Oh The Humidity!

Sour sdai (same word as last post, just different spelling)

Of our tour group I am the last one standing in Cambodia. Everyone else has flown out and I am once again travelling on my own.

Lets see, what's happened since my last post...?

Well we crossed the border from Vietnam into Cambodia and you can really feel the difference between the two countries - the humidity is a killer.

It takes time for a group of people to exit and enter a country. While leaving Vietnam we (the tour group) were waiting behind the exit gate for everyone to get their passports stamped and I guess we were in the way because one border official walked by and told us earnestly to "please, get out!" while waving his arm at the door.

I fucking love Vietnam!

And I'm not sure whether it's psychological or not but I swear once we walked over into Cambodia the air was about 50% more humid and the people 50% more friendly.

It took most of the day to reach Phnom Penh and the first stop was the hotel pool. It must almost be a law around here that all hotels must have at least one pool - this one had two.

First stop!

Our first day was a sombre one. We visited S21 in the morning and there was an option to visit a killing field in the arvo. I went to S21 but opted to go back to the hotel after that. I saw a killing field the last time I was in Cambodia and it's not something I'll ever forget. Neither is S21. For those who don't know, it used to be a high school before the Khmer Rouge turned it in to a prison.

For those who don't know about the Khmer Rouge I really urge you to research it.

Please do, it's a horrible peice of recent history but that's why it's so important.

There is no one in Cambodia that has not been affected by the Khmer Rouge or the absolute fuck nuttery that was Pol Pots.

I have no desire to talk about my experiences of S21 or the killing fields here but I will share some thoughts.

I saw a couple people at the prison taking photos of themselves standing in front of the tombs of the 14 people who were killed the day S21 was liberated, and of the awful fucking buildings where awful fucking things happened, and these same people walked straight passed the three remaining survivors of the prison as if they didn't exist.

That is fucking disgusting to me and I can't wrap my head around that. They survived unimaginable horrors! Show respect, fuck ya!

And are you going to show people those photos??

"Oh look here's me standing in front of a bunch of tombs like an absolute twat!"

"Here's me standing in the room where people were strapped to this bed right here and tortured. Aren't I so awesome I visited this genocide museum and posed like a fucking Rambo wannabe in this room? I would've fucked Pol Pots up if I had been here!"

Ugh!

And just to be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking photos of these areas if done respectfully. But those guys... yeah, nah not ok in my books.

But that's my rant over. On to nicer things.

That night we had a sunset cruise and amazing Cambodian dinner.

My favourite part of the cruise was the small boat of local men cruising on by drinking beers and waving and then playing My Heart Will Go On from Titanic 😂

Sunset Realness

The next day we jumped back on the bus and drove to Siem Reap. On the way we stopped by an insect market where you can buy tasty crickets, scorpions, grasshoppers, cockroaches, frogs, cocoons, and deep fried spiders! Fucking big deep fried spiders!

Only one person actually ate the spider. She's the ultimate fearless queen in my books.

Oh and you can even hold a spider.

A really fucking big, very much alive spider!

Those who know me know I would've shat me dacks. And shat me dacks I did!

But I did hold one and it wasn't too bad holding it... looking at it on the other hand... yeah I had to change my undies for sure!

Much needed puppy therapy

We spent a whole day exploring the temples Angkor Watt, Angkor Thom and the temple from Tomb Raider (I'll Google the name soon).

I had been before but I was still keen to go back. I'm so glad I did. They really are beautiful and impressive and our guide was just about the most adorable man I think I've met.

Me and Bonty's ticket to the temples

Favourite statue

Enjoying the view

Loving the rain

And I don't want to dwell on goodbyes and farewells so I'll just say that this trip was so amazing and our tour leader Tuan was hands down the most champ of champ blokes!

We got him a gift, a nice shirt that I tried on because we are roughly the same size, and a nice hat that my roomie embroidered with a kangaroo and kiwi to represent all of us. She embroidered it while travelling on the bus between Ho Chi Min City and Phnom Penh, and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The girl defs got some skills!

So anyways, after the tour I booked myself in to an amazing 5 star hotel and now I don't want to leave. I've never stayed anywhere so nice with staff so friendly.

I'm spewing I've booked flights for Laos on Tuesday, would love to stay an extra week.

Not just to pamper myself but so I could do more things like going to the Phare Circus. Definitely go see this circus if you make it to Siem Reap. It was amazing. The things they do just should not be possible. There were a few times I stopped breathing because I couldn't believe they were doing the things they were doing.

Fun at the circus

And because I know this might stress out a few people I'm going to add that up until a couple days ago I had no plans, nothing booked for the next leg of my trip. So I decided to sign up for a volunteer program at a wildlife conservation in Laos starting 6 November. Which means I needed to get my visa asap, as well as flights and hotels. I wasn't sure the visa would be approved on time (if at all) but I still booked flights for the 1st November. Luckily it came through yesterday, as well as my acceptance to the volunteer program! So yeah, in two days I'll be going to Laos baby!!

Can. Not. Wait!

See you in Laos bitches!!

*I googled and it's called the temple of Ta Prohm!