Sihanoukville (Otres)
and Kep
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| Otres 1 beach |
Khmer
New Year kicked off on 14th April so we knew the beaches would be
starting to get busy. We managed to find a semi decent place for a fairly
reasonable price. We stayed at Otres
beach 1 near Sihanoukville which is an idyllic beach town, mainly for
western tourists. There are a few beaches along there, the main ones being Serendipity
which is more party, Ochheuteal,
and Otres 1 and Otres
2 which are less busy but you’re still able to get anything you need, including
the good old shroom shakes and happy pizzas.
It was a nice break for a few days
where we relaxed on the beach and on one day, we took a boat trip to three islands
off the coast called Koh Chrolosh, Koh Ta Kiev and Koh Tres, where we
snorkelled, cliff jumped and chilled on the beach with a few beers. This was
only $15 for the day and included a tuk tuk to the boat, a vegetable omelette
and coffee for breakfast, all day tour, lunch which was a baguette, grilled
chicken breast and salad, and all the water we needed. Cans of beer were a
dollar each. The trip was great value and lasted from about 8.30am to 4.30pm.
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| Otres 1 |
We spent a lot of time in Pizza Pippo, an Italian restaurant
opposite our bungalows with amazing pizza where we bumped into a couple of
people we had met on the slow boat – small world.
There are a couple of other, larger islands off the coast of
Sihanoukville; Koh
Rong, Koh
Rong Samloem and further away is Koh
Kong. We were thinking about staying at Koh Rong but didn’t bother in the
end. I was annoyed with myself when I remembered that one of the reasons we
wanted to stay there was to see the glowing
plankton. However, we found a boat to take us on our last evening and we
paid $10 to go fishing and see the plankton, from 4pm to 7pm. We fished with a
reel of twine and some squid for bait and when we ran out our fellow passenger
Francois shared his sandwich with us to use as bait. I caught 2 fish, one with
squid and one with bread. Baby D managed to catch 2 rocks…
The trip was really nice and relaxed (for us, maybe not for
the fish) and we saw some phosphorescent plankton just as it got dark. They are
like small flashes in the water and when we trailed our hands we could see them
move away on the ripples of the water. I think they get more prominent the
darker it gets but the boatman wanted to get back and start boozing with his
family for New Year so we were back just after 7pm; not long after sunset.
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| Kep market |
The next day we set off on the bus to Kep,
around 3 hours along the coast towards the east. We arrived at some lovely
bungalows in front of the National Park, called Bird
of Paradise. Reasonably priced considering it was New Year and we had a
gorgeous room. The owner was really helpful, advising on our visas for Vietnam,
buses, trips, places to eat.
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| Kep view from restaurant |
The bungalows were about 5 minutes’ walk from the crab
market which was full of stalls selling barbecued fish of every type,
clothes and shell knick knacks. Along from there are numerous restaurants
selling mainly seafood, most with a happy hour on booze and amazing views over
the sea for the sunset. We spent 2 days wandering round the town or
sunbathing at a nearby hotel’s pool which we were allowed to use as guests of
our place. One morning we got up early to trek around Kep
National Park. This was a fairly easy route with good views of the town and
the sea, spotting butterflies, lizards and monkeys on the way. The route is 8km
but the last 2km or so is on a huge road which has been built in the park,
which ruined it a bit for us. We headed into town later to sort out our visas
for Vietnam, which was going to take a few days because of the New Year and
public holidays in Cambodia and Vietnam. In the afternoon we chilled by the
pool at the hotel next door.
After a good night’s sleep in our gorgeous bungalow we left
our luggage and headed down to the harbour to take a boat over to Rabbit
Island or Koh Tonsay. We paid $11 for the tuk tuk, boat and pick up again
in a tuk tuk the following day. The boat trip only took around 15 minutes and
we arrived on a lovely island which was covered in jungle except for the sandy
beaches in front of us. We hadn’t booked a place to stay but there was no
shortage of bungalows. We paid $7 for a wooden bungalow facing the sea. It was
really basic, with a squat toilet and a rainwater butt to wash and flush the
loo. We used bottled water to wash.
We spent the day relaxing on the beach, having a massage and
playing with 3 super-cute tiny puppies that were in a hole in the sand under
our table. The dad actually came over at one point growling and baring his
teeth and the mum was scared. One of the pups had got loose and the dad looked
like he wanted to kill it, which is common. We chased the dad off but we wonder
what happened to the pups and if they’re still alive. Cambodian people aren’t
soppy over animals as a rule, and if the dad killed the pups they would accept
it as the animal’s natural urges.
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| Hopefully not a dog's dinner |
Electricity was only available from 6pm to 10pm as they turn
the generator off at night. Just after 10 we went down to the water’s edge to
look at the glowing plankton. It was more visible than the plankton we had seen
when we went out on the fishing boat near Otres, but there was less of it. It
didn’t quite match up to the Google image bank.
