Homeward Bound

My last week in Dubai seems to have flown by. When I left England back in November last year, I thought that coming home would be ages away but I can't believe the trip is at and end and I fly home tomorrow morning. When I look back at my trip, I really have done a lot but I am looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone (especially Vernon) and as I am spent up, it is about time I earnt some money!

True to form, my mum and I spent rather a lot of time this week in the shops buying jewellery (she didn't, I did). Anyone who knows me well will know that I am an avid jewellery wearer and for some reason, when I come to Dubai, I can't resist all the designs, especially the diamonds and the Italian jewellery. There is a shopping centre called the Gold & Diamond Park near where my parents live and my mum has been there so many times to buy for herself and with her friends, that she gets very good discounts (about 70% off the price). I am surprised they don't give her commission for the anount of business she brings their way. When you factor in the discounts and the fact that everything is a lot cheaper than the UK, I just can't resist! My dad thinks I need to go to shopaholics anonymous and when it comes to jewellery - I think he must be right!!

We also went to have a pamper session in the week - a manicure, pedicure and a facial. The woman doing the manicure and the pedicure was very good but the woman doing the facial must have thought she was ploughing the fields, as she was very rough. At one point I thought she was going to lascerate my face with the blackhead remover. Then she had the nerve to say it hurt because I had never had it done before. She was from the Phillipines, so I think that maybe their idea of pampering is different to mine.

I have done my fair bit of eating out too - Dubai is cheaper than the UK for eating out, but not as cheap as South East Asia. The quality of the food is very good, especially in the hotel restaurants. On Thursday my mum invited some of her friends around for dinner and I cooked Thai food which I learnt on the cookery course in Chiang Mai back in January - tom yum soup, yellow curry and chicken and cashew nuts. I had to apologise in advance for the soup, as it nearly blew everyone's brains out for being so hot (I only put three chillis in, so I don't understand why it was so hot). I like it with a bit of a kick though.

When I came back to Dubai (having last been here at Christmas 2006), there were a lot of new buildings and roads and some of the shopping malls had also been extended. Some of the malls are quite quiet and it is a blissful experience going around them compared to the nightmare of Oxford Street. Dubai must be the biggest construction site in the world - it is staggering how much building is going on. Today we went to have a look at Dubai Sports City, where they are building a Manchester United Sports Stadium, an Autodrome and various sports academies. We went to have a look at some of the villas which were being built on the site and they are absolutely huge (and you get a separate room for the maid). Each bedroom has its own ensuite. That site alone is 50 million square metres. Most of the buyers of properties are foreign investors who snap up whole floors from the developers and then sell them off individually on the secondary market at a profit. Great if you have a load of spare cash.

I do love Dubai - apart from four months in the summer when it is unbearably hot, it is sunny. It is very liberal in certain respects (you don't need to cover up as in other Muslim countries) but it is also quite behind the times. For example, I read in the paper the other day that a couple (Indonesian I think) who were living together had a bust up because the guy farted (the paper said he "broke wind") in bed. The woman was so incensed that they had an argument and it resulted in a punch up. The police were called but they were charged with having an immoral relationship, as they were living together but not married (which is against the law). They had to pay a hefty fine. Not a very bright couple, if you ask me. All this from a country which is building the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai, which at today's count, has 156 floors (no one other than the builders know how tall it will eventually be). I also heard yesterday that the government was thinking of building a giant city suspended in the air in a helium balloon. Someone has more money than sense somewhere (environmental issues are not a big concern here).

By the time some of you read this I shall be on a plane home - my last experience of living it up in business class. I hear the weather has been cold, so good job I have some thermals to hand!

Key to photos (from left to right):

1. Burj al Arab and Jumeirah Beach hotels - view from Palm Island

2. View from my parents' flat

3. Largest mosque for foreigners's use

4. Another view from my parent's flat

5. View of the pool from my parents' flat

Magnificent Maldives

I really did not know what to expect from the Maldives, as I had never been there before, other than there are a lot of posh resorts on a number of islands. The Republic of Maldives is a chain of around 1200 islands stretching 750km across the Indian Ocean. Apparently the exact number of islands varies according to the season and method of classification - the islands come ad go depending on the wind, waves and currents.

