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Published: April 23rd 2006
sunset
Sunset over.....I forget the name of this one.Well, we took the most adventerous leg of our journey yesterday from Surin (Thailand) across the border to Cambodia. 1st mode of transport was the minivan from Surin to the bordervillage in Cambodia called O'Smach (about 2 hours of nice Thai roads). We were the only Farang (tourists) with a cram packed van (as they always do in SE Asia). I had to sit in the middle seat in the front with my pack smothering me and two big Thai guys either side of me....at least there was air con!
It wasn't until we hit the border that we realised we had taken the crossing less travelled. Other than a massive casino that resembled an Oasis in the dessert (the richer Thai's must have to cross the border to gamble), there was nothing except one guy offering us a taxi to Siem Reap, which is where we wanted to go. He wanted 2,500 baht ($100NZD) for the 4hr drive which is HUGE money here! To put it in perspective, we travelling 9 hrs across Thailand, on two different trains the day before, for 130 baht each. I told him we were going to starve for the rest of our trip
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Got sucked into paying for posing with these kids... in Cambodia with a price like that. After much tooing and froing we got him down to 1,800 baht. At the end of the day we WERE STUFFED if we didn't have him as we really were in the boonies.
The roads confirmed this. They were red, dusty, rutty and windy. The rattles and knocks coming from his beat up Toyota Camry reflected the Cambodian roads well. The instant contrast in scenery was unreal when we crossed the border. Thai was dry, barren and flat. Cambodia was all of a sudden rolling, lush, tropical but most noticably.....POOR! The main road was lined by shack after shack, but the best bit was the people, esp the kids, looked so content and happy. There were so many great photo moments but as Murphy should have it, my camera battery was flat!! 3 year olds peddling grown ups bikes, standing on the peddles not even being able to see over the handle bars. Trucks fulled to the brim with timber, with 50 locals on top. Men, women, babies, monks all smiling and waving. Local water wells with naked kids pumping away and throwing water around. After reading the devastating past of this
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This is the big daddy....PJ Wardell (and that's Angkor Wat in the background) country it was great to see in only less than a decade peace had been restored.
After 4 hrs, and some unreal scenery on the road less travelled we hit the bustling city of Siem Reap, the gateway to the might Kymer Temples, most famously, Angkor Wat,the worlds largest religous creations. We arrived on dark, so just got a room and walked to the town centre for a much anticipated meal. We're both ïndian heads and seem to eat Indian by default. Though I have made a point of always having a traditional meal of the country we are in. The poverty we saw in the town centre we saw was the worst than anywhere. Although Tom and Hannah had warned us, not much can prepare you for it. Lee-Anne was especially sorrowed about it. So many young and old with missing limbs from the bombs. Mums, with their hands out with babes that look barley conscious. Even a little boy of about 8 was walking round with his 2 year ols sister on his hip with an empty babies milk bottle pleading for money to fill it up. It really was moving. You get a real feel of
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Some locals just can't adapt to these western dunnies! helplessness with the share scale of the proplem. We gave some money here and therebut have decided we get food today. We were even thinking of taking a few kids to dinner with us tonight. Just not too sure how that would go downwith their parents (if they had any...). It really does make you feel guilty to be sitting in a clean, nice reasaurant when on the street, a few meters way, there is that kind of poverty.
Tonight and tomorrow, we are going to pay the USD $20 to see the temples. There are way more than just Angkor, so the way seems to be to hire a tuk tuk driver for the day andhe shows you all the spots.
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