WhatHaveIDoneToDeserveThis?/ItCouldHaveBeenMe

Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield 1987 / Billy Ray Cyrus 1992

Sitting on the balcony listening to the thunder...no lightening yet but maybe I just can't see it through the lushness of the frangipani trees ;-)

Today I am mostly suffering a bit with the gammy leg after two days of long walks so decided it was tuk tuk time again. The bellboy whistled one up and we negotiated a price for the Killing Fields that I actually thought was rather steep..the hotel bellboy really wasn't impressed that I didn't want to go in the nice hotel car but as a 9-5 adventurer ( I can do all the local colour of the day, just have to have a lovely place to swim, bathe and sleep after explorations), I was quite delighted to go tuk tuk. The journey took 40 mins and took a route through the south of the city, not another western face to be seen the whole time, which is neither here nor there for me..on the one hand, fewer westerners may mean the locals hold on to their ways for longer, on the other hand fewer westeners means fewer people to recognise how little of the world enjoys our lifestyle. The Killing Fields site is down, shall we say "a B road"? about half a mile from the, er, highway. When we arrived I tried to pay the driver but he wouldn't take the money, saying pay me later and it dawned on me that his high price was actually for him to wait and take me back again...so not a terrible cheek after all. The site is a field, dominated by a tall structure with pagoda style top decoration and containing layers and layers of skulls. I knew this before I went and have seen the images before so it was actually the pile of raggedy clothes at the bottom that I found hardest to look at. The place is very quiet, except there was a baby crying somewhere, which seemed eerily apt. One walks around taking care not to step off the path into one of the overgrown mass graves.

One corner of the site is dominated by building housing pictures and artefacts; weapons, clothes, shackles..and there's a short film that plays every so often. Over the film there's a voice speaking the words of the one KR commander who showed remorse at his trial explaining what they did. Over this can be heard a haunting female voice in song. The film lasted ten minutes which was just enough. I think the worst aspect of this particular atrocity for me is that it took place in my lifetime...so while I was sitting on the floor in our lovely house in Bahrain listening to the Famous Five on casette and playing lego ....well you get the idea.

The trip back was madness, the traffic here is madness. The rule is - there is no rule - drive on the right if you like, but never forget there could be a good gap on the left and oncoming traffic can see you just as well as traffic from behind really. It is maybe 70% motorbike or motorbike towing, many of the cars are shiny new ugly plastic looking monsta pickup trucks. The rule seems to be that the bigger your vehicle the fewer people you carry! With the truck in the pic an admirable exception. I am pleased with the pic today....I think it does what I wanted it to do....and I love that the driver of the truck is having a good ole grin at me.



Tomorrow I will venture up to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat (and make great efforts NOT to be fed deep fried spiders!!) With hindsight I have boobed in not booking this as a two centre trip in advance. I thought there would be enough tourists here for there to be bus trips to AW but there are not. I have booked into the sister hotel for two nights through the fabby Travel Supermarket - half an hour's effort to have the front desk match the web price failed miserably (by ~$100!), I'm not convinced they really understood what I was telling them but I tried hard so it's their loss this time. I am travelling by local (no chickens) bus and have bought two tickets, one for me and one for my trust rucksack. I'm going to leave the lap top locked up here where I know it's safe and, having paid for a week's internet (don't get me started on hotels and internet charging, marginal cost blah blah) I'm loath to fork out more yonder. Do tune in again in a couple of days to see if I manage to get a goodun.