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Published: November 15th 2007
Sunrise Angkor Wat
The sky delivers a brilliant pink and the tourist paparazzi get snap happy.Cambodia and its seething mass of motorcycle bandits, filthy beggar children, horrific history and desperate poverty is a hard country to love. Until the gorgeous grinning children and resilience of it's Khmer survivors gets under your skin. Then there's Angkor Wat. No pictures or descriptions will ever do Angkor Wat's plethora of jaw dropping temples justice - it's pure and simple goose bump material.
Arriving in Phnom Penh, it was immediately apparent that Cambodia is a far poorer country than its neighbours. Children with bare feet wander the backpacker district selling rip off lonely planets, nail polish, hair elastics - whatever they can - to tourists. Street people and beggars sit beside reeking piles of garbage and pushy touts accost you the minute you step foot out of your guesthouse to offer you a tuk tuk, motorcycle, tour of the killing fields, visit to a shooting range to shoot a cow for $20. Anything. Motorcycles are ingeniously employed for all transport requirements - twice I saw a motorcycle with driver, and sick patient, hooked up to a drip held by a nurse. Then there's the drivers of enormous 4WDs who flaunt their wealth with sizeable gold lettering down the side
Phnom Penh Motorcycles
Motorcycles are ingeniously employed for all transport requirements of the car with the vehicles brand name - usually "Lexus" or "Landcruiser". The gap between the rich and poor here is devastating.
Phnom Penh's lakeside backpacker district with its large decked guesthouses on the water is fully geared to the backpacker dollar. 50 cent beers are standard fare, internet cafes, tourist offices and Western food is prolific. Striking a bargain is often hard work, but generally well worth it. My guesthouse was flooded when I arrived - reachable only by precariously balancing across a row of sandbags to the veranda. I got a double room with dubious bathroom and state of cleanliness for $3.
The main tourist sites in Phnom Penh are the S21 prison museum and the Killing Fields. Both horrible, but completely essential visits to fully grasp the atrocities that made Cambodia what it is today. The Tuol Sleng genocide museum is a former high school, that in 1975 was taken over by Pol Pot's henchmen to become the notorious S21 prison. Tiny cells were built, windows were barred, barbed wire was put around the perimeter and play equipment was modified into gruesome instruments for torture. Around 20,000 people were imprisoned here (two of whom
Lakeside Backpacker District, Phnom Penh
The lakeside backpacker district with its large decked guesthouses on the water, is fully geared to the backpacker dollar. were Australians) - most were intelligencia and their families. All but twelve known survivors were sent to the killing fields and murdered. At the museum there are rooms and rooms displaying black and white photographs - found in the regime's extensive records - of the victims. Some are smiling in defiance. Such recent history is very difficult to stomach. This happened in my lifetime.
The Choneung Ek killing fields was perhaps more shocking. A group of us went together and hired a guide. Recent rain has brought clothing and human bones to the surface and you step around them as you wander the site. It struck me how small the area of the killing fields is and how the lush, green surrounds don't seem consistent with such atrocities. The guide shows us the tree they used to bash babies against to kill them, a speaker which played music to block the sounds of death and mass graves which when exhumed revealed that many of the victims hit over the head with a blunt instrument weren't actually dead when buried. Pol Pot recruited children to carry out much of the killing - sometimes sharp palm fronds were used to slowly
Killing Fields, Phnom Penh
Recent rain has brought clothing and human bones to the surface. behead people. Now they have a massive memorial - a buddhist stupa - which is filled with 5000 skulls of Pol Pot victims on the site.
Disturbed by so much tragedy, it's no wonder Phnom Penh has such a vibrant nightlife. The Foreign Correspondents Club - opened in 1993 to cater to journos, diplomats and travellers alike - is the place to go for a classy cocktail. It looks like a relic from the colonial era with it's white french architecture, cane chairs and balconies overlooking the river. For dancing - it's the 'Heart of Darkness' - a nightlife legend with overzealous security guards, a pumping dancefloor heaving with a mix of dressed up locals, foreigners in flip flops and desperately young hookers. I find out later that there have been several 'violent incidents' here over the years and some embassies have warned against visiting there. I had no such problems and spend a very interesting evening there speaking with some of the local hookers. These women survive on the dollars brought in by foreign sexpats. I sit at a table with them and some other travellers trying to understand. Their English is limited, but they keep smiling and
The gang, Siem Reap
Eventually the 10 of us, sharing 4 tuk tuks found a guesthouse with cheap rooms bringing us free drinks. Sadly, Cambodia has the highest rate of HIV in SE Asia.
