Cambodia

We've tried two mornings in a row to see the sunrise at Utopia. We keep oversleeping. On our last day Max wakes us up like a dad and we emerge bleary eyed to a magnificant sunrise, it's beautiful. We've booked ourselves onto a morning bus to take us back to Phenom Penh. A tuk tuk collects us and drops us at into town, and from there we jump on the bus. Its a bumpy ride back to Phenom Penh. When we reach town we get in another tuk tuk and head towards the lake, which is where most of the back packer accommodation is. It is revolting. A dirty back street labyrinth of lanes with seedy hostels, restaurants and bars. We check out three hostels all of which are sub standard. Onto another tuk tuk to try near the river. Eventually we find a hotel, which although more expensive, the room is clean and we have cable TV and air con.We head out for some lunch and walk through a street market just up the road. Its a cacophony of smells, noise, people, baskets of skinned frogs still moving, catfish in baskets still flapping. The dirt of the street mingles with the strange and gruesome fare on offer. Mayhem, and not a bit like Tesco. We find a rather plush french bistro and treat ourselves to a good lunch. After a bit more of a wander, some markets and booking ourselves on the 'Killing Fields' tour for tomorrow, we slowly head back to the room for some chillage. We pop out for Happy Pizza in the evening, first pizza in ages and very good (we don't do extra happy which includes sprinkles of ganja!). Back at the room we end up watching Lord Longford and share a pack of chewy stale maltesers, weirdly quite good.

The following day we head off in a mini bus to the Killing Fields. Tragic and quite unbelievable what the human race is capable of. Sarah has read the book 'First they killed my Father' which is a young girls account of how the Khmer Rouge destroyed everything she held dear including loosing her parents and sister. It makes us think about how different Cambodia would be today if this regime hadn't destroyed everything it did? They destroyed the infrastructure, the cities, the temples, and exterminated anyone they thought intellectual, they destroyed millions of lives. Back in town we also visit S-21 an old school, which was turned into a detention centre where through barbaric torture and torment, countless people were sentenced to death. Its heart breaking.

Sarah leaves the next day flying back to Bangkok and then back to Brussels. I don't want to think about her leaving. We go out for a nice dinner of Vietnamese Pho beef noodle soup. We've had such a nice time. Its the first time we've spent so much time together since we both lived at home. Its been a much needed bonding session and long overdue. There are not many people you can 'just be' with.

Sarah I love you for being: honest, kind, gentle, sensitive, humble, trustworthy, a listener, vulnerable, analytical, caring, loving, understanding, a dreamer, quirky, reflective, un-complicated in the most complicated way, reliable, persuasive, conscientious, feminine, glamorous without trying, tidy and eccentric, offbeat and completely unique. I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have you as my sister.

Our last day is spent with a bit of shopping in the morning, I find a really cool antique shop and have to buy a few trinkets and what not. Back to the hotel and checkout. Then I have to go, I hate goodbyes especially this one. I get in my mini bus bound for Saigon. Leaving Sarah standing on the street outside the hotel in Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Its like a strange dream. I miss her terribly. Were we really there?!

Wet sodden Cambodia, the earth soaked in rain and blood. The soil is so rich in human emotion it has a soul. It nurtures a people who deserve this Earth maybe more so than you or I.

Sarah thank you for our spiritual journey.

xxxx