Cambodia

Our journey in Cambodia started in Phnom Penh. Here, we gained insights into the S21 torture prison and the Killing Fields. The tragic events of Cambodia were not really known to us, which is why we want to share our experience with you. The terrible history of Cambodia is still young. From 1971-1975, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge killed three out of the eight million inhabitants of Cambodia, especially educated people or simply people who wore glasses. Entire cities were evacuated and people were forced to move to the countryside. They were forced to work in the fields and education, art, and religion were banned. In S21, prisoners were brought and tortured until they confessed to the crimes they were accused of. If an inmate was accidentally killed during torture before giving a confession, the responsible torturer became a prisoner with the same fate. After the confession, they were not released as promised, but rather killed on the Killing Fields with thousands of others. It took us a few days to process these impressions. There were still blood stains on the cell floors and bloody handprints on the walls.

After Phnom Penh, we traveled to Kampot in southern Cambodia. The bus ride was quite pleasant for a change :D In Kampot, we first visited the national park. Here, our guide gave us more insights into the Khmer Rouge and the horrifying times back then. The young history shapes every Cambodian, as siblings, parents, neighbors, or themselves were directly affected. Afterward, we visited a pepper farm, a waterfall, and a salt farm. Unfortunately, salt production did not yield anything this year due to the rainy dry season, which prevented salt from being harvested. At the pepper farm, we were able to taste the pepper in its raw form, which was also very interesting. In addition, varieties are grown there that are not available in our trade. In the evening, we took a boat ride at sunset and saw many fireflies. Further west on the south coast, we were in Sihanoukville. There, we simply relaxed on the beach, played some beach volleyball, and attended a very cool jungle party.

After that, we went to Koh Rong Island. Here, we spent the day at the beach. In the middle of the night, we realized that one of the worst things we feared had happened.. bed bugs!! These creatures are simply awful. On the one hand, they bite and leave mosquito-like bites. On the other hand, they lay 10-15 eggs a day, and if they get into your luggage once, you can't really get rid of them anymore. In the middle of the night, we packed all our things and slept outside on hammocks. The next day, we asked for a refund and went to the neighboring island, Koh Rong Sanloem. Here, we spent three days washing all our clothes and bags at 60 degrees Celsius and then packing all our belongings in black bags and letting them roast in the sun. (Since the incubation period of the eggs is about three weeks, we can now say that we are fortunately bed bug-free again! This relieved all of us, because otherwise, we would have had to throw everything away.) On the island, we also did night snorkeling. This was very impressive, as the small plankton in the water glowed when they moved at night.

After that, we went to Koh Kong. We took a taxi after the ferry. At first, the driver seemed super nice, but in the end, he tried to extort us. He wanted us to pay $20 extra or he would call the police (who, according to many reports on the internet, never stand on the tourists' side). In the end, he tore up our ticket and drove away. Apart from that, Koh Kong was the highlight of Cambodia for us. The next day, we went on a kayak tour, which was absolutely awesome, as we were the only ones on the tour. The day was perfect with a BBQ and two waterfalls. The next day, we hiked through the jungle with the same guide (a super funny guy our age), a former hunter in his 70s (second guide), and two older French people. At the end of the hike, we set up our camp in the jungle next to a waterfall. We could swim in the pool of the waterfall and cool down from the jungle heat. There was also a super delicious BBQ again that day with a self-built grill. We slept in hammocks on the edge of the jungle. At night, we also went hiking, but unfortunately, we didn't see the expected nocturnal animals. The next day, we hiked back and Seli got a leech that caused blood to stream out for the rest of the day. It was a bit disgusting..

Video of the Jungle Trek: https://vimeo.com/267173139

Our next stop was Battambang, where we met Julia and Felix again (Jolene and Seli had visited them in Shanghai). We visited some sights, went to a local circus, and took a cooking class. After that, we went to Siem Reap. Here, we visited the famous temple complex of Angkor Wat (eighth wonder of the world). It was very impressive and mostly well-preserved. However, one thing you should not do like us is eating a Happy Pizza and getting up at four in the morning for the sunrise..

From Siem Reap, we continued to Laos. The crossing was once again an experience in itself.. Instead of a decent bus (as promised), we drove for a total of 5 hours in a minivan with 17 people. We were packed so tightly together that we constantly felt the sweat of our neighbors running down on us. In addition, all the luggage was stored in the footwell and was accordingly dirty since we had to put our feet somewhere.. In between, we made several strange stops where we had to unpack ourselves and all the luggage and then reload it into the same minivan one or two hours later (even though we had been promised a proper bus again). At the border crossing, we were forced to go with a "helper" because we couldn't do it alone anymore. We were told it was too late. In the end, we walked across the border with a few others and saved ourselves $11 and another scam. But it was shocking that we almost wouldn't have crossed the border alone because we had been told that we wouldn't be taken on the bus anymore.. It took us 12 hours from Siem Reap to arrive at the 4,000 Islands (for only 360km).