Back in the Highlands sooner than I thought...

The Cameron Highlands, Malaysia that is. It might as well be Scotland though, it's so frickin' cold. Going from dreaming of air-con to requesting extra blankets in one day is a little strange, but it's a nice contrast. I feel I might have left a few wee things out in the 3 weeks since I last wrote though, so I'll go back to the beginning. And this time I really will try not to fall off the blogging wagon again!

I last wrote from Saigon, which I totally fell in love with in a lot of ways. From there we travelled over the Cambodian border into Phnom Penh, which didn't exactly turn out to be my favourite place to be, but was good in a "that'll put hairs on your chest" kind of way. The main cultural attractions are the relics from the Khmer Rouge era around the city. The infamous Killing Fields lie a few kilometres outside the city, where tens of thousands of people (civilians, mainly) were slaughtered and buried in mass graves. In the heart of the city lies the S-21 museum, a former school which was used by the regime to hold and interrogate prisoners (many were actually members of the Khmer Rouge, such was the level of suspicion and paranoia). To put things into context, between one and three million people in total were killed by the Khmer Rouge, and of the 20,000 held over the years at S-21, 7 survived. Seven.

We visited these two places in a morning, S-21 first, and by the time we got to The Killing Fields I was completely numb to the fact that I was walking over pieces of bones, teeth, clothing, and looking at a mural containing over 8,000 skulls dug up from the area, arranged by age and gender. I think after seeing the prison left just as it was, complete with torture instruments, photos of the remains of prisoners after 'interrogation', and blood stains left on walls and floors, I just couldn't take any more. In spite of all the gruesomeness and the graphic portrayal of the regimes cruelty, the most harrowing part was an area of the museum containing thousands of photographs of the inmates, the faces of men, women, children and babies who were indiscriminantly wiped out for crimes such as 'laziness' or 'fear of being killed'.

I found that after I had learned more about the scale of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, I couldn't look at a Cambodian who was more than 35 or so without wondering how in the world they survived something so brutal and cruel and widespread. The sad part is that Cambodia is still riddled with corruption, and there's still a massive gun culture. There's not much more offensive than being asked, on leaving The Killing Fields, if you want to go to the shooting range to shoot an AK-47, but that only happens because there is a demand for it. Some backpackers obviously do leave The Killing Fields and think "Yeah, this is as good a time as any to go and mess about with the kind of weapons that helped create what I've just witnessed." Not only does it seem tremendously distasteful and disrespectful to do so, but you've got to wonder whether these people actually got the point of what they'd been looking at in any way.

The rest of out time in Phnom Penh was spent trying (unsuccessfully) to extend our tickets for another month in Asia, and making friends with many Dutch people (and an Irishman). Time being tight, we went from there straight to Siem Reap, home of the temples of Angkor. The temples themselves were amazingly old and beautiful, but the experience itself, unfortunately, was pretty unremarkable, due to the number of tourists who were there. We've been pretty lucky so far, even the Taj Mahal was pretty deserted when we were there, but it's difficult to enjoy sunset from the top of a mountain temple when there are so many tourists that you can't even see what everyone's standing on. I guess we were probably quite unlucky with the time of year that we visited.

From Siem Reap we had to get back to Bangkok, on what is commonly known as one of the worst roads in Asia. We'd met several people who had told us that the 7 hour trip from Siem Reap to the border was the worst bus trip they'd ever done, so we came armed with exceptionally low expectations, and valium. It really wasn't that bad in the end, the road was appalling, but in the absence of Bollywood films, I'd have to say that Trivandrum - Pondicherry wins hands down.

Back in Bangkok we spent a couple of days meeting up with people we'd met in various places, going to the dentist (immaculate, professional and CHEAP!) and doing a bit of shopping for warmer clothes for our arrival in NZ. We decided on Koh Phangan for our island stop, as the west coast weather hadn't been too great and the north side of Koh Phangan is really quiet and beautiful. On a recommendation we went to a tiny little cove called Haad Khom, with only three guesthouses and no proper road connecting you with the next town. There were lots more friends to be made there, and we ended up staying for a week and still being gutted when we finally had to go. We spent 3 days diving, and got our PADI Open Water Diver Certificate. I'm not sure if it'll be cheap enough to use it in NZ, but we both fancied a bit of a challenge anyway, so it seemed like a good way to spend a few days. I was pretty apprehensive at first, and found all the equipment made me feel really claustrophobic, but once you actually get under the water and learn how to handle the things that would normally make you panic, it's great! We had gorgeous weather and clear seas and loads of coral so I think we chose a good time and place for it.

From there we went straight to Penang, on the west coast of Malaysia, but to be honest, we were still in a bit of a huff about having to leave Haad Khom, and were a bit lazy about exploring much of the island. Malaysia seems to have elements of all the countries we've been so far, such is the diversity of the people. There are loads of muslims, hindus, thais, people of chinese descent and notable remnants of the colonial era. Know what all that means? Yup, the food is amazing!

I'll write more about Malaysia next time, which will be soon, I promise, but for now we're off to run wild in the hills for a few hours before Earl Gray and jammy scone o'clock. Hopefully we won't be out for as long as the Polish guy who got lost for four days on a tea plantation.

Hope everything's great at home,

Juliet