Elephants!

All over South East Asia, there are opportunities to spend time with elephants. We had been feeling reluctant about this because we were never sure how ethical it was; it says it's a sanctuary, but is it really? Why are these elephants not in the wild, is it because of us, the tourists? Is it even ok for an elephant to have a person riding on its back? It also made me question my own ethics when it comes to animals: why do I think it's ok to keep animals like horses, dogs, cows in captivity for our own benefit, but not elephants? We did a lot of research and reading into it because we really didn't want to support a business that is harmful to these beautiful, peaceful creatures in any way, and when we reached Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, we came to a conclusion: we would visit an elephant 'spa', but one that specified that there would be no elephant riding. Riding an elephant is harmful for the elephants for a number of reasons, mostly being that their spines are no way near as strong as a horse's - their strength is in their legs, and having people riding them all day long damages their backs and their handlers, while generally knowledgable about basic elephant healthcare, are not miracle workers able to fix a broken back. Also, because it goes against an elephant's instinct to let a person climb onto their back, it takes a lot of usually cruel training for them to submit to the rides, sometimes starting when they are babies and separated from their mothers. This is why we specifically decided against the riding. 

As for the other things, our research found that a lot of the 'non-riding' places took a lot more care of the elephants in general. The fact that they could charge a lot more to allow people to ride the poor creatures and chose not to speaks volumes in this part of the world, where tourists are seen (crude as this sounds) as walking ATMs. Yes, the elephants are in captivity instead of in the wild, but they are also safe against poaching (the ivory trade is still alive and kicking); they are fed and bred, boosting their endangered population numbers; they are cared for. This may sound like justification and plenty of people will still disagree with these organisations, but we went and spent a morning with elephants and it can't be undone so just enjoy the pictures and tell me I'm wrong later!

The day started with feeding the elephants. The camp we visited had three adults and a baby (his mother was one of the adults) and I just couldn't believe that we were right there with them! We fed them sugar cane, bananas complete with peel, and palm leaves. Their trunks took the food right out of our hands, it was so incredible. There were five mahouts or handlers, and only six tourists including Kim and me, so we really had a chance to interact with the elephants. I couldn't believe how much they ate, they just kept on going, no matter how much we gave them.

After feeding time, we just played with them. They baby got a bit possessive of his mother and charged at Kim at one point, but they were generally very passive and friendly. I got a kiss from one which essentially felt like a soggy Hoover was attached to my cheek. Another one lifted me up on her trunk which was rather terrifying until I was on solid ground again!

The baby elephant liked teething on one of the mahouts' heads

We then followed them down to the river nearby and gave them a bath. They absolutely loved being in the water and kept lolling around, falling sideways to immerse themselves, which could make for a hasty jump out of the way as an elephant came crashing through the water towards you. We scrubbed the dust off their backs with brushes and threw water over them with buckets while they sat in the water, enjoying the attention. 

The mahouts had taught them a trick where they would suck water up their trunks and spray it at you. And the water was not warm!

Our morning with the elephants was wonderful, I'm really glad that we did it but also that we took the time to find what felt like the right organisation to do it with. I wouldn't write it off altogether as a tourist but it is definitely worth the research.

Laos

Our introduction to Laos began with a 15 hour bus journey from Hue in central Vietnam, to Pakse in south Laos. The journey itself was supposed to take 12 hours but the company appeared to be more of a cargo transportation organisation than a normal passenger bus one, and at least an hour and a half was spent loading the bus up with cargo about 10km from where we started, while we sat inside and willed them to hurry up. The level of inefficiency in this part of the world drives me mad; why not load up the bus before picking up your few passengers, instead of telling them to wake up at 5am to then sit and wait until 8am before the journey really begins?! The staff were incredibly rude, clearly very scornful of tourists (yet willing to take our money). There were three westerners on our bus including myself and Kim, and when the staff stopped to buy food for all the passengers, we were left out because the meal was 'not for foreigners'. They didn't allow us to stop to buy our own food so it wasn't until 4.30pm that we ate, having been up since 5am. We were shouted at by the driver to hurry up at the border, yet he feigned deafness when I pointed out that we could only go as fast as the immigration process would allow and that we were in a queue. All in all, it was a very unpleasant end to our time in Vietnam/start to our journey in Laos.

