9 days in the land of Khmer

WARNING : Next post might be very contrary to the horror stories you hear about Cambodia and might even convince you to go...

Last breakfast in Laos and then small boat ride and minivan ride, later we arrived at the Laos – Cambodian border. Got off from the bus and walked into no man's land, to be greeted by officials waving the visa-on-arrival documents.

After filling in the form, we paid the $20 visafee and as it was weekend we also had to pay $2 overtime fee to the poor officials that had to work on their “free” day. You can either complain about it, raise your voice, bang on the table, even threaten the man's offspring but in the end if you want the visa, you better pay the fee.

Our bus was full so we were put in a car where it was a comfy ride to Stung Treng, where we had a lunchbreak. I walked to the market five minutes away to exchange $ for the Cambodian Riel and bought some watermelon, which Angela happily dug into only to dispose off a couple of hours later when we arrived at Kratie, our first overnight stop in Cambodia. Angela stayed in the room to dispose the watermelon some more whilst I went into town. Kratie is the spot to also go and visit the same dolphins we saw in Laos, so many offers to go and see them again which I politely declined.

You hear many tourist complain about all the hassle from sellers to buy their goods or offering you rides. Just acknowledge their existence with a nod and a “no thank you” preferably in their language. You'll be doing this many times a day but it's up to you to let it get to you or not. The first is an assured irritation which will lead to not liking the people or their country, the latter an assured peaceful walking down the streets.

Next day off to Phnom Penh, where we checked in at the OKAY guesthouse were we got the mushroom room. Not because of the painting but because of the fungus decoration. Next night we moved into a well ventilated clean room.

Phnom Pehn is a so called danger zone where it's dangerous to go out at night, have to keep your guard 24/7 and need 360 vision to cross the street. Not sure if everyone was talking about this Phnom Pehn cause we saw nothing to justify this. Traffic however is hectic. Just cross with a steady pace and the traffic will swerve around. A sea of cars, motorbikes and cyclos that opens like the sea for Mozes. Never stop however cause this will be erratic behavior and a certain method to get run over. This is how you cross streets in all major cities, Saigon being the most fun and spectacular city to do this.

We immediately took a liking to PP and also knew what others didn't like about it. PP is a city of contrasts, which you love or you hate. It has a nice riverside promenade, with their version of the blauwe steen at the Schelde with many cheap or expensive eats, easy transportation, nice buildings to visit and nice people to add a nice touch.

However it's a very dirty city as people just throw away any garbage on the street, but next morning it is all clean again. Cambodia is ridden with NGO's all working their own field and bringing in a lot of money for the country. With them also come many well paid expats and thus fancy boutiques, big cars, high shiny skyscrapers. On the other hand, you see tonnes of beggars, young and old, families living on the streets and this not just in a back alley but right there on every street. While you are having a $ 4 gourmet meal (what an average Cambodian could live of for 4 days) about 5 beggars will come up to your table asking to buy something from them or just give money. The waiters just leave them be and allow them into their restaurants.

This is were the fun starts for us. People really don't like to be disturbed on their holidays by beggars or scenes of poverty. Some tourists get angry, some get sad. But generally, all ignore this frail, begging, malnourished hand that asks for help. We always say hello and tell them we are not going to give anything. This might sound harsh but if you give money to kids they will first of all never be able to keep it and second will learn that begging is rewarding and so remain beggars and dependant on charity all their lives. We gave occasionally but never to children. Always to victims of mines or of diseases like polio and then never more than 2.000 riel = $ 0,5.

The difference between the rich and the poor is baffling and we'll find it nowhere else in any country we'll visit.

What people see when they see poverty is in fact a mirror and they don't like the reflection : there you are flying all the way across the world, your nice clothes, digital camera, hundreds of $, staying in a nice room and there the poor are with hardly any option to ever get out of it. If you think they are annoying, just know that you can always go back to your country but they will stay begging there forever...

PP is not only about people watching but also sightseeing.

We went to a restaurant where former street children were trained to be waiters. Excellent food with perfect presentation and there we met an english couple that were on their way to Laos so we exchanged our Rough Guides for theirs and there was great rejoice.

After dinner we went to the river promenade to have an Angkor beer next to the locals, where we saw a thunderstorm getting closer and closer with the lightning getting more intense. Very nice spectacle indeed.

Woke up at 4 thinking about poverty, couldn't fall back asleep again so decided to get up and go for a walk. I expected a quiet sleepy city but nothing could be further from the truth. People setting up their marketstalls, tuk tuk drivers arriving at the hotels so they would be the first in line to pick up passengers,

tonnes of people at the park getting their morning exercise playing badminton, soccer, volleybal... People sweeping the street to get it clean. Not with a truck equiped for that, but just with an oldfashioned broom and a lot of sweat. Next time you wonder why they are all taking an afternoon nap is because they were up since 4 while you were still in dreamland.

After a nice bagel with cream cheese we headed for the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, where we found a tremendous collection of Buddha images from all over SE Asia with a very remarkable marble one from Burma and a golden one encrusted with lots of huge diamonds.

Here we also had to arrange our Burmese visa so we went to the embassy, left our passports there and it was time to move onto Siem Reap and the amazing temple complex of Angkor!

A 6 hour bus ride later and almost deafened by the constant beeping of the driver we arrived at Siem Reap and checked into the Red Lodge GH.

The chique in PP pales in comparison to SR. Here the gap is even bigger thanks to the tourism industry, where expensive hotels and resorts are everywhere, mixed with the poor locals. Went for a walk around town and found a nice park with beautiful tall trees. Dusk was setting in and we could see that the trees where inhabited by giant bats that started flying to get their meals. There in my hair, there in my hair!

