A Short Holiday In Cambodia

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We were greeted by straight faced customs officials upon arriving at the Siem Reap airport. The system operated on a production line model and was quite efficient but not exactly friendly. We didn’t have to hang around for long though and plenty of taxis were waiting outside at the prepaid side of the queue. Our driver was particularly pushy and unpleasant and kept insisting we give him a time to collect us later to take us to the temples around the city. We explained we had no plans yet but we’d take his card and maybe call him if we decided to go down the taxi route. He would not accept this. At various points along the route he also told us our hostel was closed down, had moved and as a final attempt that it was in the wrong part of town. When we finally got to it he wanted to wait in case there were no rooms and then had the cheek to ask guesthouse for commission for bringing us! They don’t give commission anyway but we were sure to explain what had happened after we settled in. Happy House was the name of the place we stayed at on recommendation from Andie and Jonny and as always bit turned out to be really nice and friendly. We tried out some local dishes for lunch; chicken lok luk and beef lok luk, both were very tasty.

The guesthouse staff were very helpful as we tried to figure out what there was to do and when we should do it in our tight timeline. They booked us a moto-rickshaw (a small motorbike connected to a 2 wheeled carriage) for a trip to the floating villages on the Tonle Sap lake, about 15km out of town. This lake swells to 10 times its normal size during the monsoon period. The trip was quite interesting, as we drove through the outskirts of the city so we saw the houses the people lived in. Some were made out of concrete closer to the city but further out most were wooden shacks on bamboo stilts. It wasn’t a pretty picture to tell the truth as the country is still very much impoverished. Many children have no clothes to wear or they’re in rags and run about in bare feet. The adults are thin and clothes are faded and worn. 65% of Cambodian population is under 29 and 85% under 44, partially due to the Khmer Rouge genocide, where approx 2 million (+/- depending on reports) died out of a population of 7 million between 1975 and 1979. As we got nearer to the floating villages the scene got worse and we didn’t feel very comfortable walking through the area where the tourist boats were docked. On the way, we had to stop at the government tourist stand to prepay for our boat. The price was higher than what we’d be told at our guesthouse and some tourists were turning back saying it was ridiculous. We haggled for awhile and finally got him down to $30 for the three of us for an hour and a half trip. In reality, we drove around in a big circle encompassing the channel, where all the houses are floating, to the main body of the lake once, for 30 minutes. Some houses didn’t look tall enough for a person to stand upright in. Some were being pulled by little boats and they even had floating Christian churches. It was quaint in some regards but grim in others. There were petrol spills visible in the water and rubbish floating all over the place and tiny children were swimming in it. As we puttered along, little shop boats pulled up alongside and kids, with both hands holding on to a basket of soft drinks, would hop on to our boat to try to sell to us. We held our breath at each seemingly dangerous leap but it would appear these kids are used to it. Part of this trip is to watch the sunset over the lake so we were dropped off at a floating restaurant and shop which had a viewing platform on the roof. It also had a pit of crocodiles we watched for a few minutes. At first we thought they were fake as they hardly ever move but soon we realised they weren’t and one had blood on its mouth.... Waiting for the sunset got boring as we left far too early (despite our protesting earlier) so we left. On the ride back in to town we drove parallel to a storm cloud with some amazing fork lightening striking down.

We went for dinner in the main tourist drag in Siem Reap all three nights we stayed in town. Food stalls line the streets but the souvenir market, or Old Market, closes at sunset. There were plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from and we heard live bands playing in a few. We ate at The Red Piano which apparently Angelina Jolie made famous when she was in town for the Tomb Raider shooting and the Ivy Bar, both served good food and were atmospheric. The Ivy Bar also featured a free pool table, where we spent several hours honing our skills, in particular Em’s, which were newly remembered due to general lack of practice in Canada :-)

Adam was our tuk tuk driver for our Angkor Wat temple exploring experience. He was a really sweet guy and always had a smile on his face. He also didn’t mind when we slept in for the sunrise trip on the first morning and was even making us feel better by telling us the sunrise had been bad anyway because of clouds. The whole day was a write off then as the sunset was useless too. We didn’t see anything behind the clouds. Em was pretty happy though as she took the scenic route on board an elephant to the viewing point while Ade and Ash got in line and walked up the path. The whole area was packed with tourists trying to get perched on the best place to see the sun. Climbing up the ruins was quite tricky especially with so many people so close together. We checked out Angkor Wat through a telescope and spotted a hot air balloon making trips up for the view. When we mentioned this to Adam he drove us to the balloon dock and we tried to book ourselves on for sunrise the next morning but we didn’t end up getting it because it was too windy so the balloon didn’t go. Never mind! We did see the sunrise at Angkor Wat the next morning though. It was amazing and definitely made up for the uninspiring sunset the night before. There were hundreds of tourists milling around while the sky was beautifully coloured but when we went in to the temple complex to look around there weren’t too many people and when we came back out the place was deserted. Seems there is a tourist route that the tours stick too and they catch the temple for sunrise then come back to explore later. It suited us fine as we got to explore pretty much alone. We saw many temples during the day including; Bayon (temple with hundreds of smiley faces), Ta Prehm (half crumbled and in the jungle, Tomb Raider filmed here), Bantay Srei (lots of beautiful carvings) and a few other less famous but equally awe inspiring ruins.

At lunch we were surrounded by kids selling books, postcards and bracelets who we nicknamed temple urchins. One very convincing little girl nearly convinced Em that buying 10 postcards, 2 bracelets and a fan for $3 was a good deal for ‘laydeee’. The price in itself not being the problem but the fact the goods were unwanted. We did buy some books on the Kymer Rouge era on the premise we could have some ‘peace and quiet’ but surprisingly it took some time and Ade intervening for them to finally prey on some other tourists.
There is a well known landmine museum in Siem Reap that we’d all read about before arriving so we stopped there midday. It was quite interesting from the point of view that the guy who runs it with his wife used to be a child soldier but has spent the last 20 or so years of his life dismantling these landmines as well as providing a home for many disabled children. He and his wife run a school and home for them on the plot of land they own outside of the city. The organisation is now an NGO with the help of some people in Canada and has some small funding from the Canadian government. The display was interesting but not too detailed or informative for a museum, which is fair enough though as his main job is saving lives in the field and he opened the museum to highlight the issue to the world and in that he has succeeded. What was shocking to learn is that many countries still actively produce and use landmines in combat openly and have refused to sign the international anti-landmines agreement. These countries include the US, China, Russia, India and Pakistan.

That was all we got to do in Cambodia unfortunately. We didn’t make it out of Siem Reap at all but we are hoping to return one day to see Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. We learned while talking to Adam, our tuk tuk driver, that there was an outbreak of Dengue Fever during the period we visited. Luckily we didn’t get many bites and have not been affected so not to worry. Our next stop is the islands in the Gulf of Thailand for the Full Moon party and some diving in Koh Tao.

(Not all photos are on this page - need to click next page below in order to view the remainder)

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Photos

Sunrise
On the way in to Angkor Wat

Super-Steep Steps
at Angkor Wat

Angkor Temple
View from inside the top of the temple

Danger Mines!
At the landmine museum

Jungle Temple
Part of Ta Prehm

Ash Entering Doorway
One of many at Ta Prehm

Tree Roof
Ta Prehm Style

Comments

[M & D]

Thank you!
Love reading your blogs - confirms the wish to travel!