Cambodia

Cambodia began as an adventure. The border crossing from Laos was a bit of a hassle, but we did make it without paying any more money or being left anywhere other than planned. We went straight to Phnom Pehn, because that was the closest ATM and we were almost out of cash. We stayed there for a few days. We learned about the Cambodian history, which is enough to make run through most emotions within a matter of minutes. The first portion of this blog is not very pretty.

We went to S-21 Prison which was the main prison and interrogation center for the Pol Pot regime. All but 6 prisoners that went through this prison were executed, not all prisoners were adults. Thousands of children were also killed and not included in the body count of 10,500 to come through the prison. The prison used to be a school. It had large classrooms that had crudely constructed brick or wooden cells in each room, except for the "interrogation" rooms which consisted of a bare metal bed alone in the center of a room with a table next to it containing "interrogation tools". One of the buildings had pictures of all the prisoners that had come through.


This is a photo of a mass grave from "the killing fields". I cant even count how many there were in this one location, each marking the death of at least 100 people. They did not gas them, or many times even shoot them, to save bullets they cut their throats or bludgeoned them to death. In the few years during Pol Pots regime 3 million Cambodians were killed. 20,000 of these at the killing fields. Towards the end of his regime in 1978 up too 300 people a day were taken to the fields and killed.
They had constructed this memorial to pay tribute to those killed in the fields by the Pol Pot regime. The memorial was filled with all the skulls they had collected from the mass graves when they were excavated.

After the extremely tragic and disturbing education we received in Phnom Penh we headed north to Siem Reap. The Angkor Wat Temple complex is known as one of the Wonders of the World, right along side the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza. Truely this is one of the more spectacular moments of our journey.



We took three days to explore the temples. Because we were able to take our time we were able to see most of the temples without a ton of other tourists. You were much more likely to enjoy the temple and feel the piece of it by being in small crowds.



There were a few temples were the trees were taking back the land. They were incredible. They did cause the temple structures damage, so much of the time walking through the tumbled stones and half walled corridors.


Most of the carvings were worn and faded, but one temple, an hour outside the complex, had carvings in near perfect conditions. The detail was indescribable, with carvings on every stone that was used in the building.


Look closely and see if you can "find the Tony" amongst the Japanese Tour group.



Our three day journey around Siem Reap was a dusty experience on the back of the Tuk-Tuk adding to this we walked about 6 hours a day through the labyrinth of Angkor ruins. We were dirty birdies by the end of the day.


An incoming storm, unfortunately we have followed the rainy season for the last 10 months so this sight was nothing new to us. Still watching mother nature lay her blanket of moisture over the Angkor ruins was unique enough for a picture.


Its nice to enjoy the sunset with your loved one next to you and the hoards of other people taking the same picture as you. Makes you feel really special, like your the one of the only 400 people on this day to see this special moment. :)







This is Siem Reap tourist area lit up at night. It was here that we have had the best Mexican food we have had since leaving the states. Happy days. We ate there for four nights for dinner, mmm chicken chimichangas!!! Our friend Iaan enjoyed the changas with us for three nights and one lunch. Here is a kodak moment after a changan diner.