So much cargo on our bus!

However, Laos improved from then onwards. We began in the very south at a place called Si Phan Don or 'the four thousand islands'; we stayed on the island of Don Det for a few days, soaking up the sun after our chilly time in central Vietnam and doing very little except taking in the view. We rented bikes one day and cycled around Don Det and across a bridge to Don Khon, the neighbouring island. We found some incredible waterfalls on the latter island and took in the amazing view for a while.

The sunsets in Don Det were beautiful, and many bars and restaurants were built on the river side so we could watch the sun go down over Cambodia, which was just on the other side of the river.

After reluctantly leaving the islands behind, we headed north to ths capital, Vientiane. We had heard mixed things about the city - mostly negative, that it was 'just another busy Asian city' - but we wanted to make our own minds up about it and personally, I'm glad we went. There's not a huge amount to do as a tourist, with some temples to visit and a mini, concrete version of Paris' Arc de Triomphe to climb, but the atmosphere is great: this city may not be visit able so much as liveable. It's very French, with cafes along every street, their chairs and tables spilling out onto the pavement and the smell of freshly baked croissants filling your nostrils: needless to say, we sampled a few!

Pha That Luang - Buddha's breastbone is rumoured to be buried inside

After a day or so in Vientiane, we headed to Vang Vieng, a tourist haven that's famous for its outdoor activities. Sadly it rained on our first day but then it brightened up and we went on a jungle hike, guided by a Lao man named La. Getting to where the hiking began involved wading across three stretches of river, which came up to our lower thigh and was quite fast flowing. Battling a current (the exit point was upstream from where we entered the water) in barefeet on a stony surface, while holding your trainers was an off-putting start to the day but it did get miles better. Once back on dry land, we walked along the base of some huge hills, trekking through tropical scenery. We reached a cave mouth and La told us this was a short-cut through the mountain; he broke up a piece of dried bamboo, lit it and led us down into the cave, holding the bamboo aloft to light our way. For ten-fifteen minutes we walked under/through the mountain, in complete darkness save for our bamboo torch: we heard bats flying above us, water dripped down onto our faces unexpectedly and I couldn't bear to think about the number of cobwebs I could see shimmering in the torch light. We emerged at the other end and set off through some more beautiful scenery, until we reached a hut on stilts with two elderly Lao men sitting underneath. Here we had lunch, sharing rice and barbecued meat with the men, who live in - and off - the jungle. One told us (through La's translation) that he planned to shoot a monkey the next morning and that monkey meat was very tasty. They also shared their grilled squirrel with us which had almost no meat on the bone but was marinaded in chilli and herbs so still tasted nice.

We left the men behind a walked up a hill too steep to be climbing with a belly full of rice. La cut off the path suddenly and led up through the trees to a waterfall, clambering over rocks to reach the bottom. There was a rock about two or three metres above the waterfall pool which we worked up the courage to jump off, into the water. The water was so cold that I could hardly breathe when I surfaced, I felt like I was being crushed. La climbed to the top of the waterfall and jumped from there, probably 15 metres up! Not only that, he held his lit cigarette inside his mouth and pulled it out, still lit, when he came up for air! 

Can you see him at the top there?!

