Since Thursday I have been in Cambodia - a Kingdom of Interesting contrasts, poor people, great nature and history which is shocking and unbelievable.
When we (Meike, my friend from Germany&intern in KL and me) first came to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, we were kind of lost, since a Tuk Tuk driver dropped us somewhere in the middle of some market :S. The environment was following: Many motorbikes parked next to the market, stalls with everything, mainly untrustworthy food and clothes. Dusty streets full of Tuk Tuks, motorbikes, old cars, khmer alphabet everywhere. :)
The people here are different from Vietnamese, from Malaysians, Indians... this is my discovery - each South East Asian country have theirs special nationality and different kind of people. No Asians are thesame! Same Same, but Different.
Then we manage to find another Tuk Tuk that took us to a radom hostel. From there we set off to night life in Phnom Penh. We had some typical beef and sea food BBQ, which was very nice and later on we went to sleep, since we were really tired.
We were waken up at 5am with an Indian Music coming from a marriage stall just down there under our hostel. In the moring we visited S-21 (Tuol Seng Museum). Very strong experience. This museum served as Torture camp in a former high school building during Khmer Rouge period of time in 1975-78. We hired a guide and she went through the whole story with us. In the middle of the tour I have to give up and i did not finish the guided tour. This happened to me for the fist time in my life. My breakfast strarted to feel wants to go on strike & my feelings were too strong and I couldnt listen and see anymore the terrible conditions, that people had to face every day. Especially to see the faces on photograpsh of ppl who were tortured in this camp. You can not imagine the look in their eyes. Meike finished the tour with the concluision, that this happed in Germany too and that this kind of Genocide is breathtaking terrible.
One more shock - I saw a Mekong river. Wide, dirty, with floating different things in it + children playing in it next to a guy who was piing in it...
After this experience we continued to Royal Palace. This was nice, big palace, silver and golden decoration. Later on in the afternoon we took a bus from PP to Siem Raep - to a city of Angkor Wat.The busride took about7 hours (300km) and led us through several typicl villages in Cambodia, which answers all the questions about Cambodian life - poor conditions and low low awareness about enviromental issues.
Our first day in Angkor Wat complex started at about 9am. We took a Tuk Tuk driver for the whole day. Bought a ticket USD40 for 3 days pass in Angkor Wat and went to explore these magical temples. My favourite ones were Ta Prohm (with roots of huge trees defeating the temples - where Thomb Rider was shot)
then "Face Temple" Bayon,
and we climbed one of these temples. Amazing. In the evening we climbed a mountain to see a sunset. It was nice, except for the croud behind our backs. Around 1000 people at that tiny mountain. Young old thin and fat. All of us climbed a mountain and a temple to see.
In the evening I was lucky to get a ticket for a Angkor Nights - a musical&dance festival. It was overhelming atmosphere. No tourists, Angkor Wat by night, very spiritual atmosphere. Inside of Angkor Wat temple I had the chance to see a traditional Cambodian dance with a backround of lighten up Angkor Wat. The Dance itself was based on one story with different Gods involved. Nice Nice.
Second day we took it easy. Waking up 4:30 to go and be able to see the sunrise infront of Angkor Wat again. I am grateful for this, eventhough it was cloudy and we were not really able to see the sunrise, the whole atmosphere was really nice.
The dusk infront of the temple... Then we continued to explore other temples. Afterwards we felt rather tired so we went bac to our hostel and decided to go for a lunch to the "happy herb pizza" place. Our lunch was very special. Nevertheless, we cotinued to do some shopping in a nearby market. Then I was able to connect to the internet for the fist time in Cambodia. Rest of the day was just nice&fun:P
Meike had to leave this moring, pitty, casue she left me alone. My today's plan is relax a bit and then spend rest of my day in Angkor Wat temples. 5.2. morning i am leaving back to Phnom Penh to take a flight to Bangkok. I hope that Evicka will be able to join me there, since they have a snow chaos in China...
That's it for today,
Greetings to all from an interesting Kingdom of Cambodia!!!
One of the biggest culture shocks in Cambodia was, when we stopped on the way from Siem Reap to the capital Phnom Penh. The bus driver stopped on the way and let us go out of the bus to eat something. 
