Cambodia

Friday 30th I joined Leslie and Triscia who were doing a visa run to Cambodia for the weekend. Cambodia is an experience. Upon arival at the market on the Thai side of the border, people immediately put your bags on carts and offer to carry them for you....but my bag already has wheels on it thank you....!!! Crossing into Cambodia is the first test....the visa cost 1000 baht or $20 US....$20 is much cheaper than 1000 baht, so the officials of course try and make you pay 1000 baht....if you refuse, then it cost 100 baht "embassy fee".....why is there a Cambodian emabssy in Cambodia??? Anyways, tip....it is easier just to pay the 100 baht and you'll get your visa in like 1 minute, rather than sit and sit and sit and sit.... Upon getting into Cambodia, the first thing you notice is, immigration sits amongst a million casinos where Thais come en mass to gamble! Here, the arched building is a Casino, with that white building next to it being the immigration facilities!

The area around the border is super poor. You can really tell how much the Khemer Rouge destroyed this country. The poverty levels are horrible, and people are so desperate for money...any currency, it doesn't matter what you have. Around this area are lots of taxi drivers. The best bet is to bargain with a taxi driver rather than wait for the bus which wont go until it's full. Here is a picture of the border area

So, we got in a taxi and drove and drove. First thing you notice is...no towns...not even anything resembling a small village. We stopped at the taxi driver's house (yes we really did) and this was the extent of his "town".

And then we stopped to pick up some bricks for someone to take to Siem Reap....!!!

Bricks loaded we were on our way to Siem Reap. Siem Reap litterally is a tourist town. More than every second building is a hotel or guesthouse. And, it is expensive! Everything is in US$! The taxi will inevitably drop you at a central location where a helpful tour guide will take you to one of their commissioned guesthouses, whether you havea reservation somewhere else or not....so tip...dont bother with a reservation, it wont make any difference! But, the place we ended up in was ok....called "No Problem"!!!! They have bars on all windows, even on the 3rd floor...but this seems to be a trend in Cambodia. Ate lunch at the guesthouse where I tried Fish Amok....a Khemer specialty. It's a fish curry with a lot of coconut milk and a little bit of chilli. Very nice.

So, our tour guide came back, but not with a tuk tuk as promised, but with a car....meaning cost more! Next thing to know about Siem Reap....it doesn't matter what you ask for, or what you tell them you don't want....you get whatever they want you to have. So don't fight, just accept and try and enjoy. So, despite wanting a tuk tuk, we got to see some cool things in the car. For example, petrol stations in Cambodia....they look like this.....

And some cars come with karaoke dvd players like this....

So, arrived Angkor Wat to see the sunset. Climbed up the hill after being harrassed by a million children selling things. At the top, this was the sight we saw.....tourist after tourist after tourist....all pushing and shoving to get up the hill first....needless to say, someone fell and het their head....you push and shove, you fall down the ruins, you dont get there faster....especially if you're old and unfit and can't climb stairs well.

But the sunset was worth it!

Climbing back down and we were met by a million kids again....actually one boy was selling these books and I bought one because it looked very interesting...about a girl and her family during Pol Pot era- it's basically her memoir. I ended up nearly finishing it on the bus to Phnom Phen. For dinner we went to the night market where I had Khemer fried noodles. This restaurant were so nice. Everyone was so smiley and helpful and always filling up my water...even after only 2 sips....I like people who are so attentive to refilling water.

Next day we went out to see Angkor for the morning. We started by having breakfast....again, not really optional. Again, kids persisted in trying to sell us things until our meals arrived. Luckily, a group of more wealthy foreigners sat down, so they left us students for them! But these kids had a line for everything....for example.....

Small child: only $5 for this book

Leslie: I don't have $5

Small child: ok, you can pay in baht

Leslie: I don't have baht either

Small child: I don't believe you. I think you have....you just don't want to pay

Leslie: exactly!

Small child 2: Only 1 dollar for a post card

Leslie: I dont have dollars

Small child 2: ok, 1000 baht

Leslie: What?! 1000 baht is $30!!

Small Child2 : grins and smirks.....yet cursing that he asked a smart foreigner....

Small child 3: Buy this book....only $8

Leslie: no I dont want a book I already have many

Small child 3: Well your boyfriend will like one

Leslie: I don't have a boyfriend

Small child 3: But if you buy this book, you will get a boyfriend!!!!

Breakfast came- I had noodles and vegetables with pork in soup. Not too bad, but not the best food I've eaten. Also had an orange shake which came out white, and didn't at all look orange.

First temple was smaller one with all the pictures of heads and faces carved into the rocks.

Here, you could pay for a picture of these ladies....or you could sneakily take one from a far using your zoom for free!

Next up was this elephant carving ruins- ruins with a whole heap of elephants carved into the walls- very cool!

After that, we again go harrassed to buy drinks....everyone tries to sell you cold drinks, lunch, and if you say no to lunch, they offer you snakcs.....or breakfast even! Anyways, back into the car, and we went to see the temple where tomb raider was filmed. To get there, you have to pay the police money to access the temple....ie, the guide has to pay the bribe..... This temple was really cool....all tree overgrowing everywhere.

At the tomraider temple, Leslie decided to test this theory of getting a boyfriend by buying a book. Here she is begging the men to read this book....read the booooook!

