Discovering Cambodia
Last month end, I headed out for my much awaited trip to the Kingdom of Cambodia or Kampuchea, as its known by local Khemers. I was surprised to hear that most people around me were unaware of Cambodia and its whereabouts!!I have always wanted to visit Cambodia from what I had read about the country , its history of struggle and strife and the last few years of it trying to rebuild itself.
I was in two minds before the trip whether to go solo or take my mum since she was the one who had got me interested about Cambodia by the books she had got over the years. But somehow, my current state of mind asked me to go and discover it on my own. So here I was with just the Plane tickets headed to the beautiful and untouched country. I know she hasn't forgiven me for not taking her along !
Cambodia is a wonderful place to visit, it has so many places that has been virtually left untouched by the outside world and the people there welcome you with a big smile. Before my trip, I had read some of the articles on the net about it not being safe in general especially for single women travelers. So I wanted to head out on my own and check the perception, and it turned to be just the opposite. I found the local Khemer people quite helpful and never felt out of place anywhere.
SIAM REAP and Angkor
I landed in Siam Reap and got a Visa on Arrival at the airport. It costs US $20 and is valid for a month. I took a tuktuk from the airport to the Bouy Savy GH. The driver Huang was one of those cheerful and helpful khemers.Huang, is an orphan from the Polpot regime and grew up in an orphanage.
I checked into this wonderful GH , run by a mother and her sons .It also has a nice garden restaurant.
I had thought of hiring a cycle and going around the town and temples but somehow the rain gods had other plans and it was raining most of the times. I had a chat with Huang and got him to take me to the temples.
I wanted to go and check out the sunset at Angkor Wat but it was really cloudy and dark and also a bit crowded so Huang suggested we go up the hill further ahead . You just need to trek for about 30mins from the main road and you get a wonderful view from there. I missed the sunset because of the rain as luck would have it. I had seen and read about the must see sunrise at Angkor Wat so got up at 4:30AM next morning and headed to Angkor Wat but it was cloudy and there was a bit of a drizzle. Unfortunately I have a few dark and cloudy pics of the main Angkor Wat area.
However, as the day progressed it got a little brighter and i headed to some of the other temples starting with Angkor Thom and then Bayon.
Bayon , has 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara watching over you. I really liked the various facial expressions here and this ones not to be missed.
You walk across a little further from this place and you head to Baphoun with its Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of the Leper Kings
I then headed to "Ta Prohm" , which became famous after the shooting of "Tomb Raider" was done here , I haven't seen the film but thats what I heard. Its a maze of corridors and crumbling stoneworks.Out here i met a Forest Reserve Officer from India who was here doing some research on some of the trees that had carved into some of these structures and there were plans of shifting these trees and structures without damaging any!
SIAM REAP is a small quiet town with loads of guest houses and even 5-7 star hotels for the various categories of travelers who visit the place. The old town is nice and quiet and has its usual street stalls and market. I didn't venture into the new town other than when I took a bus to Phnom Pehn the next day which seemed a bit chaotic.
I met couple of independent women travelers at the GH. It was nice speaking to them over a coffee. The stay at the GH with great rooms and attached bath was just $6 per day.
Phnom Pehn
I spoke around and figured I could take a bus to PP from Siam Reap early morning for $4. I got my tics and headed to PP. It was an air conditioned bus but broke down in between the 6hours journey and had a suffocating ride to PP, with closed windows, no A/C and a crying child next to me !! But I reached PP finally !I wanted to take the bus to Kampot from PP but on reaching the Central bus station i figured i had justed missed the bus. The Tuk-Tuk driver Liang, suggested checking into OK GH, thats what i did. Its a really nice and convenient GH at $4 a night with loads of backpackers.
With some weight off my shoulder i headed to "Killing Fields". During Pol Pots rule between 1975-1979, more than 1-2 million Cambodians perished and many of the dead ended up in various of these 'Killing Fields' spread across the country. The shrine didn't have a major impact on me but the skulls and the walk around the places where the murdered were buried put me in a pensive mood for a long time.
After a while and trying to overcome the thoughts on death in general and wondering what the dead here would have gone through I headed to the "S-21 prison" or "Toul Sleng Genocide Museum ".Prior to 1975, Toul Sleng was a high school but was converted into the S-21 Prison and interrogation facility where inmates were tortured and later executed at Killing Fields.
The site of the prison cells and walking around the school building was really depressing and also makes one wonder how an educated person like Polpot could turn the country around into a killing field where millions were killed, and where intellectuals were specifically targeted.
Isn't it strange to think that under the leadership/thoughts of a single person the world can change for the better or could totally turn upside down and these men tend to find their set of die-hard followers ready to have a blind faith in their leadership.
After exploring the history of Cambodia I wanted to head out and relax a bit and so I took a bus to Kampot. A quaint little town discovered by the French.Kampot is a peaceful quiet town with few decent GH. I met quite a few interesting people here at Kampot.
Met Lay, a local Khemer, while strolling around the riverside one evening. He lost his father under the regime and was brought up by his mother who sells stuff on the street side but he has managed to study all the way to college and is going to join a local NGO group and help the local people. I came to know a lot about the locals and their lives speaking to him .
Later that evening I met Christian, a German School teacher on a year's break from work, who had cycled the rockies and heard all his adventures stories. He was unlike the usual perception of German's we have. We chatted for a longtime over dinner about the world, travel etc.
The next morning i headed to Bokar National Park with couple of others from the GH. On this trip I met a Srilankan English girl Jane with her partner Dave who had been also traveling for a year and were almost in the last leg of their round the world trip and were heading to do the Trans Siberian bit from here. Nice people !!
The drive to Bokar was bone crunching with wooden seats and no roads but the trip and the trek later was wonderful.
My cambodian part of the trip came to end with me heading back to PP and then taking the flight to Bangkok .
Traveling in Cambodia was very easy with friendly and helpful people. I would suggest looking around for the recognised bus stations and doing your own bus bookings and same goes for the guest houses else you might have to pay a bit more.
Pics from my trip:
Useful links :
These helped me a lot :
The map of Cambodia :
and these links
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Anu