So the original plan to go to Vietnam was scrapped as
a) I've been there before (feel free to read about my previous experience if you're bored http://littleyapyapvietnam.blogspot.com
b) We are strapped for time
a) I've been there before (feel free to read about my previous experience if you're bored http://littleyapyapvietnam.blogspot.com
b) We are strapped for time
So now we are in Cambodia where we have picked up another traveller, my ex-housemate Angeliki, who will be travelling with us for a short bit. It's pretty cool cos I knew Angeliki would be in this part of the world but never did we imagine we would end up in the same place on the same day!
Phnom Penh: the name can’t help but conjure up an image of the exotic. The glimmering spires of the royal palace, the fluttering saffron of the monks’ robes, and the luscious location on the banks of the mighty Mekong; this is one of Asia’s undiscovered gems. But it’s also a city on the move, as a new wave of investors move in, perhaps forever changing the character, and skyline, of this classic city. Phnom Penh is a crossroads of Asia’s past and present, a city of extremes of poverty and excess, of charm and chaos, but one that never fails to captivate.
This place is beautiful and so relaxed, once you ignore all the tuk tuk drivers who hound you constantly with ther sob story of needing to feed their families.
But if you know the history of Cambodia and the Pol Pot regime it's amazing to see how the Cambodians have come out of bad moment in history and into what this country is now.
Yes, I did visit the Killing fields which I felt was a must. Rising above the 129 mass graves in the Killing Fields is a blinding white stupa (religious monument, often containing Buddha relics) that serves as a memorial to the approximately 17,000men, women and children who were executed here by the Khmer Rouge between mid-1975 and December 1978.
Encased inside the stupa are almost 9000 human skulls found during excavations here in 1980. Many of these skulls still bear witness to the fact that they were bludgeoned to death for the sake of saving precious bullets.
It was a very sobering moment and as you walked around the already excavated graves you can still see fragments of bones and teeth that get brought up by the rainsand made me very sad that things like this are still happening in this day in age. Humans will never learn.
Phnom Penh: the name can’t help but conjure up an image of the exotic. The glimmering spires of the royal palace, the fluttering saffron of the monks’ robes, and the luscious location on the banks of the mighty Mekong; this is one of Asia’s undiscovered gems. But it’s also a city on the move, as a new wave of investors move in, perhaps forever changing the character, and skyline, of this classic city. Phnom Penh is a crossroads of Asia’s past and present, a city of extremes of poverty and excess, of charm and chaos, but one that never fails to captivate.
This place is beautiful and so relaxed, once you ignore all the tuk tuk drivers who hound you constantly with ther sob story of needing to feed their families.
But if you know the history of Cambodia and the Pol Pot regime it's amazing to see how the Cambodians have come out of bad moment in history and into what this country is now.
Yes, I did visit the Killing fields which I felt was a must. Rising above the 129 mass graves in the Killing Fields is a blinding white stupa (religious monument, often containing Buddha relics) that serves as a memorial to the approximately 17,000men, women and children who were executed here by the Khmer Rouge between mid-1975 and December 1978.
Encased inside the stupa are almost 9000 human skulls found during excavations here in 1980. Many of these skulls still bear witness to the fact that they were bludgeoned to death for the sake of saving precious bullets.
It was a very sobering moment and as you walked around the already excavated graves you can still see fragments of bones and teeth that get brought up by the rainsand made me very sad that things like this are still happening in this day in age. Humans will never learn.
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