Using Blogger now instead of the WallInside site I was using because that's apparently full of spyware and horrible stuff like that! So welcome to my new blog, I'll just start by copying in all my old posts.
Hi everyone!
Thought I'd create a blog to keep people updated about my travels! Easier than facebooking/emailing everyone! Have been in Cambodia now for a week, of which there's definitely been ups and downs! Arrived all fine after a very tiring but uneventful journey including flying from Manchester-Singapore (via a 2-hour stop in Munich), waiting in Singapore airport for about 8 hours (where most of you will probably have seen/liked my status about how amazing it is!) then another 2 hours from Singapore to Phnom Penh, where I had to wait around at passport control etc. for about 30 minutes before I even got my visa. Luckily I'd managed to email my hostel using the FREE internet at Singapore airport to arrange an airport pickup, so there was a taxi waiting for me there!
Got to the hostel after a long 30 minutes or so in the taxi, which only cost me around US$10. But thankfully the hostel (Velkcommen Backpackers) was nice and I managed to just dump my stuff, go for a really nice meal (a crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo platter with whiskey sauce and chips) and just pass out for over 13 hours, which then sorted out any jetlag! I then explored Phnom Penh on the Saturday, which proved to be just as tiring as the journey, but at least more interesting! I first walked from my hostel over towards the Independence Monument and was hoping to get there, see that and wander over to the Royal Palace, via some food, for about the time it re-opened for the day at 2pm. But I got stopped about halfway by a random tuk-tuk driver who claimed to recognise me because he'd been outside my hostel that morning or something (I'm not entirely sure, I was still getting used to the Cambodian version of speaking English, which basically involves missing out the middle of every word and hoping people get the jist of it!) who said I was better going to the killing fields first, then he'd drop me back at the genocide museum and I could then walk over and see the Independence Monument and the Royal Palace.
So I got to the killing fields, which is a mass grave where Cambodians were detained and soon killed during the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol. Pot, while my friend the tuk tuk driver (who kept saying how alike we were because I had no mama or papa, just like him...) waited outside. The killing fields were amazing and interesting (and obviously devastating), basically going into every gruesome detail in a very well done audio tour about the whole way in which about 20,000 people were brutally killed by their own people during a period in which over a quarter of the entire population was killed during a period barely more than 3 years! The main monument to them all there was also a tall building with large glass windows from which 1000s of the people's skulls faced out at you! It took about an hour to walk around and was worth far, far more than the $5 I paid for it and my friend was waiting there to take me back to the museum about it all in the main town as agreed (probably because we agreed I'd pay him the $20 when he dropped me off again!)
The genocide museum was slightly less interesting to be honest, although still educational and moving. The group of buildings used to be a school in the pre-Khmer Rouge days, until they abandoned the silly notion of schools and converted it to a prison in which they could torture people until they confessed to false crimes, usually spying for the CIA or KGB, so they could then be transported to the killing fields and bludgeoned to death along with their other innocent countrymen! I then walked over to the independence monument, which was all covered in scaffolding and nothing to see while they cleaned it (I think.) I was also extremely hungry by this time and didn't have much time until the royal palace was due to close at 5pm, so I rushed over there (by which point I was horribly sweaty, all this having taken place in 30 degree heat and probably near 100% humidity!), but couldn't actually work out where the main entrance was, so I just walked all the way round and admired the bits I could see from the outside! I'm hoping to have some time to see it when I'm back in Phnom Penh and overstaying my visa for a day (which I am assured is only a $5 charge!) before my flight to Sydney on the 30th. I then had a meal near the palace, having to leave my nice camera with them while I walked down the road to find a cash machine after I'd eaten because I'd forgotten how many places don't accept either Visa or Mastercard out here!!
So, in all, a very tiring first day in Cambodia! But I had a nap when I got back to the hostel and went out for a meal and some drinks with the manager there, having a very enjoyable Asian hotpot and trying frog for the first time! Getting up in the morning though was a massive struggle, although thankfully my coach down to Sihanoukville wasn't until 12pm, and I soon realised it was more than a hangover when I started feeling light-headed and sick! I was strongly considering staying in Phnom Penh for another night and making my way down to the project the next day, but I manned up and got on the horrible, sweaty bus anyway, which then insisted on playing Cambodian karaoke/"comedy" TV and hooting excessively loudly and agressively whenever we were trying to pass anyone on the road (i.e. every 30 seconds or so). Despite the bus ride from hell and a less-than-enjoyable night in Big John's hostel (not so much for the place, although it wasn't inspiring) mostly because I felt sick and dizzy whenever I moved and couldn't sleep on my back because my kidneys hurt too much. In the end, I was glad I manned up because when I finally got down to the port, met some of the other volunteers/interns/co-ordinators and got the supply boat over to Koh Rong island, I realised they're actually just once every few days or so, so it wouldn't have been too easy to just stay an extra night and make my own way down!
But I got to the project fine, although still feeling a little light headed and sick, but nothing I decided a heavy night of drinking couldn't cure! So I joined everyone at the 'bar' (i.e. one of the locals selling a few beers/whiskeys for 15 cents per can of beer from his front porch on the pier) after inspecting the living quarters and eating some food, surprisingly including rice, which comes with breakfast, lunch and tea out there! But we went out and got to know all the other volunteers etc., old and new and had a good night in which I would say I was maybe on the drunk side of tipsy, but certainly no more than that. But when I woke up in the morning, I again realised it was far more than just a normal hangover and proceeded to throw up several times, drink some water, throw it back up and go back to bed for a few hours; kinda missing the first morning of my project, but it was monsooning all over the place, so no one could really do anything anyway! My explanation for my extreme reaction to getting drunk both those times is because of my malaria tablets, in which most of my symptoms are described as side effects, although it doesn't say anything about mixing with alcohol! I also then spent a couple of days to fully recover from that episode too!
But the project has been amazing so far and I would tell you all about it, except I'm starving and want to get back to the hostel to go get something to eat with the other volunteers I've come over to the mainland with for the weekend! So you'll have to wait for the next installment, which will probably be in about 3 weeks when I leave the project!
Thanks for reading, hope it wasn't too boring, but I never know much or how little detail to include in these things!
Lots of love, Andy. xx
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