Happy Cambodia
It is hot in Korea. Not just a little bit hot but stiflingly so every minute of every day. The nights don’t offer any reprieve from the heat and the humidity seems to climb into bed next to me and snuggle up for a nap. My fan is working on overload and I have to reposition it every time I move in my little room. With the fan directly on me at all times I stand a chance of not suffocating but when I go to the bathroom I have broken into a sweat before I have even lifted my toothbrush out of its holder. The only relief is the air conditioning unit at work. Which is good and cold and yet is only available when I am in that one room. And I teach at several locations. Only one other has an air con unit and that is slightly less effective than getting the students to use their books to fan the air around. Kindergarten is just totally oppressive with the heat of 25 little bodies crowded together throwing themselves at me. And on Tuesday I actually slipped on the sweat that my shins had produced as I tried to get off the floor in the kindy. Nasty.
Which is just another reason why having a week out of Korea was so exciting and rewarding. Me and Sam decided ages ago that we would go away for the one week of summer vacation this year, rather than just get pissed up in Seoul like we did last year. I was put in charge of phoning the travel agents due to the fact that Sam’s phone is buggered. Well, I said that we had talked about it for ages but by the time I phoned to book it all the flights seemed to be full. It was a very stressful time- I was on the phone to a Korean lady with a slightly dodgy kiwi accent while at the same time relaying the conversation to Sam via MSN messenger. But it all worked out in the end and we ended up booking flights to my first choice. So this time two weeks ago found me frantically washing clothes and drying them within seconds in the heat of the Korean summer and just generally preparing to fly to Cambodia the next day.
Now, I have been out of the country a few times since I have been in Gangneung and have still not mastered the art of the perfect way to spend the night before we go. I always head up to Seoul after work and then am at a loss with what to do until the buses start running to the airport. We tried something new this time- the soju solution. Me, Sam and James settled down into a bar and proceeded to drink a bit. After James had gone home I was getting tired and wanted to get a motel for the night but Sam was insistent that it wasn’t worth it so we went to a DVD room- she watched the movie and I got an hour or so’s kip.
And then we slept again on the bus on the way to the airport and I dropped off again on a bench while Sam was pottering around the airport trying to find somewhere to get passport photos for her Cambodian visa. We hadn’t even left Korea yet and already I was exhausted. I think that I had also worn myself out a bit the previous week by getting all excited about the holiday. I think that there wasn’t a person in Gangneung who was unaware of my intentions!
Finally it was time to drag our tired hides onto the plane. We flew with Vietnam Air so stopped in Ho Chi Minh City airport. Where I ate the other half of the Subway sandwich that I had brought with me from Incheon and generally ooed and aahed over the selection of Cadbury’s chocolate at the airport until it was time to get on a smaller plane and head to Siem Reap.
The flight from HCMC to Siem Reap was only about an air and, after complaining on the previous flight that we are always given seats on the wing, it was disturbing to get on the plane and realise that this time we had seats under the wing. But we had great views coming into both Vietnam and Cambodia (I had my first glimpse of Taiwan from the aeroplane window) and finally we were there. The flight had been delayed but the guy from the guesthouse had waited for us and collected us in his taxi. Which he then persuaded us to hire for the next two days for $20 a day.
We had a fairly quiet evening on that first night- looked around Siem Reap a little and commented on the amount of signs in Korean we had seen on our way from the airport. But your average Korean tourist in Siem Reap apparently tends to stay in the 5 star hotels outside of the town as there was little sign of the kimchi munchers where we were. The evening was quiet by necessity- not only were we knackered from the previous night but the taxi guy had also talked us into agreeing to get up at 4.30 the next morning to go and watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We retired to our (air conditioned) room and slept til the alarm woke us up the next morning.
It was still dark. We arrived at the entrance to the temple area only to realise that we had forgotten to bring passport photos with us for our temple passes and so had to be photographed there and then- at 5 am o’clock in the morning- not a photo that I want the world to see!
The taxi driver took us to Angkor Wat and we crossed the bridge spanning the huge moat and through the gateway to the temple. There was something very magical about being there in the dark waiting for the sun to come up and the hordes of tour groups also doing the same thing didn’t detract from that at all. In end we were not rewarded with a beautiful orange and pink sky, just the colossus that is Angkor Wat slowly emerging from the night. Very cool. It is big. There is no other way to put it. Big, bigger, biggest. As it became light enough to see we set off to explore. Feeling for all the world like a cross between Lara Croft and Spiderman we spent the next few hours clambering around and casting admiring looks over almost every inch of the temple. It is awesome and it is fair to say that I did take a photo or two.
