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Published: April 21st 2013
We are now BACK in the Land of Smiles!! Which we've dearly missed. Until now we've had a very interesting and educational week or so. It all started while we were still in Phu Quoc, Vietnam by visiting the Coconut Prison. This was a prison built by the American puppet regime during the Vietnam war. Most of the original structures have been torn down and replaced with replicas filled with real life looking dummies to depict the torture that was inflicted unto the Vietnamese prisoners. This place was graphic and horrid. We learned about how the prison operated and of the many techniques of torture.
After the prison we went to Sao Beach which is now dubbed as our favourite beach of the ENTIRE trip. It was fabulous. Way nicer than our garbage ridden beach at our resort on the other side of the island. We spent 2 days travelling from our beach resort to Sao Beach just to enjoy this white sand beauty. In those two days we met another nice couple and their two beautiful children and shared not only the beach but great conversation. After Phu Quoc it was time for Cambodia!
We were in Cambodia
for about 10 days and found it really lovely. Although, we didn't seem to connect to it the way we did with Thailand, Laos or even Vietnam. That may have had something to do with the fact that we started out in the super touristy beach town of Sihanoukville, rested for a few days on a coastal island (inhabited by no more than a few thousand people made up of mostly tourists) and moved on to the capital city of Phnom Penh, which was deserted for the Khmer New Year. Finishing off in Siem Reap for the all mighty Angkor Wat. Or maybe just lack of time here, with only 10 days to spend. We wish we had more time to truly connect with this resilient country and it's people.
The border crossing from Vietnam was again, another song and dance show. Only this time a little more dance. We handed over our paperwork and passports to our "rep" from the bus to have them stamped for us to pick up at the border. We got there, and sure enough took us all of 5 mins to get our stamped passports. We thought.."this is a breeze!" as Cambodian borders
are notoriously corrupt. They herded us to another check point where there stood a shack labeled "Communicable Diseases Control Department". They told us to line up and one by one we were made to sit on a stool inside the shack. There was a border official with a glorified laser pointer that showed the temperature on a small screen. He put it close to the person's forehead and "took their temperature". He then recorded it on a sheet and stamped another yellow piece of paper. The paper says that you should present it to a doctor if you are ever sick and in need of medical attention. Then he says "ok 1$". We of course (more so me as Dave is the rock of the two of us) slightly flip out. I start asking our "rep"/guards why this is done? Our rep who spoke great English a minute ago, seemed to have forgotten how to say Hello. Then I asked why the local girl on our bus was already on the other side looking quite bored with the whole spectacle and not having to pay the medical exam 1$ fee? ..."no English"...was his reply.
Ok fine..we sat, got our
temperature taken, paid the damn dollar. I even asked to see the results of this exam or a receipt for my dollar transaction..."No English". Just an absolute joke, really. Of course some of the members from our mini van were saying "ooh it's only a dollar" to which we replied, it's the principle! and it's not just a dollar. It's a dollar each, and they get millions of tourists every year! Dave even suggested that it would've been easier to swallow if they just told us that our $20 visas would be $21 instead of wasting our time with this obvious charade.
So that was our border crossing into Cambodia. We got to Sihanoukville by late afternoon and quickly checked into our cute bungalow, decided that in the end we may have made out luckier than some and forgot about the whole debacle.
Sihanoukville was..well, fun. It's a bar filled coastal town with several nice beaches. We stayed in Otres beach at a simple bungalow for 20$ a night. The beach was really nice and though the nearby Serendipity beach was known for its nightlife we opted to spend our time checking out what our beach had to
offer. In doing so we found a Canadian owned and ran bar that took care of a slight nacho craving we had... as soon as we saw them on the menu!
We also pre booked the Treehouse Bungalows at Koh Rong, a nearby island off Sihanoukville. We've been eyeing this place long before the trip. Treehouse bungalow is exactly what it sounds like. A bungalow on stilts overlooking the magnificent ocean. These weren't your cheapie bungalows..at 35$ a night, this was by far our most expensive stay yet but well worth it. Our treehouse was very simple with just a bed and night table with a bathroom on the bottom level. We had a hammock and a comfy chair on our veranda overlooking the beach. What more do you need?!
While in Koh Rong we hiked an hour through the jungle to another part of the island and ended up at Long Beach. This was at par with Sao Beach as the nicest beach we've ever seen. It's the beach where one of the 'Survivor' seasons was filmed a few years back. We actually found some of the rafts that looked like they were from the 'Survivor' days.
At one point it started to rain. Correction, not just any rain, but torrential downpour. At first we swam in the rain but then got a bit cold. So we took the "Survivor" raft, turned it upside down and spread our hammock over it. We had shelter! On a secluded beach with no one but us, it sure felt like the movie 'Castaway' to us! The rain receded and we had an awesome beach day! However, towards the evening the weather picked up again and for the worst this time. We had an early dinner and headed up to bed before it started really pouring. We had only been in the treehouse for an hour when the thunder and lightening started. The rain came harder, the wind got stronger and the lightening struck closer and brighter. Once the treehouse started to sway ever so slightly I turned to Dave (who was in his glee with camera inhand recording the lightshow) and suggested we make our way back to the restaurant. He assured me there was no need, that it would pass and that we'd be ok. And so we were. Within a half hour the rain and winds had
calmed and the thunder and lightening were now in the distance. Definitely made for an interesting night and if nothing else gave us a cooler night to sleep through.
The only bad thing about Rong is that it is filled with sand flies. By the end of our 2 days there, I was covered head to toe with over 40 bites that itched for 3 days! Dave of course had none.
