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Published: March 2nd 2010
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Elephant walking along the main road, Phnom Penh.
I was still a little bleary eyed and had to do a double take. It was with a very heavy heart that I left Thailand behind me to move on to the next phase of my journey in Cambodia. My last days in Thailand were particularly special, as I made friends with the people at the Monkey Island Bar on Ko Mak. I was given a tour of the island and had dinner with the owner and his band several times. I even performed with them on my second night on the island! But I couldn't be a beach bum forever. Plus, I was starting to feel the need for photo-fodder other than turquoise seas and perfect sunsets. There's just no pleasing some people!
I'm glad to say, that after the first few hours on Cambodian soil, which were fraught with tension (more details to follow), I am now feeling more settled and in my stride here. I have adjusted to the culture shock that I initially experienced. The Cambodian people are warm and welcoming, and the last few days have taught me that first impressions can be wrong.
This morning, I had the privilege of visiting the Treak Village community, near Siem Reap. I got a fascinating glimpse into rural Cambodian life.
I met villagers, saw their homes, kitchens, vegetable patches, small holdings, rice paddies, livestock, their temple, and met the local monks. I was told about many of the aspects of daily life, like rice growing and harvesting which are so crucial to the people here. All before 11.30am!
Last night I witnessed an amazing street carnival, in which children from the many NGO run schools here were showcasing their creations of huge figures and puppets, marching them through the streets to their own music. The atmosphere was truly phenomenal, with colour and excitement and pulsating rhythmic music. It breathed life and joy into the streets here in Siem Reap, where sadly, so often poverty and struggle seem to reign.
Siem Reap is the big provincial city which accommodates the many tourists who come here to see Angkor Wat - the largest religious building in the World. The temples are amazing structures with intricate carvings and statues. Some are in ruins, but many are surprisingly intact considering the age of the buildings, built mostly around the 12th century or even earlier. My favourite area was at Ta Prohm, where the temple walls and surrounding jungle are engaged in an
ongoing battle for supremacy. The trees have grown out of, around and into the stones of the temples. Despite the best efforts of conservation teams, it's difficult to imagine how the temples will win the war. The charm of the place is the way the jungle is slowly encroaching on the last vestiges of that ancient civilisation. I had a sense of how, no matter the engineering and technical prowess of mankind, we are always at the mercy of natural forces that will have the last say. These thoughts may well have been provoked by a combination of sleep deprivation and heat exhaustion. I'd been up since 4.40am, to catch the sunrise, and it was about 35 degrees in the shade. It was time to go home.
Back at my guesthouse I had a much longed for shower, meal and afternoon nap. I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to start my evening with a cool 0.50$ Angkor beer. It was then that I was approached by yet another of the many street children that prowl the streets. Due to the extreme poverty here, there are frequent encounters with street children and beggars. The advice is not to give, even
food, as this discourages the children from attending school if they feel they can earn a better living from street selling and begging. Another painful reminder of the problems facing this country is the heartbreaking evidence of the legacy of civil war. Everywhere there are people who have lost limbs to the barbarism of landmines, which litter the countryside. There is no social security system here which is why the dispossessed are so numerous and so persistent. This country's history is riddled with war, genocide and tragedy, and it is clearly still struggling with massive poverty and endemic corruption.
The actual process of gaining an entry visa at the Thai-Cambodian land border crossing at Hat Lek, was actually relatively painless. Once you accept a certain degree of petty extortion (I paid 1200 Baht instead of the official 1000 Baht for the rubber stamp in my passport), everything runs smoothly. But then as a backpack clad Westerner - looking a bit clueless, I was mobbed by moto, tuk-tuk and taxi touts feverishly vying for my custom. Unfortunately, I chose a particularly unscrupulous moto driver. I needed to get to Ko Kong bus station, about 20 mins from the border. From
there, my guidebook informed me, I would have no problem taking a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital. For 1$ my moto driver took me to a deserted bus station - possibly the overnight resting place for a bus company. It was about 1pm but he assured me that no more buses would be leaving Ko Kong for any destination until the next day. My options, he told me, were to stay overnight in a hotel he knew or pay for one of the miraculously placed taxis that were waiting there. For just 40$ (about 6 times the standard bus fare) I could be at my desired destination within hours.
The 40$ quoted fare, I then came to learn, was a 'share-taxi' rate. It was dependent on atleast 2 others going the same way. So I waited for about 30 mins in the soaring heat, for any other unsuspecting tourist such as myself to fall into the clutches of this cartel. During this time a skirmish broke out amongst the taxi-drivers who were physically fighting for my carriage. It was all so unpleasant, I just wanted to get out of there so I agreed to pay a massive 70$ to
Ta Prohm, Angkor, Cambodia.
The awestruck tourist sums up the effect of the place. get a taxi all to myself, all the way to Phnom Penh. It was the most unwelcoming of starts. I'd been ripped off twice already. Welcome to Cambodia!
The taxi ride was 5 hours along main roads with one lane in either direction, and little or no evidence of a Highway Code. Accident aversion here involves honking your horn loudly and repeatedly. Braking, it would seem is used only as a last resort, i.e. after impact. Overtaking, in cars with little capacity for prompt acceleration, is rife. If there is an oncoming vehicle on the other side of the road, you honk your horn and expect them to slow down or get out of your way. It was an excrutiatingly stressful ride. On the plus side, I did get to see rural Cambodia from the comfort of an air-conditioned car. Along the roadside were many farming villages, water buffalo, wide meandering rivers, floodplains and distant hills. It was fascinating, and more than made up for the frequent near-death experiences.
So, my time here as been a mixture of highs and lows, with the positives definitely outweighing the negatives. Today, I'm moving on to Vietnam. It's a 12 hour
bus-ride, which I can't say I'm relishing. It does mean though, that I will be in Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon, by the end of the day. I can't wait.
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Nancy
non-member comment
hi Claire. I love reading about your encounters; you describe things so well. Have fun on the next leg of the trip. xx