Phnom Pehn, history and city living

Even though we're not city people we had to make a stop in Phnom Pehn to explore the capital of Cambodia. When we arrived it was Chinese New Year and many people in the city some how feel that they are chinese and therefore they celebrate and close their shop/restaurant etc. On the bright side though, this ment less traffick and much easier to cross the road then when the holiday was over.

Stupa filled with bones and head sculls

The best part was visiting the two museums, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) and Choeung Ek Genocidal center (Killing fields). It was really educational in a sad and horrifying way. The museums both had good audio tours which made it easy to do go our own pace. It is also a lot easier than trying to read over ones shoulder all the time. S21 was a a school that during the Khmer Rouge was used as a prison and an interregation centre. The methods they used are unspeakable. The killing fields was exactly that; a place for killing during the Khmer Rough. People were sent there only for that purpose. The paranoia of the regime knew no limits and therefore also small children and even babies were murded, only so they could not come back to revenge their relatives in the future. None of these museums are for the soft heartet and I must admit that I at times felt rather sick. 

Listening to stories from the past sitting in the shade

Killing tree

 

 

The buildings of S21 looked just like other schools.

Of course we took a tuk tuk to the museums and before we knew it we were in the middle of nowhere. There, my boyfriend, not me, was offered to shoot with a huge amount of different kind of weapons. We politely turned them down. Just the thought of the weapons and the ammunition being somewhere close scared me. Coming from Norway I guess I am as underexposed of weapons as one can get.

A tent in the middle of the street in the middle of Phnom Pehn= wedding

People watching is always a good activity in a city and Phnom Pehn is no exception. Thar it when you notice the small things happening on the street. Down at the river was an excellent spot viewing from a terrace.

We had to give the Russian market a go, and I was not disappointed. It was huge, one could find everything from fresh meat to spare parts for the scooter all within the square. The thick and warm air smelling of raw meat is to me sickening so I was glad to find out that all food stalls were gathered at one place so once I passed them I could breath freely again and enjoy my shopping and bargaining. Compared to Siem Reap it was less hassle walking through the market, they were not all over you at once. One place I actually had to look for the owner.

Exploring along the Mekong

Once again I was faced with the fact that after I started working, the time I want (and need) to do the travelling I want to, is not there anymore. But on the other side, with work comes money. So when I was looking around on the web to figure out where to go after Siem Reap, I came across Cambodian Pride Tours. The tours they offered seemed down to earth and could give us the opportunity to experience real Cambodia with the limited time available.
Instead of going taking the short and much travelled road to Phnom Pehn via Battambang and Tonle Sap River, we decided to take the longer road and do the Mekong Explorer.


The day before our journey started our guide was supposed to meet us at the guesthouse, but since he was on an other trip, Sithy, who is running the company, met with us. We had received plenty of information before hand, but it was nice to be able to go over the trip and check if we have everything we needed for the 5 days.


7 AM is early at home, but in Cambodia I think it is kind of late in the morning. Any way, that is when we started travelling from touristic Siem Reap towards the Mekong. We where the only two people on this trip so we had both a guide and a driver at our disposal the whole time. And they made it very clear that if we wondered about something, or if we wanted to do something different than what was in the iterary, we should say it straight away. It would not help us complaining about it afterwards and they were there to give us the best possible experience:) We liked them from the beginning!

One of many narrow bridges. Notice the kid on the right side.

Day 1 was mainly driving and we quickly understood why the driving would take as long as it did, the standard is not the same as back home. But on the bright side it gives plenty of time to look around and ask all kind of stupid questions. Which were all answered politely and the guide had no problem sharing his stories with us.

The goal of the day was Preah Rumkel where we stayed at a homestay, ate at Anlong Cheuteal where a family prepered food for us visited the Sopheakmet Waterfall and swam in the Mekong. A very relaxing evening looking over the Mekong.

Sopheakmet waterfall, tha Lao border is in the middle of the water somewhere

One thing I found disturbing visiting this place was the dam we saw the Chinese are building on the other side of the Mekong in Lao. How will the dams upstream Mekong effect the behaviour further down. Today in the rainy season the water in Tonle Sap River flows from Mekong River and to the great lake Le Tonle Sap while it is the other way around during dry season. Amazing isnt't it? But of this change what will be the consequences I dare not think about it. Also there are freshwater dolphines in this area, but they are almost gone.

