, actually, from what I recall it was really late, and we found ourselves a Hotel (which was nice enough, when we left the lady who ran it gave us both a Khmer style scarf as a free gift, I still have mine in my suitcase).

The main attraction of Battambang for me (before we set off) was the bamboo train. I’d read about this a long time ago and had really wanted to experience it but unfortunately I had heard that the line had been stopped due to upgrades on the line. Luckily, this proved to be utter rubbish, and, in the morning, as we asked the lady on the front desk what we could do (as I think we had planned this day as a rest day) she suggested the bamboo train. I’m not quite sure I can explain how excited this made me, as I honestly thought that I had lost the chance to see it.

Anyway, I guess I should explain the bamboo railway. The railway itself is not bamboo. It was mostly built by the French during their colonial rule and once they left fell into disrepair. There are still (reportedly) trains which run down the lines but these are very infrequent, very old and very, very slow. The local Cambodians have found a way to use these railways to their advantages, creating their own trains out of bamboo mats, a few wheels and small petrol motors. The trains are fairly slow although once they get going it certainly feels like they are going quite fast. There is only the one line and so when you meet a train going the other way one of the trains must be dismantled and removed to allow the other to pass. Which train gets removed is a matter of precedence and depends on how many people you have on-board, although if you have a motorbike then this trumps people.

We took the bamboo train into the countryside, past fields and trees and streams and to a tiny village where we were shown around by two children who showed us how to use leaves as a kind of umbrella to shade ourselves from the glare of the sun. We had a nice little stroll around before heading back to our train and returning the way we had come through the stunningly beautiful countryside.

Our tuk-tuk driver was waiting for us and took us back to Battambang (the station was a little way out in the countryside and we had hired a tuk-tuk to take us there and back) and we had a fairly relaxed meal in a cafe not far from our hotel.

As a part of the tour we had arranged up to the hill station there was a boat trip down the river. At first this wasn’t something that I had really wanted to do (I can’t actually remember why, as nice boat trips down pretty rivers are generally considered to be a good thing), but it was actually a very nice little jaunt. At first my camera couldn’t focus on anything so I started focusing it on different parts of the sky and got what I think are some fairly good results.

Anyway, the boat trip took us out into the countryside (in England Kampot would be a village and “the countryside” took about 5 minutes to get to) and past fields and palm trees with the impressive backdrop of a beautiful Cambodian sky. Water buffalo (or maybe just cows, again I’m not too sure) were being led across tiny fords in streams nearby and there were occasional wooden houses built on stilts overlooking the river. As we started to get back to town the sun was getting lower and lower, and by the time we got back there was a spectacular sunset over the hills across the river. The next morning we took a bus to Kep were we spent a few hours, bathing in the sea and visiting a mostly closed market.

We had only come to Kampot for one reason (other than the pure joy of travelling itself, looking back I do feel that all these destinations were just necessary stopgaps; in order to travel you need somewhere to go, but it was the journey itself that I can always look back on with misty eyes more than any of the sights that we actually visited), and that was to visit the Bokor National Park and in particular the Bokor Hill Station. The hill station was built as a retreat for the French colonialists, somewhere to go to escape the stifling heat, with it’s higher altitude and sea breeze.

Originally a bustling hotel and casino it was abandoned by the French as Cambodia fought for it’s independence and was later used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge. According to our guide (who had lived in the jungle for years after managing to escape the forced labour camps of the Khmer Rouge, in which his family were killed, and eventually joined the resistance movement who with help from the Vietnamese managed to liberate most of the country from 1979 onwards) hundreds or thousands of prisoners had been killed and thrown from the cliffs behind the hotel. The hotel was one of the last outposts of the Khmer rouge in the area and for a long time there was ongoing fighting between the Khmer Rouge forces based in the hotel and Vietnamese forces stationed in a nearby church (also built as part of the French hill station).

The hotel itself is a slightly surreal place, even without learning of it’s past as a prison and the people who had died here the building is spooky. Abandoned and gutted with some walls partially collapsed and pools of water in the rooms, there are weeds growing from the walls and large parts of the building are covered in a kind of orange lichen which gives it the impression of having rusted over the years. It’s one of those places where you find yourself speaking quietly for no easily explicable reason and retains a heavy atmosphere.

The scenery outside is beautiful and those cliffs at the back overlook the gulf of Thailand and a beautiful island (whose name escapes me at the moment) and offer a truly spectacular view of the coast and countryside below.

We had gone with a tour group (hence the guide) and they had prepared a simple yet delicious lunch of soup and French bread (Chinese bread is terrible, it’s sweet for starters but there are many more issues with it than just that, and whilst in Cambodia, and the Winter before in Vietnam, I took every opportunity to to eat good bread whilst it was available. Good bread is truly one of the few things that I really miss from back home) and after eating we did some more roaming around before heading back to Kampot for a lazy boat trip down the Kampot river (that may well not be it’s name, I have forgotten this particular detail).

And so onto another day (and yet another early morning) as we got up and headed by tuk-tuk to the mornings destination: an all the more sombre sight on our itinerary, the infamous Tuol Sleung* Genocide Museum, situated in the former S-21 prison.

It would be difficult to visit Cambodia without being reminded of the horrifying events that took place leading up to, during and for a long time after the Khmer Rouge regime (after initial defeat by the Vietnamese forces and Cambodian resistance the Khmer Rouge were re-armed and funded by many major world governments, including those of Britain, America and China). Although many people still living in Cambodia lived through, and suffered terrible pain, loss and hardship during this time it is frequently remarked on what a happy and friendly people they are. The weight and sadness of recent history and the beauty of both the country and especially it’s people formed a contrast which left a great impression on me.

Tuol Sleung is one of the symbols of the genocide (in which an estimated one to three million people died from execution, starvation or overwork) and it was here that prisoners suspected of varying conspiracies were sent to be tortured and killed. Of an estimated 17,000 prisoners to pass through the prison between 1975 and 1979 only seven are known to have survived, left behind as the Khmer Rouge forces retreated from the capital.

The prison used to be a school and lends a surreal air to the place. The cells and torture chambers, former classrooms are basic and undecorated with the occasional child’s scribblings on the walls or doors, just as if they are classrooms still. The overwhelming mundaneness of the place almost seems to lend it a more horrific air. The museum is full of black and white photographs and the implements that were found here when it was discovered. Nothing seems to be exaggerated, nothing shocks. Outside the sun glares down from a beautiful blue sky, the sounds of the city in the background. Nevertheless there is a heavy atmosphere here that comes from the knowledge of what has happened in those rooms. It was an eery experience that I think we both felt.

Everything had been meticulously documented by the Khmer Rouge. The people who had been detained, and ultimately killed, in S-21 had all written extensive biographies, often fabricated during torture, been photographed and had all details of their lives recorded before their deaths and many of these photographs are on displays on the walls of the museum.

After leaving, not feeling up for much in the way of sightseeing, we returned to the hostel, picked up our bags and took a bus to the delightful little riverside town of Kampot. The bus ride was fairly uneventful and on arrival we found an insanely cheap (read $2.50 a night) hotel and sat by the river taking in the scenery.

I didn’t sleep much in that place, although despite the heat (and the large number of ants whose path cut right over my bed, and as such over me) I have no complaints. You get what you pay for and our trip to Cambodia wasn’t about comfort and familiarity, it was, for me, about exploring and experiencing something completely new.

*according to Wikipedia (which I’m using to help jog my memory) Tuol Sleng means “Hill of the Poisonous Trees” or “Strychnine Hill”