The islands are geographically grouped into ring shaped reefs called "atolls" and there are 26 atolls. An atoll encloses a central lagon with a flat, sandy botom at a relatively shallow depth of 40-100m. The outer reef, which forms many of the islands, is often broken by deep channels which allow oceanic water to flow into and outof the central lagoon. Inside the atoll there are numerous smaller ring shaped reefs and tillas.

Of the 1200 islands, only 200 are inhabited by local Maldivians and over 90 islands have been developed as tourist resorts or inhabited by locals and the Government has ruled that there can be no combination of the two. The Government has granted new licences to islands and many of these are under construction. It is expected that an additional 30 new resort islands will be built in the next two or three years.

Not much is known about the early history ofthe island people but the language and some archaeological finds of Buddhist relics indicate that the early settlers were fom the southern Indian continent and the Buddhist Singalese from Sri Lanka. The current 240,000 population is entirely Muslim, after Islam was adopted in 1153 after the visit of a Muslim saint. Between 1513 and 1649, the Portuguese made many failed attemps to take Male, the capital. The first survey of the islands was undertaken in 1835 by the British Admiralty under the command of Robert Moresby and the country was gien the status of a protected state in 1887. Entry ino the United Nations was given in 1965 and in 1976, the British completely withdrew all forces from the South of the country.

My home for the week was the Sea Spirit liveaboard operated by Madives Scuba Tours, an English company. My friend Julie, who lives in Amsterdam and whom I learned to dive with met me out there and was my buddy. On a typical day we had the first dive at 7am, then breakfast, the second dive at round noon, then lunch and the final dive in the afternoon. Neither of us knew what to expect from the diving and after the first two dives when we didn't see that much, we both started to think that the Maldives was not living up to its expectations. Things got better over the next few dives. We saw loads of sharks (hammerheads, grey and white tipped reef sharks), turtles, moray eels, eagle and other rays and the usual tropical fish. There is some rather spectacular table coral. A lot of the coral was decimated as a result of El Nino in 1999 but the recovery of the coral has been very quick and has been completely regenerated.

February is the time of year when a lot of manta rays can be spotted but over the last few weeks the current has not been flowing as expected (it usually travels from East to West but it is now travelling from North to South through the atolls), such that mantas are being spotted where they are not normally found at this time of year and they are absent from the usual sights. Julie and I had almost resigned ourselves by Wednesday that we would not see any of these magnificent creatures but by the second dive that day a huge female came gliding along like a Boeing 747. We were diving near the manta cleaning station but after checking us out, it decided to carry on into the ocean. We were very excited indeed and were lucky to spot another manta on our last dive on Saturday morning.

We had a very special night dive earlier in the week when we saw about 12 white tipped reef sharks and a giant barracuda (Erasmus) about 1.5 metres long. A few times I tried to peer at something lying on the reef floor and when I moved to look a few inches away, the bloody great barracuda was right in my face. I was diving with one of the guys who had a really bright torch, so the barracuda and sharks kept following us, to use the light for hunting fish. A couple of times I held onto my buddy for dear life and he kept peering at me as if I had gone mad!

The Maldives are also known for their strong currents and some of the reefs were certainly challenging. On Thursday, Anne-Marie, our dive instructor gave us a briefing on a dive which was known as "The Swirling Vortex of Terror", due to a whirlpool about 100 metres after the drop off site. We were told to stay below 20 metres to avoid it, otherwise we would suffer the washing machine effect andfind ourselves going from 20 metres to being spat out at the surface (at which point you should immediately descend and carry on with your decompression stops).

We descended to 28m metres and hooked in on the reef to watch the action but the current was raging quite a bit, such that I got neck ache every time I turned my neck 90 degrees to see what was floating out in the blue (sharks and rays). After about 5 minutes, Julie and I unhooked ourselves to carry on the dive, hoping that the current would ease off. We drifted around the corner and suddenly found ourselves in a downcurrent away from th reef. I looked at my dive computer and the depth gauge was showing 25m, 26m, 27m, 28m and 29m. We were both finning as if our lives depended on it but we were still sinking. Luckily one of the guys on the boat had told Julie the night before that he knew someone you was caught up in a down current when the tsunami happened and he inflated his BCD. A little voice told her that air in BCD would be a good idea and she then signalled me to do the same. I think I must have put a large gust of air in my BCD and shot up, at which point my dive computer told me to SLOW a number of times. We seemed to yo you a bit and when we levelled out at 19m, we aborted the dive. We came to the surface quite shaken, wondering where we had gone wrong.

