Cambodia

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We arrived in Phnom Penh late on December 29th and took a tuk tuk to the riverfront and checked into a hotel. It was slightly more than our budget, but at $8.50 each per night in a room that had cable TV, a hot shower, wifi and comfortable beds, we couldn’t really complain!

After breakfast the next morning, we hired a tuk tuk for a couple of hours and had the driver take us around the city, getting him to familiarise us with a few things and give us an idea of where we wanted to go ourselves later in the stay. Phnom Penh was pretty busy with the same lack of road rules as experienced in Vietnam. From the tuk tuk ride it appeared that there was not a great deal to see in the actual city and that one of the main attractions - the Killing Fields - was about 20kms out of town. It was a fun couple of hours and a quicker way to cram the sights in than having to walk, but as I have said, nothing of any real interest, just every day Cambodians going about their business. The driver dropped us at the Royal Palace and we walked around there for about an hour. It was very much like the Royal Palace I had visited in Bangkok a couple of years previous, but on a smaller scale, and I remember how I had felt then. The architecture was impressive and to be appreciated, but once you had seen in for a couple of minutes it quickly lost its appeal. Another tick in the tourist book!

Later that afternoon we went for a massage, at a place called Seeing Hands, where the masseurs are blind. I’m not sure where in Asia the concept originated, but they are dotted throughout Vietnam and Cambodia and I imagine that not all are regulated! Daniel and I were obviously not after anything dodgy, however we did wonder what was on the cards when two 16 year old girls took us off to separate rooms. What I didn’t know was that Daniel was taken to a room all on his own and what Daniel didn’t know was that I was taken to a room full of other people getting massages from blind people. He maintains that his hour was above board…and of course I believe him! My massage was ok, although it was a bit strange and by no way hard enough. It’s a novel idea though and a good way of integrating the physically impaired into society and the workforce.

The following day we hired mopeds and went to see the two main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh, namely the S-21 Prison and the Killing Fields. It was New Years Eve and we probably couldn’t have chosen a more morbid or depressing thing to do, however we knew that the evening would be fun and take our minds off what we were to witness. Pol Pot, the Communist dictator was afraid that he would be overthrown by the people and decided that the best way to stay in power was to instil fear in the nation by rounding up, torturing and finally executing those he believed to be traitors, sometime including his own soldiers. Ironically, the place he chose to use as a prison, was a former school, detaining and torturing educated people back where they had previously gained an education, before it was their time to be sent to the Killing Fields for mass execution. It was a surreal and humbling experience walking around the prison, yet at the same time hard to fully appreciate the atrocities that actually occurred there. In one of the blocks there are pictures of all the people who were rounded up, tortured and finally executed. The look on their faces is a mixture of resignation, blankness, defeat and sometimes even humour. Looking into their eyes - even though they were just pictures - was very chilling and especially moving. The pain and suffering those people went through is unimaginable and at the same time unbelievable, given that it happened so close to the holocaust. It was mass genocide all over again!

We rode the 20 or so kilometres from the prison to the Killing Fields, which was another sombre experience. People were taken en masse from the prison in large trucks, out of the city where their screams would not be heard and executed in a multitude of ways, often beaten to death instead of being shot, in order to save bullets. The fields are quite literally that…fields…with a path that takes you around them, pointing out where the mass graves are situated. The graves are bad enough, but there are also a couple of other sites that really do make you feel sick; one being the ‘magic tree’, where speakers were hung and music played through them to drown out the sound made from the people being executed; and the killing tree, where soldiers held babies by the feet and swung them hard into the trunk, bludgeoning them death! The Cambodian government have erected a memorial at the sight to commemorate the tragic loss of life during this period, (which officially stands at one million, although it is estimated to be closer to three!) housing 800,000 sets of bones excavated from the Killing Fields, providing a stark reminder of the criminality and bloody torture that occurred. In no way should this (or will this) be allowed to happen again, but at the same time should never be allowed to be forgotten, so that those innocent people murdered, did not die in vain.

