The Highs and Lows of Cambodia (Phnom Penh Part Deux) and Malling in Bangkok
Bangkok, Thailand

Okay, it's Sunday afternoon in Bangkok, we are leaving soon for Trang on the overnight train, better get my blogs going!

Okay let's go back in time...

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Wednesday, January 28th, 2004, 10:15 PM


Okay, it’s Wednesday night, and we’re chilling after our second day of wandering the Angkor Temples. Winston (HBO Boy) is chillin’ in front of the tube, Jen is showering, trying to recover from our early morning. I’ve been too wasted to blog lately so I have a few days to catch up on, so let’s start with Phnom Penh.

Monday, January 26th


Woah, pretty tired today, quite a full day exploring Phnom Penh, now we have to prepare for a 7 AM boat tomorrow to Siam Riep. Gonna be a rough morning!

Okay, what happened today?


NOTE: I will be describing rather nasty areas of Cambodia’s recent past, the Khmer Rouge Regime was brutal and disgusting in its mass genocide. They even “cleansed” many of their own factions. My brief knowledge of Cambodian History (Lonely Planet, the Cole’s Notes of History) is not sufficient to explain it all, besides, you should just pick up a book!

If you are easily offended, or are annoyed by my mini-rants, skip the sections on the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Museum.

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Our taxi driver (young guy from Singapore, named Bunlim, pretty nice) picked us up at 9 AM for our trip to the killing fields. Kinda funny how a 13 km drive can take 45 minutes eh? Apparently Cambodia has some of the worst roads in the world, seemed pretty similar to Vietnam to me.

Our drive to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (actually the largest one of many) took us through the Cambodian country-side, where the largely dirt roads are flanked by Chankiri trees, a fine clay dust blankets the surroundings whenever traffic passes by. Pretty lousy roads, but at least the scenery was interesting. The Cambodian country side looks pretty familiar, a bit like Vietnam. Quieter though, less honking!

The Killing Fields are strangely peaceful, if it weren’t for the holes dug in the ground (for exhuming the mass graves) and the signs marking “relevant” areas, you would never know that about 17,000 people were exterminated here (often by bludgeoning to save bullets). There are a couple Chinese gravestones found there (dated 1960’s says Jen), some piles of bone fragments and clothing are found scattered here and there for effect perhaps?

A particularly disgusting area is the tree where infants were beaten to death. A sign points this out so tourists can take their pictures, lament on how sad the whole thing is, and carry on with their tour. I admit, I took my pictures (as did everyone else), lamented, and continued. I didn’t realize just how disgusting the beatings were, until I saw a painting (from one of the few escapees) depicting the acts. Just sick.

It is frightening how some of the worst crimes against society can become tourist attractions. An example is the Cu Chi Tunnels (from yesterday) where weapons of war (machine guns of all sorts) are used to entertain trigger happy tourists ($1 a bullet eh!). Let’s hope that people can learn from the mistakes of history, and try not to repeat them. Unfortunately, it looks like many people have not (just watch the nightly news). My blogs start becoming social rants when we see stuff like this.

Oh well, things will change when I reach Angkor Wat…

The rest of the fields themselves are strangely peaceful. The sound of children playing (and quite a few begging) fills the air; chickens wander sections of the field. This is a former Longan orchard, it still feels like nothing special.

Probably the biggest “sight” and also most disturbing is the Memorial Stupa (monument?). In this stupa, over 8000 skulls (categorized by age and race) are displayed in a glass case. The bottom of the case holds the clothing of many of the soldiers (who were children). The massive structure is overwhelming but serves to illustrate just how immense the crimes truly were. We stayed for a bit, but did not linger too long.


The next site for today is equally depressing, but not as graphic or horrific as all the guides say.

It is Tuol Sleng (or S-21, Security Office 21) Museum.

Toul Sleng (“poisonous hill”) used to be a high school, before the Khmer Rouge took over and made it a prison. This is where the prisoners were interrogated, tortured and then, if they survived the torture, sent to Choeng Ek to be exterminated.

The larger prison cells contain the beds where higher ranking officials were chained (bed frames really, no mattress or such) and tortured. Our guide describes how prisoners were tortured and a large, blurry, black and white picture displays what is left after the torture.

Smaller cells are nothing more than closets made of brick. Most have no windows, and none have doors since the prisoners are shackled by their ankles.

Outside, most everything looks like a school, however the barbed wire and bars on all the windows indicates what happens within the buildings.

