We had an unusual border crossing experience between Vietnam and Cambodia.  Instead of travelling overland, we took an express speed boat up the Mekong River and crossed the border over water, a first for both of us.  First stop Vietnam border control where we got stamped out, then back onto the boat across no-man’s land, spotting the two countries’ flags flying side by side until we reached the Cambodia border point.  We were lucky with the speedboat service as it included assistance with obtaining visas on arrival so a process normally laden with bureaucracy and paperwork ended up being much easier and completed faster than expected.  Back onto the boat we climbed, up came the pretty Cambodian courtesy flag and we sped along the Mekong for a couple of hours to Phnom Penh.

The city looked quite attractive from the waterside but unfortunately once in the streets, we found it to be filled with dodgy, by-the-hour guesthouses, bars, low class pale-faces and worst of all, the lower dregs of society looking for handouts.  It was a very upsetting sight to see the amount of severely disabled and disfigured beggars wandering the streets.  The beggars accosted us quite blatantly and without shame, and we realized very quickly not to make eye contact of any sort and eventually they moved on.  The really annoying thing was that we could not even sit in a restaurant and peacefully enjoy our drink or meal as the staff allowed the beggars amongst the tables.  However once we discovered our street side food stalls and avoided the Western establishments we found that we were left alone.  They probably thought that since we were eating with the locals at cheap food stalls, sitting on kiddies plastic chairs on the side of the road, we had no money to give away and left to find more promising targets.

We had pre-booked accommodation just to make sure we had a place to stay when we arrived.  The pro of this was that the cold I caught in China, which lingered throughout our time in Vietnam, had hit me with a vengeance the night before, so I was very thankful not to waste time trying to find a room.  The unfortunate con was that we overpaid for a room that was severely lacking in basic amenities.  Such is life I guess.  The afternoon of arrival was therefore first spent dropping our bags, then finding a pharmacy with staff that spoke English, taking more drugs to get rid of my cold, and sleeping off the effects of said drugs!  That evening after a rest, we went for a walk to get our bearings around the city.  We weren’t really getting a good vibe from Phnom Penh at this point in time.  We found the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) which seemed to be the place to be seen in the expat community, and just for the hell of it we decided to go for sundowners, just to say “been there, done that”.  We sat in the rooftop bar which gave us an elevated view of Sisowith Quay, and had the bonus of isolating us from the riff raff below so we could enjoy the view in relative peace.

The next day was spent exploring the city sights which were good to see but had no “wow” factor.  We had a look at the Royal Palace but didn’t go in, and walked past the Independence Monument and the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument.  Along the way we passed a number of wats or Buddhist temples, the most spectacular being Wat Ounalom with its fabulous architecture.  We considered making a stop at the National Museum of Cambodia but the admittance price put an end to that idea.  We had to be content instead with taking pictures of monks trying to climb in to tuk-tuks in their bright flowing robes.  Lots of jokes generally starting with the phrase “How many monks…” flowed after that sight!  That afternoon we decided to visit the rooftop bar located right across the street from the FCC to enjoy some local Angkor beer.  With the exact same view as the FCC, with drink prices at half the price, the experience was much more enjoyable!

While perusing the guidebook on what to see and do in Cambodia, we made the decision to go off the beaten track for a couple of days.  We headed via bus to the town of Battambang to see what was advertised as the real Cambodian countryside, and an area of Cambodia which is not frequented by tourists.  This we thought was right up our alley.  After an uneventful bus ride we arrived in Battambang.  An unusual experience for us – the first rest stop was just a stop on the side of the road for a pee break next to a few bushes, with the unspoken rule of men to the right, ladies to the left!  We would have missed our bus stop if it weren’t for a tuk-tuk driver sent from the hotel holding a paper with our names on it.  We discovered that the Cambodians aren’t great in terms of communication and saying where the bus was when you stop along the route.   Also the bus stop in Battambang wasn’t a bus stop per se but more a clearing under the trees miles from the town so we were very thankful that we didn’t have to walk all the way to town with our backpacks in 38 degree heat.  After settling in the hotel, we had a chat with the manager about what activities were on offer in the area.  He said he could arrange a bike ride with a guide to take us around.  After a quick price negotiation, we made arrangements for the next day.  We started off with an easy cycle through the town, and then had a refreshment break on the side of the road to taste delicious bamboo cake, a mix of sticky rice, coconut milk and black beans cooked in bamboo tubes over a fire.  We continued on our journey, stopping on the way occasionally for some photo opportunities.  We rode past quite a few wedding celebrations that day and also witnessed two open air cremations.  The further we got away from town, the more rustic the housing.  More often than not a residence was simply a hut constructed of bamboo, supported on stilts.  Cooking and sleeping was done in the one room, ablutions performed somewhere in the bush outside.  We were told that most houses were built on stilts for a couple of reasons: to protect the occupants from thieves and snakes, as well as to circulate the air and keep the interior cool.  We also visited a crumbling temple site and church along the way.  Our guide also pointed out a restaurant where he said the speciality dish was dog.  I was expecting to see dog in the menu in China but not in Cambodia.  Needless to say we just kept cycling, not keen at all to try that particular local delicacy!  We were rather annoyed with the hotel manager after this tour as he originally said the tour price included entry into the various sites, which it didn’t, and then he asked us to write a review on Trip Advisor.  We thought, no problem, we can write a quick something, but after the manager insisted we had to include a sentence about half the proceeds of the tour going to a local charity, which we knew wasn’t the case, we said no way and beat a hasty retreat to our room.

