From Saigon it was a 14 hour bus ride to Siem Reap which wasn't too bad, I think I'm beginning to get used to long journeys, Siem Reap is a really nice chilled out city with lots of nice bars and restaurants. On first impressions the Cambodian people are really friendly and the street sellers are not too pushy but you have to be prepared for kids trying to sell you stuff every two minutes, I quickly learnt that a swift smack to the head usually sorts them out, I'm joking of cause, I don't condone violence to children, apart from my nephews and niece who deserve a bit of pain every now and again.
While in Siem Reap we bought a 3 day pass to visit the Angkor Temples, we first went to see the sunset, as expected this was really popular and had to contened with at least 1000 other people. After a 10 minute hike up a hill in the heat you then had to que for about 20 minutes to climb the steps to the top of one of the temples and then try to find a good spot to see the sunset. When we got to the top I pretty much gave up on the sunset and only managed to get a few decent photos, still it was worth doing and not a bad experience.
We visited the temples on another 2 occasions and I have to say it was well worth doing the structures are amazing but I do feel there not going to be around for too much longer if tourists are allowed to climb all over them. The last temple we visited was Angkor Wat this seems to be the temple that everyone wants to see, I wasn't that impressed with it, for me the other temples were far better. I took so many photos it's hard to chose which ones to post, I've posted a few below.
In all we spent 4 days in Siem Reap but could easily have spent another 2 days there. We then had a 7 hour bus ride back south to Phnom Penh, this place is a lot busier then Siem Reap and not as laid back but from what I have seen so far I like it. Today (1st Feb) we went to the Genocide museum which is basically an old school which was turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge and renamed S-21. Cambodians were put here to be interrogated (tortured). Anyone who the Khmer Rouge suspected of being against them was killed in the most brutal ways.
At the prison you were allowed to walk through the cells and look at the ways they tortured people to get confessions. Even though the museum is a place of sadness and shows how evil people can be there did seem to be a felling of peace around the grounds. The last room we entered really shocked me, I wasn't ready to see what I did, In glass cases were the skulls and Bones of a number of people who had been killed. I stood shocked at what I saw for about 5 minutes and I really had to fight back the tears... I was truly (pardon my language) fucking disgusted at how people can do this to one another.
As with the war museum in Vietnam I didn't take too many photos as to show respect to the dead, I couldn't believe that some of the visitors to S-21 were there taking photos of the torture devices and pictures of people dead, strapped to their beds after hours of 'interrogation'. I did take a few photos outside of the buildings themselves though. tomorrow we go to the Killing Fields, I don't know how I will feel after been there but I will let you know.
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