Siem Reap
Finally, over the border to Cambodia, and after being conned out
of the cost of a night’s accommodation, we endured a bone rattling 6 hour
journey with another lunatic driver to Siem
Reap where we were met by several tuk tuk drivers charging $5 per person to
go 3km. Baby D and I started walking along with another girl from the bus and
we were soon approached by another tuk tuk driver who charged us a dollar each.
The heavens opened as soon as we got in the tuk tuk and it poured all night.
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| Angkor Wat |
The next day we bought a day pass for the famous Angkor
Wat and surrounding temples and hired a tuk tuk driver. Having stopped to
get some cash at an ATM, we were surprised to see that we’d been given US
dollars which, along with the Cambodian currency of Riels, is also acceptable
tender. This turned out to be a pain in the backside as change is often given
in Riels, confusingly. We stopped to get a sim card – 5gb for $8, and then to get
the day pass for the temples which was an eye watering $37 each. On top of that
was $15 for the driver. Not a cheap day out.
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| Angkor Wat |
Angkor Wat is informally known as the 8th wonder of the
world as it missed out on the new 7 wonders list a few years’ ago. It really is
an awe-inspiring sight. It was originally a Hindu temple, built in the 12th
century before being taken over by Buddhist monks as a monastery in the 16th
century. It is no longer a monastery; the monks moved into a newer place next
door in the 20th century. According to our guide it took 37 years to
build, and the architect died during its construction so parts of it were left
unfinished. The famous towers, which also appear on Cambodia’s national flag,
are awesome, but the intricate carvings depicting Hindu stories are just as
impressive.
The temple has three levels, all of which are accessible,
although visitors have to cover their shoulders and legs (for women) when going
up to the very top level. We hadn’t actually planned on going to the temples on
our first day in Cambodia, so I had on a vest top. Much to the amusement of our
guide and others around us, Baby D suggested we swap tops so that my shoulders
were covered, as apparently men could wear vests. Once we got there though, we
were told that Baby D couldn’t go up in my vest so he stayed downstairs. I am
not sure if this is the case for all men, or just ones wearing pink vests but
probably best to be prepared if anyone is planning on going.
We also visited Angkor Thom, Ta
Prohm Temple, Banteay
Kdei, Bayon,
and South
Gate; other temples and complexes in the Angkor area, built around 12th
century.
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| Angkor Thom |
Later on we discovered ‘Pub Street’ where beer costs from 25
cents so we were happy after forking out so much to see the temples.
The next day we headed over to the National
Museum which was interesting. We learned about the history and city of the
country and saw many artefacts, most religious and constructed of sandstone.
The museum was $12 entry.
We then went to the war
museum which was $5 entry. I have to say that the National Museum paled in
comparison. As soon as we got to the war museum we were approached by a tour
guide. There was no fee for the guide, although you are encouraged to tip. Our
guide was Sinarth, aka The Cat. He told us his story of growing up fighting the
Khmer Rouge in the mid to late 70s. He had gone fishing one day as a 10 year
old, and when he returned he found that his family had been slaughtered by the
Khmer Rouge. He had little choice but to fight and he told us of his near death
experiences, showing us his war wounds where he had been shot multiple times,
and the shrapnel in his knee.
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| The Cat |
The Cat had one leg, and was blind in one eye
where his toe was blown off by a landmine and the bone went into his eye. Later
on in life, after settling down with his family to put the horrors he endured
behind him, his wife died of lung cancer brought on by uranium used in the Vietnam war. His stories were shocking and upsetting, especially with the
backdrop of the guns, shells, tanks, other armoured vehicles and photos and
descriptions of the atrocities around the museum park. Sinarth
had a book written about him which I bought and he signed for me.
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| The Cat's shrapnel |
Battambang
The next day we took a bus to Battambang.
This is the 2nd biggest city in Cambodia and is a prominent place for Khmer
Rouge atrocities. Many of the Cambodian people were told to evacuate Phnom
Penh, the country’s capital and ended up in Battambang. The Khmer Rouge was a
communist guerrilla group fighting against the country’s military power. It
overthrew the government and took control, forcing the ‘new’ people into
slavery. The ‘new’ people were the 2nd wave of people to be indoctrinated
into the system; usually city people who were well educated or professionals,
that had no choice but to comply with the new regime.
The Khmer Rouge slaughtered millions of new people, threatened by their education, as they knew these people would be the first to question their methods and motives. They also didn’t fit the principles of the communist ideals. The murder of so many innocent people was fairly recent; from 1975 to 1979 and there are still many people in Cambodia who remember or had some part in this awful period. Apparently around 1 person in 4 was killed; over 2 million, perhaps closer to 3 million people during the regime.
The Khmer Rouge slaughtered millions of new people, threatened by their education, as they knew these people would be the first to question their methods and motives. They also didn’t fit the principles of the communist ideals. The murder of so many innocent people was fairly recent; from 1975 to 1979 and there are still many people in Cambodia who remember or had some part in this awful period. Apparently around 1 person in 4 was killed; over 2 million, perhaps closer to 3 million people during the regime.
