Cambodia

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We fly from Bangkok to Phnom Penh instead of Siem Reap (because we left it so late to book our flight the prices had gone up to £200 to Siem reap or £40 to Phnom Penh). SO our journey through Cambodia involves a bit of back tracking.

Phnom Penh was a big change from Thailand, it is not developed as a tourist town yet, our first impression is that it is a bit dirty and quite noisy. We had pre booked into a hotel called Hotel Cara, as we arrived late afternoon and didn't fancy searching for a room in the heat. Our first night we head to a spot on the river to have dinner, had a nice dinner, but Hannah was interrupted by a very persistent cockroach which ran straight over her foot and in between her toes. She screamed! Yuck.

One thing that is evident is the huge amount poverty in the country, sadly when you are eating your meal at a restaurant a lot of young children and old people will approach you begging. It is hard to ignore, but you have to, because we were told by the locals that some of the begging is actually gang related, or the children are often sent out to beg by their parents instead of being schooled. But obviously this is not all cases, and it is extremely sad.

We move on from the restaurant and visit the local night market, which is amazing, and every night they seem to have a huge stage and put a production on. When we were there it was a Nokia singing contest in the style of xfactor, and during the production they even made a few jokey references to Simon Cowell, this was the only couple of words we could understand, except the songs which were mostly in English. So we take a stroll around the market, convincing ourselves not to buy anything as we are heading to Vietnam in a week and everything should be a lot cheaper there. We walk around and there are a lot of locals and not very many westerners, infact I think we spotted 2 others. Therefore Hannah gets all the stares again, but it doesn't seem to be in anyway seedy, just out of interest. Exhausted from the travelling we decided to take a walk back along the river back to our hotel.

The following morning outside the hotel were Tuk Tuk drivers ready to take us on our tour of the area. We hired one guy for the whole day, and it worked out pretty cheap. The equivalent of a fiver. The tuk tuk drivers in Cambodia seem crazy and so does everyone else on the road. But our guy was really good.

Firstly we head to the Killing fields, it is extremely sad to see the destruction and hurt caused by the Khmer Rouge, and also how recent the brutal killings took places. The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pots reign took place for a long time, and a lot of innocent people were killed It affected a large number of the population and the population of women to men is now a lot higher because of it.

We visited the main killing field in the area, and they have created a religious memorial for the people killed by placing all their bones in a tower for the gods. The people killed included many westerners, Chinese people, any educated person or person seen to oppose the regime. Our tuk tuk driver told us about how his father was killed during the regime when he was 5 years old. We felt very sad for him :-( You could still see evidence of all the deaths by simply looking at the walkway, where the path has been walked so often you can see where clothes are buried under the soil beneath your feet.

He also took us to a school which during Pol Pots reign was converted into a prison/torture chamber. The walls covered in photos of the victims who had died here, each person that entered the prison was forced to have their photo taken and then brutally tortured.

Ok so the next bit is not at all related to the killing fields, and we know it probably earns our tuk tuk a bit of commission, but we decided it was too cool to decline. So next we head down an unmade road toward a big military area, and next door is an army run shooting range. We both get to play army dress up and shoot a few rounds on an AK47 and M16. We also could have shot grenade launcher, and if you have the cash it is rumoured they will let you shoot a cow. But with my eyesight and looking at how skinny their cows are Id probably miss. It was unbelievably loud.

Siem Reap

So we were only in Phnom Penh for 2 days then we caught a bus back to Siem Reap. The journey was 6 hours and we arrived there mid afternoon. Arriving in Siem Reap we look around for the tuk tuk driver which was being sent from our hotel but there was no sign of him. This is where we met a really sweet young guy called Tino who offered for us to ring our hotel using his mobile. Only problem being was we didn't have the number on us. So he gives us a free lift in his tuk tuk back to our hotel. When we arrive at the hotel they had no record of our booking (no wonder no-one came to pick us up). They upgraded our room for free.

We arranged for Tino to pick us up later that afternoon to watch the sunset from one of the temples. What we hadn't realised was that it was a 20 minute walk in the heat up a huge hill. Then climb some steep steps up the temple. To be honest the sunset wasn't exactly spectacular but still worth it all for the view from up there. The walk back down in the dark was interesting, but we made it.

Tino took us back to the hotel for a shower and picked us up later for dinner. That night he dropped us at the night market in town, and waited around for us to have dinner and then dropped us back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

We managed to get a lie in, as Tino wasn't picking us up until around 10ish. This was when we went round Angkor Wat, the most famous of the Cambodian temples, and attracts thousands of visitors each year.

To describe the temples is hard, and you will have to try and imagine the enormity and beauty from our photos

Byron temple is probably the nicest in size and detail. Some of the early temples you can see both Hindu and later Buddhist influences, where either the states religion changed, or the temples were not completed in time and the successor completed it to fit in with his own religious beliefs.

The next morning we had to be up at 5am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, we get there and it is absolutely packed with people trying to recreate the postcard picture. The grounds are pitch black (obviously because the sun has yet to rise) and we park up on some steps. Hannah being Hannah manages to park her arse on the angriest little red ants in Asia. Its typical, she seems to be a heat seeking missile for any kind of insect. She gets bitten all over her toes, bum and hands. Brendon gets the 'ump because for some reason Hannah doesn't want to sit in the ants nest, and wait for the sunrise, so we sit at the back of the pack and wait. The sun rises slowly over Angkor Wat and reveals itself in all its glory. We managed to get some stunning pictures, making the whole waking up very early worth it in the end. We get out before the big rush of tourists leaving the temple, and have to go wake Tino up, to take us to the furthest temple (oops, already forgotten what this one was called).

