Crazy Cambodia

---

Hello western world! How are you all, well we hope? This is the other backdated blog that brings us up to date! We left the last blog after crossing the border so we will carry on from there...

Stung Treng was an odd but relativly charming little town. Even though we were only thirty miles into Cambodia, Loas already felt a long way away. No more sticky rice, shame :-( We did find a great place on the main street for our first Cambodian meal though. They spoke very little English, the freindly staff, along with a comical woman running the show, but that didn't stop them knocking us up a great Cambodian style chicken curry.

As we only really stopped at Stung Treng to break up the journey (glad we did) we left first thing the next morning for Ban Lung in the more remote north east of Cambodia. The road there was our first experience of how Cambodian roads apparently used to be! Still not a patch on the Coorg road in Central India though. The first hour of the journey was spent doing the usual faffing around town, trying to squeeze in more passengers. The road started OK but after 20min we turned off the main tarmac road onto a never ending red dusty road with knee deep potholes every few meters. This didn't slow the driver oh no, I think his theory was more to try to drive fast enough to jump over the holes rather than avoid them, still he was doing a pretty good job of it. We bumped along this road for about four or five hours through the scrub forest until we arrived at the small provincial town of Ban Lung. We stayed at the huge Tribal hotel which was a bargain at three pounds for a good room, the place is waaaay grander than it needs to be at that price (see pics). Aside from wanting to see some of Cambodia's less developed countryside before heading south, the main reason for visiting is the crater lake of Boeng Yeak Long. After a bit of advice from the hotel manager, who also gave us a sketchy map, we decided to head out there on foot nice and early to save on dollars.

To be fair the lake was only about 6km out of town, but when its 36c and the sun is beating down even at 9am it seemed a lot further. The dust off the road didn't help either! But anyone thinking of visiting it is definately do-able just go early and don't forget to take a picnic! Also see picture of huge centipede we saw on the road about the size of a small snake!

When we got to the lake it would be fair to say that we were both gob-smacked! We walked down onto an area of decking at the waters edge and it was eerily beautiful. The water was completely still an reflected the turquoise Cambodian sky like one huge mirror. The water is crystal clear and from the decking 5m from the bank the water must have been 20ft deep and absolutely teeming with fish. The place was desserted bar 2 'friends' we aquired, generally shifty guys hanging around to see if you are clueless tourists or if you have your head screwed on! They soon dissapeared after 5min of stern looks from me and we wandered around the another shaded deck area at the far side. This was truly the perfect spot at the perfect place! It was shaded so we didnt burn, we were alone at the edge of this amazing lake in the middle of the forest and this is what made it for me... steps and platforms designed for swimming and diving!!! The lake is an impressive 150 odd feet deep at its centre. We spent ages swimming, jumping in and generally acting like big kids. The water was bath temperature too as well as being clean! OK i'll stop going on now, needless to say that we have both ranked it as one of the best things we have done since leaving home. By lunch the Cambodian picnic crews were starting to appear so we headed home (I mean hotel, we really must stop calling them home!)

We got back and Sar had the best pork baguette ever by the way and then we retreated to the shade to avoid getting burnt (again!). It was a one day affair as to be honest the town is pretty small and has little other than being Cambodian to make it special so we hopped in another 90's people carrier/minivan and headed back towards central Cambodia, but this time to the Mekong town of Kratie.

Kratie was an odd one, here was our first lesson in not always trusting our instincts or first impressions in Cambodia. Most of the towns seem to have a congested, dirty and noisy main road of some form as their heart, but once you get off this, things improve immensely. Kratie was a quiet little colonial town right on the banks of the Mekong. Again we had only stopped to break up the journey (as we had already seen dolphins in Laos) but were extremely glad we did. There was a nice restaurant run by a very gay American guy on the front where we had some nice food (and even accidentally gave us beer when we ordered soda same colour cans! Freebie!). Next door to this place though was the cafe where Sar finally got to eat some buffalo. It was no steak but a buffalo burger and chips (see pic) it was pretty tasty admittedly and at a pound you cant complain! Apparently Clare would have loved it. There are also two other draws, a market that rivals Morocco for sheer smell and chaos and also lovely crimson red sunsets over the Mekong, again see pics.

We stopped the night at Santepheap Hotel which continued to the Cambodian hotel amazement, with a smart modern en-suite room for 3 quid. The down side though that by now it hadn't rained in a week and was so so hot and humid we were really suffering. It was about 36 in the shade which doesn't sound all that bad but coupled with the humidity and the fact that it only drops a few degrees at night (really!) made for one uncomfortable night. We both just lay on the bed sopping with sweat with two fans blaring at us till morning, no surrender to double the price air-con!

