Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2007
versio catalana mes avall)
(Slovenska verzija sledi v nadaljevanju)
Hello from Cambodia!! We arrived to Cambodia on Sunday, after 14 hours on the road, lots of fights and stress. Only getting the visa took us one hour, because they wouldnt give it to us unless we gave the policemen a tip of 10 dolars per person!!! Once we managed to convince them we thought the worse was over, but obviously we hadnt seen the road that had to take us to Siem Reap, a city in the north of the country very close to the Angkor temples. Crosing the border was literally going 100 years back. Let me just say it took us 6 hours to do 150 kilometers!!!!!!!!!!! We got to Siem Reap at around 9 and the day after we visited the Angkor temples. It is impressive how many there are and how bid, especially considering when they were built, but, unfortunatelly, they arent very well preserved, mainly because they were hidden in the jungle for many centuries, but also because the Cambodian government is completely corrupt and out of the 20 dolars that the ticket to visit the temples costs (20 dolars is a monthly salary
for many cambodians!!) only 2 dollars actually go to the temples. The rest goes to the ministry of culture (that is, some guys pocket) and a national petrol company. The day after we left for Phnom Penh, which is a really nice city but very chaotic. Yesterday we visited the countries dark past, that is, the khmer rouge period, in which around 2 million people where killed in an attempt to turn cambodia into a strict communist country. We saw the s-21, the biggest prison the khmer rouge had in phnom penh and the place where they took the people to be executed. Really creepy but necessary to understand the country. Even more creepy was the monument to the victims, which was made with the peoples skulls (no comments).....
Today we have spent the day walking around the city, which has very nice parts and very ugly parts! Tomorrow at 6 in the morning were taking a bus to Kompng Luong, a floating village with 10000 inhabitants! Looks promising!!
Thanks a lot to all of you for all your comments, its nice to know someone reads what you write! We will try to keep posting stuff in English, but the
mmmmm, tasty spiders!
Spiderman wouldnt feel very comfortable in cambodia!computers are usually so slow around here that we end up spending two hours to update the blog, so we dont have time for translations!
Anna&Iztok
Hello from Cambodia!!!!
Diumenge a les 7 del mati vam comencar laventura de creuar la frontera cap a Cambodja. Ens va costar molt destres, nervis, i crits, pero finalment ho vam aconseguir!! Entre moltes altres coses, ens vam estar mes duna hora barallantnos amb els policies de la frontera perque no ens volien donar el visat. la cosa es que el visat val 20 dolars, pero un cop alla (per sort ja ho sabiem i anavem mentalment preparats) et diuen que no accepten dolars i volen 1000 bahts tailandesos, o sigui, 30 dolars! Despres dintentarho per tots els metodes possibles, quan van veure que cada vegada erem mes que ens negavem a pagar en bahts, van acabar fentnos el visat de males maneres i acceptant els dolars. Llavors va venir el gran xoc... el cami de Koh Chang fins a la frontera de Poipet va anar perfecte. Bones carreteres, aire acondicionat... creuar la frontera, pero, va ser com literalment retrocedir 100 anys enrere. La carretera estava en un estat tan lamentable que vam
trigar 6 hores en fer 150 quilometres!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ni a la India!!!!! A les 9 de la nit, cansadissims, vam arribar a Siem Reap, la ciutat mes propera a Angkor Wat. Lendema al mati, vam llogar dues bicis i vam anar a visitar Angkor. La veritat es que a mi personalment, angkor wat em va decepcionar, pero ara que hi penso, es normal, perque el que havia llegit a la guia sobre el lloc es completament exagerat. Es veritat pero que es un lloc super interessant, pero molt mes simbolicament que per bonic. (A la guia ho comparava amb el Taj Mahal!!) Es realment impressionant si penses com es de gran i com havia de ser a lepoca de limperi khmer, el poder que havia de tenir i lobsessio pels deus que tenien els reis de lepoca, pero esta molt mal conservat, en gran part perque durant molts segles va estar podrintse amb la humitat de la selva pero tambe perque el govern de cambodja es increiblement corrupte i dels 20 dolars (20 dolars!! el salari de molts cambodjans!!) que val lentrada nomes 2 dolars arriben als temples en realitat. La resta de temples no son tan grans i la majoria
Anna the cyclist
Note that the road to the temples was much, much better than the national highway! estan en molt mal estat, pero es una passada quants nhi ha i quants quilometres ocupen. De fet, es el conjunt de monuments religiosos mes gran del mon. Nosaltres vam llogar una bici per anar de temple a temple, pero no els vam poder veure tots. Lendema al mati ja vam marxar cap a Phnom Pehn, on som ara. Phnom Penh es una ciutat caotica pero molt bonica. La gent es molt simpatica, pero estan molt marcats pel passat recent de lepoca del khmer Rouge, que es veu per tot arreu. Durant 4 anys, del 1975 al 79, els khmer rouge, amb pol pot al capdavant, van arribar al poder i van intentar implementar un regim comunista molt estricte: una de les seves primeres mesures van ser abolir els diners i obligar a la gent de les ciutats a anar a treballar al camp. Durant els quatre anys que va durar el regim sestima que van matar uns 2 milions de persones. Ahir, vam anar a veure el museu de s-21, que es troba en una escola que els khmer rouge feien servir de preso i vam visitar el lloc on executaven els presos. Jo mai havia vist una cosa
Iztok the cyclist
Since Angkor Wat is so big we rented bikes to go around semblant, el monument de record als morts esta fet amb les calaveres de la gent.. !! Un dia molt xungo, pero necessari per entendre el pais!!!
