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Phnom Penh
- 29th Nov - 2nd Dec 2000
After a nice ride to the border on
a large, comfortable, air-conditioned bus we were
dumped at the gates to the kingdom of Kampuchea. We
were allowed some food and then queued for ages before
being let out of Vietnam. Then came the daunting,
200-meter walk on a dusty track between the two border
points. At the Cambodian side we were processed by
scary looking border guards, and herded onto a distinctly
small, uncomfortable, windowless mini-bus. The fact
that it only had 20 seats didn't deter the enthusiastic
driver from fitting 22 of us and 22 huge backpacks
in there. There then ensured 7 hours on the most appalling
roads. The holes in it were up to 2 feet deep and
the driver (who I'm sure must have been on some form
of medication) laughed as we bounded from hole to
hole, claiming that this bus was the dancing bus and
seemingly aiming for the biggest of the roads holes.
After we all got used to the sound of the rear axle
being ground into the dirt and started to ignore the
maniacal driver, the bus seemed to take on a party
atmosphere we were all chatting away like old buddies
by the time we lurched into Phnom Penh, capital of
Cambodia.
Twenty minutes after arrival we were
prepared to depart as the sound of automatic weapons
fire sounded in the streets alarmingly nearby. We
needn't have worried though as it transpires that
the locals use sporadic machine gun fire into the
air as a kind of fire alarm system. Nice. We had been
dropped off at the grimy Capitol Guesthouse that didn’t
have any rooms, so after a short walk around the corner,
we discovered the Hello Guesthouse, which was able
to give us a triple room for a total of only US$5.
Paul and Ruth, who were back with us now, dissapeared
off and managed to find their own room.
On our first day there we did a tour
of the city in a minibus and took in all that the
place had to offer. First stop was the National Museum,
which had on display many ancient Champa sculptures,
in an impressive building. The Royal Palace and the
Silver Pagoda were both very impressive, being lavished
in gold trimmings and outstanding architecture. Then
onto the two most memorable places in Phnom Penh;
the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng (S-21). But first,
a bit of background…
For those not old enough to remember,
or for those who have forgotten, the history of Pol
Pot and his peoples army, the Khmer Rouge, is one
of the most tragic and devastating of the 20thCentury.
Together, they managed to commit genocide upon the
people of Cambodia, killing an estimated 1.7million
people, a quarter of Cambodia’s population,
during the late 1970’s. It was a systematic
and organised slaughter of all those who deviated
from the ‘revolution’ as foreseen by Pol
Pot. Like the holocaust during the Second World War,
it targeted ethnic minorities, the disabled, foreigners
(and those who had worked with foreigners), the affluent
and the intelligent. Unlike the holocaust, this genocide
was performed by Cambodians to Cambodians. The Vietnamese
overthrew the Khmer regime after America had pulled
out of the war but, even now, the country is still
in a state of shock as it comes to terms with what
it did to itself. Most of the Khmer soldiers were
young men, recruited from a very early age and brainwashed
into performing acts of unspeakable coldness, and
because of their age at the time, most are still alive
today, living amongst those whose families were destroyed.
The Killing Fields (as in the film)
was where the Khmer Rouge took men, women and children
to be executed and buried. Thousands of bodies were
discovered here when the area was excavated in the
1980’s. A chilling monument constructed of thousands
of human skulls stands in center the pleasant grass
fields, as a reminder.
Toul Sleng (also known as S-21 for
the period it was used by the Khmer Rouge) used to
be a girls high school. Then the Khmer Rouge overran
Phnom Penh and it was transformed into a torture center
for officials of the previous government. The personal
account the guide gave was horrific, and enlightening.
Several of rooms were covered in hundreds of pictures
taken of the prisoners before they were interrogated
or taken off to the Killing Fields. In some of the
rooms, blood still stained the floor.
Later that evening, Ben, Greig and
I took a walk over to the lake to check out an alternative
guesthouse only to find that, whilst the waterfront
setting was great, the rooms were pretty tragic. We
decided that we would be OK where we were and went
off in search of somewhere to eat in the main strip
of nightlife in Phnom Penh, alongside the Mekong River.
