Cambodia

After a very long and boring 'tour' from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh we finally arrived on the afternoon of May 27. We left Chau Doc (a little border town in Vietnam) that morning and the tour took us to a fishing village and a Champa village. After a couple hours we got on the boat that took us to the Cambodian border crossing. We had to wait there for another couple of hours while they processed everyone's visas. But, finally, we all had our visas and our passports and we were successfully into Cambodia. Then we took a hilarious mini-bus ride from the border to Phnom Penh. Some of the roads seemed like little dirt alleyways and some had some massive bumps and potholes in them. It made for a very bumpy ride! But, we were happy to make it to Phnom Penh safe and sound. We checked into our guest house, had some dinner and did a little tour around the town before turning in for the night.

On our first full day in Phnom Penh we hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us around to some of the main tourist attractions. We started at the Tuol Sleng S-21 Genocide Museum. This used to be a high school that was converted into an interrogation/holding prison during the time of the Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge regime. Thousands of people were sent to S-21 to get interrogated and tortured, often for things that they didn't do. From S-21, most of the inmates were then taken to The Killing Fields - and you can imagine from the name what happened there. Since the time of the Khmer Rouge, S-21 has been turned into the Genocide Museum with photos, documents, personal stories from survivors and actual memorabilia from that time. It is just heartbreaking and totally eye opening to spend some time there and read the accounts as you look at the photos.

From the museum we went to The Killing Fields. This area used to be a fruit orchard before it was used by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to dispose of thousands of bodies. Since Cambodia's liberation by the Vietnamese, they have found multiple mass graves in this area. Some have been dug up and analyzed, while others have been left untouched so the victims can rest in peace. They have an audio tour that you can do, which is narrated by a man who lived through the Khmer Rouge regime. It is absolutely heartbreaking and totally sickening to spend some time here. The stories that you hear and the sights that you see are just terrible. It is amazing that something like this could happen in our lifetime, and so much of the world had no idea it was even going on. During the tour we actually learned that even after Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese and Pol Pot escaped from Cambodia, the UN still believed that the main governing body in the country was the Khmer Rouge and they were still giving them money - nobody had any idea of the devastation that was occurring in Cambodia. So sad, but so eye opening. I am really happy that Dave and I got to go and learn a little more about this.

The stupa at the Killing Fields honouring those massacred

After this very heavy and educational morning, we spent the afternoon relaxing and wandering the Russian Market. We both did a little shopping before heading back towards our guesthouse for dinner. We had some dinner and drinks at a rooftop restaurant by the river - it was a nice relaxing evening after a very eye-opening day.

Our second day in Phnom Penh was spent checking out the Royal Palace and the National Museum. The architecture in Cambodia is just amazing! It is so intricate and detailed and the colours are just beautiful. But man, do they ever love gold! We also got to see a Buddha statue carved out of a huge chunk of emerald. It was so beautiful! We also spent a bit of time at the Central Market in Phnom Penh. It was a bigger and more spread out market than the Russian Market, but sold pretty similar stuff.

The Royal Palace

 

That night Dave went to the park that is beside the Mekong River to have a workout. The park gets very busy at night as it is much cooler once the sun goes down. There were all kinds of people taking part in the free nightly Zumba class, many others getting in a workout of their own, or playing with their kids. Dave set up the TRX on a jungle gym and was the center of attention. It was hilarious. All kinds of men and young boys had to give it a try and soon there were about 10 people all doing the same workout. Who knows, maybe in a few years they will be selling knockoff TRXs at the Russian market.

The next day we packed up and took a bus down to the south of Cambodia. Through our travels we have heard people rave of the islands off the south coast, so we thought we would go check them out. We stayed one night in a town called Sihanoukville. Some people didn't like Sihanoukville, but Dave and I did. It's a nice beach town with really good and cheap food. But from there we took a boat over to one of the southern islands called Koh Rung Samloem. It was described to us as a pretty rustic place with beautiful beaches and very few amenities. That is pretty much exactly what it was! It was a beautiful little island, with a really pretty beach. We stayed in a little beachside bungalow, which was pretty cute. But it was definitely rustic! Haha. It usually took over an hour to get any food that you ordered and often times they didn't have many of the items on the menu. Also, it wasn't a surprise to find ants in your food or flies constantly circling you while you tried to eat. There were a few people at our resort that were so unhappy that they cut trips short and headed back to Sihanoukville early. We enjoyed our one night on the island, but didn't really feel the need to stay much longer. It also didn't help that it rained for a good part of the time we were on the island - not much to do when it was raining. But the highlihgt of the our trip to Koh Rong Samloem happened late that night. One of the Americans we met on the island had heard that you could swim at night with glow plankton. He decided to go try it out and quickly came back to get the rest of us to join in. It was so cool!! Whenever the plankton were stimulated they lit up, so swimming through the water was such an amazing experience. Your hands, legs and arms were glowing! It was one of the coolest things I've done this year!

Our little beachside bungalow

 

We took the boat back to Sihanoukville the next day and stayed there for one more night before making our way back to Phnom Penh and up to Siem Reap. And if I thought the bus from the border of Camobodia to Phnom Penh was bad - I was seriosuly mistaken. The bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was pretty much under construction for the entire 6 hour trip, which made for a VERY bumpy ride. I think i even caught air once or twice. We met an American on the bus, Steven, and just basically laughed the entire way because of how ridiculous the trip was!

On our first full day in Siem Reap we tried to make the most of it. We started at 4:30 in the morning for a sunrise at Angkor Wat. We made it to the temple just in time and got to watch the sunrise pretty much right behind it. It was beautiful! Then we spent the next 6 hours touring a ton of other temples. We spent a good hour walking around Angkor Wat before making our way through the south gate of Angkor Thom to Bayon. From there we went to the Terrace of the Elephants and finished the day off at Ta Prohm. It is so unbelievable that most of these temples were built over 800 years ago and are still in pretty amazing condition. Each one has it's own personality sort of. For instance, Bayon was made up of thousands of faces smiling in every direction and Ta Prohm has almost been destroyed by trees and tree roots growing on and through the walls of the temples. It's pretty spectacular! We were home from our tour by lunch time, but it sure felt like we had spent the entire day out and about. We had some lunch and then a much needed nap before exploring the night market in Siem Reap.
Ou last day in Cambodia turned into a pretty lazy one. We had stayed out a little late the night before so we slept in. After brunch and a little walk around town we went back to the hotel so Dave could go to the gym. Unfortunately he managed to tweak his back a little at the gym and was home in pain pretty soon after he left. We pumped him full of Advil and just rested/layed around the hotel the rest of the day to see if the pain and spasm would settle a little before our travel day to Thailand the next day.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

 

Overall, we had an amazing experience in Cambodia. The people were always smiling and I really liked that about them. The country is so beautiful, but with such a tragic history. I am happy we were able to learn a little more about Cambodia and the world while we were there. We had a great time.

Thanks for reading
xoxo