When the rest of our group came up, we found out we had all had the same problem - luckily, though, we had missed the whirlpool but others had got caught up in it. Our dive instructors apologised profusely and said that they had never currentl like that in that dive before and that if they had known what it would be like, we would not have dived it. It is a very popular site and several other boats had dived it. Thankfully all our group (most of whom were experienced divers) emerged shaken but unscathed. We put it down to a good learning experience, glad that it hadn't been worse.

On Saturday afternoon, after the last dive of the day, I went to have a look at Male. There is a fish market and a fruit market and I found the local ice cream parlour. Other than that, Male is pretty uninspiring and the souvenir shops sell souvenirs which come from Thailand, but at five times the price.

On Sunday morning I flew to Dubai, where I am currently with my parents (and have finally managed to update my blog, although more photos to follow). I was a bit sad to leave, as it finally dawned on me that I will be home in less than a week. I have had a really fab trip but it has gone by quite quickly. I will be glad to see Vernon and everyone else but also to get back to work as I have spent up! As you will notice from my blog, I have shopped till I dropped and I imagine this will continue in Dubai. Most people know that I love my jewellery and I hadn't even been in Dubai for 24 hours before I made my first purchase. Some diamonds!! Still, a girl has to spoil herself once in a while.............

Pictures above as follows (from left to right):

1. One of the many islands in the Maldives

2. Our liveaboard, the Sea Queen

3. Sunset from an uninhabited island

4. Vew towards Male, the capital

5. Hawkesbill turtle

6. Table coral

7. Two giant moray eels

8. Manta ray

9. Bearded scorpion fish

10. Clown triggerfish (with spots) and red toothed triggerfish (blue one)

11. Two clownfish (Nemo)

12. Reef octopus

More temples but back to Bangkok

The temples visit continued in the morning on Thursday 21st February, when we headed to the oldest temple, Banteay Srei, which is about 25km from Siem Riep (see first and third photo). It was built by Jayavarman V and finished in AD968. The complex comprises several buildings and has some fine carvings in pink sandstone. We also visited a much smaller temple, Banteay Samre, as it was not far from where our guide lives and which was very pleasant, as it was pretty much tourist free.

At the temples children bombard you at every corner trying to sell you all sorts of things - fruit, books, cheap jewellery. You also see a lot of men with a leg or an arm missing - victims of Cambodia's landmines. About 6 million land mines were laid in Cambodia over a period of 40 years, so a trip to the Landmine Museum was obligatory. The Museum was set up by Aki Ra, a former child Khmer Rouge conscript, you lay thousands of mines when he was in the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge were toppled, he fought for the Cambodian Army and he then helped the United Nations to clear the land mines. Over the last 15 years, Aki has cleared about 50,000 land mines and has collected various bombs, guns and shrapnel, which are now housed in the museum. Aki Ra is doing fantastic work but there are 27,000 victims of land mines in the Siem Riep province alone and this figure rises daily. He estimates that it will take up to 50 or 100 years to find and clear every land mine.

In the evening four of us took a tuk tuk out to Lake Tonle Sap, which is the largest lake in South East Asia. Each year during the rainy season, the swelling Mekong River backflows into the lake via the Tonle Sap River. During the dry season, the lake's surface area is 2,500 square kilometres but expands to 10,000 kilometres. Our guide told us that it would cost US$ to get to the lake, but what he forgot to tell us was that the boat ride would be an extra US$15-25 (I quote that range as the group of four who went earlier than we did were told it would cost US$25, whereas we were told US$15). We bought tickets through gritted teeth but were really glad to do so. The trip includes a visit to the floating village of Chong Kneas, which gives an insight into life on the lake and homes in the Cambodian countryside. We went to the crocodile farm on the lake where children as young as seven or eight had snakes wrapped around their necks. I am not sure if they were alive or not but quite a bit of time was spent avoiding them, as the kids had a tendency to run after you with snake in tow! The sun setting on the lake was spectacular, with red and orange hues illuminating the fishing boats (see photos).

