Phnom Penh, Kool Kampot, skankville, and beautiful island life!

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The following is written by Michael James Kirby, typed up and edited by Katherine Miller!!!!

Cambodia.

16th november.

After arriving in Phnom Penh and negotiating the price with a tuk tuk driver we took our first tuk tuk to our hostel. It was a great way to see phnom penh and to take in all the sights and sounds. When we arrived at our hostel we were greeted by some staff namely two small, very hyper cambodian girls who kept telling us how happy they were to meet us. After climbing up some very steep and wobbly stairs to put our bags in our room we came back down and had our first cambodian beer (or a few) at the hostel bar and sorted out plans for the next few days.



17th november

After some breakfast we stepped out into some intense heat and began wandering around the city which was painful and sweaty. We stopped at a very western looking supermarket to get some cold drinks then back out into the heat. On the way out 3 very small, poor children came running up to us gesturing for money. We had been prewarned about this and been advised not to give money to them because all of the money usually goes to a "boss" who is often abusing them or it goes to parents who do not work and send the children out to beg. Obviously this is a point where a huge debate could be started about whether it is ok to send children to beg if you have no mother means of income etc. and it's one that we've had several times out here but i don't think this blog is the place for it. Anyway, it was heartbreaking to see and unfortunately it was not going to be even close to the last time we would see it here.
After more wandering around we headed to s21 prison or as it's now named Tuol Sleung Genocide museum. This was one of the largest buildings used by the Khmer Rouge to hold people believed to be against them. This basically included anyone who was seen as "intellectual" This place was horrible. The building itself had been a school until the revolution when Pol Pot's followers had emptied phnom penh and then it was used as a torture/slaughter house. The building did still look like a school from outside but going around and seein pictures of the prisoners was very shocking. We walked around rooms where people had been tortured until they had given false confessions or until they had died. Old PE equipment was used to hang people upside down and dunk them in barrels of water. It was a lot to take in and process and i have to admit i got a bit upset. We decided that after being shocked enough for one day we would go to the royal palace instead of the infamous killing fields afterwards. So, after a 40 minute walk and a very long queue we were in and the palace was amazing, very impressive. Found it very hard to stomach in some ways though as this place was in complete contrast to that outside the palace walls where children were begging and costuteds were selling photocopied books in an attempt to make enough to stay alive. We then spent a few hours wandering the streets a it was a bit cooler now and then we went back to our hostel and rested. Sitting in the bar area the hostel's cat came and squeezed next to me on my chair and then somehow managed to take over the whole chair until i was forced to move. After some dinner off to bed we went as michael was still suffering from the night before, which was much to the amusement of the man behind the bar who kept laughing every time michael declined the offer of a beer and asked for a soft drink!


18th november


After splashing out on a big English breakfast we negotiated a tuk tuk price to head to the killing fields. We arrived at the fields and got a amazing audio tour of the place. The first thing you notice about the fields is how nice and peacefull it is. Wandering round listenin to the audio you get shocked about how many people where killed here how it was done and you even see bone fragments and old clothes what are appearin on the surface. Now not so peaceful and beautiful. The worse if you can say that well a tragic horrible thing was known as the killing tree. Around this were fragments of babies clothes as the tree was used to smash there skulls. The khmer rouge picked the babies up by there feet and swung them into the tree. Around the fields there are also big holes in the grund where people were blindfolded and hit in the head wit a hammer and then left to die in the hole. After many more stories we left feeling very depressed and shocked at things that happened around 30years ago. That afternoon we bought a couple of photocopied books from a lady street seller and an amputee: whilst we enjoyed happy hour beer at 50 cents a glass. Whilst we were drinking two young boys came up to us asking us to go and buy an icecream from next door. We declined but offered them some of our free peanuts. The boys then began throwing the peanuts up in the air and trying to catch them in their mouths. The eldest was very good at it, the younger one was not so. It was nice to see children playing again for a while and apparently enjoying themselves. We also randomly saw an elephant wandering down the street right in front of us. We wondered if we were enjoying happy hour too much but luckily the guy next to us confirmed it really was an elephant!
That evening we strolled around a night market and the streets. We turned down one street and realised all the doors and windows were blacked out, then we realised that scantily clad women were sitting outside all the bars and then we noticed the names of some of the bars like "happy man bar" and "playbunny bar" we were definitely in phnom penh's red light district. Cue old sleazy white men!we hurried through.

