Phomn Penh and Siem Reap - Cambodia
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2009
1
6
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Spring Guest House
Guest House
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Cambodia, a country that was not part of the original plan but a necessary diversion in order to renew our Thailand visa and, as many travelers advised, a super addition to our itinerary. Cambodia was a mixed bag conceptually having received really high marks from many travelers and as many words of caution from other sources. Our research results varied from an Australian issued travel warnings that warned of potential life threatening experiences, to multitudes of travelers reporting that Cambodia offers a beautiful experience and has no more risk than places we'd traveled already. We were also considering the fact that we were currently in Thailand and there was concern about the rising tensions between Thailand and Cambodia regarding a former Thai Prime Minister Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled from Thailand as a fugitive and was recently appointed Economic Adviser in Cambodia. We finally decided Cambodia is a place not to be surpassed so we pushed forward with a backup plan (just in case they close the Cambodia-Thailand border) to travel through Laos back to Thailand so we could renew our Thai visa and catch our flight out of Bangkok to Tokyo for the next leg of our adventure.
We flew into the Cambodia capitol of Phnom Penh from Bangkok and our first interaction with Cambodians unfortunately was yet another scam. Passports cost $20 US, but we didn't have any US dollars so we asked if we could pay in Thai Baht, the equivalent being about 660 B. Officials at border patrol demanded 900 Baht, almost 50% more given the current exchange rate. Of course, the new charge of 900 Baht was not posted anywhere. As it turned out, ATMs in Cambodia all dispense US currency since it is a stronger currency then the Cambodian Riel, so we were able to get the correct US amount and save our Baht for our return to Thailand. Happily our experience in Cambodia was relatively scam free after that, the Cambodia lonely planet guide was excellent at giving us the heads up on a few other tactics used by local tuk tuk drivers (tuk tuk is essentially a moped pulling a chariot with seats, this is a key form of short transportation in Cambodia and Thailand) so we were able to play the game with relatively little frustration. We wondered why so many scams are in the making, which frustrates travelers who are a very important source of income for many, but as we learned more it became clear. The average Cambodian is very poor, those that have jobs are averaging $40 US per month, that's less than many westerners make per hour. Most scams are only for a few dollars, which to many westerners won't break the bank, but to them it's a week's salary. There really is no justification for it but this thought process weighs well against the frustration.
Our first day in Phnom Penh proved to be a somber one as we learned about Cambodia's history, so much so that I'm going to elaborate on it in this post in hopes that somehow it touches our friends and readers around the world and promotes compassion and peace rather than anger and aggression. We visited two locations associated with the atrocities that took place in Cambodia in the mid to late 1970's: the Choeung Ek Extermination Camp, or locally referred to as The Killing Fields, and Tuol Sleng Prison, or locally known as S-21 Prison. We started off with a tuk tuk ride to The Killing Fields about 15 Kilometers outside of Phnom Penh. The drive itself proved interesting as we hit a serious traffic jam half way out. We then realized the full value of having a small tuk tuk as we weaved on and off of the road, onto sidewalks, and over driveways to get passed the jam. We had a great time people-watching throughout the ride and enjoying locals' reactions to my out-of-control beard and funky hair cut that I'm sporting these days. I've been told that most Southeast Asians cannot grow a beard so it's an odd thing for them to see mine at 3 inches long or so. Many good laughs and short conversations made the ride seem much shorter than it was.
