To : Part 5; Part 4; Part 3; Part 2; Part 1.
(Nick and Jodie are off on an epic tour of the Far East. They will be gone for nearly a year, and are sending back reports via email. You can follow their journey here).
Episode six : Cambodian chronicles
11 May 2003
Heading down to the south of Vietnam we arrived in Saigon and spent a couple
of days there. As a city it wasn't fantastic and lacked the character of Hanoi,
and with over 70 percent of Vietnam's entire population living in Saigon it
was very crowded and traffic congested. Luckily for us we saw no evidence and
were in no way affected by the notoriously high level of street crime such as
muggings and motorcycle bag snatchers. From Saigon we headed down further south
to the Mekong Delta. In a complete change of plans we had cancelled our flight
to Bangkok and decided to travel across Cambodia for a few weeks or so. Everyone
we have met that has been to Cambodia has absolutely raved about it and being
right next door we couldn't resist. We spent three days travelling by boat along
the Mekong in Vietnam watching the people living off of the river, fishing,
ferrying, transporting, washing etc. We passed wooden and corrugated shanty
towns raised on stilts and visited a huge floating market where we got to board
other boats to purchase fruit and food.
We also visited a huge animal market a couple of miles off the river which had
snakes, ducks, frogs, monitor lizards, chickens (in various stages of living,
dead and in pieces) and fish. I held some of the different snakes including
a huge one that tried to wrap me up! I was assured that none of the snakes were
venomous but that some of the bigger ones still gave a nasty bite if you gave
them a chance. At learning this I swiftly uncoiled the 5 foot snake from my
arm and handed it back to its owner. On the third day we took a boat to the
Vietnam-Cambodia border. There were about 15 of us on board and most of us needed
visas. The boat docked at a small bamboo walkway and we were escorted to a huge
table outside the Cambodian border building. It was shaded by a timber and bamboo
structure with a thatched straw and woven palm leaf roof. There were three men
in military style uniforms with big briefcases in front of them. One of these
Khmer men was police, one customs and the other was a Cambodian border control
officer. They beckoned us to sit down and then gave each of us a pile of forms
to fill out including one asking did we have any SARS symptoms. It was all very
formal but after sorting through all the paper work and stamping our passports
they gave us big smiles and said "Welcome to Cambodia!" We walked
through a checkpoint and were just about to re-board our boat when another man
in the border uniform pointed to our group and yelled "You, 10 days quarantine!"
My heart jumped straight out of my mouth and bounced down the bank into the
river. A Canadian couple walked over to him and were sheepishly escorted to
the small shabby quarantine quarters building. I later learned that the couple
both had flu viruses and had very admirably told the truth on their SARS forms.
We too had told the truth but only because there was nothing to tell.
After another 2 hour's boat ride along the Mekong and a 3 hour bus ride we were
driving through the centre of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Unknown to us
before now was that today was the last day of the Cambodians' 3 day long new
year festival. The streets were packed, with music blaring out from all directions
and speakers piled up outside people's houses. Everybody around the bus was
soaking wet and covered in flour and we soon found out why. First a moped came
zooming past and chucked a bottle of water through the window which soaked the
French guy sitting the other side of us. Then two guys with buckets launched
a full scale attack from the left soaking everyone on the bus! Then came the
flour bombs covering a couple of people before we had time to seal the windows
shut! It was hilarious! As well as the partying, drinking, dancing and not going
to work the Khmer people also spend the 3 day festival having the largest water
and flour fight ever staged and nobody escapes. It was so amazing coming from
the strict communist regime of Vietnam where this type of thing would never
be allowed!
By the time we got off the bus it was dark and we were exhausted. We had been
travelling since 6.00 in the morning and had been up since 5.00. It was a shame
to have missed the festival but you can't always be in the right place at the
right time and at least we'd had a brief taster of it in the bus.
We didn't hang around in Phnom Penh for very long, just a couple of days. In
my opinion it lacks the character and ambience of the other big cities we have
visited. The people are all extremely happy and very friendly though. There
are loads of tall grand buildings and you can see in the architecture some of
the French colonial history but its not on a par with the beautiful French-influenced
buildings in Luang Prubang (Laos) or Hanoi (Vietnam). While we were there we
visited The Royal Palace and the S21 Museum. This Museum was originally a school
until Pol Pot turned it into a prison and torture camp. Walking around the former
camp with our guide I cannot put into words how shocked and disgusted I felt.
It is unbelievable the cruelty that human beings can inflict upon each other
and even more unbelievable that these atrocities were carried out by Khmer Rouge
soldiers as young as 12 years old! We were taken around all the different cells
and shown the huge collection of instruments of torture. We were also shown
many harrowing photos and a 2 hour video It took me a long while after to fully
take in and recover from all that we had seen.
