Murder, diarrhea and temples

The title pretty much sums up our time in Cambodia. Unfortunately it was a pretty unlucky place for us. Which is such a shame as so many people said they loved it. It wasn't all bad, and you'll hear the brunt of the bad stuff from Greg as the majority if it came from his bum, but we had a good time in-between as well. We arrived in Phenom Penh after dark after a long bus from Siagon. The border crossing wasn't without event. We had read up on getting a the visa at the border, and knew to try to avoid helpful bus staff offering to get it for you, or the border staff over charging. Our fellow western passengers consisted of 2 vile Aussies, their huge beer filled bellies bursting out of their string vests, obviously hadn't done the same and handed their extra dollars over to the bus driver, unfortunately we thought we were better informed and decided to do it ourselves. When you do it yourself, you get pushed to the back of the queue, with the other visas sorted our bus man was getting frustrated with waiting for us. Finally we got to the front only to be overcharged about £8 as we didn't have the fee in US dollars. There wasn't much we could do so we paid up and moved on, only to find the bus along with our luggage had left without us! The annoyed bus man was still there and he ushered us to both squeeze onto the back of a moped. We sped along the road wondering how the hell we were going to catch up with the bus, when he stopped to refill the petrol. By this point we were both starting to panic, but a bit further along the road and I could see that the bus had stopped for food. So we carried on to Phenom Penh with the, by this point, wasted Aussies who started belching, hacking and raucously laughing. I had a horrible feeling I knew why they were in Cambodia as i heard them talking about women, but I hope I was wrong... It started pouring with rain as we arrived, and within 30 minutes the roads and pavements were like rivers. We jumped into a tuk tuk which acted like a boat and got him to drive between hotels as we checked the rooms out, they were all pretty poor, run down and depressing so we settled in the best of a bad bunch for £7 night.  To cut to the chase, it didn't stop raining for the next 3 days, and we were told this was the start of 3 months of rainy season... Slightly deterred and frustrated we couldn't walk around to discover the place as we usually do, we decided to go to S21 prison to see and learn about the horrific plight of the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge, and it's evil leader Pol Pot.  Below the grey sky and dreary rain the place looked grim from the outset. In the first block the cells were still in their original state with a barren wire bed in the middle with ankle chains. On the walls were black and white photos of how the cells were found when the Khmer Rouge were overcome - a half decomposed body that had been tortured before it died. There were still blood stains on the floor... Other blocks contained wooden and brick cells, the size of a child's bed. And then there were huge rooms containing hundreds and hundreds of photos of the victims, all of which were murdered for being suspected CIA or just for wearing glasses. There was a tree in the centre of the courtyard where the victims children or baby's were beat against until they too died. It was so horrific, we left feeling morbid, and also angry that so many of the leaders and guards involved were shown still alive and that justice had not been won as they couldn't be tried for genocide. Walking around the city after that just made you realise that many of the middle aged people may have had a hand in this regime as it only happened 30 or so years ago.  The rain didn't relent so we realised our plans to go to some of the southern Cambodian towns had to be scraped. Instead we headed for Siem reap. We stayed in a great little place just outside of town and used the hotels bikes to take a look around. It was a cute little town set aside a river. Obviously very touristy as it's the closest town to Angkor Wat, but still it was a pleasant place with lots of markets, bars and restaurants. We decided to save on the $1 tuk tuk into town and biked round to find a cheap guesthouse near the centre. We made an Aussie ex pat friend who owned a hotel, which was too expensive but he gave us a great tip about a really cheap place with a pool. And there we spent the next 8 days. Probably could have cut an even better deal if we'd known, but our plan was to only  stay a few days to see the temples.  Unfortunately it didn't go to plan as Greg managed to contract another intestinal nasty and was doing 10+ shits a day, if you can call brown water a shit. It was a tough time for him, as it just wouldn't stop, but luckily we had air con and several film channels to stop him from going bonkers. I busied myself by the pool, in between ferrying bottles of water and rehydrate whist dabbing his brow. At least it wasn't the worst place to get ill, as long as it didn't turn into anything worse, as i can imagine Cambodian hospitals to be far worse than the Vietnamese one I went to, we were managing.  