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This is the continuing account of Melanie & moi's 2018 trip to the Asian countries of Thailand, Laos, & Cambodia (see other blog entries in this series).
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So far we've visited Thailand and Laos and now we visit the.......
Kingdom of Cambodia
There's a magic about this charming yet confounding kingdom that casts a spell on everyone. Contemporary Cambodia is the successor state to the mighty Khmer empire, which, during the Angkorian period, ruled much of what is now Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The remains of this empire can be seen at the fabled temples of Angkor, monuments unrivalled in scale and grandeur in Southeast Asia.
Despite having the eighth wonder of the world in its backyard, Cambodia’s real treasure is its people. The Khmers have been to hell and back, struggling through years of bloodshed, poverty and political instability. Thanks to an unbreakable spirit and infectious optimism, they have prevailed with their smiles intact. No visitor comes away without a measure of admiration and affection for the inhabitants of this enigmatic kingdom.
Every now and then when you are travelling for an extended period of time (as we have been doing) you have to slow it down and take time to regroup, unpack your backpack and hang up your clothes! For us, the perfect place to do this was with our friends, Steve & Linda, in the southern part of the country in the area known as.......
Sihanoukville
Sitting on the southwest coast of Cambodia on a hilly peninsula that juts out into the Gulf of Thailand, Sihanoukville is rimmed with sandy beaches. We stayed near the area known as Otres 2 Beach, a three kilometre crescent of white sand which is a little further from town and more thinly touristed.
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| The White Sea Boutique Hotel is our home for the next 2 months while in Otres 2. We were living high on the hog with our daily rent for a single room cabana being $44cdn per night (cheaper than living in Canada for the deep dark hellish brutal cold winter months). |
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| Missing Fido while travelling? No worries.....as an added bonus, The White Sea Boutique comes complete with Itchy the Dawg. |
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| This time of year (mid-February to mid-April) is the hot season in Cambodia where temperatures can soar to a whopping 37C. Having a swimming pool (picture was taken from our front porch) was a plus.....having it pretty much to ourselves was an even bigger plus!! |
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| If hanging out around a 30C pool isn't your thing, than it's a 5 minute walk down to the Beach. Perhaps that would be more suited to your style??? |
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| Groovy Otres Beach 2 is Sihanoukville's laid-back beach colony with amble places to park yourself and have a cold beer or a feed. If you're not a fan of crowded beaches with sunbaked tourist justling for every square inch of real estate, then this is certainly the beach for you! |
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| This was Linda and Steve's 3rd time here and they had scoped out the neighbourhood and determined that the Otres Sailing Club was THE place to hang your hat....or beach towel!! |
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| Soaking up the sun got you all tense? That 5 minute walk to the beach got your muscles all sore? Got tennis elbow from lifting too many of them $0.50 cent happy hour beers? No worries.....a $8.00 Thai massage is just up the beach..... |
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| ...."OK missus put some body weight into it"..... |
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| "Oh God.....that feels good!" |
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| Siam, our adopted eleven year-old beach bracelet hocker, would hang out with us when business was slow and she wanted to practice her english. Such a cutie! |
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| Steve teaching Siam the finer points in the sport of frisbee..... |
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| .....a natural born frisbee player. Look for her in the 2028 World Frisbee Championships. |
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| Hungry? No problem, give it a few minutes and someone would come along with a BBQ and whip you up a feed. Hmmmmm will I have the squid or beef jerky today???......... |
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| ......aaaah shag it, I'll have the lobster tails today! |
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| Yes folks, it's 4:00PM and that can only mean one thing......it's Happy Hour and we be happy! |
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| Every Friday we take a tuk-tuk into Otres village for the weekly expat trivia night competition. Love the new hairdo Mel.....kinda funky and cutting edge! Peace baby! |
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| Woody's, the weekly Friday night trivia haunt, where we pitted our knowledge and skills against the other travellers. Sorry Mel, but the YMCA song competition is next door at the Stray Cats Bar. |
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| We were cheated out of winning a free jug of beer at trivia night by these two Nova Scotians, Mark and Charline. If you can't beat them, then join them....good down-to-earth folk! |
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Ocassionally we have business to attend to in Sihanoukville, so we would make a day of it, including going to the Khin Restaurant.
