Cambdia was both brilliant and very sad!

I'm not sure where to begin with this countries blog as I've had both the worst and best time in any country so far.

So let me begin with the bad bit and a little recent history. Pol Pot came to power and decided the country needed to be cleansed. In his eyes the country needed to start from zero again which meant killing millions of people and emptying towns and cities and forcing everyone to grow food or some other menial task which included children working as well!

Some people were tortured for up to seven months and these were the rules that those that were about to die had to abide by. 'You can you not cry out if you are being electrified' are just one of the ghastly rules. We saw torture rooms, blood stained floors, tiny cells and photographs of men woman and children who were brought here.

It made good sense to use existing buildings and schools and collages seemed to be used a lot. This place was S-21 and one of many across the country. The exercise bar above was also used for torture. People were hung upside down until they fell unconscious, then dipped in foul excrement water to wake them up before doing it all again. To ensure the 'cleansing' went on towards the end, guards were tasked to kill other guards and so on until only a minimum of people involved were left.

One prisoner jumped to his death from the top floor rather than endure any more torture. Barbed wire and fencing was quickly erected to prolong the agony here. Our tour continued on to the killing fields where thousands of people were finally murdered and dumped. I decided I didn't need any more horror and dropped out of this part of the tour.

I needed a beer and sat down near our hotel in town. I was re-reading the entry leaflet at the table and the bar owner struck up a conversation with me. He said he remembered the horror and was only ten years old at the end of it all. I tentatively asked "do you have family remaining"? He was orphaned and all his family was killed apart from an aunt. I asked again how he was cared for and by whom. At that time you were on your own, there was no help, no government and no money so he hung around with older boys. I just cannot begin to imagine what these people who are very friendly, kind and giving went through. I think we were all very quiet and reflective for a couple of days. I also think this is something that you should do, to see the horror of what man will do to another man and I think it makes you richer as a person and I'll probably never moan again about petty things back home.

Jeez, after that I needed cheering up so I toured the Royal palace with the girls the next day. What a great place and the King still lives out the back. Well not quite the back, you can get a glimpse of the royal residence and gardens if you stand on the veranda of the royal throne room on the right hand side above. You can just see the roof of the Royal Palace on the right.

All the buildings were very beautiful and ornate and crammed full of gold, silver, scriptures, statues, royal relics and armoury. Phnom Penh for me was culturally the most eye opening place on the trip so far. It makes you think about life in a very different way and makes you appreciate what you have and how lucky we all are to be doing this trip.

There is a lot of what can be best described as begging from kids who are selling all kinds of stuff you don't want so you don't buy. Some don't even have shoes and are dirty, some might even be sex slaves............

Phew, lighten up peeps. After a very nice coach trip to Siem Reap and settling into our very nice hotel with pool it was time to hit the town. I don't think I have seen so many bars, clubs and restaurants in my life. Its all good tucker reasonably priced and very nicely presented by cheerfull waiting staff too.

So, you all know I don't pay attention, I have the memory of a gnat and I get bored easily. So jeez, when this trip was organised for Ankor Wat (one of the worlds most amazing er.....things). I thought bloody hell, I hope I can make a couple of hours of this before falling asleep. To tell you the truth we had to be up before sunrise (in plain language bloody early). We arrived by Tuk Tuk and had a great local guide. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that there are a number of bars along our street. Steavy was walking back to the hotel late one night and a lot of gorgeous girls were sat outside one of them enticing customers in. If I hadn't of been so tired I probably would have had a beer there. Going past the bar again the next morning I said to the guide there were a lot of pretty girls outside that place last night. He giggled and said "lady boy"!!!!!

Ok, so after some jaw dropping and thinking 'thank my lucky stars'. I pretty much hung out with other people for safety after that.

Back to the plot. Ankor Wat is spread over hundreds and hundreds of acres. Built by many kings, added on by others and some parts damaged by others. This all depended on what religion was around at the time. There are many parts to it. Some in more disrepair than others. This area was only rediscovered comparatively recently being completely overrun by jungle - still is in some parts. Here endeath the history lesson!

What I did find though was an unusual peace here, I marvelled at the construction, the size and shear beauty of it all. I managed to stay the course (all six hours or so) but some of our hardier travellers stayed for the rest of the day. It is true that my short tour was just that and to appreciate Ankor Wat and all that it has its probably a good idea to hire your own Tuk Tuk and driver and do this place over a couple of days and create your own unique tour.

Elephants are now used to transport tourists around the site, they are actually well looked after. 40,000 elephants were used to help construct all the major Wat structures and temples here over a 37 year period. All the limestone and lava rock came here by river and quarried 67klms away.

As this is real jungle the bird and plant life was incredible and you also get monkeys. OK that might be their real name, they were actually called long tailed something or others - but cute none the less. We spent only six nights in Cambodia, but that's long enough for me to make my mind up to come back.

Currently in Bangkok, my goodness so much temptation.............