Blogs from Cambodia
The Killing Fields
I am finding this blog hard to write. Hard to start even.
Phnom Penh is a great city. We are not staying along the busy river-front but have found a quiet hotel, 'The Scandinavian'. The owner has offered us the pool front room for the price of a regular twin. A great launch pad for the girls late night skinny-dipping sessions. Apparently with a chequered history, this hotel has been recently renovated, is leafy, has style, and we like it here.
Our first day is spent pottering about the waterfront. There is a blind massage school here and we all partake in the 'seeing hands'.
The Russian market in Phnom Penh is a good place to pick up a Buddha statue, so I do. The Royal Palace is good for a stroll and we spend an hour there just before closing time. Nice browsing streets are easy to find armed with the Luxe guide. We see some nice bits and pick up a couple more statues.
Of course all this Buddha accumulation required another shipment home. I take a few nick-nacks and three statues to DHL. Bearing in mind that the 10kg I sent via EMS from Laos cost $130, I get a shock when DHL charge me $443 for 16kg. I see an EMS the next morning. You win some you lose some.
There is no easy way to write the next bit - I have spoken to several people who have said, "the Killing Fields, there is not much there" - well, I am not made from as hard a stuff as they. It is definitely the most grim and disturbing place I have ever been.
Stand by a mass grave for several hundred people that contained not one head. Stand by the tree used to kill the infants. Here they either hit these babies against the tree or threw them up in the air to come down on another Khmer Rouge's knife.
Stand by the 'magic' tree. Here hung a speaker that played continuous music so that people in the surrounding fields could not hear the constant sounds of death. They preferred not to waste bullets here. 300 people per day were clubbed to death. It is not the memorial tower containing 800 skulls that I will remember as years go by but the bones and clothing underfoot as you walk. Sombre.
Next stop was the Bhodi Tree Cafe for lunch. Gabby and I left the kids here while we took it in turns to visit Tuol Sleng. A school used by the Khmer Rouge to torture 17,000 of their victims before sending them to be executed at the Killing Fields along with their whole families. It is today, pretty much as the Khmer Rouge left it in 1979. Complete with victims photos and blood stained floors. The wide eyed fear in these photos I will not forget either. From 1979 the Khmer Rouge fought/existed for another 20 years in Cambodia and Pol Pot died of old age.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia and another city on the Mekong River. In Phnom Penh we stayed in a hotel called the Scandinavian Hotel. It had a pool so we were happy. Our favourite restaurant in Phnom Penh was the Green Vespa. It was an old Irish pub which served great sausages (I love sausages)!
While we were in Phnom Penh we went to the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is full of temples and Buddha statues. We also went to the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields are a big tourist attraction just outside Phnom Penh. Loads of people were killed there (when my mum was a girl) because if the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot regime. Lots of people were buried there and we saw lots of skulls in a Stupa. There were even bones and clothes sticking out of the ground. It is a sad place. A sad thing about the Pol Pot regime is that if you had any sign of intelligence or a thinking mind you would be killed and buried somewhere like the Killing Fields.
In Cambodia the people are Buddhists and they believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation means that when you die you get cremated (burnt) and you come back to earth as a plant or an animal or another person. Many Cambodians believe if you are just buried you will not be reincarnated.
Phnom Penh is a sad place but the people are always smiling and happy.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia on the Mekong River. We stayed at the Scandinavian Hotel. Our room was right next to the swimming pool. One of the places we visited was the Killing Fields, you could see some bones and clothes in the ground. Lots of people were killed there. There was a temple with bones and skulls inside it. The Killing Fields was a very sad place but I am glad we went there. We also went to the Grand Palace. We saw lots of Buddhas and Monks but we didn't see the king. One of the best things about Phnom Penh was riding around on motorbikes. Most people in Phnom Penh ride 3 up on a motorbike with no helmets. I liked Phnom Penh a lot.