In the evening I had an incident with the washing, which I had dropped off a day earlier at the local laundry around the hotel. The laundry was recommended by our guide and I discovered that a very nice skirt which I had bought in New Zealand had either been misplaced or stolen. I did not get very far with the owners, as they spoke no English and the guy working at the hotel didn't speak very good English either. Unfortunately our guide was pretty useless (as he has been for a lot of things on this trip), so I ended up having to deal with the problem myself. The next day, though, our guide told us that he had a few things go missing at local laundries and the first thing to go missing were ladies' bras. I was absolutely livid and nearly thumped him one, as what was the point telling me after the event that things go missing?!! He could have at least warned us not to put things we really like into the laundry on the basis that they go walkabout. I don't think Blair really has a clue about being a good tour guide.

On Friday 22nd February (my brothers' birthday - Happy Birthday!), we had early start to take the bus back to Bangkok. The state of the road to the Thai border is a bit third world and the bus spent ages avoiding large pot holes in the road - in the meantime, the bags and cases were being thrown around all over the place. The road won't be tarmacked until 2009.

It was quite nice being back in Thailand and it felt very modern in comparison to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The group went out for our final dinner, and we then headed with our drinking heads on to the bars on the Kao San road (where the backpackers stay). Just our luck that the Thai elections were taking place that day and on the Sunday, as most of the bars stopped serving beer at 6pm! After a long trawl, we did find a bar which was serving alcohol - buckets of vodka, whisky, gin and mixers. They must have had an effect, though, as I challenged a very good Irish guy to a game of pool and proceeded to pot 5 balls in a row. He did beat me by a couple of balls and breathed a huge sigh of relief, happy not to have been embarrassingly been beaten by a girl. Men! We also sampled a Thai disco, or a local meat market, where all the Thai girls were throwing themselves at Western men. It was quite amusing. It is a sight you see quite a lot in Bangkok - Thai women with Western men old enough to be their fathers.

The trip ended on Saturday morning and it was quite sad. Having spent 29 days with the group, we all gelled very well and had a great time (crap guide notwithstanding). I bought so many things on this trip and had to ship 11 kilos of purchases home. The post office was a dodgy counter in a shopping centre in Chinatown near our hotel, so fingers crossed it arrives home. I also managed to squeeze in a final two hour Thai foot and body massage before heading to the next leg, diving in the Maldives.

Siem Riep

Phnom Penh is overrun by thousands of children (up to 20,000) living and/or working on the street or begging. We were encouraged not to give money to the children, as it means they are likely never to life their life off the streets. Many have to work to support their families and miss out on getting an education. On Monday evening we visited an organisation called Friends (Mith Samlank). Mith Samlanh is a Phnom Penh non-government organisation working with street children every day. Its objectives are to meet street children's essential needs in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to support street children to move away from life on the streets so they can go back to their families, to public school, into vocational training and into rewarding employment. We had dinner at the Friends restaurant, which trains street children to be chefs and all profits of the restaurant and of the shop (which sells handicrafts produced by the children) go towards helping and training the street kids in the capital.

On Tuesday 19th February, we took a 45 minute morning flight to Siem Riep, which feels a lot more crowded than Phnom Penh, as it is the gateway to the great temples of Angkor. The name "Siem Riep" actually means "Thais defeated" to reflect the various times when ownership over Angkor fell to the expansionist Thai kingdoms and was subsequently retaken by the Khmers. Located at the north west edge of Tonle Sap Lake (also known as the Great Lake), civilisation at Angkor relied on the resource rich lake to assist with the construction of the temples. Most of the town's development occurred in the last 10 years, as the various wars and political instability instability have kept travellers away until recently. In 2007 there were 2 million visitors to Siem Riep. There are a lot of western restaurants there but you can also eat some very good local cuisine (the curries are delicious). There is a fantastic night market which sells very good quality handicrafts (most of the day and night markets we went to on this tour have been very good and there is an abundance of things to buy for the handicraft lover). A lot of the handicrafts which you can buy in Laos (weavings) and Vietnam (lacqueware) can also be bought in the market as well as buddha statues galore. I had my first taste of a Cambodian massage in the evening - it is not as brutal and rough as a Thai massage and involves a lot of chopping and slapping with the hands.

