Timeout in Phnom Penh

by the time we got to phnom penh i was in pretty rough shape.  i had a full blown fever.  unfortuantely all decent places were booked out for the next five days for chinese new year so we had to settle for something a little gross.  well managed by one family and very helpful staff - just different standards and expectations of cleanliness i suppose.  the only alternative was super luxury which was/is out of our price range.

i lay shivering under the blanket with my head on roel's lap while we watched some olympics.  we didn't leave the hotel at all.  the next day was more of the same.  except roel got out to a convenience store to buy me some basics like ibuprofen and OJ.  :)  i was very thankful not to be doing this trip solo.  luckily this guesthouse offers a dvd machine rental for $2 a day and a whole slew of pirated dvds to choose from.  this was the worst day in terms of how i felt.  i didn't leave the room except to eat from the small kitchen/restaurant downstairs (the food was actually not too bad at this place).  roel didn't feel great either as his allergies were at his worst during this time.  we cancelled our tour of the killing fields and the toul sleng museum this day.

phnom penh has a population of about two million.  even though i know this is a third world country very much in the early developing stages i was surprised at the lack of infrastructure.  for some reason i expected a little more from the big capitol city.  don't get me wrong, it was fascinating and fun to see - but it was dirty without a whole lot to do or see once you have done the couple obligatory cultural and historical things with a visit to a couple of markets.  no reason (in my opinion) for anyone to stay here for more than two full days.

the next day we drugged our selves up and went on the tour we had postponed.  i knew the general history of the khmer rouge but didn't realize exactly how brutal they were...more barbaric than the nazis.  they didn't want to waste bullets so they hacked away with machetes, shovels and hoes.  they didn't want to leave children behind in case they would grow-up with resentment towards the regime so they smacked babies and young children against trees.  this regime ended up killing almost one-quarter of the country at the time (1975-80).  not that long ago.

the stupa (shrine/memorial) erected at the killing fields sends shivers through your spine.  a tall strcture filled with skulls excavated from the mass graves on site organized by sex and age.  the museum (which you should actually visit first) is set in a old highschool which the khmer rouge used as a prison and torture centre before sending people to the killing fields aforementioned.  not much to say about this.  another disturbing look into the human condition or lack thereof.

after these activities i had used up all my energy for the day and we went back to the hotel.
next day i managed the mall for about one hour before hitting a wall...it was chinese hew year - super crowded and warm.  we managed to work our way up to the fifth flour which had an outdoor walkway and a rollerblading rink and arcade.  a decent view of the surrounds. 

during the day we could hear celebrations but there was nor street festival or activities.  it was pretty local and family oriented.
a shot of roel at the mall:

at this point we would have headed for sihanouk ville (beach area of cambodia) but we didn't want to expend energy on a gruelling travelling day and risk relapse so we decided to just recoup in phnom penh.  we splurged and bought ourselves massages at raffles hotel le royal.  very nice.  we worked out every penny we spent by using the faciltiies all day.

on our last day (at this point i'm feeling pretty good but roel is still not great with his allergies, poor guy) we hit up the russian market and central market.  during our five days we also managed to take in the royal palace and wat phnom.  we didn't do anything much past about 9pm as i was usually sleeping by then.  roel was a super swetheart as i could tell he was antsy to get out more but i just wasn't up to it.  that's all for cambodia.  see you in vietnam.

Floating Village Tour

we decided to check out the floating village near siem reap.  about a 20 minute tuktuk ride to the boat and then about a 1.5 hr tour from there.  we booked the same driver that toured us around the temples the three previous days.  kim was his name (well not his real name, he just made it easier for us).  he was not a salesman (compared to all the other drivers we encountered) and he was very honest (told us how he got paid, how he got meals at certain places for free if he got us to eat there too, which spots were worth going to and which were too touristy).  much of the information he gave us was not necesarily to his benefit.  we tried to be pretty generous with him seeing as though he probably saved us a lot of money and unnecessary hassle.

the ride to the boat was fascinating.  we drove through the poor part of town along the siem reap river and encountered many interesting sights and smells.

we elected to go on a tour with only a guide and driver as opposed to cramming on one boat with 15 other tourists.  it only cost us one dollar more paid as a bribe to the boat organizing dude.  or at least that's what it looked like...kim did all the groundwork for us.  :)

our tour guide was a 23 year old studying the cambodian and english languages.  i'm pretty sure he's a volunteer that jumps on these boats to practice english and earn tips.  he was fun to talk to and he was buddies with the driver who didn't speak much english.  they were really jovial and loved to interact.
driver on left and guide on right having a snack.