On advice from various travellers we decided we would head up to the far north
east of Cambodia to a town called Ratanakiri, and then come back down via Krate
where we would have the chance of seeing some Irawadi Dolphins in the Mekong
Delta! After some research we looked into the possibility of flying from Phnom
Phenn to Ratanakiri and then coming back down by road to save time in travel.
To our surprise it actually worked out the same price as it would have cost
to travel by pick up truck and after the flight I think I had some idea why
it was so cheap. To get to the airport we caught a ride on what I can only describe
as a DIY Motorbike-Tuk Tuk-Go Kart hybrid! It appeared to be held together with
rusty bolts and gaffer tape and was pulled by an ancient Minsk motorcycle complete
with screeching, steaming engine and was probably powered by coal. The airport
itself was very small with a large window facing its only runway. As we sat
waiting for the all clear to go and board our flight we watched a group of 6
or 7 men clambering all over the wings of a small plane which had just pulled
into the side of the runway. One of the men had a cordless drill and seemed
to be lifting various panels off the exterior of the plane while another man
poked a long metal stick into the vents behind the propellers. The rest of the
men seemed to be having a relay race back and forth across the top of the wings
of the plane whilst shouting, frowning and shaking their heads! The scene reminded
me of a Formula 1 pitstop and the plane itself looked like an old B52 bomber
with a shoddy paint job. Surely this wasn't our plane... was it?
10 minutes later we were sitting on board gripping the armrests for dear life
and praying as the plane shuddered down the runway. We very shakily became airborne
and as we ascended the plane shuddered and wobbled from side to side. Then what
looked like steam or gas started hissing out of valves in the ceiling. Now this
may be a perfectly normal way of pressurising smaller planes - maybe we were
worried for nothing - but it scared the pants off us! After 45 minutes of terror
we descended over a small muddy field and out of the window we could see a huge
group of school children standing next to a thin, long wooden shack waving at
the plane. We must be near the airport because we are very low now...but there's
no sign of a runway. Suddenly we landed in the field with a bump and a screech
followed by much violent shaking and sliding, kicking up a huge cloud of red
dust around the plane. I thought for a minute we were burning up on re-entry
from space! We climbed down the metal steps of the plane and were greeted by
all the children in there school uniforms. The wooden shack we had described
was the airport and all the kids from town would stop on their way back from
school everyday to watch the daily flight to Ratanakiri land. They were standing
right next to the runway no more then 20 feet from the plane when it landed
with no security guards, supervision or safety barriers in sight!
After walking straight through the Airport\shed without having so much as our
passports checked we headed into the town of Bang Lung, the province of Ratanakiri's
main town. We checked into Mr Leng's Guest House which had come recommended
to us. We grabbed a quick cool shower and then explored the town for a couple
of hours. The town itself is described as not much to look at but a great base
to explore the waterfalls and hill tribe villages around the area. I thought
it was a fantastic little town that looked right out of a wild west film. All
the roads were red dirt tracks and most of the residents used horse and carts.
The next day we hired a moped and went exploring. We got lost trying to find
a waterfall and ended up driving through loads of bamboo villages where all
the children came running up to us to say hello. Outside of Cambodia's main
towns almost everyone lives in bamboo huts or wooden shacks on stilts. Some
of the better off have incredible ornate roofs and balconies.
We finally found the waterfall and had a refreshing swim in its plunge pool. The waterfall was approx 30 feet tall and standing underneath was like having a turbo power shower! As we were drying off a few Khmer boys about 12 years old approached us and told us that they had walked past our moped (parked on a track out of our sight) and noticed it had a flat tyre. On inspection we noticed that the boys were right and asked them if they knew where we could get it fixed. It just so happened that they did. 10 minutes later we had been escorted to a small shed on the roadside with an air-foot pump, inner tubes and a few basic tools. While the boy changed our inner tube we became something of a spectacle with a huge crowd gathering round to see what was going on. It only cost a dollar to get the bike fixed so we didn't mind, but you can't help but ponder at the luck and coincidence of these kids happening to find our tire flat by chance. Maybe it's just my suspicious nature - you decide. Either way you can't help but admire their entrepreneurial spirit.
Bike fixed we were back on the open road and we rode a couple of hours to
a tiny little riverside town called Kampot. We parked up the bike and took a
ferry (more of a lawnmower engine powered raft) across the river to visit some
Chinese, Laos and Cambodian hill tribe villages. These hill tribes don't wear
traditional dress as the ones in Vietnam did and were mostly refugees who had
built up a community here. It was amazing walking through all the different
villages with everyone coming out of their huts and shacks to see who we were
and what we were up to. We managed to tell the different villages apart by the
designs of their homes (Oriental or typical Laoation style) and saw people collecting
and balancing buckets of water from the local well on their heads. We got some
fantastic photos especially with some of the children. They were all SO friendly.
