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Published: October 11th 2008
Dusty Clay Road
From the Thailand border to Siem ReapThe old Toyota Camery makes light work over the red clay roads, traveling at speeds between 60-110kmh making T a little nervous about not being in control. We fly over hand made bamboo bridges where the kids are collecting toll money. The road resembled a BMX track after heavy rain. Soon enough the boot had flung open again.
Bang, bang bang. The driver tries to slam the boot fixed, no luck. Next we try our clothesline. Still no luck. B a n g! b a n g! The boot finally gets secured (only just) with a home made bungee cord. However, our packs had made it to the front seat.
The roads weren’t actually as bad as what we read on the internet (remember...never believe what you read on the internet). It took us 4 hours from the O’Smach border with boot problems, but provided us with a fantastic insight to Cambodia’s countryside. Most of the houses were on stilts to avoid flooding in rainy season and ponds out the front filled with lotus flowers and ducks. The lush green paddy fields had buffalo grazing, and children bathing in nearby ponds - so cliché and picturesque. We later find out
Bas-Relief
Over 2000 of these dancing woman - called Aspara's our drivers speed was due to impending rain, which would have made the road un-drivable. We are greeted by the driver’s bro - Ry (Ree) - in Siem Reap who will out to be our personal tuk-tuk driver for the week.
Heading into the main centre 5-star hotels line both sides of the highway into town. These are owned, run and attended by the worlds super-power countries, who make sure most of their own tourist dollar goes back home. We are surprised at the development and construction occurring on almost every street. The locals hang out on the corners and shout “Lady! Sir! You want tuk-tuk” every 30-seconds and local market ladies grab you and drag you into their shop to buy, buy, buy! The desperation of money is evident.
Angkor Wat, the town main attraction, is 20mins out of town and down a tree lined shady road. Its glory is well hidden behind more trees and is surrounded by the largest moat we’ve ever seen. It takes us an hour just to get inside, and we spend our time figuring out the stories of the bas-reliefs. A guide book is invaluable. The temple has Indian origins so
the bas-reliefs look a little similar to the murals we had seen on Tipu Sultan’s Palace in Mysore, India. Buddha’s line the inside walls, mostly headless due to theiving. We pay our respects to Buddha, and make our way to the centre of the temple only to find it’s closed for renovations. A is a lot disappointed. Thunder and lightening creates an evil mood, so we head back for dinner at Ry’s local - Cambodian BBQ.
The BBQ is beef, and is eaten with fresh, raw Khmer vege’s and fish sauce. It’s all really tasty except the green bananas. Ry talks about himself and his family. He despises the corruption prevalent in Cambodia’s, Vietnamese influenced government. He says how the Govt. is not helping out the people, only themselves. Next thing two big 4WD Lexus cars, filled with government officials roll up to the same restaurant, and order a US$250 bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label (we didn’t even know this existed!). While we eat dinner, a little boy waits. He waits for leftovers, which A gives rice and vege. He was eternally grateful and gobbles it up.
The Bayon Temple was an amazing maze of many faces
Bayon Face
Bayon Temple - Day 2 staring and watching every move - this was our favorite temple. In the afternoon we kept in the shade and explored the park surroundings. It’s not a place to describe, it’s a place to been seen. King Jayavarman VII, ruler during 1181-1218, who completed Bayon Temple, whos faces represent his own. He convinced his people he had to have sex everyday or else he would turn into a serpent.
5am, Angkor Wat, Siem Reap. About 2,000 people arrive out of the shadows to witness the sunrise. Very impressive - a must do for anyone visiting. We continued to Ta Phom which had been left in ruins by the French for tourists to see what all of Angkor was like when they found it in the early 20th century. The remainder of the temples plus the land-mine museum was completed the following day, but cut short due to the persistent heavy rain.
It’s Saturday 6th September. We head south to Tonle Sap Lake and the floating village; this is basic. These people are fishing folk who live on the water because it’s free. The Cambodian’s and the Vietnamese both live on the lake but they keep to themselves. Going
through the village on long-tail boat was a real eye-opener. They rely solely on the monsoon patterns; in the dry season they build make-shift houses about 4-5km away near the waters edge. The children attend school on the lake with ‘donations’ of books and pens being made by all the whiteys that come out to the lake - our books went to the Red Cross back in Siem Reap.
