Sen Monorom was more of a stop on the journey around the east of Cambodia. I didn’t know what I wanted to do there, but I knew I wanted to go.

When I got to Sen Monorom (pronounced “san mon-ooor-um”), I did the usual procedure of walking around until I found a hotel. The place I went to first, which, as-per my policy of not ruling anything out, was eventually the one I stayed in, despite it looking pretty ridiculous from the outside. The next day I had a walk around and found somewhere with people who spoke English and were in possession of a map. I took the map and rented a motorbike from someone across the road, who was inextricably linked to the first place. The day was spent riding through the Cambodian countryside, looking for waterfalls.

The bike I was on clearly wasn’t designed for some of the roads I took it along, but it coped well, being easily the most well-maintained bike I had ever rented. First, I went to try and find Dak Dam waterfall. After looking it up in the guide book, it said that it was almost impossible to find, but I found it without any problems after asking a few of the people I met along the way. It was a bit smaller than I was expecting and had quite a bit of rubbish in it, but it was in the middle of nowhere and satisfying to find. I got back on my bike and went to try and find Romnear waterfall. This was much more difficult, as, as the bloke I rented the bike off said afterwards, the roads had changed since that map was made. It was still a good indication of roughly where these things were, but it took about 3 hours of riding around to find the second one. Finally, after going down a track that I didn’t think had anything at the bottom of it, I found the second waterfall. It was much bigger than the first one and even more remote.

I got back to the hotel and deposited the bike, getting up fairly early the next day for the bus to Koh Nhek. This was a stopping point on the almost non-existent road to Ban Lung, which I was wanting to get to by bus. I asked the guy who had rented me the bike the day before how much it would be and he recommended getting a motorbike from Sen Monorom to Koh Nhek for $60. I managed to find someone outside who would do it for $50, but after walking to the bus station (a space in the middle of the market), I found there was a bus leaving in 10 minutes for Koh Nhek. It would wait for me, but I had to go and pack my stuff as quickly as possible. Some guy who was helping me translate offered to take me on his bike and eventually helped by ferrying me between the bus station, the hotel and where the bus was waiting, which was a petrol station out of town. He managed to get the price of the ticket down, so I gave him the different plus a few extra thousand Riel. He wasn’t completely happy with this, but it was all he was getting!

I arrived in Kompong Cham on another un-exciting bus ride from Phnom Penh. I had actually come here as there had not been any buses to Sen Monorom, which is where I actually wanted to go to. I’m glad I made the stop!

After negotiating some moto-drivers and getting a baguette, I walked around and found a hotel. The choices were un-inspiring, so I went for the one I liked the most. This, I think, was the biggest hotel in Kompong Cham, but I liked the vibe so I stayed there. After spending one night there, I got told the next morning that I could not keep the same room, as it had already been let out to another guest, so I began contemplating the home stay, which I had seen advertised on leaflets. I didn’t particularly want to keep travelling, as I had done much of this the day before, so I gave the bloke on the leaflet a call. He was very friendly and talked about all of the things that I could and didn’t need to do, so I agreed for someone to come and pick me up at 13:00. They arrived at 12:30, having sat outside for half-an-hour and I got on the motorbike and we went to Chiro village.

Once in the village, I met his family and they showed me my bed. Later on, the same person took me across the road to the school, where a group of 8-11 year olds were having an English lesson. After listening to some French tourists destroy the pronunciation of words such as “refrigerator” and “telephone”, I decided to get up and give them an English lesson. I got up and went to the front and got all of the children to repeat the words with correct pronunciation, breaking them up into syllables. It seemed to work, as you could tell what they were saying at the end of the lesson.

After the English lesson, the bloke who had been taking the lesson (not originally from Chiro but still Cambodian), took us and a load of the children down to the river for swimming. Here me and another French tourist threw children about for about 40 minutes to an hour, before heading back for food. Most of the French tourists departed and I was left with one in my family’s house, who was actually really easy to get on with. We ate and then got taken to the music school-teacher’s house, to hear some of the children practising music for a performance to other tourists in the city. They do it every night, doing the show at weekends and it was very good. I got savaged my mosquitoes, something I paid for in Sen Monorom.

The next day I said goodbye and the mother of one of the children who I had been throwing around in the river got all teary. I had only been there for a day, but I think she had got quite attached and didn’t want me to leave. I decided that I really needed to be in Sen Monorom, so thought I would continue and got the father of the family to drive me back to the city. Here I got on a bus to Sen Monorom.

This was a fairly short visit, as there were only two things that I wanted to do: go to S-21, the genocide museum and the killing fields.

I arrived in Phnom Penh after another hassle-free journey on one of the big buses. I got on this in Kampot and arrived in Phom Penh a few hours later. A couple who were also on the bus offered to help me once I was in the bus station at the other end. They had sounded English on the bus and it turned out that they were from Bristol with 3 weeks to explore Cambodia before going back to work. We got on really well and it was very nice to speak to someone from your own country!

After getting some tips from the friendly bus couple, I headed in the direction of one of the areas that they had recommended. It turned out that there was nothing there (in my opinion) and so I got on a motorbike to another place that they had described as being a bit too well-to-do. I got there and it seemed much better, so I spent a while looking around and eventually found one guest house. It was good enough, but I only spent one night here, as I didn’t like the vibe and I had found somewhere else with a bit more going on the next day.

Once I had moved rooms, I went to Tuol Sleng, the genocide museum. This was a school that was converted by the Khmer Rouge as an interrogation centre for suspected enemies of the revolution before transfer to the killing fields. The killing fields I went to the next day, which was a very moving experience. They have a very good quality audio guide that you can take with you through the exhibit. All of the mass graves have been excavated, but there are still items of clothing and fragments of bone coming to the surface on a regular basis. I even found a shell casing sticking out of the mud in one of the areas near the graves. I could go into more detail, but it was very graphic and it still has a place in modern history, with trails against the main party members still continuing.

After going around the killing fields, my remork driver wanted to get some extra cash and shift a girl who had been left at the killing fields to Tuol Sleng. I objected to this, as we had agreed on a price, but we got it lowered as he was making extra money from moving her. We actually had a really good conversation about the killing fields, which she had been to the day before and departed outside Tuol Sleng. After that I went back to the hotel and got ready to go to Kompong Cham the next day.

Below is an audio recording which is used on the guide in the killing fields and will only make sense if you have been there. It was written after the liberation of Phnom Penh in 1979 and is called ‘Oh Phnom Penh’. From the audio guide: “it speaks of love for the city and sadness for all that was lost”:

The journey to Kampot was a straightforward one, with me getting up and making the leisurely walk to the bus stop, which was just outside the hotel. I got to Kampot roughly 30 minutes later and walked around until I found a hotel (or guest house).

Whilst in Kampot, I did 2 things: cycle around Koh D’tray island and go and visit some of the old train stations on the now dis-used (but being upgraded) railway track around Kampot.

Koh D’tray is very pretty, with a red dirt road passing through several villages and salt flats. I got as far as Phnom Dung, a mountain which was meant to give you 270 degree views, but the mountain was more of the hill and it had several angry dogs near the top, so I decided not to continue. I went back through some of the other villages which was fun.

On day two I cycled to two train stations, the one nearest Kampot (which looked very futuristic) and another one between Kampot and Sihanoukville (which was more of a shell). It was a good day though and I got to see a slightly different side of Cambodia, stopping at a school and seeing some of the goings-on of life around the road I was on.

Whilst in Kampot, I also watched The Killing Fields, which is pretty much essential viewing for anyone intending to visit this area.