Found one.........!!!!!

After this, we went to the main temple which was amazing!

Finishing off our tour of Angkor Wat, we went back to the guesthouse to get the bus to Phnom Pehn....on the way we went down the main street of Siem Reap....like so

So, on the bus to Phnom Pehn, and the scenery was much the same......huts randomly placed everywhere, but no real towns or villages. Occassionally the bus would stop for someone to get off, and each time we would wonder why someone gets off there, coz there was nothing there. When we pulled up for a meal break, beggers swarmed the bus, so we gabe them some riel- the actual Cambodian currency, but it is so inflated, it is worth nothing, and virtually nowhere will accept it.

Arriving in Phnom Pehn, we took a tuk tuk with a guy we met on the bus who had a reservation at a hostel. This hostel helped us find a place since they were fully booked, which was nice of them. So we got a cheap room which was clean about 2 doors down! The guy at our hostel spoke really bad english, so much so, that no one could really understand him. But after much listening, I finally figured out how to tell what he wanted to say, and so we managed to arrange a bus back to Siem Reap the next day, and a tour of the sites in Phnom Pehn!

So, we went to find dinner and eventually stumbled on this Chinese restaurant which was really full but only with Cambodians...so we thought to try it! And it was awesome! First, Triscia can speak Chinese, and the waiter turned out to be from China and he couldnt speak Khemer and only a little English. So he was thrilled to chat with her all evening, and the food at this place was also amazing! Towards the end, this waiter whose name is Hang, came to offer us a tour of the city because he has a car. We told him we would like to find a place to try Khemer desserts, to which he responded by bringing us out some watermelon for dessert because all the places which sold khemer desserts were now closed! So, we asked for the bill to which he told us.....don't worry about the bill....it's on the house! Wow, so we had a delicious dinner for free, then Hang drove us all around the central part of the city to see it by night. Really interesting!

Here's us with Hang- the friendliest person in Phnom Pehn!

Arriving home we were exhausted, and sitting on my bed I noticed that the riel really was inflated....this is about $4 worth of riel!

Next morning we set out by tuk tuk to see the killing fields and the torture prison museum. Phnom Pehn tuk tuks are the best I have seen! So first stop was brreakfast...which turned out to be at the guest house we arrived at last night....2 houses down from ours! Wonder why the tuk tuk driver even bothered to drive us there when it would have taken 5 steps litterally!!! Anyways, the French influence is still there in Phnom Pehn so we had coffee (with condensed milk of course) and baguette with cheese for breakfast which was really really nice!

Going to the killing fields gave a us a chance to see the city's streets which ranged from this....

to this.....




At the killing fields, they have this big stupa, which houses the remains and bones that were dug up after the fall of Pol Pot. It is a really strange feeling at this place, but it is absolutely fascinating to see.

Here are some of the bones. Some of the skulls have fractures from axes which were used to kill people so as to save money by not using guns.

And this is a pile of clothes belonging to the people who were killed en mass at these killing fields.

Here are the ditches which the bodies were thrown into after being killed

We then tuk tukd it back into town to go to the S21 torture museum. This is the jail they kept people at to torture them before taking them to the killing fields.

Here is a cell used to keep officers in the old Cambodian government before Pol Pot took over

This is another form of cell used there also

Back to the gueshouse to then take the bus back to Siem Reap. Here is a stop in the middle of Cambodian whoop whoop.

We arrived back to at the Siem Reap bus depot, which is nothing more than a cleared area of dirt. I was looking out the window when a tuk tuk driver saw me....and even though I was still in the bus, he already started yelling...."sir sir tuk tuk tuk tuuuuuuuuuk"!!!! Then, the whole lot of them swarmed around the door of the bus, leaving us to litterally push and shove our way through them to get to our bags. One guy even claimed to have a VIP tuk tuk!! HAHAHA what is a VIP tuk tuk??!!! Looks the same as any other to me...and it was! We paid him a dollar and he took us to the river aread where we wanted to find a guest house. This turned out to be a good move because there was a dragon boat festival on which turns out to be quite famous and was on tv! So we had a look at the boat races and enjoyed the street food. These two little boys were selling the most delicious bread! It was kind of sweet and coconuty! Yum!

Then went to get some dinner. I opted for beef luclac which is a Khemer beef stir fried dish
and mine was served with green tomatoes!! Was really nice

After that we went to buy some Khemer Khanom, and met the nicest man who let us try all his products and we bought a lot from him! Very cheap too...and this nice man along with the other nice people like the boys selling bread and the guy at the hotel who gladly changed our money even though we weren't staying there restored our faith in people in Siem Reap.

The next morning we went to get on the bus which we had booked through to Bangkok. Here is the bus depot in Siem Reap

However, the bus we booked turned out not to exist...how surprising. So, we ended up on this bus which was overbooked, so much so that they had to put plastic picnic chairs in the aisle to fit everyone! And the luggage was precariously stacked behind us.....one bag kept falling on me and the Japanese guy sitting next to me's head:(

So, after arriving at the border, we were back into Thailand, and got on the van which took us back home to Bangkok! Awesome weekend away, and a real eye-opener. I recommend everyone to go to Cambodia!