"Behave yourself Mel or my shark will bite your shoulder!" |
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| Khin's, perhaps the best clams east of Boston....I say "perhaps" because I didn't eat clams anywhere else BUT I did here.....three times! Yummy delicious. |
In both Vietnam and Cambodia, it is considered very good karma and luck, if a foreigner turns up at your wedding. It's something akin to a blessing on the happy couple's vows, so it did not come as a complete surprise to us when Sambo, a staff member at the White Sea Boutique, invited us to attend his wedding. So we did.......
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| Can't go to a wedding without getting all dolled up, including getting the eye-brows plucked! Me next!!! |
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| The happy couple dressed up in their 'Greeting-the-Guest' outfits.... |
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| ....and the happy couple in their official 'Getting-Married' outfit! |
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| And for us, the jeezily big wedding feed.....Cambodian style!! |
It wasn't all lying around in the sun drinking happy hour beers and getting fat, we did a side trip out to some of the surrounding islands for a day.....
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| The boats are ready to whisk us out to the Cambodian islands in Gulf of Thailand for a funfilled day of snorkeling and exploring. |
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| Koh Thmei, one of the idyllic southsea islands that we visited. |
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| The Cambodian fishing fleet catching our supper just offshore from Koh Thmei island. |
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| In order to disembark from the passenger boats the captains will beached the vessel and you must wade ashore, no problem considering the sea temperature in this part of the Gulf of Thailand is hovering around 28C. |
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| While we explore the island, the beached boats wait for the tide to rise. |
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| Nothing like a good swim in the crystal clear ocean waters. Might as well do it here because we certainily can't do it back in Canada!! |
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| Lunch....beach style! |
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| Even monks need a break from praying and contemplation. Nothing like a good day at the beach to renew your vow of perpetual poverty! |
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| Steve doing the 5 metre cliff jump. I guess he didn't read the fine print on his travel insurance? |
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| The sun sets on another perfect day in Cambodia! |
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The above trip took place from mid-February to mid-April, 2018. We left Cambodia because our travel visa's were about to expire and the hotter-than-hell rainy season was about to start.
We returned to Cambodia mid-October to mid-November 2018 and the following is an account of that portion of the trip.
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“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” – Jennifer Lee
We meet up with fellow travel friends, Don & Denise, for the first leg of our return trip to Cambodia. Our first stop is the interior town of.........
Siem Reap
Nestled between rice paddies and stretched along the Siem Reap River, the small provincial town of Siem Reap (means "Thailand Defeated") serves as the gateway to the millennium-old temple ruins of the Khmer Empire.
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| Siem Reap's infamous Pub Street by day....... |
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| ......and at night it comes alive with all kinds of crazies! |
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| "Let me see now. Got my guitar....check. Got my water bottle.....check. Just seems like I'm missing something????" |
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| Slow night at the massage parlour. |
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| Food stalls and restaurants abound cooking every world cuisine one could imagine and lots that you can't imagine..... |
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| ......scorpians, trantulas, cockroaches, grubs and snakes on a stick ......hmmmm yummy!! |
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| We finish the night off at the Hard Rock Cafe listening to Dr. Death and the Headbangers! |
On another night we take in Cambodia's answer to Cirque du Soleil......
Phare,
the Cambodian Circus
So much more than a conventional circus it was formed in 1994 by 9 young men coming home from a refugee camp after the Khmer Rouge regime. Today more than 1,200 pupils attend the public school daily and 500 attend the alternative schools. Phare, The Cambodian Circus offers these students and graduates somewhere to hone their skills and a place to earn a decent wage. Money that will take them out of poverty and give them self-respect and freedom.
