Phnom-Penh

14th & 15th May 2010 Friday was a travelling day, so the morning was spent packing up and in the afternoon we boarded a bus for the 6 hour 300km journey to Siem Reap. The main road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was more like a countryside B road than a major highway and in parts was still unsurfaced dirt track. This is the part of travelling we’re now not enjoying so much, the getting from A to B - things take so much longer in this part of the world and the journey is generally more bumpy, prohibiting any activity besides listening to music and enjoying the view out of the window. ...

13th May 2010 We had booked our tuk-tuk driver from the other day to pick us up again at 10am this morning, and true to his word he was outside waiting for us. Our first stop today was the Tuol Sleng Musuem, also know as S-21. In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21. This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Between 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the killing fields of Choeng Ek, which we had visited yesterday. ...

12th May 2010 My carriage? A small quad bike. Today we were doing a full day tour on these ATV (All Terrain Vehicles) and I hadn’t realised how vital they would be on Cambodia’s roads. We were picked up by tuk tuk and were soon being transported through the chaos of Phnom Penh during rush hour. Thirty minutes later we were out of the hustle and bustle of the centre and into the coutryside, and arriving at the Blazing Saddles HQ. ...

10th and 11th May 2010 Most of yesterday was spent on board a bus bound for Cambodia. The 6 hours passed quickly enough with a brief break at the border just after we entered Cambodia. Since Ed had been feeling under the weather for the last few days and we were subjected to a temperature check at the border (and possible quarantine if we failed), we were delighted to be in the country. ...