Cambodia: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

After a three hour bus journey from Ho Chi Minh City through the Vietnamese countryside, we arrived at the Cambodian border and almost didn't get past immigration. We both had e-visas and the only person who could use the computer had decided to throw a sickie on that day. We played dumb to their requests to return to Vietnam for a standard visa that would have cost us £50 extra and at least a couple of days mucking about in government offices. It took around half an hour before they finally got someone to turn on the computer and clear us through to the waiting bus to Phnom (nom) Penn. 

 Just outside Phnom Penn, we visited the Killing Fields, where much of the genocide took place in the late 1970's. Covering several acres, the now quiet open space is pitted with tens of square ditches that mark the site of mass graves, each containing hundreds of bodies of men, women and children. The area is also a marker for the hundreds of still undiscovered gravesites in the country. Walking around fragments of bone could be seen protruding in the path where the rain had washed away the earth.

 One of the most shocking reminders of the events that took place is the killing tree, where soldiers held the feet and dashed the heads of babies against the tree until dead. This practice was more common than you would like to imagine; as ammunition became scarce,it was easier to execute the people with whatever was to hand: clubs, axes, picks, shovels and wooden staves were all used to kill the truckloads of people brought to the fields. As we walked into the centre of the area, we came to a Stupa containing thousands of the victim's skulls (8,000 to be precise) that loomed over the site like one large gravestone. We decided to skip the prison site tour and return to the hotel as the site of the killing fields was grim enough in itself.

It's estimated that between two and three million people were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. That's one person killed, every minute of every hour, every day; for five years. At the start of the genocide, Cambodia had a population of 7 million people.

Considering it's recent history and all the shit thrown at it, it's surprising that Cambodia even exists as a nation today at all. The Cambodians we met seemed to be a hardy lot, but behind the shy smiles that come often and the quiet eyes of the older people we saw and talked to, there is an undercurrent of events hidden away, unshared. Forgetting the past can't be easy, even for the younger generations. Corruption is rife right up to and including the current president; Many of the generals who run the country now are the same people who gave orders to kill in the Khmer Rouge; even brother number 1 Pol Pot escaped trial when he died of natural causes in 2007.

 Phnom Penn is an interesting place and there are some beautiful buildings centred around the main palace complex, but despite the monks and the golden temples we both felt the city had an edge of violence. We noticed this walking down the street on our first day when we were offered several times to be taken to one of the shooting ranges to fire hand guns, AK 47's, even RPG's if we had the dollars to spend. We might have been up for a bit of Rambo play acting, but after visiting the Killing Fields firing a gun didn't have the same appeal. Another example of the violence ingrained in the culture came when we were threatened by a six year old boy; He was selling books on the main drag by the river, we told him sorry, but we didn't want to buy anything. As we were getting into the cyclo he turned nasty and said,

'F*ck you! F*ck you! You are going to die. F*ck you!' Sarah wasn't keen on going back to the riverfront after that.

However, there was a side to Phnom Penn that we liked. At the end of our trip and just before we flew to Bangkok we spent another day where we visited a great place called the Friends restaurant, which was run and staffed by former street kids. As well as being run for a good cause, this is one of the best restaurants for service and food we have found in south east Asia so far.

Kep was the next place we visited after our first stint in Phnom Penn. After four hours of bad Cambodian roads we were ready to relax in our jungle hillside retreat. We spent around a week in Kep Lodge enjoying chilling in the pool and watching some spectacular sunsets. We only left once to sample a bit of the world famous Kampot pepper and crab at one of the seafront restaurants. The pepper was so good Sarah, a lifelong hater of the black spice, is now a convert and can't get enough of the stuff.

We had a huge gecko living with us in our cottage. Apart from waking us up at night, it had the annoying  habit of relieving itself from above and leaving large lizard turds for me to stand on in the morning - I let him off as I figured he must have been eating a good portion of the mosquitoes that were after our blood every night.

We met some very nice people during our stay and on the last night we were up till late drinking with Bron, from Oz, and Nancy and John from England. We got to about 4am before we admitted defeat and went to bed. The next day Sarah, Bron and myself somehow managed to catch the early bus back to Phnom Penn. Bron is currently exploring Wales on the back of our advice, so we hope it isn't raining too much for her at home (fat chance).

