Two capitals in 4 days

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Phnom Penh

So I took the 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The bus lets you off in a busy part of town and you are instantly greeted by dozens (no exaggeration) of screaming tuk-tuk drivers. All are your "friend" and want to take you places. After a mad scramble to get away we found a quiet street. According to the lonely planet (my travel saviour on many occasion) there are two main backpacker areas in Phnom Penh and we had landed just about in one of them called Psar O Russei. There were a ton of guesthouses around and we shopped a bit and settled on a place for a whopping $6/night or $3 each for Kyle and I. The room was clean and we paid less because there were two fans but no A/C. Unfortunately, despite the multitude of guesthouses, there didn't seem to be anyone around. We decided to head into town by the riverside to find some dinner and a bit more action.

We caught a tuk-tuk (after bargaining of course) and whipped into town passing monuments and wats (temples) rapidly along the way. Phnom Penh is hectic! The driving is more of a "who's bigger" deal than traffic law controlled. You can drive on the other side as long as something bigger isn't coming towards you. Motos (mopeds) are more agile though and can weave in and out with great ease. It's basically an epic ballet between agility and size with the tuk-tuk lying somewhere in the middle. We made it downtown (barely) and walked around until we found a good spot. I tried the Cambodian "amok" flavouring for the first time. Its basically a coconut curry. I got amok chicken served with, what else, rice. We walked around for a little longer but couldn't find a descent spot that was lively enough to have a friendly drink but not a club.

The next day we thought we would try the other backpacker area near a small lake in another part of town. We stayed at the first place we walked into. The small streets were packed with interesting shops and cafes and our hostel had a huge lounge area complete with Sopranos on tv and huts out over the lake. It was a bit more expensive at $5 each/night. Shocking price.

That day Kyle and I split up to go see two of the more sobering monuments in Cambodia. We split up because we both felt that the sites were better seen alone. I apologize if any of the details of this are hard to read, but they were even harder to see and it is important that as many people as possible know about what happened in Cambodia. Pol Pot's regime called the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 1-3 million Cambodians in the late 1970's over just under 4 years. To put that into perspective that is a quarter to a third of the entire population of the country. Most of the people killed were educated or city-dwellers and the regime wanted to drive the country into an egalitarian agricultural state. Phnom Penh was evacuated and almost everyone was forced to the countrysides.

The first place I went is called Tuol Sleng, a former high school converted into a prison and torture chamber. Some of the classrooms contained just a single metal bed, a bucket, and some torture tools. Other rooms were divided by brick or wood into smaller cells. I walked around the museum with a shocked look on my face. Anytime you made eye contact with any other visitors you immediately looked away, almost unsure of how to react. Other exhibits included photographs that the Khmer Rouge took of their victims. Just face after face of people that were eradicated for no reason. The hypocritical part (amongst many) is that Pol Pot was educated in France and was a school teacher before leading the Khmer Rouge. Another exhibit showed photos by a Swedish man who had been allowed to visit Cambodia in the 70's and was shown around by the Khmer Rouge. They put on a great show and staged many scenes to make it seem as though everything was great. The photos have the Swedes original thoughts (mostly positive at what was being shown) contrasted with his thoughts today on the naivete of his stance. I spent two hours in the small museum reading every placard I could.

From there I took a tuk-tuk about 14 km from town to the killing fields at Choeung Ek. This is where many of the Cambodians taken were actually disposed of and buried in mass graves. There is a monument there that is a large stone stupa with clear sides displaying row upon row of skulls that make up the centre of the monuments. Surrounding the monument are pits where the mass graves were dug up. I was luckily one of the only tourists there at the time and got to experience it without large crowds. What made matters even more haunting was the sound of laughing children at a school next door. Life does go on. I think what got me most were the signs that said "please don't walk through the mass graves". I thought about a lot on the hour long tuk-tuk ride back. How people said "never again" after the holocaust and other genocides and yet... How there are other places in the world now that will have these types of monuments in years to come because we allow genocide to occur... How any regime that claims to be making a "utopia" is probably suspect... and most of all how lucky I am to not have had to directly deal with anything like the Khmer Rouge regime.

