Some of the most spectacular and moving sights I’ve seen have been in Cambodia.
The first point of call was Siem Reap where we didn’t really get off to a great start. After accidentally exploring the wrong part of town, we concluded that there wasn’t much to see in the centre. The right part, however, really comes alive at night with it’s huge night market with delicious food and vast amount of bars. One night we met up with 3 others from the Thailand tour- Kim, James and Will- and had a really great time, making us realise how much we’re missing everyone already!
A huge highlight of Siem Reap was of course visiting Angkor Wat which was built in the 12th century. We signed up for a sunrise tour which meant that our tuk-tuk driver picked us up at 4am and we made our way to the ticket office. At 5am we were right at the front of the queue, quickly got our tickets (which are now $37 as they conveniently went up from $20 on 1st Feb) and drove to Angkor Wat. We managed to get a great spot and watched the beautiful reveal of Angkor Wat from the dark silhouette in front of us. We then explored the inside which was equally as impressive.
Our tuk-tuk driver also took us to Angkor Thom (a personal favourite due to the monkeys and multiple heads), Takeo, Taprohm and Phnom Bakheng. We had to be careful of the thieving monkeys who stole snacks and drank out of peoples water bottles (and attacked Tom for getting too close to its baby- it was hilarious). By 9am there were tuk-tuks everywhere outside Angkor Wat so finding our man was a nightmare- our first search took 30 minutes! The whole day was great but the temples we saw after Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom simply weren’t as impressive as they were.
After reading great blogs and guides about the place, we decided to head to Kratié, a pretty riverside town known for being home to Mekong River Dolphins. It was during the stuffy minibus journey that we realised how cushy we’d been getting from A to B with STA having organised our travel in Thailand. Being the only two Westerners on the bus, when we stopped off for lunch in a remote village, it was amusing to see a little girl’s jaw drop when she saw us!
Kratié was a great town despite the lack of ice cream and potent smell of dried fish that roamed around almost everywhere. One huge highlight was spending a day on Koh Trong Island, which you can get to with a 25 cent boat ride taking 5 minutes to cross the river. We rented bikes for $2 and followed the 9km bike trail which takes you on a loop around the island. The sights were incredible- we found floating markets, rice fields, river beaches, a Vietnamese temple and to top it all everyone there was so friendly. We bumped into some kids who were taking their cows down a really steep hill to bathe in the river and asked us to accompany them. They skipped down the hill which looked like a small cliff ¡¡¡with their cows!!! while we skidded, tripped and fell. We clearly weren’t as skilful as them! The struggle to get back up the hill was real and didn’t go unnoticed by their father who laughed and thankfully suggested an alternative route to retrieve our bikes!
We’d read about the only cafe on the island- Koh Trong Cafe- which wasn’t far east of our drop off point. We cleverly started our bike ride heading west, only realising our error when we were starving and only half way round the loop. Then Tom’s bike chain came off which took 2 pairs of hands covered in grease and 20 minutes to fix. The hanger began to set in when luckily enough an American lady who caught the boat with us came to our rescue with wet wipes and hand sanitiser. Once we finally found the cafe, the overly generous portion of fried noodles for $1.50 made it all worth it!
Another highlight of Kratié was going on a boat trip to see the river dolphins- round headed dolphins. Within 5 minutes of being on the boat we had our first glimpse of three dolphins. Although we didn’t have any close up encounters, it was lovely being in our own small boat and seeing them jumping in and out of the river. The picture below isn’t of dolphins we saw- it’s a picture from google of river dolphins!
A 7 hour bus journey took us to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Our first full day was spent visiting the killing fields and genocide museum. With little knowledge about the Khmer Rouge regime driven by its leader Pol Pot, I found the whole learning experience very chilling. We were given headsets which worked incredibly well, allowing us to rewind, pause or listen to a whole section again. Tom wrote quite a lot down as we listened so a lot of the following has been stolen from his diary…
Pol Pot studied radio electronics in France before joining a communist regime. He didn’t like the way the country was developing and wanted to restore it back to the people of the land. He hated rich, city educated people and loved peasants (especially younger people) who worked for the land. He found them easier to manipulate to become one of the Khmer Rouge. During their command over Cambodia (1975-1979) 3 million of 8 million Cambodians were killed in over 300 sites known as the killing fields. 20,000 people were killed in Choeung Ek alone, which was the killing field we visited, located near the capital city of Phnom Penh. People weren’t shot at these sites as it was too expensive. Instead, they were beaten/hacked to death by whatever weapons were available. The killings were done over large graves that they were subsequently chucked into. One weapon of note was the stems of the sugar palm tree that has jagged saw-like edges used to slit prisoners throats. Others included blunt iron rods, metal clubs, machetes, garden hoes etc. Today, the ground of the fields is swollen due to gases released from the mass graves. Pol Pot had two mottos which gives an insight into his maniacal mind: It is better to kill an innocent by mistake than leave an enemy by mistake. The other was: To remove grass you also need to remove the roots, which explains why he killed the babies of murdered families, he didn’t want any survivors who may seek revenge later in life. He did this by either bashing their heads against a tree whilst swinging their legs or throwing them in the air and catching them with the bayonet on a gun. (I have included a picture of the tree below with many bracelets visitors have left as this sight was particularly moving.) Today, during the rainy seasons bones, rags and teeth still come to the surface due to the numbers killed at this site. They are removed periodically. Pol Pot lived on as the leader of the Khmer Rouge 20 years after the regime in Cambodia ended in 1979, with the KR keeping a seat in the UN because the west still regarded them as being in control of Cambodia! 20 years on he was put under house arrest and died a year later. The last thing to do in the fields was walk round the memorial stupa with hundreds of skulls, bones and weapons, each stored on multiple levels (more than 20 in total). Skulls had various holes/cuts indicative of the weapon used to kill them.