Once we arrived at the Killing Fields our mood quickly changed as we learned of the mass genocide that took place in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. We started at a building where the story was told of the Khmer Rouge's coup overthrowing the government in 1975. Over the following 3 years and 8 months the regime would implement one of the most radical, brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted. Under the leader Pol Pot, the regime attempted to equalize all citizens to peasant status and completely revamp economic strategies. After the take-over of each urban area, soldiers were sent through all the cities to inform all residents that they were required to immediately leave their homes and take everything they own to head out to the countryside. Their fabricated excuse to motivate everyone to evacuate was that the US was coming to bomb the towns so everyone had to leave for "only" 3 days. But three days passed, and the people were never actually allowed to return to their homes. If they refused to comply and put up a fight they were labeled a traitor and thrown in prison. The next step in their process was to weed out all the educated, wealthy, distinguished, religious people of any kind and have them imprisoned. This was to quickly eradicate anyone who had the ability to organize any sort of revolt. It was believed that these individuals were not likely to easily accept their imposed transition to a peasant farm worker so it was easiest to just permanently remove them. All across the country education was stopped and schools were converted to prisons where innocent citizens were held along with their families. People were jailed for a little as speaking a foreign language or wearing eye glasses (which indicated that you must have some kind of money if you can afford them). Young boys were brainwashed, converted to Khmer Rouge soldiers and forced to torture and kill, including often times their own friends and family. In fear of any sort of revolt being organized all prisoners were considered suspects so they were interrogated and tortured beyond belief.
In the 3.5 years more then 19,000 innocent Cambodian men, woman, and children were slaughtered in the one extermination camp we visited alone. Across the country nearly 2 million victims (of a total Cambodian population of 7 million) would suffer the same demise under the hands of their own people. At no time in history has there been an atrocity of this scale executed on a country's own people. As we walked through the Killing Fields, we could view 86 of the 129 total mass graves that were excavated; one grave was found next to a large tree was filled with children, the sign on the tree read "Killing tree against which executioners beat children". Another sign read "Mass grave of 166 victims found with no heads". In this one killing field a total of 8985 bodies were unearthed, the remaining bodies remain buried in the field. As you walk through the area the paths have worn down to where human bones are showing through the dirt near the surface. Human teeth are scattered around the surface like pebbles on a beach. We were walking around there with lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes, and it was one of the harshest realities I've ever experienced.
The monument at the Killing Fields was several stories high and included a frame structure supporting several large shelves surrounded by glass on 4 sides. The shelves contained the bones and clothes of the some of the victims that had been removed from the mass graves to date. Skulls, many cracked, others with bullet holes in them, and others with broken jaws were housed on the lower levels. A place for prayer in front of the monument drew many offerings from Cambodians and foreigners alike.
Although the top dog Pol Pot died in 1998 of natural causes, several other key leaders are on trial right now for the crimes committed during this period. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/17/war-crimes-tribunal-cambodia
As we left The Killing Field's front gate I was greeted by a one-legged man in scruffy clothes asking for some spare change. There are many people with missing limbs in Cambodia, mainly due to the estimated 4 to 6 million landmines that remain scattered throughout the country. As this is also a harsh reality of Cambodian life I requested to take his picture and gave him a donation. Within seconds of having my wallet out I was surrounded by children begging for a share. By this point my perception has completely changed, I now realize why so many here have so little, or at least one big reason. Not only have they been ravaged by the Vietnam and Cambodian wars of the 60's and 70's but their ability as a nation to thrive, prosper and progress was significantly set back when the educated and most capable portion of the population were largely exterminated. It will surely be a slow climb out for these wonderful people- so if anyone is looking for a place to volunteer or donate in any way my recommendation is to check out Cambodia. Also, I was impressed with the Cambodian government's decision to fund the creation of museums and monuments at multiple killing fields across the country in remembrance of what happened in an effort to educate everyone and prevent such an atrocity from ever happening again.