Our "restaurant" where we had lunch, dinner and breakfast:) Cambodian style:)

I must have the most sporty boyfriend. Even though he had not tried kayaking before he jumped in a river kayak and did not want to go with a guide. We were ready to experience the flooded forest of the Ramsar Wetland. The kayaking was much longer and more thrilling and challenging than we anticipated and we ended up being wet (to our guide's amusement:), tired, sun burnt and very, very happy. I love coming up close with nature like this.
Luckily we only kayaked with the stream and a boat came to pick us up and take ut back to where we started.

Ready! :)

Picnic lunch with our guide, the boat driver and the kayak guide.

A quiet part of the flooded forest.

On our way from Strung Treng to Kratie I wanted to visit the Mekong Blue. A humanitary non-profit organization giving a way out of poverty for women and families. They do so by teaching them how to weave silk. Because it was Chinese New Year when we visited, just some of the workers were there, but it was still amazing to see their work. Sadly I did not get the chance to buy a scarf cause they were really lovely, it would have been a perfect souvernir.

We also visted the famous 100 pillars pagoda where our guide showed out to be a really good story teller. And as he pointed out to us several times,  Cambodian people believe a lot of weired and unbelievble stories, so they are an important part of their culture and lives. At the end of the day we were suppose to visit Koh Trong, an island in the Mekong, but as we sat in the boat waiting and waiting for it to leave and our guide looking more and more often on his clock he decided we would not have time to explore the island before we had to catch the last ferry back. That is just how it goes when ferries do not have schedule. We understood, but we could see our guide felt bad. Then he came up with the idea that we could do it early in the morning before going to Phnom Pehn and he was back to being happy again:)

Beautiful sunset from our hotel in Kratie

In Kratie, our guide's home city, we did heaps of every day activities:)

Visiting the local market and fish market



Wathching TV Cambodian style, three channels at once

Farming. Yummy vegetables!

Floating villages inhabitated by people from Vietnam

Tasting home made rice wiskey

 When visiting the man who made rice wiskey we wondered what he earned of his production. A small destillery in his back yard. He earned only the rice that he used a second time to feed his pigs. It was shocking to hear how little he got from all that work. The wiskey was good so our driver bought a couple of bottles;)

Sugar cane juice, YUMMY!

Making rice noodles

We also had a really nice Cambodian dinner in the home of Sithy's parents. They were really nice and the food equally good. At Koh Trong we got invited into the garden of our guide's old class mate and he told us of how to do agriulture on the island.

Cycling around the island, no traffic!

The things you see

Our last meal together, we were sad to say goodbye

All in all, this trip is my favorite of all the things we did in Cambodia. Not only because of the places we visited and the things we did, but also bacause of the laughter and knowledge our companions brought to the table, the small things like chatting and hanging around. They really gave us the best experience we could ever wish for, and they did it with their heart:)

Siem Reap

Most of the places were to some degree crowded

Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. From Norway it is a pleasant flight via Bangkok in Thailand. Even though we knew nothing about Cambodia before we decided to go there, it did not take long until we understood Siem Reap is a must for tourist. In the beginning I thought Ankor Wat was one wat and I could not understand why we would need several days to visit it. But it turns out that every king from  year AD 802 to 1432 built his own wat to keep his people safe and inside the wat there was always a temple. These are the buildings that remain today. Houses in stone were only for the Gods, so houses for the people are long gone as they were built using wood.

We ended up spending two days looking at different temples, each had their own style and charm. We had a tuk tuk driver taking us from temple to temple and it worked out really nice. He always gave us cold water when we were done with a temple, a much aprecciated service in the heat with conservative clothes:)We could have spent both longer and shorter looking at the wats with their nice carvings, sculptures and histories, but for us they started to melt into each other after a while.

 

 

 

My "guide". We came a long way just using our Lonely Planet book



Some temples were almost overtaken by nature and it was special to see how the trees had grown into one with the buildings. But be careful though. A lot of loose stones around.

A nice variations was the 2 km walk up to the carvings at Kbal Spean. Less people and nice nature is my cup of tea. I found it very special that they had made carvings in the water and I could not really make any sense of it.