Until a few years ago, Vang Vieng was synonymous with 'tubing' in the backpacker world, and 'tubing' really meant 'begin drinking at 11am while floating down a river in an inner tyre, stopping at multiple bars along the riverbank and getting blind drunk'. The number of tourist deaths rose and rose, unsurprisingly, and the police were reluctantly forced to get involved. You can still go tubing in Vang Vieng now, but it's much safer: only two bars are allowed to open along the river so there's less opportunity for people to drink themselves into a stupor before floating off down a river for 3km. They also no longer give out free drinks. There are little boys who work at the bars, waiting on the river side with ropes tied to plastic water bottles: they chuck the bottle beside you, you grab on and they drag you to the river bank. You then float downstream for a few kilometres, although the water level was quite low when we went so you had to paddle a bit to speed up. Kim hitched a ride on a passing kayak for a stretch! It was a fun day, although as soon as the went behind the mountains that line the river, it grew very cold and we just wanted to be out of the water but you have to get out at a certain place because that's where the trucks back to town wait.

Sunset over Vang Vieng

After Vang Vieng, we went north to Luang Prabang, a pretty city famous for its night market and some beautiful waterfalls outside town. We took advantage of both, spending an afternoon exploring and swimming at the waterfalls, and most evenings bartering at the market. Asians love to barter, I've become quite good at it, and try my luck with everything from taxi rides to street food!

Luang Prabang bear sanctuary

Our two weeks in Laos went too quickly and I wish we'd had more time. We were restricted by a flight booked from northern Thailand to Myanmar however, so it was time to go. I think I feel this way about most places I've been to: Laos, I'll be back.

Hoi An

Everyone I've met who has been to Vietnam, be it on this trip or friends from back home, has agreed that Hoi An is their favourite Vietnamese city. This is always a risky claim in my opinion, because in saying such a thing, you raise people's hopes and expectations so that by the time they see the place for themselves, it has been massively hyped up. Luckily for Kim and I, we were not disappointed. 

The city of Hoi An is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a well preserved example of a South East Asian trading port, dating back to the 15th century. There is a very obvious Chinese and Japanese influence on the architecture, having been considered by both nations as the most important trade post in the region for many centuries. 

The Japanese covered bridge

Unfortunately for us, there was a lot of rain in Hoi An while we were there which made sightseeing quite unpleasant, as most of the sites are outside! However, part of the draw to Hoi An is the fantastic array of restaurants, bars and coffee shops (Vietnamese coffee is a thing of wonder) so we made sure to eat and drink our fill, trying a lot of the local dishes. We hired bicycles to get around town, as the city is quite long and narrow so exploring on foot can take a while.

Hoi An is famous for its silk lanterns, which hang all over the city, particularly in the 'old town' where the ancient port is located. 

We celebrated New Year's Eve here, joining up with friends we'd met in other cities along the way as well as new people we'd met just that day. I always find New Year's Eve a little bit anticlimactic so to celebrate in a new city, surrounded by only recently acquired friends was quite fun as your expectations of how good a night it will be are a little lower. We had a great night because we had no idea of whether it would be good or not, if that makes any sense at all!

Kim and I seeing in the new year with awful Vietnamese wine

The day after new year's day, a group of ten of us hired motorbikes (I rode pillion) and drove north to the Marble Mountains, a cluster of marble and limestone hills that rise dramatically out of the ground and make quite a contrast to the relatively flat surroundings. All of the 'mountains' have caves and tunnels with Buddhist shrines and mini temples inside, some of which you can visit if you don't mind exploring underground a little. The Viet Cong hid a hospital inside some of the mountains during the Vietnam War because there was an American base nearby, and the VC rightly guessed that the US Army would never suspect an enemy encampment so close to their own, so never explored the mountains for intruders. There are also a few pagodas on the mountain tops, ornately decorated in the traditional Buddhist way and perched quite recklessly on juts of solid, slippery marble.

Climbing up the marble mountain 

Hoi An is also famous for getting clothes tailor-made at a very reasonable price, so we had to check it out. I had a skirt and kimono made, with the fabrics and design of my choosing, tailored to my measurements (I asked her to make the skirt's waistband a little larger because I've lost a bit of weight here and don't expect it to last once I'm back in London!). I looked around at the tailor's fabrics but I wanted something different to what they had in stock, so I got on the back of a lady's motorbike and she drove me across town to her sister's shop to see if I could find what I wanted in there. The level of service is incredible, and my two items (which included multiple fittings) came to £30 in total. 