Cambodia's unofficial currency is the US dollar, which makes it more expensive than Thailand, Laos and Vietnam but for smaller amounts, you can use the local currency, the real (4000 to one US$).

In a 40km radius around Siem Riep there are 216 temples and over 2000 temples in Cambodia. They were built between the 8th and 13th centuries and range from single towers made of bricks to vast stone temple complexes. There are two main sites where the Khmer temples are located - the first is at Roluos, which is about 10 miles southeast of Siem Riep, and was the first Khmer capital in the Angkor area where only a few of the earlier temples were built. In the late 9th century, Yasovarman I moved the capital to the immediate vicinity of Siem Riep and this is a much larger site where the majority of the Khmer temples are located. It is officially known as the City of Angkor. There are only so many temples you can see before temple fatigue sets in (or ruination by ruins!). Most of the temples were Hindu temples, built for the Hindu gods - Rama, Shiva abnd Vishnu.

Angkor Wat is the biggest and regarded as the supreme masterpiece of Khmer architecture. It is an impressive pyramid temple built by Suryavarman II between 1113 and 1150. It is surrounded by a moat 570 feet wide and about 4 miles long. On Wednesday morning we set off at 5am (a ridiculous hour!) to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which was pretty impressive (see photos), but probably only spoilt by the vast amount of tourists thronging about the place. There are lots of carvings on the walls depicting the Hindu gods and heaven and hell. The temples are now largely Buhhist temples (they became so when a new Buddhist king ruled Cambodia).

After breakfast we took a 10 minute balloon ride (a fixed ride) which had great views of the surrounding area and a view over Angkor Wat (although it was a bit hazy for our liking - see photo). We then visited nearby Angkor Thom temple complex to see the Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants (see photo), which also had intricate carvings. There is a large temple, the Bayon (see photo), which was built by Jayavarman VII between 1181 and 1220 and features 3,936 feet of superb bas-relief carving and mysterious Buddha faces carved on the towers.

After another Cambodian massage in the afternoon (I am addicted), we headed to Ta Prohm, a very large complex enclosed by a moat. It has not been restored but has been left surrounded by jungle. It was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century and parts of the first Tomb Raider film (starring Angelina Jolie) were filmed there. The most impressive parts of the temples are the huge trees whose roots have penetrated the walls of the complex (see photos).

The horrors under the Khmer Rouge

On Monday 18th February we had a day trip to Tuol Sleng Prison. S-21 (which stands for "security office") or Tuol Sleng was the most secret organ of the Khmer Rouge (KR) or Angkar's regime. It was KR's premier security institution, specifically designed for interrogation and extermination of anti-Angkar elements.

In 1962, S-21 was a high school called "Ponhea Yat" High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Sihanouk. During the Lon Nol regime, the name was changed to Tuol Svay Prey High School. Behind the school fence, there were two wooden buildings with thatched roofs, which were constructed before 1970 as a primary school. Today, all of these buildings are called Tuol Sleng and form part of the museum of genocidal crimes. "Tuol Sleng" literally means a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear of supply guilt [towards Angkar].

S-21 is located in Tuol Svay prey sub-district, south of Phnom Penh and covers an area of 600 x 400 metres. During the KR regime, it was enclosed by two folds of corrugated iron sheets, all covered with dense, electrified barbed wire, to prevent anyone from escaping the prison. Houses around the four school buildings were used as administration, interrogation and torture offices. The torture methods used included acid, being submerged into a vat of water and having fingernails removed.

The KR judicial process for minor or political crimes began with a warning from Angkar. People receiving more ythan two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near certain death. People were often encourage to confess to Angkar for their pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes, which usually included some kind of free-market activity, having had contact with a foreign source such as a US missionary or international relief or government agency or contact with any foreigner or the outside world, and they would be told that Angkar would forgive them and wipe the slate clean. This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or the Killing Fields for torture and/or execution.

