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Published: December 5th 2012
Koh Kong Koh Kong was an excellent first visit in Cambodia as it is "true" Cambodia and not a common tourist destination. As possibly my first encounter with an uncommonly traveled town in South East Asia, I soon discovered a need to get some vocabulary lessons after having to pass up eating at one particular street vender as we couldn't portray the message that we would like some of her food and how much does it cost? Eventually our miming skills must have improved as a little further down the line the theatrical wonder that was "I would like some of your food and how much is it?" was more successful, although over time pen and paper were incorporated to write numbers.
Getting back to the hostel (Paddys Guest House) we utilized an English speaking Cambodian and soon developed a shaky knowledge of numbers and pleasantries. This was definitely worthwhile as it made life easier and locals appeared to enjoy listening to the effort. As an interesting note on the Cambodian number system, they only have the numbers 1-5 and then add them together to get the rest, for example they say that 6 is
5+1. They do have numbers for 10, 100, 1000 and so on.
We stayed at Paddy's Guest house, which we found in the lonely planet travel guide, it had a nice feel to it, a beach type theme, clean and Paddy was friendly. The only draw backs were the guest house was a little way out of the town and had a broken CD player which kept playing approximately 30seconds of Blondie’s Sunday Girl on loop for duration of the stay.
Sihanoukville Next stop was Sihanoukville, this was illogical for travel plans to Vietnam and resorted on doubling up back and forth over Cambodia later, but I had a new divers license and was looking forward to getting to the coast to do a spot more diving.
The journey from Koh Kong was slow and entertaining, the bus station which really a massive sand pit had been a good indication that the coach would double up as a 4x4. At times it felt quite possible the coach would topple onto its side as the roads gradually crumbled away, however the
driver was skilled and avoided this.
At Sihannoukeville we stayed at the ultimate bargain of a hostel called Utopia, it normally cost $1 a night however since October is a low season they let you stay there for free!
Looking around Utopia in the day time I felt that maybe I had turned up at the Asian equivalent of Magaluf as hung-over westerners gradually started appearing from their dorms. Not sure if I had known this in advance I would have gone but as I was there the best thing to do was embrace the party. Chatting to folk as they emerged it turned out that almost everyone in our hostel seemed to be working at one bar or another and so brilliantly but dangerously, all drinks seemed to be free. By the end of the 2
nd night we had achieved jobs at different bars as all bars seemed to be recruiting.
Walking to work at 3pm the town was yet again a place for Zombies, turning up for my first shift I was greeted by about 8 English people in shades trying to avoid noise and thinking. Work
consisted of handing out fliers and serving drinks, and the staff are paid in food and drink (so in order to get a good wage you had to drink a lot).
I really enjoyed working behind the bar, the job was essentially chatting with people and getting them drinks, we were encouraged to sit with groups of people to just drink and chat with them to keep them in the bar. Keeping the conversation flowing was important as if you got spotted not chatting it often resulted in being asked to go flyering, the much less desirable Job.
Many people I met got addicted/trapped to this lifestyle and found themselves working in Sihanoukville for months. I believe leaving was difficult as buses left early in the morning so unless you do not go out the night before you are likely to miss your departure. I learnt a while ago in life that in terms of drinking heavily for multiple days I am definitely not hard core so after 2 days my body could no-longer take it. Realizing this I made a 3 day plan to leave, work another 2 nights
(I did 4 in total, the bar liked to know a day in advance of you finishing), have a day of sheer recovery and then get the bus the morning after.
There wasn’t much available in the way of diving so I gave it a miss, but I did get a foot massage and they cut my toenails and trimmed a scab I had developed from stubbing my big toe, a common result frow wearing flip flips.
Although not for me Sihanoukville introduced me to another collection of great people,
Chiara who could a Belgium girl who sounds English and speaks 5 European languages, so within a hostel full of westerners understood all conversations that were happening when people assumed she'd not have a clue.
Sophie, Sharna and Renata, 3 Aussie girls who would not have been found in Utopia as they were on a 3 week holiday, they were great fun and bounced off each other with great wit providing excellent entertainment. I met up with them again later in Kep and Siem Reap for some good lessons in appreciating the finer things Cambodia has
to offer and reflection over the trip and holiday resolutions. They also taught me that tuktuk (small taxi) drivers gave people lifts as well as offering a range of drugs and prostitution services.
Tuktuk drivers, Fruit Sellers and Ice-cream men that seemed to offer any drug from weed to crystal meth and any service from foot massage to boom boom, all discretely said between the words tuktuk. Their usual conversation with you would go "tuktuk, hash, tuktuk, weed, tuktuk, boom boom, tuktuk, massage, tuktuk, ecstasy, tuktuk . . . . " and this would go on until you were sufficiently far enough from them or you had said ate akon (no thanks) enough times, although after each no thanks would just come the offer of another service.
An eclectic group of English, Welsh, Americans and Australians, featuring Matt, an American Guy who I re-met at Angkor Wat and was a deciding factor to cycle Vietnam.
