Cambodia, Day 1 - Getting in

I suppose for people of my age (44) Cambodia means the country that suffered terrible starvation when i was growing up and was all over the news for that reason alone, where Vietnam was the place the Americans fought, I am now begining to understand much more about both these wonderful countries.

We left the hotel at 6:30am sharp, travelled 15 mins on the coach and boarded a small (but very fast) boat, which would take us through the Vietnam boarder control and on to the Cambodia passport control and on to our first port of call in Cambodia.

The Vietnam passport control was a nice little place, money could be exchanged and food bought, Cambodia was what you might call poorer and full of military who were as corrupt as they come if your visa isn't perfect!!

Passport control shed

Our first beer in Cambodia thanks to Paul Briddon

Once we arrived in to the port of Phnom Penh, we were quickly transfered to our hotel, the Goldiana Hotel, which is very nice and my room mate and i have a great room, 30 mins for a quick freshen up, then it was down to sort the bikes out ready for tomorrow, before being wipped off in the coach to S21 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the prison used for torture 17000 people (only 7 known survivors) during the genocide and finally the killing fields where the tortured were taken to be murdered by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot

I really can't put in to words how seeing what i'm about to show you made me feel, other than;

"How can one human being, do this to another human being"

So as a mark of respect to the thousands that were brutally tortured and murdered, this blog now becomes a silent blog, the pictures tell the story...................