6 Mar 2019

27th Nov

27th Nov.
Rain, rain and more rain. But Ellie is determined to get her money's worth, bless her, so we did the Grand Circuit - more temples, although they are a bit further out. I think she'd like to see all 72 of them, even though they are somewhat similar........


Will are I are a bit templed out at this point, but we continue, partly for her and partly because they really are fascinating. She asked me in the morning, 'Have you got your raincoat?' even though she knows I don't have one, but it was something she kept telling me I needed!  (Never owned one and prob never will, hah!) (aren't they for old people?) 
Lol, she reminds me of my Dad, who would always say things like, 'Have you got your raincoat/slippers/sensible shoes?' None of which I EVER owned in my life, and still don't! And he knew that, but still thought I should get them, even though he knew I detested all things 'sensible' (and still do!) bless him :)

We retired back to the hostel for a late lunch, and an afternoon of admin - booking the trip to Phnom Penh, the hostels etc etc. Ellie is also a little bit like John, often finding the perfect place first time, but then spending another 2 hours looking in case something better turns up!

Gotta say, I love this idea of booking stuff as you go along. We did it a bit on our 6 week tour of the American Mid West, back in 1992, and it was fun then. Such a sense of freedom!

So, now we have 3 nights in PP, and then bus/ferry over to Koh Rong Island for, um, I can't remember how long. Til I have to go home, I guess.
There didn't seem to be any resorts with air con....oh dear, I feel a meltdown coming on (literally!) But I will do my best and we shall see.......

Our hostels in PP are next door to each other, theirs is nice but only has dorms (which for me is a big fat NONO). But mine tried to give me an awful room on the 3rd floor, abso REEKED of mould, mainly cos the air con didn't seem to be vented, water dripping down the wall, major case of wet plaster...ugh..................

I tried, I really did, had the door open and the AC on full for 30 mins.................Nope, still as smelly as a wet dog dressed in a wet Afghan coat. On a wet duffle coat.

They told me that they had no more rooms, so I booked into another hostel, 2 doors down, and demanded a refund. Whereupon  they suddenly decided that they did have more rooms. Too late! After a prolonged argument, I got a full refund the next day, and posted an awful review on  Booking.com. Which they attempted to answer, but didn't actually make any sense, so I think it's
Me:1,  Lebou Boutique Crap Smelly Hostel:nil.
gorgeous Tom Yam soup from their hostel chef
Richly Hostel, where I ended up, perfectly equipped but dull as ditchwater
The following day, we were gonna do the Killing Fields, but poor Ellie was ill, so Will and I left her in bed, and had a gander around the city. We went to the Central Market, which was full of clothes that looked like they'd been stolen from UK charity shops, and had a nice lunch in a lovely A/C cafe by the river. After a short pm siesta, I retired to a bar across the road, and waited for them to sort themselves out, so we could go to a board game cafe a few doors down. Unfortunately, they forgot to let me know when they got there, so I had a few more wines than strictly necessary, and stumbled back to my room rather later than I intended...grrr
.

The following day, we all went off to The Killing Fields, and it was very grim. Hard to imagine why a country's leader would want to exterminate 3/4 of the population, never mind about how they did it. Gardening tools, serrated palm tree leaves (used as saws to cut off peoples heads) a tree, which they dashed children's heads into..................unbelievable stuff.  They herded everybody from the countryside into the city, and then just started killing them - for being a doctor, or having a degree or even wearing glasses......totally bizzare.
It all happened in the 70's, which I ought to remember, but I don't really, other than very vaguely. I remember the name, Pol Pot, but had no idea how terrible his crimes were, worse than Hitler really.  He was some kind of maniac.....Ugh.




The coloured dots mark the spots where the skull was hit......







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