February 26, 2007

Leaving Siem Reap (Katy)

We got up early on Saturday morning, as usual. But instead of getting up for school, we were getting up to leave. We walked into town with all our bags and waited for the bus. When it eventually came, we drove out of town the same way we cycled every morning for school. It was so strange to see it all from a different angle. We went to the bus station and got on a coach, waited round for an hour or so then set off on our journey to Phnom Penh. We drove out on Route 6, the road we cycled on and even past Lolei School. It was quite sad leaving it all.

The journey took about 5-6hours with a few stops on the way. We stopped for lunch and chatted to an Australian couple. The guy asked if we'd tried eating spiders in Cambodia, we said NO!. As if by magic a women walked past with a big tray full of Tarantula, cooked in some kind of sauce. The guy bought one and said it didn't taste too bad. Joe didn't know whether to eat one or not but he was offered the other half of the Australian's and couldn't refuse. Luckily there was none left for me.

We arrived in Phnom Penh at about 2pm and after checking into our hostel we had a wander round. Later on we went on a boat trip. There was only the two of us on the boat. We started right on the bottom of the Tonle Sap River (it runs down from the lake and through Siem Reap) and then went down to where it flows into the Mekong. It was amazing to be on the Meakong. We watched the sunsent behind Phnom Penh and the Royal Palace and got some good photos.


After the River trip we made our way back to the hostel and after food had an early night.

Posted by admins at 6:36 AM | Comments(0)

February 23, 2007

Butterfly Garden

Last night we went to eat at a restaurant in a butterfly garden. When we first went in we weren't overly impressed. There didn't seem to be that many butterflies. But the more you looked the more you saw. We ate, (the food was really good), then spent ages searching around for different creatures. By this time it was dark and the butterflies were sleeping in the trees, so you got to look at them properly. There were also loads of frogs, lizards and geckos.

Posted by admins at 8:08 AM | Comments(0)

February 22, 2007

Come to Cambodia

Cambodia is, without a doubt, an amazing country. From the temples of Ankor Wat to the Killing Fields, there are so many unmissable things to see. The biggest highlight for me here though has to be the people. Spending time to get to know some of them has been fasinating, and knowing what they've been through and still go through day by day makes their friendly happy attitudes seem so much more amazing.

Cambodia is getting more touristy day by day, but it still retains it's charms. The streets are covered in rubbish and the river is absolutely disgusting (I think a lot of raw sewage goes straight out in to it) but it's easy to see past these things.

The roads here are crazy. You take your life in your hands by going on them. On our daily ride back from school, we rode through a big market and there were vehicles coming at us from every direction. Cambodians have a habit of going on the wrong side of the road, just because they don't want to have to cross over. You also see so amazing sights on the roads, and I now truly believe there are no limits to what you can fit on the back of a moped. You often see pigs, at first we thought they were dead pigs, but they're actually still alive. They are given rice wine until they pass out and so can be transported on the moped (I've seen three pigs on one bike!)

I would recommend to everyone to come to Cambodia, whether it's for a few weeks or longer. There are also loads of charities that operate here that are involved with schools, hospital and other training programmes.

The charity we've worked with are SCC - Schools for Children of Cambodia. Every penny goes to the children. Anyone interested can take a look
www.sccambodia.org

Posted by admins at 4:09 AM | Comments(0)

Thursday 22nd (Katy)

Thursday again so no school today. We're using today to get sorted out and packed up. Had a bit for trouble with our passports over the last few days but luckily it's sorted out now so we're all set to go. We had to give our passports to a tour operator so that we could get our visas for Vietnam. They told us we could pick our passports up on Sunday with the visas. When we got there on Sunday, of course, the shop was shut (Chinese New Year), then it was shut again on Monday. We didn't think to much of it at this stage, just that they'd forgotten they'd be shut for New Year. So we went again on Tuesday. This time the shop was open but the guy in there didn't know anything about our passports. When we showed him our receipt he started saying that if he lost them, we could go to the police, but come back tomorrow and see. We were starting to get pretty worried at this point but waited until Wednesday to see. The first time we went to the shop, about lunch time, it was shut (even more worried) then Joe called in again later and was told to call back later. Stubborn as he is, he said he'd wait and spent the next 40mins in the office. Eventually the woman we'd originally dealt with came in and got our passports straight out of the drawer!! What a relief!! She apoligised for her "stupid little brother" (the guy who said he'd lost them) and everything was good.

