Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On 14th October, we arrived at Siem Reap airport, and were welcomed by the smiling face of our tuk-tuk driver, Mr An. Riding in the tuk-tuk through the rural scenery, enjoying the cooling breeze, we decided that we liked Cambodia already. A free 20-minute massage and a cold drink at our hostel only made us feel better.
We liked Mr An so much that we booked him for a three-day tour around Angkor, which is a complex of over one thousand temples dating from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. The first day we spent visiting some of the smaller temples, including the beautiful sandstone Banteay Srei. On the second day, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5am to join the crowds for the sun rise over the famous Angkor Wat, followed by visits to some of the other, larger temples. A quick siesta back at our hostel, and we finished the day with sunset at Bakheng Hill, which can be accessed only by scaling a flight of hazardously-steep steps. We quickly came back down, as it was getting dark and a storm was blowing over. By the third day, we were already 'templed out', and getting tired of the battalions of hawkers waiting to ambush us at every turn, and so we made it a short day. For anyone who's not familiar with the concept of being 'templed out', it involves the victim entering a near-catatonic state in which he no longer cares to ask which temple he is arriving at, walks briskly around the temple taking one or two cursory photos, and re-enters his tuk-tuk, without saying a word. The temples are awash with thousands of begging children and landmine victims, and it is heartbreaking to have to turn so many away without even the smallest donation.
Still in Siem Reap, we decided to do a cookery course, after being impressed by the Cambodian food, and settled on what seems to be the national dish, Amok, a curry not too far removed from a Thai green curry, and served in a banana-leaf basket. The course started with a tour of the market, and we found that viewing the skinless frogs and half-gibletted chickens alongside baskets of fried spiders and cockroaches nearly ruined our appetite. Afterwards, we chopped, sliced, pounded, bashed, mixed, fried and weaved for a couple of hours, until we ended up with something that looked like a respectable amok. With the mass of spring rolls we had also made, we had a good feed. We might be tempted to subject some of you to an attempt at recreating this dish, when we get back.
We capped our stay in Siem Reap with a visit to Dr Fish, a tank full of small fish which began hungrily eating the dead skin from our feet when we dipped them into the water. The twenty minutes we'd paid for didn't seem like long, until we felt their little teeth scraping across the bottoms of our feet and in between our toes, when it started to feel like a lifetime. A hilarious experience, and Kate was pleased with the softness of her feet afterwards.
In the capital, Phnom Penh, we visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, with its floor of over five thousand solid silver tiles, and a Buddha encrusted with 9584 diamonds. During sombre visits to the killing fields and the Tuol Sleng prison, we learned about the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. The major site of the killing fields, Choeung Ek, has mass graves where 8895 bodies have been found, and a Chankiri Tree against which Khmer Rouge combatants would sling babies and children, to kill them. Our visit was followed by an inappropriate offer for a visit to a shooting range, where it is reputedly possible to purchase both a rocket launcher and a cow, to be combined in an obvious way.
A few quiet days in the seaside resort of Sihanoukville, mostly spent lounging around the pool, were enough to recharge our batteries. We then went to Kampot, where every dish is laced with the famous pepper grown in the region, including possibly the coffee, which had a suspiciously-peppery taste. During a river cruise out to the sea, we watched the fishermen and fisherwomen who earn their living by standing hip deep in the sea, angling for perhaps 5kg of fish a day. Surprisingly, this is one of the better-paid jobs in Kampot.
In Takeo, we spent some time helping out at an orphanage partly funded by an organization run by acquaintances of Kate's. We arrived slightly concerned about what it would be like, and what we could do to help, but we were soon put at ease by the warm welcome we received from the kids, who were extremely keen to get on with some serious messing about. We spent a good deal of time doing just that, and helping the kids with their English, but also found time to recruit a few kids' help in painting a mural on the wall, labelling some major parts and internal organs of the human body. Overall, it was a rewarding experience, hopefully for the children as well as for us. Some of the kids made me pinky swear that I'd come back, and now I'll surely burn in hell if I don't keep my promise. Kate was wise to this trick, and didn't make the fateful commitment.
Finally, we returned to Phnom Penh in order to catch the bus to Vietnam, sad to leave Cambodia but ready for some new adventures.
- comments