Incredible and Tragic Cambodia

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I have spent the last 8 or so days in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a really amazing country. Despite its horrific past with the Khmer Rouge, responsible for a genocide that killed over 2 million people and ravaged the country in the 70's, cambodians remain positive, friendly and with a sense of humour that surpasses the people from the other countries I have visited on my trip.

My first city to visit was Siem Riep.

Siem Riep is home to hundreds of ancient temples, including the most famous Angkor Wat. Upon exiting the bus after a 15 hour voyage from the 4000 islands in Laos, I was greeted by a young man holding a sign saying "Welcome Mr. Pat". It appears that the various tourism agencies share passenger info with guesthouses in your arriving city so they arrange to have you picked up in the hope you will stay at their guesthouse. My driver was named Mr. Toi and was a friendly guy. I confirmed a room in his guesthouse and hired him to be my driver for the following morning to visit the main temples around the city. It was already 12:30am by the time I settled into my room and wanted to be up for sunrise over Agnkor Wat the following morning.

I had instructed Toi (my driver) to knock at my door at 5:00am since I didnt have an alarm clock. Toi, wearing the same clothes as the night before, was late and knocked at 5:30am. I scrambled to throw something on as he waited for me downstairs. As I stepped outside toward his motorbike, I am greeted with a surprise. A disheveled local woman, clearly wearing the same clothes she had on from the night before was on the back of the motorbike with Toi. I hopped on the back and the 3 of us took off. A few minutes later we dropped her off at her house and my suspicions were confirmed when he handed her a few cambodian currency notes. A great way to make a first impression with your client, pick him up with a prostitute on the back of your scooter... !

I still made sunrise at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is very impressive, just by its massive size with a huge moat all the way around it... it makes castles in Europe look like toys. Aside from the shear size of it, I was not blown away by it. I think this might have been due to all the hype people along my travels had made. After the sun rose, I had breakfast and waited for Toi who was nowhere to be found. This driver was shapping up to be a real loser, or so I thought. Toi finally picked me up 10 minutes later and off we went to the other various temples. I will spare you the details of all the really cool temples, after a while they all begin to look alike... However, one really stood out and was by far my favourite.

Its called Ta Prohn and its where they filmed part of the movie Tomb Raider. This temple has crumbling walls and massive trees and vines growing all over the stones. It really feels like you just walked into an Indiana Jones movie. By far, my favourite temple.

As the day progressed, I got to know Toi. I bought him lunch and he told me about himself and Cambodians as a whole. We compared salaries and culture and shared a few laughs despite a strong language barrier. Then as the tour completed around 2pm, Toi says to me "Now that you are finished with your tour, it is time for mine to begin". I didn't quite know what that meant but as we drove off into the countryside and stopped off at a small store to pick up beer, I became increasingly curious. It was hot and I had only had 4 hours sleep. He wanted to buy 24 beers and I wasn't in the mood for more than 1 or 2. When it came time to pay for the 24, he asked that I pay half. I became defensive and thought he was trying to take advantage and score some more money from me. He told me we were headed to a small party and everyone was bringing something including food. I reluctuntly handed him $5. We took off and pulled up to the country house. The following events were the most authentic of my trip.

There were about 8 cambodian men sitting around a table, all drivers and tour guides that Toi knew. They had this little party about once a week or two. They started to drink beer, at a very quick pace. "Cheers" they exclaimed in cambodian and off we drank. "Cheers" again, and another gulp. A minute later "cheers", and 30 seconds later another "cheers". This was starting to get annoying. Whats with all these cheers?, I thought. Thats when one of Toi's friends explained to me that in cambodian culture, you say "cheers" every time (or so) that you take a drink, this way everyone is drinking at the same pace. This man also told me that cambodians like to drink heavily when they do. Drinking is a time for them to forget he says. Forget what? I ask. Forget all the bad things going on in our lives. Forget that work is bad and we didnt have a client today. Forget that our sister is sick. Just forget and laugh and have a good time, talk about simple things and make jokes. Makes sense. I quickly embraced this mentality.

The other thing Cambodians always have with their beer is plenty of food, non-stop. Throughout the entire night, we had roast duck on the ghetto bbq, roast beef, roast pork, fish, and of course, plenty of rice. It was a feist.

