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Published: December 8th 2008
View of Phnom Phen
We took this from the top floor of the shopping mall. Behind us is the roller rink. The city is pretty un-modern (if that is a word). And we're back! It feels like a long time since we last wrote, so apologies once again! Again, I'll blame it on the bad internet (actually, expensive internet, this time), but really it is just too hard to sit in an internet cafe when we could be laying on some gorgeous white sand beach instead. So, just to clarify, although this blog is about Cambodia, we left the country about 3 weeks ago. We just crossed into peninsular Malaysia two days ago and are making our way south towards Kuala Lampur. But, since we've been so lazy about our blogging, I'll be writing about Cambodia for now.
We arrived in Phnom Phen with the intention of spending a day or two exploring the capital, a day travelling to Siemp Reap, a day or two seeing the temple, then another day of travel to Bangkok in time to shop at the Chatuchak weekend market (more my goal than Matt's, of course!). Well, in tune with the rest of our trip, we didn't quite move as fast as intended. Only a few hours in the country we decided we really liked the place, and as we probably wouldn't be back in Cambodia
The Tuol Sleng Museum
Most of the room were replications of what they looked like when the prisoners were kept there-bare rooms with metal cuffs for hands and feet. It was simple, but powerful. anytime soon, we better see it all! So, after a day exploring the capital, we headed down to Sihounkaville, and then since we were already that far south, we decided to see Kampot, and then once there we realized the Water Festival had started back in the capital, and thus it would take us two days instead of one to reach Siem Reap since we'd have to sit in absurd traffic while passing through Phnom Phen heading north, so we decided to stay a few extra days. We finally got to Siemp Reap and, once again, found the city more charming than we expected. So we stayed a few extra days. And then, ten days later, rather than the anticipated 5 or so, we sadly left the country.
Ok, so back to what was so wonderful, and why we stayed so long. Phnom Phen surprised us, as almost all the cities have, and we found it fascinating to wander through the crowded, winding streets. While it had the same hustle-bustle as other cities, the pace was much slower than it had been in Saigon and Hanoi. We found a park in the city center that had monkeys all over
the place! The central market was the traditional hosh posh of everything from watches to clothes to flowers to fruit. And then came the fancy shopping mall in the middle of it all. We entered the air-conditioned respite, unsuspecting of the fantastic entertainment found within. We bought an ice cream cone and took a seat on the main staircase to take up one of our favorite activities...people watching. Soon, a crowd had gathered at the bottom of the escalator next to where we were sitting. A family of Cambodians, obviously visiting the mall for the first time, had found the escalator and were absolutely terrified of it. As more and more came in, the line got longer, yet no one dared attempt to get on it. Finally, a security guard had to come over to demonstrate how one steps onto an escalator. One family member daringly stepped on, stumbling and barely catching themselves. The rest remained behind, anxiously watching as the person rode higher and higher away from them. They pushed at eachother, egging one another to dare try it. They eventually resorted to the staircase, which was obviously more familiar! (This sort of innocence was one of the things
the river south of Kampot
in our motorcycle garb on our day tour around the Kampot countryside that really drew us into the country-every person was not glued to a cell phone as they are in every other Asian country and in the countryside, it was still common to see them riding on oxen pulled carts.) On the top floor of the shopping mall, we also found a roller rink, equally as fascinating to us as it was to the other Cambodians visiting the mall for the first time.
In Phnom Phen we also took in a bit of the country's history and visited the Tuol Sleng museum, where the Khmer Rouge had held their prisoner's during the awful Pol Pot regime. Before reaching Cambodia, we had read various books on the Khmer Rouge, including "The Killing Fields" and "First They Killed My Father"-both highly recommended! During the regime, over 2 million people were killed in a mass genocide-almost a third of the country's total population. Everyone living in cities were forced to leave and take up residence in the countryside as the "new people". Almost everyone who had an education, or was associated with the previous government, was slaughtered in incredibely inhumane ways. The stories are heart wrenching, and it was amazing to see how
Utopia
the awesome lounge deck at the guesthouse Utopia much the country has recovered in such a relatively short time. However, there are still terrible reminders. Landmines left over from the war continue to injure and kill people even today. This has left a disporportionally large percentage of the population disabled, and in a country which has few social support programmes, has created a huge poverty issue. Everywhere you turned there was someone begging for money or food, and many of the travellers we talked to were completely turned off to the country because of this. We were overwhelmed at first, but eventually developed a method to cope. Each day we broke a dollar into very small change, and then when asked for money we could hand the person a bill and avoid any more bother. We also began buying children a plate of fried rice or noodles in the evening from one of the local hawker stands. For only a dollar each we could feed a few children each night. While it was overwhelming to see all the destitution, it felt good to help in some way, however small.
From Phnom Phen we rode a bus south to the coast to the town of Sihounkaville. Before Pol
Pot and the Khmer Rouge, this was the place where the rich came to vacation. It was completely destroyed during the regime, but is still a popular vacation spot for Cambodians. It wasn't quite what we expected. The beach was almost completely non-existant because the restaurants and guesthouses had built so far down onto them. It was also terribley crowded because our time in Cambodia happened to coincide with the Water Festival, one of the country's biggest holidays which marks the changing of seasons. The bay was so crowded with boats that swimming was also uncomfortable. We did, however, have an absolutely fantastic dinner, and our first taste of Fish Amok-one of our favorite Asian meals yet! We sat at a small bamboo table in big papassan chairs with our feet in the sand and had a lovely candlelit dinner.