So NYE was to be spent in Phnom Penh and we hadn’t really heard of anywhere special to go. We arranged to meet Jo, an Irish girl we had met in KL a couple of months earlier and randomly bumped into at the prison. We met in a bar and had a few beers before moving on to another bar. We had a couple of shots to get things moving in the right direction, before Jo came back from the toilet saying she felt ill. We left and took a tuk tuk along the riverfront to drop Jo at her hotel and Daniel and I had a few more drinks at an Irish bar. It was a fairly subdued start to the night and we saw in NY on the street, beer in hand, watching some fireworks in the distance. We then got talking to a couple of ladies - one English, one Italian, who were friends working together in Paris for a marketing firm - and spent the rest of the night with them, ending up in some dodgy club until about 04:30. They were nice girls and a good laugh, but I don’t remember their names or little else about the night! I do know that I woke up next to Daniel (in separate beds) at some point the next afternoon, with an horrendous headache and no desire to move from the room. Germany was a true gentleman and bought me a pizza in bed for a mid afternoon snack and I eventually left the hotel at about 18:30 to meet him for dinner. January 1st 2011...done!

We headed south on the 2nd to a beach resort called Sihanoukville and it was so typically south east Asian and full of middle aged western men looking proud as punch to be parading a teenage Cambodian girl, youngsters on the piss and beach vendors trying to sell you anything from a manicure, a coconut, sarong or a massage! And no it doesn’t persuade me the more you call my ’baby’! We stayed 3 nights, we both didn’t like it at all and we were both relieved to leave. I took zero photos…I like it that much!

Arriving in Kampot was a refreshing change. It was calm, peaceful and hassle free. We checked into a guesthouse, run by a northerner whose name escapes me, but although he had been travelling for the best part of 20 years he still had the thickest Yorkshire accent and was a top bloke. He was a definite nomad and was very much into extra curricular activities that would be deemed highly illegal back home, but he was certainly not short of stories, was a top bloke and mixed some superb cocktails. Try JD, Kalhua, Bailey and a half measure of Amaretto - don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

We hired motorbikes and rode the 20 or so kms to Kep, a smaller coastal town famous for soft shell crabs. We rode around the area for the best part of the day, taking in the sights and riding off road and down paths that led to small communities and farmland. It was all very interesting. We were joined by a couple of English girls who were staying at the guesthouse and sort of invited themselves along after they couldn’t get a boat from the harbour we had dropped them at. They were harmless enough, but we had both had enough of them by the end of the day. Some people you click with, some you get on with and some you tolerate! The late afternoon feed of crab and squid was delicious, although we did question where abouts they came from and hoped it wasn’t from the sea directly in front of the restaurant. I only say this because just before our food was brought to the table, a couple of local wandered down to the shore line to relieve themselves! How flavoursome!

After 3 days we were back on the bus to Battambang, which took the best part of the day to get to. The buses are basic and not designed for the western male. It was a long day and I was more than glad for the toilet stops every 3 hours or so, just so I could get some life back into my legs and leave my knees alone for 20 minutes! There isn’t much to do in Battambang itself, so we organised with a local tuk tuk driver to take us on a tour the following day. He picked us up at 10 a.m. and for the next 6 hours he drove us out of the town and around the local countryside. It was a good day, again seeing things that we would have typically missed had we tried to do it ourselves or stayed in the town. We first went for a ride on the bamboo railway - very touristy - where we sat on a bamboo contraption about 1.5 metres by 2.5 metres, powered by a 50cc motorbike engine and linked up to some old train wheels. It was single track and if another ‘train’ was coming in the opposite direction, the etiquette was for the train with least passengers/cargo on to dismantle itself, allow the other train through and then reassemble back on the track. It was a bumpy ride, a tick in the box and an enjoyable way to kill and hour! From there it was into the countryside where we tried sticky rice that was smoked inside a length of bamboo. It was delicious and unfortunately the only time I got to have any. The driver then took us to the fish market where we saw women drying the fish on the side of the road, guys bartering and selling the mornings catch and people processing the smaller fish to be made into fish oil. The smell was quite overpowering and am glad I hadn’t had a big breakfast, but was interesting all the same and very labour intensive. I used to think my job back home was repetitive but some of the work the people in these third world countries do to make ends meet must be mind numbingly boring! They know no different I suppose.