After several trips back to the store for more beer, we moved the party next to the house into an open field, where someone brought a tarp for us to sit on, but we did not sit, instead we danced. One of the guys had a car and drove it to the field where he proceeded to pump Akon at full volume. Akon is adored in SE Asia, dont ask me why. There, in an open field, as the sun began to set, a dozen or so drunken cambodian men and I, danced around like idiots and laughed the night away. It was such a random and fun event, I will never forget. (watch for a short video to come on facebook)

The following day was spent touring Siem Riep. Siem Riep is a cool town, with great restaurants and nightlife due to the very heavy tourist influence. People from around the world come to see the temples. I tried a "fish massage". Basically you put your feet in this little pool full of fish and these fish nibble at your feet and eat all the dead skin. It really tickles at first and then feels kind of like a massage. This would be a great concept to bring back to Canada. Toi also showed me around the local spots in Siem Riep. He took me to a locals breakfast spot for soup and noodles, and then to a snooker hall where I attempted to play snooker for the very first time. Toi kicked my butt. Then he took me to where he gets custon shirts and pants. A custom fitted button down shirt cost him $9. Diiiirt cheap!

I sadly said goodbye to Toi that evening and left for Phnom Penh the following morning. I left Toi my watch as a goodbye present. He had been the best driver anyone could ask for and as I left he called me his best friend.

Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

I was expecting Phnom Penh to feel like the relaxed and small atmosphere of Ventiane (capital of Laos). I was mistaken. Phnom Penh has a much more cosmopolitan and exciting energy. It feels much larger and wealthier than Ventiane. My first reaction was that I liked it. Phnom Penh also has a tragic side to it. While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they laid land mines all over the place and didn't keep track of where they were placed. As a result, 35 years later, people are still stepping on them and losing limbs in the countryside. As you tour the city, all the main attractions have beggers without limbs asking for money, and it breaks your heart.

Toi had arranged to have their sister guesthouse pick me up from the bus station. Thats where I met a new driver named Kai, a friend of Toi's, but nothing like Toi and I didn't end up spending much time with him.

Phnom Penh has this really great backpacker ghetto on a lake near the downtown area. The backpacker ghetto is like its own little relaxed place with tons of backpackers and backpacker services. All the guesthouses have terraces built over the lake which offer a really nice view of sunset.

The next day I hired a young driver to take me around. I had been reading a really powerful book about the Khmer Rouge genocide called "First they killed my father" and so, the first places I felt compelled to see firsthand were the "S21 Prison, Genocide Museum" and the Killing Fields just outside of town. It was awful. S21 had been a torture area for the Khmer Rouge. Thousands of people were tortured here before being sent out to the killing fields to be executed, including women and children. Horrific pictures lined the walls of the complex and left me with a sick feeling to my stomach. The museum also provided some very good historical information and helped me understand what the Khmer Rouge was and how they came to power.

From there I headed out of town to the killing fields. Over 20,000 people were killed at this particular killing field, with over 389 other killing fields across the country. Horrific things took place at these killing fields. Upon excavation, it was discovered that the Khmer Rouge would kill by delivering hammer and axe blows to the head in order to save precious ammunition. Many vicitms were burried alive. In the middle of the killing field lies a memorial buddhist structure filled thousands of fractured skulls from the head blow, excavated from the mass graves. To one side there is a big tree with a sign reading "The Killing Tree". Here Khmer Rouge soldiers killed babies by grabbing them by their feet, and smashing them against the tree. The atrocities commited were almost too much to stomach. Nearby, you can hear sounds of kids playing at a cambodian school. Amazing that such attrocities took place only 35 years ago and the amount of progress the cambodian people have made since.

After the history lesson I tried to focus on the more positive things the city had to offer like the great markets, food, riverfront, Royal Palace buildings and great energy. I stayed a few days in Phnom Penh, before making a crucial decision.

I would forgo Vietnam. I had only about 12 days of travel to get to Hong Kong for my flight home and I thought, rather than rushing through what was suppose to be a wonderful country, I would rather spend my last days laying on a beach in cambodia than bus hoping from city to city and cramming as much as I could in.

I left for Sihanoukville, a beach town in the south of Cambodia where I would soak up the sun before returning to the cold winter that awaited me in Canada.

Sihanouville to come...