Pratting Around the World

ko russei

Cambodia’s south coast has about 60 islands, though only a few of these are inhabitated. We decided to visit ko russei (bamboo island) for a few days. 

Due to cambodia only recently becoming a tourist destination, the island was very rustic with only 20 or so basic beach bungalows. You could walk from one side of the island to the other (where the beach was more a less deserted) in less than 15 minutes; the walk was through a jungle and scary at night, but fine during the day. In the next 10 years or so, these islands will become over-touristy like the thai islands so it was great to see the island in its infancy.

snorkelling around the islands
- actually just to get to ko russei, we had to jump aboard a snorkeling trip that went to a few different unihabited islands. we literally hopped off into the water at ko russei. it’s crazy they don’t even have a proper ferry to ko russei; i was scared the laptop was going to drown.

deserted beach was great to relax on

rustic little cabins. a few, including ours, had a “bathroom,” which meant a nonflushing toilet, no sink, and a hose-like shower. classy. i preferred to pee in the jungle to be honest. we had electricity for a couple hours each day.

view from our bungalow – you stepped down onto sand.
the whole thing reminded me of the book, “The Beach.” although we had a lovely stay and the whole deserted island thing was cool to experience, i could never live there indefinitely.

crazy starfish (and my ugly hat).

the bungalow wasn’t the most luxurious of places,but the hammock on the deck was nice.

cheesy sunset picture – definitely my new facebook photo. oh yeah, the island sometimes ran out of drinking water, but beer always seemed to be available.

pretty sunset on the west-facing, abandoned side of the island.

Phnom Penh

we stopped in cambodia’s capital city for a couple of nights en route to the coast. The city doesn’t have a great reputation but it was worth checking out, mostly because of the killing fields.

our bus on the way to phnom penh. notice the smashed windshield from a previous accident that has been repaired using tape.

roadtrip scenery.

the riverfront is supposedly the nicest area in phnom penh with a lot of restaurants and bars. It was full of rubbish and stunk pretty bad, not a good place to relax… yet lots of locals were around, some even fishing in the filfthy water.

night food market with nice little picnic area. the other part of the market was pretty weak, especially after the ones in siem reap.

cambodia has been through some shitty times (1975-1979), with pol pot’s brutal regime accounting for over a million lives. we visited tuol sleng genecide museum – this place used to be a school, but during those 4 years was turned into a prison and torture centre. class rooms were divided up and turned into cells, some rooms still containing chalkboards. bars once used as a jungly gym for the children were used as gallows and water tortures.

the rooms still had the beds in and some pretty gruesome pictures, a really creepy place.

the museum had an exhibit by a swedish guy who had visited the country in 1978 (one of the few foreigners to do so). he explained his two contrasting feelings, at the time of his visit and in restrospect: at the time he felt cambodia was a country with no real problems, but his present day feelings are of regret for supporting an abominal regime. during his visit he was subjected to mass propaganda and his group didn’t even have their own translator which meant that much of the cruelty and horror was hidden from the foreigners’ eyes.

after the people had been subjected to torture and made to admit (falsley) to whatever the khmer rouge wanted them to, they were taken to the killing fields and executed.  

we visited these killing fields and walking around them was like a punch in the face. below is the stupa, or religious memorial, to all who were killed. housed inside this magestic white tower are over 5000 human skulls, as well as other bones and a heap of raggedy clothes, all dug up from the mass graves when the khmer rouge were defeated. in all, there were close to 20,000 executions.

seeing so many skulls was crazy. although they are in the stupa, the unceromonious way they are heaped on top of each other emphasizes how death in this number makes everyone anonymous.

not only were there still bones and bits of clothes in the dug-up graves, there were actually bones and rags sticking up from the ground as we walked around. the experience was surreal. i’m not sure why the entire site wasn’t fully excavated and cleared of human remains, but the result is almost creepier than seeing all of those skulls. it’s as if the fields were seen as some kind of sicko human landfill, where bodies were carelessy flung about.

i don’t want to get into all of the horrors, but were are a few horrible things that stuck with me: children and babies were killed by smashing them against trees; the khmer rouge sprayed chemicals on the bodies to help with the stench as well as to kill any survivors who were mixed in with the dead.

Angkor wat

The temples of angkor wat were built by the khmer empire between the 9th and 13th century. the ruins are located in forests and farmlands north of siem reap.

angkor thom was the first temple we went to and it was amazing. we felt like Indiania Jones climbing all over the ruins. you were allowed inside and everywhere really. it would be a kid’s dream playground.

