02/03/2020 – The Killing Fields

Having left the War Museum I finished off my tour of Ho Chi Minh and made my way back to the hostel. I found an incredible western vegan restaurant with some real home food comforts.

Top of the list was Apple crumble and custard. It is something that I hadn’t had in a long time. I hadn’t missed western food as no matter where you are in the world you can generally find pizza in a city. Apple crumble, however, had been a lot harder to find.

After breakfast the next morning I headed west in search of country number 23 of the trip, Cambodia.

The route was very flat but the weather was extremely hot. I was in good spirits though made even better by bumping into some fellow cycle tourists.

We cycled the last half an hour into Cambodia together chatting about what we’d been up to.

The border was pretty straight forward and gave me my visa on arrival. I’d heard about a few other cyclists who had been forced to pay a bribe (sold as an extra fee) but I was able to out stubborn them to save myself $3.

Coronavirus was getting a bit more serious each day and my temperature was tested before I was allowed into the country.

I said goodbye to my new friends and tore off with the intention of making it to Phnom Penh for the night. Sadly this was made more difficult by reoccurring punctures due to a very tired tyre that was in need of retirement.

I stopped for the night at a hotel which again, I was the only guest at (a reoccurring theme through South East Asia).

I made it to Phnom Penh in good time the next day and checked into the hostel. Speaking to a few others there I jumped in with a group to go and see the killing fields and the S-21 prison.

Again, these were absolutely shocking. It’s incredible to think about how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge managed to perform the atrocities that blighted Cambodia for so long. If you have some spare time, please read up on it or if you are able to, visit these sights, listen to the audio tours and to some of the survivors of this regime.

It makes you wonder whether we’ll look back at things that are going on at the moment with such disgust and amazement about how they are allowed to continue.

Phnom Penh is a strange city. With the events that happened as recently as the late 1970’s the city is transforming itself into a modern western city. I have never seen such a high density of Rolls Royces and Range Rovers in my life.

The city is awash with sky scrapers being erected at a blistering pace, leaving you to wonder just how much of the heritage and authenticity is being lost.

The plan as it currently stands is to cycle to Bangkok, fly to Perth, stay there a couple of days and get ready for my race across Australia. I never thought that I’d say that I was looking forward to going to Australia for the cooler weather…