Pol Pot, what a shit.

As we are all aware, Travelling The World (tm) can offer many experiences, a whole shmorgessboard (Dunno what it means but i just really wanted to get that in there) of experiences that invoke many different emotions. Since i last posted - sadly - the emotions we have been going through have been ones of horror, pain and sadness, mixed with debilitating happiness, the kind of sudden joy that makes your heart race and your bowels loosen...

Where i left off in my last post, we had just arrived in the wonderful world of Cambodia. After the dusty poverty of Laos, then the crazy stink of Vietnam, i wondered where Cambodia would fit between these two environments, and as wonderful as the palce was, im gonna shove it right down there with extreme dusty poverty. I dont really know why i'm pointing this out, as i dont think its much of a suprise, or a bad thing either, its just what this wonderful little country was like. And unfortunately, when your HOT and ILL, sanitized wealthiness would have been a much more pleasant existence. So, we got to Cambodia with no trouble through the border crossing apart from the EXTREME lengths of waiting around. Another of my observances of Asia (Not ALL of Asia, but definatly Vitenam and Cambodia) is that organisation is a skill that is really missing. We went to the post office in Hoi An in Vietnam, and a normal Post Office has a queue, but this queue in this post office was more like a riot. There were about 20 little women, all chattering away and scurrying around behind the counter, and not ONE of them seemed to know what the other was doing or saying. I was in a gang of about 20 westerners all trying to post a simple little parcel home, and the process was agonising. You would stand there for about 20 minutes trying to get someones attention, then all of a sudden you would feel a tugging and beneath you, one of these little women would be grabbing at your parcel, screeching in Vietnamese. Then they would take it behind the counter, whizzing away like they were on wheels, and they would plonk it down and start making boxes to put your stuff in whilst throwing about 10 forms at you to fill in. Upon filling in these forms, you will then notice that said little woman has abandoned your parcel, leaving the contents strewn across floor and counter, only to be screeching at some other poor westerner, grasping at their beloved items like Fagin on speed. You know the film The Labyrinth? When the main girl finds her bedroom and all the Goblins have made it a mess and theyre eating and throwing her stuff around? Pretty much the same as a Vietnamese post office. ANYWAY, my connection to this random rant is that upon entering Cambodia, we had to wait to cross the border and having our Visas checked. A normal border crossing, like immigration at an airport would require yourself to line up, reach the counter, hand over passport, smile and enter tyheir country. but not between Vietnam and Cambodia, oh no. You had to line up with your HUGE amounts of luggage, stand around long enough so the 'line' you're in becomes a blob, then throw your passport at passing men in blue uniforms, who would then give them to a fat man in a booth about a mile away. This fat man then sits there, all day, making his way through about 600 passports (whilst eating a drinking constantly) and just mutters your name. I mean he literally whispers it. And you are meant to listen out for your name half way down a hall the size of a football pitch. Its crazy business i tell you. On the bus we took to cross the border, we sat next to a strange Swedish man in a fluorescent cap and DREADFUL shell suit trousers. He couldnt be bothered with handing over his passport, and we lost him as we entered the hall. It wasn't until we climbed back on the bus 2 hours later that we found him again, CRAWLING out of the (hideous) bathroom on the bus where he had been hiding for the whole exchange! So there ya go, cant be bothered with immigration? Pretend you're doing a shit. Maybe not a a bus toilet though. This man looked like he had been caught on fire then flushed down the bog, god it stunk in there. Horrors of horros he must have endured.