We continued on to the S-21 Museum, which was a school converted into a prison during the Khmer Rouge. I'll spare some of the most gruesome details in this post, but be warned if you ever visit S-21 museum, there are no holds barred from actual killing tools to blood stained cell floors to graphic pictures. We happened to get a guide who lived through it. Our guide told us that once an individual and his/her family were sufficiently tortured so the Khmer Rouge felt there was no further information to extract, those that were still alive at S-21 were systematically loaded on trucks and carted out to their final demise in the Killing Fields. Standard farming tools were most often used so as to not waste bullets- hoes, hammers, shovels, knifes, bamboo sticks, anything that could deliver a deadly blow. Tools found from The Killing Fields were on display and we could only imagine how many lives were taken by each. Our guide informed us that in total, there were only 7 prisoner survivors from S-21 at the time of the Khmer Rouge's fall from power. In an effort to hide the evidence, there was a mad rush to kill everyone imprisoned as the inevitability of their takeover neared. However there were a few who made it out by luck during the period. For instance our guide was imprisoned as a young boy, found after his entire family had met a gruesome fate (his father was a teacher). In fear of children later seeking revenge it was decided that not only would the educated adults be killed but their families (including babies) as well. His process had begun, he was whipped almost to death and thrown in a completely dark cell for days as part of the torture process- he showed us his some of his scars. One day his cell door opened and a man entered with some scraps of food. It was then that our guide realized that his prison guard was actually an old teacher who had taught with his father. The guard realized who the boy was and told him to "hold on", and that he would do what he could to save him. A couple of days later the door opened again and miraculously our guide was released. To this day, our guide does not know what exaclty the prison guard said or did but he does know that just a few days after his release, the guard that saved his life was executed by the Khmer Rouge. Our guide thinks that either it was found out that his prison guard was lying about being educated or he paid the ultimate price to save a young boy's life.
The following day we headed to Siem Reap on a long bus ride. It was actually a great way to travel as we got a great view of the countryside and a glimpse of what life is like for folks outside the city and tourist areas. I spent the better part of 6 hours just looking at the beautiful countryside, villages, and everything in between. Cambodia's interior is generally flat and mostly wetlands. This is great for growing rice which is a staple food here. Picture wetlands for miles with the odd palm tree towering into the sky. Some bushes and trees here and there but sparse. Throughout nearly the entire ride there were homes along the highway edges. Houses mostly consist of a square bamboo frames, palm leaf walls and roofs surrounding one room. The house is typically raised about 6 feet off the ground which we later learned is to make an open but shaded lower level to enjoy during the hot days for family and animals. Each house had a pond dug at roads edge, usually a driveway separated your pond from the neighbors. The pond seemed to have multiple uses as I saw kids swimming, people bathing, others fishing, in many there were water buffalo lying in to cool off. We stopped at a market about mid journey and holy wow what a surprise we got when we saw what the main attraction was for dinner..... Check out htese photos.
What really amazes me about this place is that everyone seemed so content, children were laughing and playing, adults often were sitting in the shade chatting with smiles on their faces and laughing. After spending a week in Cambodia I'm amazed that those who have had such a hard go at it and have so little are so happy and so welcoming. When I think about the people I see every day in North America who have road rage over having to wait a few extra seconds for someone to decide which direction they are going, or angry because someone scored the last doll at Walmart and now they need to trek to a different store to get exactly what their spoiled child wants.... man it's a serious reality check. And I'm not just writing about others here, I'm as guilty as anyone else. Bottom line is everyone's reality is relative to their experiences and unfortunately even with all the media and other sources of information most of us remain ingnorant of the greater relativity to which our lives should be compared. If only we could all take the time to visit less fortunate countries there might be more patience, compassion, and generosity across the globe...
Ok I'll get off my soap box now and circle back to our adventures in Siem Reap, our final destination in Cambodia. Siem Reap was way more built up than I expected, we found a bustling town with everything from 5 Star hotels to clubs, to any cuisine you wanted. There were thousands of vacationers of all ethnicities streaming the streets and, of course, the incredible temples of the Angkor Era which were the main attraction and the focus of our visit. We also met a really great guy named Bruno through couchsurfing that is now living in Siem Reap, who helped us get set up with a brand new guest house before we even arrived. Angkor Park Guest house was new with large rooms fully loaded for just $12 US per night ($7 if you can do without AC). After a night without, we decided to add the extra comfort for $5 and were quite happy. Bruno also organized a dinner/drinks gathering one night with a bunch of "Couchsurfers" from all around the world. We've been doing this in several countries and it's always great to hear other peoples' travel stories. Thanks Bruno!