Prasat Kravan

Ta Prohm – part of tomb raider was filmed here.

Ta som – the most relaxing of the temples

Mr Seng – biggest ladies man in siem reap. no women were safe when Mr Seng was about. he was our tuktuk drivers one day at the temples.

Another day we rented bikes and made our way, cycling about 30 km throughout the day. at the end of the day we realized our idea of cycling through laos wouldn’t happen -sore asses. we met some wild little monkeys along the way -they loved the supermario-sized bananas i brought along to lure them into being friendly.

since these temples sat forgotten and undiscovered for so many years, the jungle eventually took them over. while some restorations have occured, a lot of the temples are in ruins and have these big, beautiful trees growing in, on and through them.

the eastern gate of angkor thom – we also went to the southern gate the first day when we explored all of angkor thom. these gates are immense and very impressive, even though they are in ruins. each side of the gateway is lined with giant statues of what i think were gods. that’s huddy on the bike.

the carvings were immense and impressive. there were also giant moats around many of temples which are still well-formed today. i think moats are cool. i want one around my house.

Bantay srei

the carvings here were supposedly too intricate for men to have done them, hence the name banteay srei, which means ‘citadel of the women.’

Ta keo. this temple had many levels that could be climbed via steep, crumbling steps. most western countries would never let tourists do this because of safety as well as damage to the temples, so climbing to the top was a real novelty. it was possible to get to the top of the three towers – a dizzying climb, but worth it.

Angkor wat is the most famous of the temples because of size and the good condition it’s in. we saved angkor wat for last, which maybe was a mistake because we were a little templed out. however, the light at the end of the day was beautiful when it came through the openings in the walls.

i really couldn’t believe how these ancient temples are just open to the elements and open to hundreds of people exploring. it can’t be good for preservation, but actually seeing the artifacts in their original locations and being able to take such a close look is unusual and intriguing. thanks cambodia.

Siem Reap

The journey from ko  pha ngan:

45 minute dirt road journey from hotel to pier (then 2 hour wait); 3 hour ferry ride to surat thani (then 2 hour wait); 10 hour bus journey to Bangkok; taxi ride to bus station; 4 hour bus journey; 20 minute tuk tuk ride to dodgiest border ever:

the cambodian-thai border town of poipet is an absolute dump. It’s  a place where a lot of thais go to gamble. poipet is rife with scams and sketchy people. for a start the tuk tuk driver took us to a fake embassy where they tried to get us to buy a visa for double the price. (kelly: we met some idiots who had been duped there, but i don’t blame them- the fake embassy had uniforms and all. Even the real embassy tried unsuccessfully to jack up the price and we had to pay a small bribe so our passports wouldn’t be withheld. oh yeah, then we had to go to this border crossing room that had a tree growing through it and rotting food). After getting through customs, you’re greeted by loads of taxi drivers trying to get your business. After negotiating a price, we had to get in the taxi in some dodgy back alleyway (i think that the police have some slice of the industry where they take a portion of the profits). After the 2hour taxi ride to siem reap we were greeted by a tuk tuk driver and tout who tried to convince us that the hotel we had booked was a dump surrounded by drug dealers and that they knew plenty of better places. After 30 hours we finally got to chill out in our hotel room.

we stopped at siem reap, like most people, to enjoy the temples of angkor wat; it was a nice little city but not that much to do other than a few tourist markets. (kelly: i thought the markets were really good though and the town was fun to walk around.)

my really embarrassing hat that we accidently-on-purpose ditched later on when it starting falling to pieces. i almost used it as a barf bag at one point. oh, and the pic also shows the balcony from our hotel. the place we stayed was good minus the crap free breakfast and this crazy changing of rooms because of no hot water. we did become penpals with a cambodian kid that worked there.

the landmine museum was interesting. It was run by a guy who had fought on both sides of the war. His job was to plant mines for the vietnamese during the war. He now clears mines from all over the countryside and has made a museum of all the artillery he has accumulated.

 It is estimated that there are somewhere between 3 and 6 million mines still in cambodia, obviously a huge danger for the locals. We saw a lot of amputees around.
the museum was so unofficial, which made it better in a way. you could touch most of the mines and stuff and things were just lying around.

on our way back from angkor wat we kept seeing this random stuff wrapped in bamboo and sold on the sides of streets. not sure if it was even food, the lady let us try some – it was a kind of coconut candy with a peanut butter taste. weird, but good, at least for the first couple bites.

bye-bye siem reap.