Cruising Cambodia

Asia » Cambodia
August 13th 2008

Published: November 12th 2008

Cambodia

Kratie
November 1st

Well what was supposed to be a one day trip from Laos to Phnom Penh (PP) ended up being a 2 day affair as the bus company tried to pull a shank on me. More on that later. I started today bright and early catching a ferry and then a bus towards the Cambodian border. After paying my "service fees"(aka bribe money) to get out of Laos, get my Cambodian Visa and then again to get into the country I was finally cruising the surprisingly smooth road deeper into the country. The border itself was quite funny as you pull up to a small hut marked customs where they don't ask you any questions, move onto another hut where you pay a guy a buck to let you leave the country, walk about 2 minutes trying not to step on one of the many goats as you walk between the courtiers, and then pay a few bucks to get your visa and stamp in your passport at a hut on the Cambodian side. Probably the weirdest border crossing I have ever done in my life.

Something I noticed right away was something that I read about in Long way down. Ewen in that book noticed how it is strange that everything seems to change when you cross a border. The people, the land, the customs, everything is different. Its weird to think that a pretend line drawn on a map or the ground can cause even the landscape to change but its really true. Anyway upon arriving in Kratie for what I thought was just a rest stop I discover that suddenly my bus was always planned to continue on tomorrow night and not today. Apparently this was the case all along even though my ticket said otherwise. They guy told me I was stuck there and he guessed I had to stay at the guest house he pulled up to since I was there for the night. Having none of it I got refunded the difference between the 2 bus fares and went down the street to book a bus and a room for the night. No way they were touching any more of my money.

Turned out the 2 Canadian girls from TO who were heading to Siem Reap where also stuck in Kratie for the day/night so I hung around with them exploring the tiny bizarre town that is Kratie. There really isn’t much to it. The centre of the town consists of a market (that is kind of weird) and outside of that the town doesn't offer much. A funny thing is that instead of rats eating the garbage on the streets this town has cows, yes cows, that wonder the streets eating garbage. There's something I never thought I'd see in my life. We spent the evening playing cards and talking before we called it a night early. Not only did we all have an early bus the next day but the town itself seem to shut down at about 9 o’clock.

Phnom Penh
November 2nd- November 4th

Up and at the bus station for 7 o’clock to catch my bus to PP, the capital of Cambodia. The drive in was really pretty. Since the rainy season is just ending here everything is super green. I'd even say it is as green, if not greener, than Ireland although in the dry season I've heard everything looks dead and brown. Not now though! The land also seemed to be very flat from what I could see anyway as most of the "highway" was lined 3 deep with trees. Along the way we stopped at a rest stop and while I was taking in the fried tarantulas I bumped into the Czech couple I shared a room with in Taman Negara, Malaysia which was really weird and random.

Eventually I got into PP with a good chunk of the day left. After dodging the tuk tuk guys who where chasing the bus down. I quickly got my bearings and walked through town on my search for a guest house. Again I'm really pleased with my map reading/orientation abilities as before long I didn't need a map at all to get around town. I eventually found a place and after grabbing some lunch and a shower I headed off to explore PP. This city is really cool and I really enjoy the vibe here. Many people told me that everyone was really pushy and hard pressed to get your money but I haven't felt that. At least not yet. The city has so many old French colony buildings scattered throughout the city and it really makes me wonder what PP and many of these cities looked like in their hay day. I also couldn't help but be reminded of what happened here during the genocide but those thoughts and feelings will be explored more tomorrow. Crossing the street here is a bit of an adventure but I'm applying the advice given to me for Saigon which is that when you need to cross the street you just go. Everyone driving will move around you and so far it seems to be working. TO add to my random food in a market experience I saw not only whole roasted pigs of many sizes but also something that looked like a civet which was really random.

Feeling my cold creeping back on me and not really feeling comfortable being super far from my place in the dark yet as Cambodia has a bad reputation for stuff happening to people at night I decided to take it easy tonight by grabbing some dinner at my hostel and watching the movie they were playing. On the way back though I grabbed what was supposed to be the best cookie in Cambodia which tasted more like a box BUT 50%!o(MISSING)f the proceeds go to a local orphanage so it didn't bother me too much. Tomorrow I plan on visiting some of the sites related to the genocide so it will be a heavy day and I need all the rest I can get.