The next morning we got a bargain 3 quid ticket from Kratie into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Like most of the journeys above taking 6/7 hours, roughly a third of what it would have taken five or ten years ago! Phnom Penh was predictably much bigger and more modern than we expected, as is everywhere in Asia! A quick barge through the usual yelling, shoving taxi touts at the bus station landed us with a descent guy to take us to Spring Hotel in the city center for a couple of dollars. After checking into to yet again another incredible room for 3 quid (its always 6 dollars everywhere!) we were introduced to Cambodian traffic and how to cross it. Most of the main streets in the capital were about 6 'lanes' in each direction with no apparent gaps. You have to start crossing the road when there is clearly no way you can, it goes again all those lessons spotty and super ted taught you as a kid let me tell you! Imagine looking left and seeing a herd of bulls with an engine running at you, looking left and seeing the same and then having to step out boldly anyway making as much eye contact as possible. Our 2 favourite places to eat were only about 250m from the hotel but always took the best part of 15mins to reach! One was a local show pit where we ate amazing noodle and soup dishes more than once as it cost just over a pound yes 1 for both of us to eat. Just ignore the grimy surrounding and prison guard service! The second was called bites and for only about double that we had pleasant meals with a friendly bunch of people, we will definately be going back to both when we pass through again in a week or two to get the Vietnamese visas.

On our first day we decided enough was enough of the searing heat of the sun and that we would both have to do as the locals do and go to the Psar Russei market and buy a couple of silver umbrellas to shade us from the sun while walking around. (They are incredibly effective and we wouldn't dream of leaving the hotel without them now!). We got a bit lost on the way as the american style blocks and numbered streets are incredibly confusing but once we got hold of a fold out map (the lonely planet one is pants!) we were OK. After having a look around the market, which was again nice and chaotic, we jumped in a tuk-tuk and headed for the tourist sight down by the riverfront. A side note on the tuk-tuks, I thought before we left home that these little contraptions would be the same in all the countries we are visiting, wrong! The tuk-tuks in Cambodia are a relatively new thing and are more like motor cycle drawn carriages, very strange but very very comfy!

A few hundred yards short of the Royal Palace we had to get out of the tuk-tuk and walk as the road was closed and rammed with people. Turns out once again our timing was impeccable as the day we choose to go to the palace the king is arriving home with a load of dignitaries. We stood in amazement as the kind in a black limo drove by in a convoy of jeeps full of armed guards, at least 30 police on motorcycles and lots of shifty tinted vehicles and sun-glassed policemen. All this to a backdrop of thousands of flag/photo waving school children in uniform, bizzare! Still the palace seemed to be open so we headed inside and were both pretty impressed to be honest. Cambodia's turbulent past had obliviously taken some of the glits from the place but on the whole it was in very good nick (see pictures). The highlight of the visit was the silver pagoda which is an enormously ornate building whose floor is tiled entirely with silver and houses a 3 foot emerald Buddha statue atop of a huge gold plinth. Don't skimp of decoration these Buddist's let me tell you! While here we also saw loads of royal guards drilling at the gates in white suits for the king.

From the Palace we headed to the National Museum which is pretty much next door. The museum itself is a grand building and is certainly worth of housing its Angkor era contents. The majority of the exhibits are sculptures and other artifacts taken from the Angkor temples. They are pretty amazing anyway but when you look at the label and realise that some of then are like 5th century then your like, wow! Managed to take a few illegal shots of things inside for you guys to have a sneak peak, I could have ended up in a Cambodian jail. All in the name of the blog!

After tourist-ing it up all day our batteries were a bit low so we thought we would wander back to the hotel via a road where there are loads of posh eateries and boutique shops to see if anything took our fancy. Predictably the chocolate shop took Sar's! As a male/female compromise we headed to the cafe/cake shop next door. In short look at the pictures, cakes that have to be tasted to be believed (and only 50p each). I wonder if they do free international delivery? Perhaps its best if they don't. From here we also mistakedly had a look around this huge ultra posh shop next door. It was one of those places with huge rooms and like one pair of shoes on a white lit up display etc we had about 5 uniformed staff follow us around at our beck and call. Needless to say they had no idea we weren't going to buy anything, again bizzare!

Since we arrived in Phnom Penh we had been trying to decide on whether or not to go to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek and/or the S21 Prison Museum as both are meant to be pretty harrowing. On the morning of the second day we decided to go to the S21 prison and see how it went.

