Saturday, 30th April.

Kathryn

Tuesday, 3rd May.

Janice

Friday, 6th May.

Regn

Saturday, 7th May.

Yaya.

Wednesday, 11th May.

Jess
Jakling

To be confirmed later.

Snow, Sharon
Michelle (after May 11th)
Carmen, Mei Ying.

Need to put the thinking cap on to see if there is any workaround.

7-11, April 2011.

This is my first visit to Cambodia. Initial impression is how flat & dry the land here is. As the plane begin to descent, you will see a hazy blanket of air surrounding the city. Building are not tall (maybe 5 to 8 floor maximum) and I don’t recall seeing any sky-scrapper. Compare to other SEA country, Phnom Penh is in about the same state & time as Vientiane.

There is no greenery or tall grass. Compared to anywhere in Malaysia, where bare land will be covered by weed (tall grass, not drug!), in Phnom Penh it is just bare earth. Thus the dusty condition. We experience this first-hand when we are out on a day long ATV,  All Terrain Vehicle trip.

In Cambodia, the acceptable currency is USD and Riel. 1 USD is about 4,200 Riel. There isn’t any point in changing to local currency since USD seem to be de facto currency and Riel usage is limited to just small change or small purchase. For example, when you give 2USD for something that is worth 1.5USD, you will receive 2,000 Riel in return. On another note, they don’t carry US coins.

Main public transport seem to be tuk-tuk and taxi (Toyota Camry). In this city, Toyota and Lexus is very popular, as you can see they are people choice 9 times out of 10.I recall seeing many Camry, Harrier or RX, Land Cruiser and Tundra during my 5 day trip here. Occasionally, you get to see a Hummer and I saw a Merc S600 V12 too. The rich here seems to be very rich.

Visiting Phnom Penh for the first time will not be complete without visting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This is the school, converted to famous prison (named S-21) by the Khmer Regime and now preserved as a museum.

It’s more like a prison that is open to public. You can walk into the prison cell, look and touch the torture equipment, and to think, about 20,000 people are tortured & killed in the compound that you are standing on. Looking back into history, you can see the brutality and the dark history of Khmer Rouge during it’s time of power between 1975-1979. It’s just 30 years ago, it’s  not too long and anyone on the street in the age of 35-40 or more would have a memory of it.

Next place to visit would be Killing Field, about 15km away from Phnom Penh. Choeung Ek Killing Field is related to Tuol Sleng, where people that is destined to be killed would be brought here for execution and mass burial.

Many mass grave are found here, and is still to be found.  Due to heavy rainfall, today, you can still find pieces of bone on the land around here. The government of Cambodia has build a memorial park and a Buddhist stupa to give respect to the victim of the massacre. It is filled with the bone and skull of the victim at Choeung Ek. This is not the kind of place that I would come for leisure visit twice, but being here remind you of (the lack of) humanity that happen not too long ago.

Our last day out was a day spent on the ATV, a service provided by Blazing Trail. Our guide, Aka on his dirt bike and his mechanic on a mopet ride alongside the 3 of us. It was a terrific day which bring us close to the people, especially the children of the village. We had a great time, and I took a lot of picture that day. We became popular with the kids, as we come prepared with a lot of sweets and pen and hair clips. Also, riding out on bare earth, we ARE lucky it wasn’t raining.

Nevertheless we got plenty of our share of dirt when the day is over. So long that you can drive a car and love the sun, it is highly recommended and doable.

Till my next trip!