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Published: August 3rd 2009
It has been an eventful few days, as I parted with Jason (who returned to Kuwait where his piloting services were needed) and ventured North to Phnom Penh to meet up with Sarah. I found her at the Okay Guesthouse in the bustling downtown area of PP, a backpacker-ish type place, pretty laid back and basic. We walked the hot, humid, dirty city streets that evening and miraculously did not have any head-on encounters with vehicles. The traffic there is a phenomenal display of vehicle anarchy, yet somehow, the tuk-tuks, bicycles, motos, cars and brave pedestrians (mostly tourists are the only ones stupid enough to walk) all co-exist with respect for each other's space on the road. It is really something to see, but not somewhere I care to spend much time.
We decided that we would leave on the 12:30 bus the next day for Siem Reap so we'd have time to go to the Killing Fields museum that morning. This museum; it is heartbreaking. The museum is housed in a detention/torture facility, which was once a primary school. Each "classroom" had pictures of what they found when they "liberated" the building...mangled corpses, photos of each prisoner, some before AND after, vapid facial expressions, and many other gruesome horrors of the Pol Pot regime. Perhaps the most horrifying fact is how recently Pol Pot was in power (late 1970's) and how Cambodia today is a striking mix between pain, suffering, hope and pride.
With a heavy heart, we made our way to the bus and began our journey up to Siem Reap, happy to get away from the chaos of PP.
In Cambodia, the most important instrument on a vehicle is the horn. Drivers are constantly passing each other and they use the horn to make others aware of their intention. Throughout the 6 hour ride, I was able to de-code the honks and have provided a handy translation manual:
tap-tap: passing a vehicle that is already as far right as it can go. This is a friendly "hiya" honk.
tap-hoooonnnnk: attempting to pass a vehicle that needs to get further to the right.
hoooooonk-hoooooonk: final warning to a vehicle that has not responded to #2 above.
honkety-honk: a "hiya" to an oncoming vehicle whom the driver of our vehicle knows, like another bus.
"hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk": oh shit, we're about to all crash.
Oh, and we hit a dog on the way up. There was no special honk for that, although several passengers shrieked in horror (including myself). The Killing Fields indeed. 😞
After 6 hours of continuous honking (I timed it and we did not go longer than 2:38 minutes without a honk the entire ride), we were quite happy to arrive in Siem Reap, a much more quiet and peaceful city. We are staying at a guesthouse called Two Dragons which is run by a guy named Gordon who is originally from Philly. He's very nice and loves to answer questions from hapless tourists such as ourselves.
The next day, we began our tour of Angkor Wat, which is a series of ancient ruins, temples, and the remnants of the Khmer civilization from the early 1000's. There are upwards of 10+ temple sites, all with extravagant ornamentation, every last detail of stone is carved to tell some sort of story, holy reverence or worship. It is completely overwhelming. We saw 5 or 6 temple sites the first day and by 4pm, drenched in sweat from the almost 100% humidity, we finally convinced our very-kind-but-overly-enthusiastic tour guide that we'd had enough and that school was over for the day.
He set us free, and we stumbled in a dazed state to the internet cafe to purchase our air tickets to Malaysia. How hard can this be, we thought? Two hours later, both of us ready to poke our own eyes out from dealing with faulty computers, slow internet connection, and me learning that Wells-Fargo has turned off my credit card (yes, the only one I have here) for suspected fraud (they will not help me with this by email, I have to call them, which I'm sure will be an event unto itself) it has been a bit stressful just dealing with things that are normally simple. Fortunately, I have Sarah to mooch off of until I get the credit card settled.
We spent a second day at Angkor Wat today, at the end of which I declared that I cannot and will not ever need to see another Wat again. Tomorrow we relax a bit, perhaps rent bicycles, perhaps get a massage from a blind person, hopefully find a pool to cool off in, and then we are all set to go to Kecil Island in Malaysia on Aug 5-Aug 12. I hope to spend much of that week underwater and Sarah is very excited to lay in a hammock and stare at the horizon.
Hope this finds you all well. Wish me luck with Wells Fargo. If they make my life difficult, I may join the beggars on the streets of Cambodia.
Hugs and kisses,
Pam
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TJ
non-member comment
Ah Cambodia
Just as I remember it. W/o a working Wells Fargo card you can't get the local currency dispensed from the ATM. US Dollars... I had to look pretty hard to find some Cambodian currency. Too funny. Doesn't sound like you got to Sihanoukville (sp??) on the coast. Blow some bubbles for me. TJ