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| 'Phenomenal' is the only word that can describe this performance. |
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| They combine music and stage with their aerobatics. |
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| I can do this! |
Maybe I'm Amazed.
This is a short video. I hope your device supports it.
The next day we brave the heat and we visit.......
Angkor Archaeological Park
Designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Angkor Archaeological Park, encompasses dozens of temple ruins including Bayon, Banteay Srey and the legendary Angkor Wat, whose artistic and archaeological significance and visual impact put it in a class with the Pyramids, Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal. Unlike any other world class monuments, the ruins of Angkor are as yet unspoiled by over-development. This may not be true in a couple of years. Though the main temples are relatively well touristed these days, it is still possible to get away from the crowds, to explore the area and discover Angkor.
Our first temple that we visit is the........
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking. It is a massive three-tier pyramid crowned by five lotus-like towers rising 65 metres from ground level.
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| We got dropped off at the Eastern Gate which is not as dramatic as the Western Gate and a lot less touristy, one could even say quiet........ |
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| ....the Western Gate has a long promenade and is the gate most used by the tourist swarms. |
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| During the 12th century, when the Khmer political and military dominance in the region was at it's apex, King Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat in the form of a massive 'temple-mountain' dedicated to the Hindu God, Vishnu. |
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| The enormous size of the temple is hard to visualise; for instance, Angkor Wat temple is surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall measuring 1300 metres x 1500 metres making it nearly 2 square kilometres in size!! |
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| The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings. Nearly 2,000 distinctive apsara carving adorn the walls and represent some of the finest examples of apsara carvings in the Angkorian era. |
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| Real life apsara dancers! |
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| It is the long exterior walls of the lower level that display the most extraordinary bas-reliefs, depicting stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historic wars of Suryavarman II. |
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| I'm standing in the middle (yes that's me way down there) of the depicted historical march of the army of Suryavarman II against the Cham peoples. That battle is depicted on the entire length of this wall which is over 500 metres long!! The temple has four of these walls and they are all covered with different scenes! |
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| Although originally constructed as a Hindu Temple, it has continuously served as a Buddhist temple since Buddhism became Cambodia's dominant religion in the 14th century. |
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| A perfectly timed picture of Melanie taking a picture (sans gaggles of Chinese tourist). |
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| The temple has three levels and these steep stairs will take you there. |
The temples of the Angkor Archaeological Park area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. However we only purchased a single day pass so we had to move on to the next big temple, my favourite, the.....
Ta Prohm
Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings make it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors.
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| Built in the 11th century, by the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm was abandoned and subsequently neglected for centuries. |
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| The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm and this is perhaps the most photographed Silk-Cotton tree in the world! |
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| When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 21st century it was decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found. It was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing temples and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it". |
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| The 2001 action-adventure movie Tomb Raider, featuring Angelina Jolie, was partially filmed here......I think she was standing right here where I am!! |
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| I expect these Silk-Cotton trees have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor. |
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| Because of the encroaching jungle there is plenty of shade making Ta Prohm more enjoyable to walk around and explore. |
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| The temple features bas-reliefs of minor female deities known as devatas. |
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| WOW |
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| There's one in every crowd. |
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| The selfie miesters strike again! |
For our final temple we head to Buddhist King Jayavarman's capital, Angkor Thom and the beautiful......
Bayon Temple
Built in the late 12th century, the Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.
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| The South gate of Angkor Thom along with a bridge of statues of gods and demons..... |
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| .....and on the other side of said gate. |
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| Bayon temple although it appears as a muddle of stones, a sort of moving chaos assaulting the sky, it is actually built as a square, the sides of which run exactly north to south and east to west. Standing in the exact centre of the square is supposed to represent the intersection between heaven and earth. |
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| Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the Bodhisattvan Avalokiteshvara Buddha, with each face keeping watch over each compass point. There are 51 smaller towers surrounding Bayon, each with four faces of its own. |
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"Wherever one wanders," writes Maurice Glaize, "the faces of Lokesvara (Buddha) follow and dominate with their multiple presence." I also wrote this....just saying.
