Pulling into Phnom Pehn I was pretty hesitant as to what to expect. Our bible the lonely planet warns potential visitors that it's an intoxicating place that you'll either love or hate, or maybe even both but just on different days. The journey into Cambodia from the Mekong Delta wasn't too long or painful but for some reason felt exhausting. There was a lot of climbing in and out of a miniature speed boat and the hot sun felt doubly strong on the skin as we waited for our passports to be stamped and returned at the floating boarder.
Our bus dropped us off at the corner of a particularly dingy road and aggressive tuk tuk drivers were falling over themselves to get our business. The constant shouts of "LADY, LADY, LADY" were tiresome to say the least.
Eventually we found a nice guy to take us to a guesthouse and we checked in just as the skies opened and emptied the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean on us.
On our first day there we had planned to visit the 'Gold and Silver Temple' in town but soon realised we were a. inappropriately dressed and b. not that bothered about seeing yet more gold buddhas. We still had Angkor Wat to visit up in Siem Reap and were trying to avoid 'temple burn-out'.
Instead we got a lift to the renound Killing Fields where thousands upon thousands of people were massacred and buried during the era of Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime in the 70's. There were 9,000 skulls on display as a tribute to the dead but I couldn't work out whether it was a tasteful of not.
Still, the museum was interesting and I managed to top up my historical knowledge. On the journey back our driver offered to take us to a firing range to try out some AK-47's or other equally traumatic weapons, I think his offer could have been timed better to be honest, there was already too much death in the air.
The other thing I immediately noticed about Cambodia were the number of disabled people on the streets. Everyone seemed to have been affected by war or tragedy and it was sad to witness, especially when trolleys of amputees and writhing children with contorted bodies were wheeled right past your restaurant asking for money.
On day two it was off to yet another site of sadness, the S-21 Genocide Museum where more poor innocent Cambodians were captured, held and tortured for months before being shipped off to the Killing Fields to be finished off and buried in the mass graves.
The S-21 building was originally a school for the local children which had been transformed into an eerily disturbing prison of barbed wire and wooden boxes to house the men, women and children. It really was disgusting to see and made my stomach turn that people were, and still are, capable of inflicting so much pain and anguish for no reason at all.
We had a couple of nice dinners and walked around the town a bit but those were the two main things we did. It was obvious that the area was soaked in poverty and needs a lot of TLC before it and its people can recover.
After Phnom Pehn we headed north to Siem Reap, home of the mighty Angkor Wat temple and many, many others We only spent a couple of days there, one doing the temple rounds and another chilling in the town, getting a nice cheap swedish massage.
Although Angkor Wat was amazing and very stunning I think I was more captivated by the two I saw back in Indonesia, the buddist 'Borobodur' and Hindu 'Prambanan'. I guess that's the problem of having such a reputation, there's a hell of a lot to live up to. I particularly liked the temple where Angelina Jolie was taken for the film Tomb Raider. It was a natural film set in itself and ancient trees had grown round and swallowed up the brickwork and carvings of the place. Doorways leading into pitch black were framed by gigantic roots that looked more like octopus tentacles than vegetation, loved it.
Tina and Matt chose to stay up in Siem Reap for a third day but I left alone on the night bus to get down to Sihanoukville on day 2. It was a fairly uneventful night time journey but I enjoyed the solo adventure and got quite a few reality checks when I found myself standing in the middle of nowhere at 4am surrounded by nothing but Cambodian goats!
I arrived into the beachy coastal town at sunrise and felt really liberated to be back by the sea again, especially as the inky black sky merged into a rainbow of navy blue, purple, pinks, oranges and yellows. I did the usual business of grabbing my bag and bartering a price with a motorbike driver and in no time at all was whizzing through the empty streets to my guesthouse, wind in the hair and smile on the face.
It was only 6am but I knew where some friends were staying and what room they were in so I made sure they got a nice early awakening to the day by sneaking in and jumping on their beds haha.
Sihanoukville went really fast, we spent 5 days there but they all merged into a bit of a drunken blur. There was a good group of people to hang out with and it was really nice to do the social thing again. It's apparently the 'place to go' for some beach action so that's exactly what we did, some beach action combined with some Cambodian style holiday vibe.
It was pretty sad leaving Jon and Craig on the 18th, we'd been travelling with them from the day we entered Laos and although we had to move on, so did they. We said our goodbyes and then that was that, we started the long process of getting down to the Thai island of Koh Phangan in time for the full moon party.
We caught a bus to Phnom Pehn (which broke down twice, lost it's air con half way through and was full of screaming babies and brown nappies), got a tuk tuk to the airport, a plane to Bangkok airport, a taxi in to Bangkok city, a taxi back to Bangkok airport (15 hours later), a flight to Surat Thani in southern Thailand, a coach to Don Sak pier, a ferry to Koh Phangan and FINALLY a jeep truck to our hotel.
All that took about 36 hours.
From that moment on, carnage ensued. It was just ridiculous. The thai redbull out here really does contain all sorts of illegal things because anyone who drinks it just goes loopy...it's great! I'll skim over the details but on our first night which was supposed to be a quiet one we went down to Haad Rin beach and didn’t get back till 6am. Our second night, the night before the big party which we were going to 'take easy' we ended up at a pool party and very much IN the pool until 4am, and then it was full moon day where we didn't hang up the dancing shoes till 11am the following morning.
After those three days I was finished, a walking zombie. Koh Phangan had had its way with us and spat us all back out.
We all felt bad for not really seeing any of the island except the party area so on our 5th and last day we hired a 4x4 jeep to take off road and into the jungle. It was an awesome day full of highlights but hanging onto the back of a truck while whizzing through rainforest meant i've now got about 400,000 big, fat, red, angry, itchy mosquito bites which look atrocious :(
I loved hiking up to the highest viewpoint on the island though where we found a tiny wooden shelter complete with pillows and hammock and a local guy serving iced tea, beer and playing Bob Marley. So cool.
From Koh Phangan we very groggily made our way to Koh Tao by the sea sick making, packed to the rafters ferry. Ever wanted to feel what its like to be squashed into a space smaller than your skull? Take this ferry.
We've been here a few days now and the group has been split up for a bit while we all do our own thing. I'm doing my SSI diving course for the next 3 days so am currently holed up in a little one bed wooden bungalow which I THOUGHT was cute and charming until I woke up covered with another million bites, this time from disgusting bed bugs. They’re all over my legs and body and have sort of merged with the huge mozzie ones so now I just look truely rank.
I'm actually lying on the bug ridden bed now typing this and can almost feel the parasites tucking into dinner as I type. Tomorrow, after my 2 dives i'm packing up my bags and getting the hell out of here and over to where Tina and Lottie are staying. It's annoying though as my accommodation price is included with my diving course....bed bugs included too though, not worth it.
Anyway, all is going well, the diving is going great. It'll feel good to finally be a fully certified diver and being here has put yet more ideas for the future in my head. To be continued...
Time for bed now, along with my microscopic little friends. Night night.
No comments:
Post a Comment