we started off in a smaller river that opened onto the HUGE tonle sap lake (googlemap tonle sap to look for scale).  the village is in the lake close to where the river meets it.  the people in the floating villages are among the poorest and rely solely on fishing for income.  it is the beginning of the dry season here so water levels are relatively low and the colour of the rivers is about that of coffee with a lot of cream.  people are swimming, fishing, doing laundry, etc.  yikes.  i think westerners would die within 20 minutes of contact with this water.

we stopped in at a crocodile and catfish farm on the lake near the village.  they also had a floating temple, floating basketball court, floating water purification facilities and floating school.  a number of these extra buildings had name plates indicating who had sponsered them.  all from europe or north america.

on the way back they asked if i wanted to drive the boat back up the river!  ha!  i did and it was fun.  roel sat on the nose of the boat and enjoyed the breeze, he didn't feel a need to try driving.

the next day we hopped on the bus for six hours to phnom penh.  by this time i was starting to have some stomach cramping and low grade fever.  roel's allergies kicked in full force as well.  it was a long bus ride packed full of tourists and locals trying to get to the capitol city for chinese new years.

Angkor Wat and Other Bits from Siem Reap

the only reason anyone stays in siem reap is because it is home base for those exploring angkor wat.  if you don't know anything about angkor wat stop right here and do some reading first.  it is the the largest and most impressive collection of temples from an ancient civilization (it makes anything the mayans did look like tinkertown - that's a winnipeg reference).  angkor wat is actually just the largest and most famous of the temples in this area.  the surrounding area has many temples, some we found even more impressive than angkor.  we purchased a three day pass for $40 each.

just a little about the town of siem reap first.  it's clean, has great food and accoms.  since it mainly exists for the purpose of housing angkor wat visitors it has a resort-ish feel.  kind of like walking the streets in a mexican touristy area at night.  open air restaurants, bars, markets filled with various cambodian silks and touristy trinkets, etc.  but like i said it's clean and perfectly safe.  we loved it as a relaxing spot after a long full day of temple touring in some pretty extreme heat (well extreme for this canadian prairie boy atleast).

we started off with some of the older and run down temples and worked our way up to the bigger hitters.  i have an interest in this type of stuff but generally don't have a long attention span for it...and for three days?!  what was i thinking?  i stuck to what my research had guided us to do and i have to say i was thoroughly impressed and our itinerary was spot on.

the structures were built over a king's lifetime and some date back to 800AD.  how do you even begin to manage a project that large with that much precision without the use of any computers or what we would consider modern technology?  how many thousands and thousands of people would have had to work on these?  we overheard one guide said that there was an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 workers on the biggest temples.  some of these structures also housed portions of the cities as well.  here are a few shots for you.

the kids on these temple grounds are relentless.  they want money for everything from guide books to knowing random canadian facts to taking pictures of them.  they are only doing what their families have asked them to do to survive so you can't get angry.  however it is an extreme test of patience at the end of a tiring (but fun) day.  once you buy a coke or something from one of them they are like sharks that smell blood.  i was almost scared at first but then just started laughing and they all laughed with me because they knew how ridiculous it was too.  oh and we saw monkeys.  you could feed them from your hand if you wanted.

and we rode an elephant.

we also chilled at the top of one of the temples with a couple of young monks.  one of them had pretty good english.  we had each other laughing pretty good.  one of the more memorable experiences there.  they gave us permission to take this picture.

i awoke one night in a panic.  i heard a noise equivalent to the noise the alien made when the little mouth came out of the big mouth against sigourney weaver's face in alien 3 (i think).  luckily roel was familiar with this noise from his travels to the philipinnes with his mom years ago.  apparently this intense noise was from a cute little gecko in our room (which i couldn't see).  who knew?

one of the highlights was one day when we finished up touring the temples early and our tuktuk driver/guide took us to watch some local vball at our request.  i ended up playing with the locals (our driver had to put some money in on my behalf and do the arranging).  it was a lot of fun but is not actually volleyball as far as i'm concerned.  ha  very different game of carrying and almsot pushing the ball completely changing the direction of it's path.  i was one of the few people who actually hit the ball because it was just natural for me but in reality it is a much lower percentage shot if you are allowed to push it anywhere you want.  woops...apparently no pictures.  only two videos that i don't feel like figuring out how to post or link to this blog.  :(  roel didn't get a chance to play.  i think our driver thought roel's pants precluded him from playing.

