Yay, got the visa

I had a lot to do this day.  Get to Phnom Penh.  Pick up my passport.  Go look at the Killing Fields on the outskirts of town.  Arrange a bus ticket to Thailand.


All done in due fashion.


The Killing Fields is another harrowing place within Cambodia.  A grim reminder of how cruel humanity can be.

Why did I go fishing?

With the limited time I had I still wanted to take in Kep.  When I got there I found a guy who arranges fishing trips off a nearby island.  What a waste of time and money!  No fish to be had.  And when we did catch they were no bigger than my thumb.


But Kep is a nice place.

Bokor National Park Hill Station

This day I arranged to go on a guided tour to the Bokor National Park Hill Station.  The hill station is a vestige of the French Colonial era.  The colonists used it as a place to relax and escape from the heat of the low lying regions.  It sported a casino, administrative centre and police station.  Now the Cambodian government has sold/leased land to the same Vietnamese guy who runs the Angkor concession.  He is in the process of building a monstrosity of a casino... in the national park grounds.  In the name of misguided development I hope it is a failure.


I met some great people who I spent the entire day with.  A young Canadian couple, an elderly Australian gent and an Englishman.  They were a great hoot and good company.

To the coast

I couldn't spend all my time in Phnom Penh so I headed to the coastal town of Kampot.  There is still a lot of the older French architecture in this quiet town.  Quite a bohemian vibe going on with the travellers coming through.

Phnom Penh sight seeing

The visa application would take 5 working days to process so I had some time to kill.  On this day I took in a lot of Phnom Penh's tourist attractions and a some more.


The city is actually quite small so you don't need to spend a lot of time here.  I decided to walk from sight to sight so I could take in a little more.


The things I saw:
Grand Palace
Old buildings - great architecture me thinks
Central tourist market
Sports stadium
S21 - Tuol Sleng: the sight of a detention centre where a lot of people were murdered during the Khmer Rouge years.  It is located on the sight of a former high school.  It is really weird because the style of the buildings could pass for a Japanese school.

Visa application finally in

After putting my visa application in, which was a pain in the butt - extra documentation required, a mini interview (interrogation) and waiting - I ambled around the city taking in some sights.

To the capital: Phnom Penh

I used the last day of my ticket to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Dismal.  It was super cloudy so we didn't get any of the superb colours expect from such an early morning wake-up.


Back in town I caught the bus to Phnom Penh hoping to be at the Thai Embassy in time to hand in my passport and visa application.


That didn't happen.  I was to late and would have to go in the next day.

Angkor Day 2

The three day ticket to Angkor is well justified to have.  It takes that much time to see many of the ruins at Angkor.  More time needed if you want to see them all.


After one last attempt at trying to obtain a Thai visa I hopped on my rented bike and cycled out to the ruins for the second day.