After an early breakfast at the coffee shop next to our room, we found our tuk tuk driver and took off for Angkor Wat and the temples. It was my second time in 9 months to visit the temples, but they are just as spectacular the second time. There is so much refurbishment going on that there were new things to see and some former things that were blocked.
We did not have a tour guide, so we used the guide book and our own curiosity to explore. We covered 4 temples in about 5 hours. After ups and downs of all the stairs we were ready for a less active afternoon, so after lunch we took a walk around part of the city before heading back to have a snack at bar and a nap.
Just as we were ready to head out to the night market and dinner, a big thunderstorm started. After watching the storm from the balcony and realising it might not be smart to stand next to the power lines in an electrical storm, we settled back in the room to wait out the storm. We became totally enthralled in the absolutely horrible movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Man does that movie have incredibly bad dialogue and yet we could not stop watching. The movie did inspire an idea for a sequel. Let’s just say that the sequel involves the lax traffic laws and tuk tuks of Cambodia.
Tuesday morning was a later start. Well, it would have been if Debra wasn’t awake crazy early and ready to get up and go. I made myself awake and we went out to try to source some food. Instead of heading towards the cafe mentioned in the guide book we took off towards a busier street hoping we would have more options. Turns out Phnom Penh is not much of a morning town. We stopped at one place that had tables set up under a canopy and signed for a menu. There were some things listed in English, but were a bit nervous what “eggs” might be and no one seemed to speak much English. We decided that since we had several bus hours ahead of us, we wouldn’t risk it and moseyed on. We were then tempted by what looked like dough being fried in a vat of oil, but as it was also street side dining, we didn’t want to risk our digestive systems and continued to look, but were quickly running out of time. Not even finding a convenience store, we decided that the crisps and biscuits sold at the guest house would have to serve as breakfast.
At 8:30 we were aboard the bus and headed towards Siem Reap. There was no leg room, and not much butt room for two, normal sized, western girls. There was a TV playing a DVD of some of the worst music videos ever. There were subtitles so that we could see just how atrociously bad the lyrics were. We were doubled over laughing, or would have been if there was room. When the guy across the aisle started singing along, I thought we would not survive the hilarity.
The rest of the ride was pretty dull. There was a rich American kid sitting behind us that was having a sometimes interesting conversation with his German seat mate. The German girl was in Cambodia working, the guy was taking several months to backpack through Southeast Asia. Just as I thought I was going to lose my mind from the boredom and the discomfort of the seats, we stopped for lunch in Kampong Thom; just over half way. We were given 30-minutes to get food at one of the many restaurants near the stop. The staff was anxious to serve us in the alloted time, and even turned the menu pages for us if we appeared to be taking too much time trying to order. The staff also stood next to all our tables watching us eat; just in case we needed something. It was a bit too much attention, so we ate quickly and got out.
We arrived in Siem Reap early afternoon and negotiated with a tuk tuk driver to take us to our guest house. He stopped midway and tried to get us to book him for the rest of the day or the following day. We eventually got him to take no for an answer and continue the journey.
We were booked in at the Ivy, a restaurant/bar/guest house. The rooms were HUGE. We even had a balcony that we could step out on; as long as we were careful not to touch the power lines that ran in front of it.
Our first stop was the coffee shop next door for some much needed caffeine. After the pick me up, we chose the friendliest looking tuk tuk driver stationed outside and made arrangements for the following day to see the temples. He also suggested taking us that evening to see the sunset at Tonle Sap or at one of the temples. We opted for the temple and used a bit of free time to wander through the old market, Psar Chaa.
There were a lost of clouds so there wasn’t much of a sunset, but it is still a lot of fun to climb around the temple and explore. On the way home, he suggested dinner at an Apsara show and for $5 extra he agreed to pick us up as soon as the show was over.
A long, but another nice day.
I arrived home mid-morning yesterday. Can’t really say that I am happy to be back. The trip was way too much fun, and as crazy as it was, it was way too relaxing. I enjoyed not caring if I was clean, not worrying (too much) about safety as we did crazy things, only caring where the next curry might come from.
The adventure started very, very early on Monday morning. Debra arrived about 1 am and our flight to Phnom Penh was scheduled for 6:45 am. So we had about 3 hours between airport trips. There was not much sleeping. First stop in the airport was the coffee shop, which conveniently had free foot massage machines. We took advantage and as we caffeinated and we massaged. The flight was pretty empty, so we were able to get our own rows for stretching out. We were pretty giddy at the start, but each managed to snooze a tiny bit on the flight.
Thanks to the one hour time difference, we arrived in Phnom Penh, just after 7 am. We got to our guest house, navigated the crazy stair case (each stair was different height and width, luckily we managed not to kill ourselves on them) and settled in for a bit. After arranging our bus to Siem Reap for the next day, we negotiated a tuk tuk ride out to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek.
