Don’t mistake the relative brevity of this part of the website for my not enjoying Cambodia – I simply wasn’t there for long enough to see very much of it, as I had to get back to BKK to fly up to Russia. Even Battambang was an exception, slotted in after Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh as a place a bit off the tourist track, as is my wont. The people and the food were great, and it’s snuck in behind Pakistan, Syria and Burma but ahead of Malaysia on the ‘must come back to and see more of next time’ list.
Originally I had wanted to see Laos AND Cambodia with the car, but after a few days in Laos it didn’t seem that I would be able to see both countries properly and get back to BKK for 2 April. However, AFTER spending 2 1/2 weeks in Laos it was clear that I could have seen Laos properly and also spent a week in Cambodia, for the little side trips that stretched my time in Laos into 2 1/2 weeks could easily not have happened and I wouldn’t have missed much. By doing these side trips, with the possible exception of some good limestone caves, I largely saw more of the same. Then I could at least have seen Vietnam while the car was being shipped. Always easy to be wise in retrospect.
First stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. Dreadful road on the way from Poipet border to here, especially for the first 50 kms (rumour has it that Thai Airways is bribing the Cambodia Government to stall the upgrading of this road to ‘encourage’ people to fly the lucrative BKK – Siem Reap route rather than slum it on the buses). Shared a taxi with an English guy who worked as an estate agent on Koh Samui, plus his Thai girlfriend who’d worked as a masseuse in Iraq for Occupation, sorry Coalition soldiers, making crazy money. Never seen an Iraq passport stamp before.
Then I spent a couple of days going around the temples – Angkor Wat is described as 1 of the 8 wonders of the world, but as often happens with places like this AW itself was distinctly underwhelming and the surrounding temples were far more impressive, if a little smaller. Banteay Srei especially – the one with the key held against some of the carvings to show the size.
That being said, I was looking forward to doing a quick tethered balloon flight and it ws a shame they stopped this just before I got to the launch pad thanks to the wind speed getting too high. BLAST!
Very glad to hook up with Balthazar Lauzon, a French-Canadian English teacher working in Vietnam. AW being the size it was, I’d hired a bike to get around it and had stopped to rest/have a drink/take a picture/whatever and he had stopped to ask directions. Anyway, we got talking and spent a bit of time together both in AW and then again in Phnom Penh. An intense, measured, studious air about him and seemingly quite in touch with his feelings – am sorry we seem to have lost touch. The way he described the Borneo bit of Malaysia made me want to go there.
Funny dumpling as well. Also while riding around AW, I’d stopped to buy a dim sum-like dumpling from a street vendor. Imagine my surprise when I bit into it and tasted ammonia. Obviously the first thought was that he was selling bad food, so I got quite annoyed and demanded my money back – which I got, but I don’t think to this day he understood what I was angry about. Especially when, as the hours passed, I didn’t get sick, leading me to the conclusion that that was how it was meant to taste and it wasn’t bad at all. Sorry, Mr vendor – I’d simply never tasted it like that before.
In truth, I am a little ‘templed out’ after a year on the road and AW is a place better seen in isolation. Not that that is AW’s fault.
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| Cambodia – Thai border to Angkor Wat |
Considering that I spent 4 days in Phnom Penh, I could have done more but at least I did do some investigation of property, as the Cambodia property market is doing rather well at the moment. Too well, if anything – there were numerous tales of buildings lived in by sitting tenants mysteriously burning down followed by redevelopment of the site 6 months later.
English man in Phnom Penh restaurant having argument with waiter about coffee ie man had asked for hot coffee (I’d heard him) then waiter brought cold and denied he’d made a mistake. “No, don’t argue with me. I know what I said to you in English – it’s my language.”
The sights I did go and see in Phnom Penh related unfortunately mostly to the negative aspects of Cambodia’s history ie the S21 / Tuol Sleng Khmer Rouge torture centre and then the killing facilities (Chong Euk or rather Chong Yuck, as it should be called). Here’s some Khmer Rouge info – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7893138.stm
Maybe it’s a SE Asia thing in general – as I’ve noticed it elsewhere – but Cambodians seem to pull what appears to my eyes to be the most inappropriate facial expressions. They smile about unpleasant topics, whereas we would of course do the opposite. This reached its peak whilst looking around S21…..about 6 people out of the 10s of thousands who had passed through there had survived and indeed 1 of these was I believe an official artist. There was a video of him going around S21 with one of his former jailers, and it was disconcerting in the extreme to watch him beaming from ear to ear whilst discussing matter-of-factly the events that had taken place there.
