A journal of my travels in Cambodia...

Things you need to know

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, after over 30 years of war (there has only been peace here since 1998), the poverty here is unlike anything we have seen so far. Indeed, the aftermath of all the internal conflict has left many with no option to beg and child workers queue to try and earn a few cents off every tourist. The situation is heart-breaking and as we have a meal and a beer in a street side cafe, the blind, disabled and children all beg for anything you can spare (needless to say the small notes are fleeing out of our pockets at a fast rate.)

The wars left a huge land mine issue and as our friendly tuk-tuk driver informed us, as a child him and his friends learnt quickly how to disarm the mines and turn them into cow bells for a few pennies, unsurprisingly, the number of amputees in Siem Reap is staggering as many of these mines explode with innocent victims (be it children or farm workers) close by. The poverty that exists means that those in need the most go to unimaginable lengths - renting their children out to beg, to labour camps or even worse child prostitution. The issue for the tourist is that evidence of this is on most streets.

One of the most horrific events in Cambodia was that of the Khmer Rouge Regime (Pol Pot) in the 1970s, where an estimated 3 million people were murdered and many more put to hard labour and torture. It is amazing that given the history, tourists come here at all, but there are amazing things to see in Cambodia and a violent history that needs to be shared in order to stop it happening again. The people here are friendly and welcoming despite their poverty and many too young to remember the horrors, but the museums tell the story in graphic detail and without tourism and the dollars it brings, this country and the people would be far worse off.

Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) 8th-12th March 2005

What a dilemma ... 4 day trip from Saigon up the Mekon Delta or a short 45 minute flight from Saigon to Siem Reap? Not much of one really. The travelling part of travelling is becoming tiresome and at only 50 pounds the flight was a sure winner! Siem Reap is the base for exploring the ancient temples of Angkor ... built over 1000 years ago the massive area hides several impressive temples and historical sites. A 3 day pass costs $40 and with our Tuk Tuk guide (Burray) we headed off to see the 100 or so sites.

The experience is one of the reasons we came traveling. To see, literally, 'other worlds'. The temples are amazing, hidden for centuries in thick jungle, walking through them is like being transported back in time to a world of Kings, warriors and elephants! The condition of the sites varies and the most impressive and complete is Angkor Wat, a huge temple surrounded by a moat that is 200m wide and 5 towers reaching 52m high. It's all very accessible, so much so that at some points in the day the coach load of tourists make it feel like a theme park, but it's possible to find a quiet spot and puzzle how these things were built.

Phnom Penh 12th-15th March 2005

We took the 5 hour boat journey from Siem Reap to the capital city, which sprawls with no real defined areas. The purpose here was to learn more about the tragic history of Cambodia.

In the 1970's the Khmer Rouge Regime took over a local school (Tuol Sleng School) and turned it into a torture camp of holocaust proportions. Known as S-21, of the thousands and thousands of prisoners that came here only 7 survived (freed on the last day by the Vietnamese army), 14 other prisoners were murdered in the moments before the camp was liberated. The buildings are now a museum / monument to those who never left here. The Khmer Rouge Regime later claimed that the prison 'didn't exist' but locals claim that between 10 and 50 people were killed here every night. The school was converted into torture rooms and prison cells and the museum today is made up of the photographs of the faces of the thousands of inmates (each one photographed by the Khmer Rouge). The rooms also contain the instruments of torture used and the experience of the visit can only be described as shocking and mind numbing.

These prison camps were repeated across the country. In Phnom Penh most of the inmates stayed in S-21 for a matter of months before being transferred and killed in a place that has become known as 'the killing fields' (Choeung Ek) were mass graves of thousands of bodies have been discovered since the Khmer Rouge Regime was over powered. Despite the harrowing visit to S-21 we felt the killing fields would help completet the picture.

A monument now stands in the middle of the 'Killing Fields' to those who lost their lives. It contains skulls of some of the victims arranged over 17 stories by age and sex of the executed prisoners. In the immediate area 86 of the 129 mass graves have been opened revealing 8,000 bodies of the estimated 20,000 that are buried in this area. As we walked around the mass graves, the guide told us of the horrors (himself losing his mother and father). On the ground, every fleck of white is a bone protruding from the floor, every fleck of colour is the clothing of the victims. The whole place is moving in the extreme.

Kampong Som 15th-20th March 2005

5 hours south of Phnom Penh we arrived in Sihanoukville (Kampong Som), a beach resort in complete contrast to the city of Phnom Penh. Order of the day here was to soak up some sun and dive a couple of dives. We have come away refreshed and ready to make the most of our last 4 weeks! Next stop is Thailand.