Cambodia (History, Beaches and Bribes)

Cambodia didn't get off to the best of starts. We began our journey by getting ripped off at the border and paying $40 dollars for the visa, $10 dollars more than the advertised price. We then had to wait at the border for some reason, we were never entirely sure why. Finally we were on our way to Phenom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, but after only 30 minutes of driving we stopped at a restaurant and told that we would have to wait here for an hour and a half until our next bus came. When that bus did arrive (30 minutes late) we piled on and were pleasantly surprised to find that we had extra seats to stretch out in. However, we were delayed further as the driver decided to drive around the town and pick up as many people as he could to fill the spare seats. By this point everyone was itching to get going, knowing how long the journey ahead was going to be. When the driver couldn't find any more Cambodians to cram in we set off and drove some of the worst roads I have experienced so far, dirt roads which jolted and jumped constantly. We stopped again at Kratie to change into one last minibus. By this point we were running very late so the driver of this van really put his foot down. Luckily, the roads were much better and we got to enjoy the passing scenery a bit more. There was an absolutely beautiful sunset at one point and many interesting houses on stilts to ogle at. As we neared our destination our van was pulled over by the police who had a quick look around the van until they finally gave up the act and asked for money from us. We refused and continued to stand around. One German guy we were with in the van asked the police for a bottle of water and, whether that was the turning point or not, the police let us go without paying quickly after that.  After more than 12 hours travelling we finally arrived in the capital but the ordeal wasn't over. Our drivers assistant refused to drive us the 3km to the nearest hostel area and when we began to walk we watched the minivan drive past us in the direction we had asked to go. We brooded as we continued to walk but after walking about 5 minutes we were met by the driver of the last van who apologised for not giving us a lift and lead us to another van which drove us all the way to the door of a hostel which had been recommended to us, Top Banana. We walked upstairs to the busy but small bar (who thought it would be a good idea to have a hostel reception at the bar) and managed to book into the last room! We had delicious sushi from down the road to celebrate our arrival and then slept after a very stressful day! 

The next day we decided to visit the Khmer Rouge museum and killing fields, not the most fun day out but very important to do. For those of you who don't know about the Khmer Rouge (I knew nothing before either) it was the name of the communist party which were in power in Cambodia for just over 4 years and whose leader Pol Pot's extreme ideas of creating a utopian communist society lead to the murder of aproximately a quarter of the Cambodian population. One of the most hard hitting things about this atrocity is that it happened only 40 years ago between 1975-1979. The musuem was it the centre of Phenom Penh in a building orginally built as a school but used as the central detention centre during Khmer Rouge. The exhibiton inside was shocking and inciteful, one of the most affective parts being the rooms and rooms full of photos of the people that were held here out of which only 7 (or 11 depending on which account you read) survived. It included children, teachers, lawyers, intellectuals, rich, poor, men, women, and even some of Khmer Rouges own members who were accused of treason or not serving 'the organisation' well enough. Most people were brought here not knowing why and accused of spying for the USA or Russia. They were tortured until they wrongfully confessed and then sentenced to death. The killing fields were about 30 minutes drive from the city and was the place were the Khmer Rouge would carry out the mass excecutions, sometimes killing 300 people per night. You are lead around the now peaceful site accompanied by bird song and an audio guide which tells you about the horrors that occured there and the experience is a horrible and surreal one. They have chosen not to excavate all of the mass graves and so, with the rains, pieces of bone, teeth and scraps of clothing come to the surface. The staff there collect all of the remains every couple of months but while you walk around you can find yourself literally stepping over bones. My mind couldn't even conceive that they were real human remains, it was truely awful and reminded me of the feelings I had had whn I had visited Aushwitz in Poland a couple of years ago. We headed back to the hostel trying to understand what we had seen. When we returned we took a walk to the huge, beautifully lit, indepemdance monument and sat there for a while before going to sit in the bar at the hostel and enjoying the karaoke performances (and even partaking and singing Teenage Dirtbag ourselves) a lighthearted way to end a saddening day. Anyone visiting Cambodia should learn about Khmer Rouge as it is such an prevalent and recent event in the history of the country.