We made our way via bus to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. We booked an extra day there specifically because it was the Khmer New Year. Thinking everyone would've flocked to the capital and we would experience it's festivities. How wrong were we. Everyone seems to desert P.P. come Khmer NY. Our hotel concierge told us that most head home to their respective villages to celebrate with their families and the ones that do stay in town do so because they must or see some potential in working.
So here we are in the capital with barely any cars, motorbikes or open businesses around and no New Year festivities. We accepted it, took to sightseeing and still managed to go visit the infamous Killing Fields
and the S-21 Prison.
The killing fields we went to is one of over 300 across Cambodia that were used to exterminate Cambodians who weren't of the "farming type" during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot the leader of the Khmer Rouge had this insane idea that Cambodia should be self sufficient and that the "old people" (farmers and such) were the ones that held the country together. Any and everyone with any sort of formal education, wore glasses or had 'soft' hands ("new people") was essentially exterminated. During Khmer Rouge's reign over the country, almost 3 million Cambodians were sent to the death. The history and tragedy of this beautiful country is just brutal. The Killing Fields were a real eye opener, with many mass graves scattered all over this area.
We also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum aka the S-21 prison which housed and killed over 20,000 inmates. It was a former school turned prison. This place was used to bring in completely innocent people and torture them until they admitted to being either a CIA or KGB spy. Which was ridiculous of course! Then they would be sent to the Killing Fields
to their doom. Many never made it to the fields and died from their torture. We saw photographs of prisoners (men, women, children) and read some heartbreaking survival stories. We saw some of the torture tools and rooms they used. Some still had bloody hand prints on the walls. Very horrific place! Everyone should educate themselves about this dark period of Cambodia's history or visit and see for yourselves. Just as we learned about the Secret War and Vietnamese War respectively.
After having learned more of these attrocities we decided to look into the outcome of the trials surrounding the few people being held responsible only to find out that only one has been convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Pol Pot himself died before any trial could sentence him and just recently two others have passed away, another found unfit for trial due to medical reasons leaving only one other Khmer Rouge official being tried. We feel a profound injustice for the 1 in 4 cambodians who have lost family members and so many years later still being robbed the satisfaction of seeing those responsible pay for what they have done.
It's scary what us humans are capable of.
We wandered around Phnom Penh on the eve of their New Years and although there were some celebrations around it didn't feel like the real celebration was there. The next morning we left for Siem Reap! Apparently everyone came here instead! Siem Reap is home to the famous Angkor Wat, one of the most religious momuments in the world. We decided to check out the sunrise there which is a popular thing to do, then walk around all day and explore the grounds. We hired a tuk tuk driver for 15$ a day and he picked us up at 5am the next morning. The sunrise was AMAZING, probably one of the nicest, reddest, coolest sunrises we've seen. Something of a rarity apparently. At least that was the consensus after over hearing a few onlookers.
The place was packed with people. Thousands were there. Angkor Wat in itself is smaller than we expected but still really cool inside. The grounds are filled with many Wats scattered around the huge grounds. We regretted not getting a guide book or an actual guide to give us more insight and information and after some time, as impressive as they
all were..they all started looking a bit alike. Oh well, next time!
We visited 5 temples on the first day (including the one from Tomb Raider) and 4 on the second day there. On the first day it was beautiful and sunny. It was a great workout climbing all the steeply inclined stairs and walking around all day. On the second day it was gloomy and eventually started pouring. We were smart enough to remember our ponchos from Da Lat and luckily brought them with us. We were getting jealous looks as we strolled about in our bright yellow ponchos from people huddled inside the small temples, waiting for it to blow over. The whole experience was really great.
Siem Reap also has a great night life and night market scene. The famous "Pub Street" is lined with neon coloured bars and restaurants. The night market area is really nice as well. We made some friends there, hung out, drank cheap beer, ate good food and had even better conversations. Problems of the world, politics, religion, travel, life experiences and not exactly in that order, with some Jenga thrown in. A great night!
We decided since we
have a few extra days to play with that we would finish off our trip at an island. We chose Koh Chang off the coast of Thailand. We took a mini bus to the Thai border town of Poipet. While our Cambodia border crossing was relatively smooth, with exception of the laser pointer-time - waster it pales in comparison to this Thai border crossing. Not so much due to corruptness but in terms of time. We had to queue for over 3 hours...outside...in the sun...with our bags...with about 200 other people! We were absolutely drenched in sweat. So was everyone else. We could both see and smell. The line seemed to not move AT ALL. At one point we tried to see who we could pay off to cross faster but decided that option would just perpetuate a bad situation. We just waited. Finally we got into the AC room and waited some more. We guessed that because of the Khmer New Year this area had an extra overflow of people returning home coupled with the many farangs heading in the same direction might have been the cause of the long wait.
We were hot, tired and sweaty. Not
the end of the world, sure...but still. On top of that we then had another 3.5 hour drive to the pier where we would then take an hour ferry to the island.
We finally made it to our bungalow at 9:30pm, having left Siem Reap at 8am. Way to finish off the trip with a bang! One last long travel day. All that aside, we are now relishing the thought of being back in Thailand (our obvious fav) with yummy curries, Pad Thai's and 7-Elevens!
Our resort is amazing, set in a lush garden with a lagoon around it. 100 metres the beach connected by a wooden walkway. We love it. We will laze about here for the next 4 days until it's time for Bangkok one last time.
Love,
D & A
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Anya
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Fantastic photos, guys! I am impressed.