We knew very little of Cambodia, our decision to go was based solely on the want to visit Angkor, a site in the North West of the country, which used to be the centre of power for the Khmer Empire between the 11th and 15th century AD. We had been told of magnificent temples hidden within the overgrown jungle that surrounded Angkor and thought it a fitting part of our trip.
The Cambodians speak very good English, thereby making it very easy for Westerners to visit the country. This is no accident given the American occupation of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and more recently the steady increase in backpackers and tourists visiting the country. Some also speak very good French, a legacy of the French occupation and rule of Cambodia until 1953.
When we arrived in Cambodia, we had little expectations of the public transportation system. We had readied ourselves for a struggle and for the potential of sitting on chicken buses with the locals and their livestock and worldly wares for some very long hot and sticky hours! Actually, instead we found bus travel between the cities in Cambodia incredibly efficient and comfortable! There were a plethora of companies to choose from, regular services and air con’d buses (well air vents anyways), and cheap – wow! For example, we paid $4 dollars each to travel 6 hours from Phnom Penh (the capital city) to Siem Reap (where Angkor is). These services are used primarily by the locals so it’s a great way to throw yourself into the Cambodian experience, particularly when the bus makes it toilet breaks, and you find yourself squatting with the best of them!! Of course, if this all seems a bit much, you can catch the Mekong Express, a ‘VIP’ service, which has trolley dolly service and a toilet on board. So much for third world country!
The food in Cambodia was absolutely fabulous, and very healthy. We ate lots of fish, chicken, vegetables, noodles, sticky rice and fruit. A key favourite for us was the Fish Amok – a spicy fish curry with a sweet coconut sauce, sometimes served in a banana leaf. Of course, this isn’t to say that the weird and wonderful doesn’t exist. Cambodians love to fry up spiders and scorpions, locusts and crickets. Indeed, on our bus journeys the locals were eating snack size bags of bugs as we tucked into our bags of crisps! Our healthy diet was however, somewhat counteracted by our beer intake! Cambodia has some fabulous beers so when they were averaging $0.50 a bottle, it would be a crime not to partake!
Cambodia has had a bloody past. Whilst the West enjoyed the free loving seventies, Cambodians experienced civil war and the Vietnamese conflict. They also suffered through the oppressive rule of the Khmer Rouge where over 2 million people were believed to have died from executions, disease, exhaustion and starvation. During this time, children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labour camps. Factories and schools, universities and hospitals were shut down. Professional people in any field (including the army) were murdered, together with their extended families. Religion and even music and radio sets were banned!
Even after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, the people continued to suffer with little international aid getting through and the Khmer Rouge desperately trying to regain power with guerrilla tactics and planting landmines all over Cambodia. It was only in 1993 did a formally elected government start to take control again overseen by a UN peace keeping force.
This troubled past is still haunting Cambodia today with many parts of the country still covered in active land mines that have and are still claiming their victims limbs or lives. The country is showing positive signs of growth but people are still without jobs and often turning themselves or their families to crime and prostitution. So, when you get such a warm welcome and find people trying to be innovative to make a dollar, its hard not to feel touched by such a powerful spirit. Andy and I felt incredibly compelled to help where we could so bought local wares and donated money to a local charity, gave cash to landmine victims, food to children and ate in restaurants where profits go towards projects keeping street kids out of crime and prostitution.
So to the key sights:
Angkor: A big phat WOW!!! We managed to fill two full days hopping from temple to temple and still there were so many others that we did not get to see. To set the scene, you do not actually stay in Angkor, there is a little town near the site called Siem Reap. It’s incredibly touristy (Angkor is very popular with tour groups from Thailand) but has a good vibe and feels very chilled. We liked it. Angkor itself is a huge archaeological park set within the jungle. It was really quite a wonderful to drive through dense jungle on our little ‘tuk tuk’, seeing monkeys playing, hearing birds singing and visiting old temples (or ‘wats’ as they are referred to in Asia). Of all the temples we visited (including the infamous Angkor Wat), Andy’s favourite was the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom. The temple walls and columns/pillars were covered in large stone faces. Some were in fantastic condition and really made you appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship of the stone masons some 900 years ago. What really struck us as we sat taking in the beauty of the temple was just how many faces started to come out of the rock the longer you looked. Whilst a lot had been ravaged by Nature, some 217 of them originally covered the temple inside and out! For me, I was blown away by Ta Prohm. It was by no means as ornate or as big as Bayon, but its beauty came from the effects of Time. Everywhere you looked Mother Nature had spread her fingers with colossal tree roots and vine systems enveloping and crumbling the temple walls. The green moss, which blanketed most of the stone, was just so lush that it seemed to give the temple life. It was a very magical place, made even more incredible by a tropical storm, which hit when we were at the site. The fierce rain really seemed to invigorate the place, giving it a life line. Really fabulous.
Killing Fields: This was a very sobering and emotional experience. In the morning, we took a tuk tuk to see the ‘Killing Fields’ of Choeung Ek. This is where the Khmer Rouge massacred c17000 people between 1975 and 79. Men, women and children were bludgeoned to death (they didn’t want to waste bullets) then thrown into mass graves. At the site, a memorial has been erected, which contains the skulls and the clothing of victims exhumed from 86 of the 129 mass graves. We shook our heads and feel sick as we paid our respects. You could see that all the skulls had fractures where they had been beaten to death. Around the memorial are the pits, which acted as the mass graves. For us, the most sickening pit was one where 126 babies had been discovered. These poor children had been beaten to death against a nearby tree. It was absolutely horrific.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum: Following our visit to the Killing Fields, we went back to Phnom Penh and got dropped off at the Tuol Sleng Museum. Originally, this building had been a school but the Khmer Rouge changed all of that, turning it into interrogation centre and prison called Security Office 21 (S-21). Standing empty now, it’s a haunting reminder of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. When S-21 was found after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, there were still mutilated bodies chained to metal bed frames. Photos were taken of these sorry individuals and now hang as a tragic memorial in the rooms where they had been tortured to death. As we stood staring at both these and the metal bad frames left in Block A, we were sickened that human beings could be capable of such carnage, Once we had read the stories of some of S-21 survivors and looked into the eyes of the victims who had died here, we felt emotionally drained and only begin to imagine how the Cambodians must feel.
Sihanoukville: This is Cambodia’s main beach resort on the South coast. Andy and I stayed on Serendipity Beach – a back packers area away from the main town. A good choice because the beach was great and the water was clean, and we managed to get ourselves a little beach bungalow for about $15 a night. In the evening, the place had a wonderfully relaxed feel to it, we ate and drank cocktails on the beach into the night. During the day, was an experience! We were offered jewellery, books, massage, manicures, pedicures, hair removal, the list goes on!! For a good part of the day, we had someone sitting at the bottom of our sun loungers doing a relentless sales job! For the most part though, they were pretty good fun with it, and eventually buggered off, especially the kids when you gave them a few sweeties!
We really felt like we needed so much more time in Cambodia, not only to see more of the country but also to soak up the hospitality of its people. They have a wonderful spirit and you want to help contribute to their country’s growth. We would strongly advise everyone to put Cambodia in your travel plans. You will be welcomed with open arms. It’s a beautiful place and it needs help to rise out of the shadows of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.
