Cambodia is to say the least special, one feels like one has has stepped back 50yrs but is that not what Pol Pot wanted year zero and all that. The country is just amazing and to use a cliché a real culture shock, from the temples of Angkor to the great river of the Mekong, the paddy fields and effort and toil of the local its all just breathtaking, This was part of an Intrepid Tour where we started in Bangkok and traveled through to Hanoi and if the truth be known after seeing Cambodia Vietnam was a little underwhelming, my advice is start in Hanoi.
Angkor is amazing but its been seen and photographed so many times, for me the highlight was going to a floating village on the shores of Tonle Sap, I was stunned by the fact these people and especially the children seemed so happy with not a games console in sight they played with sticks and balls, they seemed eager to go to school and they loved having their photos taken which as an avid photographer was a great opportunity to try and capture the essence of Cambodia and South East Asia.
Pol Pot may be gone but the legacy remains check out S21 the infamous prison in Phnom Pen, the vivid images to be seen in the exhibition of the prisoners reminds us that inhumanity is never far away; sons murdering fathers, daughters denouncing mothers all destined for the killing fields just a short truck ride away. And what was it all for just ideology that like so many others is now a distant memory.