Last Day in Cambodia

We're on a bus leaving Cambodia and going to Thailand right now.  Overall, I can say that I really liked Cambodia and of the 4 countries I've been on during this trip, it was my favorite.  The people were very nice - the hotel staff, Net - our tuk tuk driver, and Pau - karma in little girl form.  The food was delicious - Khmer cooking and especially the $1 street sandwiches.  The souvenirs were dirt cheap - $5 for two shirts and two scarves.  We were here for only 3 days, went to two museums, traveled across the country, saw a sunrise over ancient ruins, visited 9 temples and a landmine museum, saw the sunset over ancient ruins, went to a night market and bought cheap gifts, and enjoyed good food ... all that and I spent $99 of my $100 budget.  

I'm a bit sad that we didn't spend more time here, and I'm not sure what else I would see if I come back.  Not worth the visit just to hang out for me.  Today is a bus to Bangkok, another bus own south, then a ferry to Ko Tao.  Then it's a day over scuba diving tomorrow.

Cambodia gets high marks on the must visit scale!  

Cambodian Random Observations

• "Wat" means temple
• when riding a tuk-tuk, sunglasses are a must (thanks Chiyo!)
• street stalls have great, dirt-cheap food
• people tend to mind their own business more than in Indonesia
• Cambodian money is easy to understand
• my first day in Cambodia was much better than my first day in Malaysia and my first day in Indonesia
• amidst the other smells in Cambodia, durian actual smells pretty good


• not very many Cambodians smoke
• AC buses are very cold
• there are many chicken fights you can see from the bus
• sometimes, cows block the road
• there are a lot of temples
• cambodian movies in the bus are very weird
• ponds come in all sorts of colors; matcha, curry, kabocha soup, black bean
• it's hard to say no to a child begging for money or water, but not impossible ... but you give in eventually
• it's hard to resist buying bamboo instruments that make the twanging sound
• sometimes, a strange looking indigenous animal is just a dog
• on a very hot and humid day, a tuk-tuk ride through the tree-lined roads of Angkor Wat is perfect
• having mainly dollar bills feels like having foreign currency
• most people assume I'm Japanese

Cambodian Accommodations

Capitol Guesthouse - Phnom Penh, Cambodia - $5
Good Points
• cheap
• AC and fan
• strong water pressure
• coupled with a travel company

Bad Points
• none
• can't leave hotel with room key

Mandalay Inn - Siem Reap, Cambodia - $8
Good points
• very friendly staff
• powerful AC
• fridge
• free WiFi and computers
• nice view from roof
• credit card OK

Bad points
• tried to get change for $20, gave us $18
• water went out for an hour

カンボジア短歌

屋台人
うまい料理
安いのに
すごい美味しい。
腹は心配

カンボジア、
インドネシアと同じかな？
蒸し暑いけど、人は優しい

Cambodia Haiku

5/19/2010
Sunrise to sunset
Explored the Angkor Temples
Tonight we sleep well

Temples if Angkor
What people do in two days
We did in just one

Our tuk tuk driver
Nice, funny, and great tour guide
Thank you so much Net

Majestic temple
Ancient people of Angkor
Did you feel the same

What is this creature?
I've never seen one before
Oh, it's just a dog

Got a free bracelet,
I had to buy some water.
Stupid little girl

5/17/2010
Street-stall food vendors
How do you make such good food
For just one dollar?

The tuk-tuk driver
He wasn't Indonesian
This guy was friendly

Cambodian Food

Street stalls - Phnom Penh - $1.00
• baguette sandwich - very good and no haggling
• mee chaa - chow mein - lots of fish sauce, but it was good!



Khmer Kitchen - Siem Reap - $4.50
• Lab - chicken with sweet basil, lemon, garlic, chili, roasted rice, and bean sprouts - best dish in southeast Asia so far
• Khmer Curry - coconut curry with potatoes and carrots - Kiyojo's version was better
• Angkor beer - best beer on a hot day I've ever had




Banteay Srey - $0.50
• Fried noodle with beef and vegetables - ramen made without the water - not too bad


Street stall - Siem Reap - $0.50
• baguette sandwich - not as good as Phnom Penh, but still good


Khmer Food - Siem Reap - $1.75
• Hot Chicken and Basil - lemon grass was very sharp, it hurt to swallow it, but it was good
• Mixed fruit smoothie - finally got my taste of durian, this was enough


Street stall - Siem Reap - $0.50
• baguette sandwich - our lunch for the bus ride to Bangkok

A Cambodian Girl named Pau

As we entered Bantey Kdei, a little girl approached Josie and asked her where she was from.  Josie said "America" and like a machine, the little girl started spitting out facts about America.  "America, the capital is Washington D.C.  4500km across, the presidet is Barack Obama.  You want cold drink?  You need something?  I remember you okay?  You buy when you come back."  It was a little creepy.  

