It's a holiday in Cambodia! A week into it but can't say it's been all lovely. Phnom Penh turned out to be just a place to visit if your intrested in the Khmer Rouge regime and the horrific genocide it commited. Killing fields and the S-21 are probably the main attractions of the town, with the shooting range of course.
The Killing Fields the of hundreds of cambodian civilians that perished during the Khmer Rouge rule. There are to mass graves that have been dug up and some say there probably are more beyond the small pond on the far side of the site. A pagoda full of skulls stands as a memorial of the events that occured there. Im not sure what was eerier - the khmer wedding music echoing just outside of the site or the two kids chanting their begging mantra on me. How dare some people put their kids to beg into these kind of places. The S-21 was more of a torture/interrigation office than a mass grave but gave me the chills none the less. The pictures of people executed and tortured just make you think what can human beign endure and have to suffer. A few people had written messages on the walls of the prison cells asking questions of mans inhumanity and looking at it really makes anybody want to cry.
A part from that the city really doesnt have much to offer. It's just one of those noisy, dirty, big asian capitals. This gave the tag team Sas-T a good excuse to bail out and head for the coast in hope to get some sunshine (It's been raining here every day). So we close our eyes and pic a point on the map - KAMPOT IT IS BABY YEAH! In reality its a small river town near the coast of Cambodia with not much to offer in itself but once you get the motorbike out and cruise the coast your rollin'. 4 hours on a bus turns out to be 6 hours - nothing new in Asia I would say - and we arrive there. After being harassed to death by touts and nice dinner we go to bed and get ready for a nice bike ride.
First thing we run for the coast to see the old abandoned colonial town of Kep. A big french resort in the 70's now only has concrete outer walls left of the once mighty hotels that stood there. The place was invaded when the Khmer Rouge took power and was probably burned down after the Vietnamese "released" from the evil grip. This probably has more appeal in the sunny season and for now it still has some of that local charm left although major tourist attractions have started to pop up here and there.
On the way back we stopped at a local fisherman village to take some pictures of the kids and pigs. Together they are almost as photogenic as me although Sas thinks I look more like a pig. Those hogs were huge and in true pig manner they were eating anything that came near their mouth. As the evening sun began to descent we took the opportunity to use the closest thing Cambodia has to a freeway in the country. The road between Kampot and Sihanouk Vill is by far one of the smoothest roads I've been on in SE and we decided to go check out the Bokor National Park/Hill station entry point not far from town. Apparently they have some illegal tree cutting going on those deep forest as they didnt want anybody to enter the park. Then again maybe our bike was not ment for that muddy road.
On a sidenote I would like to mention that I will start to write this blog only once a month soon so dont expect any fast updates. Photos will still be uploaded.
More photos on:
picasaweb.google.com/timo.laaksonen
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