Tag: Cambodia

Siem Reap 🇰🇭

gingertravellerblog1 Comment

We’ve been doing the majority of Cambodia travel on a very small minibus. Luckily, one of Mark’s fellow BFG’s had a little word with our guide, and we got a huge coach with a seat each for our long drive to Siem Reap. After a spot of lunch at the place where all travellers seem to stop (they have 400 seats!), we headed to one of the floating/stilted villages. This is where rural communities live in floating/stilted houses, travel to floating/stilted schools, and eat in floating/stilted restaurants. We visited Kampong Khleang, which has a community of around 6000 people. Being the furthest away from Siem Reap, it’s the least touristy, which gave us a much more authentic experience. As we arrived, we were greeted by 100s of waving children who looked genuinely happy to see us, a welcome change from the usual begging to buy some mouldy bananas. As we were here during the dry season, we got to see the houses all their glory standing at 10M tall! During the wet season, the water will rise significantly up the buildings. The economy here is based largely on fishing in the flooded forest on Tonle Sap Lake – the largest inland freshwater body in Southeast Asia. When we got on the boat, we were able to see the proper construction of these houses as we floated slowly down the river. We got to see the locals at work, the school they go to, and the children playing in the river. It was an incredible experience. As the boat service is still owned by the locals (unlike some of the other floating villages), all the money spent goes into the community. When we got off the boat, we were greeted by more children shouting hello, giving us high fives and fist pumps. Despite the poverty, they all looked so incredibly happy.

As we drove into Siem Reap, we immediately thought, “Yep, we’re going to like this place.” We got ready to go out, and as we opened the door, we heard a loud thud and saw something running off.. turns out it was a massive Tokay gecko! An Australian lady came to see what we were looking at, who was obviously not in the slightest bit arsed about the size of it. We had a free evening, so we decided to consult the Lonely Planet guide and chose an Italian. It was absolutely delicious, but as per usual, we ordered far too much. It needed to be a quick one as alarms were set for Angkor Wat sunrise.

At 0330 the alarms went off 😴 it was a quick scrabble around to get everything ready and onto the minibus to get our temple passes; something that you need to buy to visit any of the sites. We arrived at Angkor Wat around 5am and joined all the other tourists around the lake waiting for the magic to happen. Our managed to get stood right at the front, but then a woman and her son had the audacity to just come and stand right in front of us all! Luckily it’s a group of gobby people and they very quickly got told. It still took them ages to move though. We were told the sun would be up by 06:30 and to be honest we were all very underwhelmed. The phone cameras were able to pick up a bit of colour but visually it just went from darkness to daylight, with no evidence of the dramatic sky you hope to see. As we were all walking to the breakfast area, the sun started peaking up above the temple, and we finally started getting some orange sky. We all abandoned the breakfast (for now) and continued to watch the silhouette of Angkor Wat instead. Once the sun was fully up we got to enjoy our hotel breakfast box, of 2 boiled eggs and some bread a butter.

I’ve been so looking forward to seeing Angkor Wat and was so excited to get in and explore. We met our guide and he walked us to the steps of the temple and sat us down whilst he gave us some history. Unfortunately, because he wasn’t the most engaging of people, half the group, including myself, were nodding off. We got inside and he went on and on and on about the stone used. We had been inside 20 minutes and not gone anywhere! As a keen National Truster and English Heritager, I really appreciate an info board with a visual on of what something once looked like and what it was for. There was none of that inside the temple, just long endless corridors of nothing. The guide continued to chat absolute shite, and unfortunately we were all so bored with what he was saying that the majority of us had walked off to explore ourselves. We climbed some steps and got a really good view of the site itself, which is absolutely huge! It was the general consensus that it was a massive shame with the guide we got, but that it’s still worth the visit.