19th november
It was even hotter today. We headed to the national museum. The museum it self was rubbish it was just sculptures that was it. Nothing about the history of Cambodia or anything remotely interesting. So we left and decide to ppl watch in a park with ice cream. Things we observed a lot of monks kids running around naked playing in the sprinklers, parents allowing there kids to run across the busy main road basically kids doing what they want (no wonder they're soo happy) people saying no to tuk tuk drivers in if different degrees of rudeness and also tuk tuk drivers messing around chasing each other while laughing there heads off (like big kids). After a few hours in the park we headed to a local restaurant, well more of a garage and we went to the stall and pointed at random things on the cart and sat down waiting for our food which turned out to be all deep fried even the veg and was surprisingly tasty even tho we felt a little sick and very greasy afterwards. All the Cambodians enjoyed watching me try and sit on the tiny plastic chairs, still not getting used to it yet!

20th November

Arrived in Kampot by bus. On the way to Kampot our driver had to show his quick reactions as a van pulled out right in front of us. After hard braking and a giant swerve we were safe and feeling glad that there was no other traffic coming the other way.

We shared a tuk-tuk to a hostel/guesthouse called Bodhi villas which we had been recommended. It was amazing there it was really chilled out and a room only cost us $5. We found that you have to leave quickly otherwise you will never leave! It is on the riverside, with big lounging chairs, awesome music and a very chilled atmosphere. When we arrived we felt immediately calm and after all the rushing around we had been doing on our travels it was exctly what we needed. We ordered some smotthies and food and started to read our books. Before we knew it 4 hours had passed! We thought we better see some of the town so we headed out for a wander. It was a small quiet town on the river with some very friendly people. We had some food and our first pint since we've been away...it was huge and immense! Thenwe headed back and just chilled pout chatting to lots of different people in the place. That night we arranged to hire some bicycles with a couple of people we met that evening, Micheala and Cam.



21st november.
Got up early had breakfast and again relaxed and chatted then we realised we best get going as it was almost midday! We asked staff at bodhi villa where was good to go and we were advised to get a motorbike if we wanted to get to any good places. Michaela and cam said they would get a bike each and put a bit of good old fashioned peer pressure on us to join. So after some debating we decided katie would drive and i would close my eyes and sit on the back, neither of us had driven a motorbike before.luckily we could hire a small automatic scooter so it was a bit less scary. So one of the staff offered us a quick lesson in how to make it go. We agreed and she took one for a quick spin to check it was working, as she was nearing the end of the lane she let outc big yelp and then the bike skidded sideways underneath her throwing her off. We all ran down the lane and she was luckily in one piece. However we were not feeling any more confident about getting on ourselves. Katie swallowed her nerves and had a go herself, after a very shaky start nearly knocking an old lady off her bicycle she said she was ready to try with me on the back. At this point a guy called michael who michaela knew turned up at the hostel and agreed to join us. So we were ready to go off all prepared, but unfortunately our bike wasn't...it was out of fuel, damn! So mike and cam headed off with michaela on mike's bike to get us some petrol. A few minutes later they came back with a coke bottle full of petrol and so we could go! Petrol in cambodia is sold at the side of the road in glass bottles, there are a few real petrol stations but these are few and far between! Anyway after filling up we set off, aftera nervous start katie was in full swing and razzing round like a pro. Our first stop were some caves where 5 young boys approached us and offered to be our guides, so we agreed realising we would probably need their help although feeling a little uncomfortable. We explored this great cave with a few tight squeezes through gaps. We spent time just being amazed at where we were and jokin with the cheeky kids. After the caves we headed to a beach village called Kep famous for crabs (the food that is!) We all shared some huge tasty crabs and split the cost. We then headed back but on the way we took a wrong turn and no joke we were approached by a family of monkeys. We drove past them and were greeted by the sound of some ferocious dogs barking and then a locked gate and so had to turn round, sharpish! Going past the monkeys again they appeared to be a bit aggressive and tried to bite Cam so we fled and got to the right road. Next to fill up with some more petrol. We pulled up at the side of the road and started haggling over a litre bottle of what looked like wee but we were assured it was petrol. On the way back we had a slight scare when katie nearly drove head on into a local man on a motorbike. Luckily katie skidded but put the brakes on in time and no harm was done. The man thought it was very funny and had a good old chuckle. Cambodian people seem to have a great sense of humour! We headede back to bodhi and spent the evening chilling with michaela cam and mike, falling asleep in the comfy chairs by the riverside. Another great day.

22nd november
Today i found a frog. In the shower room i went to put the shampoo in the holder and saw a frog stick its head out, i think he stayed there all day. Later on in the morning i put my flip flops on the decking next to the river and i heard a shout from Michaela "someone's flip flop has gone in" and then a minute later, "there goes the other one" oh shit! We had to wait over an hour for our minibus to our next destination (sihanoukville). The driver stopped off at least 5 times on the way out of kampot to pick up various things, so another hour and half later we actually left, with 6 people, 6 bags, 2 dozen eggs, 3 bottles of petrol, a case of dried smelly squid and a bag full of apples.