We wander the halls of the school/prison/museum shocked at what could possess people to perform these acts. Apparently some of the prison workers are still alive (they were barely much more than children). A photo exhibit on the second floor shares their stories as well as recent pictures and statements from them. Many of them were frightened for their lives, so they tortured and killed others to stay alive. Some of them are proud of serving the Khmer Rouge, most display outrage that the leaders got away Scot free. Trials of the former leaders are postponed indefinitely for no real reason. It seems politics often prevail over justice…

Some of the other displays include photographs of some 4000 of the prisoners, their hollow, vacant faces display no emotion as it seems they may realize they are dead already. Some faces display abject fear, some are old, some are merely children, the Khmer Rouge did not discriminate. Sometime people would have to torture and kill their own family. I am numb just thinking about it.

The residents of all major cities were “relocated” to the countryside, families were often split apart, and many were killed or died in the process. Our guide describes how the Khmer Rouge killer her brother and father. She and her mother walked for many miles and many days to Vietnam to escape. She pauses often, and seems a bit uncomfortable telling the story, but like so many other survivors, she is mostly just numb. What a job eh? Makes waiting tables seem like a dream job. (especially for $5 a tour).

There are paintings (as I mentioned before) depicting some of the torture techniques and the child murdering in the killing fields. A few of the torture devices are on display too. Some of the larger photos show prisoners in various states of torture.

Okay… This is getting pretty depressing. Think I’ll end this section, maybe add some more stuff on more “peppy” stuff before calling it a night.

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Okay, what NICE stuff did we see on Monday?

Well, after lunch (at pseudo German place in Phnom Penh) we checked out Psar Chaa (the old market) where the smells (stench!?) of food blows out your sinuses. My sandaled feet crunch on the many mussel shells that are scattered on the ground, raw meat is sold next to motor oil, live chickens cluck away (man, the smell is fowl!). We wander over to another section (I think) of the market, where there are far too many hair salons?!

Weird seeing this in a market. All sorts of household goods abound, it’s pretty interesting, but after all the mess of the morning, we’re not really into shopping.

We did check out a couple of “charity” gift shops, where some of the proceeds go to local charities. The selection is limited (mostly silk stuff) and the prices are a few times higher than the market could be, but it’s low stress, so we pick up a few things… It’s for a good cause, and overall, the prices are decent, so I recommend you check them out (look em up in the Lonely Planet).

In one of the shops, I asked for some help locating some items but was shocked as the cashier grabbed her crutches and “ambled” over on her one leg. Winston was choked that he didn’t have his camera ready to catch my slack-jawed expression.

Okay… it’s midnight, and I have to get up early tomorrow (no sun-rise viewing this time), better grab some shut-eye. I will describe our experiences at Watt Phnom, the Royal Palace, and the Silver Pagoda tomorrow.

G’nite!


Saturday, January 31, 2004, 1:37 AM

Okay, we’re in Bangkok, chillin’ in the hotel. I’m sooooo wasted from today’s 11 hours of traveling, so, what happened in Cambodia?

Back to Monday.

Wat Phnom was a fairly nice temple, but pales in comparison to what we will be seeing in Angkor. The spire towers over the surroundings on its hilltop perch, and the entrance stairs are flanked by lions and serpent balustrades. The temple itself contains much detailing, the golden Buddha statues, the ornate paintings on the ceiling; it is a nice display, marred only by all the fluorescent light bars. Worth seeing.

We head back to the hotel for some recovery, but have to rush off for a quick tour of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.

It is unfortunate that the Palace closes rather early (also, no photography is allowed within the buildings).

The Palace is a grand complex that displays amazing detail and extravagance.

The buildings display such flair in their architecture, it is quite a sight.

An usual (and rather ugly) selection is the iron house given to King Norodom by Napoleon III. It seems quite out of place and is a sharp contrast to the surrounding buildings. Sorry, can’t re-gift this one…

The highlight of the tour has to be the Silver Pagoda.

This building oozes opulence and over-the-top riches. The floor (mostly protected by carpeted mats) is covered with solid silver tiles (1 kg each!). The room itself houses the Emerald Buddha (made of Baccarat crystal) which sits high atop a pedestal, commanding the room. More impressive, however, is the “life sized” gold Buddha, studded with over 9000 diamonds (the largest is over 25 carats!). Many glass cases within the pagoda hold riches and artifacts that the Khmer Rouge decided to preserve (over 60% was destroyed though), and a few more Buddhas line the walls.