Hoi An is the type of place where you could get stuck. It's beautiful, it's calm, there's plenty to see and do; unfortunately the Vietnamese government didn't think that was a good enough excuse though and we had to move on before our visas expired. I will come back though, I am not done with Vietnam...

We made a lot of friends in Vietnam and had to say some goodbyes in Hoi An

Christmas abroad

This Christmas was the third one I've been abroad for in six years: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in '09; Buenos Aires, Argentina in '12; and Mui Ne, Vietnam in '15. To those of you who know how close I am to my family, you might find it a strange time for me to spend away from home. However, to me it makes a lot of sense: after all, Christmas falls at an unfortunately cold time of year in England. I don't like winter so it's a perfect time to travel! In Cabo I had a massage on the beach, in Buenos Aires I walked around the city in the sunshine and in Mui Ne, I got a sun tan by the pool. It is sad to miss Christmas at home but it does happen every year.

Having said that, this year was by far the least Christmassy one I've ever experienced. Mexico and Argentina are both Catholic countries so the nation celebrates the holiday too, whereas Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist and while the restaurants did put up a tree and market stall holders pressured you into buying a santa's hat, there wasn't a feel of Christmas in the air.

Despite that, we had a lovely day. We woke up early to watch the sunrise over Mui Ne's famous rolling sand dunes, located about 40 minutes drive from where we were staying.  A group of us from our hostel went together in a jeep, driven by a local guide. The sunrise was spectacular, turning the sky all sorts of wonderful colours. The sand dunes themselves were also very impressive, stretching out as far as the eye could see, and not nearly as spoilt by visitors as most sights in South East Asia (there's normally a huge problem with litter across this region). We wandered around the dunes, running down and climbing up, for about an hour as dawn broke behind us. 

Sunrise is purple, who knew?!

We then headed to some different dunes, made of red sand, where for 60p you can rent a sled from one of the village children and slide down the dunes. 

Thanks to Kim for the picture

The next stop on our Christmas tour was to a place called Fairy Stream, which is a stream along a red clay riverbed, and so called because the limestone rocks that tower over the little, ankle-high stream make the place look magical. We waded upstream to climb up yet another dune to look down at the stream below. It really was very beautiful, with such a contrast of colours and landscaping.

After the tour, we were dropped back at our hostel and like the Germans are wont to do, we saved our seats by the pool with our towels to make sure we got the best spots! By this stage it was still only 9am and the majority of the other hostel dwellers were still sleeping off their Christmas Eve celebrations. 

We spent the day by the pool, soaking up the 28°c heat. When people did start to emerge and began wishing each other happy Christmas, it came as a shock each time because I'd never felt less like it was Christmas in all my 26 years (apart from probably my first few Christmasses as a baby because let's face it, I was probably just excited by the amount of food around me).

I was still on antibiotics from my intestinal parasite so didn't have a drop of alcohol all of Christmas day, a first for quite a few years. For lunch I had a chicken salad sandwich and for my Christmas dinner I had squid in sweet chilli sauce with plain steamed rice; it was hardly a day of culinary excitement but I was afraid of getting ill again. I am planning on making myself a Christmas-style roast with all the trimmings once I'm home though because it is a meal I'm particularly fond of, mostly because of stuffing. 

Boxing day was much of the same, although without such an early start. Played some volleyball, swam a few lengths, read my book and worked on my tan: no complaints here! The weather in Mui Ne couldn't have been better, it was wonderfully hot and clear but there was a definite breeze and less humidity than in the bigger cities we'd recently visited. I even allowed myself a drink or two on Boxing day because I'd finished my course of antibiotics. We walked to the sea front to watch a spectacular sunset and thus ended a lovely, albeit rather un-festive, Christmas abroad.