I've now vowed never to let my passport out of my sight again.

We cleared all of our plastic bottles out of the room again this morning. We found a young boy wandering around with a big bag, for bottles. Joe got one bottle out of his bag first and the boy looked pretty happy and started to walk off. We called him back and by the time we'd given him our 20 or so bottles his bag was full and he had the biggest smile on his face. He skipped off down the road, nine o clock in the morning and aleady a whole bag full of bottles. It's nice that it's so easy to please people.

Posted by admins at 3:38 AM | Comments(0)

Thing to do in Siem Reap (Joe)

We have been in Siem Reap about a mouth now and we've had the chance to try lots of diffent food and see lots of the loacal attractions. Siem Reap is a little more expensive than the capital Phnom Penh, but is still nowhere near as expensive as Europe.

Eating
The main tourist area is round the old market and a road called Pub street. Some of the places are ok but we found a few which where pretty amazing.
Soup Dragon
At the far end of Pub street it's really good for any normal meal. We go there for lunch most days after riding back from school, the pumpkin soup and lime water is really nice.
The World Lounge
The food here is amazing and the staff are really nice too. There is a waiter called Rack who made us really welcome. The meat lover pizza is really good also the steaks are well worth trying.
Khmer Kitchen
The Khmer kichen is just acrros the road from the old market. The food hear is traditional Khmer food and its really nice, if you head here try to eat early it seems to be really busy later in the night. Try the piece of potato, sounds a bit random but its very nice. It's meat in pot with potatoes over the top with loads of cheese.
Dead Fish Towers
This place is really random but really good at the same time. The whole place seems to be on about 20 levels but all over the place, they also have traditional Khmer dancing on all night and they have there own pit with loads of crocodiles in it. The food is good, they say they do the best steaks in town but I've heard different. All the other food is good, I had curry and it was pretty good.
Abercas
This place is really nice but it's the most expensive we have been to. It was still only about 25 pounds for the two of us with a bottle of wine.
The food here is amazing. The place is set just of the main road about 1km from the old market in a little garden. All the food is cooked on a massive bbq and the steaks are some of the biggest and the best I've ever had. The T bone was about as big as the plate.
Jentys Stall
Jenty is one of the street childen who that works on a food stall just across the road from Molly Malones (Irish pub). The food at Jenty's is very good. You sit on plastic chair on the side of the road and they will feed you some amazing Khmer food. Jentys stall is really good if you are running out of money, for two people's meals and beers it costs about 2 pounds and you always get loads to eat.
Angkor What?
Angkor What is a bar/club just on pub street its been there since 1998 wich makes it the first westen bar in Siem Reap. They only do drinks but its not too bad. You will be able to recognise the place from the graffitti all over it - a bit like a old bus shelter, but the music is good and the drinks are cheap.

WHAT'S TO SEE
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is the main reason most people come to Siem Reap. It is really amazing (see Ankor Wat entry) a three day pass is enough after that you get a bit templed out. Try to go as early as possible to avoid all the tourists.

Landmine Museum
The Landmine is well worth going to. The place is about 5km out of town so you will need to get a tuk-tuk. Don't let the driver charge you more the $5. They tell you that is at the end of the world. Try to find a guide when you get there - its well worth it, also buy a t-shirt as the money is going to the landmine projects.
Silk Farm
Head to Artisans Angkor and there is a free bus to the farm the trip there is pretty fun through all the local villages. The farm is amazing and the whole proses it very intresting.
www.artisansdangkor.com
Tonle Sap
Tonle Sap is about 15km out of town so you need a tuk tuk ($10). Once at the gate you need to pay $15 each for the boat. There is no way round this (we tried). The trip is well worth going early in the morning to avoid the crowds.
If you need any more infomation just leave a coment on the web site and we will get back to you.

Posted by admins at 3:38 AM | Comments(0)

February 21, 2007

Tuesday 20th (Katy)

I was seriously lacking in motivation on the ride to school this morning, but it's impossible to be unmotivated once you get to school and see the children. My first class at Khnar were late as usual but seemed to be a bit more awake. It's so hard to keep challenging the ones who speak better english without leaving the others behind. I find if you can relate it to a game they all want to have a go, even if they don't have a clue what they're doing.

