C'est toi que j'aime: Kingdom of Cambodia

I just came back from a wonderful trip in Cambodia for 4D/3N. Its DT28's regional tour. Everything was good except the weather. The temperature was 40 degrees!! Really humid..

90% of the Cambodians are Buddhist and 80% are farmers. Food was ok. They sent us to chinese restaurants for meals. Cambodia is quite a poor country. Beggers and children are seen everywhere trying to sell fruits or books or begging for money. They followed us everywhere we go until the bus. Scary!

31st March 2009

We arrived at Phnom Penh at 4pm (Cambodia time). Mr Rith, our Phnom Penh guide picked us from the airport and headed down to the orphanage. This was not in the itinerary, it was required by the college to go and do some social services. The children were picked up from the dumpsite and put in this school for education provided by the French. They speak good French, ours kalah laaaa..paiseh! Haha.

After visiting the orphanage and giving them gifts, we headed for dinner and then to the hotel. We arranged a suprise party for Sin Sien and Hannah. Told them that I called for a meeting. Sialan this people. Use my name! Haha..All 23 of us including my lecturer, Mr Timo cramped into a small room. Singing and then the guys started the drinking session. All those who dont drink also had to. Sorry girls. I had quite a lot of whisky that night. Tried to hide myself, but could not get away. Haha. After that i went to bed.

1st April 2009

Woke up at 6.30am and left hotel at 8am. We headed down to Phnom Penh town. Visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.

Then after that, we went to Toul Sleng, the Genocide Musuem. This used to be a prison used during the Khmer Rouge, it was renamed S21. Victims were captured to be tortured here. There were about 14,000 prisoners including men, women, children and only 7 survived. Its really crazy and depressing being in there. The tour guide explained that the victims have to choose their own tortures everyday, such as pulling their fingernails and so on. EVERYDAY! My goodness. Look at the rules they have.

There are 4 blocks. Block A are the cells. They are bigger and locked. There were pics hanging on the wall of the victim when they died. Blood stains were still there on the ceiling. I felt so sick.

Block B was all the pics of the victims. All 14000 of them. Looking at pics of the children really hurts.

Block C was another block of cells made by bricks or wood. Electric wires were hanging ouside the block so that they would not commit suicide.

Block D was filled with equipments that was used to torture the victims. Its super crazy. We all came out from that place without a word. It was so depressing.

After that, we head for lunch and then continue a 6hours drive down to Siem Rep. The road was really bumpy. We stopped at some stalls on the way and a group of kids came to us. "Handsome, buy some mangoes from me. Maybe Later? Remember me..." "Jie jie, ni hen piao liang." The tone was really funny. My classmates only remembers this and keep repeating this throughtout the trip. We arrived Siem Rep at 8pm. Went for dinner and then to the hotel.

2nd April 2009

Again left the hotel at 8am and headed to Bayon Temple. It was really beautiful. Studying the architecture.

South Gate

Ta Phrom Temple.

The 3 Buddha's face.

After lunch, we went to Tonle Sap, the floating village. The water was really dirty.

Highlight of the trip - Angkor Wat! Its so beautiful and big. Sadly, we only can spend about 45 minutes there. We were running out of time. Suppose to be in Bakheng Hill for sunset but it was closed by the time we arrived.