Seasons on the Move

Phnom Penh – September 11

Not much accomplished. We had to wait around for the day to get our Vietnam visas. We picked them up in the morning and then did our best to kill the rest of the day. We booked our ticket to Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon. The next day in the early morning, we were set to leave.

It would have been nice to spend some more time in Cambodia, but our time in South East Asia is rapidly disappearing. We need to be back in Bangkok by October 4 for our flight to Bombay. To be honest, Cambodia is not cheap if you are coming to take in the major sights. Angkor Wat was expensive and the double standard in prices for foreign tourists aids in running up the tab. However, in a country as poor as Cambodia, I didn’t feel all that cheated.

Phnom Penh – September 10

In the morning we went to apply for our Vietnam visas, a fairly painless process. We spent the rest of the day lounging in the Foreign Correspondence Club reading and sweating in the hot, humid air. When the heat became too much, we went back to the hotel to chill out in the air conditioned room.

Another sign of Cambodia’s poverty were the frequent power outages in the hotel. Also, late at night, all of the street lights go out, leaving the city, somewhat appropiately, shrouded in darkness.

Phnom Penh – September 9

We spent the day wandering around the city. The riverfront was an intriguing mix of beggars, tourists and hustlers. The influence of the French colonization could be seen in the store front facades and the vendors selling fresh baguettes. The side streets were lined with discarded coconut husks and watermelon rinds. Piles of garbage formed rudimentary meridians in the middle of the streets. Gaunt dogs and chickens roamed the alley ways. Motorcycles zipped in and out of crowds with total disregard for people’s safety.

Phnom Penh has a sense of lawlessness that I found somewhat intoxicating. It was like being in the wild west, where, with the right amount of money, anything could happen. From what I could tell, there was no such thing as law enforcement.

Later at night, after returning to our hotel, Mike and I set out to find a “happy” pizza joint. In Khmer cuisine, it is somewhat commonplace to use marijuana as a cooking spice. The country tolerates the use of soft drugs, something that was obvious after the sun went down. Instead of smoking, we opted for the food. We grabbed a couple of extra large pizzas and then went back to our room to get goofy and watch a movie on Mike’s labtop.

Phnom Penh – September 8

After haggling for fifteen minutes, we hired A.K. for the day. The ride out to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek, about 15km outside of Phnom Penh, filled our lungs with exhaust and dust. To combat the pollution, we tied bandanas around our faces and ended up looking like a gang of wild west bank robbers.

The Killing Fields were much smaller than I had imagined given the number of Cambodians that were killed there during the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror. The site was filled with large crater like holes where mass graves had been dug up. In the center of the grounds, there was a memorial shrine filled with the skulls and clothes of the genocide’s victims. We all paid our respects by lighting some incense and making a small monetary donation.

The tuk tuk ride back into town was made in silence as we all reflected upon what we had just seen. Perhaps it was because the route we were taking was most likely the same route taken by the Khmer Rouge to and from Choeung Ek.

The visit to the Tuol Seng prison, a converted school house, was an equally chilling experience. Unlike the efficiently structured death camps of Nazi Germany, the prison seemed to be put up in a hurry with little to no planning. Gnarled barbed wire enclosed the four buildings. Classrooms were transformed into interrogation rooms. Uneven prison cells were constructed out of clay bricks and wood. To connect all of the rooms together, the S21 had knocked down walls to form crude doorways. In some of the rooms, there were still blood stains on the floor and walls. In other rooms, the walls were lined with photos of the S21’s victims. Unfortunately, due to Cambodia’s developing economy, the site was in a state of disrepair with most of the buildings suffering from substantial water damage.

Cambodia is a country of contrasts. On one hand, they have one of the most important historical sites in all of the world. Indeed, Angkor Wat is a great source of pride for all Cambodians. On the other hand, the country has a horrific past that it is still trying to recover from. At both the Killing Fields and Tuol Seng, we saw different generations of Cambodians praying, tearing up and generally making sure not to forget. What a strange reality it is then for the common tourist to visit a country both for the grandeur of its spectacular ancient past as well as its tragic recent history.

Siem Reap to Phnom Penh – September 7

The bus to Phnom Penh was hot, stuffy and had little leg room. Despite being uncomfortable, the nearly six hour ride went fairly quickly. The bus also gave us a chance to see the Cambodian countryside: lush green rice fields, scattered palms and ramshackle houses on stilts by the side of the road.

We arrived in Phnom Penh around 6pm and were immediately assaulted by tuk tuk drivers offering their services. It took us a moment to gather our bearings, but we eventually grabbed the least aggressive of the drivers to take us to our hotel. A.K., our driver, took us out near the Russian Market, but warned us that the area was kind of dangerous. From what we could tell, he was right. Instead, he recommended a few places, most likely where he received a commission. We took a look at couple of places and decided on the cleanest and most centrally located of the two.

We checked into the hotel, had a bite to eat and then retired to our rooms for the evening. Tomorrow morning, A.K. was going to take us to the Killing Fields and the Tuol Seng Detention Centre, home of the nefarious S21 Killing Machine.

Siem Reap – September 6

A littled templed out, Fab and I decided to bum around town and take it easy. The last two days had left us drained. We bought a few things for family members and generally tried to avoid the heat of the day, somewhere in the neighborhood of 38c. At night, we packed our bags for our decent south into Phnom Penh.

Siem Reap – September 5

Our driver from the day before, Sopi, told us in the morning that he wasn’t feeling well and that his brother was going to be our driver for the day. The only problem was that his brother didn’t speak any English. We had Sopi tell his brother where we wanted to go and then we were off.

The drive out to Banteay Srei took about an hour. Banteay Srei is the most ornate of the Angkor sites and one of the furthest from the main temple complex. The ride out was slow and breezy. It was nice to see the surrounding area and how people lived at a leisurely pace. We asked our driver some questions, but since he didn’t speak English, he had no idea what we were talking about.

Banteay Srei was smaller than I had imagined, but didn’t fail to wow us. The site was so geometrically alligned that the pictures almost took themselves. Also, since the site is quite a distance from the main temple complex, there weren’t alot of tourists around. Always a welcome addition, or subtraction, depending on how you look at it.

After Banteay Srei, we went to the Landmine Musuem. The musuem was rather small, but it was sponsored by the government Canada. I felt proud that my native country had donated money to ensure that devasting effect of landmines would not be lost on tourists. I was also shocked to see that a large number of the landmines used by the Khmer Rouge were supplied by Russia, China and the United States.

We visited some more sites on the way back to town, but again, since our driver could not understand us, it was difficult for us to figure exactly where we were. Despite the confusion, both Fab and I were impressed by the vast size of Angkor. Apparently, when London had a paltry population of 50,000, the Angkor area had a population exceeding one million.

Mike and Jen arrived from Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon. We met up with them after returning from our tour and went out for dinner at the Khmer Kitchen where none other than Mick Jagger had dined during his visit to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap – September 4

We hired a tuk tuk driver, Sopi, in the morning to take us on a tour of the major sites at Angkor Wat. We got to Angkor Wat proper around 10am. The sun was scorching. I was sweating so bad that Fab took to calling me “Brooksy” after Albert Brooks’ sweat laden scene in “Broadcast News”. I think I had built Angkor up in my mind too much because I was left a little uninspired. The site, similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, was being restored. Two of the lotus-flower shaped domes were covered with green tarpaulin and scaffolding on one side.

The next site we went to was Bayon, home of the infamous smiling faces. From outside the temple, the place looked fairly non-descript, but once inside, that all changed. Having been somewhat disappointed by Angkor itself, I was awed by Bayon. I immediately knew why I had seen so many t-shirts with large stone faces on them.

After Bayon, we made brief stops at some minor sites including the Terrace of Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King and Victory Gate. At every site there were different children selling the same trinkets. “Bracelets for you, I give you good price,” was a common refrain. Some of the girls even feigned crying to gain some sympathetic dollars from us. When they realized their sorrow wasn’t working, they turned and walked away with their friends, laughing at their pitiful performances.

To me, the most impressive site in all of Angkor was Ta Phrom. The site is covered the roots of massive trees doing their best to strangle the life out of the crumbling stone walls. The whole place felt like a set from “Indiana Jones”. Not surprisingly, “Tomb Raider” filmed some scenes here. On a side note, almost everyone in Cambodia, particularly the tuk tuk drivers, know who Angelina Jolie is. Fab and I, seeing the poverty in Cambodia with our own eyes, could see why Ms. Pitt adopted a child from this country. We talked about doing the same, but figured that we would end up spending the rest of our lives being compared to Brangelina. Still, some of the kids break your heart.

We rounded out the day with a lengthy ride in the tuk tuk. The heat of the day had begun to recede and the cool breeze provided us with much needed relief. We got back to the hotel, slammed on the AC and rested our arms and legs. All of the climbing had taken its toll.

Siem Reap – September 3

Fab and I spent the day wandering around Siem Reap, or ‘Siamese Defeated’ in Khmer, representing the ages old antagonistic relationship with the Thais. The city, about 125,000 in size, was easily navigated by foot. The streets were lined with rundown French colonial architecture, quaint cafes and swaying palm trees. Uneven pavement, stray dogs and tuk tuk drivers filled out the scene. Now that Cambodia was beginning to attract international tourists, I got the feeling that Siem Reap was on the verge of a major tourist boom. However, the city also seemed incapable of truly sustaining such a sudden influx of visitors due to the obvious under-development of the area.

At dusk, Fab and I went to Angkor for the sunset. Instead of the sun, we got rain. Tropical rain. I have never been as wet with my clothes on outside of the few occassions that I was tossed in a pool as a joke. Nonetheless, Fab and I had a good time. The weather was warm and the fact that we were at one of the world’s most audacious achievements didn’t hurt either.