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| Bayon as been dubbed by some as the "Mona Lisa of Southeast Asia". I see the resemblance! |
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| The selfie misters hanging with Buddha, |
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| Even Buddha knows better then to go nose-to-nose with Melanie. |
We take the most scenic river trip in the country, the one which links Siem Reap with......
Battambang
Often overlooked, Battambang lacks the obvious Cambodian trump cards: no golden beaches, no capital city buzz, no Angkor Wat. But then neither does it suffer from congested traffic, coach loads of tourists, or hordes of touts. In fact, Cambodia's second largest city is one in perfect balance – it’s bustling yet friendly and interesting without being overwhelming.....but first our river trip to get there!!
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| We set off for the 6 hour journey in a boat similar to this one. |
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| Cambodian boat people! |
We leave Siem Reap and head downriver for a very short period of time before entering the Tonle Sap lake. The amazing lake and river system of the Tonle Sap is quite unique. This vast lake; the largest in SE Asia, fills with the waters of the Mekong River each year, bringing vast numbers of fish and irrigation during the dry season.
The Mekong starts its journey in the Himalayas, flowing through China, Laos and Cambodia before discharging into the sea at its delta in south Vietnam. During the monsoons the Mekong Delta cannot absorb all the river water, so in May, the river reverses its normal seaward flow and begins to flow up the Tonle Sap River. The 160km long lake fills with water and, expands to 250kms long by up to 100kms wide over a 3 month period.
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| Life on the Tonle Sap. Floating villages move with the expanding and receding lake levels easily going where the fishing is best. |
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| No grocery stores here, almost all commerce is via floating markets. |
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| Even the place of worship can be floated to where the congregation is!! |
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| The only form of transportation in this part of the world. |
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| The local Wal-Mart. |
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| The food court. |
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| As we went through the villages, we picked up more and more locals who also use the boat as a bus. |
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| After less than a hour we leave the Tonle Sap lake behind and enter the Sangkor River for the upstream portion of the trip to Battambang. Here the river narrows so much that you had to be aware of branches swapping your face. |
And now for something completely different.
This is a short video. I hope your device supports it.
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| Many of the passengers withdraw to the roof of the boat to drink beer and sunbathe. |
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| We passed many of these floating fishing stations with large square nets that could be hoisted up via a boom system. |
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| As the swollen Tonle Sap recedes these flooded areas become rice paddies, but for now they are a great place to net yourself a water snake for supper! |
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| The Sangkor River widens and land dwellers become the norm as we enter Battambang. |
Six hours after leaving Siem Reap we arrive in Battambang. We settle in and decide to do some Cambodian cooking lessons at the.....
Smokin' Pot Cooking School
There's no better way to comprehend a cuisine than to learn how to cook it for yourself. To that end, we signed up for a Cambodian cooking course with Smoking Pot Restaurant to learn some of the tricks and ingredients behind the Cambodian dishes we had been eating.
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| On the way to the class our tuk-tuk had to stop and refuel at the local Cambodian gas station. |
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| The day starts at the market, where we seek out ingredients for the cooking adventures ahead such as fish for the fish amok. |
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| An escaping Snake Fish, apparently they breathe air with their gills, which allows them to migrate short distances over land. |
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| "OK we'll have some of these things." |
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| Much of the standard Southeast Asian market fare is well-represented – piles of fresh herbs, pots of fragrant rotting fish, and a meat section reminiscent of advanced biology class. |
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| Local markets are usually the only real form of shopping in third world countries and we love going to them. |
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| "Would you like chips with your fish sir?" |
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| Link Hogthrob what happen to your body? |
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| Let the cooking begin! |
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| Our first task was to make a boat out of banana leaves....as you can see Melanie cuts a fine form.... |
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| ....and Don, you are such a natural boat builder...... |
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| .....but nobody, absolutely nobody, can build a banana boat like Denise & I. |
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| Cheeseburger? |
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| Damn, I thought Smokin' Pot meant something altogether different! |
After Smokin' Pot we hire a tuk-tuk to take us about 30 minutes south of Battambang to visit the temple of.....