The next temple we visited was Ta Prohm from the late 12th century, and the backdrop for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. This temple is in a lot worse state than Angkor Wat, but I have to say I enjoyed this one more. The way the trees have claimed the ruins as their own was incredible. The Fig, banyan, and kapok trees have spread their gigantic roots over the stones, and their branches and leaves intertwine to form a roof over the structures. The last temple of the day was Bayon Temple, and by this point, it was nearly midday and therefore far too hot to be slowly walking around ruins with absolutely no shade whatsoever. This meant it was a quick whip round and back on the minibus to go back to the hotel. We were given an option to return the following day to repeat the last temple and do a few more, and as fascinating as they are, we very much felt templed out, and the thought of having that guide again the next day was a big no no. It turns out, however, he’s got over 20 years experience and is the one who delivers training to other guides!! Mind blown..

We got back to the hotel, and it was time for one thing, and one thing only.. a nap. Mark really needed his hair and beard cutting, so he needed to be a quick one as we were having dinner as a group again tonight. G Adventures support local businesses and projects, so tonight’s dinner was held at New Hope Cambodia (who’s mission is free education for all) and we were taken there by a group of women TukTuk drivers, who have set up a business to make females feel safer at night on this very popular mode of transport. We watched a video on their project and was then served one of the most delicious meals we have had since being here. The flavours were incredible. We also got the chance to try some insects.. one was by far enough. It was crispy on the outside, but the absolute opposite on the inside 🤮 I have no idea how they do it on. I’m a celebrity, or even in Cambodian life in general. A few of us had opted to see Phare Circus, which has won a Guinness World Record for the longest circus show. It tells the story of rejection, revenge, spirit possession and eventual forgiveness, and community acceptance. The story is set to original music and told through a dramatic mix of theatre, traditional dance, and modern circus arts. We really enjoyed it!

Our next day was a free day to ourselves, and we desperately needed a lie in. We sacked off the hotel breakfast and went for a smashed avo and eggs beni brunch instead, which was lovely. We stopped at a cafe run by a husband and wife team to get some smoothies, which were delicious, and had a stroll around the river. Siem Reap is a much more settled place and even has some greenery! We’ve been recommended by a few people to visit the APOPO HeroRat centre, so we bartered with the TukTuk man and headed there for a tour. We absolutely loved it! These African giant pouched rats are special because of their incredible sense of smell. They come from Tanzania and go through a year of training before they’re allowed out ‘in the field’. Their aim is to sniff out unexploded mines in Cambodia and other countries and people with TB in African countries! We had a demonstration from Sophea who quickly found what she was looking for. She was rewarded with some banana. Because the rats are so light (1.5kg), they don’t set off any landmines as this requires at least 3kg of weight. What they can do in half an hour would take someone with a metal detector around 4 days. They have helped to save thousands of lives and get communities back into the areas where they belong. We were then able to hold one – we are holding Dora. It was a great little tour, and I would 100% recommend this to anyone.

We were getting peckish so decided to pay ‘Wild’ a visit – a cute cafe that specialises in spring rolls. We tried a traditional deep fried duck Cambodian spring roll, and a fresh Mediterranean style one. They were both so so tasty, and with cheap cocktails and even cheaper beer, we decided to stay here a while and just watch the world go by.

For our last night in Siem Reap we decided to hit Pub Street, and obviously had to pick a place that was showing the football. We had buffalo burger and crocodile burger, washed down with more beer and a very cheap tasting wine 🤣 I’d recommend doing a couple of laps of pub street just to really soak up the atmosphere. Bright lights and thumping music, it’s an absolutely buzzing place to be at night. We weren’t sure what to expect from Cambodia, but we’ve both absolutely loved it and are gutted we don’t have more time here. From what people have said that have been here before, it’s changed a lot over the past few years and has had a lot of money put in to improve the roads and the country as a whole. They are all so so welcoming and friendly and anyone coming to SEA should absolutely add it to the list.