After having breakfast I headed to S-21 Prison which was a big spot used during the genocide. It was originally a high school but quickly after capturing PP the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison and torture centre. Many of the rooms are left empty with nothing but a bed frame sitting in the middle of the room. Other rooms display the tiny cells that where used to hold their prisoners. Finally some rooms contains pictures of the people that died here. Over the 4 or 5 years of the genocides the prison held a total of 20, 000 people. Only 7 survived and in Cambodia itself 2 million of the 8 million (or 6 I cant fully remember) people died. Having read a book which gives a first hand account of what the people went through it all seemed so real and amazes me that people can something like this to another human being. Another tragic spot just like Hiroshima.

After taking in the prison I headed to the Killing fields which is where they would bring people form the prison to execute them along with people form nearby areas. The first this you see is a pagoda which houses shelf upon shelf of skulls taken from the mass graves that surround the area. It doesn't take long to notice that most of the skulls are cracked which is due to the fact that the Khmer Rouge simply bashed in heads in order to save on bullets. Simply baffles me yet again. I walked through the fields seeing the many mass graves and even a tree which was used to killed children. Apparently the soldiers would grab the kids by the legs and simply swing them against the tree. There are still bones laying beneath the tree. Such a heavy thing to see.

I decided to try and give something back today by spending my afternoon at an orphanage but after wandering around for about 2 hours I was about to give up hope when I found what I thought was the orphanage. I walked in and got stared at like I had 4 heads only to find out I couldn't do anything despite what the poster in my hostel says. Wasn't meant to be I guess but Hopefully there is something I can do when I'm in Siem Reap.

Not really feeling in an overly joyous mood after what I saw today I just walked around the city again taking it all in before grabbing some dinner at a restaurant that gives all it's proceeds to charity. PP has a really weird vibe to it, but in a good way. There are parks and people outside all the time playing some kind of sports. I even say group aerobics in the park today on my walk home. After seeing nothing really overly western in Laos, Cambodia has some things. I haven’t seen a McDonalds but I have seen a Lucky burger. I haven't seen a Pizza Hut but I haven seen pizza place s with delivery. 'here are no family marts or 7/11s but they do have gas stations with a convenience store. Its definitely a weird vibe which kind of reminds me of a weird more Manila esk version of Korea but I like it. Tomorrow I spend part of my day here in PP before hoping on a bus to Siem Reap.

After getting everything organized for my bus ride this afternoon I heading off to see the Palace and Silver Pagoda. Although worth a see neither where really anything breathtaking since it's quite small when compared to the palace in Bangkok but it was still really cool to see. After seeing the palace and Pagoda and fighting off the tuk tuk drivers looming outside I just wandered around the city for a few hours before I had to catch my bus. Along the way I saw a blood donor clinic and I thought I would check it out. Seeming good enough I decided to give some blood. Something I wasn't expecting here was a big and random "loot bag” or thank you gifts. In this bag I got a t-shirt, 2 packages of instant noodles, a can of condensed milk, a big bag of sugar, box of crackers, a bottle of water and a can of coke. Now some of it I can understand but a bag of sugar and a can of condensed milk?

After leaving the blood clinic I heading back to my hostel to wait for my minivan to pick me up and bring me to the bus station and before long I was on the road to Siem Reap. Arriving about an hour earlier than planned I quickly found the tuk tuk driver my hostel in PP arranged and he brought me to an awesome hostel here in Siem Reap. A family runs it and they treat you like one of the family really cool. Quite often one of them will just sit with me while I eat and talk to me about random stuff. Now since my next country is Vietnam I need to sort out my visa here in Siem Reap since it is the only country I am visiting that doesn't give a visa on arrival. Unfortunately it seems to take a day longer than I had planned so I will be stuck in Siem Reap for 1 extra day which shouldn't be too bad as it just gives me one more day to explore the temples and unfortunately cut one day off of Battambang.

After checking in and cleaning up I headed out to check out Pub street which is well a street with a bunch of pubs. Although I couldn't drink at all because of giving blood earlier today I thought it would be a good place to grab a bite to eat and maybe meet up with some people I know that are already here. After grabbing a $1 dinner at a food stall I found a cool looking place and settled in with a coke. Another solo traveler quickly joined me and we talked for the rest of the night, arranging to meet here again tomorrow before I headed off to bed.

