We took a bus from HCMC, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which took about 7 hours. At our first bathroom/rest stop on the Cambodian side you could definitely see the difference between the two countries. There were tons of children outside the bus banging on the windows and begging, it was heartbreaking. Traveling through the Cambodian countryside there was lots of green lush vegetation…it was very tropical and beautiful.

We arrived late in the evening & jumped in a tuk-tuk (Cambodian-style consist of a motorcycle with a cabin for the passengers hitched to the back) for what should’ve been a short ride from the bus station into town. We stopped at an ATM along the way & I was so surprised when it dispensed cash in American dollars! Our tuk-tuk driver kept wanting to take us to hotels he recommended (he must get commission if we stay there) but after checking out a couple of the places we decided to go with one recommended by the guidebook. By this time it was near 9pm and we were starving after being stuck on a bus all day. We dropped our bags & set out along the riverfront to find something to eat…after a good meal (which you pay for in American dollars) we were exhausted & returned to the room. Just as we were getting ready for bed in the bathroom between the sink and the toilet was a huge spider! And I mean huge! Spiders do not get this big in California! This thing was way too big, we ran out of the bathroom freaking out, there was no way we could kill it. We went downstairs to wake up the guy sleeping/guarding the front door. He followed us up the stairs, went in the bathroom, shut the door and made a ton of noise (did he have to battle the thing?) before finally killing it & flushing it down the toilet. What is it with us & spiders? Luckily we have not had too many close encounters since the two huge ones in Australia. Needless to say neither of us got much sleep that night and to top it off the hotel started construction work bright & early the next morning in the room above us and two maids were talking outside our door at 7:00am. We decided we needed to switch guesthouses.

After we moved guesthouses we hired a tuk-tuk and set out to visit the Choeung Ek Killing Fields which is about a 20 minute ride out of town. We passed many villages and some beautiful scenery on the dusty road along the way. The Killing Fields is one of the places the Khmer Rouge executed many thousands of people during their four-year reign of terror from 1975-1979.  Mass graves containing almost 9,000 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek. The glass stupa holds over 5,000 skulls that were excavated from these killing fields. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades, sharpened  sticks or the back of a rifle. It was really sad walking around this actually very beautiful area. You could feel the heaviness in the air from the terror that happened there not that long ago. So many innocent men, women and children died. How can people be so cruel? The Khmer Rouge committed acts of genocide, killing about 1.5 million people, about 1/4-1/5 of Cambodia’s population.

Needing some cheering up after we had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the river…it started raining, but then the sun came out and there was a beautiful rainbow over the river.

Phnom Penh, is the capital of Cambodia and home to The Royal Palace where the Royal family lives today. We toured the palace grounds which have two magnificent pagodas, the Silver Pagoda and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which were built in the 19th century with French technology and Cambodian designs, and have survived the traumas of the 20th century amazingly intact.

While in Phnom Penh we also met back up with Julianna (who we met on the train from Hanoi to Hoi An) and Leslie (a girl Julianna had met while traveling) for a fun girl’s night out! We danced the night away at The Lounge and Pontoon, a club on a boat in the river. We had so much fun!