Cambodia

Saturday 23rd July 2016 – Our first job of the day was to put the rest of the parcels in the post and we felt good when we had done it. Afterwards we browsed the busy central market which sold everything from live lobsters to chainsaws. I bought a pair of flip-flops to replace my old sandals which were now sadly beyond saving. In the evening we went back to the bar we had met Julie in and knocked back a few drinks while playing pool and chatting to the expat regulars. We got talking to a lovely Aussie in his late thirties who told us his life story – he was a workaholic with a wife and a successful real estate business in Melbourne who gave it all up for a Cambodian girl he met in Thailand. The relationship didn’t last but the allure of the Far East did and he never returned to Australia. We ended the night by jumping into the pool before walking home. It was late and the deserted streets felt a little unsafe but luckily we made it back to our hostel without incident.

Sunday 24th July 2016 – We get quite excited when our clothes come back from the laundry – an entire wardrobe is returned to you clean, dry and neatly folded. This morning we got our clothes back from the laundry and we were happy. After lunch we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the notorious Killing Fields at Choeng Ek just outside Phnom Penh. Superficially at least the location didn’t exude the same grim horror as S21; there were trees and grass, birds were singing and the sun was shining. The horror was there though; clothing remains embedded in the hardened mud of excavated mass graves and ribbons hang from the tree used to kill infants and babies. Later we took a walk along the river which was full of life as tourists and locals alike enjoyed the evening sun. Before bed we packed our bags ready for our journey back to Bangkok the next morning.

Monday 25th July 2016 – We woke in the dark and left our sleeping dorm mates as quietly as we could. Our bus took us through the sprawl of the waking city and drove northwest, past a crowd that had gathered round the still smoking wreckage of a head-on crash, past rice fields and through small villages until finally we reached the border. The border was hot, noisy and chaotic; JCBs were digging up the street, HGVs were belching fumes as they arrived and departed and people were milling in all directions. By the time we had made it into Thailand Alysa was rather grumpy (although her mood did improve considerably once we had located a 7-11 that sold Magnums). A minibus took us the rest of the way to Bangkok, dropping us at Victory Monument around 8:30pm. It had been a long journey but after just half an hour we were back at Stay Hostel and even managed to grab some food at Terminal 21 before it closed.

Tuesday 26th July 2016 – Our travels in southeast Asia were coming to an end in the same city they started. Bangkok felt familiar now; we had breakfast at the little cafe across the road that does good pancakes, the smell of the canal was more comforting than noisesome and Alysa’s beloved ginger tom came running to greet her in the alleyway. We ate our favourite dishes at Terminal 21 and slept in the same bed we had when we first arrived.