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| Cambodia – Phnom Penh |
19th of April
Informative morning looking around property sites in Phnom Penh, but suspect the property boom is a speculative bubble, which would have been good if I had got in on the ground floor 5 years ago but doesn’t necessarily mean it would carry on for another 5!! Took the bus to Battambang, sitting next to an English teacher. Recently married, having communication problems with his wife. Son of a Khmer Rouge diplomat. Surprised to hear his father didn’t always get on with the Khmer Rouge because he was outspoken! His mother had been arrested three times and had been told to confess with a gun put to her head, but refused.
20 April
Battambang was to be the last place I visited in Cambodia as time was getting short. Had a pleasant day around there and the surrounding countryside…..maybe nice isn’t totally appropriate, for one of the stops was a Khmer Rouge killing cave. Harry a good motorcycle taxi driver who I’d been lined up with by the Royal Hotel I was staying in – positive attitude. Visited Phnom Sampeau, the Khmer Rouge killing cave. Beyond the cave itself, at the summit of the hill, there were stunning views of the countryside and a funeral was going on below in Phnom Sampeau village. Hear this funeral music from the temple, which sounds like a cross between a New Orleans funeral and a muezzin’s call to prayer in a mosque.
Then on to Wat Banan (a minor Angkor Wat). Here, I met an English freelance cameraman with a curiously taciturn brother, then a place with fruit bats
and rode on this fiendish contraption known as the ‘Bamboo Train’ –
It consists of a small motorcycle engine-powered bamboo platform that rides on the railway tracks picking up and dropping off passengers, cargo, animals and motorcycles along the way. When it meets another bamboo train coming the other way the least laden train is disassembled and taken off the rails in a minute or two allowing the other to pass. It is then reassembled and the journey can continue. The rail tracks are in a pretty poor shape so it was a bouncy ride!
Met the cameraman later for a drink and a chat (I keep referring to him as ‘the cameraman’ purely because I’ve mislaid his name). He’d qualified as a doctor, then given it up to be a cameraman. Glad I didn’t jump to too many conclusions about the brother – I told the cameraman about my AS and he understood what it was, but whatever the brother had he didn’t reckon it was that. Good night club in Battambang.
21 April
Morning in Battambang. Learned the hard way the follies of not leaving Battambang early enough. Met Brett, the very helpful Australian owner of the Bus Stop Café/guest house when I threw myself on the kindness of strangers to get advice about how to get a bus back to the border, so I promised him I would plug his place on this website. The buses are all early in Cambodia “because they are used to being worried about criminals at night – but now it’s road safety (!)”
Pics of Battambang and to Aranya Prathet Thai border
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| Cambodia – Battambang and back to Thai border |
Problem at border again thanks to trying to be clever with the 2 passports. This time it was the Cambodians and the Thais together – still can’t understand why the Cambodians refused to put a departed Cambodia stamp on the new passport, nor why the Thais assured the Cambodian border crossing manager they would sort the problem out, then refused to budge from their previous position i.e. insisting on stamping me in on the old passport. I called Oksana, the Russian woman at Vladivostok Air to check whether it would be a problem entering Russia on a passport without a Thai exit stamp and waited for her to come back to me as she said she would – but she didn’t.
22 April
Last, but productive, day in Bangkok. Did all I wanted to do except watching some Muay Thai and getting trousers for Mandy, but that was only because the tailors she’d used before hadn’t kept her measurements after all this time. Had a 2 hour Thai massage from Boo, who I’d been recommended by the Thai woman I’d ridden with in Cambodia from the border to Siem Reap. Unbelievable how much strength and stamina there was in Boo’s arms, especially when I gave them a squeeze afterwards and they didn’t feel any bigger or more toned than any other woman’s arms. Nattie very kindly took me to the airport. Thought I’d better double check regarding the passport stamp issue with the Vladivostok Air duty manager at the airport, but she hadn’t heard from Oksana despite a text from Oksana assuring me that she had forewarned the manager. I should probably have said nothing and let it be dealt with once I’d reached Vlad.
Cue a heated phone call by manager to Oksana, during which manager said she’d write a report to head office if there were any problems (I could understand, for Oksana and the managers’ Lingua Franca was English). Following the conversation – manager said “some days, it’s lucky she gets out of bed”. Me – “well she was very nice to me at the office”. Manager – “well she would be – you’re a man”.