Top of pagePhnom Penh
Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city and a place I have only learnt to spell correctly now I have been there. We first spent time there en route to Sihanoukville. We had stopped briefly for lunch at the fantastic, Irish owned Green Vespa where Alan, the owner, had recommended a few hotels to us, including the Scandinavian Hotel. This was where we stayed, it's not on the popular river side location but not too far from it. Reasonably priced and well furnished, it had a small but good pool and we were given the poolside room, which meant the girls could dive in for a cooling dip first thing in the morning or last thing at night - perfect!
We had planned a 2 night stay there. We wanted to visit the Killing Fields (which we had been told wouldn't be too full on for the girls) as well as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (which we had been told would be too much for them). We learnt a lot of the history of the country by taking in both of these harrowing 'sights' and ended up staying for 4 nights. Phnom Penh is an amazing city and a great place to just be. It's small enough to get around easily, traditionally on a tuk tuk or motorbike. We saw lots of Cambodian families travelling 4 or 5 up on a motorbike, which the girls were desperate to do. After visiting Phnom Wat we took 2 motorbikes back to our hotel, a driver, Dave and Ella on one with Florence and I on another motorbike - this is now the only way they want to travel. It's not the safest way to get around as there seem to be no traffic rules, it's simply the smaller vehicles give way to the larger ones (and there are plenty of 4 wheel drives in the city!)
I can't really put my finger on what is so special about Phnom Penh. It has a charm that seems to have largely survived the violence of it's recent history. When the Khmer Rouge took the city in 1975, the entire population was forced to the countryside - they did not return until after the Vietnamese arrived and liberated the city in 1979. In the years since then the city has come an awfully long way. There is so much to see and it is the best place to learn about the Khmer people, their culture and history. If you visit Cambodia, don't make the mistake many people do and bypass Phnom Penh for Siem Reap!
Cambodian Beaches
We keep changing our minds. Shall we give the Cambodian beaches a miss and wait till after Phnom Penh and Saigon? The Vietnam coast does seem too distant for both the kids and us, in this heat, so finally it gets the nod.
We get the public bus, (the Mekong Express) as far as PP and apart from having to endure a (Cambodian?) pop promo dvd for the whole trip it was very comfortable.
We stop for lunch in PP and decide over a ploughmans at the Green Vespa Cafe to head to Sihanoukville rather than the closer Kep (our original choice). We pass through some torrential downpours and our driver does modify his driving style for the conditions, which pleases me.
The lovely German couple at the Gibbon Experience had mentioned Queen Hill Resort as nice but we decide to try the more developed Serendipity Beach instead.
Pretty, clean, squeeky white sand, but without the sunset over the sea that we had hoped for. The water was very warm and looked clean too, apart from some plastic bags and the like in the high tide line. We pick up quite a few. The next morning the rubbish is, surprisingly, ten times as bad so we take a tuk tuk to look at Queen Hill Resort. It is on the headland between Occheuteal Beach and Otres beach. A quick swim and lunch confirms that we should move here tomorrow. Back at Serendipity we talk to Khmer and some European locals and they all have a different story about the litter in the water. "It's not there all the time!" they say. One beach restaurant manager told us they don't have time to pick up that rubbish. Gabby and I think that they will have a lot of time on their hands if they ignore it. Where does it come from and if it is not there all the time, where does it go to?
We have just discovered that Coasters (one of the better resorts at Serendipity and almost next door to our increasingly spooky accom) has some bungalows on an island just one hour by boat from here.
A friendly Aussie, nursing a tuk tuk crash injury at Coasters, called his stay on Bamboo Island the highlight of his travels so far. Sounds good.
Less than 24 hours after our first swim at Queen Hill we are running happily back into the sea there, now, as residents. Thirty seconds later we are running, screaming, OUT of the water. We have all been ravaged by sea-lice. The worst I have ever experienced. The girls are crying, the restaurant staff are rubbing lime juice on them and Gabby is crying because the girls are in pain. Seeing their mum upset has a certain recuperative influence on our lovely caring children.
