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| Cambodia
Travels |
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Rating
:  (
3.7 )
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Feb 16, 2004 16:26
Pros:
beautiful wats
Cons: none
We're in Cambodia now and it's hot, damn hot!! Not sure if that
phrase was coined here but it could easily have been. Even our mid-afternoon
train ride from Bangkok on the 1st of February was hot, as we sat
on our rucksacks in the middle of a packed train gasping for air
every time the doors opened. It made us think that we were back
in India again. Still the previous night was excellent. Having met
up with Winston, Jen and their friends, we were treated (engagement
treat) to a meal at the Japanese Sushi restaurant, a first for us
both. It was really good fun , although a bit bizarre as even the
menu is more like a fashion magazine for food. However, even Sian
(as most know she just doesn't do fish) found something to her liking
and the whole evening gave us loads of enthusiasm for our travels
ahead as Winston and Jen had just arrived from Cambodia and had
lots of tales to tell us.
So, after a long, hot train ride, we spent the night at the Thai
border town and cooked our own food in a very strange arrangement
at a local restaurant where they supply you with hot coals, raw
veg, noodles and meat (no chicken you'll be glad to hear) and we
were responsible for the rest which was quite entertaining as we
didn't have a clue what we were doing but at least we amused the
locals. The next morning's border crossing was straight forward
enough, despite many people's advice that it wouldn't be, and even
as we were herded into the back of a pick-up truck for the infamous
long, hot and dusty road to Siem Reap, things seemed to be working
out fine. Until that is the driver tried to squeeze a few too many
passengers and their luggage into the cab, our seats and laps. So
we left and somehow managed to wangle an air con'd taxi to our destination
for the same price after Kev did a sales pitch (to the cheers of
the taxi drivers) on an English couple also heading that way.
So our journey to Siem Reap was quite pleasant considering the road
and the stories we had heard and once in town, with a decent hotel
found, we even had time to visit the local crocodile farm before
making arrangements to visit the famed temples at Angkor for sunset
(by air con'd taxi again!). As we climbed the long, steep hill to
a ruined mountain temple we were joined by hundreds of other tourists
on a pilgrimage to watch sunset, but it didn't, it only hid behind
a cloud and cast strange shadows into the sky. Early the next day,
and armed with our air con'd taxi again (we were really spoiling
ourselves) we set off with Steve and Jo (English couple from the
previous day) to do the essential tour of some of the many Angkor
temples. We had built up much excitement and anticipation after
reading about these temples, built between 950 and 1300 and something
A.D., then lost in the jungle for hundreds more years with the plants
and trees entwining themselves into the buildings and now quite
often holding the bricks together in their root systems, it just
sounded magical. Our first temple that morning was no disappointment.
The Bayon at Angkor Thom where large stone faces peer down at you
from every direction and a maze of stone corridors and walkways
try to lose you in amazement, if it wasn't for all the other tourists
there. In actual fact, most of the temples we visited on the first
day were all very different in many interesting ways and we never
had the feeling of being templed out although the shear number of
tourists that visited the main sights do spoil it a bit. That's
why for our second day, we hired bikes and set off to the lesser
explored temples and discovered what we had been looking for. Even
sunset at Angkor Wat itself hadn't been quite as magical as it should
have been due to the crowds.
So it was that our second day proved much more fulfilling with fewer
crowds and temples with less manicured grounds where the jungle
reaches right up to the walls, quite often breaking them down or
intertwining the stones into their root systems over hundreds of
years, often resulting with a fully grown tree sitting atop a very
shaky looking temple. Beautiful carvings covered with lichens cover
the walls and the odd characterful Cambodian with a friendly smile
lights incense sticks below draped statues of Buddha. Occasionally,
as we cycled round the more touristy temples, we still ran into
the crowds and the hoards of eager kids that tempt, offer then plead
with you to buy something from them, but after finding the real
feeling of discovering the (lost) temples of Angkor (you know what
we mean), it was much easier to be patient. For the third day of
our Angkor pass, we again headed out on bikes, already feeling more
than a little achey from the previous day and with the sun blazing
down on us it was harder going but we blamed the bikes. We revisited
Angkor Wat and appreciated it a lot more without the crowds. It's
an absolutely massive complex surrounded by double walls with hundreds
of metres of intricately carved stone murals, depicting battles
and scenes based on Hindu mythology. Surrounding this is a giant
moat and towering above it all rises the temple itself. The climb
up to the top is nerve racking as the steps are very narrow and
steep which makes coming down even worse, but every wall column
and doorway in sight is wonderfully carved and we were amazed at
how little we had taken in when we visited it the first time with
everyone else there. We also revisited another couple of temples
before discovering that we had missed one great photo opportunity
of a massive tree that had completely overrun a temple gateway.
We set off just as the sun was casting long shadows over the dry
Cambodian countryside but quickly realized we weren't going to get
there and back before dark. So, we stopped at a busy crossroads
and persuaded a local to take us by motorbike and trailer, much
to the amusement of the local kids, but it was great if a touch
uncomfy and we got there for sunset and had the temple to ourselves.
