Cambodia

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February 13th 2007

Published: February 19th 2007

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Russ N Vick

Skulls from The Killing Fields

Just a few of the 8,000 human remains found at the Cambodian Genocide site. Worth visiting, bit depressing though.

Sorry this blog is a bit of a long one but it covers all 2 week spent here!

Border Crossing

We left Trat for the Cambodian border of Koh Kong. The minibus pulls up at Hat Lek after the 1 hour trip, the side door opens about 1 inch when it’s almost ripped of it’s hinges by 5-6 men shouting “Cambodia? Cambodia? This normally happens when you arrive at a destination and we have been getting used to it but this is the most intense it’s been so far, you can only just get off the bus with your bag they are crowding so much. We have found the best thing to do is to just ignore them for the moment until you can get your bearings and suss the situation, so this is what we do, fight our way through and don't make eye contact!

Everyone seems to be heading for a small office so we make our way towards this.
This is how the border crossing works: There is a lowered barrier preventing vehicles crossing. To the right is an office with two windows, One says arrival, one says departure, seems easy enough, go to the arrival

Floating Village

As seen on the trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap on the fast boat (7hours)

window (into Cambodia) show your Visa, Bobs your uncle! Or he would be if this were the case.
Before we get to the window an English girl says “You need to walk across the walkway to the other side, that is Cambodia, this side is still Thailand”. Thanking her we trudge the 0.5km walk through no-mans land to the other side but not before managing to talk to a driver (on his own) and agree a fee for taking us into Koh Kong town to find accommodation (along with two French guys we briefly spoke to). Getting to the other office we queue with about 10 other people at a small window, eventually getting served.
Now, we thought we had been clever by using Cambodia’s new E.Visa system sorted over the internet...not so clever as everyone pretty much sailed through, paying there $25 dollars for the visa right there and then, the guy behind the counter had to log on to the internet to confirm ours, taking about 15 minutes longer only for him to come back to us saying we have no departure stamp? Sh*t! the nice English girl told us wrong! We now have to walk back over

Angkor Wat Sunrise

Got up at 4.30am for this...

to Thailand & get a departure stamp, we walk back and do it all over again!!! All in all it took us about 1 hour to cross the border, fortunately the French guys didn’t mind waiting for us and we all piled into the taxi / deathtrap.

I’ve seen less damaged banger race cars than this and the very amusing icing on the cake was that after we all got in, not one but two men got into the drivers seat!! Turns out they were brothers and drive like this all the time sat on each others lap!!!

We get to Koh Kong about 20 mins later. The two Frenchies need to change some Thai money for Cambodian, we stop at a money exchange booth on the side of a dusty road set amongst stalls selling food/drink etc. No posh banks or offices, this is the “Black Market” system, you can even negotiate your rate! The booth is essentially a glass cupboard, no one stands inside, it’s only small & they just sit at a chair next to it, all the money just sits on shelf in the cupboard for everyone to see!!
Finally get to the guest-house

The Bayon

Angkorian Temple in Angkor Thom

as recommended by the double drivers. Have a look at the room, nice and dark, sparse, musty and completely un-inviting, but we negotiated a rate of 6,000 Reil (1.50 quid) and seeing as it’s for one night it’ll do.
We have walk around the town and our first taste of Cambodia...Jesus it seems different to Thailand. This is not exactly a tourist town, it’s only a stop over place to get to Sihanoukville which is our next stop, the whole place seems really dusty and poor but also friendly. Kids constantly stare at you and wave or say “hello” like they’ve never seen Westerners before! We get food and get to bed as we have purchased a ticket to go to Sihanoukville by Fast Boat at 07.00a.m. There is another way to go, by bus. Both take approx four hours but the bus ride is cheaper, as is the ride itself as the roads in Cambodia are notoriously bad!

Fast Boat

If you want my recommendation definately take the fast boat...It’s great! The boat has about 70 seats and is thin and long like a British canal boat, but as the name suggests it doesn’t go slow...at all! We

The Baphuon

Angkorian Temple in Angkor Thom

had heard you couldn’t go on top of the boat because it’s dangerous, however seeing as there were probably 20 passengers too many on the boat this was the only option for some and the choice of the rest.

The ride isn’t exactly scenic all of the way as you cross the sea so don’t see land for a while, but even so it’s great to go out onto the deck (You can also sit at the very front of the boat which is what we did for a bit). It’s quite windy because of the speed (I can only estimate about 40-50 mph) and great for getting a sunburn as you don’t feel it due to the wind!! By the way, the heat in Cambodia is definately hotter than Thailand, merely standing still for 5 minutes causes the sweat to pour off you!

As you go out on deck from the seating area there is no rail directly opposite the door, only an open invitation into the sea whipping past below, and the same goes if you want to get on or off the roof of the boat, there’s a ledge to walk along the length about

Insurance Disclaimer

There not kidding! Check out the steps picture

8 inches wide and again no safety rail!

Got to the port at the other end. We expected the usual taxi truck or Tuk Tuk waiting to ferry us to the town but it seems the preferred method of transport is the moped (or moto as they call it). I ended up on the back of one, with my backpack between the drivers legs and resting on the bike, Victoria on another...looking quite nervous, but to be fair they are good riders, do this for a living a don’t go fast. You can hop on & off these regularly and are quite cheap and any moto that drives past toots it’s horn or shouts to see if you want a ride. The locals also prefer this method and we've seen as many as four adults and one child one bike!

Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville is a beachy place so pretty much just lounged on these for 4 days.
There are a lot of one legged / armed landmine victims or kids begging or hawking bracelets, they make especially for you and to be fair this is the same all over Cambodia, sometimes you have to give, sometimes you have to

Steep steps

Going up was the easy part, you had to come down sideways like your gran

ignore!

Phnom Penh

Left to go to Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia. Went by bus this time, we thought we were going to have a nightmare journey as it broke down 3 times in the 1st hour but eventually managed to right itself and we made the 4 hour journey in just under 5 hours. Only spent 3 days in the capital and too be fair just found it quite grim in most area’s. We did however go to the “Killing Fields” and S21 which is REALLY grim but very interesting. (See pics)

The very brief history is: 1975-78, Pol Pot's forces controlled Cambodia. S21 was a high school they took over and turned into a Security prison. In the 3 years as a prison approx 17,000 people including 9 Westerners were tortured and interrogated. They were all eventually taken to the Killing Fields and exterminated apart from 7 people they rescued when it was liberated!
There are pictures of some of the prisoners all over the rooms, some before and after torture shots, quite a few shots of victims lying on torture beds and some of the instruments etc. You can view all of the holding

Combatting the Dust

Two surgeons go for a Tuk Tuk ride

areas and torture rooms, some with the original beds in there and the shackles they were held with, you can actually see the blood stains on the floors! It’s a crazy attraction to go to but well worth it for a peak into exactly how evil man can be. We followed this up with a trip out to the Killing Fields where there are approx 8,000 skulls and various remains dug up from the mass graves, got a really nice picture of skulls though...don’t know if I’m meant to be pleased or not?

Siem Reap

Left Phnom Penh to go up to Siem Reap. This is the area where the temples of Angkor are, Angkor Wat being the most well known.
Went by Fast boat again, took six hours, spent most of that time on the deck getting sunburnt! (We don't learn)
You do get to see some really nice views on the way though as you pass by all he river houses and fishing villages. The last two hours we travelled across Tonle Sap lake which is massive, you don't get to see land until the last 20 minutes. Because the lake was so calm it was quite

Victoria at the South Gate of Angkor Thom

surreal just flying across it but never seeming to get anywhere.
As February is part of the dry season the boat cannot make it all the way to Siem Reap because of the low water. We got so far and were then towed by a smaller boat, with the bottom of our boat literally scraping the bottom.

We got to the landing pier at a place which couldn't even be classed as a town or village and we didn't even know if it had name, it just seemed to be a large amount of people all living in shacks in between a foul smelling river and a dirt track with 12" deep pot holes!
The usual mass crowd of Tuk Tuk & Moto drivers were waving, shouting & pulling us off the boat, but not before we had to go to the back, grab our none too light backpacks, shuffle along the 8 inch ledge to the front and then walk down seriously flexible/thin plank to the waters edge!
The bus we had been promised seats on turned out to be a Tuk Tuk with a driver called Srar Rar who was frantically waving a card about with our

Russell at the South Gate of Angkor Thom

Big Head!

names on (Pre-arranged when we bought the tickets).

It never ceases to amaze me how crazy some of these boat landings can be, Personally i think these are what make the jouney fun, interesting and memorable, but for some families or the more elderly travellers there is never any warning. They book a boat trip from a modern pier or port assuming that this will be a civilised method of travel, only to end the journey fighting to keep their bags, health and lives in tact! The look on some of the faces is hilarious when they see the situation. Again though it's all part of the travel and we always look forward to the next instalment of "crazy" when it ends.

Temples of Angkor

Srar Rar as it turns out is a really nice guy. We agree to use him for the 3 days we have decide to view the temples for.
He dutifully turns up at our guesthouse at 10.30a.m the next day and drives us the 15 minute journey to the temples. There quite a few temples in the area, all with something different to see.
For those who have no idea about Angkor Wat

Ta Prohm

The famous tree roots as immortalised in Tomb Raider

these are not just boring modern temples with images of Buddha or Vishnu. These are approx 800-900 yrs old, were constructed and carved from solid stone & were carried/dragged by elephant from god knows how many miles away. If you've seen Tomb Raider 3 you will have seen some of the shots taken at "Ta Prohm" which has been left to the jungle and there are wierd gigantic tree roots climbing all over the structure (see photo's).
In the end we only spent two days viewing the temples with Srar. He took us to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise (See pic) and also "Phnom Bakheng" the Hilltop temple to see the the sunset, a long climb uphill, more steep steps and then we waited with about 500 other people to see it set.....behind a cloud! Everyone realised too late and then made a dash for the precarious steps back down before it got too dark (There are no lights). We made it back down unhurt, a woman wasn't so lucky & fell down 3 of them screaming all the way (I know it was only 3 but some are guite high!).
If you get the chance to go the

Ta Prohm 2

Going back to our roots

temples they are just amazing and give you that feeling of having experienced a wonder of the world.

The 3rd day we hired a couple of push bikes (About as old as the temples) and rode around the lake surrounding Angkor Wat. Found a nice picnic spot, until some kids found us...and just stared at us, mentally begging for money.
We left to find another spot only for......yes you've guessed it, for Victoria to fall of yet another bike, the girl just has some major balancing problems, i'm surprised she can manage to stand up! Again it was a slow moving accident...& when i say slow moving she wasn't technically moving at all, just kind of fell over?? Only a slightly grazed elbow and dusty arse as proof fortunately.

On the last day in Siem Reap we found a pool we could use at a hotel for a bit then booked our ticket to Vietnam for the following day...I couldn't wait, it's a mere 11 hour journey all the way back to Pnom Pehn, then to the border at Bavet, then finally to Ho Chi Min City/Saigon. Mmmmm, don't you love long bus rides...