Anyway, we rescue that day by renting a boat and going for a snorkel out by the closest island (over some dynamite fishing deceased coral) and are buoyed by the thought of our trip to Bamboo Island tomorrow. We see a storm approaching and scamper back to Queen Hill just in time.
The following day, leaving most of our stuff in our bungalow, we tuk tuk back to Coasters and head out to Bamboo Island. We arrive there at 11am. It is perfect and our search for a great Cambodian beach is over. Sadly, we can only spend one night, but luckily, don't have to leave till 4pm the following day. We wish we were spending our whole five days here. We can see it raining back on the mainland and we feel smug. The sea is clean and the girls appreciate not being stung by jellyfish or sealice. In these small smooth waves Ella gets back the confidence she lost having been badly dumped (just once) during our last week in Sydney over a month ago. I love watching them both learning to body surf.
All is good. Thank you Bamboo Island.
Beaches at Last
We were going to miss the beaches in Cambodia but after a hot Angkor, we changed our minds and went to the beaches at Sihanoukville.
We arrived late in the afternoon at Serendipity Beach. It was really nice, perfect sized waves for me and we were staying in rooms right on the beach at Malibu House. I was very pleased with our choice of accommodation.
When we woke up in the morning, Mum and Dad were already having a swim. We went outside and saw what they saw, rubbish! The beach looked very different from the day before - plastic bags and bottles everywhere. We still went for a swim but further up the beach where there wasn't much rubbish. I do think that people who own the bungalows should clean the beach in front of them and then the beach would be much much cleaner. We did pick up a lot of rubbish but it would have taken us a long long time to clean the beach.
In the evening we went to one of the beach restaurants. While we were havign dinner, one of the ladies who worked there, called jenna, started doing fire poi. It was very cool and Florence took lots of photos. I had a go but was afraid my dress might catch on fire. Outside Jenna's cafe were a few Cambodian boys playing. Florence and I got carried away and started playing with them. We played hide and seek and rock, paper, scissors. It was a lot of fun and was good because you can play those games without needing to speak the same language.
The next day we moved to Otres Beach, which was much cleaner. There were only a few places to stay on the beach and we stayed at Queen Hill Resort and had a bungalow on the hill looking over the beach. When we first went in for a swim me and Florence started yelping that we had been bitten. There were little red dots covering us. We ran to the shower to put fresh water on them. Mummy knew what they were - sea lice! They are little translucent sea mosquitos that travel with the currents and they itch for a really long time. Mummy started crying because she thought it was her fault (but it wasn't). After the sea lice itches had gone away we went on a boat and went snorkelling and swimming off an island not far from our beach - no sea lice there. I have always loved snorkelling, but here most of the coral was dead, there were lots of fish though and we had a lovely time.
The next day we went to Bamboo Island, which is just a short boat ride from Serendipity beach. bamboo Island was really nice. We were staying in the biggest bungalow (with 2 beds) at Bamboo Island Resort. The bungalow was nice, the sea was great and the restaurant had good food - it was paradise. We went snorkelling there and saw live coral and lots of fish. There were also lots of sea urchins. if you don't know, sea urchins are black balls with black spikes coming off them. You really don't want to get a sea urchin spike in you because it hurts a lot and the spikes are hollow so lets lots of air in to the wound.
We had a great time on Bamboo Island. It was the best beach we went to in Cambodia - I wish we could have stayed there more than 1 night!
Beaches at last
Sihanoukville.
It was much cooler here but sadly there was rubbish in the sea and rubbish everywhere. The jellyfish hid amongst the plastic bags. We tried to clean the beach but the waves kept on bringing plastic bags onto the sand. Soon we decided that this beach was toooooooo dirty so we decided to move beach. Otres beach was much cleaner. I got stung by a jellyfish on Serendipity beach but here we only saw one jellyfish dried up on land. Although I had been stung I was very brave about going back in the water. We stayed at Queen Hill Resort Bungalows and the sea was very warm. Ella and I got stung all over by sealice so we organised a boat trip to an island where we went snorkelling. There were lots of fish but no sealice. It was fun snorkelling but soon we saw a big grey cloud coming over the horizon so we started to go back to the beach.
