Cambodia: Travelling from Phnom Penh to Mondulkiri

So after a dusty bus journey we arrived in Phnom Penh. The city surprised us by being quite run down, red dust is everywhere and the roads were alive with motorbikes, cars and tuk tuks. We headed to the backpackers area… a small road with numerous budget guesthouses and western restaurants. We checked into a 4$ room which had no aircon and no hot water, the bathroom door was falling off and we could barely stand in the small space of the room but it was clean so we stayed for 3 nights.

We spent our time learning more about the rule of the Khmer Rouge… they were in power from 1976 - 1979 during which time they forcefully implemented communist rule. Within a few days of coming into power the marched everyone (even those sick in hospital) into the countryside and forced them to farm for 12-14hours every day. Doctors, teachers and other professionals were killed if they admitted who they were and everyone suffered from hunger, many dying from starvation and exhaustion. The Khmer Rouge also began to kill members of their own party - anyone who was not fully Cambodian or any soldiers trained by the Vietnamese were murdered. These deaths resulted in the Killing Fields - an area of mass graves near to Phnom Pen. We also visited the S21 prison in the city , it used to be a school before the KR turned it into a torture and prison camp. The KR also stopped people from calling their parents mum and dad, they had to eat communally and were punished if they caught their own food and didn’t share it (a tough rule during a famine). Their aim was to have everyone worship the KR organisation. It was brutal and I can’t look at an older person without feeling sad about what he or she went through.

Before we knew it we were back on a bus heading south to Cambodia’s coast. We relaxed on Otres beach in Sinhoukville for three days… our bungalow had glass doors opening a few metres in front of the ocean. We soon headed to Rabbit Island which had a few more palm trees and even more rustic accommodation. We stayed in a bamboo hut and relaxed for another two days. After that we moved onto Kampot… ever heard of Kampot pepper? It’s produced in Cambodia, has been famous for its quality and has recently been granted the same status as champagne so that only pepper from Kampot can be labelled as Kampot pepper (it really is very good pepper!).
From Kampot we headed towards Siem Reap - we were surprised by how touristy the area was. Apparently 4 years ago there were only 4 bars, now there must be about 100! We enjoyed being able to walk around easily and do a bit of market shopping. We soon headed to the temples of Angkor. There are loads of beautifully decorated temples built between the 9th and 13th centuries. They are still quite intact and very beautiful. We enjoyed Angkor Wat at sunset and woke up at 4am the following day to get to Sra Sang for the sunrise. Surrounded by a smallish group of tourists and a whole lot of Cambodian kids calling “you buy bracelet, 5 for 1$, you buy bracelet” we watched the sunrise. We then did a fair bit of temple seeing… including the Tomb Raider one before heading back to our hotel to catch up on sleep. Check out the photos at www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2183506&id=60506421&l=6a0b8d066d

After Siem Reap we hopped on a bus to Kompong Cham. We were trying to get to the remote region of Mondulkiri to visit the Elephant Valley Project - an elephant rehabilitation centre for injured or ill elephants. The bus trip thee was an experience in itself. Because of the rain our bus was cancelled and we were instead pushed into a minivan. On a seat meant to take 3 people we fitted 4. I was pretty much on top of a Cambodian man while Rich was almost hanging off of his chair. We spent 7 hours like that. The best bit was when we got to the dirt road… it had already turned to thick sludge so we skidded part of the way before our driver stopped to put on mud chains. The rest of the journey had plenty of stops and starts because of the mud. We didn’t pass any villages and had to pee in the bushes (always keeping an eye out for landmines!). So we were quite relieved to get off the bus at the end of our day and slip and slide to our hotel and a hot shower.


The Elephant Valley Project was an amazing opportunity to get up close and personal to elephants. We fed them and washed them and walked through the jungle with them. You could tell when they were smiling and one elephant had such a cheeky personality... she kept digging her trunk into us in search of more bananas. It was a fantastic experience which we both loved. See the photos at www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2184035&id=60506421&l=d36d94e0ce

More to follow ASAP on the rest of our journey through Cambodia.

S&R. xxx