Cambodia

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Cambodia is a country I knew very little about. I'd heard of Pol Pot, but that was about it. So when my friend Rhys said he would come out to visit during my 2 weeks holiday for Chinese New Year (called 'Tet' here), we decided to head to Cambodia to find out what it had to offer, as Vietnam tends to shut down during the Tet holiday. We set off with no real plan, as we were meeting up with our French friend Vince, his brother, and his brother's Cambodian wife, who happened to be travelling there at the same time.

Upon arriving in the capital, Phnom Penh, we discovered that we had missed the bus to where we were meeting Vince, in a place called Kampot in the South. One of the things I love about Asia though is that they will always find a way to do something. The flip side of this is that it won't be as easy or comfortable as you hoped. So we found a guy with a car willing to take us down there, the drawback being he wanted to fill the car up with as many people as possible before he left. The method he used was to stand in the middle of the road and try and flag people down in the hope that they might want to a lift to this town about 3 hours away. Slightly strange tactic, as most people on the road already have transport, and it seemed unlikely that someone would randomly want to go to this place. But, amazingly, within about 30 minutes we were sitting in a packed car on our way to Kampot, with everyone crammed in sitting on each others laps. I always find that the best tactic for travelling on roads in Asia is to just not look, try and sleep or something, because if you watch what's going on you'll be needing a change of underwear every 5 minutes. Cambodia is no exception, in fact the roads are probably the scariest I've ever been on.

Kampot is an old French colonial town, full of slightly run down French buildings along the riverside, but it has a nice feel to the place. We hired out some motorbikes and set off towards the seaside town of Kep, along what must have been the dustiest road I've ever seen. It was pretty hard work driving through the clouds of dust with huge trucks trying to overtake you and knock you off the side of the road. We stopped off at Kep's local market where almost immediately we witnessed a very young girl get hit by a car, and the car just speed off. The poor girl was screaming, and had what looked like a broken arm, and I hope nothing else. Not a great introduction to Cambodia. The government must be pouring money into Kep, as the roads were all brand new, and it looks like there is a fair bit of development going on there. But there wasn't a great deal to see there, so we carried on to some of the area's famous pepper plantations. These were almost all completely destroyed during the Pol Pot times, but they have all been re-planted, and I'm no expert on pepper but it did taste ridiculously good.

We also decided to go and try and find some caves that had some temples inside. There are no signs on the main road for these kind of things, so it took a bit of exploring off the track to find them, going through some of the countryside and local villages, which was a nice relief from all the new touristy developments going on in Kampot and Kep. The first cave we found used to contain a temple, but it was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. You could still see some of the remnants inside. The guides are hilarious - they will tell you every rock formation looks like an elephant or a monkey. Or a crocodile's tail. The second cave we went to was much better - the Khmer Rouge never discovered this temple so it is still intact. Again we were shown all the elephants and monkeys, and then taken right into the heart of the caves using nothing but candles, and going along some very dodgy routes with sheer drops! Quite a scary trip. The roads round this area are all dirt tracks and full of potholes, so we were driving our bikes very carefully along them. The guide was on the back of my bike and kept telling me I could go faster, but I was already going as fast as I dared. Anyway, eventually he got sick of it, and asked to drive my bike. Well, I was in for the ride of my life - he drove at 90kmh along these tracks, slamming on the brakes when he saw a pothole. Half of me was scared out my mind, but the other half was loving it, trying to justify it with the thought that he knew these roads like the back of his hand. But still, I was glad when we finally got back!

After Kampot, we decided to head to the beach area - a town called Sihanoukville. This involved a minibus ride, once again with as many people as they could possibly pack in there. Luckily it was only a couple of hours as it was so uncomfortable! Sihanoukville is not the nicest of places, really touristy and full of annoying backpackers that have decided to 'live' there for a few weeks and work at the bars and hassle you every time you walk past. We went on a snorkelling trip one day which was fun - the snorkelling was terrible and I get bored of snorkelling very quickly anyway, but it was nice to relax on the boat. We also saw some Chinese White Dolphins which were really cool, I've never seen a white dolphin before! We hired out a Hobie Cat one day as well, and went for a sail around some of the islands which was really fun.

One of my friends from home now lives on Bamboo Island off the coast of Sihanoukville managing the resort there, and so we arranged to go and meet up with him for a couple of days. We bought the boat ticket to go to the island, and in typical Cambodian style the boat stopped before we reached the island and told us we we'd arrived at the snorkelling spot. It turned out they had just stuck us on a snorkelling trip that happened to stop on the island for lunch! Now this isn't a complaint, more of an observation, but it is so typical of Cambodian tourism. As tourism is still fairly new there, I don't think they quite understand the standards that us Westerners demand. For example, if you ask for a beer, you would be lucky if you got it within 20 minutes. It was always worth ordering a beer when you asked for the bill as well, as by the time the bill had arrived you would have finished your beer! This would be annoying if you were in a rush, but we were on holiday and had all the time in the world so it never really mattered. But it could be frustrating with things like that boat trip! Anyway, Bamboo island is really stunning, it is pretty much deserted apart from this resort. We went on a fishing trip that evening, and just spent the two days relxaing and drinking and exploring the island. Annoyingly we had to go on another snorkelling trip to get back (it wouldn't have been so bad if there was actually anything to look at, but they didn't even drop us off near any coral!!).