Having gorged ourselves on the splendour of Angkor Wat, it was now nearly eight o’clock and the day was heating up a bit. As we reached the next temple it was obvious that we were in for a day of heavy duty perspiration. Ah well. We were amazed and smitten with every temple that we saw that day but one that was unique (hang on, they were all unique, is it possible to say that it was ‘more unique’? My grasp of English lets me down here!) and really stood out was Ta Prohm. This temple was built around 1186 and sometime between then and now the jungle has reclaimed it. Massive trees sprout from the walls and towers of the temple, their roots dripping down the walls like wax from a candle. The power of nature was very much evident here, huge chunks of masonry have been shifted and sometimes knocked to the ground by these gigantic trees. Hollywood could not have made anything better than this. I can’t say enough times how awesome it was and how no photo will every truly do it justice, believe me, my camera and I tried very hard to capture something of the spirit of the place.
It was a long, hot and awe inspiring day. At the end of which we were knackered and deserved a beer and a nap. We had a short sight seeing tour in a tuk tuk before heading back to the guesthouse. We were asleep shortly after nine that night.
The next day we were meeting the taxi driver at a more sociable hour to go to a floating village. The location of the village depends on the season and at this time in the wet season it lines the banks of the river. In the dry season, when the water level decreases, the whole thing moves back onto the lake. There are three ethnic groups living in a variety of boats and floating structures, the Khmers, the Vietnamese and the Khmer Muslims. And everything is on the water- the schools, the houses, the churches, we even saw a pig sty! At the time that we went the kids were all coming home from school, rowing themselves down the river back to their dwellings or lolling on the platforms in hammocks. We hired a boat which took us up the river to a restaurant and crocodile farm, where we drank coke and took photos. The boatman pointed out some things to us and told us that every one of the houses has a telly- powered by a car battery. It was really cool.
After that it was back to the guesthouse for lunch and then out to see another temple- stopping by Angkor Wat on the way home to take a couple more photos in the daylight.
Tuesday morning saw us up early again and on the 7.30 bus to Phnom Penh. A comfy six hour bus ride later, we found ourselves in the capital. The old colonial houses there were very different from the traditional houses on stilts that had lined the roads all the way to the city. Getting off the bus proved to be a hectic experience as hordes of people descended on us offering us everything from sightseeing tours to guesthouses to their grandmothers for a bargain price (OK, not quite that last one but then I didn’t quite catch all that they said). Fixing on one sign held in the hands of a smiling man we made our choice of guesthouse and were ushered to the waiting scooters. Perched on the back- one a piece- we saw the city on the way to the lake. On arriving at the guesthouse we were delighted with the view over the lake, the cheap beer menu and the hammocks at the guests’ disposal. We were told that a twin room was $2 a night but if we wanted to go a little crazy and spend an extra dollar we could have our own bathroom. That was three dollars BETWEEN us. We thought we should splash out.
We were hardly given a moment to rest before the moto drivers (scooters) took us off to the Royal Palace, a beautiful golden building very similar to the one in Bangkok. It was a very calm place, made all the more so since we had to take off our shoes to enter any of the buildings. Then back to the guesthouse and another early night.
The next day was to be the most intense and least talkative. Once more on the back of the motos we went to the Killing Fields and then onto Tuol Sleng- aka the genocide museum. We didn’t say much to each other as both of these places seemed to be very private. The Killing Fields were smaller than I thought they would be. The shallow dips in the grounds show where the mass graves were excavated and the signs next to them tell you what was found in each. Nearly 9,000 thousand people were buried there and there is a building containing shelf after shelf of skulls which were exhumed from the site. On the way there my moto driver told me that he had lost both of his parents, his sister and brother to the Khmer Rouge. The sheer ordinariness of the location and the butterflies and flowers make it all the more poignant.
Tuol Sleng would prove in some ways to be an even more solemn experience. This old school was the largest detention and torture camp during the Polpot years and more than 17,000 people were ‘processed’ here. Only seven inmates were still alive when the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in 1979. Many of the rooms have been left how they were found- with the instruments of torture still there. The Khmer Rouge photographed everyone who came through the centre and several rooms have row after row of these photos- men, women, often holding babies, and children all look out from these boards and it is impossible to imagine what they saw in their last few days. As I said, it is a very personal experience and so I can’t share my thoughts with you here.
After looking around the school in silence, wiping involuntary tears away, we sat in the courtyard for a while to regain our composure before heading back out to modern day Phnom Penh. My moto driver told me that I was lucky that I came from England, a country with no war. I could only agree.
We rounded off the day with a trip to the Russian market and some heavy duty shopping..
Thursday was our last day in Phnom Penh and our last full day in Cambodia so we felt we had deserved a day of relaxation. Therefore a majority of the day was spent swinging in hammocks and reading. Friday morning we caught the 6.30 bus back to Siem Reap, finished the souvenir shopping and went to the airport. We arrived back in Korea around 9am on Saturday morning and I made it back to Gangneung at around 4 in the afternoon. Tired, dirty, smelly but immensely enriched by a week in Cambodia. A beautiful country with a rich and, at times, tragic history. I would go back there at the drop of a hat! It was an amazing experience and the warmth of the people just added to the charm of the country which seems to win the hearts of everyone who goes there.