Then after we left, we trudged across the street to Sras Srang and a little girl about 6 years old approached me.  "Where you from?"  I told her I was from Japan and right away, she stated speaking Japanese to me.  "こんにちは、オパピーオパピー、そんなのかんけねぇー"  I was in complete and utter shock when she said this because it was as if she muttered Dave Chappel's "WHAT?!?! YEAH??!" or possibly perhaps Steve Urkle's "Did I do that?"  (I'm not up-to-date with current American catch phrases). She had said something that all my kids at ECC were saying just last year.  

I couldn't resist so I patted her on her head and that's where she found her in.  She gave me a bracelet and I refused at first, but she said, "No it's for you.  Present."  So I took it and was now bound by karma to buy a drink from her.  On my way back, I bought a large $1 water from her, which normally costs 50 cents, but I got entertainment and a bracelet out if it, plus I had just run out of water.  Karma's a funny thing ... sometimes it's name is Pau.  

The Rest of Angkor

What we did today, most people do in two days (at least according to the Lonley Planet). After the landmine museum, Net took back to the main area and we visited Ta Keo. By this time, it had gotten really hot and we were already pretty exhausted, but this temple was perfect. Although, not very intricate in design, it was very tall, so we got lots of shady places to sit and rest, which we did. The steps were really steep going up so we spent a lot of time at each level just sitting.


When we finished, we joined Net outside the complex under a tree and just talked to him for a bit. We learned his life story and how tough it was trying to make a living as a moto or a tuk-tuk driver. However, by this point we had already decided to give him a $2 tip because he was a really nice guy and gave us a pretty good tour of Angkor.

The next stop was Banteay Kdei ... another temple. By this time, we'd already taken pictures of every column, every archway, every high angle and low angle shot, every wall with vegetation growing on it, every spire with blue from the sky ... we were tired of taking pictures and had about 500+ already. We just walked around and killed time before our last stop.


Once we left this temple, we walked across the road and got a nice view of a large lake termed Srah Srang, which means "Royal Bath." It was a nice change of scenery.


Net ten took us to our final stop, Phnom Bakheng, which was a temple atop a hill. This temple wasn't as nice as the others, but the 100 sunset pictures (to add to our other 700) were worth it. It was about a 30-minute hike up a dirt path and we got to the top about an hour before the sunset. From here, you can see off in the distance, Angkor Wat and bast jungle that surrounds it. Hundreds of people were up here (some took a $20 elephant ride) and we all waited for one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen. I've done the beach sunset and the city sunset, but the sunset with the silhouette of ancient ruins in the foreground was new.



After we were satisfied with our pictures and before it got dark, we hiked down, took a few pictures with Net, and then he dropped us off back at the hotel. We were walkin around looking at temples from 5AM to 6PM, but it was a great day and very satisfying ... except when a little girl named Pau got the best of me and sold me some water.

Cambodian Landmine Museum

After Banteay Srey, we went to a nearby landmine museum.  During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, soldiers laid millions of landmine to get rid if any and all opposition.  One soldier, Aki Ra, was orphaned at 10 because the Khmer Rouge killed his parents.  He joined the Rouge and as a child, began learning how to fire guns and lay landmines.  He saw many if his friends get killed, as well as other family members.  

After Vietnam invaded Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period, Aki Ra, joined the Vietnamese army and soon joined the fight to liberate Cambodia.  After many years, he began to devote his life to disarming the very landmines that he had once laid.  To this day, he has disabled over 50,000 mines personally, but there is an estimated 3 to 6 million still left.  

Along with these 30 year-old mines, missiles and other active weapons are still found in Cambodia usually by farmers and children.  Those children who have been affected by these weapons, either getting limbs blown off or becoming orphaned, get adopted by Aki Ra and his family.  He raises them, educates them, feeds and clothes them.  

