What is there to relate about my last day in Cambodia, you ask? The answer: not much. You see, Zenia and I had a plan of attack for our final morning in Phnom Penh, but as that plan of attack (and execution of attack) primarily featured shopping, I don’t think it can be of particular interest to many of you. I could relay fantastic tales about bargains for cardigans and t-shirts, the amazingly cheap bathing suit I bought, or my new toe ring, but I know your attention would soon wander. You would say to yourself, “wow, the quality of Lauren’s blog sure has gone down lately. Who wants to hear about shopping at the Russian Market?” My ego could not stand for that! It must not be borne! No. I will not lower myself to writing about shopping (unless it is a Night Market). Instead, we will move past the shopping, directly to my departure from this amazing country, a much more interesting topic.
If you recall, when we started this journey some days ago, I asked you to remember one fact. Do you remember? No? I will remind you then. I asked you to remember that upon my arrival in Cambodia I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the visa cost for this country was only $20, the cheapest of any SE Asian countries (except Thailand, which is free). Keep this $20 in mind…
We left the riverside for the airport around 1 pm and traveled through the streets of Phnom Penh one final time via tuk-tuk. We watched the city of Phnom Penh fly by us and I in turn flew through a gamut of emotions. I was excited to be heading “home” to Laos after such a long trip and sad to be leaving Cambodia after just discovering this amazing country. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the airport and checked in for our flight at the front counter. With a huge pang of sadness I grabbed my carry ons, turned toward the escalators to head up to customs, and was met with a wall; a wall of security personnel. At their request I handed over my ticket, which was glanced over, handed back, and then, with a finger pointing behind me I heard, “Departure Tax.” Me: “Um…excuse me?” Security Guard: “Departure tax.” Obviously our ability to communicate was not working out so well. I turned around, and found myself facing a wall (a real wall) with two windows and a man sitting patiently behind. Ok, I thought, let’s see what this is all about. I walked up to the window and said, “Departure Tax?” Man behind the Counter: “Ticket.” I handed my ticket over and waited. Man behind the Counter: “$25 departure tax.” Me: “Um…what?!”
Yes, my friends. I am sure you have all now guessed it. It may only cost you $20 to enter Cambodia, but it will cost you $25 to leave. (Hotel California anyone?) It costs more to get out of this country than it does to enter! And not only that, everyone has to pay this tax to leave (even locals)! No one can escape forking over another twenty-five US dollars in order to escape Cambodia! I was shocked, appalled, but I paid. What else could I do? I paid my $25, got a stamp on the back of my ticket and left. I must say, if Cambodia was hoping to kill my sadness at leaving, forcing me to pay that much money to leave was a good way to do it. :) I sat in the departure terminal to await my plane to Vientiane and felt good about leaving Cambodia behind. $25 to leave, indeed!
Flying into Vientiane felt like coming home. It was amazing to see our small and sleepy town set out below us, awaiting our return. Our trip to Cambodia was amazing. Not only did we get to see another amazing country, but our long trip made us happy to return to Laos and even more thankful that Laos is our home for this summer. While visiting Phnom Penh was amazing, it would have been hard for me to live there for two months, seeing the poverty, being constantly inundated by tuk-tuks, and living without a single moment of peace. All-in-all, it’s good to be home.
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambodia. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Back to Phnom Penh
Monday morning found us in a tuk-tuk, heading out of Sihanoukville about two kilometers to a children’s shelter called M’Lop Tapang. As I previously mentioned, our ultimate boss, Rick, called in a few favors to get us a tour of the shelter so that we could have the opportunity to compare a Cambodian shelter to the Laos shelter we had already visited. Before our trip to Cambodia, we had been in contact with a woman who volunteers for the shelter, Kate, who had told us we could have a long tour of the facilities during the morning and so, on Monday morning, we set out to visit M’Lop Tapang.
A little background on the shelter…the M’Lop Tapang shelter is a large facility that aids 2,500 children in the Sihanoukville area. It was created in 2003, beginning as a small shelter that provided education services to street children who were no longer attending school. After the shelter received a large grant from a donor, they were able to expand and continued generous funding has allowed them to become an extremely large facility. Their primary purpose is to aid young street children in continuing their education and job skill training for future employment.
We arrived at the shelter before 9 am and were able to begin our tour early. The entire facility is surrounded by a large metal fence, complete with guardhouse and security personnel at the entrance. Although children are allowed, and even encouraged, to come and go as they will, adults are more strictly supervised. No outsiders are allowed around the children without prior approval and a rigorous sign in process. We met Kate at the guard station and after filling out entrance sheets and getting a numbered tag that identified us as visitors we were permitted inside to begin our tour.
The M’Lop Tapang complex includes several buildings including a main structure that houses the classrooms where children learn and study, a medical facility that treats the children and their families, a day care center for babies who are being mistreated or neglected at home, a large cooking facility, a sports area, and a special set of classrooms for children with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. It was incredible to see this shelter, a truly well-oiled machine that works to aid the most disadvantaged sector of the Cambodian populace, the children. We spent the morning touring the facilities and learning about the shelter, its goals, and its work from Kate. After witnessing so much poverty and despair in Cambodia, it was heartening to see a group that is trying (and succeeding) in rectifying the problem.
One of the major issues in Cambodia is the lack of fertile land. Although the Cambodian countryside is beautiful, the land itself is not very fertile for growing crops (one of the reasons they have to buy so much food from the Vietnamese). Many farmers in the outlying provinces hear about the growing urban center and tourism in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville and believe that they will become very prosperous if they move to the cities. Unfortunately, this is not the case and a lack of jobs and housing often lead families to send the children out to beg for food or sell trinkets to tourists, meaning that children don’t get an education. M’Lop Tapang works to send these kids back to school and teach their parents how to earn a living without relying on the kids. We had an amazing time touring this facility and it has inspired us to do a comparative analysis of laws in SE Asian countries concerning human trafficking.
Our tour of the shelter concluded, we jumped back in our tuk-tuk to return to the Sihanoukville bus station for our return journey to Phnom Penh. This bus trip was much like the others that preceded it and simply solidified my desire to avoid all forms of public transportation in SE Asia for the rest of my life. I managed to survive the trip, however, and we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, at the riverside, at 3 pm. After dropping our bags off at our guesthouse (the same guesthouse we previously stayed at), we rushed out to eat a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. Well, I have now tried Mexican food in three SE Asian countries and can honestly say that it really should be avoided in this region of the world. Now, I know most of you are not surprised by that statement. I mean, really, this is SE Asia here, quite a ways from Mexico and any influence of Mexican food. All I can say is that hope springs eternal and my withdrawal from the wonderful world of Mexican food has knocked all my common sense right out of my head. So, I tried the Mexican food and was once again sorely disappointed, so I am giving up! I will wait until my return to the US and will stick with food from countries a little closer in locale or who colonized the region. :) A sound plan, I think. To give you a little example of the Mexican food…imagine an Asian individual, who has never left Asia, looking at a picture of Mexican food (a taco perhaps) and thinking, “I could make that.” Then imagine that Asian person, trying to cook the Mexican food without using a recipe. In that instance you might get something similar to what we ate…”Mexican Rice” aka Fried rice with beans added.
After lunch, Zenia and I walked down the road to a DVD store the proprietor of Tom-Cat Cinema had told us about. You see, much like other Asian countries, Cambodia is home of the bootleg DVD. However, buying bootleg DVDs in SE Asia is a bit of a gamble. There are myriad problems that can occur when you buy movies from an unknown source including discs that simply don’t work, language issues, discs that won’t play in DVD players, etc. Therefore, it is always a good idea to get a recommendation from someone about where to go. The owner of this shop was extremely reliable, going so far as to play each DVD in a player to show you the quality of the video and that it will actually run. Well, Zenia and I went a little crazy in that place, buying a sack full of DVDs each…but when the DVDs are $1.50 per disc, can you blame us? So, now my suitcase coming home will be filled with DVDs, weighing me down and posing potential problems at customs. :) The price we pay for entertainment. It will be worth it!
After dragging our purchases back to our guesthouse, we decided to freshen up and go out for a nice evening. Now, we have been trying since our arrival in SE Asia to go out at night to enjoy a little social interaction – aka go to a club. As you may have noticed, we have not been successful. But Zenia was determined and we had spotted an interesting sight during our first foray into Phnom Penh and the riverfront district, a reggae bar, which are supposed to be pretty fun. So, we got all dressed up and headed out, only to find the reggae bar closed! Yup, our plans to party in SE Asia are just not to be (which really doesn’t bother me as I don’t like to party). We ended up sitting outside a nice bar, drinking bloody marys and enjoying our evening of relaxation, our last evening in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
A little background on the shelter…the M’Lop Tapang shelter is a large facility that aids 2,500 children in the Sihanoukville area. It was created in 2003, beginning as a small shelter that provided education services to street children who were no longer attending school. After the shelter received a large grant from a donor, they were able to expand and continued generous funding has allowed them to become an extremely large facility. Their primary purpose is to aid young street children in continuing their education and job skill training for future employment.
We arrived at the shelter before 9 am and were able to begin our tour early. The entire facility is surrounded by a large metal fence, complete with guardhouse and security personnel at the entrance. Although children are allowed, and even encouraged, to come and go as they will, adults are more strictly supervised. No outsiders are allowed around the children without prior approval and a rigorous sign in process. We met Kate at the guard station and after filling out entrance sheets and getting a numbered tag that identified us as visitors we were permitted inside to begin our tour.
The M’Lop Tapang complex includes several buildings including a main structure that houses the classrooms where children learn and study, a medical facility that treats the children and their families, a day care center for babies who are being mistreated or neglected at home, a large cooking facility, a sports area, and a special set of classrooms for children with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. It was incredible to see this shelter, a truly well-oiled machine that works to aid the most disadvantaged sector of the Cambodian populace, the children. We spent the morning touring the facilities and learning about the shelter, its goals, and its work from Kate. After witnessing so much poverty and despair in Cambodia, it was heartening to see a group that is trying (and succeeding) in rectifying the problem.
One of the major issues in Cambodia is the lack of fertile land. Although the Cambodian countryside is beautiful, the land itself is not very fertile for growing crops (one of the reasons they have to buy so much food from the Vietnamese). Many farmers in the outlying provinces hear about the growing urban center and tourism in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville and believe that they will become very prosperous if they move to the cities. Unfortunately, this is not the case and a lack of jobs and housing often lead families to send the children out to beg for food or sell trinkets to tourists, meaning that children don’t get an education. M’Lop Tapang works to send these kids back to school and teach their parents how to earn a living without relying on the kids. We had an amazing time touring this facility and it has inspired us to do a comparative analysis of laws in SE Asian countries concerning human trafficking.
