Phnom Penh and Siem Reap: When was the last time you were having a beer and an elephant walked past?

---

I’m sure Dave won’t mind me telling you that we were both a bit scared about Cambodia. For every person that said they loved it, there would be another that said they ended up in hospital sleeping on a bloodstained mattress having handled a grubby baby thrown at them by a desperate Mother. (Admittedly there was only one girl with this particular tale but I think you’ll agree that one is plenty).

We caught a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. It took about 4 hours to get to the Cambodian border where we were issued our visas and then another 4 hours to get to Phnom Penh (it isn’t that far but we spent a long time waiting in what turned out to be a queue for a ferry). The coach dropped us off at a travel agency that also served as a hotel. We were shown a room and Dave foolishly said it was my call whether we stayed there or continued looking for a different place. Having just spent 8 hours on a coach the thought of traipsing around a hot, unfamiliar capital hardly filled me glee so we agreed on $11 a night and shrugged off our bags. Dave no longer allows me to make such decisions. The door didn’t shut properly, there was a leak in the bathroom that pumped water into the bedroom and the sheets that presumably hadn’t been washed since Phnom Penh became the capital in 1866 resembled the colour of lemon curd. And my were there a lot of mozzies…

Wanting to put as much as distance between us and the grotty little room as possible, we arranged transport for the following day to take us around the city before setting out for the ‘riverside’ area where the pubs and restaurants are. The walk was fine - nobody harassed us (unless leering stares and the odd sexist comment count) - and we saw plenty of monuments and statues. We had some drinks and food (interrupted at one point by an elephant slowly being lead along the road) before getting a tuk tuk back to the “hotel”. Having set the mosquito net in place with the help of Mr Gaffer Tape and clambered in our sleep sheets (thank you Emma and Ben) we went to sleep and woke up early the next morning (having somehow still been bitten) to start our tour of the city.

There were two places we visited during that day that will stay with us a very long time - Choeung Elk, one of the many sites set within the infamous Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison (S21), the former high school that was turned into a detention centre. Like many others I suspect, we knew only the basic details of the all too recent genocide - that over a million people were executed in pursuit of a return to agricultural life under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It was thought that modern life brought ills upon society that could be escaped only by living an existence of farming. Cities were emptied, money was abolished and religion banned. Those that had ties with the former Cambodian Government or were considered intellectual were murdered and many of the peasants joined the Khmer Rouge for fear of facing the same end. Those that were not killed suffered from malnutrition and exhaustion, many perishing from hunger and disease. It is estimated that under the rule of Khmer Rouge a total of 1.7 million people died.

Mass graves of nearly 10,000 bodies were exhumed from the area of Choeung Elk alone, many of which were transported directly from Tuol Sleng Prison. It was not uncommon for victims to have to dig their own graves before being killed, often by axe, drill or hoe in order to save precious bullets. Fragments of bones and cloth still remain in the area. There is a monument holding 5,000 skulls (and clothes) of the victims to commemorate those that died. What is most chilling is being able to deduce how each died by looking at the damage to the skull.

Tuol Sleng Prison was even more harrowing. Initially perhaps because from the outside, the building still looks very much like a school. The first 14 cells had been left as the liberating Vietnamese troops had found them in 1978 with only the bed frame, torture instruments and picture of the scene that greeted them hanging on the wall. Blood stains were still visible on the floor. Other rooms displayed some of the 10,000 photographs (one taken of each prisoner), painted scenes of the suffering as depicted by a surviving inmate and various information on the regime. Visiting these sites wasn’t enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination but to avoid them would be to ignore a chapter of Cambodian history. The people we met in Cambodia seemed to be a little more cautious of us and not as open as others we have encountered in neighbouring countries but given what we now know, it’s little wonder.

During the day we also visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which is where Dave discovered a new camera setting. See pictures…We also saw the Russian Market which was a little whiffy to say the least and also the National Museum, which housed so many stone Buddhist statues that it felt a little like we were walking around the garden section of Homebase.

Having returned from our long day we found a different place to stay for the night (way better for the same price…) and set out the following morning at 8.30am for the 6-hour journey to Siem Reap.

We arrived in Siem Reap on New Years Eve. Not wanting to welcome in 2009 from a second-rate hostel treated ourselves (again) to a $30 hotel room complete with balcony and swimming pool! We watched the second Pirates of the Caribbean film on TV before going out at 9pm to celebrate New Years Eve. Our evening was spent in a bar called the ‘Red Piano’ (a favourite of Angelina Jolie's don’t you know) where we had a few drinks before there was a power cut and consequent black-out! The waitresses bought round candles for each table and we spent an hour and a half in the dark before the lights came back on with about 30 minutes to go. We then made our way into the street with 10 minutes to go and counted down to the New Year with surrounding strangers. There was then a sort of firework display, which was good. That is until I got some ash in my eye and had to retire to the sidelines to survey the damage. It took us a while to make our way through the crowds and back to the hotel. Dave obviously stepped on a few toes as he took the lead and one girl in particular looked as though she might punch him. Like the good girlfriend that I am I scooted behind whispering apologies and offering repentant glances. We got back to the hotel, tried to take some photos using the timer on Dave’s camera which all looked crap and went to sleep.