The museum is his, and he has dedicated his life to make His country a weapon-free country once again.  Why he has a Japanese name is a long story apparently and wasn't explained in the museum.  I'm sure of you really want to know, a quick wikipedia search would do it. 

Right when you enter the museum, there is a smll pond and in the middle of it is a large collection of disarmed landmines, missiles, bombs, bullets, and other weapons that Aki Ra has personally disarmed.  Each room has different weaponry encased in glass for visitors to see, as well as descriptions of the differet types if weapons, the history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, Aki Ra's history, as well as Cambodia today.  The most sobering exhibition was a wall full of pictures of the different children living in the complex and a letter try have written explaining their background, what the museum has done for them, and ends with their goals and aspirations, which have all become possible because of Aki Ra's efforts.  Some if the stories almost brought tears to my eyes, while others made me laugh, but all of them were written in English by the children, which they learned at the museum.  



This is a definite must-see exhibition if your Cambodia trip brings you up here. With a $2 entrance fee that goes toward helping disarm Cambodia, I don't see why not.  

Temples of Angkor

We got up at 4:30 today to meet Net, our tuk-tuk driver from yesterday.  He was outside the hotel waiting for us at 5:00 just like he said.  From there, it was about a 30-minute ride to the Temples of Angkor (Net is slow and safe, so it took a little longer).  I had been looking at pictures before I left Japan, so when I saw the 3 spiraled pyres jetting into the sky, I knew we were there.  After paying a hefty $20 entrance fee, we went in to wait for the sunrise.

It's very strange actually being in these ancient ruins.  When you watch TV or read magazines or look at pictures, you get an image of undisturbed, quiet solitude.  But then you get out here, and it's full of tourists, shops, touts, and construction.  The atmosphere was much better here than Indonesia though because the touts aren't grabbing you to get you to buy their stuff.  Camodians will leave you alone if you say no.  

We grabbed our spot among hundreds of tourists to wait for the sunrise.  It was a little cloudy, so after about an hour and a hundred pictures later, we couldn't wait anymore and started exploring the temple.  Three things come to mind when I'm here.  1) Indiana Jones 2) Disneyland's Jungle Cruise and 3) Nickelodeon's Legend if the Hidden Temple.  No history, no ancient culture references, nothing deep, just those.  Anyway, we spent about another hour walking around the temple and it was really an amazing experience.  To think that I am walking on the temple floors that someone a thousand years ago built just blows my mind.  The insides were lined with relief sculptures, just like at Borobudur in Indonesia, but there were much more detail here.  Rows of the same soldier sculpture lined the temple walls.  You could smell the mold and mildew of 1000 years laying stale inside the temple chambers.  



After that, we went to Angkor Thom, which was a city enclosed within a stone wall and had a few temples within it.  The first stop was Bayon.  It wasn't very large, but there were many large faces carved into the structures.  The structure itself was pretty tall with lots of steep steps rising three stories and then some high rise towers.  This one was one of my favorite.  


After that, it was a quick drive to the Terrace of the Elephants, which (surprise surprise), was a structure dedicated to elephants.  It was very small, only about 10 feet (3 meters) in height but the columns were shaped into elephant trunks with the heads as column tops.


We spent about 30 minutes here and then went off to Ta Prohm, another huge temple.  This one definitely had the ancient ruins feel to it because it had the trees growing out of the stone walls.  The most famous part of this temple is a tree which has grown inside of another tree.  Aparently, it's made the cover of National Geographc.  We mistook about 5 other trees before seeing the real one, which had been marked out to be obviously seen.  


After Ta Prohm, we went about an hour north to see Banteay Srey, a temple dediated to the Hindu god, Vishnu.  Whereas all the other temples has a grayish stone color to them, this one was made primarily of rocks with a reddish tint.  


It was smaller than the other temples, but wins in terms of detail in th a sculptures.  The Lonley Planet said that this temple must have been made by women because of the intricate detail.  I didn't really buy it.  


Once we finished walking around Banteay Srey, we headed off to the Landmine Museum.   

