Phnom Penh

The few days we spent in the capital of Cambodia were restful as we'd already visited the horrific S21 and killing fields.

We managed to walk around the centre of the city one day - taking in a lot from the outside - we saw the Independence monument, the riverside area (very touristy!), the Central Market (more like a department store on the inside!) and the Royal Palace from the outside - apparently access to the buildings is limited as its still the royal residence.

Independence monument - still with the trappings of Independence Day celebrations!

Central Market from the outside

And the inside

Some of the Royal Palace buildings

We were staying at a great little hostel called Me Mates Villa. We'd stayed there the previous time we were in Phnom Penh (all 8 hours or so!) and Charlie remembered me and greeted me like a long lost friend!

We decided to splash our cash on some cocktails and a nice meal - so we headed to the Foreign Correspondents Club for happy hour margaritas and then to Friends International restaurant.

The restaurant came highly recommended to me by Jo Lima and is a charity that trains street kids in hospitality for hotels & restaurants. The food is Cambodian/Asian fusion - so some traditional dishes like stir fried red ants and some Asian twists on things like ceviche! All in all very good and well worth the splurge! The gift shop next door also got a visit ;)

The following day Kitty and I made an excursion one block to the National Museum. The building itself is impressive - but there was little information about it in the Museum, I think it was built in 1920 and lots of foreign governments seem to be sponsoring the renovation of different bits of it...

The collections inside include a lot of stone statues from various temples - including Buddhas and Vishnu's from Angkor Wat. There was a random collection of farm implements and some pottery also.

Garuda - half bird, half lion statue

I thought the most interesting thing was the display on the bronze drums. Apparently Cambodia was ahead of the curve in the Bronze Age and these massive drums were prized possessions buried with their high status owners.

When the locals discovered these graves in the last 10-15 years they saw a quick buck to be made and looted to sell the drums for scrap metal and as people became aware of what they were, to antique dealers.

What is interesting is how officals reacted - they sent archeologists in - presumably with the help of the German government which was sponsoring this display - and educated the locals on what they found, it's historical importance and even got the locals involved by working with them on the dig.

One caption describes how a local man saw the destruction his looting had done to the grave when working with the archeologists. Not a perfect solution - but here I think education helped to limit the damage to the site and they still managed to find some well preserved graves and 'finds'.

Changes in a decade

So the last time I was in South East Asia it was over a decade ago in 2002. I spent a month or 5 weeks travelling post university with a friend.

So what's changed since then?

I can't really comment on Thailand - we didn't spend much time in the same places except the palace in Bangkok, which is exactly as I remembered.

I was expecting Cambodia to have changed a lot - mainly because its recent history. When I was there in 2002 they were building the road from the Vietnam border to Phnom Penh - we had to stop as a pot hole in a bridge was filled in before continuing and the use of mobile phones was rife as the Khmer Rouge had destroyed a lot of the telecommunications infrastructure.

Has it changed? Well in Phnom Penh there wasn't a nighttime curfew and there were no warnings about this helping to avoid drunk people who would fire off AK47s and other guns randomly...

Central Market in Phnom Penh - surprisingly not busy

The roads are still shit. I think this is because of two factors - one corruption, hardly any of the money donated by foreign aid gets to where it needs to be - there isn't much difference for public works, public servants need to make a living to fund their $50,000 cars some how.... 

And two is the recent floods in Cambodia - there were a lot more pot holes that our bus from Laos had to avoid in the dark - not a pleasant ride! But coupled with cost cutting because of corruption, then the roads are inferior and unlikely to respond well to bad weather, let alone two consecutive years of flooding.

In Siem Reap the town was hugely developed - I definitely don't remember the party town that it has become, Pub Street didn't exist back then!

Also we were warned not to stray off the beaten path at Angkor Wat and the further out temples because of Khmer Rouge landlines. The authorities (presumably with international help such as MAG) have cleared all of the landlines within the Angkor area. There is considerable pressure to do this when tourists spend $20m a year on entrance fees alone.... Not so much pressure when it's just the local farmers being hurt...

On to Vietnam where we arrived today - refreshingly different to Cambodia - Hi Chi Minh is more like a capital city than Phnom Penh! In fact Phnom Penh looks sleepy in comparison. Ho Chi Minh is full of life and about 10 times the amount of motorbikes - crossing the road can be an act of faith! I don't remember the neon lights that light up Ho Chi Minh like Oxford Circus - however the energy of the area is infectious.

Neon lights and branding everywhere in Ho Chi Minh

What I do recall from my last visit in 2002 where women in the traditional dress of long tunic and flowing trousers with conical hat on the back of a motorbike or bicycle. I haven't seen one lady in traditional dress yet :( there is still time as we have a month to go :)

One thing hasn't changed - I'm instantly a millionaire in Vietnamese Dong!

