Cambodia

  While in Malaysia, we had planned to fly down to the  Malaysian area of Borneo to do some trekking in the national parks and visit a famous orangutan conservation sanctuary.  Unfortunately, things were really starting to book up because of the Chinese New Year celebrations, so we made the decision to instead visit  Cambodia. We flew to Phnom Penh and arranged a taxi to drive us the three (long) hours to our hotel on the coast. 

We knew we were in for a white-knuckle ride when, leaving the airport, the driver immediately pulled out into oncoming traffic, parting a sea of motorcycles, donkey carts, and miscellaneous vehicles as he slowly edged over to the right side of the road. While we've had our share of chaotic driving environments, this was special. Cambodian drivers perform a bizarre and unpredictable driving ballet that is incomprehensible to foreigners, complete with a myriad of vehicles never witnessed on North American roads. Driving in the midst of this mayhem was entertaining, to put it mildly.

Interesting sights included factory workers being trucked home, like so much cargo, fifty women standing in an open truck like bottles in a crate. There were tractors pulling all manner of trailers, bicycles, ox-carts, beater cars and Lexus SUVs, belching trucks, and the backbone of south-east Asian transportation, the 125 cc motorcycle.

Our driver certainly left no extra room when passing these scooters and motorcycles, and it seemed the closer the pass, the better. We would instinctively lean away from the door each time he'd pass a family of four, blithely riding the family scooter back home at the end of the day.

However, we finally made it to Sihanoukville, a beach town, and gratefully checked into the Beach Resort Hotel that, strangely, was not actually located on any beach. However, it suited us perfectly, as it was situated in a strip of restaurants and was minutes away from several beaches.

Our hotel was a little oasis from the busy street - it's a U-shaped, two-storey hotel sheltering a nicely sized pool.  It's one of the few hotels on the strip with a pool, so it is very popular - luckily we were able to extend our stay twice, which allowed us to recover from some minor ailments (a head cold and stomach bug). We befriended three other Canucks (from Salt Spring Island), a couple with two little kids from Birmingham, England, and a couple with their son from Austria. We ended up hanging out together a fair bit. 

A picture for our foodie friends - steamed red snapper with glass noodles, served at a beach-side restaurant 

Sihanoukville is a typical holiday resort area, complete with a beach scene, cheap food, cheap massages, and generally cheap fun. We rented a scooted ($6 for the day) and explored the area - we needed to fill up with gas, which was available at roadside stands everywhere in two-litre pop bottles.

Poverty is rampant here and they have a huge garbage problem, but this area has its own special beauty, including the people, who are unfailingly friendly. Kids are only too eager to shout greetings to us, and their parents are quick to share a smile.

Unfortunately, this area is not immune to development and huge resorts are just starting to move in, allegedly enabled by corrupt government officials that are behind the forced evictions and land grabs that pit the poor against powerful offshore investors. Contracts and leases are often cancelled with little notice or compensation. At the time we were there, a popular bungalow resort on Bamboo Island was forced out to make way for a large resort, with only a couple of thousand dollars in compensation. 

Sihanoukville is a relatively new town, so there's absolutely nothing of architectural or historical interest - it really is the only beach resort area in Cambodia. The very visible sex trade is unsavory - not knowing what terminology to use, we have adopted the word "guide" to define the young Cambodian girls hired by the older white men for the length of their vacations. Marcus had a very candid conversation with a regular customer and learned all the intricacies of the industry (I think he embarked on this research purely out of curiosity!).

We finally left our comfy little resort to head to a small town called Kampot. Since the three other Canucks were headed the same way, we traveled together. We stayed at a very decent guest house - they even made us whole-wheat sandwiches for our bus ride up to Phnom Penh. Kampot was interesting for its many French colonial buildings and it's relatively lively restaurant district. On a guided day trip, we visited caves where remnants of the Khmer Rouge once hid and is now the site of a Buddhist temple. We also visited a pepper plantation and bought some of the famous Kampot pepper. We toured around the town of Kep for lunch and had steamed fresh crabs caught just off shore. Marcus got up early one morning to take some fantastic pictures of the fish market. I just love the turquoise painted fishing boats.