The pagoda is an impressive display and serves to show the richness and refinement of Khmer history. This is a sharp contrast to the grisly and appalling displays from earlier today. It is interesting to see such highs and lows from the same culture, all in a day.

Okay, Phnom Penh has been fun, but let’s get to Angkor!

Tuesday, January 27th

Ugh! Had to catch a 7 AM speedboat to Siam Reap (Siamese Defeated). It’s an entertaining cruise, filled with Asian tourists (Vietnamese and Japanese). A bit claustrophobic inside, but much more fun up top (a bit like riding the deck on BC Ferries, just a whole lot warmer). It’s funny how easy it is to fall asleep on any kind of transport eh? The journey got interesting when we reached the floating village. We transferred to one of many smaller boats and chugged into the docks. We passed a lot of fishing boats, kids chilling and paddling. It was kind of surreal wandering through the floating village. I can imagine paddling to school every day ("Aw, MOM! I missed the school boat again. Does that mean I have to swim?')

A definite moment is when we reach the dock. Hundreds of people shouting at us, offering taxis, motos, tuk-tuks (motocycles with covered trailers to hold 2 passengers). It's quite the sight and a bit intimidating (I've heard India is like this ALL the time). We wander off, careful not to tumble into the brown waters. Crowds of tourists struggle with their huge roller suitcases (hmmm, backpack was a very good idea).

We head for a guy with a sign from our hotel. He leads us through the crowd, promising to set up wit motos. Luckily we run into a guy arranged for us by our Phnom Penh taxi driver (his "friend"). It seems the guy with the hotel sign is a well know scam artist. You never know I guess. Travel wih caution.

Our taxi driver (sorry Andrew, no motos for us 3) is a decent fellow, a bit of a salesman, but not too pushy. Unfortunately, he barely understands my garbled, mumbled, speedy, Canadian English (yes, I will work on enunciating...).

On the drive through the dusty roads, we notice that all the houses are on stilts, it seems the water level gets pretty high during rainy season (the roads regularily flood around here). the country side is peaceful and quite picturesque.

We arrive later at Siam Reap, a tourist town, serving the masses as a launch point for all the tours of Angkor Temples. We didn't really end up doing much here, just sleeping, eating and prepping for the next temple.
Our Hotel, the Red Piano, is a nice, classic French Colonial building converted to a hotel. It is quite touristy, but is pleasant and has a lot of character (apparantly Angelina Jolie likes to chill at the bar here, her picture is found on the wall and she has her own cocktail). It's not the cheapest place in town, but is worth checking out.

We ended up having a few meals at the Teck Wain Haiyanese Chicken place. It serves a lot of Singapore style food. The prices are good and the menu is vast (with a lot of pictures). The owner was very friendly and helpful. He is also a very astute businessman and a pretty slick salesman (managed to "convince" us to buy some souvenirs). Pretty amusing guy, seems he's quite the philanderer too, he likes to "flirt around" all over the world (he has several restaurants). Pretty funny. This is not found in the Lonely Planet. He also has a hotel adjacent to the restaurant, but I can't speak for it's quality. And yes, we DID have chicken...

Enough about Siam Reap, how are the TEMPLES?
We bounded over to Angkor Wat (entry fee is pretty steep for this part of the world, about $20 US a day) and took in the sights.
I'm finding that as I blog, I'm running out of adjectives. It's a lot harder to get all the cool descriptive words out when blogging, so I may repeat myself (a LOT!).

Seeing Angkor Wat for the first time was incredibly thrilling and awe inspiring. The 'Planet describes it well. You will feel the hairs on the back of your neck rising from the excitment as you enter the causeway for the first time.

The Temple is MASSIVE. It is known to be the largest religious structure in the world and it does not disappoint. What is equalling impressive is the amount of detail and intricate carving found on most surfaces throughout the temple. This is truly an amazing accomplishment.

I spent a lot of timing just running around trying to capture some of this with photographs. Not sure I did such a good job, but it was fun.
The entry causeway is a long pathway, flanked with serpent balustrades. The walk down serves to highten the excitement as you approach the outer gates.

Inside the perimeter is a series of bas-refliefs. The are incredibly detailed and tell many stories (have not researched that all yet). They also span a lot of the temple perimeter, so it takes a while to see them all.

A large Vishnu statue is found in the outer perimter, a lot of people come by to pray or leave offerings.