The next day we went to Bamboo Island. All the houses were hidden amongst the palm trees. It was beautiful. Sadly we were only staying there for one night. The beach was really clean and the sea was really clear. The waves were a normal size and we were duck diving under them. I love the sea.
The next morning we went snorkelling. The tide was going out while we were snorkelling so we had to be careful of sea urchins, which are black balls with spikes coming out of the ball. I squeezed my tummy in when I swam over a sea urchin because it really hurts when a spike goes into your skin and I didn't want to know how much. Sadly it is our last day so we had to get on the boat. Before we started to leave we saw a big dark cloud coming over the horizon so we ran into the restaurant and outside there was thunder and forked lightening. I am glad we were not on the boat yet. When the thunder and lightening stopped it was still raining a bit but not that much. On the boat it was really cold and we went a bit faster than on the way there. Soon we got to the beach and the boat didn't park near the sand. We had to swim to the beach and the sea was really warm. (Well compared to how cold we were on the boat.)
I love Cambodian beaches, only if I don't get stung.
Cambodian Beaches
We didn't intend to visit the beaches in Cambodia. We had been told they were a bit rough and with (we hope) a lot of beach time in Vietnam, we felt we didn't need to. However, after 4 days in Siem Reap in soaring heat the last thing we wanted to do was head straight to Phnom Penh.
After a 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and a 3 hour car journey from there, we arrived at Sihanoukville's Serendipity beach in time for a quick swim before the sun set. A gorgeous crescent shaped, white sanded beach dotted with bungalows, beach bars and restaurants. We checked in to 2 adjoining (and expensive) rooms right on the beach front at House of Malibu, just for 2 nights to give us the chance to look for something else.
We had a quick dip in the sea and within minutes Florence complaied that she had been stung by something - we got straight out and headed back to our room. She wasn't screaming with pain but by the time we got back I saw that she had a huge welt across her tummy - a nasty jelly fish sting and not a great start to our first Asian beach!
The next morning, Dave and I went for a dip before the girls woke up. The gorgeous beach was littered with rubbish - plastic bags, disposable nappies, plastic bottles - loads of stuff. I don't think the rubbish is there all the time, it's a tidal thing, but we saw very few bungalow owners cleaning the area in front of their patch. It's a real shame, tourists have only been coming to this area in the past few years, I hope the Khmers (and ex-pat) business owners address it before the tourists decide not to come back.
We had been recommended a place on the next beach down, Otres Beach, so moved there the next day. We checked in to our hillside bungalow at the Queen Hill Resort and again jumped straight in to the (much cleaner) sea. Within seconds the girls were screaming that they had been bitten. Sea lice! They are little mosquito like creatures and thei bites itch for ages. So we all ran out again. I was really upset 'cos I thought we'd really stuffed up by moving. The girls were fine after a while and far more concerned about me being upset than they were about their bites. I just longed to be in cold temperate oceans rather than warm, tropical ones!! We spent the afternoon on a small boat snorkelling off one of the outlying islands. No sea lice, no jelly fish, just lovely and the girls have become great little snorkellers.
Just off the coast of Sihanoukville is Bamboo Island, one of the few Cambodian Islands with overnight accommodation. We kept our (cheap) bungalows at Otres beach and armed with day bags took the 1 hour boat ride out to the island for an overnight stay. What can I say - it was gorgeous and in itself was worth the trip to the Cambodian beaches. Very reminiscent of Thai beaches 20 years ago - no electricity (power supplied by generators), palm trees, golden sands, turquoise seas - perfect!
We were in one of 10 bungalows at Bamboo Island Resort, owned by the same people who run Coasters, one of the better accommodations on Serendipity Beach. The food was great, the staff lovely, the bungalows basic but clean with balconies and hammocks - we felt we had arrived in paradise and were all gutted we could only stay there one night.