Our tour of the shelter concluded, we jumped back in our tuk-tuk to return to the Sihanoukville bus station for our return journey to Phnom Penh. This bus trip was much like the others that preceded it and simply solidified my desire to avoid all forms of public transportation in SE Asia for the rest of my life. I managed to survive the trip, however, and we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, at the riverside, at 3 pm. After dropping our bags off at our guesthouse (the same guesthouse we previously stayed at), we rushed out to eat a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. Well, I have now tried Mexican food in three SE Asian countries and can honestly say that it really should be avoided in this region of the world. Now, I know most of you are not surprised by that statement. I mean, really, this is SE Asia here, quite a ways from Mexico and any influence of Mexican food. All I can say is that hope springs eternal and my withdrawal from the wonderful world of Mexican food has knocked all my common sense right out of my head. So, I tried the Mexican food and was once again sorely disappointed, so I am giving up! I will wait until my return to the US and will stick with food from countries a little closer in locale or who colonized the region. :) A sound plan, I think. To give you a little example of the Mexican food…imagine an Asian individual, who has never left Asia, looking at a picture of Mexican food (a taco perhaps) and thinking, “I could make that.” Then imagine that Asian person, trying to cook the Mexican food without using a recipe. In that instance you might get something similar to what we ate…”Mexican Rice” aka Fried rice with beans added.
After lunch, Zenia and I walked down the road to a DVD store the proprietor of Tom-Cat Cinema had told us about. You see, much like other Asian countries, Cambodia is home of the bootleg DVD. However, buying bootleg DVDs in SE Asia is a bit of a gamble. There are myriad problems that can occur when you buy movies from an unknown source including discs that simply don’t work, language issues, discs that won’t play in DVD players, etc. Therefore, it is always a good idea to get a recommendation from someone about where to go. The owner of this shop was extremely reliable, going so far as to play each DVD in a player to show you the quality of the video and that it will actually run. Well, Zenia and I went a little crazy in that place, buying a sack full of DVDs each…but when the DVDs are $1.50 per disc, can you blame us? So, now my suitcase coming home will be filled with DVDs, weighing me down and posing potential problems at customs. :) The price we pay for entertainment. It will be worth it!
After dragging our purchases back to our guesthouse, we decided to freshen up and go out for a nice evening. Now, we have been trying since our arrival in SE Asia to go out at night to enjoy a little social interaction – aka go to a club. As you may have noticed, we have not been successful. But Zenia was determined and we had spotted an interesting sight during our first foray into Phnom Penh and the riverfront district, a reggae bar, which are supposed to be pretty fun. So, we got all dressed up and headed out, only to find the reggae bar closed! Yup, our plans to party in SE Asia are just not to be (which really doesn’t bother me as I don’t like to party). We ended up sitting outside a nice bar, drinking bloody marys and enjoying our evening of relaxation, our last evening in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
4th of July and a Rainy Beach
The 4th of July began with a trip to Cheong Ek, The Killing Field located outside the city of Phnom Penh. Not long after the Khmer Rouge ended, Killing Fields were discovered across Cambodia, sites of mass graves where many victims of the Khmer Rouge were buried. Cheong Ek was the burial place of the victims of the S-21 prison and the surrounding area of Phnom Penh. Today, the site has been turned into a memorial to the dead with a large stupa holding the clothes, skulls, and other bones of about 800 of the thousands of bodies discovered there. We took a tuk-tuk out to Cheong Ek and spent a good deal of time walking the area around the graves and visiting the museum that has been erected to inform visitors about the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields. A rather depressing start to our 4th of July (although there was only one American there – me – so I suppose the others didn’t feel that this was particularly depressing as I did), but a necessary visit for any individual in Cambodia.
Like Tuol Sleng, the Killing Fields are a quiet place, filled with reverence for the dead. Cambodian civilians and monks travel to the stupa to pray for the dead, leaving incense burning constantly and orange and yellow flowers at the base of the monument, hoping that the souls of the dead are at rest, which many believe is unlikely due to their manner of death. Within the stupa, there are 17 tiers, 15 of which are comprised of skulls of individuals killed at Cheong Ek, men, women and children. The bottom tier is full of clothing from the victims and another near the top is filled with other bones. Trails lead you from the stupa to signs around the Field that explain what would have occurred for the victims and then to the excavated graves (there are several graves at the site that are known, but that have not been excavated), which appear as large pits in the ground every few feet. We ended our tour at the Museum and then, extremely depressed, got back in our tuk-tuk to return to Phnom Penh.
After our trip to Cheong Ek, we headed to the National Museum in Phnom Penh. Every country in SE Asia has taken the time to establish a National Museum and…that’s about all they’ve done. In all honesty, these National Museums are not really worth visiting. The National Museum in Cambodia is a large(ish) structure that appears to be something of a cross between a Wat and a palace. The outside of the structure is quite impressive and really the only thing worth viewing. Inside, the building is full of Buddha statues. Now, that might not sound so bad to you, and really, there is nothing wrong with Buddha statues, but after a while, a traveler can get a little tired of Buddha. Upon my first arrival in SE Asia I was fascinated with all the Wats and statues of Buddha, they all seemed exotic and fascinating. However, it wasn’t long before I fell victim to a terrible travelers’ disease, OverBuddhaWatOut. Yes, indeed. I was suffering from a severe case of being tired of Wats and Buddhas. Unfortunately, the constant and unceasing flood of Wats and Buddhas in Laos has not allowed me to recover properly after all my Wat visits in Thailand and, so, the sight of all those Buddhas in the National Museum in Cambodia caused a resurgence of my illness, which led to my completing my circuit of the Museum in the astonishing time of 20 minutes. I looked at hundreds of Buddhas. Everywhere I turned, another Buddha was smiling at me, watching me! I start feeling a little panicky and conspiracy-theory-ish just thinking about it. We must move on…
We ate lunch on the riverside, a last meal in Phnom Penh before Saem left us to return to Laos and Zenia and I set off on the next stage of our journey to Sihanoukville, a beach town in Southern Cambodia. Before you get the wrong idea about that, let me say that we were traveling to Sihanoukville to visit a children’s shelter, a trip that had been prompted and organized by our boss, but…I won’t deny that the idea of an evening at the beach held some appeal. :) Unfortunately, joy at our beach front setting was not destined to be ours. Our journey to Sihoukville began at 12:45 pm when we boarded our bus. I have mentioned several bus trips so far in SE Asia, but this trip undoubtedly takes the cake. Our bus-mates were comprised entirely of locals, not a single other falang in site. Babies (crying, smelly, naked babies) surrounded us, the karaoke was blaring at an uncomfortable level, and the bus made about 100 stops as we neared our destination, turning a simple four hour trip into a five hour epic. To say the bus ride was torturous would be understating the case. I can honestly say now that I have no desire to ever travel by bus in SE Asia again (a dream that will be dashed again and again as bus is a primary means of transportation in this country and I am destined to travel by bus at least six more time, maybe more). However, a moment of light can be found in even this storm of horrors.
I mentioned the karaoke music on the local buses in my previous post, but what I neglected to mention was that, occasionally, English will appear in this music. Do not get your hopes up. I am not saying that English songs are played, merely that the Thai, Cambodian, Korean, etc. songs occasionally burst out with a phrase or a few words in English. On this particular journey, we hadn’t heard much English (except one song that added “ok” to the end of each sentence and counted “one, two, three, four” every once in a while) when suddenly, our ears perked at the sound of an entire phrase in English. We were intrigued. Something we could understand? Something in our language? The barrier had been breached! Our sanity was saved! And then we listened to what they were saying. Crooned, in the most loving of voices, “I love you, loving you as the mouse so loves the rice.” Um…what?! :) Yes, on a 5+ hour journey where the only English we heard was our whispers to each other and whatever voices chimed up in our minds, we heard the amazing phrase, “loving you as the mouse so loves the rice.” This will forever remain my favorite line from Asian karaoke songs. Zenia and I laughed for days about this song and it still has the power to make me smile when I think about the seriousness with which that man sang.
The drive to Sihanoukville was beautiful, another astonishing view of the Cambodian wilderness, this time a brief glimpse of the far distant mountains and forest that seem to dominate the most southern reaches of Cambodia. As I mentioned previously, Cambodia is a country that is seriously obsessed with food, and the south is no different. Every area of flat land has been used to cultivate crops and all the land leading up to the mountains is covered in fields of rice. Houses dot the landscape here and there amid the rice fields often standing on stilts in the middle of the rice fields so that the houses are accessed through the water by boat and no potential agricultural land is lost. The countryside in Cambodia is beautiful and although I disparage my travels by bus, even I must admit that it is an amazing way to see more of the landscape.
Our arrival in Sihanoukville was greeted with rain. We had traveled hours from an insanely hot Phnom Penh to the wonderful Cambodian beach…to be met with rain. Oh well. Sihanoukville is a very small town with only one road that is truly meant for falang, which is covered in guesthouses and bars. It is all fairly cute and can be covered by a quick five minute walk. The big draw to this area is the beach (which is located a decent hike from the main area of town, even though all the guesthouses advertise themselves as “beachfront”) where huge parties are thrown every night. When we arrived in Sihanoukville, we immediately got a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse and checked in, then took off on foot to take a look at the town. As I said, this circuit was complete in five minutes and we decided it was time to check our internet at one of the local internet shops. SE Asia is the light back-packers heaven for remaining in touch with family and friends as the major cities are littered with shops filled with computers where you can buy time to the use the internet, a mere 25 cents for fifteen minutes. As Zenia and I were concerned about bringing our laptops on our travels to these other SE Asian countries (where theft is much more common than in Laos), we utilized these shops to keep in touch with our concerned parents during our trip. After we finished our e-mailing, we headed back toward our guesthouse.
We had already decided to go out for 4th of July later that night, but as it was only 6 pm, it was a bit too early to begin our celebrating. As we walked the four doors back to our guesthouse, we noticed a building labeled Tom-Cat Cinema, which appeared particularly intriguing as we had not seen the word “cinema” is quite a while. We stopped to take a closer look and met the owner who told us that he buys bootleg DVDs in Phnom Penh (where a lot of movies that are still in theaters can be purchased for $1.50) and then plays the movies in a small theater he has set up. This sounded like an excellent idea to us and the perfect way to spend our 4th! We asked if it was ok to bring food and, after getting assurance it was fine, we headed across the street to a bar that was advertising “4th of July BBQ Food!”. We ran over and, making complete pigs of ourselves, ordered a smorgasbord of food – burgers, fries, and chicken strips – which we then carried over to the cinema to watch our movie! It was so much fun! We were in a little attic-like room with a TV on one wall and rattan furniture with blue cushions along another and a table where we unloaded our food. We ate our delicious 4th meal and enjoyed our time watching “Kickass” (a movie I would recommend to anyone my age – very funny!). It was the perfect way to relax in Sihanoukville and we both breathed a sigh of relief to have a night of relaxation and pure enjoyment after our busy time running around Cambodia.
