Cambodia - Really Long (Sorry)

Although I may try, I cannot possibly describe how different everything is in Cambodia. However, I will try to give you a glimpse into my brief account with the country.
First, the quick overview of my journey is as follows (times are approximate):
Day 1 - 1.5From Thailand into Cambodia (Wednesday, March 23th, - Thursday, March 24th)
1. 8PM - Take the Singapore MRT to the Changi airport.
2. 11PM - 2.5 hour Air Asia flight to Bangkok
3. 12AM - Taxi ride to the bus station
4. 3:30AM - Purchase bus tickets to Araynaya Prathet (Thai border town)
5. 4:00AM - 4.5 hour bus ride
6. 8:30AM - Take tuk tuks to the border
7. 9:00AM - Purchase VISA
8. 9:45AM - Clear Border on Cambodian Side
9. 10:30AM - Get in Toyota Camry Taxi headed for Siem Reap
10. 1:40PM - Arrive at hostel
11. Shower and change
12. Purchase temple pass and visit Ankor Wat
Day 2 - Up at 7AM and visiting temples until dusk (Friday, March 25th)
Day 3 - Up at sunrise and visiting temples until sunset (Saturday, March 26th)
Day 4 - Traveling from Cambodia back to Bangkok (Sunday, March 27th)
Day 5 - Returning from Bangkok to Singapore (Monday, March 27th)

The journey from Singapore to Cambodia was probably the most significant portion of my trip, both emotionally and physically. Transitioning from a very developed and modern country like Singapore to Cambodia, which is ranked 130th of 175 on the UN's Human Development index, truly accented how incredible a disparity exists in our world. Even between Thailand and Cambodia, there is a significant and easily observable difference in development and resources.

The Thai/Cambodian border is a remotely safe area, but there is a constant threat of theft and throngs of people hang around the border looking to make money from travelers, particularly easily identifiable foreigners. Beggars are frequent and include children looking after babies and people left limbless by land mines. Beyond the initial layer of people looking for money are a group of aggressive locals that insist on arranging for taxis and providing advice on travel. Despite our best attempts to avoid these “helpers” they followed us closely and even walked behind for a kilometer as we tried to arrange our own taxi. Eventually, we found a taxi, but these people still managed to get their cut from the taxi driver. Not speaking the language means that we were pretty much at there mercy.

Once in the taxi, we thought we were set to go. Our driver spoke no English at all, but we soon ascertained that we were delayed because our Camry (90% of the taxis in Cambodia are Toyota Camrys) did not have a spare tire. We stayed at the side of the road for a about 10 minutes then made a quick trip to the Camry depot, where our driver picked up a white ticket - which we later learned is required by the taxi drivers to pay off “officials” when they take passengers out from Poi Pet (the border town) - and our spare tire.

Once on the road, we quickly discovered the reason that the 200KM drive from Poi Pet to Siem Reap takes three to four hours. The road, although initially paved, is in such poor condition that vehicles have to swerve into oncoming travel, slow to almost a stop, drive off the road, and weave in and out of traffic on a regular basis. It's amazing how much abuse those Camrys can take. The only driving rule that is somewhat adhered to is that you must yield to larger vehicles. The taxi drivers, drive quickly and aggressively. We frequently passed other vehicles by swerving the opposite direction around holes in the road and taking on oncoming traffic, sometimes passing cars on the right, other times on the left. At least twice, we ran motorcycles off the road because we were driving in their “lane”. It was scary and a little unnerving how quickly it became routine to brace for bumps and prepare to be in a head on collision.

On the way to Siem Reap we also experienced a Cambodian gas station. This is a small hut at the side of the road where old pop bottles are lined up and filled with gasoline. The workers, two young girls, took a tube and a funnel and filled our car with gasoline one bottle at a time.

Although it is possible to fly to into Cambodia, visiting overland provides a much more in-depth look at the Cambodian people and their lifestyle. We passed hundreds of houses that were nothing more than bare wood and a thatched roof. Also, Cambodia is in its dry season and everything is extremely barren and desolate. The fields appear in severe drought and the road kicks up a fine red dust that coats everything from the houses to the people. It becomes readily apparent that many Cambodians have few possessions and spend the majority of their days transporting to and from small towns or tending to their homes and families.

Those Cambodians that do visit other towns do so by any means possible. Along the way we saw hundreds of people, and nearly hit about half of them, riding bicycles along the red dirt road. The standard practice is for the Camry to just honk whenever passing a vehicle, be it a person, a bicycle, or a semi-truck. As a result, the horn was used every two minutes or so.

The vehicles in Cambodia include everything from carts pulled by people, to motorcycles with six or more locals, to tuk tuks, to a mix between a motorcycle a tractor and a flatbed trailer (motorcycle handlebars, tractor engine, and big flat surface for people or goods). If it has wheels and it moves, people will drive it. We even saw a motorcycle (without a trailer) carrying three kings size bed mattresses. It's impressive.