Wat Wat, Angkor What?

So this is a post about a bar in Siem Reap - screw the temples

Only kidding! It's about both....

So we arrived in Siem Reap on Wednesday evening - having driven around in the rain for 20 minutes to find our hostel, we were happily satisfied with our choice - the Siem Reap Hostel.

We made a dash through the lessening rain to meet our Cambodian guide CoCo for dinner at a street side restaurant to celebrate his upcoming birthday.

Of course this means more than just dinner - so next up was X bar for shots and cock(s).... 

tails - great as Stray gets a discount. 

After the worlds longest game of pool we decided to up the ante and head to the infamous pub street - does exactly what it says on the tin - lined with pubs.

So this is where the Angkor What? of the title comes in. It's a loud late night drinking and dancing establishment which actively promotes graffitting the walls. 

So of course we joined in!

There's my mark!

We retired at midnight to avoid turning into pumpkins and as we had to be up at 4.30am for sunrise  at Angkor Wat - the main temple of the Angkor complex.

Unfortunately the tour guide didn't know where we were staying, so at 6am we went back to bed - probably a good thing as we had two ill girls with food poisoning and I had a hangover...

So we chilled out and did chores - visiting the pharmacy and post office and checking out the markets in town for suitable Christmas pressies.

Then we did it all again the next day - up at 4.30am for sunrise! But no good sunrise... Clouds dimmed the spectacular :( and we also weren't guided to the iconic spot where you get the reflection of Angkor in the pond - but I already have that shot on my living room wall at home thanks to Chloe in 2002 :)

Lots of clouds 

Which way is up?! The reflection was pretty good in the moat!

After grabbing a quick brekkie at a nearby cafe we headed into Angkor Thom - the old city - the name literally means Great City. Angkor Wat was the temple for the city by King Suryavarman II  at a later date, however the main city was inside the walls that mark out Angkor Thom, which was built in King Jayavarman VII's reign.

We crossed the old moat by bridge with deities represented on one side and demons on the other.

Gods

Monsters!

Moat avec boat

Four headed statue on the gate into Angkor Thom

Elephant decoration on the gateway

Once inside the gates we saw how the builders had shifted the stone blocks and created the perfectly smooth joints. All the stones were placed before any carvings or bas reliefs were started. The majority of the temples are built from sandstone - which was quarried 70km away and transported by water and elephant and man power. The other stone used for foundations and older temples without decoration was laterite which came from a quary 35km away.

Cameo demonstrating the use of levers!

All in all it was hard work to transport and build this city! Angkor Wat was built in 39 years - but not all the decoration was completed before King Suryavarman II died. The temple effectively became the King's mausoleum, with his remains placed at the base of the central tower and - according to legend - he brought the statue of Vishnu at the top level to life - becoming immortal....

We first stopped at Bayon temple - which is at the centre of the city - all roads lead here! It's a temple mountain in structure and covered in carvings of faces and decorative Bas relief carvings. We had fun posing here! Once we'd climbed to the top there was the opportunity to be blessed in the Buddhist tradition. Whilst some of the temples of Angkor were built to be dedicated to Hindu gods, they have switched several times between Hindu and Buddhist depending on the King of the time. Now all the buildings are sacred to Buddhists.

Next we visited Baphuon temple - which was part of King Jayavarman's palace originally. This temple is flanked by two ponds with a long causeway you walk up to access it - very imposing now so imagine what it would have been like when actively used.

We headed right to the top of the temple for the views - in fact we headed to the top of each temple we could! There are lots of stairs in these temples and most are super steep - since I was last here in 2002 they have added some wooden steps with hand rails to make the climbs easier - however people still fall every year....

The next temple along was the King's own private temple - it was also within the palace grounds and was smaller but still as high a climb up!

Not that the height phased Cat....

Roof supports with pole dancing Cambodian styles

The rest of the palace was wooden except the entrance gate and the terrace outside. We saw the elephant decorations on the outside of the terrace - very impressive!

Lions and garudas fighting

More elephants

Ladies waiting for the bus to leave - someone should tell them those seats aren't going anywhere!

Next up - another climb to the top of a temple - this one was in the process of being restored and I can't remember the name of it. My main recollection was the lovely lady at the shrine at the top. She was very impressed that I said thank you in Khmer - Orkun - and positively effusive that I could give her the formal goodbye - Chum Reap Lea.

This is one thing that I will miss about Cambodia - the people are lovely. You make a small effort to speak to them in their language and show them respect, for example saying no thank you in Khmer with the respectful hands in front of the face and they will stop bugging you and we've seen some amazing smiles off Tuk Tuk drivers as response!