After a fairly uncomfortable 10 hour journey on the night bus we arrived in Siem Reap - the gateway city to the famous temples of Angkor. On the first day we hired a tuk-tuk driver and headed to some of the temples a bit further away in the hope that they might be a bit less crowded. Well the first one we went to, Banteay Srei, was packed. As amazing as the temple was, the number of people there really ruined it. As a side note, it is pretty expensive by Cambodian standards to go to Angkor - $20 a day for the pass. Now I assumed that this money went towards the restoration of the temples, but some of the locals told us that in reality it's owned by an oil company that lease it from the government and make a lot of money out of it. The money for restoration comes from elsewhere. Unfortunately there seems to be similar cases all over the country. For example, Bokor National Park in the south, known for it's elephants and wildlife is now being turned into a huge resort full of casinos and fancy housing by a Chinese businessman.

Anyway, getting back on track, the next temple we stopped at (no idea of the name), was incredible. There was basically no one there, and these temples really do leave you speechless. When there's no one there, you can wander around them and feel like you have gone back a thousand years. The carvings are everywhere, some distinct, others that have melted and blended in with the aged rocks. Surrounded by the jungle, it is spectacular, I have never seen anything like it. And there are so many of them. The area is huge, and everywhere you look there are temples hiding away in the jungle, all of them different and unique. The next morning we headed to the biggest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat itself, to watch the sunrise. Along with about 5000 other people! We managed to find a slightly less crowded area and watched the silhouette of the temple slowly come into focus, with the sun rising behind. It was an amazing sight, only slightly marred by a load of bright green scaffolding on the temple and the incessant beeping of the Japanese tourist's camera next to us. We decided to check out the rest of the temple before the crowds got there, and had an explore round the place. It is absolutely huge, and although it is impressive, I think the smaller temples have so much more atmosphere, and nowhere near the number of people! The rest of the day was spent clambering in, round and over temples through the jungle (including the one where they filmed Tomb Raider - Ta Prohm - where the jungle is really beginning to take over the temple). The whole day was incredible, there was so much to explore and see, and as they are all so unique it doesn't really get boring! Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Whilst in Siem Reap, we also checked out the land mine museum and the war museum. Cambodia has an extremely complicated history, and has been manipulated and played around by so many different countries all looking out for themselves, leaving the Cambodian people to suffer the absolute horrors of war and the devastation that it has brought. The Khmer Rouge (who were helped into power by the US government and trained by the British among others) killed around 2 million people over a period of nearly 4 years. That's almost 1500 people a day, and 30% of Cambodia's population at the time. In trying to create a classless society, they murdered anyone intellectual, or who had any kind of link with the 'old ways'. Women and children too - no one was safe. It is unbelievable to learn about the role that our countries played in this - even for years after the Khmer Rouge were ousted. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and remains to be so. There are an estimated 6 million mines still lying around, waiting to ruin peoples lives. The mines that the US dropped during the war look a lot like balls, and children often bring them home. Luckily, there's now a few teams doing some extremely brave work, and going about clearing these minefields, so that people can farm and live on their land safely once more. Some of the stories from Cambodia between the seventies and the late nineties are absolutely mind blowing - how so many people can be willing to torture and murder their own people like that is beyond belief. And how I, and I'm sure many others too, know so little about it, also worries me. How can things like this be stopped from happening again if people aren't aware of it?

Our final stop was the capital, Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is home to a couple of infamous sites from the Khmer Rouge period - Tuol Sleng prison, and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Tuol Sleng (also known as S-21) was an old school, converted into a prison and used to torture and murder thousands of people. Once sent there, there was no way out - only 7 people survived whilst it was in existence. It is an eerie and depressing place. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous in their documentation of the prisoners. Every one was photographed, measured, weighed, and forced to confess to crimes they never committed. The photographs are all there. Staring into the eyes of each person sucks the life out of you. All you see is absolute despair - they knew that that photograph was their death sentence. And they stare into your eyes as if you are the executioner. The prison still has some of the torture equipment in there, and you can still see blood stains on the floor in some of the rooms (whether or not they are original I don't know, but it certainly provokes your imagination). Some of the things that happened here are horrific - the complete disregard for human life is unbelievable. One example being that they used to throw babies off the roof, as they were too much of a nuisance. The commander of this prison - Duch - is the only senior member of the Khmer Rouge who has been tried, convicted and is serving a life sentence in prison. The other main leaders have either already died, or still haven't been tried. And countless others have escaped justice completely and have hidden themselves back in society. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are one of over 300 killing fields where prisoners were sent for mass execution. Several mass graves were discovered there. Bullets were too expensive, so the prisoners were clubbed with spades or had their throats slit with the deadly sharp sugar cane stalks. You can see the crushed skulls where they are stored in the stupa. The graves lie in a beautiful and peaceful area, about 7km outside of Phnom Penh. Occasionally, particularly after rain, bones and teeth still resurface, and you can still see fragments lying around. Pieces of clothing are caught in tree roots, and stuck in the ground here and there. You can see the tree that they used to beat babies to death on, in order to stop them from avenging their parents deaths when they grew up. What's scary is how many people were involved in something like this, and how so few of them have been brought to justice.

Phnom Penh does have a less depressing side to it too. It is a nice city to walk around, full of old French buildings, beautiful temples, and free from any skyscrapers. We tried some of the local delicacies, fried tarantula for starters and stir fried tree ants for the main, which were actually pretty good! We eventually had to leave and took the boat back to Ho Chi Minh along the Mekong to see some of the floating villages.

It was a great trip, we saw and learnt so much about Cambodia. It's a beautiful country with everything you could want in a holiday - beaches, islands, mountains, wildlife, temples, good food, and friendly people. It's amazing to see how people that have been though such terrible times can still smile so much. Cambodia is a country on the mend, and I'd highly recommend anyone to go and visit and check it out for yourself!

It was great to hang out with Rhys after not seeing him (or anyone else from home) for the last year and a half, and also getting to meet up with some other familiar faces! Anyway, hope you are all jealous of my holiday and having fun in the freezing snow at home...

Love Ross x

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