Holiday!!

Just returned from my holiday around Cambodia with my girlfriend. We spent a few nights in Phnom Penh which was really interesting, good bars and restaurants and plenty of things to do. The city has a really good feel about it.

We went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". An estimated 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, tortured and killed at Tuol Sleng.

A sobering experience and a graphic portrayal of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge as they went on to kill an estimated 20% of the population. A bit weird were the coaches of foreign tourists seemingly oblivious to the museums content and just wanting to take photos of the graphic images it contained - doubly chilling.....

So, on to Siem Reap. The flooding has been terrible in the region here and many hundreds have been killed and many thousands displaced from their homes. The road on the 4.5 hour journey to Siem Reap was flooded either side all the way there with families living and keeping their livestock of the road, water everywhere as far as the eye could see, and it is even worse in more rural regions. The rains seem to be coming to an end now.

Siem Reap is a great place with lots of good places to eat and a charming feel. Much more touristy than I have been used to but still really nice. It was a bit flooded with water up to our ankles for the first couple of days but it dried out after that. Great vegi restaurants and some really good Khmer food.

We hired a tuk tuk for the day - Mr Danny - who took us to all the temples we wanted to go to including Angkor Wat. Very impressive and an experience I will never forget. The temples are beautiful and well kept. There were not too many tourists so much of our day was spent on our own in the incredible surrounds. There are so many amazing temples and ruins stretching for miles and miles but you only ever see Angkor in the media.

We then traveled back and stayed in PP for a night before going down to Kampot for a night to visit a few old haunts. The next morning we went to Koh Rong Samloem island, 3 hours boat ride into the Gulf of Thailand. It is a navy owed island who lease one of its incredible bays to a guy who has set up 12 beachside bungalows in paradise!!! Nothing could have prepared me for just how beautiful and secret this place is. Only a handful of people were on this tropical island with amazing beaches, reef , bush walks etc and a great little bar and restaurant. We spent some time with a really nice American couple who were getting picked up by a yacht they had chartered to explore the even more remote islands. There were beautiful fish to see and some interesting wildlife. I am not a great fan of beach type holidays but this place was very special and seemingly untouched by tourism apart from this one, well run, sustainably managed place. Shhh don't tell anyone. I am actually going back there with some friends this weekend!! Check out the sunsets!!

It was then back for a few days in sunny Kampot and some trips in the local countryside to show my girlfriend some of the sights and meet some of my friends. So a great trip all round, Cambodia is a very beautiful place, easy to get around with lovely people.

The new dance commission with Stopgap has started now so I am back to work sorting that, the four artists arrived safely from the UK and started work, although I think the heat may have been a bit of a shock, but as the saying goes 'if you can't stand the heat...get out of the dance studio' or something....