Anyway next on the temple list is one that is world famous - of course I mean Ta Phrom - or the tomb raider temple (they filmed it here) - the one with all the trees growing out of it. This temple was built by King Jayavarman VII to honour his mother and originally the inner sanctum was richly decorated with jewels and gold leaf. You can still see the damage where thiefs pried the jewels out of the stonework.

We mainly focused on the trees growing through the temple and the multitude of opportunities there were for posing lol!

The temple was heaving with tour groups - so we had to fight for each photo without a gazillion other people in it! One guy went at dawn to guarantee he had the temple to himself - and disturbed a snake in the gloom, scary!

The guide got me to do this pose before we realised it looked like a bum....

So to complete our temple circuit we ended back at Angkor Wat. I think I've covered most of the history above so here are some pictures - including the iconic reflection one - this time with me jumping in it!

The Bas relief carvings at Angkor are stunning - however back in the day they would have been covered with gold and dazzling in the sun. Some of the carvings are decorative - like the ladies dancing. Others tell stories about the King and Vishnu, which include fighting elephants!

So that's where my second exploration of Angkor Wat ends.

We had a few days in Siem Reap so we also managed to check out the night markets and the circus, Phare. The circus is part of a training program for street children and was very good. The storyline we saw was based on a street kid's experience and the acrobatics were spectacular, I would definitely recommend it!

Buddha's ashes, Battambang homestay & bamboo train

After our beach break on the South coast of Cambodia we headed back on the Stray Bus with CoCo and headed to Battambang.

First stop was Udong where there is a pagoda made famous for holding the ashes of Buddha. Apparently Udong used to be a capital of Cambodia back in The 17th century. The capital was moved though as most of the Udong area is low lying and floods frequently. Recently the Cambodian government moved the Buddha relic (we were told his ashes - not sure that's a 100% correct but maybe it's part of his ashes) from Phnom Penh to Phnom Udong pagoda at the top of 509 steps.

View across the rice paddies

Pagoda flanked by Buddhist and Cambodian flags.

Monkeys guarding the temple

Babies!

Elephant decoration

Kids at the top of the temple - they try to get tips by fanning you on the way up - but they didn't do as good a job as the ladies in Myanmar!

Monks watching the kites from the vantage point at the top of Phnom Udong

After being sprinkled with the holy water we headed back down the mount and on to our next stop - Kompong Chhnang which is known for the floating markets and villages that exist on the river/ flood waters there.

We visited the floating markets but didn't have time to get a boat to properly see the floating village.

Boats bringing fresh produce in.

Lots of fish being sorted

Shortly after taking this photo I almost got hit in the face with fish that the sorting ladies were chucking into the relevant bucket - not sure how they were sorting them - these dont look like the same fish or similar sized!

Guess what the town is known for its fish!

Post our fishy visit we headed to a village outside of Battambang for our Cambodian homestay.

On arrival we immediately got dragged into making spring rolls filled with a taro root mixture:

Cat demonstrating!

Deep frying - yum!

Amok - the classic Cambodian dish of steamed fish in a coconut curry sauce - traditionally served in a banana leaf.

Beef with fried pineapple - another classic Cambodian dish we tried.

The food at the homestay was the best we've tried - we saved ourselves to stuff in as much as we could manage (not literally - we did appreciate it rather than just gorging - but it was sublime!)

We had a fairly restless nights sleep given that the family had a baby and there was a funeral kicking off at 4am and the building were open sided, so we were up early and ready to visit the local village school. We had an escort of kids from the homestay. Children in Cambodia get free schooling until middle school - but usually they only go in the morning or afternoon - not all day.

Some tasty snacks we saw on our walk through the village - yes that's dried coiled snake - didn't try it!

Health advice outside the temple opposite the school....

The local kids were so excited to see us!

These boys were trying to look studious... Maybe!

We handed out exercise books and pens to all the kids - schools don't have the money to provide these so families have to, so even our 1 book & 2 pens each helped.

All the kids not in class waving goodbye to us

Our next step on the way to Siem Reap where the Stray tour ended was the Bamboo train. This is an old bit of train track that the locals use to help them transport the rice harvest, using bamboo platforms  driven by the ubiquitous motor seen everywhere in Asia.

Since tourists discovered it the locals can make much more money outside of rice season by taking us 7km along and even letting us have a go driving, a tad scary given the complete lack of safety and also the only way to pass is to take your cart off the tracks to let people get through!

So obviously it was great fun!

Even in the rain - I almost hit a cow, but the driver braked for me....

We visited the local brick factory at the other end, where we saw the huge kilns they bake the bricks in - its a lot of manual labour involved and again the locals all wanted to sell you something to supplement their income - you can't fault them living below the poverty line with less than $1.50 a day average earnings...

In all the homestay and bamboo train were probably the best experiences we've had in Cambodia.