And so I will finish here. I recommend the country to anyone and hope to go back there again soon. One last point- Sam did all of the navigating with exceptional style and skill- all of it and we didn’t get lost once!
Love
H
xxx
Which is just another reason why having a week out of Korea was so exciting and rewarding. Me and Sam decided ages ago that we would go away for the one week of summer vacation this year, rather than just get pissed up in Seoul like we did last year. I was put in charge of phoning the travel agents due to the fact that Sam’s phone is buggered. Well, I said that we had talked about it for ages but by the time I phoned to book it all the flights seemed to be full. It was a very stressful time- I was on the phone to a Korean lady with a slightly dodgy kiwi accent while at the same time relaying the conversation to Sam via MSN messenger. But it all worked out in the end and we ended up booking flights to my first choice. So this time two weeks ago found me frantically washing clothes and drying them within seconds in the heat of the Korean summer and just generally preparing to fly to Cambodia the next day.
Now, I have been out of the country a few times since I have been in Gangneung and have still not mastered the art of the perfect way to spend the night before we go. I always head up to Seoul after work and then am at a loss with what to do until the buses start running to the airport. We tried something new this time- the soju solution. Me, Sam and James settled down into a bar and proceeded to drink a bit. After James had gone home I was getting tired and wanted to get a motel for the night but Sam was insistent that it wasn’t worth it so we went to a DVD room- she watched the movie and I got an hour or so’s kip.
And then we slept again on the bus on the way to the airport and I dropped off again on a bench while Sam was pottering around the airport trying to find somewhere to get passport photos for her Cambodian visa. We hadn’t even left Korea yet and already I was exhausted. I think that I had also worn myself out a bit the previous week by getting all excited about the holiday. I think that there wasn’t a person in Gangneung who was unaware of my intentions!
Finally it was time to drag our tired hides onto the plane. We flew with Vietnam Air so stopped in Ho Chi Minh City airport. Where I ate the other half of the Subway sandwich that I had brought with me from Incheon and generally ooed and aahed over the selection of Cadbury’s chocolate at the airport until it was time to get on a smaller plane and head to Siem Reap.
The flight from HCMC to Siem Reap was only about an air and, after complaining on the previous flight that we are always given seats on the wing, it was disturbing to get on the plane and realise that this time we had seats under the wing. But we had great views coming into both Vietnam and Cambodia (I had my first glimpse of Taiwan from the aeroplane window) and finally we were there. The flight had been delayed but the guy from the guesthouse had waited for us and collected us in his taxi. Which he then persuaded us to hire for the next two days for $20 a day.
We had a fairly quiet evening on that first night- looked around Siem Reap a little and commented on the amount of signs in Korean we had seen on our way from the airport. But your average Korean tourist in Siem Reap apparently tends to stay in the 5 star hotels outside of the town as there was little sign of the kimchi munchers where we were. The evening was quiet by necessity- not only were we knackered from the previous night but the taxi guy had also talked us into agreeing to get up at 4.30 the next morning to go and watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We retired to our (air conditioned) room and slept til the alarm woke us up the next morning.
It was still dark. We arrived at the entrance to the temple area only to realise that we had forgotten to bring passport photos with us for our temple passes and so had to be photographed there and then- at 5 am o’clock in the morning- not a photo that I want the world to see!
The taxi driver took us to Angkor Wat and we crossed the bridge spanning the huge moat and through the gateway to the temple. There was something very magical about being there in the dark waiting for the sun to come up and the hordes of tour groups also doing the same thing didn’t detract from that at all. In end we were not rewarded with a beautiful orange and pink sky, just the colossus that is Angkor Wat slowly emerging from the night. Very cool. It is big. There is no other way to put it. Big, bigger, biggest. As it became light enough to see we set off to explore. Feeling for all the world like a cross between Lara Croft and Spiderman we spent the next few hours clambering around and casting admiring looks over almost every inch of the temple. It is awesome and it is fair to say that I did take a photo or two.
Having gorged ourselves on the splendour of Angkor Wat, it was now nearly eight o’clock and the day was heating up a bit. As we reached the next temple it was obvious that we were in for a day of heavy duty perspiration. Ah well. We were amazed and smitten with every temple that we saw that day but one that was unique (hang on, they were all unique, is it possible to say that it was ‘more unique’? My grasp of English lets me down here!) and really stood out was Ta Prohm. This temple was built around 1186 and sometime between then and now the jungle has reclaimed it. Massive trees sprout from the walls and towers of the temple, their roots dripping down the walls like wax from a candle. The power of nature was very much evident here, huge chunks of masonry have been shifted and sometimes knocked to the ground by these gigantic trees. Hollywood could not have made anything better than this. I can’t say enough times how awesome it was and how no photo will every truly do it justice, believe me, my camera and I tried very hard to capture something of the spirit of the place.
