Cambodia; where people are happy just to be alive!

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Good morning / afternoon / evening / night everyone,

My trip in Cambodia (“Srok Khmer”) is over, a small country in Southeast Asia where there is finally peace after three decades of war, genocide, executions, starvation, famine, coups, diseases, political instability etc. Finally, finally the Cambodians are living in peace and they welcome you with a smile on their face...they seem always happy, just happy to be alive. About 14 million people live here. Cambodians generally don’t have much, it is a very poor country and you’ll notice that straight away when arriving here. But still, even being very poor, the people always smile and have fun with each other on their own way. Today Cambodia still has a lot of landmines lying unexploded, which every now and then explodes somewhere in the countryside leaving someone with one, or without legs and/or arms or dead in the worst case. All over Cambodia you’ll notice many people with one leg or one arm, all victims of landmines and many of them begging for money....very sad. The landmines were being removed and are still being removed but of course there are still several out there.
When I walk on the streets, generally most Khmers keep looking at me...like they’ve never seen a black man before. You see girls telling their friends and then they turn around and look at you and start laughing. Young guys do the same but they don’t laugh that much. It’s funny though, that attention. Many times they ask if I’m a football player ( I wish, lol). I must say that in Cambodia I’ve seen just two or three black people so I think that’s why people keep looking all the time. Also because I’m tall, Khmer people are generally short. In Vietnam I had many people looking at me too, but it was much less than here.

I left Ho Chi Minh City in a bus direct to Cambodia; it took about 6 hour. At the border, the immigration procedure went smooth and easy. Once you cross the border you’ll notice it many times: the poverty. Hundreds of shanty homes and slums along the way. At one point we had to cross a river with a ferry. The bus lined up in the queue to get on the ferry, so me and some other people on the bus decided to get off the bus for a while and stretch our legs. At the door there were more than a dozen of women and little kids...trying to sell something or begging for money. It was a bit overwhelming and I didn’t stay too long outside. The amount of kids surrounding you, all with their hands up and asking “one dollar, one dollar” was incredible. I’ve never seen it this way before.

Just after midday we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. With about 1,5 million people it’s also the biggest city of the country. Also here there is a lot of poverty, along the river there were many slums. We really should be happy and grateful with what he have and stop complaining about little things. At the bus station, several tuk-tuk drivers came to the bus, ready to offer you a ride to your hotel or guesthouse. The bus company had to put a fence around the bus so they can keep distance. After a few minutes, we decided to take one tuk-tuk to the eastern shore area of Boeng Kak Lake, where most of the budget accommodation is situated. I shared the costs with an Argentinean and a German girl. After checking some guesthouses, I took a single room at one of them, which had a wooden terrace at the lake. Didn’t like the rooms I’ve seen so much though. For the money you pay, which is comparable to Vietnam, you get so much less. Cambodia tends to be a little bit expensive too, more than Vietnam. I hated the fact that everything is priced in US Dollars, even the ATM’s give you US Dollars. The local currency is the Riel, which is 5200 to the Euro and 4100 to the US Dollar. With a bit of searching and looking around, you will find cheaper places to eat and to go on internet, much cheaper than in the Boeng Kak area. The disadvantage of this area is that it’s a bit far out of the town centre. Because of the distance it’s a bit difficult to do most things by foot here, so you need to have another way of transport. One day I hired a bicycle for US$ 1 per day, and cycled around the city for a couple of hours and visiting some sites.
Once I hired a local guy for a while to bring me to the Choeung Ek killing fields, which are 14km out of the city. For US$5 I jumped on the back of his scooter and he drove me there, waited for me and drove me back to the guesthouse. At this killing field, thousands of innocent Cambodians were tortured and killed, including a couple of foreigners. They were all thrown in many different mass graves, which you can still see at the site. But all the human remains were taken out of the graves. They are displayed in a building located at the site. It’s a small, tall building full of human skulls. What happened here is very cruel and sad; it all happened just over 30 years ago. In 1975 Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh and came to power with his “political party” called the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer). They started with insurgencies in many parts of the country during the Vietnam-USA war in mid-late 1960’s but with little succes. USA bombed parts of Cambodia bordering Vietnam killing many innocent Cambodian civilians, because North-Vietnam was using Cambodia as a supply route. North-Vietnam supplied weapons and artillery to Khmer Rouge which only made the guerrilla-movement stronger. If it wasn’t for the USA, which military (and economically) affected the country, Khmer Rouge probably wouldn’t have gained power across the country. Again you can say that a large part of what happened is thanks the Uncle Sam (USA). Pol Pot wanted to create a totally agricultural country. He eliminated music, schools, hospitals, art, literature, religion, banking & finance, currency etc. and also the calendar to start back at year 0. Everyone that was educated needed to be killed because they wouldn’t agree with Pol Pot’s ideas. People were working as slaves on the country side, long days on the fields. This all happened between 1975 and 1979; an estimated of 2 million people (women, children, intellectuals, diplomats, peasants, workers) were executed during the Red Khmer regime or died from starvation or disease. The regime fell in 1979 when Vietnam invaded the country and captured Phnom Penh. Then China, which of course was “happy” with such regimes like Khmer Rouge, attacked northern Vietnam in 1979. With support from China, Thailand and USA (yes, USA!) more rebel groups were formed in Cambodia and they dominated the whole northern and western parts of the country for years to come. This is when thousands of landmines have been laid all around the areas. Phnom Penh and the rest of the country to the south and east of it remained in control of the Vietnamese and the Cambodians. In 1979 Pol Pot escaped to the west where he kept controlling this area for many more years after. After this, Cambodia was still not in peace. Vietnam withdrew its troops out of Cambodia around 1990 and many unstable political years followed. But since then the country, slowly, started to recover from it’s past.