My next class was also good. They seem to be growing in confidence. It is difficult trying to manage a class of 50 ten year olds when we don't speak the same language.

Got to Lolei in good time. Not sure what to expect after all the absences yesterday. It was better, 12 turned up today, and a teacher. Still don't know where the other 18 are though. I don't think there's anything in place here to say the children have to come to school. I think they just come if they want to and stay home if they don't. The 12 that were there worked well. We learned shapes, or some of us did. No matter how many times you go though things there's always one who when asked to identify the shape on the board goes though every single one before getting it. They still really enjoy it though, and they surely must be learning something.

Posted by admins at 8:59 AM | Comments(0)

Wednesday 21st February 2007 (Joe)

An early start again this morning, and didn't get much sleep last night as there was a power cut until about 1am which stopped the fan and made the room unbelievably hot.
Riding to school wasn't too bad today - must be getting a lot fitter or I'm swiching off to the distance. The road to Khnar school is not too bad, most of it is on dirt tracks as its in the countryside. The worst bit is the smell of the duck farm.

7-8am
Lesson was a little diffent to usual. The children all turned up on time and seemed to all be awake, which was really good. We started by recapping on parts of the body which they found really funny. When I put a list of the names of the part and a number and they had to invent the own monster eg. Heads=4, Feet=8, Eyes=21 and so on. This went on most of the session. I think that they have a good understanding now, well maybe just about how to make a monster.

8-9am
The children are always full of life its hard to get them quiet sometimes.
Today we recapped on prts of the body and then went on to numbers up to 100, which they all were really good at if they are in order, so we played a few games mixing up the numbers and matching the name with the numbers.

10-11
The ride to Loli seemed to go really fast today. Once at Lolei we had breakfast, banana and oranges, then four really big buses turned up with hundeds of tourists on. They all pilled out of the bus and once again thought they had the right to walk into class of children and start taking lots of photos of them. I asked a few if they would do the same in their own countery Anyway, I got rid of them and started my lesson. The class where really noisy today after being swamped by tourists. We started going over yesteday's lesson and then did a few games on the board.

Posted by admins at 7:32 AM | Comments(0)

February 19, 2007

Monday again (Katy)

Monday again and the weekend seemed to go so quickly, so up we got at 5.30am and rode into school. First lesson, 7 - 8am was slow as usual. Most of the children are still half asleep, but who can blame them at that time in the morning. They are becoming more confident though and even try to ask questions sometimes. This usually entails shouts of "Cher, Cher" (as in Teacher) and then bits of Khmer, English and sign language.

It's quite hard not speaking the same language as your class. Lessons are fine because I have a plan of how I'm going to get things across. Outdoor lessons are another matter... Today when I reached Lolei there were only 6 people from a class of 30. There wasn't even a teacher there!
I tried asking those who were there what was going on but they didn't seem to think there was anything different. I just carried on as normal and it remains one of those Cambodian mysteries. ( It may be something to do with Chinese New Year, but I don't see why so many of them should be off for that as Khmer New Year isn't until April).

I can't believe this is our last week of school here. It's all gone so quickly. Just a few more days and then we move on.

Posted by admins at 8:40 AM | Comments(0)

February 18, 2007

Tonle Sap (Katy)

Today we visited Tonle Sap Lake. It's a massive lake, here in the North of Cambodia but at the moment it's pretty small compared to the size it reaches at some times of the year.

When the Mekong river floods with melt water and rain there is too much water to flow down and out though the Mekong delta so the water actually backs up. The river flows up hill and a lot of the water ends up in The Tonle Sap, which triples in size.

They believe that this may have helped with the constuction of Ankor Wat temples, thousands of years ago. In wet season materials or other supplies could be brought up the river, in to the Lake and right to Ankor.

Posted by admins at 9:04 AM | Comments(0)

Tonle Sap (Joe)

Sunday 18 February 2007

This morning we got up at 6.30 and headed down to Tonle Sap lake which is about 15km south of Siem Reap. The tuk-tuk picked us up and we set of to the lake. Rack a Khmer friend came with us as he had never been there. We had to stop at the park office and pay $15 each for the boat trip wich is really expensive for the time on the boat. Once we arived at the boat station Rack did all the translating and we manged to get a boat for just the three of us which was really good.
We started by heading down the Tonle Sap river towards the lake. There were lots of local people fishing with nets on the bank. It looked really amazing. After about 10-15 minutes we arrived at the mouth of the river. It was like the sea. It was so massive you could not see the other side.
The lake has lots of floating villages all over it. When we got closer we saw that some of the houses were made out of boats. They were really interesting. All the houses had threir own canoe tied up outside to get from one house to another.