I got back to the hostel feeling emotionally and physically drained and did not feel like doing much. However it was my last night with Kyle before splitting up so we decided to go out for dinner and a beer. We went to a place around the corner called the Lazy Gecko. Good atmosphere, very relaxed. About 5 minutes into our meal another traveler came up and asked to join us. We happily obliged. His name was Flo (short for Florian) and he was a German studying in Holland who had worked the past 6 months in Thailand at a hotel and had just traveled through Laos. So basically we had a couple of things to talk about. He had also gone to the killing fields and Tuol Sleng that day so we talked about Cambodian politics. Then we got on to traveling and beer pouring (there is apparently a very exact science to it) and what things are like in Europe compared to Canada. We ended up back at our hostel on the huts over the lake, drinking beer Lao (way better than Angkor or Tiger beer) and chatting. We were joined briefly by a British girl and her Welsh friend who were working at an orphanage in Phnom Penh. It was a good last night in Phnom Penh despite the tough day.

Vientiane

The next morning I said goodbye to Kyle and headed to the airport to catch my flight to Vientiane, Laos. I flew Vietnam Airlines (highly recommended as they give you a nice complimentary snack) and I landed in Laos in the late afternoon. I would just like to mention now that upon landing in the capital of Laos I have been to 5 capital cities around the world before Ottawa (it will be 6 after Bangkok). Just thought that was interesting.

Laos is known for being laid back and easy going and it did not disappoint upon first inspection. Considering I just came from another capital, Phnom Penh, I didn't know what to expect. The drivers in Laos are much more reasonable, somewhat due to the lack of traffic by SE Asian standards. The first few guesthouses had no single rooms open so I ended up "splurging" for a $15 room. That is actually incredibly high for an area where you can stay for as little as $3 a night, but I was tired and sweaty (as per usual) and just wanted a shower and a clean bed.

The next morning (which happens to be today....I don't think I've ever caught up enough to talk about the present) I went for a nice coffee and baguette. I don't support colonialism but the French did leave some nice touches. Then I went to an internet cafe to finally call my parents who were just a little happy to hear from me. From there I searched out and found a slightly cheaper guesthouse and moved my things before embarking on a day of sightseeing around Vientiane. The first place I went by jumbo (think tuk-tuk with a bigger trailer and benches) was called Pha That Luang, a gold painted wat (temple) a few km from the centre of town. There were other wats surrounding it that I checked out. I can't really do them justice so you'll just have to look it up or wait for photos. I then took the jumbo to Patuxai, the arc-de-triomphe of Vientiane. It was built using US-bought concrete that was supposed to go towards airport runways. A hilarious sign on its walls state:

"At the northeastern end of the Lang Xang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe. It is the Patuxay or victory gate of Vientiane. Built in 1962 (B.E 2505), but never complete due to the country's turbulent history. From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete. Nowadays this place is used as a leisure ground for the people of Vientiane and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as excellent view point over the city."

That pretty much sums it up better than I could. Monster of concrete...priceless. Oh and you'll notice that the Lao calendar counts the years differently. From the monster of concrete I thought I would walk back to my hostel area and pick up my laundry. On the way I had a mangosteen juice (just as delicious in juice form) and a dragonfruit shake. It was only a couple of blocks but it is bloody hot out. Even Laotians were saying its hot. I stopped on the way in the city's main market. Another labyrinth but very different than Cambodia. There are a lot of shirts here the say "same same" on the front and "different" on the back. That's a favourite saying in both Laos and Cambodia....same same, but different. It pretty much sums up the market. It also had silk scarves, carvings, and trinkets of all shapes and sizes but the colours and materials were different than in Cambodia. The best difference of all was that only one shop owner even so much as tried to call me into their shop. Everyone just smiled softly as I browsed past. Did I mention I like the pace of Laos a hell of a lot more than Cambodia?

And that pretty much brings me to now. Huh. Well then I think I'm going to go get a $10 Lao herbal massage for an hour and a half followed by a $1 large beer Lao and some dinner. I know, rough life. Tomorrow morning I'm taking a 3.5 hour bus ride to Vang Vieng, my jump off point for rock climbing, kayaking, caving, and maybe some trekking. Oh and its also known for its tubing where you lazily go down the river from floating bar to floating bar. I might be able to handle a day of that.

Sorry for the long entry...

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