Cambodia Part One

The remaining time in Laos was rather uneventful, apart from another case of "the runs" that had me spending the day in the hotel room, rather than run any unnecessary risk!!

The group then flew down to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia. The passport check was rather eventful. I've been travelling as a Canadian mostly, but my Canadian passport was too full to fit in the full page Cambodian visa. So I offered up my British passport and got the visa without difficulty. Then the border guard wanted to see my stamps for exiting Laos. That was in my "other passport". Clearly they watch too many Hollywood spy movies, so that added me to the list of potential terrorists or spies. "Look, man with two passports!!" he showed his colleagues, before signalling the supervisor over. 10 minutes of frantic consultation followed, before the supervisor finally asked me why I had two passports, and I simply explained that I have dual nationality, and that my Canadian passport was too full for their visa. After some more contemplation, and confirmation that I was travelling with a large group, I was finally let through... whew... hope that's the last time I "change nationalities" in between two countries...

Anyhow, Phnom Penh is a pretty hectic city, although the Foreign Correspondents Club with its gin-tonics and proper Italian pizzas was highly welcome, particularly after getting a dodgy stomach from eating only Asian food for a week. (no stomach bugs can survive a good dose of gin, or coca-cola!!)

The Royal Palace was quite nice to visit in the morning...

Then it was off to see the infamous Prison 21, where some of Pol Pot's henchmen would torture people quite randomly. 2 million people dead, with no real explanation why... and we continued on to the Killing Fields, which still has pieces of bones and clothing scattered around. Pretty sobering and depressing... that the human race is still capable of genocide.

Anyhow, after Phnom Penh it was off to Siem Reap, to see what should be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Angkor Wat.