We took the last boat back the following day which was scary
as the water was so choppy – we’d had crazy thunderstorms both nights we’d stayed
in Kep on the mainland so we thought another one was brewing. Rabbit Island was lovely and relaxed; the food was very
good and a lot cheaper than the mainland.
We had eaten a mixed seafood platter in Kep which cost us $20 for 2 of us –
cheap in comparison to other places. On Rabbit Island, it cost us $5 each.
Drinks were cheaper too, as were massages.
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| Rabbit Island |
We were back in Kep for one more night and we had been moved
to a different bungalow. Just as nice but with a very chatty gecko that woke us
up every 30 minutes. Our visas still weren’t ready the next morning so we had
to book in for another night and we relaxed by the pool.
Phnom Penh
We took the bus to Phnom
Penh from Kep and jumped in a tuk tuk to take us to a guest house. After
checking out a couple, we settled on one near the riverside within a 10 minute
walk from the palace. The area was quite touristy but had everything on our
doorstep. We arranged with our driver to go to the killing
fields, or Choeung Ek genocidal centre, and S21 or Tuol
Sleng genocide museum on the following day, so we had the rest of the day
to wander round town and visit the Central
market with its massive array of anything you could possibly want, and Wat
Phnom, built in 1372 and which is the largest religious structure in Phnom
Penh, and the palace.
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| Palace in Phnom Penh |
Choeung Ek is the most notorious killing fields in Cambodia,
and there are over 300 of them. The excellent audio guide took us around the
site which saw maybe 20,000 Cambodian people killed by the Khmer Rouge. The
site is very peaceful and picturesque now, but it masks a horror story. After
the Khmer Rouge was overthrown, the site was discovered and on it were
multiple mass graves, torture buildings and storage rooms for killing and
torture tools and chemical substances which were used to dispose of the bodies.
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| Memorial stupa at Choeung Ek |
One of the most shocking and upsetting things for me was the killing tree
against which the Khmer Rouge smashed babies to death. They didn’t want to face
retribution from these babies when they grew up for killing their families, so
they just smashed them against the tree and threw their broken bodies into a
pit. Bones and items of clothing often come to the surface still and we noticed
some on the ground which would be collected by the people that work there.
There is a beautiful stupa which contains the broken bones and clothing of the
victims and the whole site is a worthy memorial to those that tragically lost
their lives there.
After lunch we went to Tuol Sleng genocide museum. This
former school was the site of the Khmer Rouge prison where normal Khmer people
were locked up in tiny cells, usually lying on their backs and shackled, and
starved and tortured. Up to 20,000 people were imprisoned there before being
trucked to Choeung Ek to be killed.
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| Memorial at Tuol Sleng |
Again, the audio tour was very good and we
learned about the buildings, the people and the torture they endured there. We
were lucky to notice a sign on a door which said that there would be a video at
2.30pm, so we headed across along with 3 or 4 others. The sign wasn’t very
prominent so I don’t think many people spotted it. After a short video
re-enacting a story of young boys and their experiences living under the Khmer
Rouge, we had a Q&A session with a lady who worked for the museum, who
endured the regime as a girl. It was very interesting to learn about her
experiences and we were able to ask her questions about her experiences and
feelings of that time.
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| Tuol Sleng |
On the way out of the museum we noticed some books for sale
and we realised that the books had been written by the man selling them; Chum
Mey, 1 of only 7 survivors of the prison, and 1 of only 2 surviving today.
It was a privilege to meet him; he was a friendly, seemingly happy man who is
at the prison almost every day to help educate people about the horrors he and
millions of others endured.
Afterwards we went to the Russian
market which is a huge covered market selling pretty much anything and
everything you can think of. It is called the Russian market because it used to
have so many Russian visitors.
On our last evening in Cambodia we went on the hunt for a
Khmer delicacy of tarantula. There is a town a couple of hours away from Phnom
Penh called Skuon
which is overrun with tarantulas. Under the Khmer Rouge when people were
starving, the villagers started to eat the tarantulas for a source of protein,
and this has continued. We searched high and low to try them but we weren’t able
to find them – they had sold out everywhere because the Khmer people had eaten
them during their New Year celebrations!
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| Deep fried frog |
We found deep fried frog instead which
was pretty good – it tasted like chicken wings. That night I had my recurring
spider nightmare where I half wake up, pull the covers off the bed, do a
somersault, shrieking about a spider in the bed. This time I had imagined an
albino tarantula and the next day woke up with something suspiciously like a
spider bite on my arm…
Onto Vietnam, farewell to fabulous Cambodia.
#cambodia #phnompenh #tuolsleng #choeungek #killingfields #s21 #kep #rabbitisland #sihanoukville #otresbeach
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