Cambodia: Part 1
August 04, 2007
Note: click on the thumbnails for a bigger and clearer picture. You can also skip my commentary and head directly to the pictures too.
We spent three fully packed days in Cambodia and because I don’t have the energy or memory to write about all of it at once, here is the first part.
July 16
When we last left, I had just mentioned that we got on a very small airplane from Bangkok and flew to Siem Reap. The flight only took about an hour and a half but the turbulence was rather strong. During the flight I got to witness a conversation from the dumbest sounding girl I have ever seen. To stereotype her as a Valley High girl would increase her intelligence too much. Even the guy she was talking to was doubting himself… “Is this worth getting into her pants… is this worth it.”
I digress. Dumbasses aside.
Cambodia is without a doubt the most amazing country I have ever been to. It is also the poorest country I have ever been to. I will most certainly not get into Cambodian history here but the years of Khmer Rouge rule, then French, and now corrupt governments and corporations has definitely taken its toll. The infrastructure for the average person is unbelievably limited. For the average tourist though, there’s everything you need and more.
As undeveloped as Siem Reap was, I was most pleasantly surprised by how happy and how warm the people were. The few people I had a chance to speak with were welcoming and helpful and more than happy to share stories about the city, the country, and the history. I am in their debt.
From the airport, we got a taxi and met our driver, Sohkong. Sohkong is a very short man in his early thirties who only recently became a taxi driver. He used to work in a hotel but for reasons he didn’t get into, he left the job and now makes a living as a driver/tour guide/history teacher (to tourists). Sohkong’s English is at best at a lower intermediate level and the poor guy can’t say certain syllables - “s” sounds that were not the first syllable were often dropped, eg. “Japanee”. It took awhile before I could understand him while the woman never quite understood anything he said (nor could he understand her). We paid $5 to get from the airport to our hotel; the Sokha Angkor Hotel.
What a beauty. I guess it’s one of the higher end hotels but really, even though it’s more expensive than most hotels around, it is still financially cheap compared to anything in Japan. The staff all spoke very good English and were all very polite. They catered to every need.
Right before he left, Sohkong asked us if we needed a taxi driver during our stay in Siem Reap. For $10 a day we would basically charter the taxi for all of the Angkor area and if we wanted to go further, we’d pay a little more. I think some people negotiate prices but it’s $10 people! We gladly accepted his offer and collapsed in our hotel room.
In the afternoon we walked around the area around the hotel and found nothing but a few crappy souvenir shops. It’s weird but there are very distinct souvenir shops for different Asian cultures. The Korean shop we went to sold clothes and trinkets and the two Korean girls there tailgated us and explained to us what we were looking at. We quickly left because if they got any closer we’d have to swat them off our backs. The Chinese shop had a big floor filled with jewely showcases, that were in turn filled with very cheesey gold and jade jewelry. I can see old Chinese women flourishing with the tacky jewelry but not us, we are hip and trendy twenty somethings. (I like silver and platinum myself).
We got sick of those crappy stores pretty quickly so we returned to the hotel and got ourselves a remorque-moto. I have no idea what that means but I guess it’s from the country’s French influence back in the day. Just think of a small covered carriage for 2-4 drawn by a motorcycle. It’s Cambodia’s version of the tuk tuk. Our driver, Bun Thorn, reminded us of Daniel, so we secretly called him Daniel because when Bun Thorn first told us his name, I heard “Putin” but wasn’t sure.
We first asked Daniel to take us to the landmine museum. He muttered that it had moved away - and I guess far enough that he didn’t want to go in a remorque-moto. We eventually did go to the landmine two days later and it was quite far actually. We then decided to go to the war museum. That really sucked ass. For $3 we got to see some local commander’s collection of old military junk thrown around a backyard. I would avoid that place.
While driving there though I noticed how crappy the people have it compared to the tourists. The main street where the hotels are were paved and nice but the streets leading up to the museum were not paved, had huge potholes, and no street lamps. The houses on the side were made from literally anything people could fine. With the 500% humidity and the 30-38 degree temperatures, I am sure it wasn’t comfortable.
Things were looking grim as we just wasted time in a junkyard. We then decided to head to the Old Market - the foreigner hang out. Things suddenly got much better! The Old Market is a small part of town with many trendier stores. The market itself is a covered area where people sit around and try to sell you anything - fake jewelry, fake Angkor Wat relics, photocopied books (I kid you not), crappy toys, whatever you don’t want! One clothing store even sold mp3 songs directly to your Ipod - they had a huge catalog of hundreds of music albums for download. I’m sure the recording industry would have a field day there. It was fun to walk around though. I bought a fake Lonely Planet Vietnam book for a friend and admired the quality for the $5 book (I still overpaid). I stocked up on some other used books and went my merry way. The other stores around town sold pretty nice arts and crafts - stuff I would buy and decorate my apartment with. The bars and restaurants were nice as well.
The annoying thing about the Old Market is the endless stream of solicitation from the remorque-moto drivers and the massage parlor workers. The drivers all park by the sidewalk and anyone who looks anything like a traveler is asked if they need a ride. There are dozens of them parked on the main street. The massage parlor workers, although not as many as the drivers, are annoying in their own way too. “Massaaa, lady? Massaaa sir?” Here people dropped “ge” syllables. The lady learned to ignore everyone very quickly while I was too polite, I had to politely decline each and every time. Aargh.
After that we had dinner in a really shady restaurant near the hotel and dropped into a coma at the hotel.
On the next instalment: a birthday boy climbs a tall tower.