Sightseeing in Saigon

Saigon, or Ho Chi Mihn City as it is now officially named, is a large city in southern Vietnam. Formerly the capital of South Vietnam, when the country was split in half, it is still a massive business and industry hub. The roads are packed with motorbikes which is the main mode of transport in Vietnam and there are very few pedestrian crossings so to get across the road, you just have to confidently walk out and hope they weave around you. It takes some getting used to I can tell you! 

We spent 10 days in and around the city, which was perhaps a little longer than it deserved but we really did like it there. We met some great people which aided in the length of time spent but it's just an interesting place to explore and enjoy. It's a great place for sightseeing.

Independence Palace once was the central administration building for the government in Saigon and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnamese war, but has since been converted into a museum. It was here in 1975 that the Northern Vietnamese tanks took the city during the fall of Saigon - they drove through the palace gates and ended the war; the South conceded power over to the North and the two countries became one again. The story goes that the President of South Vietnam told the North Vietnamese soldiers that crashed through the gates, 'I have been waiting since early this morning to transfer power to you.' A soldier replied, 'There is no question of you transferring power. You cannot give up what you do not have.' It was built in the 1960s after the original building on the site was bombed in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the President. The outside was designed to look like bamboo.

The view from the President's balcony. The gates behind us were the ones the tanks crashed through

The War Remnants museum, or the Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression as it was previously known, is a permanent exhibition about the First Indochina War (1946-54) and the Vietnam War (1955-75) and is comprised mostly of photographs depicting the horrors and destruction caused by both wars on Vietnam. It was a pretty horrendous afternoon looking around the museum; the photos and other exhibits are brutal in their attempt to show the truth of what happened. There's a room dedicated to the after effects of Agent Orange, a toxic substance dropped by the Americans, which is still affecting people to this day. The survivors who were exposed to these chemical bombs have been genetically affected and the evidence is seen in their children, who are born with mutations such as misshapen or no limbs, or as conjoined twins, some with skin diseases or congenital medical problems. Many children have been abandoned after birth, the parents either ashamed of them or afraid of the cost of raising a child with so many medical problems. It was really upsetting to read about. Like I said my blog about the Cambodian genocide though, as horrendous as these things are to read or hear about, it's so important to learn and remember, for the sake of the victims.

Our sightseeing in Saigon wasn't just about museums; as much as I love them, there's only so much information one can absorb before needing a break. So part of our experience of Saigon was visiting some of the rooftop bars that look out over the city! This was a fantastic way to see the city lights (both visits were at nighttime) and quite a contrast to the backpacker experience of sleeping in hostel dorms and sharing bathrooms with 9 other people. Was a lot of fun!

The view over Saigon from the 52nd floor

We also visited Saigon Zoo which I would not recommend to anyone, not if you care about animals in any way. It was a very sad place and had we known it would have been so bad, we wouldn't have given them our money. I love London zoo and Whipsnade zoo but I don't think developing countries care for animals in the same way, zoos are purely a money making device rather than for conservation or protective purposes. I won't be visiting another. 

Despite all the gallivanting around, I was very unwell during our time in Saigon, having picked up a parasite in Cambodia (naughty thing crossed a border illegally) so had to visit a doctor. I had been optimistically hoping it would just go away if I ignored it but apparently that's not how modern medicine works. The clinic was great though; I didn't have an appointment so wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait but I was in and out within two hours. I had a consultation at first, then had a blood test and an ultrasound in case it was something to do with my organs, but the conclusion was acute gastroenteritis caused by a parasite and I was prescribed four types of medication to sort me out. The whole thing only cost me £30 including the four prescriptions and was a hell of a lot quicker than any medical experience I've had in the UK. There are definitely advantages to private healthcare, couldn't believe how quickly they processed all the test results for example - they can take a week in England! This is now the second time I've had a parasite, the first time being in Guatemala, and it is very unpleasant. A downside of travelling I suppose. (One upside is that you lose weight! I've lost 4kg which is a bit extreme but you have to stay positive in these scenarios.) You'll be glad to hear I'm all better now though. Ready for more street food and adventuring, will I ever learn?!

