Cambodia

Cambodia was very short, too short, but beautiful. We took 5 days to visit the famous sites of Angkor Wat.

We traveled to the Cambodian border by car from Pattaya in Dada’s and Palida’s company. We reached the Thai border at Aranyaprathet at 2pm, had a delicious noodle soup at a local shack of a restaurant and headed to the customs. The queues were short and it only took an hour or so to cross the Thai then Cambodian customs and being stamped into our new hosting country.

We travelled from the border town of Poipet to Siem Reap by taxi. As Ranj and the boys swiftly fell asleep, I enjoyed finding myself yet again in a new country, a new horizon, enjoying sights strangely familiar that I had already missed so much after having stopped travelling for 3 weeks.

The countryside was beautiful, very green and lush with paddy fields, sugar cane and palm leaves villages scattered along the road. We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset on the road and reached Siem Reap around 6pm. As well informed travellers, we had read about odd practices and arrangements between taxis and tuk tuks and unmistakably we found ourselves in that situation: reaching the township, the taxi driver pulled aside and told us we needed to take a tuk tuk to the hotel. Ranj stood his ground and refused to leave the car until it was clear that – the taxi driver wouldn’t go any further – we would not pay a penny more to the tuk tuk to reach our destination.
Our young smiley driver kept his word and dropped us at the hotel simply promoting his services for the following day, touring around Angkor Wat. We took his details and thanked him for his services.

The following day, we decided to call our young driver Put Doun (+855 10357448) who took us around the sites of the town, supplying us with much welcome bottled water and wet towels to freshen up! It was so hot!!! We discovered the famous site of Angkor Wat, even more impressive than I had imagined, with every single wall covered in carving and bas reliefs, turrets and towers,…The mystic Ta Prohm Temple where massive banyan trees grow on top of derelict temples and which was used to film some scenes of Tomb Rider with Angelina Jolie. We also visited the Elephant Terrasse, Bayon Temple that we thoroughly enjoyed with the 216 large faces of Buddha carved on each side of every stupas and finished with Prae Roup where Alex just got himself an indigestion and vomited in the middle of the hallways. We spent 2 days visiting only a few of the most famous ruins, exploring the grounds of old temples, climbing to the top to get the best views, And there is so much more to see. Outside of town the countryside is full of ruins scattered throughout the area. We have heard that some can only be seen via bicycle or walking treks. We know what we have to do next time! (www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/668)

In the evenings, we would stroll through the lively town Center, the night market and visited little restaurant serving local curries and European dishes. The town is extremely touristic as one can imagine and full of French! Pub street is full of bars and restaurants purely aimed at tourists. Despite this invasion, the Cambodian of Siem Reap were very kind and smiley. The only exception being the markets were the women’s politeness stops the minute you show no interest, as it is in most countries.
This amazing hospitality was felt throughout our mini stay but mostly when we visited the villages on our bicycle trek (www.grasshopperadventures.com) when we came across the most welcoming smiles and waves, “hellos” and “hi’s” and met the women on the market or the local producers of mushrooms.
On our last day, we visited the war museum where the boys were delighted to put their hands on original weapons and mines. We saw horrific images, encountered far too many mutilated Cambodian, spoke about Polpot and the Kmer Rouge, the terrible civil war and through the bitter comments of our ex army guide, discovered that Cambodia is still very far from being a free and independent country, presently rotten by corruption and quietly ruled by the Vietnamese and Chinese. The image of war was suddenly more gruesome that it had ever been especially in Max’s eyes.
Our last night, We visited the local Phare Circus (www.pharecambodiacircus.org) where we saw a show called Sokha after the name of a young girl, witness and victim of the civil war. A beautiful show combining humor and emotions, amazing acrobatic talents and social benefits. It was delightful.