Inside, the temple is composed of a central tower surrounded by 4 lower towers, all connected. The towers all have wicked steep and tall stairs. It seems entry to the heavens is a lot of work. I get vertigo just peering over the edge of the stairs (not so fond of heights). There is one stairway with a little metal railing, but this is often choked with tourists.

The temple is very impressive and I'm sure anyone coming to Cambodia will check out this wonder (of the world).

We managed to catch a beautiful sunset here too. The sky is a pleasant purple, and the sun behind the temple makes for nice photographs.

Quite a nice day, eh?


Wednesday, January 28th.

Well, how does one describe all the temples of Angkor? I'd say with great difficulty. I'll have to be brief with my impressions because there is just too much to say and see. Basically all the temples have their own unique charm and character. Some are more impressive than others, some are more interesting than others. My pictures can tell my side of the story. For other highlights, check out Winston's pictures on the Cambodia page. Pretty sweet. You really have to see it for yourself though.


So what happened today?


Sunrise at Angkor Wat. We are here at 5:45, and the crowds have already started to form. It's a surreal experience seeing all these people at this time of day.

The experience if interesting, but the sky is a bit hazy so it's not as great for pictures as I thought. Pretty good, but I'm not sure I feel like waking up that early again tomorrow.



Early morning at the Bayon. This is the central temple of Angkor Thom, a fortified city built by King Jayavarman VII around 1200 AD. The temple is described as a pile of rubble from a distance but much more impressive close up. It is an apt description, as the details are evident as one approaches. Many massive faces are found on all the towers, peering at you from all angles, watching you... It's pretty wild.

Mid-afternoon at the rest of Angkor Thom. There is a lot to see here, some highlights include:

- The Baphuon, this would be an impressive temple, but it is being restored at present and is off limits to visitors. We will have to be content with photos from afar until the project is closer to completion (predicted 2004, but I doubt it).

- The Royal Enclosure and Phimeanakas. Another temple with crazy steep stairs. The temple is a reddish colour, could be from iron in t he rock, but we're not really sure. Pretty nice, but up top there is not that much to see (a nice view of the Baphuon apparently).

- Terrace of the Elephants. Some pretty cool carvings of elephants (surprised?). I'd like to say more, but don't have too much on this one.

- Terrace of the Leper King. The terrace is surounded by five tiers of carvings, very meticoulous and quite interesting. A lot of the carvings are suprising well preserved.

Angkor Thom has a lot to offer and is a definite must see.


The mid-day heat is suffocating, so we head back to the hotel for lunch and rest. After lunch, we verture to Ta Prohm!

Ta Prohm is Winston's favorite. I like it too, but find it hard to photograph (I have to look more at the details, it's tough after being so blown away at Angkor Wat). I am, however, impressed by the place.

Ta Prohm is an untouched temple. The jungle has overrun it, breaking walls apart, growing through everything. This temple has the most atmosphere and character. It feels different, like a secret hideway, untouched (except for the hordes of tourists). The cover of the Lonely Planet displays Ta Prohm. I love the massive trees, growing out of the temples, towering over us all. The sinewy trunks make me think of dinosaur limbs, piercing the temple walls (yes, I guess I have a bit of imagination, and I dig dinosaurs). The crumbling temple is how most of Angkor looked to early French explorers. Very, very cool.

Not much a sunset here, it's all surrounded by trees!



Thursday January 29th.

Last day at the temples. So where are we today?

Early morning, Banteay Srei. This is often described as a temple constructed by women because the carvings are too intricate to be done by a man. The temple itself is not large, but the carvings are amazing. The level of detail found is astonishing and is all the more impressive when one remembers that this is stone! This one of the first temples to be restored (1930) and is considered a "must see" by most visitors. It is a bit of a drive though (30 kms from Siam Reap) and shold be combined with other sites of for a day trip.

Next, Mebon. This temple is distinguished by the well preserved carvings of harnesse elephants, guarding the corners of the temple. It's different, but to me (us?) not so memorable.

Soon after, Pre Rup. This is described as similar to Mebon. It is not so well preserved, but to me this adds to it's charm. The feel of the temple is more impressive to me. Overall it sems quite a bit atller and the architecture is more interesting. Views are quite nice from the top too. Again, it's a certain feel, but is hard to describe. It's only a few minutes drive from Mebon, so check them both out and see for yourself!

