We had a Christmas of two emotions where the morning was spent in somber reflections on millions of lost lives while the afternoon and night was spent with laughs, cocktails and copious amounts of food.
But first, Christmas Eve!
As many others would have we spent it travelling, though I doubt they were in a bus for over 7 hours where a sports bra was mandetory. Thank god it was t the public bus we were meant to be on, rumour has it there were chickens.
We had to stop at an 11th Century bridge used to help transport the stone for the temples we explored yesterday- tour guide is a girl after my own heart,love bridges. It was beautiful!

When we arrived at the bridge a little boy with an incredible camera started snapping our photos, cute until we were stepping back onto the bus and a girl appeared with said photos in a weird frame. Creepy. Do they have a room filled with tourist photographs that they’d printed and no one had bought?

I won’t go into the full history here as I feel that’s something you should google and read for yourself or the book “first they killed my father” and our tour guide, although incredibly talkative with his broken English, took the whole bus ride and time at each site to describe the horrific crimes against humanity. In summary though, with the support of the King the Khmer Rouge over threw the new government in Cambodia in 1975 by storming parliament in Phnom Penh to the cheers of locals, following this they forced all those living in the city who supported them into the countryside promising that they could return in a couple of days and shouldn’t bring belongs. This occurred all over the country. They however, weren’t granted this freedom and were forced to work in rice fields and other services while the Khmer Rouge looked to remove anyone associated with the previous government. This developed into anyone who played an educated role in society, putting fear into the hearts of everyone as if one is accused so was the family, to avoid future revenge. Our tour guide was 13 and living in Phnom Penh at the time and was separate from his family, his parents had been a soldier and teacher so like many others they lied about their professions and said they were construction workers, his immediate family were fortunate and he was reunited with his parents and sister in the early eighties. However, over 40 members of his family were killed a common statistic over the country. Many weren’t so lucky and were invited to “study” never to return or died of starvation, disease or exhaustion. The total losses are approximated to be 2.3 million Cambodians, including a handful of foreigners.
Pol Pot the “hitler of Cambodia” was a disgusting man who told his soldiers “it’s better to kill 10 rather than let 1 enemy remain free” and to “Use corpse to create benefits” so those who stole food were used to help create it. So horrific.
There were over 100 mass graves and 8985 bodies of every age group excavated at this one site. I’ll let the pictures do the talking now.

S-21 or the genocide museum was the prison camp for many before they were taken to fields. A ghastly place where daily torture was common and the conditions dire. Only 2 men managed to survive this camp with many just agreeing that they worked for the enemy to end the ordeal. The first of the survivors was a mechanic and after inisiting he was a mechanic for many months proved his skills by fixing a type writer for his interrogator (who was a child) and the second man was an artist and painted a portrait of Pohpot at the Rouge’s request. One of these surviours remained at the grounds to meet tourists.

Words cannot describe the emotion one feels as you step into a world of horror and crimes against humanity. It’s very humbling.

Graphic images over!
Following this we headed into the sweltering heat and humidity to the Russian markets. We had the best lunch so far, fresh rice paper rolls and rice noodle salad, dericious. Christmas dinner was celebrated in style at the Foreign Correspondents Club, our reservation was miss communicated but our rooftop table was stunning.
Laura and I shared because deciding was too hard.
2 for 1 cocktail jugs.

Tempura prawns and salt and pepper calimari.

Caesar salad and pork belly.

Coconut Panna Cotta, eaten to quick for a crappy photo.
Heaps of delicious food for only 17.50 each, no complaints here.
Boxing Day.
While you all went all cray for the Boxing Day sales, they’re the same discounts as other times of year get over it, we drove on a roller coaster bus ride to Kratie to see the Irrawaddy Dolphins, the worlds rarest and they don’t have noses. There was an awesome 30 minute tuk tuk drive to to jetty where we got to see more of the local communities at a slower pace than we do on the bus and wave and say hello to the excited children. I love the Cambodian homes and villages, they’re beautiful and if I was ever to return to this part of the world I’d own a better camera, hire a bike in every town I visited and adventure into the countryside, so many beautiful missed photo opportunities. Oh and I’d maybe get better at taking photos or take a photographer with me- minor detail.

The Mekong River itself is beautiful with long boats lining the banks. We saw our first Dolphin before we even boarded, we were shocked as we thought we’d only see one in total. As we drifted lazily along the river the Irrawaddies were popping up in all directions, probably about 6 different ones but was a mission to get a photo as we all got a little excited and clicked too soon or got distracted. It was stunning and peaceful being out there on the late afternoon sun, definitely one of my favourite experiences so far.
Our hotel in Kratie wasn’t quite as nice as the previous accommodation and in the humidity the powers temperamental nature meant the air-con couldn’t quite do it’s job, so sweaty. The following morning I had the fortunate experience of a long power cut in the middle of my shower one shaved leg in, only in Kratie haha.
No dolphin photos please use google.

Happy new year to all!! We’re in Laos and it’s incredible!