Phnom Sampeau
This fabled limestone outcrop is known for its gorgeous views and the home of a group of macaques, which feed on bananas left by pilgrims in front of the shrines.
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| A food stall on the way..... BBQ snake and 'country' rat. No 'city' rat for you! |
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| This Monk must have heard President Donald Trump telling people that sweeping the forest of leaves will prevent forest fires. |
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| Daily prayer meeting. Wait a minute, who's the guy wearing the pink? |
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| "Where are my bananas?" |
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| The Golden Stupa sits high upon the limestone outcrop and can be seen for miles around. |
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| No bananas, well yogurt will do in a crunch. |
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| Melanie sizes up the view from high up on the limestone outcrop. |
About halfway up to the Phnom Sampeau summit, a road leads under a gate and 250m up to the.....
Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau
Now a place of pilgrimage, the remains of some of the people bludgeoned to death by Khmer Rouge cadres and then thrown through the cave skylight above are memorialized here.
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| A staircase, flanked by greenery, leads into the cavern.... |
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| .....where a golden reclining Buddha lies peacefully next to a glass-walled memorial filled with bones and skulls of the Khmer victims. |
Back down at the base of the hill, we gathered (at dusk) to witness the spectacle of a thick column of....
Bats
pouring from a cave high up on the north side of the cliff face. The display lasts a good 30 minutes as millions of bats head out in a looping line to their feeding grounds near Tonlé Sap.
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| We decide to walk down the many moss-covered steps to the base where we can see the bats. |
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| Most spectators (us included) convene on the bars and stalls on the side of the road, where the beers are cheap and views exceptional. Let the show begin! |
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| We all wait with anticipation for the incredible spectacle of nature as 2 million+ bats emerge from this cave opening. |
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| And just like that, the nightly exodus of the gargantuan colony of hungry Wrinkle-Lipped Free-Tailed bats begin. |
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| There are so many of them that the exit takes over 30 minutes. |
We take a bus to the capital of Cambodia.......
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh, the name can’t help but conjure up an image of the exotic, it is situated at the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers with the Mekong. It was founded as a small monastery in 1372, by the rich Khmer woman Penh, after she had found four Buddha statues in a tree trunk on the banks of the Mekong. She set up the monastery on a hill near the bank of the Mekong. The Cambodian word for hill is Phnom. Therefore the name of the town correctly translates as Hill of Penh.
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| Our travel companions Don & Denise have to bid us good-bye here in Phnom Penh..... |
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| .....however my brother Wayne, hooks up with us for the remainder of our Cambodian trip. |
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| The monks’ saffron robes flutter as they walk along the banks of the mighty Mekong in Phnom Penh. |
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| Melanie in front of the glimmering spires of the Royal Palace which was about a 3 minute walk from our Phnom Penh hotel. |
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| OK, so this dog wanted to cross the extremely busy main street but obviously couldn't without getting hit by a vehicle, so this guy stopped and lent a hand. True story! |
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| Nightime view of a statute on the Phnom Penh waterfront. |
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| A huge Chinese-only hotel dominates the nightime skyline as Mekong booze-cruises wait for customers. |
The next day a walk on the darkside is taken with a visit to the......
Cambodian Killing Fields
On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They forced all city dwellers into the countryside to labour camps. During their rule, it is estimated that nearly 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution.