We're back in the mid-day blister sun. Winston and Jen head back for some rest but I take this opportunity for a few more hours at Angkor Wat.

This is a very good time to SEE Angkor Wat (and indeed probably most of the temples). The tourist hordes head back to Siam Reap for rest and food. The temple was very quiet from around 12 - 3 pm. I was alone in many of the passageways which only added to the magic. I still got the tingling when |I approache the temple (maybe that was my skin sizzling in the hot sun). I managed to see a lot that I missed before. Took some more photos, but mostly came back for the experience and the feeling.

Winston, the (maniac) photographer, is correct in this point: Photography is all about the light. The harsh noon sun is makes for very hard edged, direct lighting. Not ideal for photographs. Take your fine shots in the morning or early evening. Mid-day is a great time to just see it all. I am loving the digital camera. It alows for a lot of experimentation and instant feedback. I am missing the optics and feel of an SLR though. Maybe when Nikon comes out with a new DSLR...

Right, lunch over, back to more sights.

We head up to Phnom Bakheng. This is another temple (surprised!) on top of a hill. Takes a bit of climbing (or you can be a real cheezy tourist and take the $15 elephant ride up). It's a decent little temple, but is known for it's spectacular sunsets. Quite well known, as the small structure is soon crawling with hundreds of tourists. Very poor atmosphere. There is a distant view of Angkor Wat too, but you need at least a 3-400 mm lense to capture it (and a tripod).

It's too bad the sky is cloudy, the sunset is quite a disappointment.

The night is not a total loss though. We meet a nice girl from New York. She is traveling around the world (big surprise!) before her upcoming marriage.

We share a nice dinner and all the travellers swap stories. It's pretty cool meeting up with new people on your travels; everyone is very open and friendly when traveling. Nice.

Good luck with the Wedding Chloe. Come over to Vancouver some time for some REAL snowboarding and REALLY GOOD BEER!

Agh! Gotta pack for a 7 AM bus!



Friday, January 30th


Today was an experience. We travelled for about 11 hours today and it was memorable to say the least.

A taxi came to pick us up and drop us off at the bus "station". This was in front of a gas station. The bus that came to pick us up was a circa 1970 piece of rolling junk. The beige seats were nice stained brown and the air conditioner did not work.

The problem is, since the roads are so dusty, we couldn't open the windows. Now, imagine an overcrowded bus rolling down a dirt road with no windows open and no a/c. Basically it was a rolling sauna. I guess you can't expect much for $4 (to the border). A flight to Bangkok is about $150, so take your pick. I think there are nicer buses, but we were just unlucky.

Highway 6 is pretty amusing. It's basically a bumpy dirt road. Remember riding in a school bus as a kid? Remember going on field trips, it was a lot of fun bouncing around on rough roads. All the kids would be whooping with delight when they caught air after a big bump. Now do that for 5.5 hours, in the heat. That was our ride.

We stumbled over the border in Poipet (a somewhat scummy border town). It was an experience. Walking over no-man's land felt quite surreal. You have left Cambodia, but are not in Thailand. Not a good place to get stuck when the borders close. People have disappeared from here, never to be found again. A bit scary. Not a big deal during the day though.

After a steamy hour at the border, we grab a mini-van so we can rush over to Bangkok to meet some world-traveller friends of Winston and Jen. It's a bit more than we wanted to spend, but it was pure, luxurious heaven.

The van was spacious (holds 10, plenty of room for us 3) and air conditioned. It was such a marked contrast from the last bus. This difference was further heightened when we made a rest-stop in Thailand. Everything is SOOO CLEAN! It's cleaner, more orderly, the roads are smooth, and I'm not constantly pestered by beggars/vendors. What's with all these cars too? (Cambodia and Vietnam are all motorcycles).

We wander into a 7-11?! After the last 2 weeks, I feel like I'm some kind of spacial warp. Very weird. As usual, I'm asleep for most of the ride.

Heading into Bangkok, the tv in the van comes on, and Thai Karaoke starts playing. All the singers are very emotional. It's pretty amusing.

After about 3-4 hurs of driving (we ride, there is a driver), we check into the Viengtai Hotel (nicest one in the backpacker district, pretty nice, includes breakfast!).