We were greeted by a tuk tuk driver, which was arranged by our driver back in Phnom Penh. We were mentally well-prepared for the pending scams of A) them overcharging for driving us to the temples in future days and B) overcharging for guide services, and 3) convincing you your guest house has no vacancies, so they can take you to a different guest house where they receive a commission for bringing you there (often a driver will take you to their "preferred" guest house instead of where you ask them so travelers really need to be firm on where you want to be taken). The tuk tuk drivers may provide the "Free" ride from the bus terminal to town but once in-route let you know the "Free" ride comes with an expectation to use their services later. As it turned out we already had a great local guide lined up (Cha Cha), through a friend of Beth's (Thanks Charmaine!) as well as a guest house reservation so all we needed was a driver. The tuk tuk that picked us up actually turned out to be a team, the driver up front and with the English-speaking business man sitting with us in the back who quickly got frustrated as we played the system with him. We eventually agreed to use his driver for the following day at the going price of $12 (instead of $20 he started with) while he continued to press us to negotiate further for even more of the following days in the morning. I was not impressed with his attitude so needless to say that would be the end of our engagement.
We arrived at the Angkor Park guest house, dropped off our bags and headed out for dinner. The guest house is right on the south corner of town so within a few feet we were in to the thick of things. We were really surprised to find a restaurant called "The Why Not Restaurant" (see Malaysia and Thailand posts for reference) so we had to take pics to send to Fab and Julia and eat there.
The next morning we met Cha Cha and our tuk tuk team to head off to Ankgor Wat and other temples. Although our unfriendly business man was insistent on putting a plan together for the following days of Temple visits we basically blew him off and headed north for the awesome temples. We got to know Cha Cha a little bit on the ride there and found him to be an incredibly friendly person who had a rough life and a big heart. We learned that almost his entire family was basically eradicated during the Cambodian atrocities of the late 70's. Only he, a 3 month old at the time, and his grandmother survived. So he was raised by his grandma in his earliest years, then by monks at a local monestry where he learned English with a British accent. Cha Cha is a farmer, farming rice mainly and also raising animals in a village outside Siem Reap. He has a second "job" where he volunteers teaching English to the children of his community and neighboring communities. This he does out of the goodness of his heart, 5 hours per day, 6 days per week where he helps more then 200 poor and underprivileged children the important skill of speaking English. (Learning to speak English opens up a world of opportunities they would have never had otherwise.) He created the school from a donation from abroad, and he only allows children to enroll in the school if are truly in financial dire straights, and need a helping hand. So we arranged with him to end our day touring the Angkor ruins a little short so we could spend the remainder of the day with his students.
The Temples around the Ankor are ancient built between the 9th and 13th centuries when the Khmer civilization was at the height of it's creativity. There are many temples East and north of Siem Reap (somewhere around 100) each uniquely architected. The Kings of the time seemed to have a desire to "one up" the last creating bigger, more elaborate designs. As you'll see in the pictures we too many of them have been damaged significantly over the last few hundred years mainly due to vegetation growing in and amongst then but also due to weather as most of the monuments are made from sandstone which is fairly soft.
It's recommended to spend at least 3 days touring the temples so we purchased a 3 day pass. Since Cha Cha was only available for one day we decided to hit the best 2 temples of the lot, Ankgor Thom and Ankgor Wat (Ankgor means City, Wat means Temple, and Thom is some dude's name ;-). Angkor Thom, built in the 12th century by Angkor's greatest builder King Jayavarman VII, is the largest of all the temples. It is a 10 square mile city enclosed by a huge stone wall and moat. We started with the main temple called The Bayon at the center of the city. This magnificant structure consists of 3 levels containing 1200 Meters of bas reliefs (wall carvings) depicting Cambodian history of the times. But Bayon's most notable feature is it's some 200 giant icily smiling faces of Avalokitesvara. These faces adorn the tops of some 54 towers of the temple. Next we visited The Baphuon, another monument in Angkor Thom city which is a Pyramidal representation of Mt. Meru built by Udayadityavarman II in the 10th Century. Our last stop in this tremendous city was the Elephant Terrace, 350M long it was used for ceremonies and the King's grand audience hall.