On the journey our driver was pulled over by the police. He got out of the van to talk to them and the van began to roll backwards. The police tried to alert him to the situation but he was oblivious. Luckily a girl sat just behind the driver's seat lent forward and managed to pull the handbrake on. At this point the driver seemed to understand what the police were telling him about his moving van and so he turned round to look, but now the van was stationary. He just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head! After that he jumped back in and without releasing the handbrake pulled off. We all started shouting "handbrake" and gesturing wildly in an attempt to alert him, but no luck. He didn.t even appear to notice the way the van was lurching and making grinding noises. Cue girl in front to take his handbrake off for him. Again he was completely oblivious. He simply had no idea of anything that had happened...slightly worrying. Anyway we did arrive in one piece at sihanoukville about half hour later. We were dropped off at what seemed to be the main strip and looked for somewhere to stay. We ended up checking into the Big Mistake -oops i mean Big Easy. We put our bags in a very hot dorm room had a beer and headed out to see the "beautiful" beach. We walked along the beach and realised how awful the place was, old men with young asian women (prostitutes?), groups of drunk lads and very slutty girls. Also the street children here were very aggressive and forceful. We walked along the strip and thought "na, no way are we staying in SKANKVILLE! So we immediately headed to book a boat ticket to take us to one of the undeveloped islands off the coast called Monkey Island. This boat left the next day so we only had to spend one night at skankville! We headed out to replace my flip flops, and katie-s which had broken that day, and suprise suprise katie also bought a dress (katie: in my defence only the second dress i'd bought whilst away and it was second hand and cost 4 pounds!) After this we headed back to our hostel where we were greeted by some pretty unfriendly staff and a dicky manager who was about 50 and trying to chat up some young slutty girls, all a bit embarassing. We went and had some food and decided the earlier we went to bed the sooner we would be out of the place! On the way back to our hostel we bumped into Robin and Claire from the mekong delta cruise and so we had a couple of drinks with them which made things seem a bit better, they were not fans of skankville either. But we enjoyed chatting and having a few drinks together. That night wewere woken up about 3am by people banging on the dorm room because they had lost their key. I decided to let them in so they youtf shut up, but they decided to come in and go back outside, smoke weed, talk very lovely and play their music turning it up and shouting things like "I love this bit it is an amazing piece of music" mainly it was the cribs' song 'hey scenesters' over and over again-would not say this was a masterpiece, especially not at 5am when hearing it for fifth time in a row! After hours of people shouting at them to shut up and go to bed they finally did and of course i was wide awake and couldn't get back to sleep.twieo the sun rose I saw it was another 35+ year old has bean english guy, dyed blonde spiky hair with a bald patch, big pot belly and tight t-shirt with a sparkling earring!

23rd november
Needless to say this morning i made a lot of noise packing my bag and searching for things. We joined robin and claire for breakfast at the bar area of hostel. As we walked in (at about 10am) we saw a girl slumped on the bar, classy! Whilst eating we heard a massive thump and looked up to see that the girl had fallo off a high stool onto the floor. With no urgency the manager and another member picked her up and threw her on a sofa and then told rest of staff to take her to her room. Luckily for the girl another girl had intervened and suggested that it wasn't all that safe to leave a comatosed girl who probably hit her head on her own in a very hot room. By the time we left the hostelto catch our bus the girl was sat back at the bar slurring her words and saying something about tequilla! Bye bye skankville!

We caught our 12.30 bus at 1.30 and then got a very bumpy boat ride to monkey island. On the boat we met grace who was the girl who intervened earlier with the comatosed girl. Grace said when the girl woke up she had told her that the evening before she had gone out looking for something to eat after a few drinks at the hostel bar. When she was out she had bumped into a guy and went out and drank a bottle of tequilla with him in a bar and returned about 8am. Grace had spent her night with some people who had told her about a guy who had recently drowned in a pool in a club. The staff had not been too willing to call an ambulance because they were likely to get fined or get in trouble. They eventually decided to move his body outside the club and then call an ambulance...nice. One question being why have a pool in a club especially in a place where everyone drinks a lot and does a lot of very dodgy drugs.

Anyway we arrived at the isalnd to find a beautiful white beach, blue warm sea water and an a amazing little bungalow with hammock outside. There was hardly anyone else around and very undeveloped. As soon as we arrived we went straight into the sea and just lay back in the water and enjoyed the peace and the beauty! That night tasty Khmer food and I went to bed whilst Katie and Grace stayed up chatting!

24th November

I did nothing but slepp today opn a hammock, while Katie did, well I don't know, I slept!! That night we sat on the balcony and saw huge Geckos chasing and jumping at moths and other bugs. Strange animal noises could be heard throughout the night and at one point we swear we heard a monkey in our room. Note to self never leave the door open. Katie was too scared to get out of bed from this point onwards!