It was a shame, as we'd spent our first few days in Siem Reap whiling away our visa in the 20p beer bars along pub street. We also found a cheap place to eat that served great Khmer curry and chicken spring rolls, along with free salty popcorn which was amazing. Seeing as we ate there every day before Greg got sick we can only assume they were the culprits of his runny shits, although as in Peru, we shared all our meals so it was strange I didn't have it too. And I'm the one with the immune system disease... Maybe my body is stronger that I think.  We managed a night out before Greg got taken down. It wasn't particularly extraordinary but we did have a bit of a poverty conundrum thrown at us in the form of a 7 year old girl dressed in rags, shoeless and with a sleeping baby in her arms. She grabbed my hand as we were walking between pubs. It's not the first begging child we've come across, there were plenty in South America sleeping on  the street, who we thought were probably drugged to keep them quiet. But she was different because when Greg tried to give her a few dollars she said "no no, please milk for baby brother" we were shocked and paid her a bit more attention. She asked us to buy a tin of formula from the mini mart. We couldn't walk away, so allowed ourselves to be led into the shop as she pointed out what she wanted. Being tight and thrifty travellers we just couldn't afford the tub she was asking for as it was $20 odd, the equivalent to nearly 2 nights accommodation. At this hesitation our instincts kicked in, and we questioned the situation. Smelling something fishy we walked out and with the girl pleading at us, we headed straight to a bar. After buying a beer, which felt so wrong after that ordeal, we couldn't stop thinking had we done the right thing to walk away...? We spotted a Cambodian bloke chatting to 3 white men, and thought he might have some insight. Turned out the 4 of them had just finished some volunteer project. They had experienced this scam many times, and explained to us the details. Girl hires baby, makes deal with the mini mart, we buy formula at grossly inflated price, girl returns the formula to the mini mart and gets a cut of the mark up, we guess maybe $5 per tin. Which is a lot of money in Cambodia and a lot more than the odd dollar here and there she is likely to get from begging. Pretty complex scam... But essentially she is still on the streets, her parents would be making her do this, and worst of all, the guys told us that most of these young girls would also be for sale. There are now charities that try to advertise to tourists not to give money to begging children or to visit money scamming so called orphanages. We had a lucky escape, but she will have found some other tourist mugs who would relent, and keep her on the streets another night.  So finally after a long stint of doing nothing, Greg had enough strength to make it to Angkor Wat et al. The guidebook says only getting a one day pass is sacrilege, but at $20 a day each, and one delicate tummy  we thought it best to stick to one day.  We hired a tuk tuk to take us around. And with an inspired bit of reading the night before, we asked him to take us anti clockwise around the temple circuit, and it doing so left the tourist hoards behind. We were pleased not to have opted to get up in the middle of the night for the sunrise scene of Angkor Wat as it was completely overcast. There is no saving grace from clouds in this part of the world, you may not get scorched but it instead makes it unbearably humid. We were grateful for the breeze of our speedy tuk tuk, although it was a very bumpy ride. We stopped at various temples including that used as the location for the tomb raider film. They were impressive, especially because of their scale and the fact that there are so many temples in close proximity to each other. You could also easily imagine them back in there pomp with people half naked eating monkey brains and snake soup out of skulls... But maybe I've watched Indiana jones a few too many times. Unfortunately they are trying to do a bit to much restoration for my liking - where's the national trust when you need it. They are re-creating many of the crumbling buildings, but the stone looks new, and it ruins the authenticity. Why they can't just preserve what's there I don't know - probably due to it's Japanese owners, like everything else historic in Cambodia, like S21 and the killing fields. I can't believe the poor old Cambodians aren't even making money out of their horrific history and impressive temples, it shouldn't be allowed. The worst one was Angkor Wat itself - in the perfect picture location, capturing the famous turrets and moat - a great big green sheet of tarpaulin centre shot ruins the picture. By the end of the day we were burnt, wet through with sweat, exhausted and Greg needed the toilet. I'd say it was a pretty successful day, but we needed to see no more temples thank you. So slightly nonplussed by our time in Cambodia we decided to head back to Bangkok and another boarder crossing. I certainly think Cambodia had more to offer, and we were simply just unlucky with weather and stomachs. But after a pause in our itinerary we were eager to hit the road again - plus we had a date to make with an invitation to the full moon party from our friends from Vietnam.