The S21 Prison or Tuol Sleng Museum is one horrible looking place. Once a normal school until the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned it into a mass jail where thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women and children were brought to be tortured to extract false confessions before being sent to the Killing Fields for execution. Before even setting foot inside the building the whole place had an overwhelming sadness to it. The large rooms that were once home to the many tortured souls have been preserved in the almost exact state they were found in and now house several exhibitions on the subject. Most of the rooms are filled with boards of graphic photos of the prisoners held here as the regime like the nazis documented their crimes meticulously. We took a couple of photos for illustration but to be honest it wasnt the kind of place to take pictures. On a sad note there was a group of American tourists posing for each other to take pictures of them behind the barred windows laughing, what the hell is wrong with some people we will never know. After looking around 2 of the 4 buildings we were both pretty upset and decided to call it a day. Without doubt it is the single most horrifying place either of us have ever been and is an effective insight into killing of perhaps millions of Cambodian people under Pol Pots regime but 30 years ago.

Anyway we nursed our emotions back to life in a lovely little cafe called Pots of Clay which trains disavantged women in the catering industry and makes seriously good sandwiches in the process! From here we looked around the Russian Market which is a blokes paradise! Stall after stall of pirated DVD, CD and computer games for a few pounds! There wasnt the mass of fake designer clothes we had heard there might be but Sar picked up a few GAP tops for a pound a pair! Think I might have to stock up on DVDs when we pass through again! The normal non black market souvenirs weren't half bad either!!!

As we are looking to eek out more time for Vietnam we decided to carry on with our Cambodian itinerary the next morning and headed west by coach to the little town of Pursat. Again a dusty dump when your getting off the bus thinking why am I here???! But our hotel was just 50 yds away and was an even better bargain this time a room the size of the millenium stadium with a double bed, a single bed, cable TV, furniture and en-suite for 3 quid! Pursat was again a stop off with a purpose. There are several floating towns around the edge of the vast Tonle Sap lake at the centre of Cambodia, we chose Kampong Luong 40k from town as it was apparently the most authentic. After prolonged negotiations (at one point involving us taking motorbikes) we agreed on 10 quid to hire a tuk-tuk to take us all the way out to this village and back. After about 30mins on the main road the last 15 were on dust track again (see video!)

When we arrived it was one of those times when you feel as though your the first westerner to ever visit the place. Guys touting their boats gathered round and children wailed and waved at us in exitment. We hired an older guy and his son to take us around the town by boat for an hour for 4 quid as you couldn't see much at all from the end of the road we arrived at. The town was incredible! Yes it was dirty and yes it was a bit of a shanty town but the amount of 'floating' stuff they had was amazing. There were to name but a few a floating petrol station, floating pig pens, floating vegetable gardens, floating factories, floating shops and even a floating post office! There were of course houses too some big, some small, some were even on the move as the dad swam along tugging the house on a rope behind him. It was an unexpected gem of a visit that neither of us will forget. To cap it all the heavens opened in a brilliant storm on our way back in our little carriage, bordered on romantic for us two!!! When we got back to town we found another brilliant ethical restaurant that trained and paid villagers from the poorest areas to work there. We had a proper slap up Mekong fish supper for 2 with all kinds of weird Cambodian side dishes, all for just a fiver with drinks! And a clear conscience to boot knowing you've done some good!

We pressed on the next day as there was again little else to keep you there (we are more determined than ever to see as much as possible now the clocks ticking!). We carried on west to the town we are now called Battambang. On the journey incidentally we furthered our trying roadside food to include breakfast of bananna wrapped in rice pudding and baked in a palm leaf (lush) and even lunch of frogs and sweetcorn steamed inside a vine leaf (really odd and not so luch) from an old lady. That combined with our recent love of soy milk means our diet has been more than varied lately! We also had to stop enroute as the bus had a blowout-the two guys managed to change the tire in about 15 minutes!! Not easy in the heat and no proper tools.

On arriving yesterday we checked into the Royal hotel, not as regal as it sounds but a great big room with all the usual and fridge they carted up the stairs, all for... you guessed it 3 quid! On a side note they have incredibly nice posh rooms for those wanting to splurge for 10 quid with rattan furniture, air con and all that jazz!!! After that we wandered round town, although hectic it is quite nice with a few colonial era buildings and a lively central market. We also booked a mini cookery class which we have just this moment finished which taught us all we need to know about Cambodian food in a morning. Needless to say I'm sure it will end in more odd eating, though Sar was nearly sick at the sight of the woman peeling the skins off the live frogs so I don't think we will be having them again soon!!!!

We shall leave it there for now as tommorow we are off to the big one... yep its Angkor time and we are both very exited, we will endeavour to blog you all when we arrive back in the capital in a week or so.

Love to you all,

Dean and Sarah.xx

---