Next stop Siem Reap. I catch the bus there from Phnom Penh with a massive entourage - 6 Irish, 2 American and 1 Swede. It certainly affords great bargaining power and company travelling with a group - but everything takes so long! Siem Reap bus station will go down in history as the biggest tuk tuk ambush I've ever experienced. Eventually, the 10 of us sharing 4 tuk tuks found a guesthouse with cheap rooms and a chilled out bar. The tuk tuk drivers weren't finished with us yet - 'I be your driver for Angkor Wat?!'. Monika - the Swedish girl - and I arranged for a tuk tuk to collect us early the next morning to see sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We quickly nickname our Angkor tuk tuk driver "JT" - his idol is Justin Timberlake and he's pretty sure he's bringing sexy back! Clutching our three day passes (complete with shocker photo they take of you on arrival), Monika and I stumble through the dark and across the giant moat to secure a good lakeside position for the Angkor Wat
Carvings - Bantai Srei
It seems I've become a fan of intricate rock carvings! sunrise. The darkness and people and enormity of the structure itself is unforgettable. The sky delivers a brilliant pink and the tourist paparazzi get snap happy. Over the course of three days, Monika and I visit over 20 temples in the vicinity of Angkor Wat - including the interior of Angkor Wat, the Bayon with it's enormous face carvings, Ta Prohm - the tomb raider temple where tree roots have taken over and Bantai Srei which is made from a pink rock which has the most intricate carvings. People have asked me since why I loved visiting Angkor Wat and these temples so much. So it seems I've become a fan of intricate rock carvings - but I think most impressive is the size, beauty and age of these temples - built between the 8th and 12th century - but only discovered by French explorers in the mid-19th century. One of the criteria for selecting the 'wonders of the world' is that it "must represent a masterpiece of human creative genius". Angkor Wat delivers this in buckets.
Once you're all templed out - there are heaps of other things to do in Siem Reap. Day 3, Monika and I
Ta Phrom
The "Tomb Raider" temple are forced to fire 'JT' after he renegged on our agreed price. So with our new tuk tuk driver, we visit the floating villages at sunset, the children's hospital (to donate blood), the seeing eye masseuse (who we suspect wasn't as blind as we first thought) and even went to the hairdresser for a terrifying haircut experience. The food in Cambodia generally isn't brilliant - but thanks to some good recommendations I tasted some sensational chicken amok - a type of chicken curry with coconut, lemongrass and chilli. The gang also had a great night out at Dead Fish Tower and sampled the nightlife in town.
One thing that especially bothered me about Cambodia was the children. At the temples, small children sell books, postcards, batteries for your camera, camera for your batteries, water, flutes and bracelets. The little tackers ask you where you're from and when I responded Australia they'd chant "G’day mate",
"G’day cobber", "capital Canberra", "24 million population", "kangaroo" and once "the dingo stole my baby"! These kids aren't at school and I'm sure if they had the choice, they'd rather play than hassle tourists to buy their useless flutes (I bought two!). We try to
Housekeeping Class
Tiny 5 year olds sweep outside and when I ask what class this is, our tuk tuk driver says 'house-keeping' ask our tuk tuk driver about education here. It seems that some of the temple children do go to school, but maybe for only half a day. Some parents, who really can't afford to, have children because they know the children can make far better money selling crap to tourists, than they can working in the fields. In the end, our tuk tuk driver takes us to a country primary school. They've never had foreign visitors, the teachers don't speak English - but the kids can. They ask me what country I'm from and tell me Canberra's the capital! We visit each classroom and wave at the children. Tiny 5 year olds sweep outside and when I ask what class this is, our tuk tuk driver says 'house-keeping'. I suppose it's only practical - but doesn't really do much for numerousy or literacy.
In the end - I reluctantly grew to love Cambodia. The people here are smiling and tough - hardened by poverty and their recent Khmer tragedy. I meet a local guy Bean who was born after the Khmer Rouge fell. His mother lost two children before he was born - both died from malnourishment. Bean is
positive about Cambodia's future - he sees that this new wave of tourism in Cambodia is the way forward. The 2005 Lonely Planet quotes tourist numbers of 1 million per year, then I read in the newspaper that last year 1.7 million tourists visited Cambodia and this year they project a record 2 million - which is great to hear. I'd definitely recommend a visit before Angkor Wat turns into a full scale circus!
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SF Girl
C.F.
Thanks for sharing - well put. I was in SR and PP last week.