Day 1 had been allocated to get paperwork for the bikes sorted and a chance to get over any jetlag. The bikes would not be arriving at the Castle Hotel until later that afternoon so after speaking to the guides a trip to the Killing Fields was organised. A local Tuktuk driver was hailed in the street and a group of us headed out of town to visit the Killing Fields which is a monument to the genocide that took place in Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime. Being a group of bikers of course we could not avoid a bit a friendly fun a race started between the different Tuktuk drivers as we sliced our way through the Phnom Penh traffic.
When we arrived at the Killing Fields the mood of the group changed completely. The place is eerie almost as the souls of those killed there hang heavily over the site. The most striking part of the site is the tower of skulls that sits in the centre of the site. The information that describes the site is simple but effective in explain the events that took place at the site. The ground still leaches body parts when it rains heavily and bodies have only been exhumed from 50% of the mass graves.
We returned back to the hotel with a revised perspective of the inhumanity that man shows to his fellow humans.
Late that afternoon the bikes that would take us on our tour of Cambodia arrived. The trusty Honda XR 250 it is a long time since I have ridden a bike with such a small capacity engine but our tour leaders reassures that these bikes are the best tool for the job will run forever and will take the abuse that the trails will through at us.