We ended up passing on partying that night (and I’m noticing a trend that we just don’t like to go out in SE Asia – it just doesn’t seem conducive to that type of thing) and went back to our room after our movie to relax and enjoy life in peace, away from the crazy falang who are everywhere in Sihanoukville.
Like Tuol Sleng, the Killing Fields are a quiet place, filled with reverence for the dead. Cambodian civilians and monks travel to the stupa to pray for the dead, leaving incense burning constantly and orange and yellow flowers at the base of the monument, hoping that the souls of the dead are at rest, which many believe is unlikely due to their manner of death. Within the stupa, there are 17 tiers, 15 of which are comprised of skulls of individuals killed at Cheong Ek, men, women and children. The bottom tier is full of clothing from the victims and another near the top is filled with other bones. Trails lead you from the stupa to signs around the Field that explain what would have occurred for the victims and then to the excavated graves (there are several graves at the site that are known, but that have not been excavated), which appear as large pits in the ground every few feet. We ended our tour at the Museum and then, extremely depressed, got back in our tuk-tuk to return to Phnom Penh.
After our trip to Cheong Ek, we headed to the National Museum in Phnom Penh. Every country in SE Asia has taken the time to establish a National Museum and…that’s about all they’ve done. In all honesty, these National Museums are not really worth visiting. The National Museum in Cambodia is a large(ish) structure that appears to be something of a cross between a Wat and a palace. The outside of the structure is quite impressive and really the only thing worth viewing. Inside, the building is full of Buddha statues. Now, that might not sound so bad to you, and really, there is nothing wrong with Buddha statues, but after a while, a traveler can get a little tired of Buddha. Upon my first arrival in SE Asia I was fascinated with all the Wats and statues of Buddha, they all seemed exotic and fascinating. However, it wasn’t long before I fell victim to a terrible travelers’ disease, OverBuddhaWatOut. Yes, indeed. I was suffering from a severe case of being tired of Wats and Buddhas. Unfortunately, the constant and unceasing flood of Wats and Buddhas in Laos has not allowed me to recover properly after all my Wat visits in Thailand and, so, the sight of all those Buddhas in the National Museum in Cambodia caused a resurgence of my illness, which led to my completing my circuit of the Museum in the astonishing time of 20 minutes. I looked at hundreds of Buddhas. Everywhere I turned, another Buddha was smiling at me, watching me! I start feeling a little panicky and conspiracy-theory-ish just thinking about it. We must move on…
We ate lunch on the riverside, a last meal in Phnom Penh before Saem left us to return to Laos and Zenia and I set off on the next stage of our journey to Sihanoukville, a beach town in Southern Cambodia. Before you get the wrong idea about that, let me say that we were traveling to Sihanoukville to visit a children’s shelter, a trip that had been prompted and organized by our boss, but…I won’t deny that the idea of an evening at the beach held some appeal. :) Unfortunately, joy at our beach front setting was not destined to be ours. Our journey to Sihoukville began at 12:45 pm when we boarded our bus. I have mentioned several bus trips so far in SE Asia, but this trip undoubtedly takes the cake. Our bus-mates were comprised entirely of locals, not a single other falang in site. Babies (crying, smelly, naked babies) surrounded us, the karaoke was blaring at an uncomfortable level, and the bus made about 100 stops as we neared our destination, turning a simple four hour trip into a five hour epic. To say the bus ride was torturous would be understating the case. I can honestly say now that I have no desire to ever travel by bus in SE Asia again (a dream that will be dashed again and again as bus is a primary means of transportation in this country and I am destined to travel by bus at least six more time, maybe more). However, a moment of light can be found in even this storm of horrors.
I mentioned the karaoke music on the local buses in my previous post, but what I neglected to mention was that, occasionally, English will appear in this music. Do not get your hopes up. I am not saying that English songs are played, merely that the Thai, Cambodian, Korean, etc. songs occasionally burst out with a phrase or a few words in English. On this particular journey, we hadn’t heard much English (except one song that added “ok” to the end of each sentence and counted “one, two, three, four” every once in a while) when suddenly, our ears perked at the sound of an entire phrase in English. We were intrigued. Something we could understand? Something in our language? The barrier had been breached! Our sanity was saved! And then we listened to what they were saying. Crooned, in the most loving of voices, “I love you, loving you as the mouse so loves the rice.” Um…what?! :) Yes, on a 5+ hour journey where the only English we heard was our whispers to each other and whatever voices chimed up in our minds, we heard the amazing phrase, “loving you as the mouse so loves the rice.” This will forever remain my favorite line from Asian karaoke songs. Zenia and I laughed for days about this song and it still has the power to make me smile when I think about the seriousness with which that man sang.
The drive to Sihanoukville was beautiful, another astonishing view of the Cambodian wilderness, this time a brief glimpse of the far distant mountains and forest that seem to dominate the most southern reaches of Cambodia. As I mentioned previously, Cambodia is a country that is seriously obsessed with food, and the south is no different. Every area of flat land has been used to cultivate crops and all the land leading up to the mountains is covered in fields of rice. Houses dot the landscape here and there amid the rice fields often standing on stilts in the middle of the rice fields so that the houses are accessed through the water by boat and no potential agricultural land is lost. The countryside in Cambodia is beautiful and although I disparage my travels by bus, even I must admit that it is an amazing way to see more of the landscape.
Our arrival in Sihanoukville was greeted with rain. We had traveled hours from an insanely hot Phnom Penh to the wonderful Cambodian beach…to be met with rain. Oh well. Sihanoukville is a very small town with only one road that is truly meant for falang, which is covered in guesthouses and bars. It is all fairly cute and can be covered by a quick five minute walk. The big draw to this area is the beach (which is located a decent hike from the main area of town, even though all the guesthouses advertise themselves as “beachfront”) where huge parties are thrown every night. When we arrived in Sihanoukville, we immediately got a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse and checked in, then took off on foot to take a look at the town. As I said, this circuit was complete in five minutes and we decided it was time to check our internet at one of the local internet shops. SE Asia is the light back-packers heaven for remaining in touch with family and friends as the major cities are littered with shops filled with computers where you can buy time to the use the internet, a mere 25 cents for fifteen minutes. As Zenia and I were concerned about bringing our laptops on our travels to these other SE Asian countries (where theft is much more common than in Laos), we utilized these shops to keep in touch with our concerned parents during our trip. After we finished our e-mailing, we headed back toward our guesthouse.
We had already decided to go out for 4th of July later that night, but as it was only 6 pm, it was a bit too early to begin our celebrating. As we walked the four doors back to our guesthouse, we noticed a building labeled Tom-Cat Cinema, which appeared particularly intriguing as we had not seen the word “cinema” is quite a while. We stopped to take a closer look and met the owner who told us that he buys bootleg DVDs in Phnom Penh (where a lot of movies that are still in theaters can be purchased for $1.50) and then plays the movies in a small theater he has set up. This sounded like an excellent idea to us and the perfect way to spend our 4th! We asked if it was ok to bring food and, after getting assurance it was fine, we headed across the street to a bar that was advertising “4th of July BBQ Food!”. We ran over and, making complete pigs of ourselves, ordered a smorgasbord of food – burgers, fries, and chicken strips – which we then carried over to the cinema to watch our movie! It was so much fun! We were in a little attic-like room with a TV on one wall and rattan furniture with blue cushions along another and a table where we unloaded our food. We ate our delicious 4th meal and enjoyed our time watching “Kickass” (a movie I would recommend to anyone my age – very funny!). It was the perfect way to relax in Sihanoukville and we both breathed a sigh of relief to have a night of relaxation and pure enjoyment after our busy time running around Cambodia.
We ended up passing on partying that night (and I’m noticing a trend that we just don’t like to go out in SE Asia – it just doesn’t seem conducive to that type of thing) and went back to our room after our movie to relax and enjoy life in peace, away from the crazy falang who are everywhere in Sihanoukville.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Karaoke Bus Travels (no singing please!)
We faced another early morning on Saturday as we had to catch the 7:30 am bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. I have described the bus travel to you in the past and these buses are no different. The comfort level of the bus varies widely based on a variety of factors including: price, bus company, age of the bus, and luck. On this morning, we were fairly lucky as our bus was a bit newer and, therefore, a bit more comfortable. However, every bus you take on a long journey, new or old, has one thing in common…karaoke music. Yup. All of these buses play the same karaoke soundtracks over and over again. We listen to Korean pop bands, Cambodian love songs, Laos power ballads (minus the power), and every type of Thai music imaginable. The onslaught is never ending so travelers via bus had better just accept their fate – bad karaoke music. I will not bore you with any further details regarding my bus travels and will pick up our story around 2 pm when we arrived in Phnom Penh…
The bus dropped us off in the Riverside area of Phnom Penh, a nicer, falang area of the city where Lonely Planet suggests tourists stay. We had booked a guesthouse in this area, which turned out to be one block from our bus drop, a very fortunate occurrence for us. As I mentioned previously, Cambodia is filled with poverty. People in this country, particularly in the larger cities where many poor farmers flock in hopes of better opportunity, are desperately poor. Many men become tuk-tuk drivers, so many, in fact, that it feels as if there is a ratio of ten tuk-tuk drivers to every one falang. As we stepped off the bus, we were inundated with calls for tuk-tuks, fares shouted in our ears (“Two Dollars!” “One Dollar!”), requests for patronage (“Tuk-tuk here, lady!” “Tuk-tuk this way!”), and information about destinations (“Anywhere on Riverfront, lady?!” “Lakeside, lady?!”). The term overwhelming cannot even begin to describe how you feel when you first arrive in Phnom Penh and are accosted by the tuk-tuk drivers. What is even more horrifying is your later realization that this is just the beginning. Tuk-tuks are parked in huge packs on every corner and along every open inch of the street side. Any individual walking on the street will be instantly surrounded by ten tuk-tuk drivers offering a ride and a single, “No.” will not do. Instead, you must either ignore them completely or sing-song a continuous litany of “No’s” until you are out of range of that pack.
