Day 4 - 25 October

After everything I said about yesterday it is hard to believe that there is another day that provided more shocks and challenges and confronting images, smells, sounds and experiences to assault my senses. It is the day that has stayed with me more than any other of my trip.

It could be that I was not prepared when I hopped in the tuk tuk from the guesthouse for the images which were to meet us. We arrived to see this scene. Yes the water is a sewer. This is the view from the balcony in the centre of the picture.

This was hard enough but then we walked into the dwellings. You could scarcely call them homes. I felt like a voyeur but couldn't help myself. I simply had to take photos of the children as I couldn't believe that parents raise children in this kind of environment. The little faces haunt me daily and I certainly would have taken half a dozen of them home to Australia if I could have done so.

We went from there to another slum village. Not easy to see but slightly better to look at than the sewer we had just seen (and smelt).

Day 3 - 24 October

A Sunday unlike any other. I must admit to being spiritually aware during the whole day, but not in a positive worshipful way that is encouraging, but in a shocking and confronting way which left me aware of the overwhelming evil capacity of the human heart. We spent the morning at the 'Killing Fields' followed by time at the S21 prison. The guy who guided us through the Killing Fields was so helpful and spoke such great English. It has always been fascinating to me to try to understand whatever could make someone kill off his own generation of his own race. What could possibly have motivated Pol Pot to do what he did. It was great to hear a Cambodian view of the Cambodian genocide.
I know it looks like a high school because actually it was. However there is a ghostly feel to the place which was Tuol Svay Prey High School, where Pol Pot rounded up the middle classes, and herded them into buses heading to Choeung Ek where they were killed on mass. It was fascinating to learn about Vann Nath, the only remaining detainee of S21 still living. His paintings line the walls of the museum and give very poignant images of the human cost of the Khmer Rouge era.
The day left each member of the team quiet and thoughtful and left a heaviness on the group.

Day 2 - 23 October

A relaxing breakfast before taking a walk through the streets. The overhead wires don't really pass Workplace Health and Safety. Rachel arrived earlier than we thought and she spent the morning sleeping off her trip from the UK. I took photos of the beautiful patterns of folded towels in the motel room. Too cute.

We headed to the airport at lunch time, ate a lunch from the eatery and checked in for our flight to Phonm Penh.




What a culture shock! Arriving in the Cambodian capital was an attack on every sense. I was overwhelmed by the heat, the dirt, the noise of horns beeping, the smells, the lack of hygiene, the decrepit look of the buildings and the poverty and beggars everywhere.There just don't seem to be footpaths or perhaps there are but there is so much junk on each footpath that you end up walking on the road, which is really dangerous.

Day 1 - 22 October

Brisbane to Brunei to Bangkok
Our late flight landed in Brunei early in the morning. We knew we had a 4 hour lay over at Brunei which sounded really boring, so we decided to take a transit tour. Simeon had taken the same trip a couple of years ago when he headed to Europe and I kn0w he enjoyed it.
My uncle had also been pilot for the Sultan so I was interested in seeing the unique culture.

We took the trip with a group of four older men and two young twenty-somethings. When I asked them why they were travelling to SE Asia, they looked at me sheepishly, um-ed and ah-ed before telling me that they were going for a 'lifestyle' holiday. It was obvious what they were going for, and since part of our trip was to observe the extent of prostitution in Cambodia and Thailand, I struggled to be polite to them.

The trip was enjoyable, most particularly the architecture of the mosques and temples, covered in gold and each one built to honour a particular sultan. The floating village was also fascinating.
I would love to have had longer to explore. There are houses, schools, markets etc all on stilts over the water. Because it is Friday, and it is weekend, children were attending the mosque for lessons.
They look so cute in their pink temple outfits.

The heat is oppressive and takes time to acclimatise. We flew to Bangkok and settled into our motel, had a nap and rested for the day as we had to wait for Rachel to arrive from the UK.