Cambodia

Sunday the 27th of June

Greetings from Cambodia everybody, the land of Angkor Wat, landmines and fried grasshoppers. Well Lou and I arrived in Cambodia on the 23rd and after the six and a half hour train ride to the Cambodian border we received our visas and crossed over into the town of Poipet. Poipet is a bit rubbish as there seems to be nothing there apart from casinos and buses, as such we decided to head straight on to Siem Reap. The journey from Poipet to Siem Reap is approximately 90 miles so we hired a car and driver and set off on what we thought would be a 2 hour journey. Within 10 minutes this illusion was shattered as the car started on route 6, which was without a doubt the worst road I have ever encountered. I call it a road but in truth it was a mud track and not a very good mud track at that. It had more bumps and craters than the moon and you would have had trouble driving along it in a lunar explorer. As it was we were in a two wheel drive Toyota which gave the whole journey the feeling of riding a bucking bronco. Anyway we arrived in Siem Reap five and a half hours (two of which were stuck at a bridge while they tried to repair it) later and with a rather sore bottom. Suffice to say we have decided to travel by boat to Phnom Penh!

Well the 24th was my birthday and what a day I had, Lou and I headed around the various temples of Angkor Wat. The temples were amazing but I also enjoyed seeing the wild monkeys and stroking an elephant. Angkor Wat is said to be the most visited place in Indochina with an estimated 1.1 million visitors this year. As you could imagine both Lou and I were expecting there to be wall to wall tourists so we were both quite surprised to find that it was not that crowded. Obviously you had a few bus loads of Japanese tourists but they seem to be one of the hazards of modern travel. I think the fact that there are over 100 temples in and around Angkor means that although it is busy it does not feel to crowded. My favorite temple was The Bayon which really was like being in an Indiana Jones movie.

That night the restaurant felt more like a zoo with lizards and grasshoppers everywhere and I really do mean everywhere. At one stage I had two lizards jump off the ceiling onto me, where the grasshopper ended up was even worse. It was probably my fault as when the guy from the restaurant grabbed one of the grasshoppers to kill it I really should have said nothing. But oh no, big mouth Ruairi had to wave him over to the table so I could have a look at it. Now my Cambodian is really not to hot and as it turned out this waiters English was even worse. This meant that as I waved him over saying “can I have a look at it” he heard “hello I am a big fat moron who would like to eat that grasshopper.” So to my great surprise instead of walking over to show me the grasshopper he walked into the kitchen with it and to my even greater surprise ten minutes later he reappeared to serve me my deep fried grasshopper. So there I was, with the waiter standing over me with a big smile and a fried grasshopper on a plate. So ladies and gentlemen I did the only polite thing and ate the whole thing legs and all. I think the most surprising (and unfortunate) thing was that it did not taste like chicken but rather like a deep fried insect. The legs were the worst as they got stuck in your teeth and the mushy head was the best as it tasted a bit like a peanut. Next year I think I would prefer a birthday cake!

Tomorrow we leave Siem Reap and head down the Tonle Sap river to Phnom Penh. I am really looking forward to the boat ride as Cambodia is a stunningly beautiful country and I could not think of a better way to explore it than by boat. Relaxing on the deck with a cool glass of water and some tasty fried grasshoppers, that is the life hey. Well that’s all for now folks but rest assured like Arnie I will be back.

Wednesday the 30th June

Hello dedicated readers. All is well in Cambodia. After an interesting and lengthy boat ride from Siam Reap we are now in the capital. This has to be the first place we have been so far without a McDonalds. Infact there are no real chain shops at all. I am not sure why I am talking about shops when there is alot more intersting stuff to talk about but never mind.

To be quite frank I have found Cambodia to be quite hard to travel compared to other places we have been. The poverty here is very evident and the amputees numerous. This county has had its fair share of problems and not all is better but improving.

Today at the Tuel Sleng genocide museum we learnt about the 2 million people who were cruely torchured and killed under the Pol Pot regime and after, at the Killing Fields saw the mass graves and the monument to the dead. Here there were still clothes of the dead ramdomly scatterd and bones lying about. It was incredibally sad to see this and learn about the cruelty inflicted on the innocent. I was informed that the city folk were executed for not having calloused hands - a sign they did not physical labour for their survival. Some call it extreme communism I call it crazy.

Well to sum up I feel as though I am a world away from the islands of Thailand, but the Cambodians are chilled out and friendly. I will try my best to follow suit.
Lou x

Friday the 2nd of July

Yet again I arrive at a beach and the rain arrives about 2 hours after me. I have obviously done something to upset the man upstairs as he is really determined that I don't get to relax on the beach.

We are in Sihanoukville at present where we arrived yesterday after a 4 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. I really enjoyed Phnom Penh although Lou was not as keen but it seems that Lou enjoys the quieter places while I go for the busy metropolises. All in all it works out quite well as we tend to spend equal amounts of time in both types of places. The genocide museum in Phnom Penh really was a pretty sad place to visit and it left you speechless. When will things ever change? I will have to disagree with Lou however as I really don't consider the Khmer Rouge as extreme communists. In fact Pol Pot and the other elite within the party were middle class, french educated and had never worked in a field in there life. They then set about a genocide which was based as much on purging the society of anybody who was not an ethnic Khmer as it was about the redistribution of wealth. All in all I don't think Pol Pot's bedtime reading was Carl Marx!

Well Sihanoukville seems like a quite relaxed place so far. Although it is Cambodia's main beach resort it really is not much like a beach resort. There are a few hotels and guesthouses but compared to Thailand's beaches this place is undiscovered, which quite frankly is great. I did not go travelling to spend all day surrounded by western tourists. It is raining here at the moment which seems par for the course and if it continues our time in Sihanoukville might be only a couple of nights if however the sun decides to make an appearance we might stick around. Either way folks you will read it here first.

Tuesday the 6th of July

Breaking news, the sun did come out in Sianoukville (for a couple of hours at least), and I (Lou) got stung by a jelly fish! The beach was great, the sun came out and all was going swimmingly until I made the same mistake as I did in Rottnest Island in Oz, that is I weed in the sea, and got stung. I swear this is not a coinsidence. Sea creatures do not like urine! Ruairi and I came to the conclusion that since wee is meant to neutralise the sting of the jelly, then surely it can agrivate it too? Well my lesson has been learnt after having a very sore arm for about 6 hours, I have sworn to never wee in the sea again. However wee or no wee I should have put 2 and 2 together when half the locals went in the sea fully clothed and some even in wet suits, something decidedly fishy was definately going on (excuse the bad pun.) I just assumed that the buddhist religion was alike to the muslim one when it came to swimming attire, i.e the more clothes the better. Duh stuipid Ferang (western toutist) and silly me indeed, I have also promised myself to next time pay more attention to the sea dress code.

Well after what was still a suprisingly very relaxing day on the beach, we headed back to the capital the following day as the weather took a turn for the worst. We are now waiting to get our visas for Vietnam. Typically now we are back in the city, the sun is blaring and we are very sweaty indeed. A swimming pool is what is needed and hopefully once we cross the border into Vietnam I will get to go swimming in the safety of a pool without having to worry about any sea creatures. See you x L x