Angkor - a brief history

About 1200 years ago, someone called Jayavarman II united different groups who were at war and he declared himself a universal god-king.  He was the beginning of the most powerful kingdom of that time in Southeast Asia and with him, the Angkor era began.  During this era, many imaginative building projects, complex irrigation systems, and magnificent walled cities were built.  Neighboring country, Siam, began attacking and in the 15th century, the Angkors fled into the jungles and the temples were lay hidden to the world until the 19th century, when the French rediscovered it.  

There are over 100 temples and monuments spread out over 1200 square miles (3000 square kilometers) around the city if Siem Reap.  The most famous of these temples is Angkor Wat, being the largest of the temples.


The Angkor temples are so large that most people rent a tuk-tuk for a day (which will cost around $10 on average, but we did it for $8)  This is only to take you around the main complex.  Going further out will cost more.  We saw many people throughout the whole day.  Backpackers included most western countries as well as Japanese and Chinese.  There were a few Koreans, but they mostly did tours.

Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (6 hours)

We got up today at 5:30 so we could catch a 6:15 bus to Siem Reap. We were traveling almost the entire stretch and Cambodia so it was going to be a long morning. I've made it a habit not to eat at least 12 hours before a long bus ride, but even so, I wasn't hungry. We, still reluctantly, put our packs in the bottom storage and got on the bus. We only waited 5 minutes, which is nothing compared to that crazy Indonesian minibus.

The bus was equipped with a sub-zero AC, which eventually everyone turned off, and a TV/DVD so about a half hour into the ride, the Cambodian karaoke DVDs came on. Honestly, despite being very strange, they were quite catchy. After about 2 hours of karaoke videos, we made a pit stop for about 15 minutes. Then the weirdest movie I'd ever seen came on. It started off with Guy Pierce (I think) in a courtroom with a Chinese guy dressed up in a Kung Fu outfit. The Chinese guy was doing some experiment and brought back another Chinese guy back to life, but as a zombie vampire who hopped around. In the next scene, the 2 Chinese guys parachutes into an Andricam tribal village somewhere in the serengetti. The rest of the movie was him fightig off every African animal imaginable ad tryingto become chief of the tribe via his zombia.

After the next pit stop, I just started looking out the window at Cambodia. The inside of the bus was comfortable, the road wasn't too bumpy, and I was tired of Cambodian entertainment. Where Malaysia has its jungle and Indonesia has its trash, Cambodia had a very strong agrarian feel to it. There were fields everywhere and from *KLANK!!!*

... either we ran over something metal, or something fell off the bus. Either way, the bus slowed down and eventually stopped. Most of us got off and watched as the driver tried to fix the problem ... in the blazing hot heat. About an hour later, another bus pulled up and everone got on that one. The driver apologized to us, but neither Josie nor I felt any irritation because Cambodia has been great so far. We moved our packs to the new bus, got on, and took off. As we were driving along, I noticed that not everyone had gotten on ... and we were stuck in a pretty remote place about an hour outside the city. The new bus wasn't as smooth of a ride and there was no TV, but the music was Cambodian pop, which I think I might go out and look for.

We got to Siem Reap at around 2:00, only a half hour behind schedule. We soon got our bus tickets to Bangkok and found a driver to take us around Angkor Wat tomorrow.

Cambodia - A brief history

Cambodia has such a dark history and I didn't even know anything about it. I do remember watching a movie in elementary though about some white guy trying to teach some Southeast Asians how to flush a toilet. The defining moment was when A little girl finally got it ... "One, Two, Three." Now that I look back on it, I suppose they were refugees from Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge was a group of radicals who wanted to reform the entire country of Cambodia. Americans were bombing Cambodia (during the Vietnam War?) and the people just wanted it to all end. The Cambodian king at the time, King Sihanouk, lost his power and Pol Pot (leader of the Khmer Rouge) marched into Phnom Penhand took control over the country.

Pol Pot wanted to create a socialist utopia with its foundation on agriculture. Farmers and country folk were the only ones necessary for his dream, so anyone who could even remotely oppose him were exterminated. This included teachers, writers, educated people, doctors, actors ... even people who wore glasses were killed. Not only were these people killed, their families were killed too.

Everyone leftover worked as slaves to the Rouge, cultivating the land, and growing crops for the country's economy. Anyone who opposed, questioned, said anything bad, or even gave a bad look to the Khmer Rouge was killed.