We were able to leave the mob around the bus stop quickly as our guesthouse was so close, but after dropping off our belongings we were forced to brave them once again as we headed out to lunch. We walked along the Riverside for a while, enjoying our first view of this area of Phnom Penh, which was quite lovely, with wide streets, the River on one side and falang friendly restaurants and shops on the other, a truly sanitized view of Phnom Penh. It was nice nonetheless, and we enjoyed our meal at a riverside restaurant. After we had finished, we set out for Tuol Sleng, the Cambodian Genocide Museum, located in the heart of Phnom Penh.
Before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, Tuol Sleng was actually a high school in Phnom Penh. Under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, however, it became known as S-21, one of the worst prison-torture centers used by the Khmer Rouge. Over 16,000 people were tortured and killed during the three and a half years Tuol Sleng was used as a prison. When the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh, they found eleven people tortured to death in various rooms and only seven left alive in the entire center. Today, Cambodia has turned the former high school/prison into their official Genocide Museum.
The area surrounding Tuol Sleng is shabby and rundown, and oddly quiet as compared to many other areas of the city. When we mentioned this to Talia later, she told us that no native Cambodians will voluntarily live in this area of the city, choosing to stay away from the ghosts who may remain at Tuol Sleng. Upon entering the high, barbed wire fences, it is easy to imagine ghosts may linger. The buildings are stark cement structures sitting in an E shape without the central prong. In the center is a courtyard that has now been filled with a graveyard for the eleven people found dead in the prison upon its liberation and a memorial spire. We, and other tourists, walked through the Museum in almost complete silence, moving through the rooms and open air hallways in quiet contemplation of all we were seeing. Tuol Sleng is a place that has the power to dampen your soul, making you realize anew the horrifying atrocities man can perpetrate against his fellow man. I won’t describe in detail what we saw in the Museum as that could fill a book on its own. Instead, I will say that we learned quite a bit about the Khmer Rouge and its history in Cambodia during our visit. We left Tuol Sleng understandably dejected and ordered our tuk-tuk driver to take us to the Russian Market in an attempt to boost our spirits and pick us up out of our slump.
The Russian Market actually has a much more Khmer/Cambodian name that I can’t remember at the moment and that doesn’t really signify as everyone simply refers to it as “The Russian Market.” As any guidebook or traveler to Cambodia can tell you, The Russian Market is the place to go to buy clothes. Look in your wardrobe and about half your tags will bear the words “Made in Cambodia.” This is the land of clothing manufacturing and therefore, the home of the seconds. All items with “problems,” often mislabeling of sizes, are deemed unworthy of shipping to the Western countries, and those items usually find their way here. The Russian Market is housed in a single building filled with hundreds of stalls. Each stall occupies about a four foot square space and aisles between stalls are about three feet wide. In some stalls, clothes are displayed hanging from every available location and more are stacked everywhere else. If the size or color you need is not out, bags on which the owners are standing behind the massive piles of clothing may hold what you are looking for. In other stalls, clothes are just thrown in a haphazard pile that stretches two and half feet into the air from the bottom surface of their stall. As with the other indoor(ish) markets we have visited in SE Asia, this place was sweltering, reaching disgustingly hot temperatures with even worse humidity than outside.
As with, evidently, all SE Asian countries, businesses close sharply at 5 pm. For some reason, SE Asia has not discovered the fact that life (and potentially necessary shopping – grocery shopping for example) may need to occur after traditional business hours. Instead, all businesses seem to run from 9 am to 5 pm and you must simply find your way down there during that time. Therefore, we only had time to do a brief walkthrough of the Russian Market before it closed. At 5:15 pm we grabbed another tuk-tuk and took off for our hotel to refresh ourselves for the evening. That night we went out to dinner on the riverfront and then went to a club that had been recommended to us, once again, by Lonely Planet and Talia. We got there quite a bit earlier than is the traditional club time, but as the World Cup was playing on a large screen TV we had no trouble sitting down with a drink (cranberry juice in my case – they actually have cranberry juice in Cambodia!) to await a more “appropriate” clubbing hour. We enjoyed watching the game, but as the night wore on and more people came to the Heart of Darkness we became aware of the increasing number of falang men with young Cambodian women (prostitutes). It was sad to see so many girls working in the sex trade industry, but that is not uncommon in Cambodia. In fact, Cambodia is one of the major problem areas for prostitution in SE Asia (although all of SE Asia is considered a “destination spot” for men looking for young Asian women prostitutes). We soon left, but encountered the same thing upon our return to our hotel. There, a hotspot for expats, the prostitutes gather around the pool table in the bar and any interested man goes over to play one game with her. It is all sad to watch, but unavoidable if you are traveling in SE Asia and go to visit a bar of any kind.
We went to bed a bit sad that night, having had our spirits worn down by Tuol Sleng and the unavoidable sight of desperation forcing women into the sex trade world. Cambodia is a beautiful country with a history that continues to haunt it, leaving the people poverty stricken and desperate.
The bus dropped us off in the Riverside area of Phnom Penh, a nicer, falang area of the city where Lonely Planet suggests tourists stay. We had booked a guesthouse in this area, which turned out to be one block from our bus drop, a very fortunate occurrence for us. As I mentioned previously, Cambodia is filled with poverty. People in this country, particularly in the larger cities where many poor farmers flock in hopes of better opportunity, are desperately poor. Many men become tuk-tuk drivers, so many, in fact, that it feels as if there is a ratio of ten tuk-tuk drivers to every one falang. As we stepped off the bus, we were inundated with calls for tuk-tuks, fares shouted in our ears (“Two Dollars!” “One Dollar!”), requests for patronage (“Tuk-tuk here, lady!” “Tuk-tuk this way!”), and information about destinations (“Anywhere on Riverfront, lady?!” “Lakeside, lady?!”). The term overwhelming cannot even begin to describe how you feel when you first arrive in Phnom Penh and are accosted by the tuk-tuk drivers. What is even more horrifying is your later realization that this is just the beginning. Tuk-tuks are parked in huge packs on every corner and along every open inch of the street side. Any individual walking on the street will be instantly surrounded by ten tuk-tuk drivers offering a ride and a single, “No.” will not do. Instead, you must either ignore them completely or sing-song a continuous litany of “No’s” until you are out of range of that pack.
We were able to leave the mob around the bus stop quickly as our guesthouse was so close, but after dropping off our belongings we were forced to brave them once again as we headed out to lunch. We walked along the Riverside for a while, enjoying our first view of this area of Phnom Penh, which was quite lovely, with wide streets, the River on one side and falang friendly restaurants and shops on the other, a truly sanitized view of Phnom Penh. It was nice nonetheless, and we enjoyed our meal at a riverside restaurant. After we had finished, we set out for Tuol Sleng, the Cambodian Genocide Museum, located in the heart of Phnom Penh.
Before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, Tuol Sleng was actually a high school in Phnom Penh. Under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, however, it became known as S-21, one of the worst prison-torture centers used by the Khmer Rouge. Over 16,000 people were tortured and killed during the three and a half years Tuol Sleng was used as a prison. When the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh, they found eleven people tortured to death in various rooms and only seven left alive in the entire center. Today, Cambodia has turned the former high school/prison into their official Genocide Museum.
The area surrounding Tuol Sleng is shabby and rundown, and oddly quiet as compared to many other areas of the city. When we mentioned this to Talia later, she told us that no native Cambodians will voluntarily live in this area of the city, choosing to stay away from the ghosts who may remain at Tuol Sleng. Upon entering the high, barbed wire fences, it is easy to imagine ghosts may linger. The buildings are stark cement structures sitting in an E shape without the central prong. In the center is a courtyard that has now been filled with a graveyard for the eleven people found dead in the prison upon its liberation and a memorial spire. We, and other tourists, walked through the Museum in almost complete silence, moving through the rooms and open air hallways in quiet contemplation of all we were seeing. Tuol Sleng is a place that has the power to dampen your soul, making you realize anew the horrifying atrocities man can perpetrate against his fellow man. I won’t describe in detail what we saw in the Museum as that could fill a book on its own. Instead, I will say that we learned quite a bit about the Khmer Rouge and its history in Cambodia during our visit. We left Tuol Sleng understandably dejected and ordered our tuk-tuk driver to take us to the Russian Market in an attempt to boost our spirits and pick us up out of our slump.
The Russian Market actually has a much more Khmer/Cambodian name that I can’t remember at the moment and that doesn’t really signify as everyone simply refers to it as “The Russian Market.” As any guidebook or traveler to Cambodia can tell you, The Russian Market is the place to go to buy clothes. Look in your wardrobe and about half your tags will bear the words “Made in Cambodia.” This is the land of clothing manufacturing and therefore, the home of the seconds. All items with “problems,” often mislabeling of sizes, are deemed unworthy of shipping to the Western countries, and those items usually find their way here. The Russian Market is housed in a single building filled with hundreds of stalls. Each stall occupies about a four foot square space and aisles between stalls are about three feet wide. In some stalls, clothes are displayed hanging from every available location and more are stacked everywhere else. If the size or color you need is not out, bags on which the owners are standing behind the massive piles of clothing may hold what you are looking for. In other stalls, clothes are just thrown in a haphazard pile that stretches two and half feet into the air from the bottom surface of their stall. As with the other indoor(ish) markets we have visited in SE Asia, this place was sweltering, reaching disgustingly hot temperatures with even worse humidity than outside.
As with, evidently, all SE Asian countries, businesses close sharply at 5 pm. For some reason, SE Asia has not discovered the fact that life (and potentially necessary shopping – grocery shopping for example) may need to occur after traditional business hours. Instead, all businesses seem to run from 9 am to 5 pm and you must simply find your way down there during that time. Therefore, we only had time to do a brief walkthrough of the Russian Market before it closed. At 5:15 pm we grabbed another tuk-tuk and took off for our hotel to refresh ourselves for the evening. That night we went out to dinner on the riverfront and then went to a club that had been recommended to us, once again, by Lonely Planet and Talia. We got there quite a bit earlier than is the traditional club time, but as the World Cup was playing on a large screen TV we had no trouble sitting down with a drink (cranberry juice in my case – they actually have cranberry juice in Cambodia!) to await a more “appropriate” clubbing hour. We enjoyed watching the game, but as the night wore on and more people came to the Heart of Darkness we became aware of the increasing number of falang men with young Cambodian women (prostitutes). It was sad to see so many girls working in the sex trade industry, but that is not uncommon in Cambodia. In fact, Cambodia is one of the major problem areas for prostitution in SE Asia (although all of SE Asia is considered a “destination spot” for men looking for young Asian women prostitutes). We soon left, but encountered the same thing upon our return to our hotel. There, a hotspot for expats, the prostitutes gather around the pool table in the bar and any interested man goes over to play one game with her. It is all sad to watch, but unavoidable if you are traveling in SE Asia and go to visit a bar of any kind.