25th November

With heavy hearts we packed again ready to head back to Skankville! Our boat ride was agin very bumpy and there were klots of people being sick off the back of the boat. One girl was sitting looking very sorry for herself and holding a clear plastic bag full of ehr own sick for the entire journey. When she got off the boat all the Cambodians were laughing at her a lot, it was pretty funny, especially as she carried the bag off the boat and was still holding it as she walked off into the distance. On the bus back to the centre we got to sit next to the bus driver who was very chatty and filled us in a bit more on local life. We have already found that people in Cambodia are much more willing to tell us what life is really like here and be a bit more open about things...either that or we have just been more lucky.

When we got back we ordered a "share taxi" to get us out of Skankville and back to Kampot. We were joined by a Dutch couple. The car was of normal size but he managed to get 4 massive backpacks into the boot. Katie and the couple sat in the back and I went to get in the front but the driver wouldn't take this and threw me into the back. Four of us squashed into the back...at least it was only going to be a 3 hour drive! The driver then went round the town picking up a few bits and bobs and also two other girls who he threw into the front passenger seat. So one car full of 7 people, 4 backpacks to normal sized bags and various food items!

We breathed a sigh of relief when we returned to Kampot. Unfortunately Bodhi Villas was full so we checked in a newly built place next door. We stayed in a really cool bungalow on stilts, for again only $5. Awesome! That evening we headed to Bodhi to see some local bands playing and a few travellign bands. I was feeling a bit unwell so had to leave fairly early but we stillahd a good night.

26th November

In the morning I was feeling slightly better so we hired some bicycles and headed into town for breakfast. We played "mobile phones" with some Cambodian children before cycling off in the scorching heat to the rapids about 6 km away. Onarrival we had to pay a $1 fee to pass the "security" barrier - no Cambodians seemed to pay it was all very odd (but we're kind of used to it now) We cycled a further 5 minutes and then were greeted by shouts of "wanna cold drink sir, lady" we didn't but we did wanna hammock! We wandered down to the rapids and a women tied our hammocks up to trees for us. She tied them a bit close together and so we kept banging inot each other when we were in them..cue lots of Cambodian laughter and pointing! There were lots of Cambodian families picnicking and swimming fully clothed in the water. There were no other westerners around and it was really nice to sit and watch family weekend life. At one point a man jumped out of the bushes on the other side wearing a grass skirt and a hat that he had made. Everyone started laughing he looked hilarious and was clearly enjoying the attention runnign around like a md man and holaring! When things calmed down a bit we began to fall asleep but keopt getting woken up by children runnign up to us and shouting "Hello!" and then running off again laughing. After a few hours we cycled back and then went out to watch some footy!!


27th November

Today was amazing! All we did was lay around in hammocks at our guesthouse by the river talking and eating amazing food. Happy days!!


28th November

After yesterday's laziness we decided we had to do something, it is so relaxing in Kampot it is hard to get motivated!

We decided to hire a motorbike and head to Bokor National Park around 5okm away. When we arrived we had to drive up a very very windy (as in curvy) road running round a mountain. When we got to the top after some awesome driving by Katie we visited the "ghost town." Here there was an old hotel where everyone had just abandoned it. It was a little bit creepy and apparently it is haunted by Chinese men who lost their money in the casino and then jumped off the mountain. We then rode back down to an old church and climbed up behind to see an amazing view and the Thai coast. While up in the mountain a monk wandered up and spent a while chatting to me. We then went to find a waterfall we had been told about. We had to drive down some very very bumpy roads. When we got near the waterfall lots of Cambodian men were working on the road and started laughing at us pointing sayign "wrong way". Due to their reaction we thought we must have gone completely the wrong way but really all we had to do was go 10 yards back and cross where they hadn't started their work. Cambodians do love to laugh at everything!! We got to the waterfall and climbed and sat for a while until we got hungry and decided to head back. After an hour drive we were eventually back in the centre with a nearly empty tank of fuel. We grabbed some lunch and then went to only bank in Kampot to withdraw some money but it wouldn't take our money. We needed money then as we were leaving at 7am the next morning and needed to pay for our bungalow. So we decided to gamble on our nearly empty tank and bomb back to bungalow grab all our cards and go back. Luckily one of them worked! We spent our last evening in Kampot at a local bar watching football and playing with the owners dog!





Photos to follow!!!!!

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Photos

Cambodian Flag
These are everywhere in cambodia

Ready to take a ride on a Tuk tuk
The roads are very very dusty, a face mask is helpful. Our tuk tuk driver bought us these!

our bungalow in Kampot
loving the bungalows!!!

Michael
isn't he handsome!

Bokor National Park
I can see Thailand!

Looking cool!!
NOT!!