So here I am in Cambodia, after Two days of long rides, one killing field and quite a few temples.
I arrived in Phenom Penh on Friday afternoon, settled in the guest house and along with Ayelet and Sarit, two girls I met on the bus, went to the Killing fields. I must admit I fell like such an ignorant- I knew nothing of what was going on here only 20 years ago. In two sentences, in favor of those who have no idea what I am referring to- in the mid 80's, after Vitenam backed out of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, a guerrilla movement terrorized the country in a similar way to Chairman Mao- they executed almost 2 million people (!)- mostly foreigners or people who were suspected to be high educated (for example- people with eye glasses) after torturing them in camps. Today, one of the largerst evidence, minus the horrible economic situation, is the killing fields, where one can see mass graves and, quite horrifying, a huge monument made with real human skulls.
After being there we got back to Phenom Penh (rumor has it it's a capital. No real evidence for that;-)), and went to check out the riverside.. quite nice.
In general, there is quite a resemblance between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos- or as they would say- "Same same but different". The local currency in the Real but hell, who am I kidding? it's US Dollars. They are by far more used than the Real.
Yesterday we left Phenom Penh in favor of Siem Reap- which caught me by surprise. It seemed at first to be a real dump, but turned out to be a very touristic and cool town. Of course, the only reason for that is the fact it is located 8 km from Angkor Wat- the ancient temple center, which is also where I am heading to tomorrow.
After wandering around town for a while I ran into a friend- an Irish guy named Owen and we went to drink with two British girls we both knew from different places. It was nice, but man, drinking with 3 British really tested my abilitly to think straight.
Anyway tomorrow we are going to spent the entire day in Angkor. I really hope it's going to be good.
I arrived in Phenom Penh on Friday afternoon, settled in the guest house and along with Ayelet and Sarit, two girls I met on the bus, went to the Killing fields. I must admit I fell like such an ignorant- I knew nothing of what was going on here only 20 years ago. In two sentences, in favor of those who have no idea what I am referring to- in the mid 80's, after Vitenam backed out of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, a guerrilla movement terrorized the country in a similar way to Chairman Mao- they executed almost 2 million people (!)- mostly foreigners or people who were suspected to be high educated (for example- people with eye glasses) after torturing them in camps. Today, one of the largerst evidence, minus the horrible economic situation, is the killing fields, where one can see mass graves and, quite horrifying, a huge monument made with real human skulls.
After being there we got back to Phenom Penh (rumor has it it's a capital. No real evidence for that;-)), and went to check out the riverside.. quite nice.
In general, there is quite a resemblance between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos- or as they would say- "Same same but different". The local currency in the Real but hell, who am I kidding? it's US Dollars. They are by far more used than the Real.
Yesterday we left Phenom Penh in favor of Siem Reap- which caught me by surprise. It seemed at first to be a real dump, but turned out to be a very touristic and cool town. Of course, the only reason for that is the fact it is located 8 km from Angkor Wat- the ancient temple center, which is also where I am heading to tomorrow.
After wandering around town for a while I ran into a friend- an Irish guy named Owen and we went to drink with two British girls we both knew from different places. It was nice, but man, drinking with 3 British really tested my abilitly to think straight.
Anyway tomorrow we are going to spent the entire day in Angkor. I really hope it's going to be good.
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