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| War museum |
In Battambang, we were met at the bus by a tuk tuk driver
who was to take us to the hotel. He talked us into using his services for a
couple of days and we were glad we did. Phi Lay our driver, firstly took us to
the Bamboo
Train, which is a few kilometres out of the city. This old railway line
helps the rural people move goods and people quickly from A to B.
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| Bamboo train |
The
train was a rickety old contraption of a wooden ‘raft’ on 2 sets of metal
railroad wheels. We sat on cushions and had a 20 minute journey through the
Cambodian countryside, having to stop once to dismantle our train to let
another train past coming from the opposite direction. We stopped for 10
minutes at a small touristy market area before returning. The journey costs $5
each, not including the driver’s tip. It was fun, if really dangerous, and a
lovely way to see the countryside.
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| Bas-relief depicting Khmer Rouge atrocities |
We then visited an area called Phnom
Sampeau where the killing
caves are located. This is where thousands of innocent people, including
babies were thrown to their deaths and the caves were left as a mass grave.
There are still bones and skulls there as a memorial.
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| Killing cave |
At the entrance to the area, there is another cave, full of bats which fly out every night before sunset. It was a sight to behold as between 3 and 7 million bats fly out, but I have no idea how they would manage to count them all. The bat exodus took around 40 minutes.
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| Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus |
Phi Lay then drove us
to the famous Phare
Ponleu Selpak circus. This is not a typical animal circus but a performing
arts/acrobatic one. It cost $15 each and lasted around an hour and a half. I
could have watched the performers all night; they were fantastically talented.
In the evening we found ‘Pub Street’ which is a scaled down version of the one
in Siem Reap.
The next day we were picked up by Phi Lay who invited us to
his daughter’s engagement party at his house but first, he took us to the local
market.
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| Live tortoise for sale in the market |
The market in Battambang opens at 3am and shuts at 1pm. It was a real
shock to the system as our senses were assaulted by the range of different
things for sale, from clothing to jewellery to food. The food was the most
interesting. We saw snakes, live tortoises, ducks and lizards all either desperately
fighting to escape, or in the ducks’ case, seemingly resigned to their fate. We
saw cows’ trotters and tails, insects and frogs, clams and snails. Phi Lay told
us that Cambodians eat anything.
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| Yum..mouse and rat |
On the way to his house for the engagement
party, we stopped at the side of the road to try some grilled mouse and rat.
This has been eaten in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge days.
At the party we were made to feel very welcome and were
immediately presented with chilled beers (at 10am). We met the extended family
and were fed with typical Cambodian cuisine, including roast chicken, grilled
catfish, morning glory, sour mango and as much rice as we could eat. Phi Lay
and his sons told us about wedding traditions in Cambodia and showed us photos
of the eldest son’s wedding, where the bride and groom had at least 5 changes
of clothes.
After we left the party, we went to a memorial to those killed
there by the Khmer Rouge called the Well
of Shadows near to a Buddhist temple called Wat
Somrong Knong which was used as a prison and was actually where our tuk tuk
driver was incarcerated. More than 10,000 people were murdered there and the
bas reliefs surrounding the Well of Shadows memorial depict the horrors faced
by the local people.
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| Phi Lay and his sons |
Phi Lay was a great tuk tuk driver and guide. He was a Khmer
Rouge survivor, having been part of a wealthy military family in Phnom Penh.
Most of his family was killed by the Khmer Rouge except for him and his brother
and sister. Phi Lay spent those terrible years doing back breaking work,
surviving on bugs and leeches from the paddy fields and seeing three of his
close friends killed for giving him food when he was sick with malaria. He told
us some awful stories about watching people being gutted, how children were
duped into saying what their parents did for a living which often got them
killed, how everyone had to cut their hair off and were so emaciated, that
women and men looked the same, but he had a good sense of humour and strength
about it all. For instance, when his friends gave him extra food, he took great
delight in telling us how big his poo was the next day and how good it felt!
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| Fruit bat |
We were shown some special local things such as a tree full of fruit bats, and Phi Lay started a fire so we could see the bats fly out. He took us along the river to show us some clever fishing methods like using a litre plastic bottle where spikes are cut and pushed into the bottle, making it easy for the fish to get in but not out. We also saw ladies making spring rolls on the side of the road including the round rice papers which were left to dry in the sun.
We spent 3 days in Battambang which, although it is the 2nd
biggest city in Cambodia, has a very rural feel, quite different from Siem
Reap. It was a lot less touristy although there is a great deal to see,
including the colonial French architecture. We booked a bus to go to Sihanoukville,
a beach area in the south west of the country. A 13 hour journey with a stop in
Phnom Penh ensued…
#cambodia #siemreap #angkorwat #angkorthom #battambang #khmerrouge #bambootrain #killingcave
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