Kampot

Writing now from the US! Feels great to be home.

We have only a couple more posts left to do. Kampot is a small city in southeastern Cambodia, close to the water. We relaxed here at our riverside bungalow for a few days, reading and hanging out. We rented a motorbike to cruise around the countryside too.

This is a truck full of ducks.

Cambodia lumber yard, complete with bamboo and pre-thatched roofs. 

Nearby salt fields

Matt confirmed it was in fact salt.

Piles and piles of salt; snagged a picture through a little hole.

Come back Matt!

Loving Matt's new sunnies.

Bakor (I think) National Park. Looks like Cali!

Obligatory giant Buddha on the mountain top.

Silliness & exploring in the woods and at a dry waterfall.

Next we headed to Siem Reap and the famed Angkor Wat ruins.

xx 

Back to the Beaches

Our share taxi journey from Phnom Phen to Sihanoukville was possibly the most entertaining local transport to date. We were fit into a '99 Toyota Camry with 5 other people. That's 4 in the back and 3 in the front - including 2 in the drivers seat. That's right. The one on his phone is driving.

We found this both hilarious and impressive.. We switched to a different taxi halfway, and this man got 8 people into his Camry. 4 in back, 4 in front. Wild.

After a quick boat ride we arrived in quiet Koh Rong Samloem. This beautiful island was also quite strange as it consists of only resorts- there was no Cambodian village on this part of the island, so there's no Cambodian culture. This gives it sort of an artificial feeling, and it's quite expensive, but we had a good time.

The most expensive room we've had all trip.. $30/night

The plus side of having only resorts and most of them pretty new, is that the designs were great. There were tons of swings and treehouses to hang out on.

We spent most of our time at Lazy Beach (a 40 minute walk thru the jungle) hanging with some Polish friends we met in Laos. We all went for a night swim and found phosphorescent plankton, which we have encountered throughout the Thai islands, but this time it was crazy bright! Hard to explain and even harder to photograph, but here is a shot from online to give you an idea. When you swim, it seems like your arms and legs are on fire..

Fishing village on the other side of the island.

We moved on next to Koh Rong, the 'backpacker party island'. We stayed only a couple nights. Spent time with a friend from Belgium we also met in Laos, hung on the beach, & found some boulders to play on before heading back to the mainland.

For Trainor:

That's the emerald green ocean in the background!

Next stop Kampot.

 ONEWEEKTILWERESTATESIDE

xx ELM & MR.P

Phnom Phen

We arrived late at night in the Cambodian capitol city. We spent a day exploring the bustling central market and walking the streets here. It took nearly the whole day for us to get any of the local currency, because US dollars are widely used here. The ATMs dispense dollars (at least to foreign cards) and even prices quoted in Riel can be paid for in dollars, with Riel given in place of coins. We haven't heard any reason for this, except that the conversion is an easy 4,000 Riel to $1. In any case it's strange to be thinking in dollars again..

We spent the morning at Tuol Sleng, the former prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. It is now converted into a genocide museum, and makes for a powerful, emotional and eye opening several hours. 

**DISCLAIMER: The rest of this post is about the museum and the horrors that the Cambodian people experienced only 35 years ago. Many of the pictures are disturbing.**

I won't go into all the details here, you should look it up if you're interested. Simply put, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Phen in 1975 to the cheers of local people who thought it was an end to the constant warfare in Cambodia. Instead, Pol Pot attempted to create a 'utopian communist society.' For four years, he and his troops systematically killed any educated persons in the country- especially government workers, soldiers, teachers, doctors, & lawyers. 

Up to two million Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and probably more if you count those who died of starvation or forced labor in poor conditions. 

Tuol Sleng was a school that was turned into a prison in which innocent people were tortured and made to give false confessions before being killed. Eerily reminiscent of Orwell's 1984... Around 20,000 people died in this place. There were 7 survivors when the Vietnamese came and ended the madness. Two of them were at the museum when we were there, sitting with the books they had written. That's one of the craziest parts to think about- that anyone over 45 in Cambodia, remembers this. It's incredible that they are still a happy and helpful people.

Mug shots taken of prisoners as they arrived.

Some of the buildings were left as they were then, below are the tiny cells people were kept in. We were shocked at how it was. There was even blood on the floor in some places. It's a reminder of how recently this atrocity took place.

A torture room.

These last few pictures are especially rough to look at. 

Mass graves at the 'killing fields'

Although it was easily the most emotional and terrible thing we've seen on this trip, Matt and I were both really glad to have experienced this museum. It was well done. There are even more details to this crazy story that Arent included here, but as they say knowledge is power, and we thought it was important to share this experience. 

More soon. 

xx ELM

1 of 4,000 Islands

We spent four days in the 4,000 Islands area, only about 25 minutes from the Cambodian border. Our island was called Don Dhet. There are a handful of islands big enough to have accomodation, this was one of the smaller ones. We spent the days lazing about on the beach with some new friends, swinging in our hammocks, swimming and soaking in the nightly sunset over the river.

Our first sunset was a warm welcome to Don Dhet

Laundry day and hammocks

Shots from the one beach on the island & a ferry boat for motorbikes top left..

Fishing just before sunset.

They throw big circular nets with weights on the outside. Photo credit to Matty for this well timed shot.

On our last day, we got one tube between us and paddled out to this cool tree.

Silly jumps

Sunset on the last night.

We left this morning (Sunday) for Cambodia. After a whole mess of scams and full on shenanigans, we are safely in the country. By getting our visas ahead of time & having a bit of luck, we got through only giving up an extra $3 instead of an extra $10 at one of the most notoriously corrupt border crossings in Southeast Asia. Small victory. We are currently in Phnom Phen safe and sound, and heading to the islands tomorrow. 

WE FLY HOME IN TWO WEEKS!!!

xx ELM