Advertisement
Published: November 7th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Cambodia is beautiful but before I begin our story of our journey to Phnom Penh I'd like to tell you what the scariest part of travelling is for me. I am all about consumer rights and customer service and knowing my rights but in Cambodia none of that matters and there are no organisations to stop you from being taken advantage of, you can pay for a VIP bus and get 10miles down the road in your mini bus only to be changed into an old coach with the chairs not welded to the floor that probably shouldn't be on the road. This is exactly what happened to Holly, Ellie and me when we crossed the border into Cambodia. We decided we would do our own visa application at the border rather than pay $5 to the bus man to do it for us (pointless as it took us minutes) There were about 20 travellers and two buses waiting at the border and we where sure our bus was the VIP bus so we breathed a sigh of relief thinking we would travel in comfort. We where broken into two groups surprisingly everyone (bar one woman) who had done their own
visa where put on the run down bus and the others on the VIP bus, we've been travelling long enough to just sit back and watch as others kick off (it used to be us) watching them get stone faces of silence or a wave of the hand in return. The VIP bus left pronto but our bus had to wait another 1.5 hours before leaving. The bus drove for an hour and came to a stop at the side of the road, the driver called 6 Irish girls travelling together off the bus (they had bought a bus ticket from Vang Veng and this was there 7th bus in 24 hours) the driver insisted that he wanted more money for them to finish the journey or he would kick them off the bus, after a long argument and no further money the girls managed to get back on the bus. En route Ellie had to move seats as her double chair slid off its rail and fell back on the seat behind. The 9 hour journey to Phnom Penh took 12 hours dropping us just outside the city at midnight where conveniently there where 2 tuk tuk drivers waiting,
we checked our lonely planet and the fair should be $2 but knowing that there was no other option for us the driver would only take us for $10. We arrived at our hotel not gaining the best impression of Phnom Pehn en route due to the prostitutes on the streets and our driver telling us that we would be robbed unless our stuff was well hidden in the tuk tuk. We decided there and then that Phnom Penh would a short stay. Over the next couple of days we submerged ourselves in the history of Cambodia visiting S21 which was the main torture and interrogation base before people were sent to the killing fields. The killing fields are large mass graves where people where bludgeoned to death to save bullets ( babies where killed by being beaten off what is now known as the killing tree in front of their mothers) we began to see Cambodia in a different light. Cambodians being killed and massacred by their own people. Next stop was Siem Reap which was lovely and clean and had a safe feeling about it. Granted it was focused on tourism due to it's amazing attraction: Angkor Wat
and the surrounding temples which we spent the next week exploring. Angkor is the forgotten city. The city that was so advanced for its time that while London's population dwindled at a mere 20,000, Angkor's totalled 1 million. The city was constructed totally by hand from stone brought down from the nearby mountains on wooden rafts, then chiseled into rough blocks. And the result is breath taking. Although a lot of the temples have had to undergo some form of restoration much of the original work still remains - some held crudely together by bungee cords! It's definitely the sort of place that British health & safety measures would prevent you getting within 100m of! We loved it. We cycled round one day to get a feel of the exact size of the place. We also got a guide one day who we struggled to follow at points when he overloaded us with information! Angkor was the highlight of Cambodia for us. We'll definitely have to have a photo sesh with you as we haven't got the ability to get them off our smart new camera yet. We went our separate ways after Siem Reap; Ellie off to Burma and
we had decided to head towards the south coast. We tried to avoid hitting Phnom Penh again and altered our route slightly but to no avail; all roads lead to the capital. We braved a 12 hour bus journey meaning we only had to change buses rather than stay overnight there. We arrived rather exhausted in our beautiful hobbit house in Kep. Our room was a round cottage made out of stone with a thatched roof. The toilet was in a separate little cottage with only the cold water shower that we were becoming accustomed to. We spent a few beautiful days chilling out here, taking walks, eating crab and full English breakfasts and enjoying the sunsets although ultimately quite an expensive little town so we moved on. A short 30 minibus ride and we arrived in Kampot. We'd heard that this place had a reputation for being super chilled and quite a hippy town. We checked into a hostel with a very over enthusiastic American owner and mini golf in the garden! The heat was pretty intense and we found ourselves merely mooching about the town trying out different eateries. We became quite down-heartened that there wasn't much more
to Cambodia than Angkor and came up with a plan. We would head to Sihanoukville - the last remaining town on the coast, then scoot over the border to Thailand until 10th Nov when our Vietnam visa was due to start. One day in Sihanoukville was enough. We were so fed up of paying over the odds for everything that we booked a bus ticket for the very next morning! This wasn't before we'd eaten some seafood on the beach however and been set upon by a hoard of beach hawkers who insisted on threading our legs and Kate's armpits. They swore the results would last months....more fool us! We didn't feel bad though, at least the money was going straight into their pockets and not to some white guy's massage and beauty parlour. So after another 12 hour long day of various forms of travel: big bus, minibus, boat, minibus, tuk tuk, we rocked up in Ko Chang. Elephant Island. Here we have resided in our own room equipped with tv, DVD, hot water, fridge and air con for 13 days. We have rented a scooter and seen the island, tried out all the beaches, been diving for a
day, watched a lot of films, drunk a lot of Chang, had our faces painted, played pool and eaten curry. I think we just missed a beach in our lives.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0438s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb