Cambodia Travelogue - Week 2
March 29th, 2006 by Sarin
Week 2
In week 2 I headed off to the countryside for a visit to my mother’s home village. I got to see the only house she’s ever lived in the province of Kompong Cham. Knowing that I would be stuck in the village forever, we invited some of them to take us to sightsee at the temples of Angkor in Siem Reap province. However, they somehow filled a van and alot more villagers decided to join in on the tour. Week 2 was possibly the most frustrating, because all the villagers did not want to accept the fact that I was a foreigner. However, I did not pay a dime to see the temples instead of the $20 a day pass for foreigners. I guess I shouldn’t complain if I look like a national.
Highlights and Observations
Here, take a cellphone
My cousin gave us an old cellphone he had for us to use to keep in contact with each other. In the city of Phnom Penh, cellphones can be found easily with a cellphone shop at every corner or more. Going into the rural side, I didn’t expect to need it, but surprisingly we always had service, and most families have a cellphone or 2 anyway. Not bad for a developing country, but I wonder which Asian country is producing the most.
That infamous road in Kompong Cham
When I was packed and hit the road on the way to my mother’s house, I got my first glimpse of how absolutely crazy the taxi drivers are in this country. From what I gathered out of my first trip out, I noticed how uncommon it was for a driver to drive on the left side of the road for the entire trip to pass all the slow moving cars in the right lane. All while going 100 km/hour. Now on the first major stretch of road away from Phnom Penh, my mother mentioned me that this was the road that she walked on to escape to Phnom Penh. She would sleep during the day in an abandoned house or marsh to hide from the US B-52 bombers. When night fell, she and 30 something single women would continue their march to safety back to Phnom Penh. Since we have been speeding on this road for a good half hour, I estimated the walk might take here a good 6 or 7 days. Fortunately it only took her 2.
Rural expectations
1 thing about rural living that I can’t stand and will never adjust to is how rural folks don’t expect people to change. The folks that have hosted me in Phnom Penh were nice to let small things slide considering I am this white foreigner from America who spoke broken Khmer. However the rural folks wouldn’t let anything slide. They don’t see many foreigners ever, and they didn’t see me as a foreigner, but as one of them. So they found it funny that I chose to wear shorts or short sleeves or how I really spoke Khmer very badly. Or how I chose to write in my journal everyday and take 100 digital pictures without a care. I felt like they were mocking me the whole time, asking me questions that they knew I couldn’t answer and pointing out ridiculous artifacts and asking me if I ever seen them. 1 job as a tourist is to help other countries understand your country in comparison to yours. Of course there are cows in America, it’s not Cambodia exclusive. During the whole ride, I was upset at the mockery, as I was not sure if they were spiting me or really were just trying to make a good laugh. In one way, they might be upset that I am so rich compared to them, yet I don’t share any of it. It was one of those like you can’t drive down to the ghettoes with a Lexus and expect to make friends. However, my immediate family has plenty of reasons not to share wealth with the extended family, and I agree with them. Whatever, the whole ride, I was really upset.
Pretty bad place to have a breakdown
On our ride, we had to stop twice for a vehicle malfunction. I tell ya, the worst place you want to be at noon is on some dirt road in the middle of the Cambodian countryside. It is hot, sweaty, no sign of water or food for miles let alone people and your car is not functioning. All you can do is cover yourself up, sit down and just wait for hours. And this happened twice in one day.
Typical rural setting Khmer house
A typical rural house is made out of fine dark wood and is raised 5 meters off the ground. Apparently this is because during the monsoon season, either the Mekong or the Tonle Sap will flood the community and all families will be stuck inside their house for about 2 days or so. Even the cattled have raised “cow houses” for that particular season. I can imagine it would look like Venice or so. However the area beneath the house has many uses as an open space to store farming equipment, motorbikes, and is a perfect place to escape the midday heat. The house will have a covered porch where nobody does anything unless there are a couple of mattresses. The porch will lead to the biggest room in the house, which serves as a living room, TV room, huge floor dining room, and sleeping area (notice I said sleeping area). The TV and lights run off a car battery, and if you’re out, you’re out. The rest of the house will have 2 bedrooms at most, a bathroom which consists of just a squat toilet and a large cement basin filled with water. There is a small dining area in the back which leads to the outside porch which is basically a kitchen. All they need is a 4 big pots and a wood fire.
Race against the sun
To me waking up early might mean waking up an hour or 2 after the sun comes up. However if one were to do that in Cambodia, it would be considered very late. Cambodians wake up considerably early, and I don’t know how they manage to do it. The goal is simply to be awake and get ready to work BEFORE the sun comes up. This means 5 am in the morning, everyday. Waking up that early everyday really hurt, and I seriously found it as useless why we had to since we were only visiting. Plus, folks in the city don’t wake up that early anyway, so why bother with us?
The mighty Mekong
Everybody in SE Asia knows about the mighty Mekong River that flows through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. A lot of rural communities’ lives revolve around the Mekong with its vast resources and my mother’s hometown was no exception. When asked to go walk to the river from the house I said yes, and then my mother came along. There were about 8 of us, and it was a weird situation. My mother grew up with this view and hasn’t seen it in 20 years. I have never seen the view, and everybody else was probably sick of it. We crossed through the tobacco fields, and about 10 minutes we were there. The mighty Mekong. I was ready to jump in, but the drop was more like a cliff. What a really cool place to have a farm.
Howard Zinn is exciting, not
I bought a 700 pager, “The People’s History of the United States” expecting that on my downtime I could finish the book in a month. While it was exciting to read in such an out of the world location, soon it became a chore. Here everybody is just relaxing and laughing the day away, and I was sitting scratching my head overanalyzing American history. I didn’t get to even halfway, but at least I tried. Maybe reading is only exciting when everybody else is reading. Or is exciting the wrong word to use.
A little late for this tea party
Because Howard Zinn wasn’t doing me any justice (pretty ironic), I kept going on moto trips around the area to take pictures and pass the time. My favorite trip landed me a very friendly palm wine drinking session. It was a Friday (as if anybody counts the days here) and late in the afternoon and there were about 12 young guys sitting on a very small table drinking some substance out of a barrel that looked like it used to hold spackle. So I join in and ask what’s going on,
“We’re drinking palm wine!!!”
My god they sound like a bunch of pirates.
“Come sit!! Come sit!!”
Ignoring the fact that I might regret coming out here, I take a seat. I survey the situation and everybody is drunk. Nobody is the least bit coherent except for me and my cousin who drove here on a bike. They hand me a cup which looks pretty disgusting as if somebody snotted in it and I was expected to join in and help them finish the rest of this barrel. Oh boy.
“I’ll just take 1”
“Ok 1 is fine, drink.”
4 drinks later, I have come to the conclusion that this fresh and raw palm wine is horrendous. Plus it was as hot as motor oil. Then somebody brings in some fresh meat to eat.
“What is this?”
“Snake!!! Let’s eat!!!”
“Whoo!!!”
So I ate the snake. Not bad, looked like fish, but tasted like chicken. A lot more bones than I expected though.
After about 20 minutes and 5 drinks they refilled the barrel. I knew my time was up as it looked like it was one of those never ending barrel afternoons and I didn’t want to get back home drunk. I politely excused myself, still sober and was on my way. I thanked them for the good time, and they said I should join them after dinner because they would still be there (yeah right).
Back at the house, no one could believe that I could take 5 drinks of palm wine and still be walking straight. Well I guess this is a bad time to explain them about my Absinthe incident.
Wat fell into the Mekong
The next day, my mother took me to the new family wat, because the last one that she donated money to build…. fell into the Mekong during a monsoon season. Now wats (temples) are interesting places to go, and everybody seems to go to the same ones to admire the architecture. I find it very interesting to go to a temple in the middle of nowhere, because you are one of few people to admire the artwork. This one was a simply stunning gem, that very few people get to enjoy. Around the area, I got a lesson in boat racing. The temple held 2 racing boats that would be used during the annual Bon Um Tok water festival in November. Every community has a boat, and every community races. After learning every community races, I have to make it an effort to come see the Bon Um Tok races once in my life.
Other sights in Kompong Cham
There were several schools in the area, where most people go to school, and then don’t continue their education to go work on the farm. For the time that they are in school the kids look like they have a blast everyday and the memories of them riding their bike and goofing off on the streets will probably be something they will remember for the rest of their lives. Considering how happy the schoolchildren are, I would think that a Peace Corps program here would be very beneficial, and worthwhile for both parties considered.
A sunrise cruise, before sunrise
My mother and I did not want to bear another dusty hot van ride back to main road for a trip to Siem Reap, so we decided to go on a faster route through the Mekong river and land at the provincial capital of Kompong Cham. We woke up and left at 3am to wait in line for the boat that picks up passengers to dock at the capital at 6am. It was a night of no moon, and the sky was the clearest I have ever seen. I could not explain why the sky was so much clearer here than in other parts of the world I have been. Anyway, we docked, the boat was playing Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” in Khmer, and afterwards I climbed on top of the covered boat to watch the sunrise over the Mekong. Because the sky was so clear, there were no dramatic clouds surrounding the sunrise, but at least the thought counted.
Cheapest guesthouse in town
When we docked at the capital, I was surprised how 10 members, family or not, decided to stop work and join us for our proposed 5 days in Siem Reap. How they can decide to just stop work is beyond me. I became annoyed and I think my mother too, because they came knowing that we could afford to host them, but with any big group it becomes hard to manage. This was very evident when we reached our guesthouse that only had 1 bedroom, and the rest of them had to sleep on the floor outside in the hallway. We were placed in this guesthouse because it was ridiculously cheap, no charge at all, however there was a catch that I didn’t notice till the next day.
Tourist trap
I went into this silly tourist trap place called the Cambodian Cultural Village. I guess it’s kind of cool, but looking back it feels overproduced and more made for families and little kids. I was happy I only got to go in for 500 riel. It does have nice performances and you could learn a lot about the diversity of Cambodian history, if you can ignore the onslaught of Chinese tourists.
The Temples of Angkor, simple the greatest attraction in SE Asia
The town of Siem Reap has exploded in a tourism boom concerning the number of tourists coming in to explore Cambodia for the first time and dropping huge bank to come see the biggest attraction in Cambodia, the Temples of Angkor.
In short, Angkor, is the site of several capitals of the Khmer Empire, which in the past was the heart of the empire. The location today stands 30 something temples which serve as architectural masterpieces of the Khmer Civilization and as some of the most imposing monuments in the world. The most important being Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world.
After the wake of the Khmer Rouge, tourism was on a stand still considering the amount of landmines left over from the war. I remember watching a video my father brought home when he went there in 1994 and he was the only one in the complex (nowadays there are thousands and thousands a day). The late 90s saw a surge in growth, both in preservation efforts and the local hospitality efforts in town. Clear of landmines, clear of peace, the Temples of Angkor is a major, major player in the international travel map.
The next day we did the temples of Angkor at a ridiculously fast pace. I am reminded again as to how hard it can be to manage a van full of Cambodian tourists, but I really am in no position to complain. We began the day at Sra Srang, over to Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo and the walled city of Angkor Thom all before lunch. Angkow Wat and Phnom Bakheng to end the day. I know it sounds like a lot and it is. That morning’s rush could have easily filled 1 day in a relaxed pace. The rural Cambodians don’t really value history or are maybe blasé that about the grandeur of these and it really upset me how the ones who were hosting me were just rushing me from one temple to the next. I was able to see the temples enough to take enough pictures, however I didn’t learn anything about them, which is what I came there to do.
Ta Prohm, the “Tomb Raider” temple
Ta Prohm is a very popular temple as the complex has been engulfed by nature, and archaeologists have chosen to keep it that way except for a few crippling trees. What we have now is monster trees jutting off the ground fighting for space with structures in place. I can only imagine what this place would have looked like had I been the 1st person to have come across in centuries. This temple was featured in the movie, “Tomb Raider” starring Angelina Jolie, who by the way is a recognized Cambodian citizen, adopted a Cambodian child, and owns property in Battambang. The temple looks just as good as it does on the screen, and is in my opinion the most photogenic of all the temples. There’s definitely some beauty about nature and stone creating a beautiful chaos.
Personal photographer?
After finishing up the Bayon temple (a temple that has 54 towers with 4 cold smile faces pointing NSEW, kind of creepy if you’re walking around) a photographer who had been following us took an awesome standard portrait worthy of on the wall fame. When we broke for lunch, the photographer joined us too. I began to wonder how much we were paying this guy to follow us around while he takes high quality shots on his SLR. The standard fare is you pay a bit extra when you go to pick them up at the processing booth to payoff the photographer, but this guy in particular was more like a personal concierge driving me around anywhere I ask him to. Given the time I had at lunch, I ask my mother how much we agreed to hire a photographer. Apparently, we didn’t hire him for the day, we hired him for the entire duration of our stay. And the free guesthouse that we were staying at, was his. I guess he charges a higher commission to let folks stay at his house while he shoots a half dozen rolls of them in the following days (you have to think profit in terms of pennies on the dollar). But he was so subtle I just didn’t notice that he was following us from the beginning. I felt kind of spoiled and a bit like royalty at that moment, knowing that his guy would do anything I asked him to. Fortunately for the rest of the trip, I made him take shots of me from the ground so he doesn’t have to climb as much.
The world is tiny
I met many many travelers on this day of visiting the temples. The biggest group of Westerners comes from Australia, the Chinese were by the boatload maybe because of Chinese New Year, and Japanese and Koreans make up the rest of Asia. I met a guy from Argentina, who recommended I visit Buenos Aires one day (already on my agenda), a sunburned couple from Norway, many travelers from France, and a guy from Austria. Other people I ran into but didn’t meet came from Germany, lots of dirtbikers from England, folks from other European nations, India, and I think Canada. For that 1 day the world just shrank to a size small, and I was humbled to be around the most serious and adventurous travelers in the world. Although there was one nation that I wasn’t surprised to have met anybody until well into my 4th week. Brushing shoulders with thousands of tourists that day, I did not meet an American or pass by anybody that resembled one. I can always tell Americans and Europeans apart. Europeans like to wear silly hats, attach everything to their body, and were always behind in fashion. If they were overdressed however, then perhaps they were French.
Big Momma, Angkor Wat, herself
Angkor Wat, the principal temple of all of Angkor, billed as “the mother of all temples”, “the 8th wonder of the world” is the largest religious building in the world and is a shrine to the Hindu god Vishnu. This is the pride and joy of the nation and marks the highest point of civilization of the Khmer empire. Very few sights on earth can match this tingle down your spine, or the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It is a remarkably unique time to visit Angkor Wat, as it is finally getting all the recognition it deserves and I am privileged to visit such a site that has been widely ignored by my generation.
1st thing I notice is how I totally missed Angkor Wat the many times we drove by. When it finally came time to visit “Big Momma”, I was floored to find out that this huge body of water we kept driving by was actually Angkor Wat’s moat. It makes medieval castle moats look like cake. Judging by how wide the moat was, it was obvious how big the structure would be inside.
Of course there was the obvious plethora of Chinese and Korean tourists that made our stop at Angkor Wat a less than peaceful one. It felt like everybody was walking in single file, backing up, and then moving again, slightly sad that those days of solitude will never be had again. We got past the gate after I admired some bas reliefs (you could spend a whole day studying the 9 major bas reliefs) and stared at the goal ahead of us.
Climbing to the gods is no easy task
Hundreds of tourists, no matter how bad of shape they are still insist on climbing to the top. It is not as easy as it looks. The stairs to the top are obnoxiously steep, and supposedly get steeper the higher you grow up. The average person has to climb these steps with some assistance using their hands, however I find myself hopping through them with ease. I read somewhere that they built these steps to symbolize that climbing to the gods was not meant to be easy, and that the position of you climbing with your hands is meant to symbolize that you’re bowing to the gods.
Once you get up, it’s a pretty good view, and it’s the only way to get to the central tower. I perused around, admiring the architecture and taking lots of snapshots. Many tourists after climbing to the top decide to take an extended break to cleanse their spirits. I mainly tried to soak it all up as much as possible.
Apparently so many Chinese tourists were falling off the steps that they had to install a safety rail to accommodate the deadly climb to the bottom. A little upset that they had this steel bar was out of place in a stone temple, but I guess it looks a lot better than some blood on the ground.
My god it’s Disneyland
If I thought I left the Chinese tourists over at Angkor Wat, I should have stayed the hell away from Phnom Bakheng. It is an even worser climb to the top at about 150 meters with no steps involved, and a few including my mom, decided not to finish the climb. This hilltop temple is impressive simply because it offers the best sunset view of Angkor. However, good luck finding a spot to sit. Saying that it is rather tourist infested is an understatement. It is more like every tourist who decided to go to Angkor that day just had to climb the obnoxious steps to join a circus (as if they couldn’t torture their bodies enough). Anyway, if the view isn’t entertaining, sometimes there will be somebody, anybody trying to entertain the crowd. In this instance, a German girl walked around balancing a water bottle on her head, but was trumped, by a dancing old Chinese man who was humming the Chinese New Year on a kazoo. While I hated the fact that I had to share this view with my fellow travelers, this wave of happiness and friendship between travelers on a hill in remote Cambodia is something I will never forget.
Less than stellar
The next day, was slightly disappointing because I knew I had already seen the major Angkor attractions. I was aiming to hit all the temples, some stretch as far as the Thai border (and some have been reposed by Thailand, and some by Laos) but there weren’t feasible from my location. I relented and agreed to see the remaining sites at Angkor at a slower relaxed pace. There wasn’t much more to see, and everybody just sulked at what was less. We were seriously sore from the day before (except for me) and I made it obvious that if we were to have done the temples in the 3 days like I proposed than nobody would be in serious pain. They didn’t listen. Again, I was upset and I felt my time at Angkor was compromised. At the end of the night, we sat on straw mats facing Angkor Wat in time for sunset. I stared back knowing that one day I will be back and see the temples in the relaxed and spiritual way as they should be.
My god it’s my birthday!
We decided to leave to go back home at 3am the next day. A couple hours of driving in the dark, and then finally arrive back in Phnom Penh. Our share taxi that drove us from Kompong Cham managed to fit 4 passengers in the front row (it was a Toyota Camry for gods sake!). It was noontime when I got to shower and unpack from my monumental journey to the countryside and Angkor. I looked in the mirror in the bathroom (because this one has light) and realized that I haven’t seen my face in a week. I strangely looked odd, and quickly came to the conclusion that I haven’t been following the days of the week. I then realized it was noon and well into, my 23rd birthday. I told my mom and she also found it astonishing. They rushed me a cake for lunch and invited the kids over to spray silly string and practice singing the birthday song in English. It was a very low key and cute type of birthday, definitely in light of all the drunk escapades I have had in the past 5 or 6 years.
You’re Russian me! I thought you were Cambodian
Directly after lunch, I was told to pack my bags for a 2 day to Kompong Chhnang to leave immediately. I gather the goods, brave a hot taxi ride in which my cousin Bunthok and me discuss the more intellectual way to visit Angkor and arrive at a guesthouse at our destination. My cousin Bunthok took me out here because he was visiting the area for work for the next 2 days. He does work for a deaf development program and he was visiting the area for recruiting. I was basically just tagging along, as he had 3 other co-workers, 1 expatriate worker from Australia, and 2 deaf Cambodian teenagers who work as researchers. They went to work later that evening, and I finally had some time alone to borrow the guesthouse bike and ride around the town.
Peace and solitude in an urban mess
I took the bike out and rode to the riverside. I enjoyed just taking the time to relax and enjoy solitude for once in an area that looked remarkably that it should have been in Vietnam (I found out later that a lot of Vietnam emigrants live in this river area, hence it looks different). Sitting down, knowing that I was a stranger in a new land gave me a relaxing feeling. I guess it’s something not many people get to go through, walking around in a new city alone where you know nobody. Some people might be scared of it, but I enjoy walking around on my own pace, not sticking out from the crowd (ie, not the only minority in a supermarket), and knowing that I won’t run into somebody who finds it weird that I am just sitting on a park bench doing nothing. It gives me time to think without talking, and I strangely still feel social even though I’m ignoring everybody. Maybe it’s the traveler side of me who finds comfort in new surroundings, or maybe I enjoy the company of people even if they’re minding their own business.
New town, new people, new week
After I showered, we went out to dinner where I finally had good restaurant quality Khmer food (all other eating out had been cheap market stall food). They gave a toast for my birthday, and I observed the group communicating to each other in sign language. I also finally had a full conversation in English for once with the Australian expat. She has been for 5 years, loves it, and can only imagine what I am going through. I wish I was able to communicate more with the deaf teenagers, but there only lied my only communication barrer, no English, or Khmer. I went to bed that night watching the Discovery Channel, loving every second of it, and fell asleep content. I was in a new town, with a new crowd, and the beginning of a new week of adventures.
Photo Links
- My mother’s hometown in Kompong Cham province, Cambodia
- Cambodian Cultural Village
- Temples Surrounding Angkor
- Ta Prohm, the “Tomb Raider” temple
- Bayon and the Central Angkor area
- Angkor Wat, Cambodia