According to reports found at the Tuol Sleng Archive, approximately 12,500 prisoners came in and out of the prison between 1975 to June 1978. Those who confessed were sent to the killing fields to be murdered. Those who did not confess were tortured to death. The victims in the prison were taken from all parts of the country and from all walks of life. They were of different nationalities and included Vietnamese, Laotians, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians but the vast majority were Cambodians. The prisoners consisted of workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, intellectuals, professors, teachers, students and ministers and diplomats. Whole families of the prisoners, including their newborn babies were taken there en masse to be exterminated. Behind one of the school buildings, 300 skulls and bones of those prisoners tortured to death were found, some of which are on display there.

The duration of imprisonment ranged from two to four months, although some important policical prisoners were held between six and seven months. Prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or concrete They were required to ask permission from the prison guards in advance of going to the toilet in small buckets kept in their cells, otherwise they were beaten or received 20 to 60 strokes with a whip as punishment. Bathing was irregular, allowed only once every two or three days and sometimes once a fortnight.

In each cell, the regulations were posted on small pieces of blackboard:

1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Do not turn them away.
2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited for you to contest me.
3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
10.If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

Anyone breaching these rules was severely beaten.

The number of workers in the complex totalled 1,720. Within each unit, there were several sub-units composed of male and female children, ranging from 10 to 15 years of age. These included young children trained and selected by the KR to work as guards at S-21. Most of them started out as normal before growing increasingly evil. They were exceptionally cruel and disrespectful towards the prisoners and their elders. Workers were also replaced at the end of each year and then murdered, as after being in the prison for 12 months, they were considered to have too much knowledge about the regime. The horrors were finally exposed when the Vietnamese marched into Phnom Penh in 1979 and the KR fled to the countryside. Before they did so, they murdered the remaining prisoners who were shackled by their feet to their cells. 12 prisoners who worked in and around the prison managed to hide and escape.

After the prison we headed to one of the Killing Fields (Choeng Ek) located about 30 minutes drive from the city. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia (about 19000) where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the KR. The massacres ended in 1979 when Vietnam invaded the country (they had been provoked by Cambodia) who tried to claim some of land around the Vietnamese border as their own) and toppled the KR. Pol Pot fled to the countryside near the Thai border where he stayed until he died in 1998 of natural causes. Estimates of the number of dead are nearly 3 million of a population of around 7 million. At the Killing Field we visited, 126 mass graves were found and 86 of them have been excavated. The skulls are kept in a temple which is at the entrance to the grounds and the holes were they were found are kept empty. On the paths around the holes, every year the rains wash away the soil and new bones and clothing come to the surface. We also saw the Killing Tree, which was a tree with a wide tree trunk and the KR killed young babies by smashing their heads against it. The KR would also use palm leaves, which had very sharp serrated edges, to cut people's heads off (pretty grim).

Our tour guide for the day was very good and was six years old at the time the KR took over Phnom Penh. His parents worked for a foreign organisation and were, therefore, on the KR's hit list. His parents sent him and his 6 siblings to a labour camp and told them to tell the KR that his parents were dead (otherwise this would mean a fate no certain than death). For 4 years he was forced to work 12 hour days farming the land and was only given a small bowl of watery rice to eat every day. Every month they had to go to re-education lessons. His father died of malaria in one of the camps but his mother survived and they were reunited after the war.

He told us that one of his neighbours used to be an officer of the KR and he wanted to kill him for what he had done (the fact he had three kids stopped him). The shocking thing is that in 1994, thousands of KR soldiers surrendered in a government amnesty and Pol Pot's deputies became members of the government. They were able to walk around freely in expensive cars and live in expensive houses until November 2007, when they were arrested on genocide charges. After years of debate about funding, a war crimes tribunal was set up in 2007 to try surviving KR leaders. Although the surviving leaders were arrested in November and are currently in prison, it is unlikely that their trial will start before 2010 (funding for the tribunal is expected to run out in May this year) and many Cambodians fear that they will never be tried before they die. The other shocking fact is the the current King's father - Sihanouk - supported Pol Pot and his regime and was responsible for granting amnesty to some of the leaders.