There was a floating School and a floating church. The whole community was really amazing, that they could survive on house boats. We spent a little time round some of the houses then we stopped at a floating cafe where they had a big enclosure with really big cat fish that you could feed. The one next door had crocodiles in it.
We left the cafe and headed back towords the houses, I asked Rack if I could have a go at paddling one of the local canoes, so we stopped at one of the houses and they loaned me a canoe. It was really stable. The paddle was a bit odd but it was still pretty good.

We headed back up the river to meet the tuk-tuk. We drove for a while then stopped at the base of a temple. We had to get a pass to go in so we just walked round the bottom. There were lots of local houses all around. It was really nice but very hot.

This trip was well worth the6.30 start.

Posted by admins at 8:30 AM | Comments(0)

The Monks and the Pagoda (Katy)

Yestday afternoon we went to visit some Buddist Monks at their pagoda. They used to attend the English classes of Natasha, who is part of SCC here in Siem Reap.

David, one of the monks, showed us around. We were taken into a large meeting room covered in paintings, The colours were amazing. They ranged from bright pink to orange to bright blue and just about every shade in between. The pictures told the story of Bhudda finding enlightenment.

Next we walked around the whole area. It's a self sufficient community with a school and plenty of housing. We even met a coffin maker.

Unfortunately, as with most of Cambodia there was rubbish eveywhere. In the country's huge list of priorities, cleaning up rubbish is fairly low.

We sat down and chatted to some of the monks. Females aren't allowed to touch monks so you can't get too close but they were really friendly. Many young boys become monks in Cambodia but most of them don't serve for life. They serve for 10 years or so, get a education and then leave. Secour, one of the monks we spoke to had his whole life planned out. He was to be a monk for another four years, then leave and become a tour guide and get married. He wanted two children, a girl first then a boy and then he wanted to become a teacher. It sounded quite strange, all of this from a monk in his full orange robes.

Over all the impression I got was that these were just normal young men. They weren't allowed some of the things that most young men are, like alcohol and they are only allowed to eat in the morning, but really they were like any other men. They had a makeshift gym behind one of the houses with concrete weights so they could keep in shape....!!

Posted by admins at 8:28 AM | Comments(0)

February 15, 2007

Cambodian Landmine Museum (Joe)

Just about 10km outside of Siem Reap is the Cambodian Landmine Museum. It is on a dusty track, in the middle of nowhere which means it's not as full of tourists as the more central places. Once you approach the museum it just looks like a set of old barns with scrap metal all over the place. Admission is free but there is a donation boxs, $3 will pay for six landmines to be safely removed from the jungle. We started by looking round at all the photos of the famlilies in the area who had been in contact with mines and unexploded ordinance. A boy about 15 years old asked us if he could show us around.
He started by telling us that there are about 3 to 6 million landmines and ordinance still in the area and about 27,000 victims of landmines around Siem Reap. As we walked round the museum he took us to a compound to explain about all the diffent types of landmines. The first was a round cup about the size of a coca-cola can wich would be hidden in the ground. If someone stood on the mine it would explode and take the leg off or even kill someone. The second was an anti tank mine which would only be activated with as much pressure as say a family car. The boy was told us that the Kamer Rough used to put the first Coke can size one on the floor then an anti tank mine on top so that when the first when off the anti tank mine would react this would kill up to 20 people in the area. The last is a very simple metal spike hidden in the gound so the victim stands on the spike and slowly dies of blood poisoning and infection.
It was intresting but very sad that he could talk the way he did about landmines because he has bee a victim himself. He told us what happed to his leg.
He lived with his family in the north of Cambodia, in the jungle. All the family worked in the rice paddys. They went out as usual one day to the fields and the boy sood on a coke can landmine the boy lost his leg but his two brothers lost their lives. The boys father rushed him home to try save his last son. He was loosing lots of blood. His father took him to hospital but once there he could not aford the pay for his sons operation. He then had to take him back home to the jungle and do the operation himself.
After this happend the boy could not go back to work so he would be left all day at home. One day when the boy was at home he heard a noise out ide but he thought nothing of it. When his father arrived home there was larger tiger trying to get into the house. His father scared the tiger with his gun and from then on he carried his son to the fields with him.

