Cambodia- Siem Reap

Anchor what?????

The name Siem Reap actually means "Siamese Defeated", hardly the most tactful name for a major city near Thailand. A somewhat poorer country than Thailand I wasn't surprised to see the hoards of beggars at my heels. Although I was surprised by how many of them were amputees, victims of landmines. There are 27,000 in this province alone and this figure rises daily. One thing you are warned about which I wasn't planning to do, was to go wondering off the beaten track, that's for sure.

The jewels in Cambodia's crown are the temples of Angkor. This was to be my first port of call. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries. Astounding, inspiring and unforgettable are a few words that can explain these spectacular structures. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon and Ta Prohm are the most famous temples and to really explore them I spent a few days here. Each day ended with a flat battery or a full memory card on my camera and an exhausted photographer.
Siem Reap is developing fast, hotels, casinos and museums are being built like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully this will help it's economy and it's people but due to it's political state it probably won't and may only expand the pockets of foreign companies and corrupt officials.

I planned a visit to the landmine and war museums, showing the ugly part of Cambodia's history, the civil war (1975-79). In which under leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. The strangest thing was that this piece of history was in my lifetime. I remember the news reports when I was a kid, but only now was I really paying attention. The accounts of what the Khmer Rouge did to its own people are chilling. Even now, every day there are more victims due to the millions of landmines laid by them. It is estimated that between 3 and 6 million mines are still in the ground today. One person clearing them is a guy called Aki Ra who runs the landmine museum. Since the UN pulled out of Cambodia he continues to remove and defuse the mines with only a probing stick and screwdriver. This guy has more balls than most and surprisingly still has all his limbs. It's no wonder people such as Princess Diana and more recently that gold digger Heather Mills have wanted to highlight and help victims of landmines as this country's govenment don't seem to be doing much. In fact all the funding for Aki Ra and his team to remove these mines is from donations.

My next stop is the country's capital Phnom Penh where I plan to visit the famous "Killing fields" ( umm more death stories, can't wait to get to the beaches of Vietnam, oh shit, they had a bloody war too!!!) - laterz