This morning, we had another early start as we headed to the Cambodia/Thailand border for the final leg of our trip. The queue at the border was enormous and took around 2 hours to get through. Luckily, there was no pushing in like in Vietnam. However, there was a ninja Granny who managed to get past about 50 people! She then got escorted out by border control 🤷🏼‍♀️

Phnom Penh 🇰🇭

gingertravellerblog2 Comments

So far, we’ve been travelling everywhere by plane, but today, as we head into Cambodia, we’re going by bus. The journey to the border was uneventful, but the border itself was an absolute nightmare. As a group, we had to decide whether to support the corruption and slip some money into our passport, or not give anything and risk being stuck at the border for hours. As we were keen to get going, we decided to put $2 in and hope for the best. We got into 2 queues, and people were trying to push past, and everyone was shouting at each other. We all had to put our elbows out and block people with bags at one point. Someone managed to sneak past in our queue and gave the guard about 20 passports and a large wad of cash, therefore meaning we had no chance of getting through any time soon. We left that queue and joined the others from the group, and our leader passed all our passports to the guard. Around the same time as we joined, a group of Canadian mature ladies tried to get passed. As I got to the front, the guard kept saying I hadn’t put my Vietnam visa in, which I 100% had! I, therefore, had to find it on my phone whilst I had a Canadian woman in my ear making comments about me delaying her. In the end, I told her to shut up and that she was a silly old woman 😬 not my finest moment.. but she deserved it! I managed to find my visa, and they let us through. You then have a 10 minute walk across ‘no man’s land’ to get to the next set of checks. The guards here were very pleasant, and this next leg went quickly and smoothly. We were now in Cambodia! We stopped for some lunch where I had my first taste of the local dish Loklak – beef fried rice with an egg on top. It was actually very nice! Mark had noodle soup, which had some suspicious looking balls on the top…

We had a minibus waiting for us to take us to our first city – Phnom Penh. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t high rise buildings, casinos and Rolls Royce cars! Turns out the Chinese have put a lot of money into PP over the last few years which is why the main areas now look like that. Locals however are not allowed to use the casinos. We dropped our bags off and met our guide for the evening cyclo tour of the city. This was such a fun experience and a great way to see all the main landmarks, and as the sun set, the amount of money that’s been put into PP became more apparent. The city dazzles with lights, flashy signs and even more expensive cars. The Royal Palace was also complete lit up with gold light, which apparently doesn’t happen very often, so we were very lucky to see this. We walked back to the hotel after a lovely dinner with the group and it became very apparent about the rich and poor divide. Expensive cars on one street, and begging people on another.

As a little warning, the next part of the blog is about the killing field and the S21 prison. I’m going to be graphic, and also include a few photos. It’s very upsetting so you may want to scroll past. Travel isn’t always about having fun and exploring beautiful places, its also about exposing ourselves to the uncomfortable past to enhance our learning and understanding.

According to estimates, during the rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, two million people (around a quarter of the whole population) lost their lives. Why? To create a classless society. If you had a degree, if you spoke another language, even if you wore glasses! All traces of capitalism were abolished. Hospitals, schools and shops were shut down. These 2 places are the most historic places in PP and stand as a cruel reminder of the atrocities inflicted upon the masses of Cambodia.

We went to the killing fields of Choeung Ek first. Just like Auschwitz, it’s quiet (apart from the chickens!), and you can feel the strange energy straight away. As you walk in, you’re met with a huge memorial stupa filled with around 5000 skulls. Each skull has a coloured dot on it, which represents the trauma they suffered, including spades, wooden clubs, bayonets, and farming hoes. Bullets were not used as this was too loud and too easy. There is a magic tree that was used to hang speakers on to drown out the screaming. The next pit we came to was by far the worst – the mother and baby pit. Mothers were made to watch their newborns and children be killed, either by someone holding them by the legs and smashing their head around a tree or throwing them in the air and catching them on spikes. This was done so they couldn’t take revenge for their parents’ death. The mother was then brutally killed, sometimes having their throat cut using the rough part of a palm tree, and they were thrown into the pit together, often with no clothes on. There was not a dry eye during the explanation of this pit. You can hang a bright bracelet on the tree as a sign of remembrance, but there are also children’s toys and bottles, etc, around the bottom. In 1980, remains were exhumed, but 43 of the 129 communal graves remain untouched. During the rainy season, bones, teeth, and clothes come to the surface. These are collected by people who work there and put them into memorial boxes. As you leave, there is a memorial statue of a mother holding her baby. Where I work, there is a similar statue, but one symbolising the happiness and joy of a new life. This really affected me, to think that I am privileged to be there at the start, and these awful people took new, and all lives, in such a disgusting and inhumane way.