The thunder and lightening storms in Siem Reap are some of the wildest we have seen ever. For two nights at 1am there’s a huge downpour and constant lightening and thunder rolling and crashing into each other. We lie in bed trying not to be blinded it was so bright and intense.
We have our last dinner with Ry at his local soup house. The ingredients including cow stomach, noodles, greens, and pork balls are cooked in a pot of broth by us at the table, T loves the stomach. Ry is an excellent tuk-tuk driver/guide; no bias, sales bullshit, or deceitful info, just a real honest goodhearted person in a dodgy line of work. Its time to leave Siem Reap by bus to the capital Phnom Penh and
Cambodia Soup
Torin and Ry (our tuk-tuk driver friend) Ry comes to our hotel to see us off, service with a smile, a hug, and a wave.
We are welcomed to PP by a retarded tuk-tuk driver who doesn’t understand our hotel name or that it is only 300m down the road. PP is a big dirty city and the tuk-tuk drivers harass us every 5m for a ride and get aggressive when we decline. Kids try and sell photocopy books and beggers nagg for loose change every step.
It’s time to visit the S21 torture museum and learn how horrific the Khmer Rouge campaign was on the Cambodian people. There are mug shots of every prisoner on display and paintings done by one prisoner showing graphic detail of how the killings happened. The worst for us was how they threw babies in the air and gunned them down, not before grabbing them by their feet and smashing them into a tree first.
Stunned, and A almost ready to throw up, we travel out of town to the killing fields. After staring at the 1000-plus skull monument enclosed in a glass tower, passing the baby-killing tree and the burial holes we get some closure to this
disgusting part of history.
We need some R&R after a couple of days in dirty, uninviting PP, so head south to Kep City. A local on the bus recommends Kep Lodge as a great place to stay so in heavy rain we tuk-tuk up a clay road to the little bungalows nestled under a mountain and national park. It also has a pool and pretty tasty local and western food, the vege pizza is outstanding. Kep is a small fishing village/quiet tourist getaway with crabs and green pepper as the local specialty and we happily devour some. The town has ruins of French colonial buildings destroyed by the Khmer Rouge and VC. Cambodian squatters now make good use of a free roof over there heads.
We find a map of a jungle trek around the mountain behind Kep Lodge, so set off with baguette and water for an 8 km hike lead by the lodge owner’s dog - Tiger. After scaling ‘stairway to heaven’ and the narrow nun’s path to sunset rock with a great view west, we scramble down another path to circumnavigate the mountain. We pass packs of dogs, monkeys, dope growers, farmers herding cattle, massive
spiders and tree snakes. We slide down a very steep 50m cliff to make it back filthy, exhausted, and in need of a swim. Tiger was possible the best dog Andrea has ever met, for someone who dislikes dog…Tiger was her best friend!
Sihounkville is west along the best road in Cambodia. We stay 6 wonderful nights at Serendipity beach at Cloud 9 bungalows at the end of the beach. Joe the owner is an expat aussie who informs T that “I’ve got a joint in my hand and The Angles on the stereo, everything is great.” Sihounkville beach is lined with food, shakes, bars, kids hawking useless crap and fruit, beggars, women wanting to give pedicures and massages, all pestering us for their business every step down the beach. It’s a good swimming beach, and we also hire kayaks and paddle past floating villages and other beaches.
Our friends from NZ join us at the beach so we hang out with them for a few days checking out the other numerous beaches and do some primo chillin’ out. On our last day we do a Khmer cooking class with our friend’s friend from Aussie. The menu starts
Serendipity Beach, Sihounkville
Huts lined the coast line selling anything and everything off with deep fried spring rolls, which were easy to make and tasted divine while hot. Banana flower salad is an interesting mix of finely chops ingredients. Fish Amok included the best curry paste we have ever tasted and was a dish we will make again. The class finished with deep fried banana and ice cream…..T was bloated for days. Overall, the food in Cambodia has been the most enjoyable for us so far…though Southern India is pretty close.
To get to Vietnam we must travel back to PP and board an express boat down the mighty Mekong. The river is expansive, fast flowing, and a rich red colour of the earth is flows over. Traveling by boat is always soothing and in no time we are at the boarder to ask permission to enter the first communist county we have been to.
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