Bamboo island is the destination for lots of day trippers, but once they had left, we pretty much had the island to ourselves (only 2 other couples were there). There are 3 different bungalow operations on the island, I am sure within a few years there will be more. I just hope, by then, the Khmers have learnt to really look after this bit of paradise.
Siem Reap
We fly at 6am. This is the only flight from Vientiane to Siem Reap. The nearby temples of Angkor are certainly the biggest tourist attraction in S.E. Asia, so consequently the airport road into Siem Reap looks like a hotel construction competition in full swing. In contrast Siem Reap town centre is quaint with a funky feel and a plentiful choice of good restaurants.
The Khmer kings built the temples at Angkor from 875 to 1230AD. All other dwellings here for the 1 million inhabitants of this city were timber and no sign of them remains. Their expansionist neighbours, the Thais, sacked this city in the 14th and the 15th centuries. The Khmer court grabbed their family jewels and moved to Phnom Penh, leaving Angkor to be swallowed by the jungle. It was stumbled upon by the Portuguese in the 16th century. And again in the 17th century by a Japanese pilgrim who drew a detailed plan of Angkor Wat only to later recalled that he had seen it in India. In 1860 a French explorer Henri Mauhot's vivid descriptions and colour sketches brought Angkor to the attention of the world. Some restoration work commenced in 1907 but in this war torn country these projects have been interrupted many times. We saw thousands of stones in a field which had been numbered by a French team in the early 60's. When they could return 25 years later the weather had removed all of their numbering. None of their plans survived the Khmer Rouge years and this is now the worlds biggest jigsaw puzzle. Things however are not as bad as UNESCO feared and in 2003 they removed Angkor form their endangered sites list.
It is recommended to spend between 3 and 7 days visiting these temples, taking a break in the middle of the day to escape the heat. April is known here as the killing month by the local Khmer. It was extremely hot by 8am and by mid afternoon the sandstone and volcanic rock at the temples will toast you evenly on both sides as you walk the gallerys. As it turns out our guide is excellent and at the end of two days with him we have seen enough.
Temple visiting is not at the top of Ella and Flo's 'things we love to do' list. Mr Srun, our tuk tuk driver charges US$10 for the day and Mr Lee (guide) is $25. Without a good guide we would have spent 5 days here and seen less, I am sure of it. Day two we go to Angkor Wat for sunrise along with about 500 others, but as 450 package tourists are heading back to their hotels for breakfast we slip almost alone into the world's largest religious building. Mr Lee knows that the best time to see Angkor Wat is right now. Everyone I have met that has been to this region says "You must see Angkor Wat". All I can add to that is "Get a Khmer guide". Cambodian history is brutal and fascinating. We were moved.
Cambodian Kids
We arrived in Cambodia and it was hot and sticky. It was 8.30 in the morning and we headed to the Freedom Hotel in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a very popular town because it is very close to the famous Angkor Temples. Most of the temples are over 1000 years old. The most amazing thing about Angkor is that more than a million people lived here when London was just a small town and everyone lived in huts.
To me the temples weren't the best part of Angkor, the children selling things were. At the top of Pre Rup, the temple where we went to see sunset, there was a little boy called Chai. He spoke really good English and surprised us by saying 'lovely jubely' and 'top banana'. He said he learnt those words from tourists.
On one of the mornings at Siem Reap, Mum and Dad dragged us out of bed at 4.30am to go to Angkor Wat (the biggest temple) for sunrise. It wasn't really that interesting because there were so many clouds. The funniest thing was watching loads of tourists, skipping around taking pictures of nothing but a white sky. After exploring Angkor we went to a cafe for breakfast. As we got out of our tuk tuk about 5 kids were there waiting to sell us things. By the time we got to the cafe, 20 kids were following us!!!! Florence and I like to give things to kids so I asked the smallest one to come inside and gave her my little leather bracelet. We also gave the kids lots of pictures and notes. I made some little paper boxes too. They also gave us things like notes and postcards, it was a lot of fun.
