Cambodia - Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

---

A couple of hours by bus and we reached the Cambodian border. Usual rigmarole and queues, fingerprinting and photographing, as well as temperature taking (I thought they were shooting me!!) before we were allowed to go through.!!) before we were allowed to go through. First impressions of Cambodia – much poorer than Vietnam, a lot of flooding, rice fields, houses on stilts, white cows!
We crossed a river (Mekong I think!) by ferry, but a lot of people seemed to be travelling, laden up, the other way....we learnt later that there had been severe flash flooding and that a lot of people (and tourists) were being airlifted to safety or evacuated. Reached the hotel (Town View 1) about 3.00pm ish and then had a wander down to look at the Independence Tower and the waterfront, where a lot of people were sat on the wall watching the river levels! It is a big Buddhist festival tomorrow and a National Holiday so we also had a look into a couple of the temples to see the celebrations. Met the rest of the group at 7.00pm and then had a meal at the Happy Herb Pizza restaurant!
Monday 26th Sept
Today was a busy day (again!!) First stop at 8.10am at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum S-21, which used to be a school, before the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison. A short history lesson from our guide explaining the complicated history between Vietnam, USA, Laos and Cambodia, before he went onto explain the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 – 1979. In brief, they wanted to make all the people farmworkers and therefore systematically tortured and killed anyone who was a doctor, teacher, or intellectual. It was made all the more poignant as our guide was 12 years old when it began and had his own personal memories of his aunt and school teachers being killed. 20,000 people passed through the prison and were taken to the ‘Killing Fields’ to be killed in the mass graves,15km south west of Phnom Penh. Only seven people survived and only two remain alive today, one of whom we met at the exit – Mr Chum Manh who has written a book of his experience.
Onto the ‘Killing Fields’ where we watched a short film, before walking around the site. There is a memorial at its centre, enclosing in a glass case, some of the skulls and clothes of the victims. The site tells some horrific stories but I think the worst of it all for me was, as our guide explained, that after heavy rainfall, the teeth and clothes of the victims that are still buried rise to the surface on the pathways and are collected and put in a container. We saw quite a lot of half buried clothes on the paths waiting to be collected.
Back to Phnom Penh, a lovely lunch on the waterfront and then a walk to Wat Phnom, which is where the original town of Phnom Penh was founded. Nowadays there is just a short walk up to the series of temples at the top. Walked back down to Central market, which was quite quiet (because of the National holiday!) and then a stroll back, past the National Museum to the Royal Palace (which was also closed!) However, we were able to see it from the outside and still able to visit the Silver Pagoda which houses a jade Buddah and is enclosed in a garden full of pots of orchids and water lilies.
Humidity was getting worse so a quick shower at the hotel before shopping for tomorrows lunch, and a simple meal followed by a few beers (I had Baileys!!) and early night!
Up at 6.15am again and ready for the bus at 8.00am......only it didn’t turn up! Mmmm......bit of a mix up I think as to whether the public bus was coming to the hotel or sending a shuttle bus, or it coud have been something to do with the National Holiday!! Anyway, a shuttle bus was sent at 10.00am for the 10.30am bus to Siem Reap. As soon as we left Phnom Penh there was extensive flooding and we could see why people live in houses built on stilts! The main road is built as a causeway to avoid the floods but in some parts the river was flowing across the road as well. Some of the villages are completely surrounded by water and the cattle are tied up on the grass verges by the road. The barefoot children seem to be quite happy, riding their bikes through the water or jumping in the rivers to swim!
After a couple of rest stops and some torrential rain, we eventually reached Siem Reap about 5.00pm and booked into Bunnath Guest House. Orientation walk with Martin took us down the flooded main road into town, and we waded through, knee deep, for about 500-750 meters to get to the restaurant for our group meal with Martin. Took a tuk tuk home (back through the floods) to the hotel.
The next day we awoke to blue skies and sunshine! Our day trip to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples started at 8.00am and after a short 15minute drive we reached the first temple. Took about an hour to walk from one side to the other with our guide giving us a detailed history, of which I can’t remember anything other than they were built in the 12th C as a Buddhist temple and then changed to a Hindu temple!