The highlight of the day was watching some young kids, fishing in a small stream. Despite his age, he knew exactly what he was doing and along with a few of his friends, was successful more times than not. The fish he was catching were never going to win prizes in the size stakes but it was still a unique experience. The kids seemed really happy and their smile were testament to that.

For a light snack our driver took us to a little hut he knew and gave us our first opportunity to eat snake! A lid was removed from a pot and in the bottom were numerous snakes, said to be non-poisonous and caught in the local river. I was a little dubious about trying it (and I hope my cousin isn’t reading this) but I did, and with a little salt and lime juice, was actually quite nice.

The following day we rented bikes again and retraced a lot of our steps, heading off down side tracks in order to find something new. It was another good day; I love the freedom of being on the bikes and being able to do and see things at your own leisure.

The main place to see in Cambodia is Siem Reap, purely as it’s the closest town to the temples of Angkor and has become a massive tourist hotspot. We took the boat from Battambang and because of the time of year - low season - the river was quite low and the journey took longer - about 8 hours…on a rock hard wooden seat. It was a much more interesting way of travelling than taking the bus and gave us a much better insight into the poverty that actually exists in Cambodia. To a certain extent we had been sheltered from a lot of it in the places we had been, following a typically touristy trail, however the river provided an opportunity to see living in far more remote places. I was shocked! Not 5 minutes into the journey but we were watching people washing in the heavily polluted river. Rubbish was strewn everywhere and it was eye opening and heartbreaking to see the conditions that these people lived. They are still conscious of hygiene, but with conditions like that, it is hard to understand why they bother. My lasting memory is seeing one man cleaning his teeth, with toothpaste, using the river water to wash his mouth out. There is an irony in there somewhere.

We shared a tuk tuk with 2 German girls who we had met on the boat - Christin and Ancja - and checked into accommodation opposite each other. We met them for drinks after dinner and had a massively random night! The most popular street in Siem Reap is called Pub Street and there are no prizes for guessing what the main attractions are on this street. We had a few drinks before the 3 Germans thought that karaoke would be a good idea! I didn’t, but reluctantly went in search of a karaoke bar, which are popular throughout SE Asia. The tuk tuk driver dropped us at an establishment that indeed provide karaoke, however it also provided a service that would delight the middle aged men from Sihanoukville! Our reception was met with a mixture of looks and we were shown into a room that housed a large couch, a big screen and a projector. We were brought a bucket of beers and had an hour to play songs through the karaoke machine. I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself…in fact I would go as far as to say I had a great time, belting out classics with an enthusiasm I didn’t know I had. With just the 4 of us in the room we were allowed to geek off to our hearts content and I think all can say the mission was accomplished!

The next day very little was achieved due to the 04:30 finish the night before. We did manage to book onto a tour of the temples for the following day, which was scheduled to start at 04:30 so we could see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the most famous temple…probably in the world! When we arrived at the temple complex, it was plainly obvious that we weren’t going to get any photos without other tourists in them. Even at 5 a.m. the place was already full of tourists and couple with the fact that the sun didn’t really rise, it was a bit of an anti-climax…and I could have had another couple of hours in the cot! The rest of the day was spent touring around a number of the main sights and although was a long and tiring day, was actually very interesting and well worth doing. It is recommended to have more than one day there, but it would really depend on your interest levels to justify paying the extra money. I was happy with one day, had seen enough temples and felt as though we had made the most of the day. Each to their own.
Anyway, after another visit to Pub Street and then another day doing nothing, we were on an early morning bus and heading for Thailand, my penultimate country. I had enjoyed Cambodia, but would have liked to have gotten off of the tourist route a bit more, had time allowed. I don’t think I’ll rush back any time soon but it had been an enjoyable couple of weeks and am glad to have seen it.

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