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Holiday
in Cambodia, tough girl but it’s life – 16/08/03
Sorry about the brevity of the interlude between this and my
previous message but I am off to Myanmar tomorrow and the SLORC
(or whatever they call themselves these days) have decided that
the Internet is bad and protect the people of Myanmar by banning
it.
So, I left you somewhere up the Mekong. My firsts top in
Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city. I found it to
be an amazing place full of old temples, new shopping malls,
bars, guns, drugs, sex and money. All the prices in the shops,
hotels and western restaurants are priced in US dollars which
adds a strange feel to the place as well as making it more
expensive, the idea of breaking a dollar seemingly impossible.
This was easy to get round though as we had been used to eating
at stalls in Vietnam and just continued the trend, enjoying some
great Cambodian cuisine on a budget.
Still with Apocalypse Now swirling around me I marched Paul off
to the Heart Of Darkness bar. It did not disappoint. More laid
back than the Apocalypse Now bars it was decked out in African
style, staying faithful to Conrads original setting. The only
acknowledgement of Coppola's being a black and white portrait of
Marlon Brando as Kurtz.
I only stayed one full day in Phnom Penh, something I regret now
but I was kind of used to travelling at the same pace. The
one day in Phnom Penh was probably the most macabre of my trip
so far, and that’s saying something. We started off by
visiting S-21, now known as the Toul Sluong museum of Genocide.
It started life as a high school before the Khmer Rouge
converted it into a prison and torture house. In a similar vein
to Auschwitz the victims photographs have been displayed on the
walls, as well as other shots depicting the horrors of the camp.
At one point a bust of Pol Pot has been turned around to face a
cabinet of bones. A fitting acknowledgement I thought. One thing
that bothered me was the amount of people that had written all
these tributes in the guest book about how bad it was and how it
should never happen again. I found this kind of upsetting
because it has happened, is happening and will happen. Also they
see all the prisoners as innocent and the KR as evil. Whilst
this may for the most part be true, to believe this wholly would
be a naivety I think.
 Following this pleasant start to the day we sunk to new depths
by taking a moto-taxi - three up on a 125 moped on Cambodian
roads, not a comfortable ride -
to the Killing Fields at Choeng
Ek. Those of you who have seen the film, or been there, will be
familiar with the Killing fields. Basically, once Pol Pot and
his KR cronies had finished with the prisoners at S-21 and the
other prisons and detention centres, they marched the people to
the killing fields where they were executed and buried in big
pits. It was strangely peaceful as they have erected a giant
stupa, with glass sides full of recovered skulls. Though it is
easy to get at the skulls.
To finish off the morning on
an equally grim note we headed off to the shooting range.
Infamous along the backpacking trail for offering such deals as
shooting a cow with a rocket launcher for US$200 and grenading a
chicken for US$30 I was in nervous anticipation as the moped
made its way. In the end I settled on firing a clip of an M-16
for $30 (a dollar a bullet) (only at a target though) and
chucking a grenade into a lake for $20. People had told me that
they had been made to practice with stones but either he trusted
my aim or he was lazy because he just gave me the grenade,
straightened the pin and left me to it. It was an amazing
feeling, you can almost feel the destruction swilling around
inside the grenade. After I had thrown it and it had exploded
far more violently and louder than I anticipated he adrenalin
really started pumping and I felt as though I could of run a
marathon. Before leaving Paul and I posed with various pieces of
heavy artillery including the M-60. Thus completing my Vietnam
odyssey.
Skulls at the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek
The afternoon was spent in far more surrounds. The riverside of
Phnom Penh hold its most pleasant buildings including Wat Phnom,
the Silver pagoda and the grand palace although it had become a
scorching day and so we had to sojourn to a cafe for a while!
The next day we took the bus to Siem Reap, jumping off point for
the famous ruins at Angkor. After all the scare stories about
Cambodian roads most people had opted for the boat ride at $22.