 

After Battambang it was time to see the real reason for visiting Cambodia – Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor.  As we got to the outskirts of Siem Reap all Rob could do was remark about how much the place had changed since he was last there nine years ago.  From a dusty backwater town with dirt roads it had become a bustling city with mega hotels and even a golf resort.  We almost got scammed by crafty tuk-tuk drivers who jumped on the bus when we arrived and said they were from the guesthouse to collect us (we were told by the guesthouse we contacted they would send a complimentary tuk-tuk).  So off we jump, climb on to the tuk-tuk and next thing we get asked is how much we would pay him.  After much back and forth we eventually gathered that the driver was not from the guesthouse at all but he would take us where we needed to go at a price, of course.  I managed to borrow a French girl’s cellphone which had a Cambodian sim card, phoned the guesthouse, explained the situation, and get told to wait and 15 minutes later the authentic tuk-tuk driver arrived – not exactly the best start to our time in Siem Reap!  A walk around the city showed us a huge amount of bars and restaurants and pale-faces looking for a good time, all in an area aptly named as Pub Street.  We found the bar, The Red Piano, which apparently was Angelina Jolie’s favourite hangout in town, and as a result avoided it!  The next morning we rose before the sparrows’ first farts, rented bikes and cycled out of town to the Angkor temple complex.  We can truthfully say that this was a really great experience, by far the best of Cambodia, and the only activity which wasn’t a scam in some way.  By not doing the tour bus thing we were really able to get off the beaten track and explore some mammoth ruins which are totally missed by the hordes.  The only downside of staying away from the overcrowded temples was that we had to watch for animals i.e. snakes which are normally left undisturbed in these parts.  Rob almost stepped on one on the path up to the first temple we visited, thereafter it was difficult to say if we spent most of our time looking at the ground or looking at the actual temples!  We spent a good 10 hours riding around, hopping off our bikes when and where we wanted and taking tons of photos.  It was amazing to see how tree roots have completely taken over the complex, completing engulfing the crumbling walls around them.  My most meaningful moment though was cycling peacefully along the road when suddenly a couple of young voices next to me were shouting hello.  A young girl and her brother rode up next to me on their way home from school and with much laughter and giggling egged me on to have a race! Such innocent fun!  With my bum not being completely used to the hard seat of a mountain bike though, my derriere found the going a bit tough after about eight hours on the saddle.  So enterprising Rob pulled out the infamous Roxy top, and padded my saddle to make the ride a bit more comfortable!  All in all we cycled about 40km that day and were knackered and filthy with dust by the time we reached the guesthouse.

The following day, we woke up at 04h00 to catch a 05h00 bus to Kratie towards the north of the country as this was the place to see a pod of Irrawaddy dolphins that live in the river.    After about 6 hours into the journey we had to change busses – luckily I was one of the first of the group to get on to the second bus and get seats as in pure Cambodian style the bus was overbooked and a few of the backpackers had to sit in the aisle on their backpacks for about 4 hours.  When we thought the bus was full, we were proven wrong as even more people were loaded into the aisle, with the driver passing down small plastic chairs for people to sit on.  Rob was told there was no space in the hold for our bags so we had them on our laps, but the next stop there was all of a sudden space to load about six sacks of something into the holds.  Funny that.  Oh and we had a rooster guest which kept on cock-a-doodle-dooing at various intervals during the first ride, more often than not it would let rip with a call just as we were nodding off for a nap!  Kratie is a small town and with not much to do there, aside from the dolphin viewing, it was a relaxing few days on the balcony of our guesthouse while the streets sizzled in the 40 degree heat.  It was a common sight to see the locals fully clothed, with every inch of skin covered with long sleeved shirts, long pants and socks wearing a wide brimmed hat.  We questioned how they didn’t bake in the heat with so many layers but I guess you adjust!  We saw some pretty spectacular sunsets from the balcony, while enjoying the view over the river.  On our second day there, we caught a ferry boat across to the island located on the west side of town, hired a couple of bikes and explored the island before heading back to the mainland for sundowners.  Before we left Kratie, we took a tuk-tuk about 15km north of town and managed to spot some dolphins from a small boat.  They were pretty shy so didn’t come too close to us, and the engine noise from other boats on the river was also a deterrent, but we got some photos anyway.  The best picture we actually had was one we bought – a postcard sent home to my Mom which never arrived.  Unfortunately I’ve recently read that this group of dolphins is close to extinction so looking back we were lucky to have seen them first hand.

Rob had been lucky enough to visit Cambodia about 10 years previously and had visited a few more sights, such as the Killing Fields but I had no interest in being reminded of the brutal violence of the past.  I was very happy with what we managed to see and was keen to move on to our next destination of Laos.  At this point in time, Cambodia was rated the worst of the five countries visited so far in our trip.  From a sightseeing perspective I would recommend anybody to visit Angkor Wat as it is truly spectacular.  Unfortunately the rest of Cambodia only seemed to cater for the young backpacker looking for a good time.  Even the guidebook recommended destinations based on the where you could find cheap beer and the best party spots.  So for Rob and I who wanted to experience more of the culture and local food and lifestyle, it was a bit of a disappointment.  But we have no regrets, and my Cambodian fridge magnet is displayed proudly next to all the others!