The Cu Chi tunnels

In the town of Cu Chi, 70km away from Saigon, near the Cambodian border, there is a network of tunnels underground which once made up the final stretch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This trail was used by the Viet Cong to travel from northern Vietnam to Southern Vietnam during the war with America, to avoid the bombs that the US and Southern Vietnamese Armies were dropping all over to destroy the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong were guerrilla soldiers, fighting against the south Vietnamese government which had been put in place by the USA - Vietnam wanted independence from foreign intervention and the majority wanted a Communist government but America was terrified that all of South East Asia would 'fall' to Communism if one country became Communist so tried to interfere to prevent this. (This is a very basic explanation of why the almost 20 year long Vietnam War happened. It's a wonder I didn't do better at university.)

The tunnels still mostly exist, at least in this area, and we decided to pay them a visit as you can go on a day trip from Saigon. When you first arrive, they make you watch a video which is dubbed into English. It shows footage of the war and talks mostly of the Vietnamese war heroes, so called because of all the Americans they killed. It was quite bizarre to sit and watch it, such flagrant propaganda, especially as they kept fondly referring to soldiers as 'great American killer hero'. What made it even more unusual an experience was the sound of live machine gun fire in the background, floating through the trees, because part of the tour of the tunnels includes a shooting range where you can pay to fire an AK-47. Of course it does. 

After the video, our guide walked us through a forest, pointing out different indicators to show the existence of the tunnels under out feet: a ventilation hole, disguised as a termite nest; a trap (roped off) which was made out of sharpened bamboo sticks in case any stray Americans came along; a hidden entrance to the tunnel network itself. You were able to go into this hidden entrance so Kim had a try.

Bamboo sticks hidden under a moving trap door

We walked around the area for a while, being shown various entrances to the tunnels, which were absolutely tiny, and our guide explained to us about the different levels of tunnels - there were three in total. The first level, 3-4m below the surface, was for moving around and getting in place to attack or ambush the Americans; the second level, 6-7m down, was the living quarters, for cooking and sleeping, hospitals, and also where the children went to school (whole communities lived underground, it wasn't just for soldiers, it was also for protection from bombs); the third level, 9-10m down, was to escape the enemy quickly and was essentially impregnable. The tunnels were only 0.5-1m wide so no Americans could fit, or very few anyway. 

Entrance to a tiny tunnel

It was so interesting to imagine a whole town underground but then quite awful when you thought about why. The people only came out at night and not even every night, some people would go for days underground before emerging for fresh air. The Americans and Southern Vietnamese armies were carpet-bombing the area, in an attempt to destroy or flush out the Viet Cong or their sympathisers, so it was essential for people to stay underground for their own safety. In areas that were known by the army to support the northern Vietnamese cause of independence, all were assumed guilty by American soldiers, so people would have been killed without questioning to eradicate any chances of them being an enemy. 

We then reached the shooting range and our guide told us it was 'a once in a lifetime opportunity' to fire an AK-47. He wasn't correct however because I've actually already shot one, when I lived in Dallas (where else?), so I decided that once was enough and opted out of the activity. Kim decided to do it though! 

The final bit of the trip was to go down into the tunnels and crawl through. They had been widened a bit, to allow westerners to actually fit through them, and the stretch you can go through is about 100m long, with an opportunity to exit every 20 metres. I thought it would be worse than it was; the idea of being underground, crawling in a cramped tunnel had filled me with fear previously and I expected that I would want to get out as soon as possible once in there. However, I made it the whole way through, which really surprised me. Parts of it were tall enough that I could walk in an very stooped manner, other bits required hands and knees, and there were parts where you had to lower yourself through a hole in the floor or climb up through a hole in the ceiling to keep going. It was so hot and stuffy down there too, I emerged at the other end positively glowing (sweating). 