We stayed another day in Siem Reap to visit the local and controversial
Landmine Museum. The government has been trying to close it down
as it doesn't paint a good picture of Cambodia to the tourists but
it is a fascinating place. It was started by a young guy (well,
Kev's age) who was recruited at the age of 5 by the Khmer Rouge
Communist Guerilla group after they murdered his parents. He described
how he laid landmines and was involved in many battles around the
country before being captured and recruited by the Vietnamese army
at the age of 12 and later by the Cambodian government army after
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had been overthrown but were still wreaking
havoc around the country. The museum describes the massive landmine
problem still faced by the country and tells the stories of the
many people who have lost limbs or whose family members have been
killed right up to the present day. Hundreds of people are maimed
by mines in Cambodia every day but you never hear about it. All
donations went towards helping and teaching those injured and towards
clearing the landmines of which there are dozens of types (all displayed),
but cost so much in time and skill to find and diffuse. Amazingly,
so many landmines are still being manufactured (mainly by the U.S.
and China) and laid all around the world, especially in Africa,
seemingly without any thought to the future consequences for the
people who return to the land after the fighting.
We moved on the next day by bus to the capital Phnom Pehn. The journey
was long, hot and bumpy (no change there then) and the bus was full
of locals with cute but screaming children until they were given
some fruit which had a more than passing resemblance to a sink plunger,
to munch on. We passed many local villages with their traditional
wooden houses built on stilts above the flat dusty fields, at this
time of year anyway although it must turn to a mass mud bath in
the wet season. We also crossed the Tonle Sap river which interesting
flows in different directions depending on the season.
Phnom Pehn itself, apparently named after a woman named Phnom discovered
Buddha statues on the banks of the Mekong river then built a temple
on a hill (Pehn) for them, is a big and bustling city with little
to see or do but the sights it does have to offer are particularly
shocking. The prison camps and killing fields of the Khmer Rouge
regime that ruled from 1974-78, killing over 1 million (1 in 7 innocent
people) as it attempted to create a peasant Communist state and
was still killing up to 1998 when Pol Pot died before trial, are
very sombre places. A former school was turned into a prison camp
and is now a museum full of horrendous stories where the photographs
of many victims line the cell walls while thousands of skulls are
displayed at the site of the mass graves just outside the city.
It's unbelievable to think that all this happened within our lifetime
and has since happened again in Rwanda and Bosnia.
We left the sad memories of Phnom Penh behind and headed south for
a bit of R & R, to a place called Sihanoukville on the coast.
We caught the bus at 7.30am - yes we really are getting better at
getting up in the morning! - and just four hours later were sunning
ourselves by the sea having found a guest house just 50 metres from
the beach. We stayed on Serendipity beach which sounded relatively
quiet and unspoiled but it was still a sea of multi coloured umbrellas
where kids walk up and down all day trying to sell you fruit. Actually
the kids in Cambodia are the most inventive we've met anywhere on
our travels yet. They try all sorts of tricks and play games in
the sand with you to try and get you to lose so you have to buy
something from them! Their use of English is incredible, especially
when you consider that most of them have had no formal education.
We don't really know why they are like this in particular in Cambodia,
when you consider all the other more touristy spots we've been to,
but it was quite entertaining. We spent a lazy couple of days on
the beach, occasionally making the very hard effort to walk a few
metres to swim in the wonderful warm waters. It was really nice
with relatively few tourists and the beach just had endless local
cafes where we enjoyed icey fruit shakes. The kids with their "do
ya wanna buy fruit?" every five minites were hard to resist
and by the end of it we were absolutely sick of pineapple, mango,
banana and yukky dragon fruit. We did make enough effort to take
a boat ride in Ream National Park which has beautiful waterways
and mangroves. We spent time on the most fantastic secluded beach,
lined by thick jungle, with next to no one else there before walking
back through the jungle to a small fishing village to catch a boat.
The trip into the park itself wasn't exactly spectacular but it
was a pleasant way to while away a day.
After four days of relaxing we decided to get off our butts and
headed along the coast, and slightly inland, to Kampot. Kampot is
by the river and we hoped to enjoy a stroll along it at sunset but
the bad smells eminating from it made us bid a hasty retreat! We
wandered around the town instead and whilst there was some evidence
of colonial French architecture, it wasn't the most picturesque
place you ever went to but nice enough. The following morning we
went to Bokor National Park, again arranging a tour through the
guest house. We squashed into a pickup, some inside but most out
in the open on the back and we endured the very bumpy road into
the park. It really did bruise a different part of your spine everytime
it hit the numerous potholes and we're still aching sitting here
writing this!! The park itself has some fantastic jungle but unfortunately
the rangers have stopped all trekking in it due to a problem with
tiger poaching. Instead we were driven to the top of the hill with
a slightly cooler climate and we explored the derelict buildings
built during the colonial era in the 1920s. There was a hotel which
was a bit spooky but the patio had some fantastic views over the
jungle below. It was abandoned during the civil war of the 70s and
the last poeple to use it were the Khymer Rouge as they shot at
the Vietnamese in the Catholic church close by. In all it was once
again a pleasant way to while away the hours and enjoy the countryside.
Kampot had little else to keep us there much longer so we decided
to head back to Phnom Penh sharing a taxi with another couple.
Cambodia has been an interesting and surprising place full of beautiful,
friendly people living in a land where the U.S. dollar is as widely
accepted as the local currency and is usually interchangeable making
pricing even more difficult for us. It has reminded us quite a lot
of Africa and we encounter the friendliness and often generosity
of the local people almost everyday. We haven't tasted much of the
local cuisine yet as heaped plates of deep fried big, fat, hairy,
black spiders don't wet the appetite that much but we'll see.....
Our plans now are to take a boat down the Mekong river to the delta
in Vietnam. We head off tomorrow and are looking forward to the
Vietnamese culture but not the local cuisine, if we thought spiders
were bad, there's worse to come with barbequed dog and cat on the
menu....
K & S |
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