We ended up in the Pink Elephant, an empty, but groovy
bar’n’grill. It was there we met Janice,
a girl from Birmingham (if I remember correctly) who
was teaching English out there. She seemed to be somewhat
concerned about us, being tourists wandering around
the city, and she proceeded to fill us with scare
stories about where we shouldn’t go and what
we shouldn’t do. Janice informed us that the
UN had issued a warning that evening regarding the
possibility of trouble that evening and probably around
the area of the national monument. This was somewhat
worrying, so we decided to stay where we were for
the rest of the evening, play pool and drink beers.
Four hours later we stumbled out of the bar to find
our way home. Walking was out of the question so we
found some motorbike drivers loitering around outside
a bar and they agreed to take us back to the Hello
Guesthouse (not that they knew where it was). The
journey home was, for me at least, was a trial of
apprehensiveness. The three bikes kept splitting up
and doing U-Turns as they attempted to find our guesthouse.
The streets were deserted of traffic and people. Apparently
everybody except us was obeying the warning. Greig,
however, was heeding no such advice as he screamed
and shouted from his pillion seat. At some point we
noticed that we were at the national monument, where
a troop of soldiers were stationed, evidently waiting
for the spark of trouble. In a gesture that I will
take to my grave, Greig turned to them as we sped
past and shouted at the armed guards, “Come
on you Fucko’s”. Although I expected it,
the bullet in the back never came. We made it back
and were able to live to see another day.
Paul and Ruth left the following
morning, whilst we gave the city one more day, mostly
because our hangovers prevented us from doing much
the following day. In desperate need of some air-conditioning,
we found a fast food burger bar where I experienced
probably the worlds worst Bacon Double Cheeseburger.
That evening we called Amber, a girl we had met in
Hue (Vietnam), who lived in Phnom Penh and she invited
us to visit her huge flat. So we trundled off to meet
her through an area not unlike what I imagined Beirut
to look like in the mid 80's. Rabid dogs snapping
at our ankles and rather close gunshots did little
to waylay our fears. When we arrived, she seemed pretty
tired and it was all a bit uncomfortable, so we made
our excuses early and went out with a friend of Ben’s
cousin who worked for the World Wildlife Fund in Cambodia.
He paid for all the beers, which we appreciated, and
I made a map of South East Asia out of Tiger beer
bottle foil.
TOP
| Phnom Penh | Siem
Reap | Battenbang
Siem Reap
(temples of Angkor) - 2nd - 5th Dec 2000
The entire 5-hour journey from Phnom
Penh to Siam Reap was made on the roof of a Bolivian
high-speed boat. It's not in Bolivia anymore because
it failed their (undoubtably slack) safety tests.
I was slightly alarmed when they crammed on 3 times
as many people as the thing was designed to take.
To make my fears more pronounced, our boat was docked
in Phnom Penh’s port on the Tonl Sap River
next to it’s recently sunk, and still half-submerged,
sister ship. I hung off the roof about 2 feet from
the exhaust of the very loud 1200hp engine and suffered
both the full heat of the midday sun and the exhaust
from the engine. So frazzled and not a small amount
deafened, we arrived in a Siam Reap, 8km from the
main place of interest in Cambodia, the temples of
Angkor. At the dock there appeared to be a riot, but
as we moved closer, we could see that the placards
they were holding were the names of guesthouses the
‘rioters’ represented. Rather more disturbingly
I saw several placards with my name on them (it turned
out that this was Paul and Ruths little joke). We
chose a man who had the nicest looking minibus and
lurched off down a dirt track for the half-hour trip
from the port to Siam Reap.
Absolutly exhausted after the journey,
we had some much needed food in Smilies Guesthouse.
Then booked ourselves into a nice tripple room in
a hotel just around the corner. Ben Greig and I hired
three chaps to take us around on their motorbikes
for the following 3 days. You can’t hire your
own bike, so this really is the only alternative.
Besides, it was pretty cheap for only US$6 per day.
On our first night there, our chauffeurs took us up
to a ruined temple on a high point near Angkor Watt
(the most famous temple) to watch the sun set. The
view was spectacular and was defiantly one of the
highlights of the trip.
The Khmer Empire was a dynasty of
kings which lasted from the 9th to the 14th century
whence it was obliterated by the invasion of the Mongol
Empire. Over this period the Khmer Kings ruled much
of what is now Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, and developed
the Angkor area into an amazing administrative and
religious centre for their society. The Angkor area
covers roughly 130 square kilometers and contains
over 100 temples, which are all that remains of the
ancient city seeing as they were the only structures
made of stone. The whole area remained largely unknown
to the West until the 1860’s, when a French
explorer “discovered” the temples and
published a book based on his experiences and drawings.