We traveled north to Siem Reap in the morning after sleeping the hangover off in Phnom Penn. Siem Reap is the choice to stay for most tourists as it is the closest town to Cambodia's first attraction, Angkor Wat and it's surrounding temples. We stayed in a fairly new hotel away from the main tourist area in Troang village, opposite the shack stilt houses on the river (more of a soupy-green open sewer than watercourse). Despite the smell coming from the water, the hotel was a great choice; Matt, the Australian owner was very open and honest about the good and bad of the place and gave us some great advice to get through all the temples. He won Sarah over straight away when he ordered her a bottle of Malborough Savignon Blanc for trade price. Also, being in the village was nicer than the tourist strip as you got more of a feel of everyday Cambodian life (in general, as laid back as possible - every house and shack comes with a hammock as standard).

You could easily spend a month trying to see all the temples of Angkor if you had the time, money and inclination, but three days was enough for us (sorry, me - Sar was all templed out by the first day and a half). We visited four different temples in all, including the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We enjoyed Angkor Wat, but our favourite places were The Bayon in Angkor Thom (which has the faces of the king and his monks carved into the pillars) and Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is unique as it has been left as originally found, with strangler fig and cotton trees growing in and around the foundations and arches of the temples. Parts of the Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones movies were shot on location here and walking around the ruins you can see why. We were lucky as our Cambodian guide Kerry took us early and we had the place to ourselves, just avoiding the buses full of Korean tourists that were pouring in as we left.

Angkor Thom

Ta Prom (the 'Tomb Raider' strangler fig tree)

After all that history we were ready to meet up with our Mr. Lewis and Miss. Lloyd in Thailand for a two week holiday from a holiday doing what we do best. We'll let you know how drunk we got in the next post. Ta ta for now, Andrew and Sarah.x

Here are a few more photos of our time in Cambodia.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Ta Prohm

Anyone for Cricket?

Faces of the Bayon, Angkor Thom

Our Tuk - Tuk driver, Mr. Li

Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org

Halong Bay to Hoi An

Part Two of our Vietnam adventure begins on an early and bleary-eyed morning with a jam packed mini van of tourists headed east out of Hanoi on the three hour trip to the coast. After a hurried slurp of our new favourite breakfast of Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) we jump in and head to our next destination.

But where exactly were we headed?

Made up of a maze of thousands of sheer limestone islands that rise out of a sea of emerald green, Halong Bay is one of the places we had both wanted to visit way back when we first started planning our trip (like us, you might have seen it on the Vietnam Top Gear special).

However, now we were in Vietnam, we weren't sure if Halong Bay was going to be all that we had hoped. We had already heard mixed reviews from people we met on the road; some warned of being ripped off by the boat cruise operators, others told of a sea full of rubbish around every turn. To be honest our expectations weren't that high - especially as we were paying less than most people we talked to. Our fears turned out to be foundless, as we loved everything about our short trip in the bay.

The area of Halong Bay (which means 'bay of the descending dragon' in Vietnamese) covers around 1,553km2, including 1,960 islets, the vast majority of which are (apart from the monkeys and birds) completely uninhabited. The communities that are based in the bay, instead live out their lives entirely on the water. A population of around 1,600 people live in four small fishing villages of floating houses. They are sustained through fishing, marine aquaculture (cultivating marine plant life) and selling overpriced beer and out of date chocolate to tourists.

We arrive around mid-day into the quay side of Halong city.

Very much like any other busy port or fishing town in Vietnam, Halong city is nothing more than a jump off point to what we were all here for. Our guide for the trip, Vin Ly (Vinny to us), herded us through the throng of Vietnamese weekenders and sweat drenched tourists to the dock for a ferry trip to our junk boat. Vinny was an amiable lad, which luckily made up for the fact that no one could understand half of what he said. He shouted instructions in his special version of English as we waited for the boat, listening blindly and nodding along.

Just out from the port we saw our boat. Looming at the edge of hundreds of other junks, it wasn't the prettiest of the bunch and from the Heritage boat's faded yellow and red stain varnish exterior, it looked a little bit like we were booked on the Hidee-Hi junk boat tour. Once we were inside though, we were happy with our choice; great food, comfy beds and lots of friendly people.




 


After just twenty minutes we were in a completely different world, surrounded on all sides by high cliffs in the bay of the descending dragon. Around every corner the views kept on getting better; We drifted along for a couple of hours, occasionally seeing glimpses of the fishing communities or another tourist boat headed in a different direction. Eventually, we came to a stop in a wide basin with several other boats around us.