After a few years the boy manged to travel to Siem Reap and got in toch with Aki Ra who at the time was trying to set up the landmine museum. The boy now works at the museum showing people the effects of landmines.

Infomation on the Cambodian Landmine Museum

The Cambodian Landmine Museum was opened in 1999 to promote awareness and education for both tourists and Cambodian people. Landmines will likely be a problem in Cambodia for many years to come. Through awareness, safety and prevention, the museum will strive to protect Cambodian communities from suffering and devastation.

The museum's activities include providing education and training to rural people about landmine safety, cleaning mines and unexploded ordinance (UXO) from various provinces in Cambodia, and training soldiers to deactivate and clear landmines and UXO from the countryside. The museum also provides livelihood support for soldiers working in de-mining and their families. They also provide a home and school at the museum for child survivors of landmines. Through all the activities, they hope to ensure that Cambodia will one day become free of landmines and UXO.

For further info have a look at
www.cambodialandminemuseum.org

Posted by admins at 6:30 AM | Comments(1)

February 12, 2007

Street Children of Cambodia

We have been in Siem Reap for about two weeks now. When we first arrived in town there where hundreds of children trying to sell bootleg Lonley Planet books, post cards and bracelets. At first it was realy annoying. Every time you set foot into the town you would be surrounded by children trying to sell things to you.
Now that we've have been here for a while we have had the chance to find out more about the children and why they sell on the streets.
Most of the sellers are between 6 and 14 years of age and are a mixture of boys and girls. Some go to school for about one hour a day (early in the morning), then head out to the street to sell for the day. Others work up to 15 hours a day. The money they receive from the books and post cards isn't their pocket money it goes for food for there families and towards school fees. Once we got chatting to them and started teaching them we found that they're the same as all children. Some days there in a really good mood and happy and other days they're really grumpy.
We had the opportunity to talk some children in more detail.

ANNA
Anna is abouy 14 years old but she does not know when here birthday is, She moved from Vietnam with her grandmother when she was about ten. Her Mum and Dad had abandoned her. She is pretty amazing. At the age of 14 she speaks fluent English, Kamer (Cambodian), Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese. She spends every day selling books to look after herself and her grandmother. Some days she will work up to 15 hours and only sells one book for about $2 (one Pound). She says that one day she would like to travel and use all her skills.

JANTY
Janty is about 15 years old and has spent all his life living in Siem Reap. He works on a food stall on the side of he road and his job is to bring the customers off the street to eat at the stall. Most people are quite nice to him but some do give him loads of hassel.
We have eaten from his stall loads of times. The food is typical Kamer food, rice, noodles and loads of meat and veg.

Posted by admins at 9:22 AM | Comments(0)

On the Street

Walking down the street here in Siem Reap is always a bit of an experience. First of all there is the Tuk Tuk drivers who wait on every available bit of kerb to harrass you. "You want to go to the temples" is the most common phrase. Thats where they make their big money. I try just to smile politely and say no, but you have to laugh when they follow you on your bike asking you where you want to go. Or when you just sit down for a meal or a drink, and they don't seem to realise that it's not an ideal time for temples.

After the Tuk Tuk drivers you usually see all of the children selling things. The choice is postcards $1, fake Lonely Planet Cambodia guides $2, or bracelets. They usually hang around in groups, all of them selling the same thing and surrounding any tourist that comes within ten metres.

Some of the children go to school in the morning and sell books in the afternoon, others don't go to school at all. Having been here a while now we have got to know a lot of them, so we don't have to but any post cards but you can't go anywhere without being surrounded by them, wishing "Good luck to You " or "Sweet dreams. They speak much better English than most because they speak it to tourists all day.

Next there are the bottle boys. They wander round all day, I don't think they can go to school, collecting empty water bottles and cans. We've got a collection of about twenty bottles in our room at the moment. We're going to make someones week later when we give them out.

Posted by admins at 6:10 AM | Comments(0)

February 11, 2007

Ankor Wat Temples Day 3

For the last day of our Temple Tour we decided to get up early and go to see the sunrise. We weren't even put off by the 4.30am start. The Tuk-tuk ride there was so cold and I was starting to think I would have been better off staying in bed. We got to Banteay Kdei Temple, and in the light of the moon, climbed to the top. It was quite unnerving, being in a place like that, just the two of us, in the dark.