Since then it has become a UNESCO World Heritage site
and has received international help to preserve, and
in some cases restore, the ruins. It has also become
a major tourist pull and, in fact, was the reason
we went to Cambodia at all.
The next day we got up late (owing
to a few drinks the previous night) but managed to
get to the temples for about 10am. We then spent the
entire day wandering around some of the world’s
most impressive stonework. We spent the majority of
the day in the main temples, Angkor Watt, and the
Bayon; these had astounding levels of carved detail
in their walls and pillars. There were very few areas
of unadorned masonry. We then visited some of the
less well-preserved ruins. Some of these were the
most impressive, as they hadn’t been cleared
of the jungle and were covered in vines and had trees
growing in and around the stonework. Almost everywhere
you looked, there was a perfect photo and consequently
I used up a whole film pretty quick. It’s really
quite difficult to describe the ambiance and feeling
of the place – hopefully the pictures will do
a better job.
Paul and Ruth were with us in Siam
Reap, although in a different hotel, and we met up
with Terry again. Together we ate and drank most nights
in Smilies guesthouse, which had a video and pretty
decent food. Other nights though we ventured out to
other places in the town. There were quite a few decent
restaurants including one whose specialty was an excellent
curry served in a coconut. The Happy Herbs Pizzeria
also had its own specialty, and you could specify
how ‘Happy’ you wanted the food.
On our last night Paul became ill
and was unable to travel. We weren’t sure what
it was, and of course Malaria sprung to mind. What
we really wanted was to get him to Bangkok as quickly
as possible and we considered the possibility of flying
him, but we decided that Ruth could stay with him
and give it one more day, whilst Ben Greig and I made
our way to….
TOP
| Phnom Penh | Siem
Reap | Battenbang
Battenbang
- 5th - 7th Dec 2000
A minibus took us from Smilies Guesthouse
to the port on the Tonl Sap lake (a huge expanse
of water in the middle of Cambodia), where we discovered
the tiny boat that was chartered to take us across
Lake and up the Sangker River to Battambang. It was
probably only about 10ft long, but it had two massive
outboards lashed to the back. Again they tried to
fit far too many people on it making us very low in
the water. The ‘captain’ took the loaded
boat out for a quick test run and thankfully decided
that it was too full. So we transferred some to another
boat and started on our way. Though it was frighteningly
fast, the chap at the wheel seemed to know what he
was doing and we blasted through a swampy waterways
cut out of tall reeds. Occasionally we had to stop
to clear the propellers of stuff that seemed to collect
around them, but in general, we made good speed. We
had one stop, in a picturesque floating village where
we stopped at some kind of floating general store
for a drink and a piss in the remarkable, self-cleaning,
semi-submerged toilet. An hour or so later, and with
sore arses, we arrived at Battambang and found a couple
of motorbike riders to take us to the Royal Hotel.
Battambang (pron. Battam-bon) was
probably the most ‘off the beaten track’
place we went to. Its isolation was due to having
only recently being cleared of landmines and Khmer
Rouge operatives. Until 1998 it had been off limits
to tourists. There isn’t really much there but
it was interesting to get a feel for a Cambodian town
with the pressure of having to see things. There was
a central market and the very polluted Sangker River,
but most of the town was very run down. Most of the
days were spent wandering around in the serious heat
looking for a place to eat, or to buy water. Greig
and I managed to waste almost 4 hours trying to locate
a somewhat elusive bank. The rest of the time we spent
watching movies in the hotel, which had satellite
TV, and for those of you who are interested, they
also showed pornographic videos at 9pm every evening
on channel 7.
Back in Siam Reap, Paul seemed to
have made a bit of a recovery and he and Ruth made
the journey to meet us. But on his arrival he took
ill again and we decided that the sooner we speed
to Thailand (and reliable doctors) the better. So
we arranged with one of the pick-up drivers, who seemed
to always be lurking outside our hotel, a price and
a time for the trip. Being pathetic Westerners, we
paid over the odds for seats in the cab in the front
of the 4x4. As it turned out, there were us five in
the nice, if very cramped, air-conditioned cab, and
about 28 unhappy looking Cambodians spilling out of
the uncovered rear of the vehicle, choking on the
road dust as we careered along. 4 hours later we arrived
at the border.
TOP
| Phnom Penh | Siem
Reap | Battenbang |
