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Published: April 12th 2006
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Hello... so it's been a while... and we are no longer in Cambodia... but we're gonna rewind time a bit and do a blog for it anyways!
PHNOM PENH... wow. Twas a beautiful city, perhaps one of the prettiest we've seen yet. After getting off the bus, we were immediately confronted by an overwhelming crowd of tuktuk drivers, banging on the windows of our bus... so we felt like celebrities! Our guesthouse was cool.. had a little garden and everything. So yeah, Phnom Penh was a rad place. On the water, with a ton of ritzy-looking, but affordable restaurants... lots of gorgeous wats, a big park, where all the Cambodians go to hang out and picnic at night, and an enourrrrmous royal palace! Rad! Surprisingly, Phnom Penh had every Western amenity you could ever want... so, unable to get real cheese anywhere else in asia, we took the oppotunity to empty our wallets, and splurge on sweet swiss cheese, salami, and reallllll cofffeeeeee! hah! it was amazing! We also ate at this rad mexican restaurant, run by expat ex-journalists who smoke a lot of marajuana on their porch everyday... all day... they had an amazing display of photos they actually
took when the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh back in the seventies! Wow... A shocker was the shot of a 12 year old warrior with an AK-47, and a belt full of grenades... scary.
Our first day, we ate, and explored, and ate a lot, basically. The next day, we shared a tuktuk with some new friends to the Russian Market. It was big, hot, and just like any other market! We did snag some cool pottery, and a b-day present for a certain mother who recently turned a certain age. The lady who sold it to us was awesome. Actually, all Cambodians, aside from most of those in the tourism industry were incredibly nice. and cool.
Then was S-21. "Tuol Sleng". The Khmer Rouge prison where 14,000 people were killed. It was strange... it was an old school, before the Khmer Rouge, so it was on this really pretty property... what a contrast to the horrors experienced inside those buildings... In every room, there was a big picture of how it was when the Khmer Rouge left... and on the ground were the beds and weapons that were left there. Same same, minus the dead bodies. It
was very eerie. Blood stains splattered on walls... seeing the tiny, windowless stalls that the prisoners were forced to live in before their torture and inevitable death. Only 12 or 14 people ever made it out of the prisons, and two of them are alive today, so they know exactly what went on inside. One of the survivors, a painter, drew pictures of teh different forms of torture they used... crazy. The pictures that the Khmer Rouge took of all it's prisoners (they also wrote out their biographies, they were so paranoid), also lined many of the walls. It's scary how many horrible things happened during the Khmer Rouge years... even more frightening that no one thought to put a stop to it. So, the museum was quite a sad, but insightful look into those times.
That night we met up with our german friend from Siem Reap... cool. The next day, we just walked around the awesome city of Phnom Penh... relaxing, taking in the scenery. We saw the palace, and also went to a Wat... there was a huge meeting taking place - more orange than a pumpkin patch before Halloween. There, we chatted with a monk
about the current state of affairs in Cambodia... The meeting was about abstaing from drugs... and how sniffing glue has become a national problem. He talked of how the poor are getting poorer - forced to sell their land to the rich, which leaves them worse off then before. There was alot more poverty in Cambodia then anywhere else in Southeast Asia we've seen... Cambodia, outside of the cities, is a whole different world. The country is still stuggling to recover from it's horrible past.
So, we talked to a dude at our guesthouse who told us that Sihanoukville was full of tourists, and he eventually convinced us into visiting Kampot, a little town a few hours away, instead. It was awesome. The town was creepy, but beautiful. Once a thriving French town, it's now barely inhabited by the Cambodians. Gorgeous rotting buildings. Pretty neglected old gardens and parks. RAD. Our hotel was once a fancy restaurant/hotel... We don't think it's been touched by paint since the thirties! Met an insane traveller there (literally), with whom we unfortunately got involved in a long discussion about his past as both Jesus, Ganesh, Slim Shady, Bob Marley annnnd the Altar at
Angkor Wat. It actually got to a point where we were terrified. But we weren't the only ones he had approached, so that was okay. We locked our doors. Oh yeah, the kampot birdies tested poooositive for bird flu while we were there! Bad day for the chickens. No chicken fried rice for us travellers. Dammmn.
Bokor, the abandoned French resort-town, was where we went the following day. We hopped in the back of a pickup truck with the few other backpackers who had ventured to random Kampot, and ascended, for 2.5 hours, up a steeeep hill through the jungle. The road was built in the thirties, and the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge fought on it. gahh... POTHOLES! Twas a bumpy ride... so bumpy! way worse than the Poipet - Siem Reap bus ride, that for certain!
Bokor was amazingly cool... it's the epitome of a ghost town. A whole town of abandoned buildings, that were once a luxurious retreat for the French. Hotels, churches, stores, casinos... all empty. The French left when the Japanese came in the forties, and the area was used as a battle-ground for more Vietnamese - Khmer Rouge fighting. Eerie. Even more eerie was
the thich fog that rolled over the mountain town every so often, giving it a tacky scary-movie-like touch! It was so cool to wander around these buildings, especially the casino, and imagine all the glamour that it once held. So cool.
So, eventually, we left Kampot... back to BANGKOK. Oyyy, that was a ride to remember! Our hotel kinda scammed us - our "bus" was a rusty old mini-van filled with nineteen Cambodians, four chickens, two pigs (alive, in baskets, hanging out the trunk), and a heckkk of a lot of luggage! We weren't sure if we'd survive the seven hour ride... it was super-cramped, hot as haites, and a bunch of the passengers kept on throwing up, then eating, then throwing up even more! (Many Southeast Asians aren't used to car drives). The side of the van was just covered in puke! But it was kinda cool - no one spoke english, so for once, we were the tourist attraction! We also rode on a bunch of side-roads, which enabled us to see more of CAmbodia then we would have otherwise! Also crossed a lot of rivers, in these weird boat-platform ferry contraptions with car-motors attatched to propellers.
Another world... So eventually, we got a little closterphobic in the back... so we decided to ride in trrrue Cambodian style - on the roof of the van with the luggage! We joined another Cambodian lady and held on tight! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! and we figure it was probably safer than being insiiiide the junk-bucket... we'd never get out of it when it crashed. So yeah... it was fun... we held on tight and had a BLAST!!! So great to see the shocked faced of the locals on the side of the roads... so funny. So, we had a fun time, and when it was time to get off, realised we had been brutally burnt by the sun, and also covered in the thick red dust on the roads. It was awesome.
Getting from that minivan to Bangkok took us pretty much all night - a motorbike, a mini-bus, a double-decker bus, and a meter-taxi later, we were back in the citttyyyyy! It was an awesome journey. Yeah.
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andrrrrrea
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love it!
jealous like a cat. sounds amazing, friends. keep up the fun - looking forward to hearing the stories in person. oh and visiting the youngson residence, i miss garfie! picture/storytelling parties must be had upon return. love andrea.