The following day we had a coach trip down to the south coast town of Sihanoukville. The town itself reminded me a lot of the coastal towns in Australia with tons of travel agents, dive centres, hostels and bars. It was a real backpacker hideout. We checked into a great hostel called The Big Easy and enjoyed the fire show on the beach that night. 

The following morning we rented a moped to explore the nearby beaches. We found one where we met a very persuasive and sassy girl selling bracelets. I refused to buy one until she beat me at noughts and crosses and I finally gave in. The second beach we found had the most comfortable chairs right on the sand and so I have a quick snooze with the sea breeze on my face which made me realise how much I had missed being by the ocean. As we drove around a police officer asked us to pull over and asked Grant for his license (which you dont really need) luckily he had his South African moped license and by using his knowledge of Afrikaans confused the police officer enough to minimise the 'fine' to one dollar only. Back in town we handed in our passports to get our Vietnam visas and booked a speed boat to the nearby island of Koh Rong for the next day. 

We left for Koh Rong in brilliant sunshine and soon realised that we were heading straight into what seemed like an endless rain cloud which encompassed the island. Luckily there were some hilarious middle aged French guys, obviously on a lads holiday, and an adorable asian family to keep us entertained with their antics until we arrived at Koh Rong in the middle of a monsoon. From the boat pier to the nearest bar/hostel/restaurant we got absolutely drenched with rain, not the best start to what we had planned to be a paradise island retreat, luckily the staff at the bar were really friendly and chilled and so we sat with them, ate some comfort food, and waited for the weather to tide over. Thankfully, the rain gave way to brilliant sunshine and we were finally able to see the beauty of the island. The main beach had ridiculously white and soft sand with numerous trendy, beachy hostels and restaurants and perfect palm trees lining the beach.

The sea was shallow and gloriously turquoise. My mood dramatically improved and we found a room at a great hostel called Bongs. That day we spent our time lying on the beach and not doing much else. The next day we were slightly more proactive, booking onto a half day boat trip around the island. The trip started with some snorkelling and then fishing, both of which were not the most fruitful of activities but still enjoyable. 

We then went to visit the deserted beach on the opposite side of the island from where we were staying. Here, the sand was even whiter and softer, so soft that it had the consistency of freshly fallen snow. We sunbathed and paddled in the warm water until our BBQ was ready.

The BBQ was made up of the measly fish we had caught earlier and some vegetable kebabs, yum. We stayed on the boat near the deserted beach to watch the sunset over the sea. Once it was dark it was time to see the bioluminescent plankton. I had already seen the plankton twice in Thailand but this was the best by far! The plankton was so bright and numerous it was abolutely magical! When people swam in the plankton they glowed with a thick sparkling aura. One guy dove down and I watched as a bright green ball of light sank down into the sea. If you kicked the water with your feet from the boat you could see the individual plankton flicker like stars and when people got out of the water back onto the boat you could sometimes see these stars stuck to their swimming costumes and skin. The sky was really clear that night too which meant that the thousands of stars in the sky mirrored the glittering in the water. It was a truely awe-inspiring sight. 

Our speed boat back to the mainland left in the afternoon the next day so we spent most of the morning relaxing on the beach. It was a particularly hot and clear day and so it wasn't long until we had to leave the beach to find shelter and an electric fan at our hostel. I realised that I didn't have my gopro camera with me and asked the hostel if they had had a camera handed in, which they said they hadn't. I was very worried by this point and decided to be extra vigilant and ask if I could speak to the Cambodian woman who cleaned the rooms to ask if she had seen it. One of the bar staff said she would ask and shockingly the cleaner admitted that she had found it and taken it to her sisters house. She said it in such a nonchalant way as if that was an ok thing to do. The bar staff member went with her to retrieve it but when I got it, it was missing the memory card. After a lot of asking and asking the cleaner finally went and got the memory card from her sister. I could not understand why they had taken the memory card out until I looked at the recent footage on the camera. There were about 6 videos of the cleaner and two other locals fiddling with the camera, trying to figure out how it worked. I showed the videos to the staff there, mainly just laughing at the stupidity of the situation, and the manager was seriously angry and embarassed that this had happened. He copied the videos onto his laptop to show the police and fired the cleaner. It was a bit of a downer to end my time on Koh Rong with but I was just thankful to have my camera and photos back and impressed with how well the staff at the hostel had dealt with the situation. Back in Sihanoukville we collected our passports with our fresh Vietnam visa, had some dinner and jumped aboard a bus to Siem Reap, this wasn't any ordinary bus though, this was an overnight 'hotel bus' with beds in it! 