I totally forgot about a Khmer Rouge Prison in Phnom Penh, where you can still see the original weapons used to torture and kill many, and the rooms where did happened, which have walls still covered in blood. A pity, that would be a next time, if I ever come back here again....you never know.
Other sites that I visited were the Wat Phnom, a temple on the only little hill in Phnom Penh. Also the Cambodian National Museum, holding many artwork and sculptures made during the earlier years of the Khmer Empire, in which they occupied the present Cambodia and large parts of southern Laos, eastern Thailand and southern Vietnam. The Khmer Empire was the largest in Southeast Asia and existed from the 9th to the 15th century. The empire had a lot of power and wealth and the capital, Angkor, used to be a huge economical centre....even bigger than the ones we have today (London, New York etc.)

An impressive site was the Royal Palace. This site dates from 1866 and was constructed by King Norodom. It’s a complex with many different buildings, all dating back from different years. The two mayor buildings are the Throne Hall (built in 1917 and is used for coronation ceremonies, audiences granted by the king on national or religious days) and the Silver Pagoda (built in 1892 and is a place where Khmer monarchs used to go and listen to sermons from Buddhist monks. Inside there is a Buddha statue adorned with thousands of diamonds). All buildings here have sharp roofs and topped by towers, which symbolizes prosperity.

From Phnom Penh I moved on to Sihanoukville, which is the most famous beach resort in Cambodia. It’s touristy of course, but not overdeveloped (yet). The town has no more than 300.000 people. It was founded about 40 years ago and is Cambodia’s only deep sea port, and tourism is increasing more and more, with about half a million visits a year at the moment. Things tend to be a little expensive here too, a bit more than in Phnom Penh, but still cheap to western standards. The first day I got here, it rained the whole afternoon so I couldn’t do anything. At the end of the afternoon the weather became better and I went for a walk along the Serendipity and the Ochheuteal Beach to check them out. Both beaches are full of restaurants and bars, offering happy hours with cheap drinks, cheap BBQ and parties at night. There are people selling stuff all along the beach as well. On Sunday the beaches were very busy, mostly locals, all enjoying their day at the beach....they all seem happy, smiling and laughing all the time, playing games with each other on the beach and having much fun. The atmosphere was just incredibly good, wanting you to stay much longer in this town. The only thing is, that the beach is sometimes a little bit dirty...some people litter the place too much. I took a boat and visited Bamboo Island for one day, and also did some snorkelling along the way. Very nice corals and reef but they’re not being protected much and if it continues like this, within 15 or 20 everything could disappear. I spent a couple of hours on Bamboo Island, just relaxing, swimming and playing volleyball with the locals. The locals are very good at volleyball which was awesome. I had lunch on the island too, local caught fish with salad, potato and bread...and some fruit afterwards. Very good and very tasty. Too bad I don’t have much time; otherwise I’d spend more days on the island.

