Cambodia: The Beginning

So, I have finally taken the time to blog after a beautiful seven day vacation to Cambodia. Since so much happened in that seven days I will divide my blogs up, so that it's not one huge blog. I spent most of Saturday doing last minute packing, showering and getting ready for the trip. Our flight was set to leave on Saturday night. I met up with Jenn and Nicole mid-afternoon to take the bus together to the airport.

This is proof that girls have baggage...even if it's only a week vacation.

Once we got to the airport we basically had to get in line for our plane tickets and to check our baggage. Our plane ride was scheduled for 5 hours, so we got served dinner and we watched, 'Kung-Fu Panda', but I ended up falling asleep halfway through it, so that was quite disappointing.

Mary Anne and I on the airplane. We look a little worse for wear, but what can you expect we're on vacation.

Once we arrived in Phnom Penh there was a two hour time difference, so we ended up going back in time 2 hours. We arrived relatively late in Phnom Penh and had a driver waiting for us to take us to our hotel. I was exhausted after the plane ride, so once we got checked-in I hung out in the room, read and then went straight to bed. Day Two involved waking up early (7:00 a.m.), so we could get everything done. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day for $20. Our first stop was the Royal Palace. As soon as the tuk tuk pulled up were bombarded by kids trying to get us to buy everything from books to water off of them. It was very overwhelming, but we promised we would buy stuff off them when we were done at the Royal Palace. Me enjoying the company of the statue at the entrance way.

Inside the Royal Palace we had to have our shoulders and knees covered. The entry fee was $3 and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside any of the buildings, but we could take as many as we wanted outside.

This is the Royal Palace. It was remarkable and so beautiful to look at.

This is the gang on the stairway to the Royal Palace. Mary Anne, Jenn, Missy, Me and Nicole.

We toured around the Royal Palace for just over an hour before we decided we'd seen enough. When we went back outside to find our tuk tuk driver we got bombarded by the same kids as when we got there, so we all decided to buy waters off of different kids, so they all had a chance at making a profit. Next stop was the Tuol Sang Museum, which is the Genocide Museum. It was in existance from 1975-1979.

This is the outside of the Museum, which was once a school before it became a prison.

Inside we got to view photos of the prisoners and see what the prison cells were like. It was really quite disturbing, but it was real life for so many people for so many years.

This is a picture of one of the methods of torture used on prisoners.

Walking through the Museum was unbearable at times especially when you could still blood stains on the floors and that will never go away. Plus, the size of the cells the prisoners had to sleep in was unimaginable.

This is a hallway that leads to one section of the prison and to certain cells.

These were the rules that all prisoners were required to follow. Most of them aare absolutely unthinkable.

After we finished with the Museum we went for lunch along the riverfront where we enjoyed some great food and drinks.

Just a random Cambodian landscape picture I took on the way to the Killing Fields.

The Killing Fields was our next stop after lunch and it turned out to be quite far. When we finally did arrive we hired a guide to show us around and tell us in detail about the Killing Fields, which was worth it. The Killing Fields tour only lasted about 45 minutes.

This is the main building where there are 9 stories of skulls on display and the top 7 stories are other body parts. Here is a close-up of the skulls that range from all different ages.

This is a pile of clothes that has been collected from around the Killinmg Fields. Clothes can still be found to date. It gives me shivers because we saw trails of clothes along the paths.

Imagine...a tree for beating children to death...that included babies.

The Killing Fields was our last stop for the day. We headed back to the hotel after that where we enjoyed some milkshakes while chilling by the pool. It was such a beautiful day, so the milkshakes were refreshing. Then we headed to the market, but we didn't buy anything. Mary Anne, Missy and I seperated from Jenn and Nicole for dinner because we wanted to enjoy some authentic Cambodian food, but Jenn and Nicole wanted to take a tuk tuk to the riverfront to eat. We wandered around looking for food and found a tiny little place serving Khmer food (Cambodian food).

Mary Anne, Missy and I enjoying our Cambodian meal and Cambodian beer.

We ended up back at the hotel drinking quite a few beers and invited two girls from Australia on vacation with their parents to come and enjoy some drinks with us. Jenn and Nicole ended up going to bed early.

Missy and Mary Anne and I went to check out the Central Market our last day in Phnom Penh. We again got harassed by peddlars trying to get us to buy stuff off of them. After lunch we had to head to the bus station to catch our bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The ride would be about 5 hours, so we recieved one small snack on the bus and a bottle of water. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the very last row of the bus, so I had the luxury of being next to the bathroom. Let me tell you, that is the last place you want to be seated when on a 5 hour bus ride. We arrived in Siem Reap just after dinner time and had a van waiting for us to take us to our hotel. Our hotel ended up being in the boonies about 10 minutes away from the city. Once we arrived at the hotel we ate dinner and then Jenn, Nicole and I decided we wanted to go out and see what the city had to offer. We got dropped off on Pub Street and started at a place called, 'Temple Club. They were serving buy one get one free cocktails.

Jenn, Nicole and I at Temple Club enjoying our buy one get one free cocktails.

While we were at Temple Club we met some other foreigners who later invited us out to a local nightclub. We decided to go with them, so we could check out what a Cambodian nightclub was like. There were about 10 foreigners in the entire club and 7 of them were our group. It turned out to be a pretty fun night, but we had to end the night when Nicole was too drunk to know what was going on. We took the tuk tuk back to the hotel and when we got to the hotel the doors were locked, so we had to wake up the guys that work the late shift, so they could let us in. We felt bad, but there was no way were spending the night outside.