We dine on the corner (more yummy street food) with Sian and Kevin, a couple friends of Winston and Jen. They are also world travellers (newly engaged! Congrats!) who W & J met in India months ago. It's pretty amazing that one can meet up again like that. The internet can be pretty useful eh? Another nice coincidence, Jen ran into Shani, another traveller everyone met in India. What are the odds of that? Bangkok seems a lot cleaner and more orderly than what I've seen in the last two weeks. If you came from a western city, you might remark on how crazy the drivers were, and you may not be impressed by the cleanliness of everything. It's all a relative thing.

Saturday, January 31st.

Today, was a bit of sightseeing.

We hit the Grand Palace. This was very familiar because it was similar to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Overall, it is larger and much more ornate. There are more riches and the detailing is more polished. It's quite the site, but it's choked with tourists which dilutes the experience for me.

We head over to the Vimamek Mansion. This is a wooden (teak I believe) mansion for the King. Only certain buildings (I can't remember, think Temples and such) were allowed to be made of stone, so this was made of wood). It was very impressive but strange to me.

The mansion exterior showed touches of Thai architecture and details but the insides seemed to have a heavy European influence. The photographs and pictures depicting the King show him in garb that seems very European. The mansion is filled with gifts and artifacts from England, China. Thailand (of course) and America! Overall, it also felt strangely familiar. I once went to Newport, Rhode Island, and saw he Vanderbilt summer home (An oil baron in the states) and this seems strangely similar. Pretty funny experience.

We were a little surprised to encounter many suprisingly rude Thai tour guides and attendents. They were rude and impatient. It's strange because most people report very positive experiences. Oh well, must've been an off day.

At this point, I'm quite filled up with the sightseeing thing.

After lunch, we head off for a total culture warp. We meet up with Sian and Kevin again, later afternoon, and head off to the MALL!?!

Siam Centre is a bit like any western mall, but very polished with many upscale (and wicked expensive) stores. It reminds me a bit of some malls in Japan. We walk around in a daze, doing a bit of looking around.

We then have some SUSHI!?! for dinner (a new esxperience for Sian and Kevin). Next we headed off for some tasty ice cream.

It was a fun and very different night. This would not be out of place in say, Vancouver, but it felt like a nice change of pace here in Bangkok. It's funny just how westernized places can be. Bangkok is very developed in many areas. Quite an experience.

Okay, back to the present.

I'm finishing off my blogs at this point, and heading off to South Thailand for some beach, hopefully a lot of diving and relaxing.

Not sure how much blogging is going to happen there!

G'bye for now!

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Coming Full Circle
Bangkok, Thailand

Well, here we are again, back in Bangkok, after leaving here six weeks ago to visit Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. It feels like we haven't been online for weeks, although it has only been five days; the last few days in Cambodia have been really memorable. We only really got to see the bits that most people see, a bit of Phnom Penh and then the temples of Angkor Wat in Siam Reap, but both destinations definitely lived up to all the hype.

It was a short but fulfilling visit... the Killing Fields and the S-21 Prison were very sobering and moving, while Angkor Wat was a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of the human mind, from 1300 years ago. We might be able to get the pictures from Cambodia posted tomorrow, provided I can organize them all; I haven't ever shot off more pictures than I did in the last two days at those temples.

We're in Bangkok now, meeting up with friends and travelmates we've met in previously visited countries. We'll be heading down to South Thailand tomorrow by train, aiming to visit Ko Muk, Ko Rok, Ko Lanta, and Ko Phi Phi for some relaxing beach and scuba time.

And thank you all for your chicken warnings... yes, we are trying to avoid eating various types of fowl these days. Chicken farmers aren't doing very well these days. Ok, see you later, check back for Cambodia pictures soon!

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No Chicken Today...
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Hi all, just a short note to let you know that no, we haven't been eating chicken lately, and will resist the urge until the whole Vietnam/Thailand chicken flu scare dies down. Besides, many restaurants don't even serve chicken anymore, it's hardly available in the markets. Even though we're in Cambodia right now, I suspect that there might be a few cases here, but it's just not being reported. The infrastructure here isn't quite as developed as Thailand's or Vietnam's.

By the way, if you've been wondering who Gunga is, he's a friend of ours who is travelling with us from Saigon to Kuala Lumpur. He's a rabid diary writer, so we've given him blog access as our first Guest Blogger. So if you are wondering why there are really bad puns appearing in the blogs every now and then, check the top of the blog near the heading to see who's writing it!