Then I took the bus to Siem Reap. Along the way the bus got a flat tire and we had to get out, somewhere between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. All along the road again you could see all those little, poor little houses. Many locals came out and looked what was going on...also many little kids. Also this area was thus very poor, houses and their roofs were made out of dried coconut leaves, all pressed together (like they use at beaches to offer shade). The kids were cute and shy...all of them laughing and smiling. You feel like wanting to adopt one of them. The poverty here was worse than in Vietnam. These people for sure had no electricity and I don’t know about tap water. The kids were not asking for money at all, something that happened all the time in the other parts of the county I’ve been to.

The bus arrived safely in Siem Reap, which is a small city of about 150.000 people. The town has a lot of bars, there is a street called “Bar Street” where all bars and pubs are. The night market is also a place to go if you want to buy some souvenirs etc. There is a museum, which I haven’t been to, and some little temples...including Wat Prom Rath and Wat Rajabo where I had a little conversation with some monks. During my visit here there was the start of the “Water Festival” in which there are rowing competitions in the river. It attracts thousands of people, locals and tourists. So there’s little to do in Siem Reap, almost all tourists coming here uses the city to visit the Angkor Wat temple complex which is located just about 10km north of Siem Reap.
The whole temple complex is huge and it’s impossible to see in one day. It’s not just one temple, but it’s a very big area with many temples. The temples were build between the 800 and 1200 AC. Once it was the capital of the powerful Khmer Empire, called Angkor. The main, most impressive temple is the Angkor Wat. That’s the pride of Cambodia. You see these temples on the local money, on a beer called “Angkor”, on the flag and on many many other things. Angkor Wat is huge and impressive. Another impressive temple was the Bayon. The area is a “must see” when in Cambodia...it’s like going to Egypt without seeing the pyramids of Giza. Angkor Wat is very unknown in the world though, but that’s a pity because it should be as well known as for example the Machu Picchu in Peru, Taj Mahal in India etc.
When visiting the temples you can choose a short rout, a long one and an extra one. I chose for the short one, since that’s the one recommended to do if you only go for one day. The distances between the temples are most of the times very big. That’s why everyone hires a tuk-tuk driver
or motornike driver, who picks you up at your accommodation, brings you to the site, drive you around, waits for you while you visit each temple. I hired a guy on a scooter for US$10 and spent like 7 to 8 hours with him at the place.


My next “stop” is Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where I will spend one night and then continue to the Philippines. I’ve been in K.L already three years ago and I’m happy to be here again because it’s one of my favourite Asian cities I’ve been to.



Take care and have a nice day,

Elton

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Comments

[FionA]

African, travelling solo to cambodia
Hey, I have loved your blog. Will you kindly let me know, the safest way to travel to cambodia the capital city Phonm Penh, from Can Tho city, Vietnam. Note, i am an african woman and travelling solo. Challenges of language, what guest house would you recommend in the city centre? Is it safe for me to go alone. anyway i have no option as i am alone:( thanks

[Elton]

Hi, Im sorry that Im reacting this late, I hope it's not too late. I travelled myself from Ho Chi Mihn City in Vietnam to Phnom Pehn with a bus. There are two or three buscompanies offering direct buses between the two cities with the cost of about US$8 to $12. From Can Tho City I have no idea how you'd travel to Cambodia because I haven't been there. In Phnom Pehn there is an area, near a lake, called Boeng Kak, where you'll find most of the city's budget accomodation. There are many so you can go and find one. I didn't book in advance and I really don't know the name of the guesthouse where I've stayed anymore. Southeast Asia is definitely safe for women to travel alone, regardless your race. There is very little crime. The only thing tourists encounter is theft, pickpocketing etc but no assaults and so on. Note that in Cambodia people may stare a lot at you, especially in Siem Reap, because they're not used to see coloured people. They'll look a lot at you, but not negatively. Bye bye, have a great trip!!!