The Khmer Rouge literally turned Cambodia to year Zero. They banned ALL institutions, including stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion and family. Everyone was forced to work 12 -14 hours a day, every day. Children were seperated from their parents to work as soldiers. People were fed one watery bowl of soup with a few grains of rice thrown in. Babies, children, adults and the elderly were killed everywhere. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they didn't like them, if they didn't work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they showed sympathy when their family members were taken away to be killed. All were killed without reason. Everyone had to pledge total allegiance to Angka, the Khmer Rouge government. It was a campiagn based on instilling constant fear and keeping their victims off balance. The killing only ended when in 1979 the Vietnamese invaded and disposed of Pol Pot.
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| The Killing Fields Pagoda, which contains the skulls of 8,000 people. |
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| Many of the skulls reveal deadly trauma to the head. For instance, the front row skull furtherest to the left shows a deep cut whereas the same row, but furtherest to the right, shows what appears to be a bullet hole. |
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| In Cambodia, 9 miles from Phnom Penh, the "killing fields" of Choeung Ek have become a toruist attraction, both horrifying and fascinating. Choeung Ek is one of thousands of such sites around the country where the the Khmer Rouge practiced genocide during the late 1070's. |
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| All around the baked earth of Choeung Ek's "killing fields" scraps of cloth and human bones poke through the soil from the mass graves below. |
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| The Tuol Sleng Museum, once a high school, became a torture camp, prison and execution centre. From the outside, Tuol Sleng could be a school anywhere in the world, but inside are weapons of torture, skulls, blood stains and photographs of thousands of people who were murdered. |
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"If thou battle with Monsters, take care
lest thou become a Monster.
And if thou gaze into the Abyss,
the Abyss gazeth also into thee."
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| In the chronicles of the 20th century horrors, Cambodia ranks high. Here leg irons, which was just one of many torture devices, that was on display at the museum. |
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| A lone monk wanders the halls, his presence adding a surreal feeling about the place. |
For the last portion of our trip we head for the town of....
Kampot
This riverside town, with streets rimmed by dilapidated shophouse architecture, has a dreamy quality; as if someone pressed the snooze button a few years back and the entire town forgot to wake up. We came here to chill and that's exactly what we did!
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| Looking out at riverside from the rooftop bar at our hotel. |
Probably the most popular thing to do in Kampot is a firefly cruise on the river -- watch the sun set behind Bokor Mountain as you chug upstream, then look out for trees full of the little glowing bugs as you return in the dark. So we did......
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| For $4 each we got a 3 hour cruise and 2 free beer per person!! What a country! |
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| Our boat sets off for the sunset cruise up river. |
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| As we go up river, the Kampot fishing fleet heads downriver towards the open ocean which is 5km away. |
On another day we take a tuk-tuk tour out into the Cambodian countryside to see a 'pepper farm', some caves and the crab market at the village of Kep.....
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| Rice is king in Cambodia and the countryside is a mosiac of various shades of green and yellow as different plots of rice reach maturity. |
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| During the Vietnam War, the Viet-Con would build their roads under bodies of water so that American bombers could not see the actual road from the air. Here in Cambodia it's 'same same only different'. |
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| We stopped at the La Plantation Pepper Farm - Kampot pepper is organically grown, produced and sold in green, black, white and red varieties, all from the same plant. The climate of Kampot Province offers perfect conditions for growing pepper and the quartz content of the soil in the foothills of the Elephant Mountains helps to give Kampot pepper its unique terroir. |
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| We stopped at the Kbal Romeas caves for a quick look inside.....it was all good until Wayne spotted a spider that he claims to be "that big". |
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| Hanging out in Kep’s crab market. More than just a 'crab market', you can get any type of seafood you want including dried shrimp! |
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| Crabs are kept alive in pens tethered just off the wharf..... |
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| .....and when you want some fresh crab, viola they haul the pot in and sell you whatever is your pleasure. |
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| We end our day at the Kep beach. The islands in the background are part of Vietnam. |
From Kampot we head back to Sihanoukville for a few days before heading home.
See you on our next adventure!
Cheers.....
