Cambodia - Kep, Koh Kong and Kompong Thom - Day 235 (20,091 miles)

After a week in Phnom Penh we headed south to the Cambodian coast.

We travelled with Els and Marijn who were also heading to the small town of Kep. Kep is pretty relaxing, not much going on (very nice), the quayside has quite a buzz during the day with many fishing boats bringing in their catches of crab and haggling going on in the market. At night the string of restaurants along the quay specialise in dishes based around (you've guessed it) crab. Unfortunately like many parts of the world demand is outstripping supply and the fishermen are landing specimens that really are too young and small. Anyway we were on an economy drive after Phnom Penh and couldn't afford it! John and Els.

Els and Marijn's friend Marcel lives in Kep and knows all the best places off the beaten track. We spent a great day riding around local villages and saw some beautiful countryside. Marcel and Marijn.

Riding towards Kiriseila pagoda, a temple surrounded by caves.

Salt is an important local crop, areas of land are flooded with sea water and as the water evaporates the rock salt is harvested. Marcel asked one of the workers doing this backbreaking work how much he was paid, the answer was $2 per day.

Although many things seem very cheap here to us it is still hard to fathom how people survive on this level of wage and it seems to be that many people don't buy very much at all. They grow and raise as much of their own food as possible and barter with others. A litre of fuel is over $1 and most families have a moped (even if it is shared between 5) so fuel must cost at least a couple of $ a week. Educating their kids (which usually means a contribution from parents to the teacher) and any healthcare (nothing is free) must be such a struggle.

Driving through a village we came across a statue of Pope John Paul II, it turns out a Catholic charity kindly built a school but not so kindly insisted all pupils convert from Buddhism to Catholicism. For some reason they currently do not have any teachers so all the kids have is a Pope shaped climbing frame.

View from a bridge on our journey from Kep to Koh Kong.

We splashed out $15 a night for this rather fancy hotel, temperatures where getting well up above 30c so aircon and the pool were a treat.

Unfortunately the nightclub next door proved to be a bit lively and from sign displayed outside it's door possibly a bit deadly!

Toilets in a mangrove swamp and yes they were plumbed in! Not sure if walls are phase 2 of the project.

We booked a day trip over to Koh Kong island, it is getting to the end of the high season here and we got lucky and only had to share this boat with a nice crew and 1 other couple.

The beach was nice, the water was warm and we enjoyed chatting to Sophie and Kelvin a french couple.

Tuk tuk repairs on our way to Sambor Prei Kuk. We gave these kids some strong mints to try, from their faces they didn't seem keen.

I love tuk tuks, if John ever fancies this as a form of long term travel I'll be there!

This group of temples is pre Ankorian so even older than Ankor Wat the temple of all temples that we will be visiting next week. There were a couple of other tourists but we had a relaxing few hours wandering round and we know next week is going to be much busier.

Me and Savani our very knowledgeable Guide.

Most Cambodian kids go to school for either the morning or afternoon and do some kind of work when not at school. These guys sell Kramas the traditional scarf that is still worn by lots of Cambodians. They sell them for $1 and will work incredibly hard to get a sale, English is taught in all schools and they can all ask What is your name? Where do you come from? and when you tell them they will name your country's Prime Minister etc and the current population figure!

Well that's it for now, be prepared for temple overload next time!

There's a few more maximum capacity photo's below.

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Cambodia - Kratie to Phnom Penh - Day 225 (19,418 miles)

At our first fuel stop in Cambodia the lady serving us was wearing pyjamas, turns out this is quite the usual workwear of many women. Cheap, comfy and makes getting ready for work a bit quicker!

While staying in a nice little riverside town called Kratie we followed the river to a village called Kampi and took a boat trip out on the river to look at the Irrawaddy dolphins. The photo above was our best shot unfortunately! These are a rather shy breed and look quite different to other dolphins, their heads are more like a Dugong or Manatee.

At the town of Kompong Cham we stopped to admire (and try out) this bamboo bridge, it looks pretty rickety and moves and creaks a lot but can take the weight of well loaded trucks ok. It's currently the end of the dry season so the river is low but the bridge is usually washed away in the rainy season and rebuilt every year. John tries a couple of the local delicacies, fried spider and....... frog. We'd seen plenty of elephants working or giving tourist rides in rural areas but this one seemed to be out for the day in the middle of Phnom Penh, sightseeing perhaps.

During the period when the Khmer Rouge held power in Cambodia (1975 to 1979) this central Phnom Penh school above became the Security office 21 and is now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. On the 17th April 1975 Pol Pot's soldiers entered Phnom Penh and told all residents that the US were going to bomb the city and they had to leave. The whole city was emptied and the only inhabitants for 4 years were the Khmer Rouge soldiers, officials and prisoners at S21.

Our guide Luan explained how prisoners (to begin with these were the educated members of society but later also anyone considered to be a traitor or lazy) were imprisoned for approx 3 months during which time they were tortured and made to sign confessions. Within 6 months they would be murdered and buried at the Choueng Ek killing fields a few Km outside of the city. The same was happening in many other prisons throughout the country.

Luan lost family members as did many people we have met. In total around 25% of the population were either murdered or starved to death during this period which equates to around 1.5 million people.

We've read some accounts written by survivors of this period whilst in Cambodia and although there is still a huge amount of poverty it is humbling how hard most people you meet work just to get by and how much they want the chance to improve their lives.

General prisoners were kept in cells that measured 1.8 metres by 0.7 metres, basically a cupboard. The larger cell above was for Khmer Rouge officials some of whom were also accused as traitors and tortured then murdered.

These photo's were incredibly sad, many faces looked resigned to their fate.

This is the monument to the murdered at the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre, one of the many killing fields in Cambodia.

Some of the exhumed bones are in the memorial and others have been given a Buddhist funeral.

The area was cleared of all large bones but teeth, fragments of bone and clothing are washed to the surface every rainy season.

For us visiting these places and finding out what these people went through a little over 40 years ago was worthwhile, other people we have met felt it was too harrowing and they knew enough and that's understandable.

The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was spent visiting the Royal Palace, museums and enjoying the city.

These are water lily seed heads, a healthy snack in it's own handy container. We spent several enjoyable evenings with (from the front) John and Kelly who you've met in previous blogs and Merijn and Els who are on the road for a year riding from Amsterdam to Australia. At the back are Lisa and Simon hardened world motorcycle travellers, they're Brits who have been on the road for 8 years (with no plans to go home yet).

Bye for now

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