S-21 Prisoner

The skull of this prisoner was found and shows the gunshot wound to the skull. This was one of many.

Tragedies of Cambodia

We caught our bus from Phnom Penh which was a glorious eight hour journey with a brat sitting behind us crying the whole way! And when I mean the whole way I mean the WHOLE eight hours! The border crossing was suprisingly easy and the office was quite fancy for such a poor country. Ben had to throw away his used bullets due to a metal detector :-( . Met a friendly polish journalist who was doing some visa fiddling to stay in Vietnam working. After finally reaching Cambodian soil the heat was immense! Easily 100°! Back on the bus we continued the next four hours until we arrived in Phnom Penh. Straight away you could see the poverty, children with no shoes, shanty homes, wasteland. We spoke about how much they had suffered from the Khmer Rouge and were unsure what the people would be like despite the praises they'd got. We arrived in Phnom Penh and didnt get too harassed by tuk tuks, then walked to our hotel in the intense heat. Found a nice place for once and offloaded the bags and walked the mile to S21 prison. During the Khmer Rouge reign they had evacuated Phnom Penh and converted the local school into a prison and place of horrific torture. "The sheer normality of this prison really hits home as it was just a school in the middle of the community surrounded by homes shops and trees". Inside we found cells (classrooms) that still had the beds and few belongings left from each prisoner, and the torture devices used on the captives. It really was upsetting, they had pictures of all the men, women and children that had been kept in S-21 and chances are sadly most of them died there. The people who where kept here had done nothing wrong, teachers, doctors, people who wore glasses, people with soft hands, the list goes on with eveything the Khmer Rouge government were against. After spending three hours here we decided it was enough and we left feeling a terrible sadness for the people who tragically died in S21 and for the people of Cambodia for thier suffering.
We went back to our room and had a shower and got changed and headed out to a local family run restaurant called Mammas! We had a lovely meal here which we waited on by the familys lovely children :-) after our tea we got talking to the owners husband Thon. He was interested in what we did at home and how we came to be in Cambodia. Turned out he was a lecturer for the Uni of Cambodia! He told us how he learnt english and how is trying to.make a better life for his family. He really was a lovely man. He invited us to go on an expedition with his university class all we would need to pay for was accommodation. It sounded great and we would have went along but it lasted untill April 1st and we need to be back in Thailand then, so we took his email he said if we needed any help or advice on anything in Cambodia we could contact him. He was a gentleman! We left and went and got an ice cream and started the long walk back to our hotel.
Today we made our way to the Grand Temple grounds. It was about 3km walk from our hotel and close to the Tonle Sap river. When we got there they wouldnt let Gem in with her vest top on so we bought her a really cool Khmer Dance tshirt. We seen the grand temple which was used for the Kings talks and you could see his throne from the window as you werent allowed in! There were many other buildings including the Silver Pagoda which despite the name we couldnt see silver anywhere! We had a look at our Cambodge Bible and found that the floor was made up of thousands of silver tiles and most were protected by bamboo mats but you could see a few in places. After spending a few hours there we went to the nearest irish pub for some home cooked scoff (burger, chips & beans). We booked our bus to Siem Reap and started walking back to our hotel in torrential rains after buying some terrible overcoats for a quid! As we got back we realised our neighbours specialty was bags of fanta! So we picked two up and called it a night!
We got up early today and decided to go with the hotels tuk.tuk driver Ruun and went to Cambodias Genocidal Museum also known as the "the killing fields" This was where they have recoverd over 9000 bodies that were killed by the Khmer Rouge. There is a monument in the middle of the field with thousands of skulls bones and.clothes that they still are unsure of who they belong to. We had a headset to listen to on the way round with the horrors and true storys of wh at happened here. When we started to walk around a thunder storm came from nowhere with terrential rain and thunder and lightning like we have never see before. With the weather and listening to the stories on the headset it felt so surreal and really added to the gloomy and depressing atmoshpere of this place. As we walked around because the rain washed away a top layer of soil it unearthed bones and rags that had yet to be uncovered. We were warned about this but it doesnt prepare you. We found a tooth and a shin bone and a few rags and it really brought home the scale of death in this place if 30 years on there is still bones and clothes being discovered on a weekly basis. They say because the people suffered so badly thier souls cannot rest and that is why thier bones are still being found. After around 3 hours here we left feeling extremely sad and amazed at how the people of Cambodia are so lovely after all the hardship they have endured.
We went home to pack our bags as we leave tomorow and then.went out for tea. We walked down the road for tea sat down in.a small restaurant, our bill came to $6.65 and we had ,$6.75!! Phew that was close! We payed up and walked home with no money left and decided a night watching a film on tv was on the cards haha!
We got up early today checked out of our hotel, and began the 3km walk to the bus station. Now you may be thinking 3km is not that far! But when its over 100° and youve got a heavy backpack on, let me tell u...its far haha!! We got to the bus station, it felt like we were a stone lighter haha! We bought some oranges for the 6 hour bus journey and boarded.

Cu Chi Tunnels - Tight Squeeze!

