Cambodia.

Well, we eventually escaped that sh**hole in KL and went off to the airport to catch our plane to Phnom Penh (pronounced Pnom Pen), the capital to my beloved Dead Kennedies song "Holiday in Cambodia".

As absolutely appropriately described by the Lonely Planet guide it is indeed impulsive, hectic, chaotic and repulsive. Seeing the state of this city makes me understand this is one of the poorest countries in south east Asia. We found a really nice hostel that was the complete opposite of what used to be our center of operations before. Air conditioned, two queen (or king...more appropriate) sized beds. We met Sam, a fellow friend from Hong Kong and went to get dinner on the scooter he got from his couch hopping friend Romyr. The three of us went on and got happy pizza at the river side. it truly was very happy as we realized afterwards. Romyr and his friend David came to pickus up to go to a bar where we got drinks basically for free. I took a closer look at the interior of the bar which was plastered with pictures of antic statues that were not (as usual) lacking their genitalia. Paired with the behavior of our hosts and my knowledge of such bars, I assumed we were indeed in a gay bar, which was good fun. after we had finished the bottle of vodka we went on to a bar called "The heart of Darkness", the biggest whorehouse I have ever been in. We left after an approximate time of 1 hour and got back to our hotel.

The next day we rented motorbikes and made our way to the killing fields, a sight in which the ultra communist party of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) killed a total of 17000 people in the late 70's. Coming from Germany and having been to a concentration camp, this was the first that came to my mind. We slwoly approached a small Mausoleum, containing about 9000 skulls. After 25 minutes of walking around and seeing mass graves we left and went back to town, a ride of about 20 minutes on our motorbikes.

We then were stopped by the notorious policemen that fined us for not driving with a Cambodian drivers license. We haggled them from US$100 to 25 each. Corrupt bastards they are!

Later that day we went to a mansion that is called "Elswhere" and whose owner hosts a party every first friday of the month. It was fantastic. Chilled out vibes, a pool, nice people, relaxed atmosphere and extremely tasty passion fruit cocktails. Good evening, Good night.

The next morning we were picked up by a TukTuk, which brought us to our bus to Siem Reap. After 6 hours we eventually arrived in our hostel and went out for dinner. This city is by far the best we have experienced food wise, so far. Tasty Curries, Masalas, Soups and fresh beer. Perfect. We went out that night in the "Angkor What?" Bar and had a bucket of the vicious Mekong Whiskey too many. The hangover the next day was not pleasant at all... We met up with Sam again who had left a day early and went off to see the temples of Angkor. It was stunning. The only issue I had: I thought I lost my camera the night before. It turned out I did not but who could know that? :) It was lying safe in my backpack.

The next day we got up at 04:30 to see the sunrise and it was absolutely fantastic. Seeing the sky fade from dark blue to red, to bright red, orange and eventually showing off its round master that gives life to the world, makes the mist vanish and filled me was a moment I will not forget.

"You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow"

The rest of the day we experienced some other 6-7 temples before we decided that they would become less and less amazing the more we would see. Thus, we decided to call it a day at around 01:00 pm and went back to the hostel and into town to get Indian food. Our driver (which we hired for the whole day for $15) got a little pissed off in the meantime, assuming that after the temples we would pay him. Since $15 are a lot of money we were told that we hired him for the whole day. So, he got more and more pissed off and as we asked him to drive us to a swimming pool he almost started crying and got reeeeaaaally angry. Was good fun though.

The next day Jojo and me were alone again and just chilled and lay in bed, reading and watching movies. One day filled with laziness, the next one on the bus again, on our way to Sihanoukville, the place we call home at the moment. It is raining and the thought of going to the beach seems riddiculous. The rain is hard and enduring. Hopefully it'll change soon!