Anyway, Phnom Penh, capitol of Cambodia was a wonderful place. Rather similar to the cities of Vietnam with the crazy traffic and incessant beeping, but the people were nicer and the place was ALOT more dusty. And my GOD, the smells. I swear Cambodians must have no sense of smell, rotten egg city. So we arrived at our guesthouse, in backpackerville, then set out for some yummy food. It was SO good. Tapas. LISH. The next morning, we arose nice and early for we only had a day to cram in the important stuff. In order to make it to the Full Moon Party, we decided to sacrifice time, and cram all of Cambodia into four days, including travelling, so upon leaving Saigon, we had well and truly prepared ourselves for the onslaught of travelling and sight seeing we would endure over the next week. Sadly, it turned out, our bodies just couldnt handle it. Our day of sightseeing was going to be a sad one. Cambodia has a terrible past, filled with awful things. As we were all a bit ignorant of this, it was only fair we learnt about it all. Pol Pot = Nasty Son of a Bitch basically. Even though his regime he set up was abolished nearly 40 years ago, its still pretty obvious on the landscape and on the people. Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) was our first stop, a highschool converted into a concentration camp during the Khmer Rouge regime. Not fun. Check out the photos on Flickr. Next were the Killing Fields, they pretty much explain themselves. As this is a light hearted look at my travelling, i'll happily (or not) chat more about these places if you want to know, but lets just say, its all pretty awful and hard to deal with - once you have seen a five story building filled to the roof with human skulls of every age, there isnt much nice stuff to write about. So much so in fact that poor Hanif, our travelling buddy, couldnt handle it by the time we reached the killing fields. A mixture of exhaustion, extreme emotion, weed and perhaps a bad egg caused him to be violently sick upon our arrival. Our tuk tuk driver, an amazing man named Choi (i think) rushed over straight away and looked after Hanif. The speed, gentleness and absolute concern this guy showed for Hanif was so sweet, that after he had massaged, oiled and cleaned him up from being sick, Hanif was moved to tears by this guy. We loved him. He was our little guy in his little green hat who followed us everywhere we went. This is a good placeto point out that, the people of Cambodia, are THE NICEST most wonderful people i have met so far. I dont know whether this is a result of what they went through in the 70's, but for whatever reason, they could not have been lovelier. This guy was always there waiting for us when we came out of our guesthouse, never annoying, and never trying to rip us off. Just a lovely little chap. Anyway, after the illness of the morning, we all went back and put poor Hanif to bed, he was so ill. The next night and morning were quiet ones as we waited for Hanif to get his health back for us to get on our second 6 hour bus journey to Siem Reap in North Cambodia. We got on the bus at 1, then zoomed all the way there, the whole time with one eye on hanif making sure he wouldnt puke. Luckily the Cambodian girl next to him had taken a liking to the guy and spent the entire trip cuddling him and rubbing his belly. Weird? Perhaps. Sweet? Absolutely. Once in Siem Reap, we found our next little fella to look after us, with perfect English, Fuu would be our next guide in Cambodia, running us everywhere and calling us 'Mate' in a strange cockney/ozzy accent. We all passed out and prepared ourselves for our 6am rise to go explore the Ancient temples of Angkor Wat. I wont say much about these, i'll let the photos and videos do the talking, but my god they were incredible. Sadly though, the weather was not. Upon exiting our hotel in the early hours, the temperatures were already soaring into 30c, so by early afternoon when we had reached our third temple, it was way into the 40s, and i was WAY into passing out. My GOD i have never, ever, EVER been so hot. People were actually STARING at me. My shirt was drenched, clinging to my wobbly body. It just wasnt natural. It was shortly after this, that the boiling temps had begun to cook my insides, and my stomach begun removing itself from my body through my bottom. Every ten minutes. With a tuk tuk ride in between each toilet. It was NOT pleasant. By late afternoon, i was so dehydrated from losing all the water from my skin and bot bot that i couldnt even take two steps without being out of breath. As for lifting my camera, this was becoming impossible to even lift. I had to bail by early evening, limping my way to the tuk tuk past the glorious Angor Wat, i crawled to the nearest kiosk like those survivers you imagine stuck in the desert "Waaaater.....waaaterrrrr" I bought THREE litre bottles. ONe for my face, one for my body and one for my belly. By this point i had a huge red scarf wrapped round my head and looked like a freak. We finally managed to get back to the guesthouse where i passed out with a huge fever and sleeping in a bed covered in wet towels. Heat Exhaustion is not fun. Neither was the next day. 6am we arose, myself still shivering with fever badness, we boarded our 6 hour bus journey back to Phnom Penh, where we then boarded an hour train to Bangkok, then waited two hours for another flight to Phuket, where we then drove for an hour to a guesthouse where we arrived at 2 in the morning. We were all OFFICIALLY beat. We passed out, then arose at 6 am once again, for a 6 hour journey to Surat Thani for our ferry to land of Full Moon, Koh Phangan. Oh and our bus journey had NO air conditioning. I felt the shivers beginning again. But finally, FINALLY, we made it, and here i am, sitting in our resort, after the horror of the Full Moon Party. But as ive been rambling for an age once again, you will have to wait until the next post for the sights we witnessed at a Full Moon Bash. And MY GOD, what sights we did see. When i look back at that night, i am reminded of yet another film, starring the pleasant Sam Neil, Event Horizon. Upon opening a gateway to a hell demention, a blinded, demonic Sam Neil utters the sentence "Your eyes? Oh, where we are going, you won't need eyes." Sadly, i still had mine, and they were put to good use indeed.

Check out flickr, as some new pics are up for you to gawp at, as well as Vimeo (link on the left) for some videos i have FINALLY uploaded.

Cheerio!
xx