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City

After our ten hour sleeper train we arrived at Saigon! Strapped on our bags and walked to the War Remnants Museum which turned out to be pretty upsetting. There were lots descriptions and photographs of the torture administered to the prisoners of the Vietnam War. The most shocking were the removal of teeth, decapitation and nailing of body parts...We headed in from the "Tiger Cage" (the tiger cage was a cage 2ft by 5ft by 1ft and there would be up to three people imprisoned and tourtured in them) into the memorial building. More shocking photographs, footage and weaponry were on display in here aswell as some disturbing facts about the chemical bombs americans dropped on the innocent and the suffering of the people now 30+ years later.

We left the museum and headed to the backpackers area and found the perfect $10 room. Offloaded the bags, quick shower and change and headed to subway for breakie! We booked our tours and buses, done our laundry and headed to Ben Dinh market for a wander. We ended our day with some local grub and had an early one ahead of tomorrows visit to Cu Chi tunnels and the Firing Range!

Cu chi tunnels day! Jumped on the bus with our brews and off we went! 90mins later we arrived in the middle of a village and could already here the gun fire. We travelled along the path seeing various hideouts and traps used to catch and kill american soldiers. We stopped for lunch and to visit the shooting range! There were three machine guns and four rifles we chose the carbine Rifle :-) Gem shot 2 rounds and was too scared to do more and I shot the other 8. You dont realise how loud a gun is until you fire one! We then carried on the tour and climbed through some seriously claustrophobic tunnels. We had now finished the tour and completely lost our group along with our bus and had to find another bus to get on...we managed to jump on another bus though and were home for 3 and went to Kims Tour company to make a small complaint...which ended pretty well by getting back 300,000 dong (£10!) which was what we paid! The rest of the day was spent preparing for our border crossing into Cambodia tomorrow!

Nha Trang...fancy ay?

Aki Ra

After our six hour bus journey travelling through some seriously poverty stricken villages we arrived in Siem Reap. After looking at the map and not having a clue were we got dropped off we thumbed a tuk tuk with two Polish people already in it, rammed our bags in and hung off the sides for a dollar each! Scared of the police we got dropped off outside the centre by the driver and walked in. We failed miserably to find Hotel 89 recommended by our illegal liquor making hungarian mate we were directed by a moto rider "hotel cheap cheap thata way!" which we listened to for once and he was right! $3 each with air con and ensuite done just fine. After a visit to the night market and some tasty street food we called it a night!

Todays plan was to go the 8th wonder of the world - Angkor Wat...which never happened because we didnt get to bed early enough! So we decided we would visit the other popular tourist trap - The Landmine Museum. We took a tuk tuk (?) and travelled through lots of villages along the way. Many places had wells donated by companies and people from around the world which looked to be helping the local farming immensely. As we drove through in a typical Cambodian way, the children smiled with whatever teeth they had, waved at us and shouted helooo! We arrived at the Landmine museum and read the story about how the founder Aki Ra - an ex child soldier taken from his parents to plant mines for the Khmer Rouge - had dedicated his life to removing what he had planted many years ago. Aki was an expert at his trade and until 2009 his only tools were a spear for prodding and a knife for disassembling. The government made Aki Ra stop using this method and use metal detectors and were protective clothing not his usual shorts and sandals approach. Inside his museum was a short film on his life and many of the deactivated mines Aki Ra has defused. There was a souvenir shop we got tshirts from and other bits as all.the proceeds go to the children. Behind the museum is an orphanage which houses 20 or so children from local communities who are disabled through mine explosions. We spoke to a worker at the Museum named Bill Morse who now lives in Cambodia and has dedicated his life to the cause along with his wife. We had dinner in the Orphan Cafe outside and headed back to Siem Reap for a few drinks in Pub street and an early night for the Angkor Wat tomorrow.
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Nha Trang!

So after our booze cruise we decided it would be a good idea for a detox in Nha Trangs famous spa Thap Ba.We decided to do it on our own and hired a bike between us instead of getting ripped off by someone. What we didnt realise was it was an 11 mile round trip and 29°...Bens legs were nackered when we got back haha It was a brilliant day we had a mud bath, mineral bath, full body massage, jacuzzi and pool with waterfalls! When we were getting our massage Ben was delighted to hear he looked like the guy out the titanic...Leonardo Di Caprio! I just started laughing and thought she had some of that massage oil in her eye! Now thanks to her I have to spend the whole holiday with Ben telling me he looks like Leo! After dodging the traffic and nearly getting lost we made it back in one piece. We got some delicious sea food and went back the hotel to relax..

Vin Pearl day was next which is an island over the sea from Nha Trang were ya get the worlds longest cable car over the sea to the island! It was pretty cool and took about 15mins the views were amazin!! We got to Vinpearl and there was sooo much to do, first of all we started with the waterpark which had loads of brilliant slides and ben made me go on the biggest one first! I got dead scared but loved it in the end! We went on loads more slides and a wave pool! We then went on a roller coaster and a few rides and watched the animal show. We followed it all with a meal by the sea and ate the local delicacy Snake head fish with rice! We got the cable car back and met the dutch lads for drinks on the beach!

We spent our days lazing on the beaches and our nights meeting up with the Dutch lads drinking strong licquor as they say. We taught them scouse they tought us Dutch and we always seemed to end up in the why not bar until all hours! We even had our paddys day there in honour of all our irish friends! Gem spoilt herself to a manicure and pedicure for two quid on the last day :-P And from Nha Trang we left on the night train to Saigon in just ten hours