We took the ferry back across the river and back to our beloved Honda Dream
(the moped). Another 20 minutes riding and we reached the Pnong tribe's sacred
cemeteries. We were told it was acceptable to visit this area so long as you
were respectful. There were several burial sites in amongst dense trees and
foliage with huge wooden carved effigies above each grave. On the anniversary
of each persons death the Pnong sacrifice a buffalo and place its decapitated
head on a huge spike which each effigie is holding. There were no fresh heads
but there were some buffalo skulls! It was all very eerie and spooky.
Our next stop was a town called Krate (pronounced Krat-ee) where we were hoping
to spot some rare Irawadi Dolphins that live in the Mekong Delta, especially
in this area. The pickup truck ride from Ratanakiri was extremely painful as
1) all the roads in Cambodia are terrible mud track affairs and 2), if there
are 5 seats in a truck then that is considered to be more than enough space
for 12 people. It was well worth the journey because the following afternoon
we were in a small paddle boat on the Mekong Delta surrounded by Irawadi dolphins.
These incredibly hypnotic and majestic creatures swam and played near our boat
for the whole hour and a half we were out there. You would hear the water from
their blow hole first and then they would surface for a few seconds, skimming
through the water or splashing each other. They were all around the boat, sometimes
as close as 10 feet away! We didn't know which way to look there were so many!
We could have watched them for hours but the sun was starting to set, creating
stunning colours in the sky, and our boatman took us back to shore. A truly
unforgettable experience.(Sorry to say folks that we took only one or two photos
of all this as we were just too busy taking it all in ourselves! )
Our next stop was Kampot where we visited the ghost town of Kep and Prince Sihanouk's
abandoned hill station. Kep is a town that the residents were forced to abandon
by the Khmer Rouge and was then looted and bombed. The place is still almost
completely deserted today with only a few people squatting in the skeleton remains
of some of the houses. We explored the entire town on a hired moped and there
was definitely a very harsh and desolate feeling about the place. Prince Sihanouk's
abandoned hill station was on on top of a mountain with a fantastic view of
the town below and the gulf of Thailand. The station looks almost identical
to the old hotel from The Shining and feels just as scary when inside. All but
the concrete walls and the odd marble tile that couldn't be prized up has been
looted and all the windows smashed out.
Our final destination in Cambodia was Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat and the
other temples in the area. The town of Siem Reap itself is very touristy and
money orientated but this is not at all surprising as they have one of the biggest
tourist attractions of South East Asia. We bought a 3 day pass into the temple
areas and hired a Tuk Tuk driver for the three days. On the first day we were
off and away in the Tuk Tuk by 4.30 am and watched the sun rise over Angkor
Wat. The other two days we were up at 6.00 each morning but stayed until sunset.
The temples are all absolutely stunning! So much to see and take in. Our favourite
temple was The Bayon Temple with its huge amazingly detailed Buddha heads carved
in sandstone. The whole temple is made up of giant pillars with the heads on
each side of the pillar and detailed bas reliefs on the base. Angkor Wat was
a close second with all its beautiful statues and bas reliefs (of battles, daily
life, taking the dog for a walk, that kind of thing) and just the sheer size
and grandeur of the place. We climbed the precarious steps to the highest point
of the temple. These steps are no more than 6 inches in width and they go up
and up and up! Either these Angkorians had tiny feet or an agile acrobatic skill
that we did not possess. We must have looked an absolute picture clinging to
the stone for dear life as we tried to side step up like crabs. Our third favorites
were the temples set in amongst the jungle a little way out from the others.
These temples looked very Indiana Jones and we half expected to come across
deadly spike pits and poison arrow booby traps as we explored the maze-like
passageways. What looked particularly stunning was the giant trees that had
grown amongst and over the temples with their huge roots wrapping around the
columns and pillars. All in all a fantastic 3 days and would highly recommend
it to anyone.
And so came the day to leave Cambodia. All I can say is what a truly awesome
and fascinating country with unbelievably friendly and welcoming people (especially
given their recent history) and mindblowingly beautiful untouched countryside
and landscapes!
So here we are back in Bangkok for a couple of days (we travelled overland from
Siem Reap) just getting ourselves organized and working out which bus company's
going to give us the cheapest ride to Malaysia. Then we have just over two weeks
to work our way around and down Malaysia in time to catch our flight from Singapore
to Australia on 30th May. We will be spending only one day in Singapore to minimise
any risk of the SARS. (Visions of running from hotel to taxi to airport with
masks clutched to faces. Must remember not to clear my throat at the airports!
No quarantine for me please sir.) Anyway hope you are all happy and well and
hope I haven't waffled to much in this letter. Love and miss you all, Nick and
Jodie.
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