By Chloe
Goodbye Thailand… Hello Cambodia! After ten long hours on the night train (thank you Diazepam), an eight-hour wait at Bangkok airport, and a two-hour flight over mountains and jungle, we finally arrived in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Now, if you’ve been following our blog, then you’ll know that we were brave enough (read foolish enough) to hire motorbikes and tour some of Northern Thailand, but decided to end it early as the roads are just too stressful to drive, and Thai drivers are just too reckless for us to feel comfortable. Cambodian roads are Whole. Other. Level! In the 40 minutes it took for our taxi driver to take us from the airport to our hotel, I saw more traffic violations than I’d seen in my entire life.

I mean, who needs to drive on the right side of the road? Surely, if you want to turn, just make your way 100 meters before your turn into a steady stream of oncoming traffic… It’ll be fine! Pavements are totally meant for motorbikes, right; who wants to walk on them? Lanes, who needs lanes? Just drive on the part of the road you want to drive on and wait for people to honk and squeeze past you.

It was utterly terrifying!

Roads aside, we arrived at our hotel and were greeted by my parents, Jessica and David without a hitch, who were enjoying an ice cold beer on the roof terrace and taking a dip into the rooftop jacuzzi… It was a pretty special way to start this leg of the adventure.

Now, of all the places we visited in Cambodia, Phnom Penh was our least favourite. It’s chaotic, built up, and its past means it feels like it doesn’t really know what it’s about. During the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979), Phnom Penh was completely emptied of people and a quarter of the countries entire population were murdered or starved… We’re only talking around 40 years ago here. There’s a good reason Cambodia is South-East Asia’s poorest country; it has had to reinvent and rebuild itself many times over.

The main thing ‘to do’ in Phnom Penh is to visit the Killing Fields and S-21 prison (the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide). After visiting S-21, and spending two hours walking through a school turned prison which saw 20,000 people incarcerated, tortured (sometimes for months on end) to gain a false confession, and unceremoniously killed, we found that none of us had the stomach’s to endure the Killing Fields as well. Of those 20,000 people imprisoned at S-21, only seven survived. It was utterly harrowing, but such an important part of Cambodia’s recent history.

Editor’s note: If the last passage left you feeling slightly despondent, then take a moment, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and imagine cuddling a cute little kitten…maybe three cute little kittens. If possible, go out onto the street and find a kitten and bring it home with you. Feeling better? Good.

On to the lighter part of our trip! We left Phnom Penh the following day and journeyed up to Siem Reap, the town made famous by the legendary Angkor Wat temple complex (and Tomb Raider). There’s so much to say about the temples…check out our next blog post here to read about them.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Siem Reap in time for Sangkrana, their annual three-day New Year’s celebration. (Think Thailand’s Songkran festival and you’ve pretty much got it!) The streets of Siem Reap were filled with excited people, water gun fights, talcum powder bombings to the face, and the most speakers I have EVER seen. Every street vendor or shop had their own set of amps, blaring out slightly different Cambodian songs, or even worse, the same song at slightly different times. It was intense, but amazing to be a part of!

We loved Siem Reap; it was full of life, and the old center was beautiful (if a little touristy). The streets were lined with juice stalls, old markets and a steady stream of massage bars all offering you a foot massage by ‘Dr. Fish… He can give you massage!’ We tried it, and it was hilarious! James and David couldn’t stand how ticklish the little fish made them, but I loved it.

Our hotel was beautiful, and we spent most afternoons taking a dip in the pool, and ordering a cocktail from the poolside bar = bliss!

Now, since Phnom Penh, I’d been experiencing a slight soreness in my bottom left-hand gum, which I was treating (rather ineffectually) with Bongela. By the time a week had passed, we’d all agreed that it was probably best for me to find a dentist to get it checked out (seeing as how we weren’t planning on heading back to the UK anytime soon). So, without further ado, I cancelled the cooking course we were supposed to go on that afternoon and headed over to the local dentist. He spent a whole 30 seconds peering into my mouth before announcing that my wisdom tooth would have to come out 😦

We had earlier joked with my mum that the dentist was only allowed to take out three of my teeth…ha ha ha…so when James messaged her to say they were taking out my third molar (as in third along), she thought he was having a rather cheap laugh. It wasn’t until we sent a photo of my swollen face and rather massive tooth in a small bag that she realised we hadn’t been joking! The dentist was fabulous, as was the codeine!! What a way to spend your afternoon on holiday. Check out our explorations of some of the temples at Angkor Wat here.

All our love, the Backbackduo x