We went to bed a bit sad that night, having had our spirits worn down by Tuol Sleng and the unavoidable sight of desperation forcing women into the sex trade world. Cambodia is a beautiful country with a history that continues to haunt it, leaving the people poverty stricken and desperate.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The Eighth Wonder
We awoke early on our second day (first morning) at 4:15 am to head out of Siem Reap to Angkor Wat. As I mentioned previously, we spent a long time planning this trip, reading Lonely Planet and talking to friends who had been to this area for traveling tips. The universal conclusion from these sources was that one day is not enough time at Angkor Wat; however, if you are dedicated and willing to put in a very long day, you can manage to see quite a bit. As we only had one day available to us at Angkor Wat, the decision of one day, three, or a week (these are the types of passes you can buy) was taken out of our hands. Rather than give you a step-by-step summation of my wanderings through Angkor Wat (which could get a little boring – example, I walked down more stone corridors) let me tell you a little about Angkor Wat itself and fill you in on some my thoughts and impressions along the way…
Angkor Wat is actually the name of one particular temple that was built outside of Siem Reap, but has come, in modern times, to refer to the original temple and a large group of temples that now surround the original structure. Angkor Wat itself (the first of the temples/palaces in this area) is incredible and the outline of the building can be found on the Cambodian flag, seal, etc. There is no way to properly describe Angkor Wat, it is simply too grand and too amazing. To reach the temple itself, you must first cross a bridge that spans a huge moat and then pass through a gateway that allows entrance through the large walls surrounding Angkor Wat. The building itself is amazing, filled with columns covered in Khmer writing and statues from Hindu and Buddhist religions. Angkor Wat feels sacred in some indefinable way. No one visiting the temple would feel comfortable running or shouting. Instead, we wander through the hallways in silence, with only the occasional whisper, as if to speak up would disturb or offend this place that remains a beloved religious symbol to this day. Angkor Wat is the most well preserved temple at the site, having survived the effects of time due to its huge religious significance and the Khmer Rouge’s temple destruction due to the fact that Pol Pot thought it represented the ingenuity and creativity of the Khmer people before the “imperialist corruption.”
Subsequent kings commissioned other temples to be built on surrounding land, creating a large group of huge stone temples and temple complexes that served as Cambodia’s capital and religious center for centuries. While all the temples are beautiful and noteworthy, there are a few that have more colorful backgrounds…
Angkor Thom stands to the left of Angkor Wat, a quick five minute tuk-tuk ride away. Surrounding this temple complex is a series of gates at the cardinal points along with a fifth gate that was termed Victory Gate. The main temple in this complex is Bayon. Bayon is an incredible structure that has a squished feel to it. The temple has as much stone as Angkor Wat, but occupies a much smaller space, making it feel cramped and jammed together. The outside walls are covered in friezes and bas relief, which depict ancient battle scenes. Rising high above the outer walls are fat, circular spirals that have giant, smiling faces, which look out over the landscape. Now, this sounds like an impressive sight, and even in its current state, it cannot help but impress the viewer; however, the temple is not quite as well put together as my description depicts. You see, in 1905 or so the French colonizers of Cambodia “rediscovered” Angkor Wat and undertook a project to excavate this series of temples. When they reached Bayon, they evidently decided that it would be a good idea to take a temple apart to see how it works. Therefore, they took down the temple, stone by stone, carefully labeling each and drawing up a map so that, once done, they could reassemble the entire structure. Although I detest the thought of anyone tearing apart such a magnificent structure, I suppose they were working under a decent plan…decent that is, until they lost the map. Yes, my friends. The French lost the map of how to put the temple back together again. For the past sixty years or more, the French (and others) have been working to put Bayon back together again and it is still not done. Row upon row of stone blocks can be seen sitting and waiting outside the temple and as you wander around within, it is easy to find areas where they have clearly reassembled it incorrectly, where lines do not match up and faces are a bit off. For this reason, Bayon is now known as the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle. :)
Another temple of note is Ta Keo, which was built by a king of Cambodia to honor his mother. This temple was also featured in the movie Tomb Raider (for those of you up on your pop culture), although only a small bit of the outside of the temple was used in filming. This temple is particularly noteworthy as it is covered in trees! By “covered in trees” I do not mean that trees are growing inside the temple and the forest has retaken it. No. I mean, that trees have grown on top of the temple. Stone walls are now topped with huge trees that soar above the canopy of the surrounding forest. No trees grow on the ground in the temple, but are instead content to slowly crush the stone down, sending roots through the roof of the temple and down the sides to reach the earth. It is an amazing sight to see; trees bigger around than ten people, slowly eating the temple away.
Our time at Angkor Wat was incredible. We hired a tuk-tuk for the day through our hotel, which meant that we drove from one temple to another, with our driver waiting for us as we explored each building for hours. We began our day by watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat, before continuing the circuit around to the other temples and sights. While I have told you quite a bit about the beauty of this place and a bit of its history, Angkor Wat also has several detractors. I knew before going that this was a huge tourist destination where hundreds of people visit each day, but for some reason I was surprised by the huge amount of people visiting. The temples (particularly the main temples – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, etc.) were crawling with other tourists so that no picture could be entirely people free. Outside each temple, were stalls and tents filled with wares being sold by local people, paintings, scarves, books, mini-temples, etc. As soon as you begin your walk toward the temple or leave the temple you are surrounded by Cambodians shouting for your attention, “Lady, lady! Visit my shop.” “Lady, nice silk scarves, good deal for you.” “Buy a painting, lady?” etc. Each face carries a look of desperation and every time you say no, they appear a little more crestfallen.
We caved to the pressure to buy only once, when I bought two books from one man. Cambodia does have several bookstores, but the best place to buy a book is on the street or from people carrying books to sell in a plastic basket. These books are seconds – having had some defect that prevented their sale to Western nations. In most cases this was caused by some minor misspelling on the cover or a double printing on one page. Natives then take these books and sell them to tourists for very low prices (I bought one oversized paperback for $3). The only trick you need to know when purchasing these books is that you should flip through them to make sure all the pages are there and all are legible. The first book I bought was a book about Angkor Wat, so that I could read a bit more about these temples and Cambodian history. The second book was one that was recommended by Lonely Planet and Talia as a MUST read. “First They Killed My Father” by Loung Ung is a book written by a woman who lived through the rule of the Khmer Rouge when she was a child (5-9 years old). It tells her story and the story of her family from the period just before the start of the Khmer Rouge, until she left Cambodia for a refugee camp in Thailand after the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh. It was an incredible book and one that I would recommend everyone read. I read it while traveling on my various 5+ hour bus rides, which was incredible. Reading this book while in Cambodia made me look at the country and city with new eyes, finally understanding some of Cambodia’s idiosyncrasies as I read one account of what life was truly like under the Khmer Rouge for these people. If you have been inspired at all by my blog to learn more about Cambodia, please read this book.
We ended our day in Angkor Wat earlier than we expected, at 2:00 pm. We had originally planned to stay at the temples from sunrise to sunset, but a day of walking on hard stones had made our feet, ankles, and knees ache and the constant barrage of desperate pleas to purchase goods from the people made our heads ache. At 2 pm, therefore, we retreated to Siem Reap, heading home to our hotel for a quick rinse of our dusty legs before we set out again for the Old City of Siem Reap to find a place for lunch.
We ate lunch at a restaurant, Angkor Palm, along the main road of Siem Reap. Our lunch was delicious, a sampler of native Cambodia cuisine, which is quite different from its neighboring countries, featuring actual seafood and fish. After lunch, we headed over to a spa/massage parlor (the legitimate kind, not the prostitution places that are all over Phnom Penh) for an hour long foot massage to revitalize us. The massage felt good once again, although nothing they could do could completely cure my feet of the pain of walking on hard stone steps for over nine hours. After our wonderful massage, we headed over to the Night Market area where Saem and Zenia had another type of foot massage…
All over Siem Reap there are stores and sidewalk vendors advertising the amazing “Dr. Fish Massage.” What is the Dr. Fish Massage, you ask? Well, it is a tank of water filled with small fish that eat the dead skin off your feet! Yup. Stick your feet in the tub and the fish will attempt to eat you alive, bite by bite. Now, I have long had a fear (some might call it irrational, but after this who can really say that?) that small fish would eat my toes. You see, when I was around 12 years old, my brother Scott took me and my sister Jana fishing at Amador Lake. While Scott was off buying our permit to fish and swim for the day, an old man told us a story of a large white bird landing on the lake one day. The bird was quite large, weighing around twenty pounds or so and it simply sat in the center of the lake, content to swim in the pleasant water. Just as the bird was ready to take off, to fly somewhere new, an enormous fish rose out of the water and swallowed the bird whole. I’m sure you’re now thinking, “But that’s ridiculous, Lauren. The fish wouldn’t have done that and why on earth would that give you a fear of little fish if it was a big fish that ate the bird?” I’m not really sure. I know the story is probably outrageous and not true, but that day, when Jana and I went swimming, we saw a ton of little fish swimming around our toes beneath the surface of the water. I’m not sure if Jana suggested they might be thinking about eating me (she had a tendency to tell me outrageous things like that when we were young) or if I thought it up on my own, but I became convinced the little fish were plotting to eat my toes. I am still convinced. And now…I have proof! These “Dr. Fish Massage” fish are actually eating you! How is the whole world in denial that the little fish are evil?! Nothing could convince me to join Saem and Zenia in the fish foot massage exercise. Instead, I watched from a distance, snapping photos of the horrendous sight – hundreds of little fish slowly eating my friends alive while they thought it was funny.