We got to Siem Reap very early and taken by tuk tuk to our hostel where we spent the morning by the pool and at the nearby market waiting for our room to be ready to check in to. Not long after we checked in Sarah, Livvy and Sarah (I will call her Sarah L to avoid confusion) arrived at the hostel too! I went to university with Sarah and spent some time with her and Livvy in Melbourne at the end of my Aus trip. Sarah L is Livvys friend who is also travelling at the moment. It was really great to catch up with them and we spent a while filling eachother in on what had happened since I last saw them. We booked our two day trip to nearby Angkor Wat for the next day and went out for some dinner and a look around the market that evening. 

Our Angkor Wat tuk tuk driver picked us up the next morning, introducing himslef as Tom (which was obviously not his real name). We drove a few kilometres to get to the Angkor site. For those of you who don't know about Angkor, it is an ancient megacity, the biggest city of its time with a population of aproximately 1 million people. The city was populated from the 9th-15th century until it became abandoned. The reason for its abandonment varies depending on the source but it may have had something to do with a change in water levels in the essential river which ran through the city, diesease or war. The city spreads over miles and miles and has about 1000 temple ruins. A small percentage of these have been conserved and opened as a popular tour route for visitors. The biggest temple, and in fact the biggest religious building in the world, is Angkor Wat, literally translated to mean Angkor Temple. We did not visit this one on our first day however and did some of the temples on the outskirts instead. Walking around these crumbling buildings makes you feel like a real adventure and your mind can't help but wonder what life was like back when these buildings were first built. What did they look like in all their glory, what were they used for? 

One if the most striking things were how detailed the buildings were. Each wall was covered with individual carvings and murals each with their own special meanings. We saw about 5 temples on the first day and the second day started even earlier. One of the recommended things to do in Angkor is to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat so we joined a small crowd to watch as the sky went from black to dark red to pink to yellow and finally to blue.

The next temple we went to was my favourite of all the temples and was made up of many tall sanctums with a face on each of the four sides.

 We also visited the temple which was made famous by the film Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie as the main character Lara Croft. Parts of the film were filmed here although all the inside shots were created at pinewood studios. This temple was particularly crumbling, looking as if it was being consumed by the surrounding jungle. Huge trees were growing in and around the man made structure providing an eeiry but beautiful setting.

We got back from our Angkor adventure around 3pm had lunch at a great french cafe and a well needed nap at our hostel before heading out for dinner and drinks on Siem Reaps main party street, the aptly named Pub Street. We met up with some more people from our hostel and ended up dancing in the street with this amazing young girl who was selling bracelets but also happened to be the most incredible hip hop dancer who won every dance off that she was challenged to. 

What do you need after two days of walking around crumbling temples for hours on end? A pamper day of course! So after a lie-in we went back to the french cafe for a long lunch then dropped into a massage parlour where the girls got a great foot, shoulder and neck massage and Grant decided to go for the full body sports massage. Not feeling like we had been pampered enough we then got pedicures (apart from Grant, although I am sure he would have loved one) it was the girliest thing I have done for a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed it! We went back to the hostel and enjoyed the pool for the last time until it was time to get on our overnight bus to Phenom Penh. The next morning when we arrived it was time to say goodbye to Sarah, Sarah and Livvy and work out how we were going to get over the border to Vietnam. Originally we wanted to get a boat down the Mekong to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) but after comparing prices and lengths of journey we instead decided to get a bus which would get us there the same day. So we said a goodbye the Cambodia, a country which we had only been in for 10 days but which had shown us its shocking history, beautiful beaches and ancient temples but had also been the most stressful country to be a tourist in. Constant pestering by tuk tuk drivers, having to bribe police officers and border control and overpriced food. Cambodia is a must see country in south east asia but not always the most enjoyable. 

Next stop Vietnam! A place that I have heard the most positive reviews about and that has a lot to offer us, bring it on!

Thanks for reading 

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