Avui hem vist la ciutat en si i es bonissim, perque per mouret per aqui has de llogar una moto amb conductor, on hi pugen 2, 3 o 4 persones! A la ciutat es nota encara mes que als pobles la pobresa del pais, amb nens demanant, gent dormint al carrer, pero no es tan exagerat com a lindia, per exemple. Tot funciona amb dolars americans, nomes et donen riels quan el canvi es menys dun dolar.
Dema a les 6 del mati agafem lautobus cap a Kompong Luong, un poble flotant de 10.000 habitants!! La cosa promet!
En fi, molts petons a tots i moltes gracies per tots els vostres comentaris, es bo saber que algu ens llegeix!!!!
Anna&Iztok
Lep pozdrav vsem!
Tokrat se oglasava ze iz Kambodze, ki je povsem drug svet od Tajske. Ze ko sva preckala mejo, so se zacela tezka pogajanja s podkupljivimi kamboskimi uradniki, ki so na vsak nacin hoteli za vizo zaracunati 1000 tajskih bahtov (30 USD), kljub temu, da je nad okencem pisalo crno na
Inside Angkor Wat
The Khmers believed that the path to the gods had to be difficult, thats why they built these killing stairs!belem, da stane 20 USD. Tko da smo se eno uro prepiral, dokler niso kar naenkrat popustil in, oh, zdej pa je 20 USD. Welcome to Cambodia!
Nadaljevalo se je z 6 urno voznjo po neasfaltirani cesti, ki je bila v obupnem stanju (6 ur smo rabili za 152 km). Ko smo prisli v mesto Siem Reap, je kar naenkrat voznik rekel, da je avtobusna postaja ponoci zaprta in da nas bodo odpeljali v nek guesthouse po njihovi izbiri. Seveda so s tem guesthousom ze vnaprej dogovorjeni za provizijo. Lumpi, raje bi jedla pesek, kot pa spala v njihovem hotelu.
Ampak niso vsi taki, ljudje so na splosno zelo prijazni, sploh tisti, ki se s turisti ne ukvarjajo poklicno. In se posebej otroci so pravi srcki, ves cas se smejijo, te sprasujejo za ime in ga potem ves cas ponavljajo. Po drugi stranio so pa revezi, ker ze pri tako nizki starosti prodajajo razne stvari turistom.
Ogledala sva si ze najvecjo znamenitost Kamodze, Angkor Wat, ki je bojda najvecj religiozni spomenik na svetu, za katerega naj bi se
Inside Angkor Wat
The Khmers believed that the path to the gods had to be difficult, thats why they built these killing stairs! rabilo en teden, da bi se ga dodobra spoznalo. Midva sva se zadovoljila z enim dnevom, kar se nama je za najine potrebe zdelo cist dovolj. Poleg tega je bilo vroce kot v kotlu in res se ne vidiva, kako se en teden sprehajava med tistim kamenjem 😊
Trenutno pa sva ze v glavnem mestu, Phnom Penh, ki je pravo tipicno azijsko mesto. Kar pomeni, da je vroce in da na cesti vlada absolutni kaos. Ker nimajo nobenih busov, tramvajev ali bog ne daj, podzemne, je najboljsi nacin za krizarjenje po mestu na motorju, za hrbtom lokalnega voznika. Sele takrat res vidis kako to izgleda, ko je treba cez eno veliko krizisce. Kot ce bi se denimo srecala dva roja muh, kljub kaosu se nikoli nobena ne zadane ob drugo...
V mestu sva si ze ogledala en muzej in pa spominski park na case rezima Pol Pota in njegovih Rdecih Kmerov, ki so v Kambodzi vladali med 1975-79. V tem casu jim je uspelo pobiti okoli dva milijona ljudi, med drugim so recimo vse prebivalce mest, tudi prestolnice, nateral na podezelje, kjer naj bi tako zgradili njihov ideal agrarnega komunizma. Sploh muzej, ki je bivsi zapor in mucilnica je s
The fattest monkey on earth
thats because every tourist feeds it for a nice photo. We didnt! svojimi slikami in resnicnimi pricevanji globoko depresivna izkusnja.
Preostali cas sva ze izkoristila za prvi shopping na eni od najvecjih trznic, kjer se da dobit nekatere stvari res poceni. Vse obleke recimo ze nosijo etikete od H&M-ja in podobnih, le da stanejo le kak dolar ali dva, vcasih tri. Hehe, Iztok je bogatejsi za nov ruzak 😊. Kar pomeni, da je moral starega zavreci, smrc smrc, pa toliko sta prezivela skupaj 😞.
Aja, v Kambodzi imajo dve vzporedni valuti, poleg kamboskega riela se ameriski dolar. Ali bi morda moral reci obratno, ker se zdi, da je dolar kar prva valuta. Kar v praksi izgleda, da ti drobiz vrnejo v dolarjih, kar pa je manj kot en dolar, pa v rielih (kovancev v drzavi sploh ni - sorry Primoz!). In ker ima riel tako majhno vrednost, dobis vcasih nazaj celo solato, zadnjic so mi 50 centov vrnili z 1 cm debelim sopom denarja, brez pretiravanja!
To je to, jutri greva pogledat ene plavajoce vasice, potem greva spet mal na plazico, kasneje gledat sladkovodne delfine v Mekongu... ampak vse o tem v naslednjem blogu!
Poljubcki in pozdravi,
Anna&Iztok
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 56; dbt: 0.08s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
John T
non-member comment
Fantastic!
Hola Anna, Thanks for the English version. I understand it must take a lot of time. The experience looks fantastic and thank you to you both for sharing this with us. If you haven't seen it, when you get back, watch the film "The Killing Fields"....it will add another dimension to your understanding of Pol Pot and Year Zero! Meanwhile, keep the blogs coming (please.) Take care ! Be safe!