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Published: October 31st 2006
There's not much money here
Despite the fact that we've been through some very poor places, we felt the poverty most keenly in Cambodia. Tuk tuk drivers who wanted our business would plead that they needed it to feed their families, small children asked for money for food, disabled and limbless people asked for money, and everywhere there were small children selling things like books, drinks, bracelets... The problem was the sheer number of people wanting our money, the hugely inflated prices they would demand, and the volume at which they'd ask for it. We noticed this particularly around the temples at Angkor Wat where we'd arrive only to be greeted by screams from all the vendors wanting to know if we wanted a drink, or a sarong, or guidebook. On some occasions, we were simply unable to escape the attentions of all the people wanting to sell us stuff and it would ruin our enjoyment of whatever we were doing.
We never found a satisfactory response to this, although it was something we discussed at length with our travelling mates. What we learned from those discussions is that we all had very different, and probably all equally valid,
approaches to the problem. For us, we always made sure we were armed with small change for the disabled people, reasoning that there isn't any social welfare in Cambodia and that these people must have trouble finding work (in a country that seems to have pretty high unemployment). Dealing with the children is less easy. Tim and Lynne had advised us to give the begging children food rather than money, I think because any money ends up going to adults and not necessarily for the children's food. But so often we didn't have food easily to hand and it was impossible to say no to the dirty kids clasping small brothers and sisters. With the sellers, the best we could do was say 'no thank you' when we didn't want something and then ignore them to discourage them from trying to engage us further. When we did want to buy something, we'd negotiate a little bit to make sure we got reasonable prices. Though after comparing what we paid for things with our other travelling buddies, it's clear that we were the most consistently ripped off!! We can rationalise that it's all money finding its way into the Cambodian economy
Abbie playing with the local traffic, Phnom Penh
Sometimes getting on the back of a bike is the only way to travel. Free air conditioning is a plus. Getting stuff in your eyes in a minus. And it only cost US$1.- but we still end up feeling like chumps.
From the Vietnamese border heading north
Getting into Cambodia was reasonably straight forward, though it didn't make a lot of sense to us at the time. The boat dropped us off at some place right before the border where we got our Cambodian visas. Then we walked the short, but muddy distance to the Vietnamese border control where we were ushered out of the country and then ushered onto a boat. We were ferried about five minutes up-river somewhere to Cambodian border control. This involved queuing while a man hidden behind a window used possibly 12 different stamps in several different colours to grant us entry to Cambodia. What we didn't know at the time, but heard about later was that this spot was absolutely crawling with massive spiders. We are so glad we didn't notice. And then it was back onto the boat.
Whipping our way through the Mekong on the Cambodian side, it wasn't immediately evident that we were now in a different country. Still plenty of water every which way, and large white and bony cows loitering on the banks and in the
water, some being washed by doting owners. More cow treatment that you'd never see in New Zealand.
We eventually finished our boat ride at something that looked nothing like any ferry terminal we've ever been to before. More walking of narrow planks while fully loaded with bags, and then an hour long drive on the first of the awful Cambodian roads - but more of that later.
Phnom Penh - When the world fell out of Darens Bum
D - Our room at the Lake View guest house may have been cheap at US$ 4 but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Almost five months in, I think we are both suffering and missing the creature comforts of home - so after one night here us ungrateful sods upgraded across town - US$ 10 per night! Still, the karma wave promptly bit me on the bum for being a snob, and gave me a big dose of Delhi Belly. So bad in fact, that I was visibly shrinking as I sat on the toilet at least five times an hour the morning after a Khmer curry! Before I shrank to skin
and bone Abbie managed to get the local ex-pat doctor to pay us a visit (no, not the local witch doctor) where he administered his knowledge and, more importantly, drugs! Safe to say that, 48 hours after my worst food poisoning yet, I was up and 'rearing' to go. Thanks doc!
A few things we learnt about food poisoning (skip past this bit if you aren't of a scatological inclination):
Don't Take Immodium - Let the bug out, don't lock it inside
Do drink lots and lots and lots of water
Stay near a toilet
Don't panic - food poisoning is self limiting and will usually run its course in 24 - 48 hours
A - Once Daren had recovered from combined food poisoning, Dengue Fever and Malaria (otherwise known as man-flu) we managed to do some sight seeing. The Royal Palace is a lovely place, full of extraordinary looking buildings and a real oasis of calm in a very busy city. And we made the most of cheap shopping at the Central Market. However, the fabulous Dior glasses that I picked up for $7 didn't last much longer than two weeks. Easy come, easy go.
Killing Fields War Memorial, Phnom Penh
Some of over 8,000 skulls recovered from the fields We also visited the killing fields of Choeung Ek. Jay, our friendly tuk tuk driver took us out there, despite heart felt warnings from fellow Mekong travellers Steve and Ian about the discomfort we would experience. They were right to warn us. We were bounced around like we couldn't believe. The road is utterly awful, so full of potholes and unfinished road works that it made Mongolian roads look well maintained. Jay was even embarrassed about the state of it. He's considering going into politics to get it sorted out.