After we extracted what was left of my two traveling companions from the jaws of death of the little fish, it was time for the Night Market to begin and we began to wander through the stalls once again, enjoying our final night in Siem Reap. After we had completed some necessary purchases (be prepared for some souvenirs people!), we went to “Pub Street,” which is an alleyway full of bars and pubs. We ate and drank (well…sipped in my case) at a bar called The Temple. By 11 pm we were exhausted and ready for bed, so we called it an early night (after a LONG day) and headed back to our hotel, where I was asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
Angkor Wat is actually the name of one particular temple that was built outside of Siem Reap, but has come, in modern times, to refer to the original temple and a large group of temples that now surround the original structure. Angkor Wat itself (the first of the temples/palaces in this area) is incredible and the outline of the building can be found on the Cambodian flag, seal, etc. There is no way to properly describe Angkor Wat, it is simply too grand and too amazing. To reach the temple itself, you must first cross a bridge that spans a huge moat and then pass through a gateway that allows entrance through the large walls surrounding Angkor Wat. The building itself is amazing, filled with columns covered in Khmer writing and statues from Hindu and Buddhist religions. Angkor Wat feels sacred in some indefinable way. No one visiting the temple would feel comfortable running or shouting. Instead, we wander through the hallways in silence, with only the occasional whisper, as if to speak up would disturb or offend this place that remains a beloved religious symbol to this day. Angkor Wat is the most well preserved temple at the site, having survived the effects of time due to its huge religious significance and the Khmer Rouge’s temple destruction due to the fact that Pol Pot thought it represented the ingenuity and creativity of the Khmer people before the “imperialist corruption.”
Subsequent kings commissioned other temples to be built on surrounding land, creating a large group of huge stone temples and temple complexes that served as Cambodia’s capital and religious center for centuries. While all the temples are beautiful and noteworthy, there are a few that have more colorful backgrounds…
Angkor Thom stands to the left of Angkor Wat, a quick five minute tuk-tuk ride away. Surrounding this temple complex is a series of gates at the cardinal points along with a fifth gate that was termed Victory Gate. The main temple in this complex is Bayon. Bayon is an incredible structure that has a squished feel to it. The temple has as much stone as Angkor Wat, but occupies a much smaller space, making it feel cramped and jammed together. The outside walls are covered in friezes and bas relief, which depict ancient battle scenes. Rising high above the outer walls are fat, circular spirals that have giant, smiling faces, which look out over the landscape. Now, this sounds like an impressive sight, and even in its current state, it cannot help but impress the viewer; however, the temple is not quite as well put together as my description depicts. You see, in 1905 or so the French colonizers of Cambodia “rediscovered” Angkor Wat and undertook a project to excavate this series of temples. When they reached Bayon, they evidently decided that it would be a good idea to take a temple apart to see how it works. Therefore, they took down the temple, stone by stone, carefully labeling each and drawing up a map so that, once done, they could reassemble the entire structure. Although I detest the thought of anyone tearing apart such a magnificent structure, I suppose they were working under a decent plan…decent that is, until they lost the map. Yes, my friends. The French lost the map of how to put the temple back together again. For the past sixty years or more, the French (and others) have been working to put Bayon back together again and it is still not done. Row upon row of stone blocks can be seen sitting and waiting outside the temple and as you wander around within, it is easy to find areas where they have clearly reassembled it incorrectly, where lines do not match up and faces are a bit off. For this reason, Bayon is now known as the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle. :)
Another temple of note is Ta Keo, which was built by a king of Cambodia to honor his mother. This temple was also featured in the movie Tomb Raider (for those of you up on your pop culture), although only a small bit of the outside of the temple was used in filming. This temple is particularly noteworthy as it is covered in trees! By “covered in trees” I do not mean that trees are growing inside the temple and the forest has retaken it. No. I mean, that trees have grown on top of the temple. Stone walls are now topped with huge trees that soar above the canopy of the surrounding forest. No trees grow on the ground in the temple, but are instead content to slowly crush the stone down, sending roots through the roof of the temple and down the sides to reach the earth. It is an amazing sight to see; trees bigger around than ten people, slowly eating the temple away.
Our time at Angkor Wat was incredible. We hired a tuk-tuk for the day through our hotel, which meant that we drove from one temple to another, with our driver waiting for us as we explored each building for hours. We began our day by watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat, before continuing the circuit around to the other temples and sights. While I have told you quite a bit about the beauty of this place and a bit of its history, Angkor Wat also has several detractors. I knew before going that this was a huge tourist destination where hundreds of people visit each day, but for some reason I was surprised by the huge amount of people visiting. The temples (particularly the main temples – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, etc.) were crawling with other tourists so that no picture could be entirely people free. Outside each temple, were stalls and tents filled with wares being sold by local people, paintings, scarves, books, mini-temples, etc. As soon as you begin your walk toward the temple or leave the temple you are surrounded by Cambodians shouting for your attention, “Lady, lady! Visit my shop.” “Lady, nice silk scarves, good deal for you.” “Buy a painting, lady?” etc. Each face carries a look of desperation and every time you say no, they appear a little more crestfallen.
We caved to the pressure to buy only once, when I bought two books from one man. Cambodia does have several bookstores, but the best place to buy a book is on the street or from people carrying books to sell in a plastic basket. These books are seconds – having had some defect that prevented their sale to Western nations. In most cases this was caused by some minor misspelling on the cover or a double printing on one page. Natives then take these books and sell them to tourists for very low prices (I bought one oversized paperback for $3). The only trick you need to know when purchasing these books is that you should flip through them to make sure all the pages are there and all are legible. The first book I bought was a book about Angkor Wat, so that I could read a bit more about these temples and Cambodian history. The second book was one that was recommended by Lonely Planet and Talia as a MUST read. “First They Killed My Father” by Loung Ung is a book written by a woman who lived through the rule of the Khmer Rouge when she was a child (5-9 years old). It tells her story and the story of her family from the period just before the start of the Khmer Rouge, until she left Cambodia for a refugee camp in Thailand after the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh. It was an incredible book and one that I would recommend everyone read. I read it while traveling on my various 5+ hour bus rides, which was incredible. Reading this book while in Cambodia made me look at the country and city with new eyes, finally understanding some of Cambodia’s idiosyncrasies as I read one account of what life was truly like under the Khmer Rouge for these people. If you have been inspired at all by my blog to learn more about Cambodia, please read this book.
We ended our day in Angkor Wat earlier than we expected, at 2:00 pm. We had originally planned to stay at the temples from sunrise to sunset, but a day of walking on hard stones had made our feet, ankles, and knees ache and the constant barrage of desperate pleas to purchase goods from the people made our heads ache. At 2 pm, therefore, we retreated to Siem Reap, heading home to our hotel for a quick rinse of our dusty legs before we set out again for the Old City of Siem Reap to find a place for lunch.
We ate lunch at a restaurant, Angkor Palm, along the main road of Siem Reap. Our lunch was delicious, a sampler of native Cambodia cuisine, which is quite different from its neighboring countries, featuring actual seafood and fish. After lunch, we headed over to a spa/massage parlor (the legitimate kind, not the prostitution places that are all over Phnom Penh) for an hour long foot massage to revitalize us. The massage felt good once again, although nothing they could do could completely cure my feet of the pain of walking on hard stone steps for over nine hours. After our wonderful massage, we headed over to the Night Market area where Saem and Zenia had another type of foot massage…
All over Siem Reap there are stores and sidewalk vendors advertising the amazing “Dr. Fish Massage.” What is the Dr. Fish Massage, you ask? Well, it is a tank of water filled with small fish that eat the dead skin off your feet! Yup. Stick your feet in the tub and the fish will attempt to eat you alive, bite by bite. Now, I have long had a fear (some might call it irrational, but after this who can really say that?) that small fish would eat my toes. You see, when I was around 12 years old, my brother Scott took me and my sister Jana fishing at Amador Lake. While Scott was off buying our permit to fish and swim for the day, an old man told us a story of a large white bird landing on the lake one day. The bird was quite large, weighing around twenty pounds or so and it simply sat in the center of the lake, content to swim in the pleasant water. Just as the bird was ready to take off, to fly somewhere new, an enormous fish rose out of the water and swallowed the bird whole. I’m sure you’re now thinking, “But that’s ridiculous, Lauren. The fish wouldn’t have done that and why on earth would that give you a fear of little fish if it was a big fish that ate the bird?” I’m not really sure. I know the story is probably outrageous and not true, but that day, when Jana and I went swimming, we saw a ton of little fish swimming around our toes beneath the surface of the water. I’m not sure if Jana suggested they might be thinking about eating me (she had a tendency to tell me outrageous things like that when we were young) or if I thought it up on my own, but I became convinced the little fish were plotting to eat my toes. I am still convinced. And now…I have proof! These “Dr. Fish Massage” fish are actually eating you! How is the whole world in denial that the little fish are evil?! Nothing could convince me to join Saem and Zenia in the fish foot massage exercise. Instead, I watched from a distance, snapping photos of the horrendous sight – hundreds of little fish slowly eating my friends alive while they thought it was funny.
After we extracted what was left of my two traveling companions from the jaws of death of the little fish, it was time for the Night Market to begin and we began to wander through the stalls once again, enjoying our final night in Siem Reap. After we had completed some necessary purchases (be prepared for some souvenirs people!), we went to “Pub Street,” which is an alleyway full of bars and pubs. We ate and drank (well…sipped in my case) at a bar called The Temple. By 11 pm we were exhausted and ready for bed, so we called it an early night (after a LONG day) and headed back to our hotel, where I was asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Traveling to Cambodia
Thursday morning began with an early tuk-tuk ride to the Vientiane Airport, a quick ten minute ride through downtown Vientiane and out to the outskirts of town. Our trip to Cambodia has been the on the forefront my mind for weeks as it was the largest and longest trip we would take during our trip to SE Asia. That being said, I’m sure you can imagine how eager and anxious I was to be in Cambodia and how interminable the wait seemed at the airport. It was soon (“soon” in retrospect and in the grand scheme of life, although at the time it was horrendously long) over, however, and we were off. Before I knew it we were descending into Phnom Penh and it was time to begin our trip in earnest.
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and is located, roughly, in the southern-central portion of the country. It is a huge metropolis with about 2 million people or so within its borders. As with Vientiane, Phnom Penh is situated on the Mekong River; however, the comparison between the two cities must end there. As I have mentioned many times before, Vientiane is a small, sleepy city that has an extremely safe feel to it. Phnom Penh is the antithesis of Vientiane. From the air, Phnom Penh is a massive sprawl that is overwhelming just to view. We touched down in the city and went through the process of entering another country, which involves applying for a visa (only $20 here – keep this figure in mind over the next few days as we will discuss it again later), going through customs, handing over declaration forms to officials, tag checks on luggage, etc. It is quite a process and once you are through it is still not over.
