arewethereyet

Saturday October 10th

We arrived at the Cambodia border at 6.30pm. The passports were stamped and we were directed to customs in Poipet. On arrival, we were in informed the customs official was off playing Badminton and would be returning in an hour. We wandered down the main street of Poipet – it was heartbreaking to see such widespread poverty. After a dinner of roadside pancakes we headed back to customs to then be told by a man in his pajamas that the office was closed for the night.

We crashed out next door (Orkiday Angkor Hotel) after a meal at the downstairs restaurant – 2 meals on offer – fried noodles or rice, complete with small stones and sticky flying things. Kaia’s meal was interrupted by a number of photo sessions and was happy to escape to the room after a short time. I turned on the shower only to see a big cockroach come scurrying out of the drainpipe – executive decision made to save showers for the morning.

8.15am we were back at customs -the Carnet de Passage was stamped even though it isn’t recognised in Cambodia – we were free to roam in Cambodia. There had been a lot of flooding in the East so we passed by many flooded paddy fields. As a result, most people had moved their houses and livestock onto the main road. We maintained a pretty slow pace as we dodged children, cows, pedestrians, roadside stalls and erratic drivers. Welcome to Cambodian roads !!!!

We drove into Siam Reap and booked into the Golden Banana. In our 5 night stay we’ve had to move rooms 3 times due flood related issues. The whole town was underwater only a couple of weeks ago. We bumped into our chums from Singapore at the guest house – very nice to hang out in the evening with familiar and new faces beside the pool.

We drove out to Angkor on Monday morning and were instantly in love with what must have been the most beautiful, serene and spiritual centre for the Khmer people. The whole complex stretches out over 80 kms – life goes on around the ruins much as it would have been hundreds of years ago. The buddhas are still acknowledged, new temples and monks have taken residence around the old, thatched huts, rice paddies, cow herds and families still fishing in the moats and living a traditional life. It takes once glance to be transported back in time. Aaaahhh…to fall in love with the land. It’s such a wonderful feeling.

Every temple is different making every visit a unique experience. The touts are fairly aggressive and persistent at every stop – but amongst these people there are still kids wanting to chat and share a bit about their lives. We could have stayed wandering for a couple of weeks – but after 5 days we were ready for a new adventure.

Battambang was a real eye opener. We arrived around 5.30pm and booked into the Hotel Royal with plenty of parking outside for the van. The next morning we hired Thon & his Tuk Tuk for a day and headed out to a local fishing village. The villages are small and impoverished – kids & adults with rotting teeth, tiny frames, skin diseases, dirty water to drink, no electricity and the most basic living structures. A couple of locals took us up river on their fishing boat. The river has been overfished using electric currents – fish that used to be as thick as an arm are now as small as sprats. The fish are few in number so the fisherman no longer have good stock to live from. In the dry season, the farmers can plant crops along the river bed – in the wet land disappears as the trees have been removed for building houses.

Thon spotted a cock fight gathering, so we pulled up and witnessed a traditional sport. A winning rooster can be worth a lot of money if it wins. If it loses it becomes supper for the family. Not really our cup of tea – however, the Khmer are very proud of it.

After giving out some treats for the kids – we drove to a Primary School. We were able to visit a classroom and chat with some of the kids. One 11 yr old boy was pretty embarrassed after it was revealed that 4 yr old Kaia was exactly the same height as he was. We left the school and stopped in village that uses a bamboo rail train to transport goods to town. Kai got a haircut with manual clippers and then we headed back to the hotel for a snooze.

We were picked up by Thon at 6pm and taken out to the local Cambodian circus at Phare Ponleu Selpak. The show was top notch – very funny with super flexible performers. We all loved it! After the show we were invited to visit Thon’s house to meet his family and were treated to a yummy Cambodian dessert. Nice way to end the evening.

The next morning we made our way to Phnom Penh. The roads were well maintained but the traffic unpredictable. There was more flooding close to PP – more houses set up on the roadside and some heartbreaking slums on the edge of the city. Once again we managed to navigate our way to the guest house (Boddhi Tree Umma). For supper we headed out to a contemporary gallery and cafe (Java Coffee) – bizarre exhibition but fantastic to see so much great contemporary Khmer art after suppression under the Khmer Rouge. A number of NGO’s are supporting and promoting the arts here.

Phnom Penh is a clean, well organised city – compared to Battambang. There are fewer cars than Bangkok so the air seems cleaner and the traffic less scary. Bicycles and motos are the vehicle of choice. The food is amazing and the global support for Cambodians evident through a number of ventures to get the country on it’s feet again.

I visited the S-21 torture camp (located directly opposite the guest house) – it was very confronting and humbling. Any killing fields, torture camps or other evidence of the Khmer Rouge devastation must be left untouched by law. This law is in place to remind people of what has taken place as a lesson for the future. I doubt the Khmer will forget in a hurry – members of the Khmer Rouge and their families are still entrenched in the fabric of governing the country. There has never been any justice for families affected – that includes every family in Cambodia!

We spent a day visiting the National Museum, Royal Palace, Russian Market and various cafes.

Tonight we are camped out in Kompong Cham – in the morning we will check out the pre-Angkor Wat and the site of another killing field before driving to Kratie.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Trip Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.