See It Do It Live It

Sick note

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Trip, Vietnam

Apologies for the lack of photos. We kept forgetting the camera battery was still in the battery charger and not in the camera! From Phnom Penh we headed south to Kampot. This is a sleepy little Cambodian town with a river running through it. We spent a night at the excellent Mad Monkey hostel which has clean, spacious dorm rooms, a lovely pool, a great bar with good food and costs about £3 per night. From here we got the bus to the Vietnamese border and passed through border control….read more

Aug.18
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Aug.15
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Having Phun in Phnom Penh

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Trip

Of course we also wanted to sample the fun side of Phnom Penh. This city really feels like somewhere that people live, rather than just one big tourist experience. There are a lot of ex-pats here, working at the many NGOs. We (guiltily) enjoyed a breakfast of muffins and doughnuts. Not at all ‘local’ but very much appreciated. There is just something wrong with having dinner items at breakfast time – curry before 12? No thanks! To escape from the oppressive humidity for an afternoon, we went to the cinema….read more

Aug.14
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The Killing Fields

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Trip

While in Cambodia, it felt necessary and right to remember the countries recent history. To this end we visited both the S-21 prison and one of the Killing Fields. The S-21 prison was once a school which was then converted into Cambodia’s most important prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. 14,000 prisoners were tortured and killed here, and only seven survived. It was a terrible place, and it is quite hard to even figure out our feelings about our visit there. The Killing Fields are half an hour away from…read more

Aug.10
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Angkor

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Trip

I’m sure that most people are aware of Cambodia’s recent history, but here is a brief summary. In 1975, the Cambodian Communists (known as the Khmer Rouge) and Pol Pot took charge of the country. They almost immediately started to remodel the country into an agricultural state and marched people to rural communities to work as slaves. Anoyone considered Western, intellectual or professional was considered to be an enemy of the state and one quarter of the population were killed by the regime. Even speaking a foreign language was reason…read more

Do you Khmer often?

Posted by in Asia, Cambodia, Thailand, Trip

Another day in transit, this time getting from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I am generally a fan of train travel, and after having a look at the Seat 61 website (well worth checking out if you want to use trains anywhere in the world) our plans were cemented. This is how we found ourselves on a street corner at 5am. Unfortunately the taxi driver we flagged down didn’t speak any English. Luckily Graham is more alert at that time than most people, and started doing train impressions including…read more

Aug.08
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