The sunset was good, not spectacular, but the best part of it was that there was no one else around. We looked around four or five temples that morning, without seeing anyone else. It seemed so much more like you would expect temples to be, so relaxing and peaceful.

Just as we finished looking at our last temple of the day (by this time it was about 9.30am) the first coach load of the day arrived. We just walked straight past the hordes, got into our Tuk - tuk, quietly congratulating ourselves that our early morning had been so worth while.

Posted by admins at 5:22 AM | Comments(0)

Ankor Wat Temples Day 2

Day two of our Ankor Wat experience was to be the Grand Tour, which includes Ankor Wat itself and some of the other better known temples.

We saw the Temple with the big trees growing over it, best known for it's appearace in Tomb Raider. I was amazed by Bayon, which has all of the massive faces carved into the stone. Ankor Wat was breathtaking, although a bit too busy. The grand scale of it all makes you feel small and once again the every piece of stone no matter how insignificant was beautifully carved.

Posted by admins at 5:13 AM | Comments(0)

Ankor Wat Temples Day 1

We've been in Siem Reap for a while now and so obviously we had to go to see the Temples of Ankor Wat. They are the Pride and Joy of The Kingdom of Cambodia. Ankor Wat is on the Cambodian flag, they have a beer named after it, they have cigarettes named after it, and it is quite rightly seen as one of Cambodias greatest achievments

I had a quick look in the guide book before we set off but it was all very complex so we decided just to go and look.

You see Ankor Wat from the road, driving towards it. It's just imense, rising out of the man made lake surrounding it, but we were going to Phnom Bakheng, to watch the sunset. We got there pretty early and had a nice walk round the path to the foot of the temple. I din't appreciate how big they were until standing at the bottom of the steps. Now if it was England, there'd be a big fence right around it, with no touching, walking on or climbing, but here you're free to do whatever you want. So we started to climb. The steps were massive, and very steep, don't know how they don't have accidents. The view from the top was pretty amazing, and so was the temple. Every single block of stone had some kind of intricate carving.

We had a good look aroung and sat down to wait for the sunset. In the meantime, the people started to arrive, there must have thousands, and none of then seemed that interested in the actual temples.

Posted by admins at 4:49 AM | Comments(0)

Puppet Show

Last night we went to see a puppet show, although it was more like a carnival than a puppet show. Some English people had set up a project with children in the area to make loads of massive big puppets. The children were from different schools and groups and there were loads of the children who don't go to school but who collect bottles and cans from the street. They all looked as if they were really enjoying themselves.

The puppets were about 5m high and made out of things like plastic bottles and papier mache. They had little lights all the way though them.There was a paper tiger and a massive big bird (not sure what kind) and a traditional Kmer dancer.

A lot of the children had smaller puppets that they'd made as well. There was a big procession right though town to the park down the road. It looked amazing, they were all dancing, singing and banging drums as they went.

Posted by admins at 4:25 AM | Comments(0)

February 8, 2007

Cambodian Education

Here in Siem Reap we're working for a charity, teaching English to Cambodian children. Before I tell you about that, a bit about schools...

Most schools are run by the government. They pay the teachers very little so allow the teachers to charge childen to come to school and so sudisdise their wages. Many families cannot afford this so children do not attend school.

Some schools however, like the ones we are working in are sponsored. This means the Charity pays the teachers wages - about $30 a month, a very good wage here - and provides new buildings or equipment whenever possible. School seems to be voluntary for children. If they want to go, they do. If not they stay at home or work.

Children start school at 7am and work though until 11am. These children then go home. At 1pm a second lot of children arrive and work through until 4pm. They have a lot of breaks during this time, often just wandering in and out of class.

The teachers on the whole are not very motivated, and who can blame them, so most lessons consist of copying things down from the board. Class sizes vary, depending on how many children turn up on any given day, between 30 and 60.

Children however are very eager to learn, especially with new people. Their ability varies greatly but the more able are always willing to help others.

