Angkor, What?

So here we are, at the end of one very quick week in Cambodia. During our last post we were approximately halfway down the coast of Vietnam, and what a beautiful coast it is! The beach in Hoi An was my absolute favourite, and we have put photo’s on Facebook, it’s the one with the whitest sand and palm trees, mmm. We spent a lot of time soaking up the sun which was a much needed break from all the hikes and mountain climbs that Scott keeps signing me up for.

I had already began writing our next post in Vietnam, but it got abandoned before it went to press and is now out of date. In it I commented on the notoriety of a beachside town called Nha Trang for its tourist robberies. We had met someone who had her crotch grabbed by two girls, in her confusion to remove their hands they had got into her pockets and took her cash. It was all over the internet also to be especially cautious here. Alas in our cautiousness we left most of our cash back at the hotel but we lost £60 at the hands of a light fingered cleaner. Sods law at its best! We did not discover this until we were a couple towns down the coast from the hotel where we had lost the money, due to the fact that it had been our left over Thai Baht that had been stolen and not our Vietnam Dong. The average wage in Vietnam is about £60 a month, so you can imagine the temptation for someone who sees it lying around, easy for the picking. In fact we had left over £200, so were lucky that only part of it was taken. I’m hoping that it went to someone’s family and kids, if it has then I am more than happy with losing the money. I keep my fingers crossed it’s not been used for drugs and other bad things!

After we had been to a few coastal towns we headed towards Saigon, also known as Ho Chi Minh City, which was slightly different to Hanoi but in a way that is impossible to describe. I loved Saigon and Hanoi, and really seriously would consider moving to Vietnam more permanently. I got to the point where I was looking for English teacher jobs online but Scott bought me back to my senses with the realisation that I have a university place in September! It’s easy to get carried away, I loved Vietnam. In Saigon we had very little time so we spent 1 day fitting in as many sights as possible, the most memorable being the war remenants museum. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a museum where I have actually been engaged from start to finish, the history of the Vietnam war is brutal, and there were plenty of photo’s documenting this. Of course it was very biased towards the USA! In one room labelled ‘war crimes’ I could actually feel a lump in my throat and tears welling up as we were looking around, I felt like a proper loser but this changed when I noticed the girl next to me was in a worse state with tears pouring down her face.

After Saigon we spent 3 days travelling around the Mekong Delta, the most interesting and scenic part of Vietnam, with lots of wooden houses on stilts and people fishing and selling fruits from their boats. The area was full of palm trees, rivers and rice fields and felt so lush and green. We got a boat up the Mekong and after 3 and a half weeks in Vietnam we crossed the border and headed through Cambodia to Phnom Penh.

Cambodia is a beautiful place, described in the lonely planet as having ‘been through hell and back’ and this couldn’t be more true. In Phnom Penh now it’s so hard to imagine the terror that happened only 35 years ago, something I knew hardly anything about before I started this trip. Under Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime the government killed a quarter of the country’s population, many of whom ended up in mass graves never to be identified. I have become a geek and have started reading books about it all. 


Our first stop in Phnom Penh was the killing fields just outside the city, as we walked through you could see a big glass tower full of skulls and rags of clothes found in the graves. It was hard to imagine that all these skulls were once people and took a lot of getting your head round (no pun intended). As we walked round the fields we would see signs showing where different huts and mass graves were. One of the most shocking was a sign against a tree showing where children had been held by their legs and smashed against the tree to be killed. Most of the people were beaten or stoned as ammunition was too expensive. Children were killed merely for the fact that one day they could grow up and want revenge against the people who had killed their parents. After this we went to the Tuol Sleng prison, which was once a school but turned into a prison to hold enemies of the Khmer Rouge regime, inevitably the majority of these ended up being buried at the killing fields. This was one of the most disturbing places I’ve ever been, with blood stains still on the floor and walls, but most haunting were the mug shots of all those who had passed through the prison. The worst were pictures taken after the person had died. Alas it has caused me to have a couple of nightmares, once when we got to Siem Reap and I woke up with a start, asked Scott to put on the light and discovered that we were in fact in a power cut! I ended up scanning the room with my phone, looking for signs of Pol Pot but thankfully this was fruitless. Despite its past Phnom Penh is a wonderful city none the less, and the people are the friendliest we have met on our travels. The city has been drastically rebuilt and is becoming more and more modern. It will be interesting to come back in 10 years time as I’m sure it is just beginning to develop as a city.

Leaving Phnom Penh we travelled to Siem Reap, where we stayed in the loveliest guesthouse owned by the loveliest family in the world. We saw the awe inspiring Angkor Wat in both the sunrise and sunset (which caused us to be very sleepy) and many other temples. The only thing that troubled us about Angkor Wat was the amount of children around, begging for money sweets and trying to sell post cards. It’s hard to walk away when the child has just been telling you that they want money for school, and it makes you realise how incredibly lucky us in the U.K are with our fantastic education system. In fact in Phnom Penh I ended up giving half of my breakfast to two children who were stood outside the bar watching me eat, as I felt too uncomfortable to eat it in front of them. I know were told not to give out money or food directly to the kids to but charities, but it’s very different when the children are standing right in front of you. Siem Reap has also developed as a city since the Cambodia civil war, and like Phnom Penh is a very nice place to spend time. We were lucky that our guesthouse was right opposite a school so every day we could peak over the fence at the children sitting in their wooden classrooms, chanting in unison. One day they saw Scott and came running over shouting ‘Hello, hello hello’. The teachers probably weren’t so amused.

Angkor At 5:30am

So in summary we have had an incredible couple of weeks. We have had more to think about and learn about the sometimes really saddening history of the countries than at any point on our trip. Without doubt though, Vietnam and Cambodia are the most beautiful places I have been in my life. I am convinced that I will move back here one day! We are now back in Phnom Penh and tomorrow we are flying back to Bangkok to meet my sister and heading south for 3 weeks of beaches and total relaxation before our last week in Malaysia and Singapore before home!