Siem Reap
November 5th- November 8th

Today I spent exploring what there is too see in Siem Reap, which to be honest isn't a whole lot. After heading into town by walking down some streets with some really cool French buildings the heat was starting to boil me over so I ducked into a restaurant that was showing the election for a cold drink to help cool me off. About 5 steps into the place I met a guy also from Canada and also from Ontario. As a matter of fact he was from Chatham and even went to UWO for teachers college all be it 4 years ahead of me. I joined his group as we watch the election wrap up and then heard the two speeches before I headed off to explore some more of the city.

After taking in a few of the seemingly endless markets here in Siem Reap I headed back to my hostel as some dark clouds started rolling in off in the distance. After grabbing a nap and a shower to avoid the rain I headed back into town to grab some dinner before meeting up with the guy I met last night and the 2 Canadian girls from TO I met in Laos and Kratie at a bar called "Änkor What?". Nice pun.

Some things I've noticed today is that marbles are all the rage here and in Laos with the kids. I don’t think a day has gone by where I don't see some kids playing marbles. Also another game kids and adults seem to play involves their flip flops. I watched a few games and still haven't been able to figure out exactly what the point is although it has a shuffle board kind off feel but with kicking your sandal instead. Again though I have absolutely no clue. I have also had a few people on the street come up to me with a weigh scale which completely confused me. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of these two mysteries. The money system here is also quite weird. Everything is prices in American dollars and anything over $1 they take American but for the cents part of it you have to give Riel. 1000 riel = $0.25. So for something that is $1.25 you have to pay $1 USD and give them 100 riel which I find kind of weird.

The next three days I've combined together since they are were pretty well the same thing. Each day I rented a bicycle, explored some of the temples of Angkor Wat and then relaxed at night with a book or a movie after biking about 30-40 km each day.

On the first day I took in some of the bigger temples being Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom to name a few of the many I saw. Although collectively know as Angkor Wat there are actually probably close to 30 temples spread out all over the place.
Seeing these are absolutely incredible. Again I am amazed at seeing something so old so ancient. It is amazing these where able to be built so long ago and really makes me want to see the pyramids as quite often while walking around I just couldn't fathom how they were built. I just kept walking around not being able to get my head around the sheer awesomeness of this place. Every temple big or small simply amazed me. Some of the temples even have huge trees that have grown on top of walls and buildings with the roots weaving their way down through the bricks. Also really cool to see.

To add to the stupid awesomeness of this day, while I was walking I heard a bunch of very loud splashes. I quickly noticed that the trees in same direction where shaking like crazy before every splash. Upon taking a closer look I noticed it was a bunch of monkeys climbing up the trees before throwing themselves into the water. I sat here for probably about 30 minutes just watching them play around. Really cool and really random to see.

This is probably one of the most touristy places I've been so far but for once understandable so as it is a sight to be seen. Tour groups are everywhere and you options of getting around range from a bike (like me) all the way to an elephant, hot air balloon, or even a helicopter. One downfall is the constant ambush of people asking you if you want to eat, want a cold drink, or want to buy a book or postcard. Quite often kids are used for this too which is really sad as most of them wont see the money as it will go right to their parents. I even had a girl who must have been 2 years old following me as she constantly repeated 1 dollar and held out a wooden flute. At the same time their parents are making them do this because that is what they grew up doing. The cycle needs to be broken somehow.

The 3rd day was pretty cool too as I biked out to some temple that are a bit away from the main ones. The temples themselves weren't amazing but biking back on the country roads was pretty cool. I saw so many motorcycles with weird things strapped to the back. 40ish chickens on one and 3 decent sized pigs on another. Amazing. It was such a beautiful ride. Suddenly though I could see a storm up ahead. I could literally see the hard rain coming down the road towards me so I ducked under a small hut with an older women and waited out the storm. I then headed back into town biking along the muddy and roads that sometimes seemed closer to a river than a road.

I then switched up my plans by deciding to head into Vietnam early instead of over to Battambang as I wouldn't really have a lot of time there because of the whole visa thing. So I booked a bus for the next day that would take me right into Saigon only to be tracked down an hour later and told I could only get as far as PP and would have to stay the night there. Oh well not much I could do so I went along with t anyway. I'm glad I did because it all which worked out well as I played stupid and was able to get onto a connecting bus no problem the next day anyway. No stop over in PP needed as someone didn't show up for their ticket.

On to the last and final country before I get home. Tomorrow I'll be saying "Good morning Vietnam"!

again no pictures as it looks asthough I'll have to post them when I'm home....

**** To see my pictures from Cambodia click here ****

Cambodia

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