leaving vietnam and into cambodia

well, we got of the island! after waking up at 6 and walking to the boatoffice with the intention of taking a ferrie to the mainland, we were told the same story again: no boats today due to bad weather, maybe tomorrow. bad weather my ass, 30+ degres, not a cloud in sight and almost no wind. just another trick by the `touristmaffia` as i call it. well we decided to try our luck at the airport. we were aware that every single flight was completely booked for the first 4 days, but our plan was to get on the waitinglist (as was it off the at least 20 people or so waiting in front of the balie). our first choice was to Rach gia, a harbourcity . but no change there. but laura putted up a puppyface and trew all her female charm in the ring. even the vietnamse steward couldn`t resist it. exactly 1 minute after the check-in time ended we got our tickets to saigon coz 2 passengers didn`t show up. well, they did but it was 2 minutes to late so bad luck for him, but we were happy!! the other 20 people were stuck for another day.
arriving at saigon we got in a cab and drove to a big local bus station just south of the capital, from there almost all buses and minubuses leave to the mekong delta. we had to go to can tho, which we just flew over, but hey at least we were off the islands. while our minibus was on a ferrie crossing the mighty mekong river, a women jumped in and offered her help in getting us a to the place we wanted to stay. it came i handy as she was the only person that could understand a word of english... we jumpee on the back of a motorbike an finally arrived at our hostel and crashed on the bed
we woke up at 5am the next moring to take a boattrip to 2 floatingmarkets, one in can tho and the other 20 km further. we enjoyed the sunrise with just the 2 off us cruising around the huge river. it was really interesting to see how the people therereally life on and off the mekong (washing, fishing, conductig business, transport, cleanig food, do the dishes, ...) the markets itself were really cool, people selling and buying from oe boat into another. on the way back we went trough smaller channels to see the every day life. there are a lot of people living on the banks of the mekong and most off them live in really poor conditions, just a shag on 4 sticks, one cramped next to another. even for vietnam the livingstandard was low, you`ll see i the pics. we got back around 1pm and after a quick meal we jumped into a minibus heading for chau doc, a city close to the border from where we would take the boat to cambodia.
we had to get up at 6 to get a boat with 25 others to across the border. just 15 minutes after taking off we stopped to visit a local fishfarm and a cham minority villages. without knowing we joined a organised 2-3trip from saigon to cambodia. finally after these obligatory stops we headed to the border which lay 3 hours further down the river. the crossing went surprisingly easy ad took only an hour. hop into another boat for 3 hours and then into a bus (1,5 hours) to phnom penh, the capital of cambodia. after a good 12hours of travelling we finally got there, went out for a meal and a beer with some people. a good way to end 3 days of nonstop travelling!!
we enjoined a nice riverside breakfast and decided to sort our visas for laos out (40dollars, ouch). the embassy was a couple of kms away so we got the see some of the city. phnom penh is an amazing city, chaotic but charming. and besides the main roads wich are i excellent condition, the rest is not even paved. just sandy, bumpy pieces with holes and gapes. it adds an nice atmosphere to the city. in the afternoon we went to the tuol sleng museum. in 1975 this highschool was taken over by pol pot`s security services and turned into a prison (S-21). it became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. between 75 and 78 alone, more then 17000 (every age, every class) held there were taking to the extermination camp of choeung ek (killing fields). when the vietnamese troupes liberated phnom penh in 79 just 7 prisoners were alive, 14 were tortured to death as the vietnamese were closing in on the city. photographes of there gruesome deaths are on display in the rooms where there decomposing bodies were found (there graves are in the courtyard) . really horrifying stuff to see, like tortureweapons and pics. and the cells were not bigger then 3square m. in the big ones they put 50 prisoners. it was qiut a depressing experience but it helps you understand where the country is coming from. the civil war ended just a couple of years ago. only during the power of the khmer rouge (75-79) between 2 and 3 million people died, not even mentionning the ones during the civil war... you also see much more beggers then in vietnam and here, most of them have no legs and/or arms (you all know the landmines of cambodia). also there is al lot of prostitution here which is sad if you see the girls
the next day we went to visit the royal palace and the silver pagoda, a really impressive structure o of buildings near the riverfront. really worth the entrancefee. in the afternoon we went to the killing fields of choeung ek, it was here the drove the people from the priso to kill. there were blindfolded and hit on the back of there head, this made em fall in a massgrave were there troaths were cut. fragments of human bone and clothes are scattered around the disinterred pits. and more then 8000 skulls are visible beyond glass in a memorial building. it`s a peaceful place today masking the horrors that unfolded here 30 years ago. after this we got the motorbikeguys to drop us off at the russian market, here you can by fake but also the real stuff that is `made in cambodia` in factories just out of town. we picked up our visas and booked a bus to sihanoukville.
the busride took about 4 hours and it was on a good road. many of the so called higways (just 1 lane, nothing more) are i a horrendous state of disrepair. cambodia is among the contenders for worst roads i the world, along with the congo and mozambique (so need to go to kongo so that we`ve experienced all 3 of them). mainy of the roads have not been maintained since the 60ies and the damage from war, bombing, weather and wear is hideous. but with international aid some HW have been rebuild, like the one to sihanoukville. once off the higway you can`t even call it roads, but more on that when were in the more remote parts of the country (northeren and eastern).
we found lauren on the beach and catched up on the talking. tomorrow we`re going out for a christmass buffet somewhere with some fellow travellers. a lot of places here put on special lunches and dinners for the travellers so it should be a good day no matter what. and as for new years eve she told us there is a huge New Year's Eve party held nearby in an abandoned hill station, on top of a mountain surrounded by jungle and overlooking the ocean. It is called Bokor Hill Station and thousands of people go there every year as international DJ's are bought in, so I think alot of people will be in town for that too. we`ll see. first spend a few days on the beach before heading off

i still couldn`t manage to get a cambodian simcard, they don`t sell em to foreigners. but i keep trying.

enjoy christmass and take care
greetz p and l

please translate this for the ones that don`t understand english. thanks