Never one to pass up a bargain I jumped at the chance of a $4
bus ride. The bus was virtually empty and I had four seats to
myself and the roads were fine.
Siem Reap is a nondescript dusty town, although high rise hotels
cater for the more upmarket tourists visiting Angkor.
We spent the next day cycling around Angkor. It costs $20 for a
one day pass so we started early to see as much as possible.
Angkor Wat itself is pretty amazing but I was surprisingly
underwelmed, probably due to the amount of pictures I had seen
of it beforehand. It was also marred by the gangs of hawker kids
trying to get you to buy their overpriced water. They seemed to
think all tourists were stupid because they were trying to sell
it at 1 dollar for two bottles. When I told them that I knew
that their government subsidised a brand of bottled water and
kept it at 500 Riel they tried to tell me 1 dollar is 1000 Riel
(its actually 4000!). When they finally sold it to us for 500
they told us to keep quite and not tell the other tourists the
real price. Cheeky scamps!
So on from Angkor Wat the next
major temple is Angkor Thom, often stated as the greatest
because of its size and the area its grounds cover. I was not
too impressed and didn't spend to long there as a coach load of
Japanese tourists had just turned up and were assembling
themselves for a group photo outside whilst shouting what
presumably is the Japanese for "Cheese". As you can
imagine I was not impressed. I couldn't believe they were
actually doing coach tours within the ruins.
The temples that did impress me were Preah Khan and Ta Prohm.
Both of these are in a shocking state of disrepair and have been
partially reclaimed by the jungle. Both have trees growing in,
around and through them.
Preah Kahn, Angkor
After these and a few minor temples (Neak Poan, Ta Som, Pre Rup)
we had completed a circle and were back at Angkor. With sunset
aprroaching we climbed up to Phnom Bakheng, a temple up a hill
with a view of Angkor Wat. It was getting cloudy though at this
point so it was not as spectacular as it could of been. After
descending we stopped off at Angkor Wat once more before
returing home and relaxing whilst watching the Charity Shield
(or whatever its called now).
The next day I left Cambodia. I had not meant to pass through so
quickly, had meant to visit Sihanoukville on the coast and maybe
Battambang (the second largest town) before leaving but somehow
these plans got waylaid, as the best always do, along with going
to Koh Chang for a few days on the way to Bangkok. I nearly
couldn't leave though as the infamous Cambodian roads finally
lived up to their reputation and disapeered in the mire leaving
a lorry on its side and another one jacknifed across the
"road". Being a true rubberneck I got off the bus to
have a look and ended up crouched under one of the trucks trying
to help repair the burnt and broken tow fixings.
So that’s it, I got into Bangkok last Monday and have been
here ever since on an R+R sabbatical. My departure for Myanmar
has been delayed due to it being Queens day on Tuesday and as a
result no embassies were open. I did think about going
back to Koh Chang but the cost and time it would of taken put me
off. I have spent the last few days wandering around, finally
getting around to visiting the Grand Palace (they let me in with
sandals after all), Jim Thompsons House (he is now my second
favourite missing person after Amelia Erhartt), Siam Square
(full of all the western brands - Marks and Spencers, Body Shop,
Dairy Queen, etc), Wat Tramit (the temple of the Golden Buddha,
I was only there for twenty seconds before it closed though) and
I spent today at Chatuchak weekend market which was kind of like
a big Camden market but with an added pet's area.
Off to Myanmar tomorrow, flying with Thai Airways on the
red-eye. I paid extra to use Thai instead of Myanma airways, my
reasons being three-fold. Firstly I did not want to fund the
Myanmar government and wasn't sure if the airline was
state-owned. Secondly, Thai have a better safety record. Thirdly
and most importantly, I have never flown on Thai before and it
is another major airline to tick off the list. I only have
Singapore Airlines and I have got the full South East Asian set!
I am now going commence radio silence and will resume
communications on or after Sept 2nd.
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