Such an interesting insight into the war, a side of it I had previously known very little about. I did a module on the Vietnam war in my second year of university but reading a book and actually visiting a historic site are two very different things! 

The Cambodian genocide

This post is going to horrify and appall you, and I'm going to be graphic because what happened in Cambodia less than forty years ago should not be dumbed down or diminished for the sake of sensitive souls: millions of people were brutally murdered at the hands of their neighbours and countrymen (and women) and it's a horrific history of which a lot of the West are blissfully unaware.

In 1969, as part of the Vietnam War, the US started a second 'secret war' i.e. undisclosed to the public, in the east of Cambodia, in an attempt to rid the Viet Cong (Vietnamese communists) of their trail from North to South Vietnam, as this trail took them through Laos and Cambodia. The east of Cambodia was bombed for 6 years, killing thousands and making thousands more refugees as they fled a war that their country was not involved in. This assisted in the rise of the Khmer Rouge, a communist political faction who used the situation in the east as a way to win support from the rural, working class by blaming the government and the wealthier citizens who lived in the cities for the crisis. The rural rice farmers were largely uneducated and were easily won over in blaming the urban class for the strife. The Khmer Rouge's political aim was to restore the country to its former traditions, removing technology, education and progress and replacing it with farming, extreme nationalism and communism - no-one was to own property of any kind, anything you grew belonged to everyone and there was to be no reliance on or trade with other countries; self-sustainability was crucial to their ideology. Anyone of mixed heritage was considered inferior or undesirable.

In 1975, with the end of the Vietnamese war (and therefore the bombing in the east of Cambodia) Khmer Rouge troops drove into the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, to cheers and celebration from the crowds because the war was finally over. However, within hours they started evacuating citizens from the city, demanding they leave to the countryside because 'the Americans were going to bomb all cities' in retaliation. People from all walks of life, rich and poor, old and young, were forced from all the cities with the promise that they could return in 3 days time. This was a lie.

Many people were making the journey on foot, with few supplies due to the previously mentioned lie about how long they would be away from home. Those who had cars or bikes soon abandoned them as petrol was not made available. The Khmer Rouge marched the urban citizens into the countryside, with the majority of the people walking for 10-14 days before reaching the village or rural town that they were permitted to stay in and build themselves a new life. The urban families were shunned in these new communities due to the Khmer Rouge belief that it was urban Cambodians that had caused the nation's troubles. They were made to work on farms but unused to field labour, they were struck for slow work or for growing tired more quickly than the rural workers.

Families were often separated, with the teenagers and people in their early twenties going to labour camps. Some younger children were 'headhunted' if they showed that they were strong or hardworking and were sent to child soldier camps where they were taught how to kill. They were encouraged to spy on their families on the rare occasions they were allowed a visitation and to tell the Khmer Rouge if their parents had said anything negative about the government.

Slowly people started disappearing; Khmer Rouge soldiers would show up at houses in the villages and take people away under pretences such as requiring assistance with paperwork in the next village or a van being stuck in the mud a few kilometres  away. Some didn't even bother to lie but just took the suspects away. These people never returned. The people initially targeted by the new government were educated people who might question this new way of life in Cambodia or those who might resist or rise up against them. Teachers, doctors, professors, anyone who spoke a foreign language, even people who wore glasses were seen as a threat and therefore were imprisoned and soon after, executed. Other people were essentially worked to death, with a combination of overwork and underfeeding. If you were caught stealing food, you were injured or killed because the food you grew was collective food and you were therefore stealing from the government. Women were severely beaten for attempting to beg for more food for their children and the majority of children under five died from malnutrition. Those that survived were often physically underdeveloped, stunted from lack of nutrition at a crucial stage of development.

