ELEPHANT TREKS AND TEMPLES...

A night in the airport and a short flight later, we touched down in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Our chosen accommodation was lakeside, although it was and still is being filled in by a Japanese consortium looking to take control of Phnom Penh's tourist business.That aside, it was a nice little backpackers spot, on narrow dirt lanes, with cheap restaurants and even cheaper beer. However, our bed was calling and we slept for most of the day, exhausted after no sleep the previous night and an early flight.We did venture out in the evening though and in so doing met a crazy Kiwi guy, who seemed to want to befriend everyone the more drunk he got and a couple of guys, Eddie and Mike who we were to bump into later on in Cambodia. It was a late night but it didn't stop us waking up at a reasonable hour the next morning.Our day was one of Cambodian history and first consisted of a visit to one of the mass graves located all over Cambodia containing an estimated 1.4 million bodies in total.This, a direct result of the Khmer Rouge, the communist ruling party of Cambodia from 1975-1979. The Khmer Rouge wanted to eliminate anyone suspected of 'involvement in free-market activities'. Suspected capitalists, encompassed professionals and almost everyone with an education, many urban dwellers, and people with connections to foreign governments were murdered.Now a memorial building, containing 9,000 skulls, dug up from this 'Killing Field' site we walked around acts as a reminder to Cambodia's past history under this dictatorial regime. Not wanting to stop embracing Cambodia's past at the Killing Fields, we then visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, AKA S-21. This was a former school, turned prison under the Khmer Rouge, holding those accused of crimes against the state.This would be there final holding place before being executed at the Killing Fields. All in all, a pretty somber day, but very interesting to learn about Cambodia's past and the perils its people have been through, in the not so distant past.

The next day we were heading to a distant and fairly backpacker remote place in the North-East.It was a long bus journey, made even longer when the bus broke down and we had to wait for 2 hours on the side of the road for the bus driver to return with the long pipe he took out of the engine and took to the nearest village to fill the hole in that had formed.When we finally arrived in Banlung, the main city of the Ratanakiri state, it was late and there was little open, so it was an early night.The next day was action packed. We organised a tour around Banlung, with our two moto drivers for the day, Sat and Vaughty.They took us to three waterfalls, into the jungle, which we could swim under.We took a 90 minute, bumpy elephant ride through the jungle and across the top of one waterfall and finally a couple of hours relaxing at a lake, formed in a crater. That night we ate some very tasty beef grilled by ourselves as we ate it.With all the avtivities in Banlung exhausted we made a 5 hour trip to Kratie, home of the Irrawaddy dolphin, supposedly very rare.We did take a boat trip to spot these infamous creatures, but it was pretty lame as they only popped their fins out a handful of times during the hour we were sat motionless in the water.

En-route to our next port of call we stopped off, whilst waiting for a change of bus in a small town called Skoun.Now, there's not really much to say about this town/city, whatever it is, apart from we got harassed by kids trying to sell us spiders, which the locals eat as their local delicacy.Although intrigued, I didn't fancy putting one of the hairy 8-legged creatures down my throat so politely declined the kid's persistence offers and took there taunts of 'wimp' and scaredy cat' on the chin.Once back on the road, we arrived in Siem Reap, Undoubtedly Cambodia's most touristy destination, for one reason, and one reason only, the 8th Wonder of the World, the Temples of Angkor.We took a couple of days chilling in Siem Reap first, doing relatively little before taking in Angkor, but when we did it was well worth the wait. The temples of the Angkor, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat said to be the world's largest single religious monument. We took a whole day taking in the main sites, starting with sun rise over Angkor Wat and finishing with sun set from Bakheng, situated high up on the top of a small mountain.After a long and tiring day, it was ice cream and beer for dinner before a well deserved sleep.

Our final stop in Cambodia was Sihanoukville, a beach town, liked by backpackers and Cambodian holiday makers alike.Unfortunately the weather was a bit rubbish, so the beach is out of the question.I did catch up on my 'travel admin' though and paid an extortionate US $40 to the Vietnamese embassy for a visa.Vietnam is our next stop, and will no doubt bring plenty more action and adventures...