Walked past the elephant terrace, and another temple that was being renovated before reaching the ‘Jungle’ Temple. This was a temple that was buried deep in the forest and covered with trees, some of them growing on top of the buildings with their roots stretched out over the old walls and down into the ground.
Lunch was next and then onto Angkor Wat which is surrounded by a moat! We entered by the back way so there were very few tourists and we were able to get some good photos. Angkor Wat is built as three tiers and we were able to climb right to the temple at the very top, via a very steep stepladder, for some amazing views over the whole site. Continued walking to the entrance of the building and just managed to get to the mini-bus before the rain started! We were so lucky! By the time we reached the hotel it was torrential and we were soaked just walking the few steps to the hotel!! Good excuse for a beer.......and then out to the Opticians!
Glasses are cheap in Cambodia and as my glasses are pretty ragged now, I decided to get some new ones! Not quite the 9$ that they advertise them at, but I had an eye test and ordered two pairs of designer frame glasses for 71$ (picking them up tomorrow!!)
After eating we collected our laundry – a definite highlight of the trip is to get your clothes washed and pick up a pile of fresh, clean clothes – all neatly folded and ironed! Sad but true!! One more day in Siem Reap so may just have a wander about........no plans as yet!
The next morning we decided to have a walk around the town (avoiding the flooded parts!!) and by accident found a travel agency specializing in sustainable tourism, supporting local communities and the environment. They re-directed us to Mr Fernando who, with the help of his friend, worked out a village tuk tuk tour for us beginning at noon. We said we wanted to take some goods and were advised to take some dried fish, toiletries and sweets!
Had to take a tuk tuk to the Old Market as it was in the flooded area, managed to buy what we thought were suitable things and as we had 45 minutes to spare took another tuk tuk ( another dollar!!) to the opticians. My glasses were ready to collect, fitted well and seemed quite perfect!
We arrived back at Travel Loop at 12.00am where Mr Han (?) and his tuk tuk was waiting for us. Fifteen minute drive through the floods, over the river and then a half hour main road drive, before turning off towards the village (think it was called Roluos?) The road soon turned to dirt track and we were in a completely different village environment with a local market, cows, dogs and chickens, children running barefoot, still partly flooded and some very poor families interspersed with some more well off families. We decided to do the boat trip first – to Kompong Phluk – a floating village, the flooded forest and Tonle Seep, the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia. The lake increases in the rainy season from 3000 sq kms to 12,000 sq kms so the boat took about an hour to reach Kompong Phluk. In the summer you are able to see the houses built on stilts 8 metres high but as this is the rainy season they just look as though they are built on the water. There is even a secondary school and gendarmerie so a complete community! We saw one house even managing to keep pigs in pens suspended above the water!!
A tour round and past the flooded mangrove forest - just the tops of the trees showing but you can canoe in and out of the thick branches and then the return journey back to the ‘land’ village! Had a couple of really heavy showers but by the time we got back the sun was shining again and we were able to stop at several houses and give the families and children our gifts. They seemed very pleased and we all shook hands, the children are all very polite, saying thank you and putting their hands together and bowing! There were some sad stories that our guide/tuk tuk driver told us about the families – we just hoped that we helped in a small way. Stopped at the local market and bought some more flip flops and then made our way through the floods back to the 9th C temples ( older than Angkor Wat but not so famous – yet!!) for a few photos before the tuk tuk journey back to the hotel.
Just enough time to change and go out for the dinner and dance show around the corner – the food was excellent - a buffet dinner just like the 5* all inclusive hotels where you can eat as much as you like - the show was short, which probably wasn’t a bad thing unless you were really into Cambodian music! The dancing was........different! Chris has lots of videos for those who want to see at a later date!!!

---

Photos

Cambodia - Phnom Penh (48)
Killing Fields

Comments

[Laura]

Glad you made it through the floods without swimming xx