G'Day...

I'd just like to let you know for those of you whose little ones read my emails that you might want to keep parts of this one away from their tender eyes and some of the stuff about the killing fields and S21 prison is particularly awful....

Right then first off "Happy Birthday to me...happy birthday to me..." yep it's that time again and sadly the day hasn't started off with being plied with champagne like last year...(Joy, Baggage...?) Thanks to all of you's lot who have sent me varying levels of abuse about my birthday...much appreciated and it's hard to believe it's a year since the last one!!!

Anyway things have improved marginally since the last email but only marginally as I now have a stinking cold and I know exactly who to blame for that one but more of that later.... So anyway Angkor Wat - well anyone who is planning a trip out this way must make the monuments of Angkor an absolute must see...it is just awesome and well worth the entry fee. They date back to between the 9th and 14th century and are without doubt one of the most amazing sites I've seen so far.... So I was up at 4.45 a.m. in the morning to make my way out to Angkor Wat (the most famous site) to see the sunrise over the buildings and temples and so was the rest of the tourist population of Siem Reap, there were literally hundreds of people up there...it was well worth it though. Angkor Wat is just incredible, a huge complex of buildings that are believed to be a funerary temple. It's unique in that it faces west which is symbolic of death. The carvings and relief work that decorate every inch of the temple is incredible and tells various stories of the Angkor era. The site of Angkor Wat alone is 1.5km by 1.3km and it is full of carvings and sculptures you could literally spend a day here alone. Sadly time didn't allow but there was enough time to climb the towers of the temple up some exceptionally steep stairs (Rob, you'd need to be careful on them given your history with steps!) and take in the surrounding view... The rest of the site is made up of hundreds of other temples and monuments that formed the old city and I visited most of the major sites.

After Angkor Wat it was off to Angkor Thom and the Bayon. The Bayon is another awesome structure that has 54 towers each tower is decorated with these massive smiling faces carved into the stonework over 200 in total. Again bas relief's around the Bayon tell stories of battles and every day life during the Angkor period and every single scrap of stone is highly decorated and overlooked by the smiley faces! You'll have to check the photos as it is so difficult to describe but even then you don't get a true feel for the grandeur and intricacy of the whole site.

My fave spot though has to be Ta Phrom which has been left to the jungle and the trees have definitely taken over here...they grow out of the roofs of the temple buildings and much of it is collapsing under the sheer pressure of the trees' root systems. It has crumbling towers but still full of amazingly intricate carvings. There is some additional work going on here too as it is about to be used as part of a film set so they are actually planting more trees which adds to the atmosphere of a collection of temples and towers left to the jungle...

After that my moto driver took me out to Banteay Srei which is one for the girls, a temple built for the women and then we visited a few other sites before rounding off the marathon 13 hour day at Phnom Bakheng, climbing to the top of the hill with drink, t-shirt and camera film vendors in hot pursuit. One conversation I had went like this....

Tout: Madam, you buy camera film

Me: No thanks

Tout: Very cheap

Me: I don't need film

Tout: Madam, I have APS

Me: My camera doesn't need film

Tout: Ah digital camera

Me: Yep

Tout: You need battery

Me: No thanks

Tout: Very cheap good battery

Me: No thanks I have rechargeable battery

Tout: Bugger! (....now where do you suppose he got that from!)

Touts aside it was fab to sit up there and watch the sunset and round off the day and again there were hundreds of people up there doing exactly the same....

After Siem Reap it was off to Battambang and that was a completely painless 3 hour sublime boat trip through the rivers and waterways. A really beautiful trip and we got to see some Vietnamese floating villages and stopped off en route at a village and to watch some of the guys training for the upcoming dragon boat races. Curious to see these Cambodian guys rowing like crazy, most of them complete with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths!!!!

Battambang was a great little stop and we hired a couple of guys and their motorbikes for the day and they took us out of the city and to some temples. One of the drivers told us about his harrowing life under the Khmer Rouge and it was an incredible story. His family was originally from Phnom Penh and his father was a Commander in the Lon Nol army and his brother a pilot.. they were on the run for months and had to disguise their true identities pursued by the Khmer Rouge. Sadly the Khmer Rouge caught up with them and he never saw his elder brother and father again. They were taken away one night under the pretence that they were required to go and help construct a new bridge but were executed. The soldier who did it came back next morning and told them... the atrocities that went on are just acts of pure evil. He told us no-one spoke and there were spies everywhere. People making up stories and lies about others to save themselves. Working in the rice paddies from 3 in the morning until 11 at night, then having to go for "re-education" and amidst all this the children were separated from their parents being told the Angkar were their new parents and told to forget about their real parents and not love them anymore. They were starved, beaten and some of the children were trained to be the executioners for the Khmer Rouge. In the end this guy lost all his family apart from his mother and one sister.... there were originally 12 in his family... He took us to a Killing Field which is a cave with an opening on the side of a hill. People were tied up by their necks to the rocks at the side of the cave and tortured and electrocuted and then made to kneel beside the opening of the cave and then bludgeoned by bamboo canes or metal bars and thrown into the cave below. In the cave there is a case full of skulls and bones from those murdered and now two shrines remain for locals to pray for peace for the souls of the dead. Also on this particular hill is a former Khmer Rouge prison and we were told that no-one even knew of it's existence until they were overthrown by the Vietnamese.