We're not spending too much time in Cambodia this time around; having now done some more reading up on this country and having spent one day in Phnom Penh, we've realized that we could easily spend 3-4 weeks here. But we're going to be able to see the most popular bits (i.e. Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh), and we're going to be meeting up with both Kevin and Sian (friends we made in India) and our friend Keira (flying in from Vancouver) in Bangkok on Jan 30th.

Today was a sobering day, as we visited the Killing Fields, one of the sites where the Khmer Rouge systematically slaughtered and buried thousands of Cambodians, and S-21, the school turned torture/execution center. The only thing I can think of that has generated a similar emotional response was visiting Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

That human beings are capable of such atrocities is depressing; that human beings can recover from such atrocities is heartening. Cambodia has a long way to go, but there are definitely signs of hope here.

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'scuse me, have you seen my (Phnom) Penh?
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Okay, started off the day finishing off all the last minute packing details, burning CD’s, final packing, lunch at Pho 2000 with the folks. Pretty decent. Said my last goodbyes (hoping not to get sick again, a never-ending concern now) and headed off to Cambodia.

The flight was nice and brief (25 minutes total!) and overall uneventful. Had a few minutes of panic trying to remember where I put my passport photos for the visa, but overall, no issues getting into Cambodia.

I noticed some new things on our taxi ride into Phnom Penh:

- The architecture is pretty beautiful here, with some amazing temples we only saw from afar. I’m looking forward to checking one out tomorrow.

- The people dress in a much more basic and conservative style. Reminds me a bit of Hanoi. This is a big change from Saigon where the style of dress is often garish, and can be pretty trashy.

- Traffic was relatively slow and fairly mellow, a lot less honking going on compared to Vietnam. Still pretty chaotic though.

- Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet with French accents, so it was interesting to see signs in a language I couldn’t understand.

- Similar notes about the language. I’d gotten fairly comfortable stumbling around with my broken Vietnamese, so now I get to be a total tourist, trying to communicate only with English and hand gestures.


Our Hotel, the Sunshine Hotel, is reported to be a midrange place with decent value. Winston reasoned that it looked more like a low end place. I’d have to agree. I’ve been really spoiled in a posh Saigon hotel for the last week, so this is a bit of a change for me. Oh well, back to Asia reality eh!

The wandering/dining experience was both eye-opening and a ton of fun. After being spoiled and somewhat protected by parents and sister for the last week, it was nice to let loose.

We wandered into what seemed to be an outdoor Asian Pop Concert. Felt a bit like UBC Thunderbird stadium (they even had a camera on a crane, filming for TV). It was packed with hundreds of people, smoke from the food vendors (and of course all the motor scooters, or motos as they are called) filled the air, stray dogs wandered around, picking up scraps and snacking on leftovers. It was a nice way to start an evening!

We had a pretty wicked meal from a food vendor: 3 bowls of noodles with egg, some salad, 4 sticks of mini-meatballs, and a couple sugar cane and lemon drinks. All for a total of 8000 riel, or $2 (all numbers in US dollars from now on). Pretty amazing. My family would freak out if they saw me eating here of course. The overall cleanliness is a bit suspect, but I seem to be okay at present, and the meal was very tasty. The meal was served to us by a mom and her little girl (wearing a Britney T-shirt no less. Very cute!).

We decided to celebrate our meal with some refreshments at a local pub (Happy hour!). It’s pretty nice to be able to share a beers with good friends, anywhere in the world eh?

We did get a little taste of the flip side of third world life: beggars.

It’s just really sad that there are so many people injured by leftover landmines and armaments. There were countless number of people, disfigured, missing limbs and such, looking for a little help. It would be nice to help them all, but how do you start? Give one a little and everyone swarms you. Doesn’t help when you have no change eh? How do you choose who to help?

A fairly disturbing sight was seeing a little girl wandering into traffic, with her naked little brother, begging for money. A sad sight, but a fairly common occurrence in this part of the world. It’s too bad that it’s so easy to become jaded about the whole thing. I think it does really give one an appreciation of just how lucky we really are. We all complain about things we want and things we need, but we are all incredibly lucky at the end of the day to have food and shelter. Okay, okay, enough of the bleeding heart rant…

Winston discovered one way to help. It seems there are gift shops where a portion (?) of the proceeds go to helping victims of land mines. Seems like a great way to lend a hand while you continue your vacation. We’ll report back after we check them out.

Jen took off to rest. Winston and I took a bunch of time to catch up. It was a pretty nice evening. Tomorrow should be interesting too; we start off the day with a trip to the “Killing Fields”.

G’nite!

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