We then visited the prison, where 12000-20000 ‘prisoners’ were brought to known as S21 (Tuol Sleng). The ruthlessness of the Khmer Rouge meant that a total of 7 survived. This was only 1 of 200 prisons like this throughout Cambodia. People were forced to confess to things they didn’t do before being tortured and killed. When the numbers grew too large to handle in the prison, that’s when Choeung Ek was used. Overall the visit to the prison was shocking, seeing the basic converted building with barbed wire, torture devices and unbearably small cells made you begin to imagine how horrific it would’ve been for ‘prisoners’. The fact that it used to be a high school made it all the more haunting.
We timed our visit to Phnom Penh perfectly as the yearly Golden Street Festival was on during our time there. There was a great variety of bands surrounded by rooftop bars so we hopped from bar to bar enjoying cheap cold beers and food- a perfect afternoon.
Craving sun, beach and relaxation, we headed south to Sihanoukville where we were greeted with heavy rain and thunder.. great! We stayed in Otres Beach in a tiny bungalow on the beach front which was great and luckily we didn’t get a visit from the famous intruder cat we’d heard about from trip advisor who sneaks in through the holes of the bungalows to join guests for the night! One night we met friends from the Thailand trip and experienced Serendipity Beach at night which was smelly, full of street sellers and quite grim compared to Otres!
Although most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach, one of the days we decided to rent a scooter and explore the neighbouring beaches. Big mistake. After visiting a few beaches, we headed through the main hub where there are lots of tourists and were pulled over by police who asked for an international driving license which we didn’t have. ‘You have to go to the police station to pay a fine.’ We’d heard about this before… they’re after a bribe and with 9 police officers standing there, we weren’t going to refuse. With only a $20 note on us, we had to hand it over which the guy was more than happy with (I believe the normal bribe is between $3-$6) and we were ‘free to ride the scooter for the whole day’… how lovely but he well and truly killed the vibe. Later that day we googled ‘Cambodia rent scooter’ and the results page was full of articles and pages only about Sihanoukville and the ‘Golden Lion Roundabout’ I.e where the police chill out and make their money. Needless to say we now carry bribe money separate to other money!
Happy to get out of Sihanoukville, we got the ferry to Koh Rong and we’re picked up by another boat which took us to Nature Beach, a private beach you can only get to by boat. We stayed in a cosy treetop tent for $2.50 each per night. Not only were the storms and rain very entertaining to watch and hear in the middle of the night but waking up to lizards moving across the roof of the tent was pretty cool.
Keen for more island life, we met Kim from the Thailand tour and got another boat to Koh Rong Sanloem, a smaller island near Koh Rong. A huge highlight of spending time there was night swimming to see the bioluminescent plankton which lights up when you move around in the sea. Another was the delicious all you can eat fish BBQ we ran into on our final night. We’ve heard that these islands are similar to Koh Phangan and Koh Samui 30 years ago- there are no roads at the moment but there are big plans for development to be more like the Thai islands. So I felt very lucky to have spent time there before all the development.
Our last point of call in Cambodia was another riverside town called Kampot. The French influence in this town was immediately evident with the abundance of bakeries (incredible donuts) and pretty French style buildings. We had some great adventures in and around Kampot. We rented a moped for the duration and spent our first day hopping from the caves of Phnom Chhngok to a secret lake and from a pepper plantation to salt fields. The caves were great, not for those who don’t like small spaces. We were pretty much forced into having a private tour guide- a 7 year old child who clearly knew his way around as he darted from one set of rocks to another… and in flip flops! He was pretty happy to be paid 25 cents (1000 riel) to show us around! While we were in the caves another young child promised to ‘guard’ our bike.. not sure how much force he could inflict on someone who wanted to steal it but nevertheless we paid him 12.5 cents for his trouble. The free pepper plantation tour was another highlight- we saw where different pepper is grown as well as tasted different varieties.
The next day we went to Bokor National Park, driving for an hour on the smoothest road we’ve seen in Cambodia to reach the top of the mountain. The view at the top which looks down to the jungle below was incredible. We were 1049 metres high and amongst the clouds. Apart from the view point, the only other thing at the top was an abandoned Catholic Church which was built years ago by the French. The inside, however, was quite creepy. There were smashed religious statues with graffiti on the walls which made it quite eerie. After staying up there for a while with pre bought snacks (best idea ever), I drove us ever so slowly back down (sorry Tom) and an hour and a half later we were back to normal 30 degree heat. I haven’t enjoyed driving scooters up until that point- it was definitely one of the best drives we’ve experienced as there’s so much to see.
I can’t believe I have written so much about Kampot before mentioning the ribs we had in Rusty Keyhole, an award winning rib restaurant. I have honestly never tasted such meaty, tender ribs and such a special BBQ sauce. I don’t think I’ll ever eat ribs again as the chances of them matching these are very slim. In fact, we liked them so much that we went back the next night for more.
I definitely had more culture shock in Cambodia compared to Thailand because it seems so much less developed. Seeing 4 kids on a scooter with no light became very normal, as did not being able to find ice cream anywhere and more often than not using squatty potties (my nightmare a month ago). Nevertheless it was fabulous and I learnt a great amount.
On to Vietnam (well.. my Vietnam blog post)!
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A very interesting and informative blog Lucy, keep them coming x
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