Cambodia has some horrific history in its past, which I will tell you briefly about now so that you will not feel completely lost in the future. Any official documents you receive in Cambodia will be labeled, “Kingdom of Cambodia,” and this is quite right. Historically (and now), Cambodia (except for that period when they were colonized by the French) has been ruled by a long line of Kings. But in 1975, Cambodia fell prey to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge literally means the “Red Khmer” as native Cambodians are Khmer people. The Khmer Rouge was led by a man named Pol Pot who was a devoted follower of Karl Marx and communism. He had a dream to turn Cambodia into a self-sustaining agrarian landscape with no major cities, no education, no religion, and no individuality. For years before 1975 the Khmer Rouge had been fighting for power in the rural areas of Cambodia, but on April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for over three years from 1975 to January 7, 1979 when the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh and began fighting the Khmer Rouge across Cambodia. However, by then it was too late for many Cambodians as the Khmer Rouge had managed to kill ¼ of Cambodia’s total population, around 2 million people. During their reign, the Khmer Rouge emptied all major cities in Cambodia (Phnom Penh was emptied the day it was taken and remained so until it was liberated by the Vietnamese) and forced everyone into the countryside to work in the fields as, basically, slaves. Not content with merely moving these people, however, the Khmer Rouge also made it a practice to kill anyone who had been involved in the previous government (and their families), intellectuals, professionals, anyone with a skill or trade, people who wore glasses, anyone with an education, and, eventually, many who had simply lived in a city. They closed down all schools and outlawed Buddhism, even going so far as to destroy temples and kill the monks.
Today, Cambodia still bears the scars of their time under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Almost every family in Cambodia can point to at least one individual they lost during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and often families lost many, many more. Across the landscape of Cambodia, Killing Fields have been discovered. These are areas of mass graves where the Khmer Rouge executed their “enemies” and dumped the bodies (the ultimate insult to the people whose religion teaches them that their souls will be trapped on Earth and unable to be reincarnated if they are not properly buried). The people themselves were also eternally altered by the effects of the Khmer Rouge (not surprisingly). Many Cambodians left their country and emigrated away after the liberation of Phnom Penh. Although much of the country was now free, the Khmer Rouge remained in the rural mountains of Cambodia and continued to fight (dropping bombs on random villages and killing people) until 1999. Today, landmines planted by the Khmer Rouge still litter the countryside, causing horrendous injuries and devastation. In addition, foreign nations continued to accept the Khmer Rouge as the “legitimate” government of Cambodia until that time (including the US!). I know I’ve probably already spoken about this more than you want to hear, but after visiting this amazing country it is hard not to ramble on about all I have learned and seen. But I’ll talk more on this subject later…
Our time in Cambodia, despite being the longest of any of our trips, was extremely limited for what we wanted to see and do. This meant we had to manage our time very carefully and before even embarking on our sight-seeing mission we had planned each step of our journey out to maximize our time in each location. Unfortunately, this meant we had to head immediately from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, located in north-eastern Cambodia and accessible by a 6+ hour bus. Therefore, as soon as we stepped out of the airport, we headed for the tuk-tuk stand to get a ride to the local bus station. The bus station in Phnom Penh is located quite far from the airport, so we were able to see a bit of the city on our trip.
Notes and Impressions from a Tuk-Tuk Ride through Phnom Penh:
1. The traffic lights in Phnom Penh are quite interesting. Each light comes equipped with a large counter that tells cars and pedestrians (there are actually pedestrians in Phnom Penh, created by the huge amount of poverty in this country that does not allow many people to own cars or motorbikes) how much time is left on either their red light or green light. It is an ingenious system. There is no guessing about when a light will change because you simply look at the numbers flashing by to see how much time remains. Genius.
2. About ¼ or more of the population wears blue face masks that cover their mouths and noses. This is actually a very smart thing to do as the city is filled with dirt and dust. I found myself sneezing throughout our trip due to the dust and dirt that blew up off the street in Phnom Penh. It is also a very interesting sight. Groups of people will be walking down the sidewalk, laughing and chatting, with blue face masks cover the majority of their faces.
3. The main city streets of Phnom Penh are large and spacious, often providing two or three lanes for each direction of traffic with a green median between. This is very fortunate as the city has the potential to feel extremely claustrophobic otherwise. Every bit of space in Phnom Penh is occupied. Shops sit sandwiched next door to each other, each jammed to the ceiling with products and items for sale, spilling out of their shop and onto the sidewalk. Looking out on the scene you can’t help but search for some small piece of land that is unused, but it cannot be found. Alleys are considerably different than the main thoroughfares, being cramped narrow lanes that could not even accommodate a car. This is where the true claustrophobia lives as the buildings soar up six stories above the alleyways, leaving no room to breathe. On the main roads, any areas not occupied by stores are taken up by people who have set up different “businesses” on the roadside: barbers set up chairs, with mirrors attached to wire fences, cutting the hair of business men; women set up card tables covered with books on Cambodia to sell to tourists (often these are seconds with misprints on covers or other small issues that can be purchased for $1-$5); and tuk-tuk drivers sit in large groups on each corner, ready to pounce on potential fares.
Back to Our Journey…
The bus ride to Siem Reap was long and the bus was a shade closer to that of “Romancing the Stone” than the Thai and Lao buses I was used to riding. We had been unable to secure a bus ticket from the main bus station as they were sold out (bus tickets can’t be bought out of country ahead of time, so we had to rely on assurances that buses could be found once we got into Phnom Penh), but our tuk-tuk driver drove us to a travel agency near the station that had a bus leaving immediately we could catch. Many tuk-tuk drivers in SE Asia have deals with hotels and travel agencies that give them a commission if they direct tourists to their establishments. While I can understand how this can be of real benefit to the drivers, it can also be something of a nuisance to tourists as tuk-tuk drivers have no compunction telling you that your hotel/guesthouse has closed down, has rats, or other problems and then offers to take you to the guesthouse they are connected with. Therefore, the process of getting a tuk-tuk driver to take you where you really want to go can be something of a chore. In this case, however, we were more than happy that he knew of a travel agent from whom we could buy a ticket.
The landscape of Cambodia is quite different from that of Thailand or Laos. If you look up statistics on Cambodian environment you will read a lot about the Cambodian jungles; however, a drive through the countryside leaves no evidence of these jungles in sight. Instead, the land appears distinctly flat through the center of Cambodia with rice paddies and other agriculture stretching out as far as the eye can see. Dotting the landscape here and there are random palm or fruit trees, but the majority of the land is full of rice.
Along the ride to Siem Reap I met with my first example of what is, here evidently, a delicacy – fried grasshoppers! They are fried up and set out on a table in a large basket, ready to be bagged and then consumed. I am sorry to say I was not feeling very adventurous towards eating grasshoppers on this trip and I decided to forego the pleasure of this wonderful source of protein. We arrived in Siem Reap, were met at the bus station by a tuk-tuk driver sent from our hotel (getting the hotel to provide a tuk-tuk is always the best way to first get there as the driver knows where to go and you don’t have to deal with the issues discussed above), and soon arrived at our guesthouse for the next two nights, the Golden Banana Bed and Breakfast. It was a lovely place and when I saw that there was actually a separate shower area in the bathroom, complete with shower curtain to divide the space, I almost cried. (Most of the time/all of the time the showers are merely a nozzle on the wall that sprays the whole bathroom as you bathe.) There was no real time for that, however, as we needed to get out and start exploring since we would only have two evenings in Siem Reap on this trip as the next day would be spent at Angkor Wat.
We wandered across the river to the Old City of Siem Reap and immediately found a place to eat in one of the small alleyways in the city that Siem Reap has turned into touristy areas with upscale restaurants. That night we feasted on Cambodian BBQ. This is BBQ unlike anything you have ever experienced and it was amazing. At restaurants that serve Cambodian BBQ the table has a large hole in the center where a clay and iron pot rests, filled with red hot coals. Over the top of the pot sits a metal cooking container with a dome in the center and a ring around the outer edge that can be filled with liquid. The general idea is to cook your meat on the dome and create a soup with broth, vegetables, and noodles around the outer edge. When you arrive at the restaurant, you order a single serving size of BBQ materials, and the waiter brings out the pot and a selection of meats and veggies. You then proceed to cook your own meal. It is a fun and interactive process that actually provides plenty of laughter (often from meat sliding off the dome and into the soup so you are forced to retrieve it). Now, what is most interesting about this particular experience is the meats that I consumed. I had two traditional meats, beef and chicken, which were quite good, but your interest will lie with the other meats I ate – snake and crocodile! Yes, dear readers…this adventurous bookworm has eaten Cambodian BBQed snake and crocodile and I must admit that both are delicious! In fact, the snake was my favorite meat, followed by crocodile, the chicken and beef coming in a far distant third and fourth. We had an amazing time cooking our food and eating in such a communal manner.
After we finished dinner, we headed over to the Siem Reap Night Market. I know, I know…”another Night Market?” Well, Siem Reap is a very small town and there is not much else to do. In addition, Night Markets are a lot of fun and usually the places where you can find your best deals. The Market in Siem Reap is no exception to the rule that Night Markets are a good time and we had a lot of fun exploring the stands and seeing the differences between Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. During our rambles I discovered an amazing fact as well. A couple years ago, my amazing father bought me a bag in Berkeley that I had fallen in love with. It was made from a recycled fish bag and had come from “somewhere in Asia.” Well…the mystery has been uncovered – it was from Cambodia! As I mentioned earlier, Cambodia has a horrific recent history and one of the major long-reaching consequences of that history is a serious food shortage. In fact, people here are obsessed with food (not surprisingly as so many people starved to death during the Khmer Rouge and after it was overthrown), and as Cambodia is not able to grow enough of its own food, they often buy food from Vietnam. The food they receive from Vietnam (rice and fish food) is transported in sacks (similar to plastic weave rice sacks you see in the states – visit Costco), but once the food is eaten they are left as trash as the Vietnamese do not reuse them. Cambodia, being an enterprising nation, has started to reuse these bags themselves, turning them into purses, shoulder bags, wallets, etc. Obviously, some have found their way to the states, but the real place to find them is at the source, here in Cambodia! The bags are beautiful and an amazing way to be environmentally friendly, so I bought two! :) I just couldn’t be stopped.
We spent the rest of the evening at the Night Market, spending quite a bit longer than we intended, so that we only left at 11:30 pm, getting back to our hotel in time for sleep at 12 am, which was a good thing as our day started at 4:15 am the next morning…
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and is located, roughly, in the southern-central portion of the country. It is a huge metropolis with about 2 million people or so within its borders. As with Vientiane, Phnom Penh is situated on the Mekong River; however, the comparison between the two cities must end there. As I have mentioned many times before, Vientiane is a small, sleepy city that has an extremely safe feel to it. Phnom Penh is the antithesis of Vientiane. From the air, Phnom Penh is a massive sprawl that is overwhelming just to view. We touched down in the city and went through the process of entering another country, which involves applying for a visa (only $20 here – keep this figure in mind over the next few days as we will discuss it again later), going through customs, handing over declaration forms to officials, tag checks on luggage, etc. It is quite a process and once you are through it is still not over.
