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Published: July 29th 2006
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Hi Everyone!!
Great to hear your comments and emails following our first blog attempt - we now consider ourselves veterans so here goes...
We've been travelling around Cambodia for the last 10 days or so, and the vast differences with Thailand were obvious as soon as we set one foot across the border. Barefooted children pushing wooden carts on wooden wheels around by means of 'taxiservice', grubby toddlers begging for money and food, lots of rubbish everywhere and, most importantly to us at that point in time - the road just stopped. That's right, nothing but muddy, rocky, slippery clay on which we were about to travel 130 kms in about 10 hours. The dancing road, they call it jokingly. Well the joke was on us and boy did we boogie every time we hit a rock. The journey to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) went on and on and on. And on, as at midnight we had a flat tyre, and the spare tyre was flat too! We did think it a bit too bizar that absolutely everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and after re-reading the lonely planet, we came across an alinea called 'the great bus
Stuck in Cambodia
Midnight, stranded somewhere between the border and Angkor Wat with 2 flat tyres (not)... All part of the adventure!! scam'. And all of a sudden it made sense: the bus company, which has ties with a certain guesthouse, tries to break the record for slowest trip into Cambodia every single time, so that travellers arrive buggered in the middle of the night and are inclined to stay at the guesthouse they are dropped off at... The lenghts they go through for a tourist dollar... I guess this is only one example of the creativeness these people have been forced to develop out of poverty.
When crossing into Cambodia we saw a (very very silly) backpacker, stoned out of this world, and in possession of a small bag of marihuana, getting arrested by the border patrol. Ironically (or should I say 'shatteringly') we were standing about 20 meters away from a sign that promised death sentence or life in prison to people carrying drugs. I still can't help thinking about this poor guy who would have woken up the next morning, right into the nightmare that is going to be the rest of his life. Added to this some pretty confronting impressions of landmine victims without arms, legs, or even faces; poverty; the obvious legacy of the Pol Pot/Khmer
Bayon
A few of the many faces of the Bayon temple Rouge regime in the late seventies; and it's fair to say that even now Cambodia is a pretty heavy place to be.
Having said that, it is also home to one of the most magnificent places I've ever been to: Angkor Wat. It is a massive massive area with lots of different temples, that have been reclaimed from the jungle in the last century or so. Some of the temples have been left covered by enormous trees and their snaking roots, others have been recovered from the jungle entirely, and restored to original grandeur. One of the temples, the Bayon, has thousands (hundreds??) of massive faces carved out in its walls and towers, the Ta Promh temple has trees and roots and moss all over it, and was used as a set for the movie Tomb Raider, and finally, Angkor Wat itself presents a magnificent vista from every angle you look at it (how's my tourguide lingo coming along??). Anyway, these few pictures will explain its beauty better than I ever could in words, but believe you me, it was one of the most, if not the most, impressive places I've ever seen.
After the temples, we hired
Bayon
The must have tourist pic.... a couple of pushbikes and went riding to the Tonle Sap lake, Cambodia's liquid heart. The ride took us along the river through rice paddies and well, more rice paddies, and we got to see a great deal of 'real' life in the country. There are sooo many kids around, the one even cuter than the next, and outside of the bigger towns they look much better fed and healthier and just happier in general. Still, they all seem to have their jobs to do, whether it's looking after the pigs or waterbuffaloes, pushing massive bags of rice along on their little bikes, or looking after younger brothers and sisters - I've got the feeling that the kids grow up pretty quickly around here. I guess with 50% of the population being under 15 years old, and so much work to be done, it's no surprise that they are expected to do their bit from a very early age onwards.
We have now moved on to Sihanoukville, on the coast, to allow our bottoms to recover from some further hard core bus travelling, which somehow always seems to involve rocky roads, no suspension, no airconditioning, and lots of loud
A mini temple at Angkor
One of the thousands of smaller temples in the Angkor Wat complex karaoke on tv, with our all time favourite being a male singing dwarf in a glittery suit who gets the passengers boogying big time everytime dvd hits the screen. The beach here is lovely, food is getting better and better (thanks to a daily portion of mash potato for breakfast, lunch or dinner) and we've met lots of lovely people that we eat, drink, chat and play cards with... Very relaxing. It's funny how you don't miss the luxuries of home that much; I don't even mind the standard cold shower any more!! I guess in saying that Cambodia is in a different league, this would also apply to the various guesthouses we've been staying at: a double room amounts to about 4 to 5 US dollars (great for the budget), has a cold shower (usually over the toilet, which makes for great gymnastics), and at times includes free entertainment through the paper-thin walls consisting of heavy breathing, heavy farting, or both (yes, by 'both' I do mean simultaneously). We've been getting around by bike or scooter, and have come across lots of locals waving away and usually happy to have a chat or pointing us in the right direction
Tha Promh
See Lara Croft hanging off the tree there?? when we are lost again. Daniel has well adjusted to the two local traffic rules: One: Small gives way to big. Two: continually honk your horn whether there is anyone to honk at or not.
We're hoping to get to Vietnam in a couple of days - a new country: new adventures... We'll keep you up to date, and hope all is well with all of you. As always, gossip is welcome - the juicier the better!! Everybody take care, and enjoy the summer!! Tonight when you have a long, hot shower and check out your tan in the mirror, think of us white arsed rainy season backpackers shivering underneath the icecold trickle they call showers overhere... No need to be jealous at all.
Love you lots,
Daniel & Kris
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Arron
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Sounds enormous, the photos are semi-professional. who is taking them for you? The one of the little kid is great. Cold showers or not, I am jealous, anywhere out of sydney, is always good. I am off to Noosa next week to see tood, which will have to do for now. Have fun you two, be safe, talk soon. AC