 We stopped here for the night, leaving the boat to explore the local caves and to go kayaking just before sunset.

The kayaking was amazing. Vinny, who was sharing my kayak, directed us to a lagoon that you reach by paddling through a long, low cave. Once there he urged us all to swim in the deep water

'The water. It's Okay Vinny? No Sharks or Jellyfish?' I asked him half joking, before getting in.

'No jelly, no nothing problem' He assured me.

Fine. We all jumped in and had a swim around the lagoon.It was only when I got back in the kayak that I noticed a ten foot jellyfish bobbing right next to the boat. I felt like pushing Vinny in with the thing, instead I just gave him a clack round the head and pointed it out.

'What's that then if It's not a jellyfish eh?'

'Never sting me yet.' said Vinny, smiling happily.

As we had saved money on the boat ticket, we decided to splash out on a nice bottle of wine at dinner. Four bottles later, I had to drag Miss Hope to bed before she bankrupt us on bottle number five. The next day we headed back to Hanoi nursing our hangovers. We had a night to soak it up and recover before we caught the train south on a sixteen hour journey to Hoi An.




The Train was comfortable enough. We were sharing with a very nice elderly Vietnamese couple in our four berth cabin. As they spoke as little English as we did Vietnamese, communication was limited to grins and sign language . At one point the old man leaned over, put his hands around my knee and squeezed, nodding and smiling. Still not sure what he was getting at.

The only problem we had on the journey was when the old couple had some supper. They bought a bag of eggs from the food trolley. The eggs in question were actually fertilized duck embryos! After making a hole in the top of the egg, they sucked out and crunched on the little Donald. The fact that the old woman had a face full of crooked teeth made this sight even more disgusting; even on the top bunk with my back turned, the smell and sound was making me gip, so I could only imagine how Sarah was doing facing the old girl on the bottom bunk. The woman finished the last of the eggs and put them in the bin by Sarah's bed. Sar looked at the woman, pinched her nose and pointed to the door.

We arrived in Da Nang station, and were picked up by a taxi to our hotel in Hoi An. Like Halong bay, Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site, and possibly our favourite place to so far in south east Asia. It seems, for now at least, to have the right balance between the old and new; as both a tourist trap and living city. We loved our hotel and the people who worked there. They made us feel like we were at home, bringing us snacks and drinks (they even gave us a present when we left). We spent our days wandering around the old town, having a beer or two and a spot of lunch. The shops were great too, with lots of unique art and souvenirs instead of the same old, same old in every shop (as we have found in a lot of other tourist destinations).

Despite not having much of a footballing history, the Vietnamese are just as football mad as the rest of Asia. At night the streets near our hotel were lined with makeshift bars of a TV, crates of local beer and deckchairs. We managed to catch most of the World Cup games (all with Vietnamese commentary), including England's successful attempts to frustrate and disappoint even more than last time.

We took the opportunity to get a few new tops from one of the many tailors in Hoi An, as after ten months of travel, our clothes were looking threadbare and a bit trampy. Sar's mum very kindly paid for our new garb (thank you Glenys, I know you can't stand the thought of us traveling around Asia all scruffy like). The place we chose was cheap (but good quality) and fast. We were both really happy with the results - We will definitely be back to Hoi An in the future to get kitted out with a new wardrobe.

We were really surprised by Hoi An and Vietnam in general. We didn't have anything like the trouble we were expecting. The language barrier was a problem at times, but to be honest it felt like a bit more of an adventure. It just goes to show that everyone and every trip is different. A lot of people we know have had a completely opposite feeling, citing the fact that Vietnamese people will try to rip you off shamelessly at any and every opportunity. Personally, I found the people we met to be warm and friendly. Yes, they can be cheeky (Sar says rude), but I found this endearing and funny - most of the time.

After a week of wandering around Hoi An, we took a flight back to Saigon and got a room for the night so we were ready to catch the bus to Cambodia the next morning. More of that to come in the next post, I've written enough for today and I'm sure you have some work to do (suckers!).


Here are few more photos from our time in Halong Bay and Hoi An.

 Our Boat in Halong Bay.

 Local woman selling snacks and booze to the tourists.

 Market Trader selling fruit and veg, Vietnam style.

 Temple in Hoi An

The best way to get around Hoi An without pouring with sweat.

One of the many bikes in Hoi An. 

There is a nice beach too.

Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org