Keeping it 'Riel' in Cambodia...

Siem Reap, Cambodia

A 7.30am bus departing Morchita Bus Station took us 5hrs to the Thai/Cambodian Boarder. Straight off we knew something was up. It's widely publicised on different websites to watch out for touts trying to sell you dodge visas. What didn't help was that our bus driver and what seemed like the whole town were in on the scam. We had been dropped at a building that clearly wasn't the Boarder Agency but were the touts hang out to fool you into buying their visas. Our savior came in the form of a Brazilian girl called Max who regularly made the trip to renew her visa. She took us under her wing and showed us how to get to where we needed to go. From Poipet we got a free Government Bus to the bus station and met a lovely Dutch couple Lonika & Vincent that we took a 3hr Taxi with to Siem Reap.

We stayed in the Golden Takeo Guesthouse http://www.goldentakeoguesthouse.com which was fantastic. Great value for money, very clean and the staff were a delight. Prom was very helpful, organised our Tuktuk to the Temples, into town, our bus to Phnom Penh and offered great advice on what to do. A true gent...

Sunday was our day to explore the infamous Temples of Siem Reap, Lara Croft ain't got nothing on us (well apart from the obvious...)

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland. The Temples number over 1,000, with the largest being Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument.

and then 6,247 miles from home, guess who we randomly run into...

Newry's finest Miss Aine Smyth and her 3 mates... Emma & Seana from Tyrone and Belfast born Catherine... Now affectionately known as the Northern Ireland 4 :)

This was our little unauthorised tour guide Sangy, she was 7yrs old, had good English, was a real charmer and a shrewd business woman - €3 for 15mins!

It's heartbreaking to see so many children desperately trying to sell you little bits/bobs or begging... Saying no is very difficult... I bought some postcards and a fridge magnet from this little boy.

We ended our Temple Tour by hiking up to the highest Temple to see the sun set on what had been a very long but memorable day...

It would have been rude to let such an epic day end like that so we redevouzed with the NI 4 in Temple Bar that night on Pub Street (main entertainment area in Siem Reap).

All very civilised of course...

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The next morning we were up early again to get our 7hr bus to Phnom Penh, as you can imagine i was feeling fresh, invigorated and ready for what the day had to throw at me ughhhhhh :-/ The bus resembled a 1950's wagon, the journey consisted of ridiculously loud Cambodian music videos/films, constant rocking around from the dirt track road and to top it off the woman sitting in the seat beside us was eating a bag of freaking BUGS!

We arrived in late to our hostel 'Eighty8 Backpackers' http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/The-88-Backpackers-Phnom-Penh/Phnom-Penh/48940?sc_sau=sfab&sc_pos=4 the staff are friendly and it's very clean. It's a quick stop visit in Phnom Penh so yet again we were up early to see the sights.

First stop was The Killing Fields located in the village of Choeung Ek 15km from the City. It really is sickening to think that such an atrocity happened just 32 years ago. Before our trip we were ignorant to what really happened in Cambodia in the 70's, it is truly horrifying to think that 2.2m innocent people were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's regime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields

For €5 you take an audio tour around the site.

These earthy pits are were innocent Cambodian's executed bodies were buried. Well over 100 burial pits lie but only eighty were exhumed. Choeung Ek was but one of the 343 'killing fields'. In all 19,440 mass graves have been identified.

One of the most disturbing sites was Chankiri Tree that stood beside a pit. Children/infants were killed by having there heads smashed against this tree. The rationale was 'to stop them growing up and taking revenge for their parents deaths.' You can see an array of coloured bracelets hanging from the trunk and around the outside of the pit as a sign of respect for the dead.

A Buddhist memorial called the Stupa houses the remains of the excavated bodies...

After the rawness of the Killing Fields we traveled back into the city to were the majority of the executed victims had been transported from, the S-21 Prison.

The site is a former High School which was used as a notorious security prison.

Although the day was completely overwhelming with a range of intense emotions these two visits are a must when visiting Cambodia.It gives you some sort of idea how an entire generation was wiped out over 3/4 years by a  fanatical regime and how the Cambodian people have had to start again and rebuild their lives.

We finished off our day with some local Khmer Cuisine and a walk along the Riverside.

Next stop Sihanoukville for some relaxation - beach bum style...