It was quite a harrowing day for us and after the trip, we were all very subdued. I can't understand what sort of dictator would kills millions of people in such a horrific way - Pol Pot himself was a former teacher - but there will always be psychotic people around. If it hadn't been for the Vietnamese invading, he probably would have wiped out the entire population. As a result, approximately 50 per cent of the Cambodia's population is under 18 years of age (life expectancy is 57 years old). The current population is around 14 million.

On the road to Cambodia

On Sunday 18th February, we took the public bus early in the morning over to Cambodia, which was a pleasant experience. They gave us food and showed us a DVD, although the subtitles were half in English and half in Spanish, so watching it was abandoned. We paid an extra US$4 bribe fee in addition to the US$20 visa fee, so that our passports would be processed quickly. (According to a survey conducted by Transparency International, a Berlin based anti-corruption watchdog, nearly three-quarters of Cambodians reported paying a bribe to receive a public service in the past year and more than half were pessimistic that endemic corruption would lessen in the near future).

The Cambodian border guards operate on a system of trust, as you hand in your passports but they do not check whether they belong to you. We then boarded a bus to have lunch at a cafe on the border and an hour later our passports were returned to us by the hostess of the bus!

The driving is not as crazy in Cambodia as it is in Vietnam and there aren't as many motorcycles trying to mow you down. Cambodia has suffered a bloody history over the last century. In 1866, it was colonized by the French and then in 1942 by the Japanese who defeated the French who left to fight in Europe. in 1945, the Japanese were forced to retreat from Cambodia when the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1946, the French returned to Cambodia to rule again. Subsequent years saw the Ho Chi Minh and Viet Minh fight the French in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. In 1953, Prince Sihanouk introduced civil service for all Khmer students and by 1954, Cambodia declared independence. The Viet Minh were, however, still prevalent in Cambodia.

Dap Chhoun, the leader of the Cambodian army, was determined to overthrow King Sihanouk but failed. The King instead granted Dap Chhoun power over Siem Riep, Kampong Thom and Battambang province. For the next 10 years, Cambodia remained relatively peaceful under King Sihanouk's reign. In 1969, the US began annti-communist bombing raids in Cambodia and Laos, alongside the war with Vietnam. In 1970, General Lon Nol, leader of the Cambodian army, held a successful military coup against the King, who then retreated to China. From there, Sihanouk urged the Cambodian people to fight Lon Nol's army with the support of the Viet Kong and Chinese troops. Lon Nol, however, had the support of allies from Thailand, South Vietnam and the USA and by 1973, he had defeated the Viet Kong.

In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, comprising mainly jungle rebels, were becoming stronger and wanted to gain power over Cambodia. Fighting continued between the Khmer Rouge and Lon Nol's armies until the US and the South Vietnamese and the Thais pulled out of Cambodia in 1975, whereupon Lon Nol's army fell to the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, victoriously marching through the streets and promising peace for Cambodia. Peace was short lived, as over the next 4 years, the Cambodians would suffer under Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, and his brutal social restructuring programme. He hoped to create an agrarian system which had everybody working in the fields. The Khmer Rouge took a census of every citizen's job, family and possessions. The calendar year was turned back to "Year Zero". Educated people were considered to be the enemy and were mercilessly tortured and killed in the numerous killing fields around Cambodia. The Cambodian Army were forced to hand over their weapons and possessions with the promise of a new way of life. Instead, they were herded into trucks, taken into the jungle and brutally murdered. It is estimated that between 1975 and 1979, over 3 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city. According to legend, the city was founded when an old woman named Penh found several Buddha images on the banks of the Mekong River and decided to place them on a nearby hill. This hill would later become the location of Wat Phnom. The city became the capital of Cambodia in the 1430s, when the capital was moved from Angkor to increase trade opportunities and put some distance from the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand). During the 16th century, Phnom Penh's access to trade made it a regional power but then its location became vulnerable from the Thais and Vietnam, until the French took over in 1863. The city stands at the confluence of the Tonle Sap, Tonle Bassac and Mekong Rivers.