We spent only one night in Sihounkaville before going over to Kampot (another place chosen completely on a whim!). It ended up being the highlight of our time in Cambodia and the perfect place to get stuck for a few days. The town itself is incredibely charming with old French architecture and a river running through the center. We
first stayed at this great guesthouse, Blissful, in the center of town. It was like a big old house surrounded by a lush garden. Here in Kampot, Matt discovered another of his favorite foods yet-which we have decided to call the "worms". It is sort of like Pad Thai, except the noodles are short and fat, sort of like worms. They were delicious, and Matt devoured at least two plates of them a day. I enjoyed them the first time, then couldn't get the worm-association out of my mind and was disinclined to try them again.
After exploring the town, we rented a motorbike and rode around exploring the countryside. We found these great caves that come complete with a throng of 10-year guides waiting to practice their English (they were actually quite knowledgeable and even wanted to help carry our stuff!). We also followed the river south and found another great guesthouse, called Utopia. It was run by a German man and his Cambodian wife. The guesthouse had huge decks that extended out over the river and rope swings (which Matt took no time waiting to try!). The deck was covered with pillows and hammocks and was the
Matt with Chambo
our guide-he wanted to take about fifty pictures with us! perfect place to take a break for a few days and relax. We ended up moving out there for a night before leaving for Siem Reap.
Siem Reap is the town that services the site of Angkor Wat (a huge collection of temples built by the Khmer (not Khmer Rouge!) in the early 12th century.) It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the 7 (?) man-made wonders of the world. It is essentially on par with Macchu Picchu or Tikal.
We spent our first day in Siem Reap resting up and preparing for exploring the temples the next day. We slept in late, wrote the last blog we published, and then rented bikes and rode out to the entrance of the temples just to check it out and get our bearings for the next day. We discovered that after 5:30pm, you can buy your tickets for the following day and go in to see the temples for sunset. We hadn't brought enough money with us to purchase our tickets, so Matt rushed back on his bike (15km) while I waited at the entrance (he's so awesome!!!). We rode in and watched the sunset at Angkor
Monkey in Phom Phen
We think these are called Macaques-but really have no clue. This was the first we saw of them, but have now seen them everywhere. We still find it really exciting though every time we see them-they're monkeys!-who wouldn't? Wat, which is the most well known of all the temples. It was quite gorgeous! The ride back was a little tricky, since it had rained earlier that day and the roads around the temples are essentially mud tracks. The sun had also set and it was getting dark. Anyways, I slipped off my bike a handful of times and arrived back at our guest house completely covered in red mud! Luckily it was soft landings each time and no injuries came of it (hint to anyone visiting Angkor Wat: it is perfectly reasonable to tour the close temples by bike-despite what the tuk-tuks will tell you-but just be careful if it has rained a lot!)
The next morning we woke up at 4 am, were picked up by our temple guide, Chambo, and were at Angkor Wat (the one we had seen the night before) by sunrise. We actually got there so early that we had to sit and wait for about a half hour for the sunrise! We then enjoyed a breakfast of porridge with our guide before continuing on to see the rest. We did the one-day tour (there are many people who do the multi-day
Cambodian transport
This was a pretty common site-they really pack it all in! options, but Matt and I aren't that much for tours). With such an early start, we were able to see all the temples on the mini-circuit by noon. And by that point we were exhausted and completely templed-out! It was a very interesting day and definitely met our expectations (we were worried beforehand because the temples had been so built-up by everyone we talked to). Our favorite was probably Mountain Temple (don't remember the Khmer name), which has huge staircases up to the top and then great views out over the forest canopy. There is very little regulation within the temple complex, and you can climb on and explore just about everything, which is great for us as a tourist, but is not doing much to preserve the temples! Anyways, it's hard to describe them, so just check out the pictures!
We spent one last day in Siem Reap, taking a Cambodian cooking class. We learned to make the Fish Amok that we had loved so much as well as three other delicious dishes! I don't remember the names of any of the others, but we have the recipes written down and can't wait to try making them when
Matt getting a shave
He said it was his closest shave ever-and it only took five minutes and was 50 cents! we get home. Our class was much more informal than it was in Laos, but I think we ended up liking the food we made even more!
So, sadly, our time in Cambodia ended and we decided it was time to keep moving on. The trip over the border back to Thailand was relatively easy compared to the horror stories we had heard. However, our attempts to do it independently failed miserably! We took a tuk-tuk out to the bus station with the intent of riding a public bus to the border, then crossing over and getting another public bus to Bangkok. Well, at the bus station they put us on a mini bus that took us right back into town and onto a bus with every other tourist heading from Siem Reap to Bangkok that day. And we ended up paying more than them because of our extra trip out to the bus station! So, just go for the tour! Nicely, the bus ended up delivering us right in the middle of Khao San Rd. We were back in Bangkok-Home Sweet Home!
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