by the end we had a fair crowd watching the game i was in on (3 on 3 on a packed gravel court).  they all thought it was pretty hilarious when i spiked the ball because they weren't used to seeing it.  the net was pretty low too so i didin't have to jump much.  but i did swallow my pride and played a third game after losing two!  thankfully i won the third game and part of the money back that my teammates would have had to put in.  50 cents per game is a great deal for me but i'm sure they wouldn't have enjoyed seeing it evaporate.

hope you enjoyed the update.  i may come back to fill in some big gaps later today.  or perhaps i'll just move on to the next post.  missing my home continent right now as we're both under the weather but spirits remain high.  :)

Crawling into Cambodia

wow, what a day.  after 12 hours we finally made it (on saturday the 6th).  it is approx 540 kms.
we left our guest house in bangkok under the cover of darkness at 5:15am to make our 5:55 train that would take us to the border. there is no continuous transportation across the border by bus, train or otherwise.  our train started moving from hualamphong station in bangkok at 5:57.  not bad! 

each ticket is less than $2 - third class only for trains to aranyapathet (the town on the thai side of border).  roel slept for about 5 of the six hours.  haha  no surprise there for anyone who has travelled with him before.  i was wired!  we had a bench seat each facing each other and a window on the side that we could adjust.  the breeze was cool and the sun was on such an angle that it could mostly be avoided.  here are some of the highlights along the way.  unfortunately my camera could only take blurry photos while we were moving.  lets just say i was ready to throw it out the window after trying everything possible to capture any of these moments.

-bright green rice fields, wetlands, houses on stilts

-countless storks

-many large irrigation ponds and systems to flood the rice fields
-young boys in sumo type diapers working along canals with long wooden sticks doing something agricultural i assume  haha

-children floating large paper boats on a stream in a village alongside the train

-army base closer to border with a whole lotta tanks lined up

-lots of burning fields and ditches, the smell reminiscent of rosentort after harvest.  ash would occaisionally drift through our window and stain our skin and this paper i'm copying my notes from!

there were small little outpost stops along the way (we probably stopped about 15-20 times).  sometimes we stopped in the middle of nowhere and people just got off.  i mean in the middle of nothingness.  weird.  i'm glad we made the trip by train.

but now the fun begins!  we get off the train and get our tuktuk to the border...or at least that's where we think we are (driver wasn't very communicative).  we didn't know whose soil we were on at this point.  immediately we are addressed by someone wearing a uniform and brought us to his little tent and told us to fill out cambodian visa forms and he said he was appointed there by the consulate and this service was free and needed to be done.  i wasn't buying whatever he was claiming not to sell so we just trucked on along between the trucks and traffic by foot to the border.  getting out of thailand was relatively easy.  once we got to the cambodian side we started to get a little stressed.  there was the visa çheckpoint, customs shack and the stamping shack.  in between there were a whole bunch of middle men pointing you in opposite directions.  impossible to know who actually works for the government and if it is even a good thing if they do.  at the visa checkpoint you give them your passport photo (that you need to bring along), fill out a form and then give them $20 US a head.  they gave us a few varying stories about needing to pay up to $10 extra each for a variety of reasons (the amounts and the currencies to pay extra fee varied).  we refused.  our passports disappeared inside (we are in the extreme heat outside  ha) but i could see them through a window just sitting on a table ready to go. 

which way next and who do we listen to?!?!

we played the waiting game and won!  eventually a new guy came through and begrudgingly gave us our passports.  the next stop at customs was a seemingly useless form with our names and not much else.  no other tourists got waved in other than the two of us from what i could see.  step three was getting stamped into cambodia.  this little shack of a building literally had a tree growing through it.  hahaha  it was about 95 degrees with at least 75% humidity and no air movement packed body on body.  we spent an hour in that line.  good news?  i now fit a pair of shorts that didn't fit last year.  i am almost down to my highschool weight of 150 lbs!  i'm sure roel's mom would be force feeding me if she was here!

we took a shuttle to the transport depot where we took a cab to the outskirts of siem reap from where a tuktuk brough us to our guesthouse 'for free'.  he only demanded that we now use him for the rest of our travels through angkor wat (the only reason anyone comes here).  we stood our ground and it payed off.

we walked around downtown at night and were surprised with the laid back atmosphere and quaint 'laneways with restaurants and bars.'  the only thing that took some getting used to were the street vendors, etc being super aggressive.  mexico, dominican republic and bangkok have nothing on these cambodians.  they are so goo d at it too.  they could probably market their skills in other developing countries.

our guesthouse was (is) fabulous.  air-con, firm bed, large room, exceptionally clean, large rooms with marble floors.  look up babel guesthouse if interested.

that's all i can type for now.  i promise great pictures for the next post!