We decided the adventurous way to get into Cambodia would be to do the river cruise up the Mekong. We were told it would take 6 and a half hours. So getting used to being lied to we added an hour and a half to this time.
We arrived after 9 and a half hours.
At the border we were told to prepare 22 US dollars. The price for the visa was only 20 dollars but we were informed that this way we would not get scammed for any more. I find it shocking that corruption is accepted as a part of life.
Cambodia isn't quite as easy on your pound as Vietnam due to its really high inflation rate (running at 10% in 2007 and 20% so far this year - really, Ross? That is so interesting, you really are a bundle of fascinating facts! Why, thank you!). But we stayed at this really cool Guesthouse that had its own backpacker restaurant (showing a constant loop of dodgy DVDs) and its own tuk tuk drivers who would serve your food and drinks so that you'd use them to get around.
Our tuk tuk driver took us to the killing fields and Tuol Sleng, a school converted into a prison, or S21, as it was known. The level of inhumanity, the madness, the paranoia, the enormous amount of violence and cruelty is difficult to comprehend. Seeing the sparse rooms in S21, left just as they were, with a black and white picture on the wall showing a horribly mutilated corpse lying on the bed that is just in front of you. Seeing the thousands of mug shots of the victims, the methods of torture, the chains, the tiny prisons makes your blood run cold. The killing fields museum has a pagoda filled to the top with human skulls and human bones and clothes still stick out of the ground, even after many of the mass burial pits have been excavated.
This all took place just over 30 years ago. I find it difficult to appreciate the true horror of what happened in those places and I am lucky for it. It made me question a lot of things about humanity and how so many people can get caught up in the madness and, worse, whether it could happen to me...
We had only been around Phnom Penh on the bus and on a tuk tuk so we had no idea of our way around the city so, after all this, to clear our heads a bit, we decided to go for a walk. As we were walking down the road I said to Karen, 'I think you should get the camera out because there is an elephant walking down the road!' And there was! This is not something you often get to say when you live in Manchester. To be fair, even the locals looked surprised and the scooters were swerving a little wider than they normally might.
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