This lasted for four years in the late seventies until Vietnamese forces came in and took over Phnom Penh. During their reign, the Khmer Rouge killed between 1 to 3 million Cambodians.

The Khmer Rouge was driven into the jungles of Cambodia and began losing their influence and in 1998, Pol Pot was found dead at the hands of his own soldiers, but no one really knows what happened.

In the movie, "The Killing Fields," the horrible story of this event is told through the true tales of a survivor. Prahn was a journalist who wasn't able to flee the country before the Khmer Rouge took over, so he had work as a slave, while hiding his intelligence. He eventually escaped and found his way to a red cross neutral zone, where he was reunited with his American best friend. He spent the rest of his life in America.

The actor who played Prahn was also a Cambodian refugee. His story was just as sad. Him, being a doctor, had to hide his intelligence to avoid being killed. His wife got sick, but couldn't get help from her husband for fear that he'd be killed, so she died in order to spare his life.

It was a good movie and anyone going to Cambodia definitely should see it before going.

First day in Cambodia

We had heard here and there that Cambodia was worse than Indonesia in someways, so we weren't exactly looking forward to going there.  When we got to the Visa part of the airport, we picked the $20 Tourist Visa and handed our passport to one window and went to go pay at another window.  The cashier charged us $25 for the Ordinary Visa without asking us.  We told him that we wanted the $20 one and he happily gave it to us.  Bur right from the start, we thought that it was going to be like dealing with Indonesians all over again. 

Cambodian currency is a bit weird.  They use dollars very commonly, and some books say you can go through Cambodia without having to change any if your money, so we didn't, but a little reluctant though.  

Then we got out of the airport and the tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws) started swarming us.  "Tuk-tuk?  $7"  Our book gave about $3 to $4 as a good price so we haggled with them.  We think Indonesia totally got us ready because we just kept saying "$4 ... no? Bye!" and walked away.  We got the whiny response the same as the one we got in Indonesia, "Foouuuurrrrr? NoooOOOOooOoOO!!"  That made us laugh.  No really budged from $6 so we kept walking and another driver from outside the airport asked us if we wanted a tuk-tuk.  We did the usual, "How much? Seven? How about four?"  He agreed right away so we jumped on and took a 30-minute ride to the city.  His name was Mr. Poeung.  

A tuk-tuk is an covered wagon, but there are no windows, so the breeze was actually really nice, because Cambodia is HOT!  It was a good 95 degrees I think.  (37℃).  Mr. Poeung dropped us off at the guesthouse and we arranged for him to take us around Phnom Penh so we would be seeing a lot more of him ...

After coming back to the guesthouse, we started to realize that our assumptions of Cambodia were pretty wrong.  It's a pretty nice place.  People will try to get you to buy stuff, but if you say no, they stop there and leave you alone.  So far, I like Cambodia. 

Cambodia before going

• There are many mosquitos
(Not too many here either)
• Pol Pot was a crazy extremist in the 1970s who killed off about 1/4 of the cambodian population

• Paul Potts was a cell phone clerk who won Britain's Got Talent singing Opera and now has a CD out and sings with Sarah Brightman

• Angkor Wat is pronounced "ON-KO-RU-WAT" in Japanese
• Angkor Wat is pronounced "ANger WAT" in English
(Japanese pronunciation is closer)
• What's a Wat? It's a buddhist temple or monastery
• Cambodia is riddled with land mines which are still active
(Over 3 million of them still lying around)
• You have to poop on the side of the road in some places, but people will hold up a blanket to cover you
(I didn't see this AT ALL)

What I know about Cambodia and Thailand

I remember watching a documentary years ago about land mines in Cambodia. There was a local guy who would go around and disarm them. That's it ... I've heard of Angkor Wat, but I couldn't tell you wat it was.

I watched a Nicholas Cage movie about being a hitman in Thailand. Also, Akira showed me some Thai Bahts, but it ended up being a US penny. I know there are lots of transexuals in Thailand. I imagine Bangkok to be like Las Vegas or Tijuana. I think Jean Claude Van Damme was in Thailand in Kickboxer too. There's that Thai restaurant in LA where Kevin dresses up like Elvis and sings happy birthday

Basically, I'm going into these countries with almost a completely empty head.


Bangkok Dangerous!!


Damme!