The tuk tuk ride was a total adventure. Choeung Ek is outside of the city, so we had a long ride and almost hurt ourselves laughing. While cars mostly stay in their lanes, tuk tuks do not always follow the normal rules of the road. When making a right-turn, the tuk tuk would move into the on-coming traffic as it merged it’s way over to the right side of the road. At one T intersection, it was every vehicle for themselves; total madness. We eventually weaved our way through, only tapping into one moto, and headed down a wet, dirt road. It was a pretty steep drop and the tuk tuk slid a lot, once sliding into the moto in front of us (no one even bruised, but lots of laughter).
The Killing Fields are very depressing. Everyone walks around with a sombre expression, barely speaking. Near the entrance is a glass stupa filled with skulls recovered around Choeung Ek. You are encouraged to walk through the inside, and most visitors do, looking slightly ill and totally mortified. The silence in the stupa comes naturally as no one knows what to say, think or feel. After the stupa, you can wander through the grounds and see the holes left from the mass graves. There are signs indicating where the buildings once stood. As you walk along the back fence, there are cute children that will pose for photos for $1 and give you a well rehearsed speech of sorrow as they beg for more dollars. By the third child you know most of the lines of the speech yourself. Some kids are better at selling it than others, we took pity on two of the first boys we saw. All in all, it was a very depressing stop.
On our way back to the guest house, we heard what sounded like screaming kids coming up behind our tuk tuk. Turned out is was a truck full of pigs being taken to market. They were standing on each other up to about 3 deep (Do you still hear the screaming, the screaming of the lambs pigs?).
We negotiated with our driver to drive us all day for $10. Because our next stop was closed during lunch time, we stopped at our room and power napped for an hour before heading out to lunch and Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Lunch was at the ever so cute, outdoor cafe Boddhi Tree, and the first of many, many curries.
The Khmer Rouge was very good at documenting the torture inflicted on their victims at S-21, a former school. In the first set of rooms you see where victims were tortured. Today you see the beds, the leg irons and maybe some of the items used to torture the victims. Each room contains a photo of a victim being tortured. I don’t even want to think about the stains that remained on the floors and walls. From the torture rooms, you moved to rooms and rooms of photos of the victims. As each prisoner arrived at Toul Sleng, they were photographed and documented. The documents were lost, but the photos remained behind and are now displayed as a reminder. There were a few boards of photos of very young children. I realised that those children were my age, or would have been had they not been systematically murdered. From the photos, you moved into the prison cells. There was a lot of history to read, but most of the museum was visual evidence of what occurred at the prison.
We had a bit of time left before everything closed and needed to lighten the day up, so we headed over to the Royal Palace and silver pagoda. We had about 30-45 min to run around the grounds and take in all the beauty.
At dinner time, we left to guest house to see that our tuk tuk driver was still hanging around outside, so for a few more dollars we had him take us to the river, to eat next to Tonle Sap. When we arrived, we were the only non-locals in the place. As the evening wore on, we laughed as we watched group after group of tourists walking in holding the same Lonely Planet book, their finger conveniently marking the page.
On the way home from dinner, with a different driver, our tuk tuk stalled. In the middle of the intersection. We jumped out and helped push it across the road. Luckily our driver got it started again and took us the few remaining blocks home.
It is Wednesday at a little after 2 pm. We have finally sat down for lunch. This morning at 8 we headed out to the temples. We spent at least 2.5 hours at Angkor Wat, walking around. Next was the up and down and up and down of Bayon at Angkor Thom. Ta Prohm was third and really great. There we were really allowed to explore and we went through so many passage ways. With the heat and climbing we were starting to fade fast. A quick coke from on of the many kids and we were ready for the final temple, Preah Khan. After that we were done. No plans for today other than enjoying the slower pace of Siem Reap. Tomorrow we head for Koh Samui.
It is 2 am, met Debra at the airport an hour ago. We came back to my apartment so she could shower and we could relax for a few hours before going back to the airport. We fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 6:45 am. It will be a crazy, crazy two weeks.
Monday - Phnom Penh - Going to Killing Fields museum and Toul Sleng (a former Khmer Rouge prison).
Tuesday - Bus between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, then wander around Siem Reap for half the day.
Wednesday - Siem Reap and Angkor Wat
Thursday - Fly to Koh Samui, Thailand for half a day on the beach
Friday - Fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand after most of the day at Koh Samui beaches
Saturday - White Water rafting or going to see Hill Tribes or???
Sunday - Going to elephant rescue near Chiang Mai. Spend the day learning to care for elephants.
Monday - Whatever we didn’t do Saturday
Tuesday - Fly to Bangkok at ass crack of dawn, go to Grand Palace and whatever else
Wednesday - Go to floating markets and river Kwai to see where WWII prisoners were forced to build railroad and bridges.
Thursday - Back to Singapore for Debra to see more of Singapore than the road to and from the airport
Friday - Debra goes back to US, I sleep.