It was a long, hot and awe inspiring day. At the end of which we were knackered and deserved a beer and a nap. We had a short sight seeing tour in a tuk tuk before heading back to the guesthouse. We were asleep shortly after nine that night.
The next day we were meeting the taxi driver at a more sociable hour to go to a floating village. The location of the village depends on the season and at this time in the wet season it lines the banks of the river. In the dry season, when the water level decreases, the whole thing moves back onto the lake. There are three ethnic groups living in a variety of boats and floating structures, the Khmers, the Vietnamese and the Khmer Muslims. And everything is on the water- the schools, the houses, the churches, we even saw a pig sty! At the time that we went the kids were all coming home from school, rowing themselves down the river back to their dwellings or lolling on the platforms in hammocks. We hired a boat which took us up the river to a restaurant and crocodile farm, where we drank coke and took photos. The boatman pointed out some things to us and told us that every one of the houses has a telly- powered by a car battery. It was really cool.
After that it was back to the guesthouse for lunch and then out to see another temple- stopping by Angkor Wat on the way home to take a couple more photos in the daylight.
Tuesday morning saw us up early again and on the 7.30 bus to Phnom Penh. A comfy six hour bus ride later, we found ourselves in the capital. The old colonial houses there were very different from the traditional houses on stilts that had lined the roads all the way to the city. Getting off the bus proved to be a hectic experience as hordes of people descended on us offering us everything from sightseeing tours to guesthouses to their grandmothers for a bargain price (OK, not quite that last one but then I didn’t quite catch all that they said). Fixing on one sign held in the hands of a smiling man we made our choice of guesthouse and were ushered to the waiting scooters. Perched on the back- one a piece- we saw the city on the way to the lake. On arriving at the guesthouse we were delighted with the view over the lake, the cheap beer menu and the hammocks at the guests’ disposal. We were told that a twin room was $2 a night but if we wanted to go a little crazy and spend an extra dollar we could have our own bathroom. That was three dollars BETWEEN us. We thought we should splash out.
We were hardly given a moment to rest before the moto drivers (scooters) took us off to the Royal Palace, a beautiful golden building very similar to the one in Bangkok. It was a very calm place, made all the more so since we had to take off our shoes to enter any of the buildings. Then back to the guesthouse and another early night.
The next day was to be the most intense and least talkative. Once more on the back of the motos we went to the Killing Fields and then onto Tuol Sleng- aka the genocide museum. We didn’t say much to each other as both of these places seemed to be very private. The Killing Fields were smaller than I thought they would be. The shallow dips in the grounds show where the mass graves were excavated and the signs next to them tell you what was found in each. Nearly 9,000 thousand people were buried there and there is a building containing shelf after shelf of skulls which were exhumed from the site. On the way there my moto driver told me that he had lost both of his parents, his sister and brother to the Khmer Rouge. The sheer ordinariness of the location and the butterflies and flowers make it all the more poignant.
Tuol Sleng would prove in some ways to be an even more solemn experience. This old school was the largest detention and torture camp during the Polpot years and more than 17,000 people were ‘processed’ here. Only seven inmates were still alive when the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in 1979. Many of the rooms have been left how they were found- with the instruments of torture still there. The Khmer Rouge photographed everyone who came through the centre and several rooms have row after row of these photos- men, women, often holding babies, and children all look out from these boards and it is impossible to imagine what they saw in their last few days. As I said, it is a very personal experience and so I can’t share my thoughts with you here.
After looking around the school in silence, wiping involuntary tears away, we sat in the courtyard for a while to regain our composure before heading back out to modern day Phnom Penh. My moto driver told me that I was lucky that I came from England, a country with no war. I could only agree.
We rounded off the day with a trip to the Russian market and some heavy duty shopping..
Thursday was our last day in Phnom Penh and our last full day in Cambodia so we felt we had deserved a day of relaxation. Therefore a majority of the day was spent swinging in hammocks and reading. Friday morning we caught the 6.30 bus back to Siem Reap, finished the souvenir shopping and went to the airport. We arrived back in Korea around 9am on Saturday morning and I made it back to Gangneung at around 4 in the afternoon. Tired, dirty, smelly but immensely enriched by a week in Cambodia. A beautiful country with a rich and, at times, tragic history. I would go back there at the drop of a hat! It was an amazing experience and the warmth of the people just added to the charm of the country which seems to win the hearts of everyone who goes there.
And so I will finish here. I recommend the country to anyone and hope to go back there again soon. One last point- Sam did all of the navigating with exceptional style and skill- all of it and we didn’t get lost once!
Love
H
xxx
posted by Helen @ 10:48 AM
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