Som Sin, a Cambodian girl who worked at the Same bar as Maciej and taught us the importance of sticking up for Cambodian girls as all the tourist and bars try to assume them to be prostitutes.
After Sihanoukville I just wanted quiet and a place to relax, and there is no better place to do that than Kep.
Kep Kep is a small village built around a crab market, I stayed at the treetop bungalows and got my own hut. Staying there you are allowed to use the pool in the guesthouse next door, so this was a great place just to sit back, go for some strolls, some swims and read.
Highlights of Kep were;
Re-meeting the Aussie girls for jokes and fine dining at the crab market, although this dining experience created great stress over deciding between large plates or small plates. In the end we went for more variety of food and small plates which we shared amongst the group, if you go to Kep a good Crab restaurant is called Kimly and 4 small plates of food is sufficient for 4 people to share. Also if you are concerned that you are not getting enough flesh out of your crab you can call for assistance and they'll really get out the scraps
boat to Rabbit Island
Rabbit Island has no Rabbits, just a heads up!that you miss.
Keps love of all statues, wherever there was some free land there would be a statue soon to appear, and sometimes the looked good.
Easily available fried Banana
Taking a motorbike down to Kampot in the rain, getting lost and ending up in a floating village
Kep national park, with beautiful views and signs that tell you how far to important destinations such as cities or the nearest casino
Using my number skills to buy petrol from a local women who spoke little English and only had very small notes for change, so after handing over a $10 note ended up with a wedge of Cambodian Riel approx 1cm thick.
Discovering that I now actively enjoy eating Banana and Pineapple!
Phnom Phen Before heading to Phnom Phen I heard lots of bad things, so I went with really low expectations. This could must have been a complete blessing, because I loved it and found it a fascinating place. As my bus arrived after dark I had decided for ease I would get a tuktuk to a hostel, so when all the tuktuk drivers
came to hassle us I was able to make one happy by saying yes to a lift straight away! Also as I didn't know where I wanted to stay he was doubly happy as I was happy to stay at his friends cheap hostel. Life is so much easier when you just agree with what people want, though I guess sometimes this is not a good long term option.
I stayed at a hostel called happy house 17, this was because it was on street number 17. It was fine, it cost $4 a night and was a standard dorm with a fan.
Embarrassingly until I came to Cambodia I no idea that they had a mass genocide in the late 70's where 1 in 4 people were slaughtered including all doctors, teachers, anyone with soft hands, their families and many more. So Phnom Phen provided me with an excellent education on this. Going around the school that had been turned into a slaughtering house and the killing fields it was sad to think of what people can be capable of doing and crazy to think that this happened in
such recent times.
To get to the killing fields I hired a moto for $5, although this was the recommended price according to guide books but unfortunately it introduced me to the awkward situation of when you haggle someone down on a service. The moto driver, although was adamant he wanted to take me even for $5 was particularly grumpy about the situation and maybe it would have been better to pay $10 and not have the atmosphere between us on the bike, especially as on the return trip he chose to dump me the other side of town from my hostel.
Whilst I stayed in Phnom Phen it also happened to be the Cambodian Independence day from being ruled by the French, this was cool as it meant that there were firework displays and they had lit up the royal palace with fairy lights.
Siem Reap Siem Reap is the home of loads of temples, they are huge and impressive and were only dug out of the ground in the early 1900's.
I hired a bike to go round and bough a 3 day ticket, I think you only really need 2 days, however the tickets are sold for 1 day, 3 days or 7 days.
For my stay in Siem Reap I teamed up with 2 other cyclists called Matt (who I previously met in Sihanoukville and after a while of looking at each other realized that we did recognize each other) and Iris (an American girl who I met as she over took me shouting "come on slow coach", I later spotted her reading the same guide book I had just bought and formed our tour group). The book that we had got was a walking tour which describes what you are seeing as you walk towards it, I became the nominated reader as it made Matt and Iris feel like it was official coming from a British accent.
The days were fun but hard work, temples have a lot of steps and often the more impressive the temple the more steps it is going to have. I guess it is the same with the views from them too, if
you want the really good view you have to climb.
On the first day, at some temples I had to leave Matt and Iris as they were both to scantily clad, wearing shorts that come above the Knee is not acceptable attire for a temple visit. On the second day Iris wore long trousers but unfortunately we never came across any temples where they were required that day.
Meeting Matt again was an excellent spot of luck as he was cycling across Asia starting from Ho Chi Minh, he passed on loads of advice including a good place to go buy a bike and the usefulness of Google maps and GPS on your smart phone! I took this as a sign that I should definitely cycle Vietnam and so got a 3 month Vietnamese Visa from a shop in Siem Reap.
On my last day in Siem Reap I meet Renata, Sophie and Sharna who have just arrived and go for dinner down Pub Street and reflect over the experiences of Cambodia! General consensus was good times!
I leave Cambodia
Statue
one of the many on a night bus that has actual beds! It took me to Phnom Phen and then to Ho Chi Minh.
If you plan to travel Cambodia from the south Thailand border to get to Vietnam a better route would be: Koh Kong - Siem Reap - Phnom Phen - Sihanoukville - Kep - Vietnam
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