After a full morning of Ankgor Thom we headed for a little lunch where Beth and I shared a thirst quenching fresh young coconut and our favorite Cambodian dish, Amok. Amok is a mix of some combination of vegetables, meat and/or fish bathed in a thick curry based sauce served with a side bowl of rice. It's usually spicier than we'd like, but the taste was amazing virtually everywhere we ordered it, really one of my favorites in our travels thus far.
Angkor Wat was our next and final stop before heading out to the country to Cha Cha's village to volunteer. Ankgor Wat being the most famous of all the temples in the area is a stunning array of monuments surrounded again by a massive fortified wall and a large moat (1.5KM x 1.3 KM). This monument was built by King Suryavarman II in the 10th century. It is said to be one of the most inspired and spectacular monuments ever conceived by the human mind. Oddly enough the realities of the distant and recent pasts collided when we ran across several bullet holes from the Cambodia/Vietnam wars of the 70's.
We then headed out with our tuk tuk to Cha Cha's village about 45 minutes from the temples to help teach English class. After a highway, windy back streets, and a short walk we arrived at a small Cambodian village set amongst the banana and coconut trees. As we made our way along the village path, virtually everyone stopped what they were doing and offered a wave and friendly smile. Cha Cha's school was simple in design, essentially an open space consisting of a series of wooden posts with a roof top. The classroom furniture consisted of rows of long bench-top desks, chairs and a whiteboard. When we arrived the classroom was filled to capacity, and class had already begun with Cha Cha's assistant at the helm. We were graciously welcomed in English by the well orchestrated class then proceeded with our introductions followed by questions from the group to us about where we were from and such. Each hour the class would complete and more children would arrive for the next session. We had such a great time with the kids, they were warm and welcoming and many belly laughs were had by all.
The following day Beth and I decided to make the trek to the temples on our own. We rented bikes for about $1 US for the day and headed out to the Cambodian countryside toward the Roluos Group of Temples. It was quite a trek by bicycle taking nearly one hour at a pretty fast clip (well for beach cruisers anyway). I'm not sure I would try this one again however... The roads are not equipped with bike lanes and the vehicles have no smog prevention equipment so besides being a little sketched by traffic we had a good bit of black soot up our nose by the end of it. The Ruluos Temples are among the oldest temples in the area dating back to the 9th century. The temples were definitely showing their age but we did meet an Archeologist who had been working on Preah Ko Temple for nearly 10 years as part of a long term restoration project. He was kind enough to come down off his scaffold to greet us and tell us a little about his work. The second of 2 temples we saw there was Bakong which is a 5 tier central temple flanked by 8 towers. We enjoyed the first bit of sunset there but then had to get going for our hour long ride back as we really wanted to be within the urban area before it was too dark since there are no street lights further out.
For our third and final day of temple sightseeing we reverted back to the tuk tuk system. We quickly found ourselves a friendly driver and negotiated a fair prices for our day's adventure. We visited four temples in a short time, Preah Khan, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, and then we watched a semi-spectacular sunset at Pre Rup. The most interesting of these temples was Ta Prohm. This temple is in it's original state, unrestored, and resides in a vast jungle of winding roots and gigantic trees. It's truly spectacular to see how the jungle has engulfed stone walls and in some cases entire structures, and it makes for great photo ops as well.
Cambodia was such an amazing experience...in the end, we were happy that we had a surprise kink in our original Thailand travel plans and we were forced to make a detour into a bordering country. With our flight back to Bangkok to see northern Thailand upon us, we both wished we had more than a week in Cambodia.
Comments
>"most of the trip, gotta eat here"
Haha, I like that!
I'm glad that you guys are having amazing experience. Miss my trip from last year.
Thanks for the details on Cambodia. Very sad story. Sounds like your trip is going very well. I would take a pass on the deep fried tarantulas. . .