The Khmer Rouge created execution centres, now infamously named 'the killing fields', where the undesirable citizens were taken to be killed en masse. I recently learned that at the Nazi concentration camps, the gas chambers were developed because the Nazis didn't want their elite citizens to be traumatised by killing so many people. The gas chambers removed people's 'guilt' or level of actual involvement because they weren't physically executing the victims themselves. The theory was that the Nazi soldiers involved with the executions would not have blood on their hands in the same way so could then go on to continue the master race relatively unscathed from their own murderous past. The Khmer Rouge, by contrast, were thoroughly unconcerned by the impact their orders to kill would have on their followers: it was kill when ordered to or be killed yourself, and they meant it. Worse still, ammunition was precious to the Khmer Rouge and the victims were not deemed 'important enough' to use bullets on; Khmer Rouge soldiers had to kill each of their victims by hand. So they were hacked with blunt tools; beaten with hammers; hoes, scythes and rakes found new uses; even thick, jagged palm branches were turned into weapons. At the killing fields memorial site outside Phnom Penh, which once was a series of mass graves, over 300 people were systematically killed this way every day. Up to 20,000 of these killing fields have been found since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. The worst thing I saw at the killing fields outside Phnom Penh was something called 'the killing tree': this was where soldiers took babies and toddlers by their ankles and beat them against the tree until they died. I burst into tears at this point of the visit and had to walk away for a while. The Khmer Rouge had a phrase which roughly translates to 'if you want to kill a weed, you need to eliminate the roots' which is why they even killed children: they wanted no one left from families who had been targeted, to grow up wanting vengeance against the Khmer Rouge.

As well as visiting the killing fields memorial site, we also visited the S-21 jail, which was once a high school in the centre of Phnom Penh but was converted into a jail, interrogation centre and torture chamber. This is where people were brought when suspected of guilt against the Khmer Rouge. They were accused of crimes such as collusion with the CIA and the KGB and charged as spies and traitors against their country. However, they would not be killed until they had confessed their crimes and so were imprisoned and  tortured until they would sign a confession. They were then essentially signing their own death warrant. The guards knew that these were false confessions but they either didn't care or were afraid of being at the receiving end of the torture, so kept on with their actions.  After a prisoner escaped from his cell and commited suicide by jumping off the building, the soldiers put up barbed wired to ensure no one else could die of their own accord. This was the only photograph I took that day.

Khmer Rouge medics were trained for four months, all doctors having been eliminated in the initial purge of educated and therefore undesirable Cambodians. They practised injections on pillows and learnt anatomy by cutting people open who were still alive. This was the level of dedication to ridding the country of any progress it had made in the previous few centuries; kill doctors and replace them with untrained amateurs. The hypocrisy: Pol Pot, the head of the Khmer Rouge, was himself a university graduate and was fluent in Khmer (the Cambodian language) and French. The majority of his cabinet were equally well educated. Many had even studied abroad in France and came from the cities - these were not the revolutionary children of farmers rising against the aristocracy, they were cunning, evil people with messed up ideologies and no regard for human life.

Ultimately, between two and three million people were killed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in the space of four years. That made up over a quarter of the population at the time. And this all happened within the last 40 years. Representatives from the Khmer Rouge held a seat in the UN until 1993, despite what they had done. It wasn't until the early 2000s that any of the leaders were charged with genocide and crimes against humanity and by that time Pol Pot had escaped justice by dying in 1998, some say from suicide, after it was announced that he would be turned over to an international tribunal. The international community has a horrible habit of allowing genocide and other crimes against humanity to happen and not really doing much to prevent it, stop it from continuing or even really punishing those who were involved. It's a sad reality that no-one offered help to the Cambodians when they were dying from starvation or being systematically killed, yet when a few terrorist attacks happen in the West by extremists, all military forces are at the ready to search and destroy. There is an odd view of right and wrong in the world, about who we choose to protect and who we allow to suffer, all depending on the Western agenda. That doesn't seem right to me at all.