About an hour into the journey the road turns into a deep red gravel. It continues to be bumpy but the gravel makes the holes in the road less severe and it's easier to drive along the shoulder. Unfortunately, this also meant that there would be bridges over waterways. The word bridge is a relative term. I was a little unnerved when we approached the first bridge and the metal on each of the supports was warped into a wave pattern. The bottom of the bridge is made of wood and covered by loose metal sheets. It turns out this was one of the best bridges we crossed. Further ahead we crossed bridges that had large holes in between the wood, metal floor that were bent up at a 30 degree angle, and then finally a bridge that collapsed all together. Luckily enough, it's the dry season so it wasn't a major problem to take a quick route through a dry riverbed and up the other side.

Nearing the end of the journey the landscape began to change dramatically. The countryside began to turn to jungle and about half an hour outside Siem Reap the road turned into a nicely paved highway. We were entering tourist land. It was a amazing how different this part of the country was from the dry fields that stretched from the border to the edge of the jungle.

In Siem Reap we had a pleasant hostel with clean safe rooms, a restaurant that used vegatable (no peanut oil), and free bananas. It was really good and a nice break from the road.

Soon after arriving we took off in a rented van and got our $40 (US) three day temple passes. We then made our way to Ankor Wat - the most famous temple. As soon as we drove up to the large expanse we were all very impressed. The temple area is huge and the lake in front provides a grand entrance. We spent the next hour and half exploring this ancient temple. It was amazing the size of the area that the temple covered. As well, each of the pillars had, albeit well worn, intricate carvings. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to build.

Upon returning from Ankor Wat, we went out for dinner and enjoyed the town of Siem Reap. The town itself is far better than Poi Pet and it was very nice to walk around at night. The restaurants advertise happy herb pizza - a pizza with marijuana in it. I was quite surprised at this, I guess Cambodia doesn't share Thailand and Singapore's view on drugs.

After dinner we all went to bed early, as we planned on getting up the next day at 4:30AM to see the sunrise at Ankor Wat. Unfortunately, it began to pour around 3:00AM so we delayed our departure until around 7:00AM. We spent all of Friday walking around different temple sights within the Siem Reap area. The Ankor temples stretch out over 200 square kilometers and it seems as though there are an endless number of temples. We saw only a small fraction of the temples and they all were unique in their own way. About half the temples are Hindu based and the other half Buddhist. Some are extremely tall with super short stairs, and other stretch out almost a kilometer in length. My favorite site was one where the trees have taken over the temple area. They grow on top of the ruins and it's amazing mixture of nature, architecture, and history. At this temple we saw the man that's on the front of the Lonely Planet Cambodia book in a similar pose to the cover shot.

Saturday was another day of temple watching, but this time we watched the sun rise as we took our van out to the farthest out site - about an hours drive away. When we arrived, 6:00AM, we were told we had to wait until 8:00AM so the police could open the site. At this site we had to hike about 35 minutes to see a dry river bed with some carvings in it. It wasn't worth it, but the hike was nice. It's also an area that has only been free of land mines since 1998, so we had to be very careful to stick to the path. We ended the day with a trip to the world's largest swimming pool - actually a man made lake that is 8KM by 2KM. I'm not sure why they call it a pool, but it's a popular hang out for the locals.

I won't comment too much further on the temples. They were visually impressive and I can't imagine how they could have been built 1000 years ago. I can't imagine how they could be built now, especially considering that we saw no source of rock and Cambodia seems to struggle to build houses, never mind giant temples. I will however talk about the people because that's what made this trip have such an impact.

Cambodia is a country with a violent history and struggles with one of the world's highest populations of land mines. Their effect is profound even today. It's common to see people missing limbs and looking to tourists for their sole source of income. Cambodia is trying to put its violent history behind it and the people are very focused on peace and trying to move on to their future. Throughout all the temples everywhere you go there are groups of children that will come up and sell you small crafts. These kids speak very good English, but their entire vocabulary is based around bargaining for goods. It's sad to see that the kids are not in school and instead have been trained to try and get money from tourist. However, it's also wonderful to see the kids because they are still so innocent and smile when you talk to them or they see you coming. These kids broke my heart a thousand times. I wish I could go back and buy everything that they had to sell. Unfortunately, the kids are everywhere and it would be impossible to buy something from all of them. Also, when you do buy something quite frequently more and more come and try to compete for your attention and your money.

There was one little girl that really broke my heart. She was selling little bracelets but nobody in our group was interested in buying any. We had been plied and solicited for two straight days and we were tired of being “sold to”. Then she came up individually to a couple of people gave them a bracelet, said they were free, and ran away. About half an hour later we were waiting for our bus at a different location when we saw her again. She came up to me and put a bracelet on my camera - which was a round my neck. She said “free for you” giggled and ran away. I didn't want to take the bracelet, just in case she wanted it back, but about 2 minutes later she came up and took it off my camera and put around my wrist. She was about 5 years old and the cutest kid I've ever seen. She then giggled again and ran away. Every time we would look at her she would smile and run behind the kids. The van then arrived and we packed in to go. She offered to sell me 20 bracelets for $1, but instead I gave her the dollar and thanked her for her gifts. When we were leaving she watched us go, waved goodbye and told us she loved us. It's amazing how this little kid that's covered from head to toe in dust was able to make us all feel special. Perhaps I'm just a sucker for a good routine, but I couldn't help but want to see her smile and be happy.

I realize that only a few of you would have read this entire passage, but I hope that you enjoyed it if you did. There's so much I could say about Cambodia, but I'll never been able to fully describe what I experienced.