Sabaai dii Laos, Johm riab sua Cambodia

We loved our last few days in Laos, relaxing, the most eventful moment was when Trevor tripped over a snake and it slithered over his foot and off across the road into the grass. It was quite big too, made for an anxious half hour walk in our jandals back to our room at dusk! Cambodia lived up to it's reputation at border crossings, though I think it was a Laos problem. The VIP bus that we all had tickets for was nearly full when it arrived so the 25 or so extras including us were taken in another bus to the border. All formalities were taken care of then the VIP bus left and we were told a Cambodian bus would be there in 30 minutes... That stretched to 3 plus  hours, there is nowhere to go, the nearest town being miles away.  Then we were told the bus had broken down... More people arrived at the border, eventually 2 12 seater minivans showed up from Laos and everyone including all the bags piled in. We had 18 in ours and more in the other, noone was staying behind!! They took us to Stung Treng, the nearest town. Lucky for us we only had tickets to there. Some of the others had paid to go to the big cities, another 8-12 hours, they were all put on an old local bus, goodness knows if they got there or not. We wandered the town, a young guy asked us if we wanted to visit his hospitality school so we did. It provides opportunities for poor rural young people to train at this centre, it has rooms and a restaurant. They could speak English pretty well and the 5 guys we met were great to chat with.Their exit exam was coming up so we were given the royal treatment when we 'dined' as they made sure they got everything right. Fresh spring rolls, rice, whole fish, it was great. Cambodia is also very poor but maybe not as poor as Laos. Very flat country, lots of rice fields not particularly scenic so far. We left early next day on a bus all the way to Phnom Penh, about 9 hrs. Visited the Tuol Sleng (genocide) museum, (the actual prison) and Choeung Ek, one of the killing fields and now a memorial. Similar feelings to visiting a concentration camp. The disbelief these things happen and that people can do this to their own people. In the rainy season (now) the dirt keeps getting washed away and we could see more bones and clothing near the surface. There is also a big memorial which houses (10 stories high) skulls and bones and clothing. About 20% of the population, about 3 million people were murdered over 3 years. Morbidly sobering places.The people here are very friendly, a lot speak English, but they all seem to regard tourists as walking banks and device lots of strategies to take your money! Everything for tourists is charged in US $ and at the ATM you get $US as well. Bizarre. Quite a lot of beggars in the cities, we saw none in Laos. But also more evidence of wealth with some nice houses, though the majority are still shacks on stilts and new cars among the motorbikes and tuk tuks. Signs warning of mine fields and UXO, a reminder of the Vietnam war when the US dropped millions of bombs on the Ho Chi Min trail. NZ ders don't have too much to complain about!