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Friday's fun-filled frolics!!
Cambodia was my next destination. By this point I had started pretty much travelling with the two English girls I had met in Laos (Sarah and Jo). We all crossed the border on a seriously overloaded minibus which didn't make the 8 hour journey very comfortable but that's what travelling's all about isn't it!! One local guy actually sat for the whole way atop a motorbike that was precariously fastened to the roof (and we thought we had it tough squashed inside the van!)
Unbelievably we made it safely to Siem Reap which is home to the famous Angkor Wat. Here we were joined by another two girls travelling on their own, Elizabeth from New York and Julie from Canada. Two days were spent visiting the temples of this ancient civilization with our tuk tuk driver who's name was Batman :-) Jo and I spent the third day revisiting some of the temples on bicycle (which was knackering!)
So most of our time in Siem Reap was spent in wonderment at the various temples of the Angkor area. At night we ate at the street food stalls, sampling local dishes like Amok fish (Cambodia's national dish) which is yummy by the way!
Elizabeth, Julie and Sarah left one by one to go back to their respective countries, leaving Jo and I to travel to the capital, Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh is home to S:21 (or the Tuol Sleng museum) as well as the Killing Fields. Here we were really hit with the reality of Cambodia's brutal past. S:21 used to be a high school but it was turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge during the genocide in the late 1970s. 14,000 men, women and children were imprisoned and tortured there, less than a dozen made it out alive. The Khmer Rouge guards at the prison would take photos of everyone that passed through it's doors as well as some of the torturings that took place. Loads of these photos are now what make up the museum which is on the same premises. So you literally come face to face with those that died there. Really horrific.
Cambodia was probably one of the most interesting countries I've been to on my whole trip. The affects of landmines (which are still a huge problem) can also be seen in both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
So now, we're travelling up the coast of Vietnam and I'm realising how little time I have left before the end of my trip! Arrghh!! Can't believe it's coming to an end.
xxx
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