In the evening we took a cyclo tour around the city (see photos), where we saw the Royal Palace (built in 1866), the Independence Monument (built in 1954 to celebrate Cambodia's independence from French rule and which now serves as a monument to Cambodia's war veterans). It was Richard's birthday (one of the guys on our tour) and we had a great meal in a restaurant. I really like the Cambodian curries - they taste much better than Thai curries. Afterwards we headed to a karaoke bar, where we hired a private room for a few hours and sang to our heart's content. I am quite tuneless at the best of times but after a couple of hours I must have sounded like a cat being strangled, but no one seemed to mind, as there were worse than me!

Cu Chi Tunnels

After our adventurous dinner on Friday we headed to the backpackers' area for more drinks and a bit of dancing but Karen and I were quite restrained and back at the hotel for 1.30am (with a craving for fried rice!). We were leaving at 8.30am to do a day trip to Cu Chi , about 75km away from Ho Chi Minh. Blair (our guide) saw us off in the morning but he was looking very much the worse for wear, as he had left the bar at 4am. Oddly he told us that he had been mugged - he had been propositioned by some Vietnamese women when he was walking back to the hotel and before he knew it, his wallet was missing. They suddenly found it but his money was missing. None of us were really sure why he told us, I mean it is highly embarrassing being your guide and being pickpocketed when you are so wasted leaving a bar at 4am. Plus he didn't even take any of his own advice - ie his wallet wasn't even in his money belt! It all sounded a bit dodgy too me.We haven't been that impressed with him as our guide. I think he has a bit of a drink problem and he hasn't a clue how to take charge. We almost feel as if we should be looking after him!

The tunnels of Cu Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district and are part of a much larger network of tunnels which underlie much of the country (see second picture of model tunnels). The Cu Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War and were the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnams' base of operations for the Tet Offensive in 1968. The tunnels were used by NLF guerillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems were important to the NLF in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually persuading the Americans into withdrawal.

The tunnels are made of clay, very narrow (on average 80cm by 1 metre) and extend over 200km (see photo - demonstration of how small the entrance is!). There are three levels, at 3m, 8m and 10m and various dead ends and exits into the Saigon River. For the NLF, life in the tunnels was difficult. Air, food and water were scarce (with no light in the tunnels) and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, spiders and mosquitoes. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels, especially malaria, which accounted for the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. A captured NLF report suggests that at any given time half of a NLF unit had malaria and that “one-hundred percent had intestinal parasites of significance.” In spite of these hardships, the NLF managed to wage successful campaigns against a conscripted army that was technologically far superior.

The Americans recognized the advantages which the NLF held with the tunnels, and accordingly launched several major campaigns to search out and destroy the tunnel system. Trap doors lead from the jungle floor down to the tunnels and as they were camouflaged, they were almost undetectable. Operation Crimp began on January 7th 1966, with B-52 bombers dropping 30-ton loads of high explosive onto the region of Cu Chi, effectively turning the once lush jungle into a pockmarked moonscape. Eight thousand US troops combed the region looking for any clues of NLF activity. The operation was, for the most part, unsuccessful. On the occasion when troops found a tunnel, they would often underestimate its size. Rarely would anyone be sent in to search the tunnels, as it was so hazardous. Besides being too small for most Western men to fit through, the tunnels were often rigged with explosive booby traps or stake pits. The two main responses in dealing with a tunnel opening were to flush the entrance with gas or water to force the guerillas into the open, or to toss a few grenades down the hole and “crimp” off the opening. The clever design of the tunnels along with the strategic use of trap doors and air filtration systems rendered American technology ineffective.

The tunnels have been preserved by the Vietnamese government and turned into a war memorial park. We crawled for about 50 metres up and down one part of the tunnel system (see photo of me coming out of the tunnel), but the tunnels have been made larger to accommodate the somewhat fatter western tourists and there are low-power lights to make traveling through them easier. It did not feel too claustrophobic but I would hate to imagine what it would have been like during the war. I also had a try at shooting an AK-47 rifle, which was used by the NLF during the war (see photo). It cost US$1.3 per bullet, with a minimum of 5 bullets. The guy showing us how to use the gun was impressed with my skills, and I managed to hit the target (a red spot on a cow) on my first shot. Not bad for a shooting novice!

This evening we had happy hour cocktails in the bar of the Sheraton hotel. It is on the 23rd floor and has amazing views over the city (see photos). It was our last dinner in Vietnam - boo hoo, but we head into Cambodia by bus tomorrow.