Cambodia has some horrific history in its past, which I will tell you briefly about now so that you will not feel completely lost in the future. Any official documents you receive in Cambodia will be labeled, “Kingdom of Cambodia,” and this is quite right. Historically (and now), Cambodia (except for that period when they were colonized by the French) has been ruled by a long line of Kings. But in 1975, Cambodia fell prey to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge literally means the “Red Khmer” as native Cambodians are Khmer people. The Khmer Rouge was led by a man named Pol Pot who was a devoted follower of Karl Marx and communism. He had a dream to turn Cambodia into a self-sustaining agrarian landscape with no major cities, no education, no religion, and no individuality. For years before 1975 the Khmer Rouge had been fighting for power in the rural areas of Cambodia, but on April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for over three years from 1975 to January 7, 1979 when the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh and began fighting the Khmer Rouge across Cambodia. However, by then it was too late for many Cambodians as the Khmer Rouge had managed to kill ¼ of Cambodia’s total population, around 2 million people. During their reign, the Khmer Rouge emptied all major cities in Cambodia (Phnom Penh was emptied the day it was taken and remained so until it was liberated by the Vietnamese) and forced everyone into the countryside to work in the fields as, basically, slaves. Not content with merely moving these people, however, the Khmer Rouge also made it a practice to kill anyone who had been involved in the previous government (and their families), intellectuals, professionals, anyone with a skill or trade, people who wore glasses, anyone with an education, and, eventually, many who had simply lived in a city. They closed down all schools and outlawed Buddhism, even going so far as to destroy temples and kill the monks.
Today, Cambodia still bears the scars of their time under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Almost every family in Cambodia can point to at least one individual they lost during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and often families lost many, many more. Across the landscape of Cambodia, Killing Fields have been discovered. These are areas of mass graves where the Khmer Rouge executed their “enemies” and dumped the bodies (the ultimate insult to the people whose religion teaches them that their souls will be trapped on Earth and unable to be reincarnated if they are not properly buried). The people themselves were also eternally altered by the effects of the Khmer Rouge (not surprisingly). Many Cambodians left their country and emigrated away after the liberation of Phnom Penh. Although much of the country was now free, the Khmer Rouge remained in the rural mountains of Cambodia and continued to fight (dropping bombs on random villages and killing people) until 1999. Today, landmines planted by the Khmer Rouge still litter the countryside, causing horrendous injuries and devastation. In addition, foreign nations continued to accept the Khmer Rouge as the “legitimate” government of Cambodia until that time (including the US!). I know I’ve probably already spoken about this more than you want to hear, but after visiting this amazing country it is hard not to ramble on about all I have learned and seen. But I’ll talk more on this subject later…
Our time in Cambodia, despite being the longest of any of our trips, was extremely limited for what we wanted to see and do. This meant we had to manage our time very carefully and before even embarking on our sight-seeing mission we had planned each step of our journey out to maximize our time in each location. Unfortunately, this meant we had to head immediately from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, located in north-eastern Cambodia and accessible by a 6+ hour bus. Therefore, as soon as we stepped out of the airport, we headed for the tuk-tuk stand to get a ride to the local bus station. The bus station in Phnom Penh is located quite far from the airport, so we were able to see a bit of the city on our trip.
Notes and Impressions from a Tuk-Tuk Ride through Phnom Penh:
1. The traffic lights in Phnom Penh are quite interesting. Each light comes equipped with a large counter that tells cars and pedestrians (there are actually pedestrians in Phnom Penh, created by the huge amount of poverty in this country that does not allow many people to own cars or motorbikes) how much time is left on either their red light or green light. It is an ingenious system. There is no guessing about when a light will change because you simply look at the numbers flashing by to see how much time remains. Genius.
2. About ¼ or more of the population wears blue face masks that cover their mouths and noses. This is actually a very smart thing to do as the city is filled with dirt and dust. I found myself sneezing throughout our trip due to the dust and dirt that blew up off the street in Phnom Penh. It is also a very interesting sight. Groups of people will be walking down the sidewalk, laughing and chatting, with blue face masks cover the majority of their faces.
3. The main city streets of Phnom Penh are large and spacious, often providing two or three lanes for each direction of traffic with a green median between. This is very fortunate as the city has the potential to feel extremely claustrophobic otherwise. Every bit of space in Phnom Penh is occupied. Shops sit sandwiched next door to each other, each jammed to the ceiling with products and items for sale, spilling out of their shop and onto the sidewalk. Looking out on the scene you can’t help but search for some small piece of land that is unused, but it cannot be found. Alleys are considerably different than the main thoroughfares, being cramped narrow lanes that could not even accommodate a car. This is where the true claustrophobia lives as the buildings soar up six stories above the alleyways, leaving no room to breathe. On the main roads, any areas not occupied by stores are taken up by people who have set up different “businesses” on the roadside: barbers set up chairs, with mirrors attached to wire fences, cutting the hair of business men; women set up card tables covered with books on Cambodia to sell to tourists (often these are seconds with misprints on covers or other small issues that can be purchased for $1-$5); and tuk-tuk drivers sit in large groups on each corner, ready to pounce on potential fares.
Back to Our Journey…
The bus ride to Siem Reap was long and the bus was a shade closer to that of “Romancing the Stone” than the Thai and Lao buses I was used to riding. We had been unable to secure a bus ticket from the main bus station as they were sold out (bus tickets can’t be bought out of country ahead of time, so we had to rely on assurances that buses could be found once we got into Phnom Penh), but our tuk-tuk driver drove us to a travel agency near the station that had a bus leaving immediately we could catch. Many tuk-tuk drivers in SE Asia have deals with hotels and travel agencies that give them a commission if they direct tourists to their establishments. While I can understand how this can be of real benefit to the drivers, it can also be something of a nuisance to tourists as tuk-tuk drivers have no compunction telling you that your hotel/guesthouse has closed down, has rats, or other problems and then offers to take you to the guesthouse they are connected with. Therefore, the process of getting a tuk-tuk driver to take you where you really want to go can be something of a chore. In this case, however, we were more than happy that he knew of a travel agent from whom we could buy a ticket.
The landscape of Cambodia is quite different from that of Thailand or Laos. If you look up statistics on Cambodian environment you will read a lot about the Cambodian jungles; however, a drive through the countryside leaves no evidence of these jungles in sight. Instead, the land appears distinctly flat through the center of Cambodia with rice paddies and other agriculture stretching out as far as the eye can see. Dotting the landscape here and there are random palm or fruit trees, but the majority of the land is full of rice.
Along the ride to Siem Reap I met with my first example of what is, here evidently, a delicacy – fried grasshoppers! They are fried up and set out on a table in a large basket, ready to be bagged and then consumed. I am sorry to say I was not feeling very adventurous towards eating grasshoppers on this trip and I decided to forego the pleasure of this wonderful source of protein. We arrived in Siem Reap, were met at the bus station by a tuk-tuk driver sent from our hotel (getting the hotel to provide a tuk-tuk is always the best way to first get there as the driver knows where to go and you don’t have to deal with the issues discussed above), and soon arrived at our guesthouse for the next two nights, the Golden Banana Bed and Breakfast. It was a lovely place and when I saw that there was actually a separate shower area in the bathroom, complete with shower curtain to divide the space, I almost cried. (Most of the time/all of the time the showers are merely a nozzle on the wall that sprays the whole bathroom as you bathe.) There was no real time for that, however, as we needed to get out and start exploring since we would only have two evenings in Siem Reap on this trip as the next day would be spent at Angkor Wat.
We wandered across the river to the Old City of Siem Reap and immediately found a place to eat in one of the small alleyways in the city that Siem Reap has turned into touristy areas with upscale restaurants. That night we feasted on Cambodian BBQ. This is BBQ unlike anything you have ever experienced and it was amazing. At restaurants that serve Cambodian BBQ the table has a large hole in the center where a clay and iron pot rests, filled with red hot coals. Over the top of the pot sits a metal cooking container with a dome in the center and a ring around the outer edge that can be filled with liquid. The general idea is to cook your meat on the dome and create a soup with broth, vegetables, and noodles around the outer edge. When you arrive at the restaurant, you order a single serving size of BBQ materials, and the waiter brings out the pot and a selection of meats and veggies. You then proceed to cook your own meal. It is a fun and interactive process that actually provides plenty of laughter (often from meat sliding off the dome and into the soup so you are forced to retrieve it). Now, what is most interesting about this particular experience is the meats that I consumed. I had two traditional meats, beef and chicken, which were quite good, but your interest will lie with the other meats I ate – snake and crocodile! Yes, dear readers…this adventurous bookworm has eaten Cambodian BBQed snake and crocodile and I must admit that both are delicious! In fact, the snake was my favorite meat, followed by crocodile, the chicken and beef coming in a far distant third and fourth. We had an amazing time cooking our food and eating in such a communal manner.
After we finished dinner, we headed over to the Siem Reap Night Market. I know, I know…”another Night Market?” Well, Siem Reap is a very small town and there is not much else to do. In addition, Night Markets are a lot of fun and usually the places where you can find your best deals. The Market in Siem Reap is no exception to the rule that Night Markets are a good time and we had a lot of fun exploring the stands and seeing the differences between Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. During our rambles I discovered an amazing fact as well. A couple years ago, my amazing father bought me a bag in Berkeley that I had fallen in love with. It was made from a recycled fish bag and had come from “somewhere in Asia.” Well…the mystery has been uncovered – it was from Cambodia! As I mentioned earlier, Cambodia has a horrific recent history and one of the major long-reaching consequences of that history is a serious food shortage. In fact, people here are obsessed with food (not surprisingly as so many people starved to death during the Khmer Rouge and after it was overthrown), and as Cambodia is not able to grow enough of its own food, they often buy food from Vietnam. The food they receive from Vietnam (rice and fish food) is transported in sacks (similar to plastic weave rice sacks you see in the states – visit Costco), but once the food is eaten they are left as trash as the Vietnamese do not reuse them. Cambodia, being an enterprising nation, has started to reuse these bags themselves, turning them into purses, shoulder bags, wallets, etc. Obviously, some have found their way to the states, but the real place to find them is at the source, here in Cambodia! The bags are beautiful and an amazing way to be environmentally friendly, so I bought two! :) I just couldn’t be stopped.
We spent the rest of the evening at the Night Market, spending quite a bit longer than we intended, so that we only left at 11:30 pm, getting back to our hotel in time for sleep at 12 am, which was a good thing as our day started at 4:15 am the next morning…
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