We then went to Security Prison 21 (S21), the site of a former secondary school. This became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Over 17,000 people held here were taken to Choeung Ek to be executed; detainees who died during torture were buried in mass graves in the prison grounds. Like the Nazis at the concentration camps, they kept records of what they did, often taking photos of the victims after their death. Each prisoner who passed through S21 had their photo taken which are on display. The cells at the prison are open to visitors and they still have the same beds (if you were ‘lucky’ enough to get one) and shackles in place, and even blood stains on the floor. If you had a smaller cell, you were shackled to the wall or concrete floor, and those in large mass cells were shackled to a long piece of iron bar. The all slept on the floor next to each other without mats, mosquito nets or blankets. They were forbidden to talk to each other. Prisoners received 4 small spoonfuls of rice porridge daily. They had strict regulations and received beatings if they disobeyed. If they spilt any contents of their very small toilet box (which they could only empty every 4 days) they had to clean it up using their tongue. When they were taken for interrogation, they were beaten, electrocuted and cut with knives in order to get them to name family members and close associates, who were then also tortured and killed. The vast majority of prisoners were Cambodian, but some were foreigners including one British and two Australian. They were blindfolded and burned alive.
On the day the prison was liberated by the Vietnamese army, of the estimated 20,000 people imprisoned, there was only 12 survivors; 5 of those were children. They found 14 others who had been tortured to death, still shackled in bed, and their individual graves are in the grounds of the prison.

2 of the prisoners are still alive today, and they were both at the prison that day for us to meet. One of them is Bou Meng, who is now 87 years old. He was kept alive because he is an artist and was able to produce portraits of the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. He was also tortured on a regular basis but given more food and water to keep him alive as he was useful to them. When he arrived at the prison, they took his wife and two children away, and he later learned that they had all been killed; his wife had her throat cut and his children of starvation. He was regularly beaten and had salt water rubbed into his wounds. Guards would sit on his back and make him crawl up the stairs. He has no teeth left after he was regularly kicked in the face. As he’s an artist, he has drawn everything that happened to him and the other prisoners. We bought a copy of his book, which he signed for us. I don’t know how mentally he could step back into the prison grounds again, but he’s made it his duty to make sure that people never forget the horror that went on during those years and use his memory as a tool in the search of truth and justice.

After an incredibly draining morning, we were brought back to Phnom Penh centre for some free time. It’s hard to know what to do with yourself after such an emotional morning. We decided to grab some food at a highly rated bagel shop and go for a drink at a local brewery, and have time to gather our thoughts and reflect on what we had seen. As we hadn’t had much time in PP itself, we decided to have a quick look at the Silver Pagoda as a Google search said it was free. It wasn’t… as it’s part of the Royal Palace grounds, you have to pay $10 to get in. It’s a huge complex and one we would have liked to have spent much longer in, but we that evening we had a boat ride with the group for sunset so we had to rush back to get ready. It was beautiful. We had drinks and fresh fruit and was a great way to watch the hustle and bustle on the river and on land, too. The next challenge was finding somewhere to eat.. the first place we tried was extortionate, the 2nd place had cow’s penis and all sorts of weird and wonderful on the menu, so we settled for ‘The Pub’. It’s always suspicious when there are minimal people in there, but we had a great time! The food was great, the drinks were cheap, and the owners were so friendly and welcoming. It was then back to the hotel to pack, and get ready for the long drive to Siem Reap in the morning.