Posted by admins at 4:37 AM | Comments(0)

Siem Reap

Siem Reap is in the North of Cambodia near to the Tonale Sap Lake and Ankor Wat and it's Temples. This makes it Cambodia's top tourist destination. In the centre of town there are lots of bars, restaurants and Stalls selling postcards and silk scarfs, but if you look a little further then it's qiute different.

The roads here are mostly sandy, bumpy tracks and you don't ofen see any cars on them. Everyone has either a moped or a push bike and they use them like a family car. You see up to 4 or 5 people balanced precariously on the back of a moped and sometimes their pigs are balanced there too!!! Although everyone is supposed to drive on the right here, this is something that doesn't often happen. You'll be riding along on your push bike when a moped comes straight for you. Usually they swerve just in time, but it makes for an interesting ride.

Petrol stations are pretty different too. From a distance they could be mistaken for roadside drinks sellers. A mo-ped will usually take one Jonny Walker bottle of fuel every coulple of days, poured in through an old metal funnel. This usually costs just under a dollar. The one car we saw at a petrol station was being filled with a watering can full of petrol (not a Jonny Walker bottle - that would be daft).

Although the Cambodian currency is Riel (8000 Riel to the Pound), everyone uses dollars. You occasionally get riel as change but all prices are in dollars and the cash machines only give dollars.

Posted by admins at 4:14 AM | Comments(0)

Choeung Ek (Killing Fields)

History of the Killing fields of Choeung Ek

Before 1975,The Choeung Ek Killing field was an orchard and Chinese cemetery located in Choeung EK commune, Dang Kor District of Phnom Penh Cambodia.
After overthrowing the Khmer Republic Regime during 1975-1979, Ulter Communist Khmer Rouge Regime (UCKRR) converted Choeung EK commune into the most cruel and barbaric killing field on earth. Choeing EK killing field was the second most important part of the larger Security Prison called S-21 center which included the detention, torture and interrogation centre (Tuol Sleng Prison), the first main headquaters.
In 1988, Choeung EK killing field becama a centre showing the brutal and barbaric activities of the UCKRR. At the same time, it was used as a national centre for the consecration of the spirits of over 3 million people who had lost thair lives in the regime. therefore, a memorial charnrl house was built in order to achieve this purpose.

Facts and Figures

1975 UCKRR established the Security Center in country which included:
- Tuol Sleng Prison for torturing, interogating and deprivation (S-21)
- Choeung Ek killing field for murdering prisoners transporting from S-21 and other places of the country. Choeung EK killing field covers over two hectares of land.

1976-1978: about 20 thousand victims including dipomats, foreigners, intellectuals, childen and woman were murded there. Nine of them were Europeans.

Early 1978: Khmer Rouge soldiers and people accused of betrayal were transported to be exterminated with hand bound behind their backs and blindfolded.

January 7, 1979: Cambodia was liberated from the UCKRR and then the mystery of the killing fields including Choeung Ek were discovered.

1979-1980: 129 mass graves were found,86 of which were excavated. 8,985 corpses were exhumed. the largest mass grave was a grave contaning 450 corpses.

1989: The Government of Cambodia turned Choeung Ek killing fields into:
The National Centre for preservation of the evidence of the UCKRR.
The National Centre for recalling and honoring the spirits of the victims throughout the country.
A memorial stupa was constructed as a symbol of the cruel and barbaric homicides committed by the Khmer Rouge Communist Regime.

Present Day: Choeung Ek killing fields have become a historical museum for humankind and one of most visited places in Phnom Penh.

Posted by admins at 3:31 AM | Comments(0)

February 5, 2007

Phnom Penh (Katy)

We only had one day in Phnom Penh so we decided to make the most of it. We hired a Tuk tuk,(a mo-ped with a trailer that has seats in it, for the day. Unfortunately all of the best sights in Phnom Penh are pretty depressing, but unmissable.

Fist we went to the Killing Fields, an area just outside the city where, during the Khmer Rouge Regime, thousands and thousands of people were taken to be killed. Many of them women and children and this was between 1970 to about 1975, not even that long ago.

There's a memorial there, a building full of skulls that were found in mass graves .

We also visited Tuol Seng S21, the school that was turned into a prison for people to be tourtured before they were sent to the Killing Field. All prisoners had their photographs taken when they were bought in so now there are thousands of black and white photos of people, many of them had already been tourtured....

The next morning we left Phnom Penh for Siem Rep, our present location

Posted by admins at 9:36 AM | Comments(0)