Once there, it seemed like a disappointingly small site. That is until you see the huge Memorial filled with some of the 8,000 skulls excavated at the site. And then wandering around the site and stumbling across pit after pit that mark the sites of mass graves. The stories are gruesome too. People weren't killed by gun or gas here, because they were too expensive or too noisy, instead people were beaten to death, or decapitated. It's incredible to think how recent all this is. A - It's so recent that I remember growing up in Ngatea with refugees from what was then Kampuchea, living next door.
Us on the 'local' bus, Phnom Penh - Siem Reap
But I'll wager that we didn't pay the 'local' price Siem Reap - So many temples, such little time
Siem Reap is a tourist mecca because it's the closest town to the amazing temples of Angkor. Everyone speaks English. There are bars that wouldn't look out of place in London or Auckland. There are hundreds of guesthouses and more tuk tuks. And it's easy to see that people are being pulled here from all over Cambodia in an attempt to make their fortune, or just better their lives. And I guess this explains some of the extreme selling behaviour we mentioned in the opening.
Our driver, Mark, explained that the pot of gold at the end of the tourism rainbow isn't necessarily as big as the locals might hope. He told us that Koreans make up the largest percentage of tourists to Angkor. We heard that of 1.5 million tourists a year, Koreans account for a massive 1 million. But he wasn't impressed. He explained that the Koreans had their own hotels, owned and staffed by Koreans; their own restaurants selling imported Korean food, owned and staffed by Koreans; their own tour operators and tour buses, owned and staffed by Koreans. As such, they had almost no interaction
with the locals, and put very little money directly into the local economy. When you also consider that the rights to charge admission ($20 for a one day pass) are owned by a Vietnamese company in lieu of debts owed for oil shipped by Vietnam, you begin to see why the locals feel like they are getting a rough deal.
We bought a three day pass. The first day we cycled, which was pretty energetic of us given the heat and humidity. It's something we are secretly quite proud of and we never fail to mention it to other backpackers we meet. Surely it's some kind of badge of honour. The second day Mark took us in air conditioned comfort out to one of the more distant temples. And on the final day, we resorted to the more traditional approach of doing the tour by tuk tuk.
And the temples are truly fantastic. In the end we probably saw something like 15 different temples or temple mountains and a number of other related sights. From that list it's hard to choose a favorite. We loved Angkor Wat with its huge moat, massive towers and fabulous bas reliefs. But
Ta Prohm, of Lara Croft fame, smelt like real adventure with all the amazing trees growing right out of the ruins, the dappled light, tropical bird calls and great big spiders. Or perhaps Banteay Srei with it's lovely small but beautifully decorated temples. Or maybe Thommanon, which was deserted while we were there so that we all we could hear was birds in the nearby jungle.
The sites were often busy, and sometimes we would be overwhelmed by tour groups all determined to have their photos taken in the most picturesque spots. One such group was memorable for the number of women sporting very bad short tight perms. We think they were probably Korean, but perhaps we are falling for some of Mark's prejudices.
Other than hanging out in temples, we didn't do much else in Siem Reap. We spent quite a lot of time eating - and the Khmer food is really very good. We also got a chance to catch up with Aisha & Chris (from the Trans-Sib), Jane (Hue), Edy & Ryan (Mui Ne) and Liz (who we met in Siem Reap).
Getting out of Siem Reap deserves a special mention. We've already said
Even the Monks were impressed, Angkor Wat
Monks are a constant source of interest to us. Maybe orange is a mysterious colour... that the roads are bad. They don't just have pot-holes, these roads have craters. However, the road that absolutely takes the cake is the road from Siem Reap to the border with Thailand. We heard several stories about people taking buses (in either direction) which had to have people running ahead to pick the best route through the flooded sections of road, and when this failed the buses had to be towed out of water filled craters by tractors. In some cases, people were simply loaded onto the back of pick-up trucks (often with 15 - 20 others) because the buses couldn't make it through. We decided that we didn't even want to bother trying to get to Bangkok that way. And as it turned out, the situation must have been bad when we wanted to leave because the bus company had cancelled its service.
However, the only alternatives were either a six hour diversion by boat or a flight to Bangkok - and as long as there was an alternative we weren't going to fly. We opted to take a boat to Battambang and then a bus from there to the border. We feel like we might have
missed a bit of an adventure but the prospect of a 17 hour journey, six of it on the back of a ute, didn't fill us with enthusiasm. We had a lovely (albeit somewhat rickety) boat journey across the lake of Tonle Sap, three times its usual size due to wet season flooding. As a result we were skimming the tops of the trees! An afternoon and a night in Batambang wasn't fair to this town, especially as it was the only place in Cambodia where we could walk the streets unhassled by beggars and tuk tuks, but we were keen to get to Thailand and spend some time mooching on a beach.
Where to Next?
Now we're in Bangkok. But not for long. Tomorrow (1st November) we get the overnight train up to Khon Kaen to catch up with Abbie's cousin Angie. Hopefully we'll spend a week here helping out before heading down south to a beach and kicking back for a while.
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Hayesworld
Mike & Kathy
Awesome photos! Thanks so much. Loved the blog. Good job.