Next morning was time to visit the temples. Got ourselves a tuk tuk driver Non who would drive us around for the following two days.

We decided to leave Angkor Wat for the last and work our way upto the older temples first. Angkor is not just one famous temple but a whole bunch of them built by kings, who always wanted to make a nicer one than that of the previous king. You really see the sandstone carvings get more elaborate and the temples getting bigger.

Angkor is big business and you see hordes of tourists, so get in early if you want peace and quiet.

At every temple you'll also get the company of kids wanting to sell you postcards or steering you to their families' stand for water or soft drink. “buy postcard mister? Only $1. Maybe later OK? You remember me and buy my water OK? Why don't you buy? You don't like my postcards?”

Almost all the temples we visited are worth a visit cause they all have one or more features that seperates them from other temples. Don't try to see them all, just pick out a few and really absorb them instead of trying to visit as many as possible, without really seeing them. Ta keo, the famous Ta Prohm surrounded by jungle, where they filmed some scenes from the Tomb Raider movie, Pre Rup with its brick towers, Ta Som and Neak Pean..

You also see the power and time nature has...

Walking a lot and the heat take their toll and after a day of visiting temples is nice to have a cold shower and go to the $1 street stalls for some delicious noodle dish and refreshing lemon juice and treat yourself to some cake that is 50% off because the shop is about to close.

Another day, another temple. First a 38 km drive to Bantaey Samre which is off the main tourist trail and was completely deserted. It was without a doubt the most stunning temple we saw. When I took my last picture there our camera also died. Cambodia has luxury items but they are very expensive so we bought a disposable camera for the rest of Cambodia and decided to buy a new one when we arrived to Vietnam where they produce the stuff, so no more photos for the rest of this blog.

Off to Bantaey Srei for wonderful sandstone carvings. On the way back we visited the landmine museum funded by Aki Ra a former Khmer Rouge soldier who specialized in land mines and now with his knowledge is trying to have a mine free country, which will also help him to stop his nightmares.

Back in SR we look for a hotel with a pool and go for a swim to wash away the yellow dust, mixed with sweat and sunscreen.

Driving to and from the complex of temples, we passed by Khanta Bopha hospital, were we saw posters of a Swiss doctor “Beatocello”. On tuesday and thursday evenings you could see a movie at the hospital about his project and on saturday he always plays the cello for the audience showing up in big numbers.

He's quite the controversial figure, as he at one time sued the WHO and UNICEF for their passive genocide of children as he calls it. We really liked what he said. Stepping into the hospital you think you've stepped into a very fancy western hospital that makes you think what this kind of hospital is doing in this kind of country? He explains why. He believes that you can't help the people enough in a third world hospital. What's the use of a band aid when the kids need surgery? All kids in the 4 hospitals nationwide receive all treatment for free!!! A cough or a landmine victim, all get treated free of charge. The average consultation brings with it a cost of $170. Biggest cost is medicine and only 35% is cost for personnel and administration whereas with UNICEF can reach as high as 85%. The 4 hospitals are privately funded and need $ 20 million dollar a year. To the young he asks blood, the old he asks money, from us he got both.

Last day in SR and we take the bikes to cycle the 10km to Angkor Wat but first we go and see Angkor Thom with the spooky and mysterious Bayon, displaying hunderds of identical massive smiling faces, that seem to look back at you. Phnom Bakeng which is worth the steep climb just for the view. I fall victim to a flat tyre which is easily and skillfully repaired, so we can visit Angkor Wat.

The vasteness of the temple is enormous. The closer you get the smaller you feel. Because some people not knowing how to use stairs thereby breaking their legs and even losing their lives it is no longer allowed to climb the stairs, for a surely amazing view of the surroundings.

This all said Angkor Wat isn't the nicest or most intruiging but it's surely an impressive piece of architecture.

Back to PP to visit the Killing Fields and the prison of Tuol Sleng.

During the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975 to 1979 reportedly in between 1 and 2 million people died either through torture, killing, malnutrition,... We met a Canadian who married a Cambodian who survived the camps and she told us that the movie “the killing fields” gives a good idea but in reality it was much worse.

We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to the Killing fields for $8 and what we saw there can only be described as suffering. You see a tall glass obelisk, of which in the bottom you can see a pile of clothes of the people that were brought here to be exterminated. The rest of the obelisk is filled with the almost 9.000 skulls they found in the mass graves surrounding the site, of which many are still to be uncovered. When walking around the site you see different pits : one where they found only old people, one where they found many children, close to a tree where they could throw them against first... You also see that in the ground are still pieces of fabric of the clothes the people were wearing. You can only be silent and think about how the world let this happen and even supported the Khmer Rouge, but then you realize that it still keeps happening now and that we still don't do anything about it.

How lucky we are with our Western way of life.

On the way back our driver changed the rules and decided to charge us $ 8 to and 8 back, which lead to a big discussion, after us threatening him to pay only half and taking another tuk tuk, he took us back to the city and still claimed more money. Too bad for him, we had plenty of time, so I just sat down on the curb having a sip of water while he was losing time and possible fares. After 5 minutes, he was happy with the original 8 we agreed upon.

Now it was off to Tuol Sleng where we visited the s-21 school, which was a school that was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a torture center, or re-education center as they used to call it.You can see many portraits taken of victims, as well as the beds and pictures of the last burned victims found, the small prisons where they were kept and the torture techniques used by the Pol Pot regime. The whole exhibition leaves you speechless and at a loss for words.

We picked up our passports and next day it was off to Saigon in crazy Vietnam.

Cambodia was the victim of our trip as we only have 4 months to visit 5 countries but our 9 day visit was a highlight in our trip, because of the violent history of the country, beautiful Angkor and the contrasts between rich and poor all made this a very interesting country.