The Killing Fields and Motorbike accident all in one day....

Unfortunately this is also the city where i got hit by a car... I was on the back of a motorbike and a car reversed straight into my left leg! Ouch! Bloody killed and was a major shock even though it was one of those scenarios when you can see it happening but just pray that it doesn't, and that the car is going to stop just in time but no, it didn't. So that was our evening spent in a Cambodian hospital which i would not reccommend to anyone!!! Thank god Cindy was with me though (cheers hun!).

Of course no-one spoke a word of English until we got to eventually see the doc who spoke just enough to tell me he was worried by the lump that had come up on my leg and that i needed to have it x-rayed in case it was broken! Yikes! Now i'm scared. This was also while we were in the 'Accident & Emergency' Unit of a Cambodian Hospital so lots(!) of blood, and people in seriously bad conditions all around us. Also, having spent the day visiting the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek', which is the memorial ground for the thousands of people who were executed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1978, it was all just a bit too much and a little 'real' to be honest!

The nurse then made me hop(!!) half way across the hospital to the x-ray room where we waited for a while with all the locals sat there staring and laughing of course, Cindy (bless her!) then appeared with a wheelchair that she'd stolen, as she wasn't having me hobble all the way back again and there was no way i was going to be given anything by the docs/nurse, adn then continued to steel my x-rays as we were waiting for so long, before wheeling me back to the doc! X-rays came back all fine - no broken bones or anything just very bad bruising (and swelling) so just had to take it easy for a few days. Put a little delay on our movements but we still got to Vietnam at a not too later date....

Phnom Penh

Cambodia's capital, that sits on the edge of the Tonle Sap and Basaac Rivers, where all kinds of bugs imaginable are eaten as 'snacks'.... yum yum!!! Anyone for a cockroach!?! Or maybe you'd prefer a chicken foetus if insects aren't your cup of tea...! eeek! Couldn't quite believe my eyes when i saw it in front of me!!!
We arrived here on the 14th April having left Tom to continue driving around on his dirt-bike out in the hills of Sen Monorom. We spent nearly a week here pretty much being very classic tourists - bit of drinking and partying at night, then taking in some of the sights during the day. All done at a fairly leisurely pace... just as the guide book told us too! ;)

Sen Monorom in the Mondulkiri Province

After a few days in Ban Lung the 3 of us then headed south a little to the Mondulkiri Province where we continued to mess around on motorbikes along the red dirt tracks of Cambodia, sampled the local rice wine (an interesting one!), and stopped off in minority villages home to the Pnong minority where their homes were either built on stilts or very low straw huts (the name i have forgotten... again, oops!).

Waterfalls, lakes and the beautiful open countryside...!

We based ourselves in a small very rural and untouristy town (Ban Lung) where the locals hardly spoke a word of English, and you could buy fresh clams by the bucket load from the local market! (something i didn't partake in i'm afraid).

The best way to explore the countryside of Cambodia is by hiring motorbikes so this is just what we did...! Great fun riding along the red sand dirt tracks out across the hills visiting the unspoilt volcanic lakes and waterfalls as we went. We swung from the vines, 'like tarzan', under Ka Tieng waterfall, which our arms took a long time to recover from!! Then had power showers under Chaa Ong waterfall where we were swimming and diving off the rocks, visiting the local villages and getting covered from head to to in red sand!!!

Thank god Cindy and I had at least purchased a local Khmer scarf each that managed to just about stop us from actually eating the dirt! :)

Heading north-east of Cambodia...

After spending a few days in Siem Reap we then took a very bumpy and fairly untravelled route - heading east to the Ratanakiri province stopping off in a small town called Kratie along the way... Here we cycled through villages and past paddy fields to take a boat out to see some of the few remaining freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins.

The journey from Kratie to Ban Lung (Ratanakiri province) was an interesting one - 8 of us all squeezed into a toyota corola!!! No joke - 4 in the back, 2 in the passenger seat, and oh yes - the final 2 in the drivers seat!!!! How we ever made it in one piece we'll never know....! I guess just like we do everytime we get in a vehicle in Asia! hee hee! All good fun. Also, such a small world as one of the 8 was a guy we'd met briefly in Rajhastan (Tom from England), such a small world! So the 3 of travelled together for the next week or so which was cool.

The Angkor Wat

Of course, just like the Taj Mahal - you can't really visit Cambodia without taking a peak at the monumental Angkor Wat so here it is...! I have to admit, Cindy and i were a little templed out by this point but we still managed to just about appreciate the wonders of the Angkor temples. I think one of our favourites was Bayon though, which consists of 216 giant gargantuan faces adn was just an amazing one to walk around.

CAMBODIA.... my ideal country - everyone wears pyjamas all day every day!!! :)

Above is a picture taken in Siem Reap where we begun our travels around Cambodia. A classic scene on the streets of Cambodia - going off to work, shopping, a family day out, whatever, you can guarentee that they'll be wearing their pyjamas....!!! Something that completely boggled us the whole time we were in Cambodia, but also something i loved, and feel that i would fit in well in this country as i'd certainly live in my pyjamas if i had the chance! hee hee! Actually quite a boggling country in many ways, and there were many a times that Cindy and i had been dropped off in 'fake cambodia'...! :) I guess we didn't really know what to expect but it sure wasn't what we saw.

The country certainly presents the 2 extremes of the rich v's the poor.....

This really is how it is, you have the very wealthy families stepping out of there Lexus with all the 'mod cons', and then in the same street virtually you'll have families living in wooden huts on stilts with not even a bicycle between them.

Next stop THAILAND.... (for 1 day!)

Yeah - sounds kind of crazy i know but i literally flew into Bangkok in the late hours of March the 28th and was straight out again by the 30th...! It was too much! After the chilled outness of Nepal and the waaah of India, Bangkok was just the biggest shock to the system, and something i just wasn't ready for! Even the flight in itself was enough to make me 'freak' - we were flying in to all the lights and flashing neon advertisments, huge grand highways and much more, all staring up at me... Yikes! I was just sat there thinking 'where the hell am i arriving into!??' Thankfully i wasn't the only one thinking this - i met a lovely German lady who was going through exactly the same as me, having also just spent the last few months travelling around India and Nepal. We were both stood in the airport in a complete and utter daze without a clue of what to do, where to go, or anything. Then i made the big mistake of checking into a hotel on Khao San Road - backpacker/prostitute/'Ibiza uncovered' hang-out! Omigod! Anyway, i just about survived the one day i had there before i got the bus over the border and into Cambodia where Cindy and i were reunited.... (canadian i travelled with for 6 weeks in India).

My last night in Kathmandu/Nepal...

Here's just a couple of pics of 'me and my 2 boys' (Mischa from Switzerland & Jean from France) that i had met before in Pokhara and Chitwan, then we all hung out together in Kathmandu. They made my last night in Nepal truly perfect!!! We started the night with my last Everest beer and Dal Bhat (dal, veg curry, pickles and rice), then carried on to see some very good live bands at a local bar, and then finished up in our favourite place - 'the Tom & Jerry bar' where we danced and drank the night away... perfic! What more could you want for a last night in Kathmandu. (cheers guys - you're the best!) :)