We also went to an orphanage in a village near the temples. It was cool watching them learn English, they were learning maths words like minus, plus and different numbers. They were also doing some sums. When the kids have finished school, they take the chairs and desks away and make their beds in the classroom.
The Angkor temples were amazing but not as amazing as the Cambodian kids.
Meeting Cambodian Children
We have left Laos now and are in Cambodia. We flew to Siem Reap which is near the Angkor temples. Angkor is very old. Some of the temples are over 1000 years old, they are broken and all of the Buddha's heads have fallen down. Angkor Wat is one of the seven wonders of the world. Nearly one million people lived in and around the temples when London was just huts. Children sell things around the temples so that they can buy food to be healthy. At the top of one of the temples was a little boy called Chai. We bought some bracelets from him and gave him a book and a compass. Chai was very smart. He could say words like "lovely jubly" and "top banana". Chai was 12 years old and very small but a lot of Cambodian children look small for their age because they didn't eat much when they were little.
Then we went to a cafe near Angkor Wat. Lots of children followed us so we played with them till our breakfast was ready. We drew pictures and gave them some. We gave one of the girls our bracelet and made boxes for other children. They gave us postcards that they were selling and wrote us lots of notes.
Next we went to an orphanage. The children sleep in the same place as their classroom. When we visited them they were having a maths lesson. It costs $20 to feed all of the 40 children for a day. When we go out to dinner we pay at least twice that amount.
It was so hot that the swimming pool in our hotel was like a bath so we decided to go to some beaches instead. Next stop Sihanoukville.
The Temples and Children of Cambodia
The beauty of the temples at Angkor is well documented. They certainly live up to their hype and deserve to be considered as one of the global seven wonders of the world. We bought a 3 day pass for $40 (interestingly enough the profits go to a Vietnamese owned hotel chain) and did what most tourists do: got up early to see the temples, took a long break for lunch to have a (not so) cooling dip in our (warm) hotel swimming pool, returning to the temples for the lovely late afternoon and sunset light. This is April, the hottest month of the year in Cambodia - it's hot, really hot and really humid!
We did the sensible, essential thing and hired a guide. I think had it not been for Mr Lee, we would have not covered so much in just a couple of days and we certainly would not have learned as much of the turbulent history in this incredible, up and coming country.
The girls were great at exploring the temples, and, credit to them, barely moaned. They were pretty amazed when they learnt that Angkor was home to over a million people in the 11th and 12th Centuries, when London was just a small town on the Thames. We even dragged them out of bed at 4.30 in the morning to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat, and although they were a bit grumpy at first and sunrise wasn't the best ever, they still managed to make the most of the experience.
Fortunately, there were many things to sidetrack them. First, the Buddhist shrines. The girls have seemingly become devout Buddhists since we arrived in SE Asia. There are many shrines at every temple, and in Angkor, often just the remnants of what was a Buddha effigy, covered in orange fabric and incense sticks burning becomes a modest shrine. The girls lit incense at every one, always befriending the nuns or monks who looked after them.
They were constantly amused by the coach loads of Asian tourists, many over-dressed, often in nylon - hardly suitable tropical weather attire! These tourists tried to take our girls photo at every opportunity, Ella tried to get a dollar every time they snapped but ended up with nothing.
The best thing was the kids - the legions of kids who try to sell you their wares are outside every temple, at every street corner and lurking near every cafe and restaurant. Once you get beyond the sales pitch, you quickly realise that these kids are funny and smart. With their ubiquitous smiles and cheery disposition you can't help but spend a dollar or more with them. Their English is generally so much better than their parents (who are always noticeably absent), generally because of their interaction with the tourists. Ella and Florence loved the banter with them. Seeing how little the Cambodian children live with really makes them appreciate what they have themselves (at least I hope it does.......that's the point of this isn't it?).
A great time exploring the temples and Siem Reap is a vibey town, but after spending 4 days in 40 degree heat, we were ready for some beach action and hopefully some cooling sea breezes........