The next day we moved to a cheaper guesthouse and bought a 3 days pass giving us access to the temples for the bargain price of $80 (how much!!!!!! We didn’t even get a pamphlet!!!) The next 2 days (we ran out of energy for the 3rd day) were spent wandering around the complexes of Angkor Wat, Ankgor Thom and many, many others (I saw a snake at one of them!). It’s best you look at the photos (we blame poor lighting for the absence of any breathtaking shots). On the morning of the first day we visited the ‘Rolous Group’ which was a little underwhelming so in the afternoon we decided to go straight to the top and visit Angkor Wat. Which was, as expected, stunning. We could’ve easily spent a few hours wandering around the maze of corridors, was it not for the promise of other ruins to explore. Dave then insisted we walk for what seemed like hours to reach ‘The Gate of the Dead’ (sounds promising - wasn’t) as it was featured in the Tomb Raider film. Not that he could remember the gate in the film. So we followed the trail and came to the gate. It was a gate. Not even a particularly impressive gate. Just a gate. We saw maybe 2 other people in total including the journey there and back. What does that tell you? So with a little less time to see the good stuff we followed the ‘grand circuit’ on our hired tuk tuk and continued until sunset looking at the many beautiful complexes along the way. At the end we climbed a hill (‘hill’ doesn’t really do it justice but ‘mountain’ makes it sound snow-peaked) along with hordes of others to watch the sunset. Of course it was cloudy so we just watched the light fade. Still, it had a great view.

We didn’t experience many touts or beggars during our time in Siem Reap but we did experience many calls of ‘Lady, you want pineapple? Pineapple one dollar’ or ‘Sir, you want mango? Mango one dollar’ or ‘You want cold drink? Water? Coke? Orange juice? Water, coke, orange juice one dollar’. There were lots of kids selling things like flutes and whistles. They would run along side you for maybe 15-20 metres extolling the virtues of said flutes and whistles despite the kindly communicated ‘no thank you’s. They were very sweet though and Dave had a conversation with one little smiley girl in particular who was trying to sell him a bracelet. Dave explained to her ‘I’m a boy! I don’t wear a bracelet!’ so she said that he should buy it for me. He told her that I didn’t want one (apparently I conveyed this telepathically) so she said we should buy it for the (male) tuk tuk driver and when Dave reminded her ‘but he’s a boy too’ she just kept giggling. She’ll make a good sales person one day.

We had lots of tasty food and drink even though the general area is a bit grim and dusty. On one evening we were just above to leave for dinner when we spotted a small lizard in our bedroom just above the bathroom door. Now whilst I like lizards, I didn’t relish the thought of returning a couple of hours later and not being able to see him, as this would of course mean that we was now nestled in the bed or my shoe or somewhere else inappropriate for a lizard. So armed with a soap dish in one hand (bet you never thought it would be used for that purpose when you bought it Mum!) and a map in the other, Dave futilely chased the little thing around the room, until it disappeared into the air conditioning unit - never to be seen again. We hope he’s okay and then the strange crunching sound that emitted from the unit later that night was not in any way related to his disappearance….

On our last morning in Siem Reap we got up early to get a taxi to Poipet - the nearest Thai border. Our very kind tuk tuk driver from the previous two days temple-visiting arranged it for us and even called Dave (via the taxi driver) to say goodbye! Even though he’d seen him that morning already. How sweet is that??!! The 150km journey cost $30. Wouldn’t get that in England.

In the last entry, Dave offered some snippets from WikiTravel relating to Cambodia. I would now like to share with you some comments made in relation to Poipet, the town to which we were heading in order to cross the border back to Thailand. The first paragraph is as follows:

“Poipet is the gateway to Cambodia for many overland travellers coming from Thailand. It does not provide a very warm welcome. Gordon Sharpless notes that "Poipet more or less rhymes with toilet" and this caustic observation is, sadly, true. Poipet is a miserable huddle of touts, beggars, thieves and dodgy casinos for daytripping Thais, and spending any more time than absolutely necessary is not recommended.”

It goes onto to say…

“The most rewarding part of any tourist's visit to Poipet is leaving the city, whether it's towards the appropriate destination in Cambodia, or towards Thailand.”

And finishes with…

“Other than gambling, whoring and lowering one's opinion of humanity, there are no sights or activities in Poipet.”

Excellent. Count us in.

The first thing I noticed when getting into the taxi was that the windscreen was smashed. The second thing was that the driver smelt a lot like corn beef. Nevertheless we arrived unscathed after 2.5 hours. We expected the journey to be really hard going (Bangkok Airways are the only airline that fly the Siem Reap to Bangkok route. It’s rumoured that they pay off the Government to leave the roads in poor condition, making flying the only attractive option) but it was paved nearly the whole way.

Poipet wasn’t that bad either. Not that we saw much of it. Dropped off outside the place where you get your exit stamp. Done. Walk to Thailand. Entry stamp. Done. Off we go!

We went to the train station and while waiting in a very long queue (the likes of which we had not seen since leaving the UK) were advised by an English chap to split up so that one could get seats while the other got the tickets. We eventually sat opposite the chap and his wife and spent a lot of the 6-hour journey chatting with them. The conditions of our journey were really unpleasant - it was so cramped and the seats were bloody hard. We got to within spitting distance of Bangkok train station when the train slowed to a halt and remained motionless for 20 minutes. By this point many of the other passengers had jumped off the train and were walking along the tracks to the local station just up ahead. We learnt that there had been a derailment and we could be stuck there for ‘2, 3, 4 hours’ according to one person. So we joined the others, walked the few steps to the small station and were kindly collected by Pao and Nui, friends of Dave’s family.

So there we have it. Back in Bangkok. Let’s hope it’s better than last time!

P.S. Helen hasn’t mentioned the best thing we saw in Cambodia. Though at one point we saw a van with about 100 live chickens on the roof, the winner was a motorcycle with at least 20 (living!) ducks strapped to the back. They didn’t seem to mind as they happily looked around at passers by and other traffic. I guess they were just glad they weren’t on the train to Bangkok…

---

Comments

[Sean Stevens]

Camera Setting
Hi, I love your photos with that new camera setting you were using! Please can you tell me what camera you're using? Thanks