For the rest of the day we visited a temple that predated Angkor Wat by a century and chatted to a monk up there and then we went to meet Chhum. Chhum is a 15ft long, 150kg, 27 year old python and she is HUGE!!!! The guy that owns her lets her out of her cage for 3 months every year and she goes on her holidays into the jungle and comes back when she's had her fun or is hungry!!!! During the time of the Khmer Rouge he actually took the python on the run with him and refused to leave her behind. There are photos on the wall of people who put their babies in the cage with this thing for photos...call me old fashioned but I reckon she could swallow one whole no messing and despite the claims of the owner that she was really gentle and loved people I refused to climb in there with her for a photo!!!

We rounded up the day with a trip on the bamboo railway which is a genius invention. Basically they put two sets of wheels on the real train tracks, lay over the wheels what looks like a massive tray made of bamboo, attach a lawnmower engine and away you go and at some rate of knots too! We have 4 motorbikes and 8 people on our "carriage"... Only trouble is that if you meet another "train" coming in the other direction you have to unload your train, dismantle it and put it on the side of the tracks while the other one passes then put it back together and carry on!!! It's completely mad but only takes 2 minutes to do. Our driver hurried us on to and off the train during our journey as it was nearly sunset and that means that the "real - I ain't stopping for no-one train" to Phnom Penh was on its way and I can understand not wanting to be on the tracks when that thing passes through....!

In the evening one of our drivers, Sam, who speaks cockney! Who the hell teaches these poor people such trashy English? - must be a gap in the market for an English teacher !!?!! anyway he took us to his place to meet his family and his 5 month old son who is a real bruiser...it was really cool to go to his place and they gave us fruit and tea and sat around chatting. It seems his whole family lives in the same street and we met his parents, his wife, his brother and his cousins....I guess you don't get many "farang" in his neck of the woods so loads of people came for a look.

In Battambang I met an Irish chap and two Aussies and for the sake of our sanity we hired a taxi to drive us to Phnom Penh and that's where I am currently residing. As I mentioned earlier I'm full of germs and I'm pointing the finger at Sam our Battambang moto driver as he was full of cold the day he took us out and sitting on the back of his bike being down wind of his germs and guess who catches them??? Anyway I have been relaxing and chilling out here in Phnom Penh for the last few days and trying to kill these germs and re-energise....the fact it's about a million degrees doesn't help though.

We've visited the markets which are always a fascinating and smelly affair and also had a wee dram one evening in the Foreign Correspondents Club where all the media types and toffs hang out...really cool place, big comfy leather chairs, French colonial style, expensive menu!!!

After a day asleep I finally made it out to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which is better known as S21. It's a former high school that was converted into a prison and torture centre under the Khmer Rouge. 17,000 people were held their during the Khmer Rouge regime and only 7 survived. The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of the prisoners and there are photos of many of the victims lining the walls of one of the buildings and still on display are some of the torture instruments used. People were held chained together by their feet or held in tiny cramped single cells. They were not allowed to speak and had to ask permission to go to the bathroom and that was a tin bucket in their cell. They were tortured for the most part of the day and forced to make false confessions. The average duration of stay for a prisoner was around 2 - 3 months. After which they were taken to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek and beaten over the head with iron bars and thrown into mass graves. It really is scary harrowing stuff when you think that this only happened 25 or so years ago.

After that we went out to the Killing Fields and it really is an eerie place. A memorial stupa has been erected there and inside it there is a huge glass case that goes up to the roof and it is full of skulls, bones and clothes of those who were murdered at the Killing Fields. The actual pits that were dug and have had the remains exhumed are still in place and signs around them tell you it was a mass grave and the number of bodies that were removed. In total nearly 9000 people perished there under the Khmer Rouge and there are still believed to be around 30 as yet unearthed sites. One of the most harrowing is a pit that is under a tree. Children and babies were snatched away from their mothers, picked up by soldiers by their knees and then had their heads flung against the bark of the trees to kill them. They were then thrown into a pit right next to the tree. Then it was mother's turn after she had witnessed her child being killed in such a brutal, evil manner. It is just incomprehensible and extremely upsetting.

So anyway on to today and my birthday - well today me and my germs have been to Wat Phnom this morning and the National Museum which is awesome and a gorgeous, gorgeous building. It's stacked full of sculptures and Angkorian art dating back to the beginning of time basically and really fascinating. Thought I'd better do something at least marginally cultural on my birthday!

I am now hiding from the heat as it is soooo hot here. This afternoon I'm going to the Silver Pagoda and then I'm treating myself to an hour's pampering and going for a massage and then I'm heading back to the Foreign Correspondents Club for a dose of their chocolate cake!!!! Depending on the condition of my poor nose will depend on whether I make it out for a few beers tonight or put it on hold. However, there'll be plenty of mass celebrations in a couple of weeks when Millie the Minx and Elaina are here so I might save drunken debauchery for then!!! I think my body may truly give up if I get hammered today!

Tomorrow I'm on the bus to Sihanoukville and that = beach and I fully intend to hang out there for a few days and do nothing but find an umbrella to lay under and relax....

Anyway that's all folks from Phnom Penh for now, hope you all have a fab weekend and catch ya later....

Loadsa love

The Birthday Girl!!!

xxxx