 October
27th 2004
We entered Cambodia by boat along the Mekong river which took
us all the way to Phnom Penh. Much less developed than Vietnam
in a lot of ways, the whole countryside seemed deserted, flat
green planes, endless rice paddies only punctuated by the odd
white cow, buddhist stuppa or figure on the bank of the river.
Stayed in Phnom Penh for a few days, long enough to visit the
National Museum and Royal Palace, got chatting to monks eager
to practice their english, hustled by the homeless, and whizzed
about on motorbike taxis (a lot calmer than Vietnam...amazingly,
no beeping!).
Went out of the city to visit the Killingfields outside the
City... Huge Stupa built to hold at least 8000 of the human
skulls recovered so far. This was the biggest, but only one
of many, sites around the country from when he Khmer Rouge regime
executed millions of there own people.
We went on to Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat area for a week,
visiting different sights each day by bike, foot and, by far
the best, tuk-tuk... picture a flying sofa with 360 degree views
and a cooling breeze.
Rather marvelous and wonderous to just wander about in the ruins
being amazed at how a tree can grow on a roof, the out of the
way temples and complexes being overrun by mother nature to
the point where the walls and roots are holding each other up.
Back to Phnom Penh by rocket boat thing, flying across the lake
and down the river like a plane without wings,
Another brief stop in the capital then took a bus down to the
coast on the only decent road in the country to the port town
of Sihanoukville for xmas. Pretty exhausted and coming down
with the a seriously upset stomach we relaxed on the beach over
christmas before heading off to Thailand when we caught news
of the Tsunami to meet up with Tomo and Kyoko, who'd been in
Krabi Provence, Thailand, when it hit.
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