We decided to head to Phnom Penh by bus.  Unfortunately the road from Kampot to PP was bad and it was a tough drive. We saw lots of rice fields along the way, brown and dusty in this, the dry season.  Every now and then we came across a square of brilliant, bright green - these were the rice seedlings, waiting to be taken and planted in rows into the fields once the high water returns.

Phnom Penh was chaotic, noisy, dusty and crazy busy. Kristine found a latte made with fresh milk and that was a real treat!  Our $40 hotel was also a good find, recommended by Jim and Jane (our Canuck travel buddies). We spent only one day there, visiting the Russian Market, Central Market, the National Museum, and the Imperial Palace.

Next stop: Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. The mysterious temples have again emerged from the jungle, and have been discovered by hordes of tourists. We regretted not visiting ten years ago, but are happy that we saw it now, before McDonalds opens up a drive-through in one of the Bayon temple gates.

The temples are amazing and hard to describe - one just can't do them justice. Some temples almost didn't look real, as thought they were plucked from a Hollywood movie set. Of course, scenes from Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones were filmed here. We bought a three day pass, but two days of visiting was more than enough. While our guide was excellent, after a while, you  give up trying to sort out the all the different kings (Suryavarman I, II, III and IV - I think it went up to 7) and which temples they built where and why. It would be interesting to return sometime at the end of the rainy season, when the waterways, moats, and ponds are filled and the jungle again lush.

The ever-present poverty is felt here too, with flocks of children hawking postcards, t-shirts, bracelets, guidebooks, and other souvenirs at all stops. One was not even able to exit the van before being offered all manner of goods. Competition is fierce and the sellers can become quite aggressive and belligerent.

On the road back from the temples, we stopped at the roadside where they were making coconut palm sugar fudge! We bought some, of course. 

Marcus then had to explain to our travel buddies  how I used to make a pan of home made fudge (using pretty much the same technique as here) and then proceed to eat the whole pan in ONE day!  If they didn't think I was nutty enough before sharing this little idiosyncrasy, no doubt they do now!

After having had our fill of the temples, we retreated to our restful hotel in Siem Reap where we recuperated with beer and a dip in the pool. After a couple of days rest, we were ready to move on to Vietnam.

All in all, we loved Cambodia.  Some Cambodian memories:

- friendly and very happy people who love to practice their English with the foreigners
- crazy motor travel with no comprehensible rules. families of 4 and even 5 traveling on one moto
- persons showing all the signs of acute poverty talking on a cell phone
- heat, dust and grime
- wonderful smelling food, putrid smelling streets
- barber shops in a shack on the side of the road
- a live pig being transported sideways strapped to the back of a moto (not to mention ducks, shelving units, huge bags of rice, boxes of fruit... you name it)
- buying petrol at the side of road out of old coke bottles
- the children asking you to buy something... their pleas turning into a sign song "please lady, you buy from me, lady, no money, go to school lady, buy from me, one dollar lady,"  their voices getting more pathetic as they persist in following you for more than a block.
- everything is negotiable - even the bottled water the side of the road.
- double menu system - same food , one price for the farang and one for the locals
- the dreadful bathrooms in guesthouses where the bathroom IS the shower, with a drain in the middle of the floor. 
- garbage everywhere
- rough looking dogs everywhere who bark and howl at night
- sickly looking stray cats
- water buffalo crossing the road, at random and unpredictably. We witnessed the aftermath of a collision, which didn't work out so well for the water buffalo
- flat landscapes of endless rice paddies, dry and dusty in the midst of the dry season
- terrible roads, even the major highways, being shared by everyone
- little ponds in front of houses where the inhabitants keep their fish
- getting a blessing from a monk

Are you enticed to visit?