The hawkers around the temples (some as young as 4 or 5 years old) have an uncanny knack at remembering your face if you say you may buy something later. 'I REMEMBER YOU!'

On the way back to the centre we had one last stop in the 2nd most famous temple, the one that appeared in the Tomb Raider film, it is pretty eerie, with trees wrapping itself round the ruins of the temple.

After 3 days of walking round temples, we were a bit templed out, so in the afternoon we went to the land mine museum, which was really interesting. But really sad to see how many active landmines there still are around the country, and the large number of people still being injured by them. The owner of the museum volunteers his landmine expertise to locals and the government by helping to deactivate any mines in the area. The owner had once worked for the Vietnamese army and over many years of effort he has helped by trying to remember which areas he and the army had once laid mines during the war.

That evening Tino showed us his favourite restaurant/bar in the area, and ordered some local delicacies for us. Which included chillied frog, admittedly it did just taste like chicken wings. Tino had raved about the Ice Cold beers they served, and of course they both ordered a few. The bar simply puts some water in the bottom of the pint glass and freeze it, then pour the beer in. Brendon's beer had gone straight through him, and had to leave us to go to the little boys room. Brendon had literally just unzipped and waiting to take a wee when a man approaches him, and starts giving him a shoulder massage,. Huh!? Brendon asked him to leave him alone to pee, the dude didn't seem to understand, and carried on. Brendon this time insisted he leave him be, and is totally bemused. According to Tino it seems this is normal behaviour and not a random trying his luck with him.

Our plans had been to leave the following morning, but instead of flying into Ho Chi Minh (old Saigon) in Vietnam we decided to catch the night bus to Phu Quoc Island which is an island just off the border of Cambodia and Vietnam. So we now have a free day. So in the morning we visited a couple of smaller temples further away, then decided to hit the river cruise in the afternoon.

The river cruise was pretty cheap and we didn't know what to expect because we hadn't planned it. So we head off down the extremely muddy looking river wondering what lies beneath. But it doesn't seem to bother any of the locals who are all swimming, washing, and fishing in it. Along the river there is a number of Christian Churches which are the only ones in the area, and some small museums along the way. We reach the mouth of the river, and this where there are 2 huge communities of floating villages. On one side of the river are all Vietnamese settlers and the other side being Cambodian. There is an obvious divide between the 2.

While cruising along in our boat, a small boat pulls up next to us, with a young boy, his mother and his very young. The boy is sitting in the boat, with a rather large python draped around his neck, just casually playing with it. Hannah jumps from one side of the boat to the other when I think he is about to board our boat. But luckily not, were were just joined by his little sister selling drinks. We didn't have any change for a drink, and had already purchased one before we got on the boat, so we just popped some small change into her pocket.

Next we head to the floating school, but not without being ripped off firstly by the shop selling school books and pens. It totalled to about $10. but its for the kids, so you can't say no. So we arrive at the school, and it is pretty tiny, and crammed full of kids, but they're all happy to see us. Hannah makes a lot of new friends, and babies are being handed to her left right and centre. We were told to hand the books to the teacher, but I felt that if I did im sure they would end back up on the shops shelves tomorrow, so we handed them out to the kids instead. We also searched through our bags and handed out whatever bits and pieces we had in there. We had some lolly pops, bracelets and pens.

After our little visit to the school we head to a floating restaurant, and just had some snacks, then checked out their crocodile farm. This was before we knew about the massive crocodile farm in the backyard of our hotel. Glad neither of us sleep walk! Hehe.

The boat takes us back to Tino who drops us back to the hotel, we have to hang about in reception for a couple of hours, while we wait for our night bus to Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam. The bus is leaving at 8pm, and we should arrive at the Island late the following afternoon.

So the coach leaves Siem Reap for a long journey into Vietnam. Brendon and I had prebooked our tickets, however it turns out that the boy at reception had only booked us a ticket to the border, and we had to pay extra once we alighted. But not a problem, we're on the right bus thats all that matters.

So we fall asleep in our fully reclining seats, and awake what seems minutes later, and it turns out to be just before 6 in the morning. However, we don't appear to be in Vietnam, and there is noone left on the bus.

We wander round trying to find someone who can help us, and explain how we get to Phu Quoc Island. We find a young girl just after 6 o'clock, who can explain in moody broken English, that we will be going on that bus over there. Which is the bus next to ours, so we moved our bags over into this bus because we should be leaving in about an hours time. While were chatting to some other travellers we turn round to see our bus drive off - Ah, shit! But the lady tells us its ok, it will be back shortly. So after 3 hours of waiting for the bus to return, and being continually told, it will be back in a minute. The problem is, the coach has broken down, and our luggage is on it.

But everyone waiting for the bus sighs a relief when we see it pull into the car park. Thank goodness! We have to get through the border and to the town where a boat will take us to the island at 1pm.. But its very unlikely we are going to make it, because time is not on our side. However after a lot of arguing between us and the bus company they eventually arranged a later boat crossing for us with a local fisherman. Meaning we will make it to the Island, because no boats will be sailing the following day as it is Vietnamese New Year. We alight the bus and then the real journey to Vietnam begins. …. which will be in the next update!

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Comments

[Elsie]

WOW AGAIN!!
Only got to ready your blogg today (mothers day).What a wonderful experience (yes not always great) but once in a livetime one. Thanks for sharing it with us. Tons of love and thanks for the sms.