Banteay Srei, my favourite with all its details! It isn't alway about size...

Coconut from our driver:) Plenty of hydration!

Being a tourist in Siem Reap was very easy for us. It started with my mum asking me to read an article in the newspaper about Cambodia. It turned out the article was about a Norwegian couple running a guesthouse in Siem Reap. There are pro and cons going to a guesthouse not run be locals, I thought. But I read the article and then I visited their webpage to find out more. When I realized they were dedicated both to the environment, taking initiatives to decrease our negative impact on nature, and also working for responsible tourism, I had no doubt. We were staying at Babel Guesthouse. It was really inspiring to see how they try to make an impact. Like the refillable bottle campaign: Refill, not landfill. Instead of buing a new one, you refill the one you have. Think big, act small:)






It ended up being a good choice. We got all the help and tips we needed from both the staff, the managers and even the manager's family. We could ask about anything. From the regular things like: Where to go, what to do, how to get from a to b to all the small and big things at least I wonder about in a new country. Why do they do that? What is that? How does thing work? What is that loud noise I've been hearing all day? The food was really nice there too, so we had everything we needed after a long day. In the city centre it got very touristic and rather busy, so for a good place to eat: ask at your hotel for a recommendation.

Pub Street in day light

Other places we went to was the market, pub street and Phare. The market and the night market was okay, but very pushy compared to the markets we visited later in Cambodia. First we visited pub street during the day, and we thought we wanted to go back in the evening. And so we did, but we only ended up feeling old and boring. It was extremly noisy, it was almost like the pubs were competing about having the loudest music. It was difficult speaking to each other out on the street, so it must be impossible inside the pubs. We did not even attempt to go inside. But if you want to party, it seemed like the perfect place to be.






What I would really recommend doing is going to see Phare, the Cambodian Circus. A fantastic performance! It is not a circus with animals, but a history told with music, dancing, paiting and mainly acrobatics. More like cirque du soleil. With almost no use of props they told a touching history about the time of Kmer Rouge. The acrobatics they do, are incedibly impressive! The circus it selfe was an initiative to give young people a way of living after the fall of Kmer Rouge. With its school in Battambang they still provide an alternative for street children. Not only great entertainment, but a great cause as well.

Medium loaded with the usual madrasses

Cambodia

Back in Norway after our 2 week long vacation in Cambodia. Why do you want to go there? Pople in Norway asked, and in Cambodia we were met with the same question: Why have you come here? Well, we chose to visit Cambodia because it was a country we did not know to much about, actually hardly anything, and because we thougt it would be a very different country from our own. We were not disappointed! I have learned so much about the country.
The history of the country is horrifying, but even though the sadness is close in time, people seem happy and smile. For us Norwegians they appear very fiendly and talkative. Asking questions about whatever we were curious about was easy and we got insight into everyday life I had not hoped to get beforehand.



OMG! The traffic... I don't know where to begin to describe it, I think one just have to experience it. In the beginning I did not understand much, but I think this must be some of the main rules they are thought at there driving schools:

• Do not stop unless you absolutely have to
• Take all possible short cuts
• You must never give way
• Use the shoulder of the road at every opportunity

I can't say I got used to the traffic, and I would certainly not drive myself (for my crossing the road in Phnom Penh was challenging enough), but I was not scared to death the whole time at the end.


What I notice first in a new country is the contrasts comparing with Norway. One of them was the extreme amount of littering everywhere. Luckily it seems as there is a cultural change starting, but this young country do not seem to have the systems to handle all the garbage yet. I hope they do get it so the litter doesn't ruin the beatiful country.


In Norway most people live in the city, but in Cambodia most people live on the countryside. Some argue that the people living on the countryside are more happy and have more say in their own life than the people living in the city who is corrupted by money. For me, living on the countryside, I can related to that as people in for instance Oslo seem stressed to me.


Well, this was some of the main impressions I got. After visiting a country with so much bigger challenges than what we face at home it is difficult to find motivation for reading political papers. While we discuss whether or not to have wolves in Norway, they are working to take care of their wild tigers and this is a country with a lot less resources than us. And of course we expect them to do so. Sometimes I feel ashamed.