Same Same But Different...

Cambodia and Vietnam... Same same but different. (To borrow a popular phrase from Vietnam - commonly used when things are similar, usually used to get you to pay more money for an inferior product that is not exactly what you asked for.)

Moving along the Mekong river you can't really tell where Vietnam ends and Cambodia begins. We spent two days meandering along the river, watching life go by. We visited some villages and had our fill of sickeningly sweet coconut candy. Upon reaching the border we were herded onto dry land and made to walk through the most lax border patrol area in the world. From our group of 20, the customs officer asked for 4 volunteers to get their carry-on bags "inspected". By "inspected" they meant "ignored"... we opened and closed our bags while a customs officer stared into space. Yet another successfull border crossed with many pirated DVDs in my bag haha.

The final 6 hour leg of our boat trip was the most exciting for me as we got to see life along the river... Cambodia style! Small children bathing in the water, people fishing and washing their cows along the shore and farmers doing their thing on land. The best part was the unexpected reaction of the kids as our boat passed by. I had gotten used to indifferent stares or mocking "hello's" in China/Vietnam/Japan. These little ones took the opportunity to jump up and down waving their hands in the air with big smiles on their faces yelling "HELLO!!". This has continued throughout Cambodia. The kids in the city stop what they're doing to give you a big smile and say hello.

With such a great start, how could Cambodia be bad?! From the moment we arrived I felt that there was something special about this place. The shocking history, extremely friendly people, amazing sites and perfect weather combine to make Cambodia a travelers dream!

We started off in the capital of Phnom Penh. There we had a series of depressing days seeing the old Khmer Rouge prison called S-21 and the infamous Killing Fields. Learning more about the bloody civil war was shocking. It bares more than a passing resemblance to the Holocaust as the KR systematically exterminated around 2 million people (educated people, Cambodian Chinese/Vietnamese and anyone who dared question the regime) using starvation, work camps and torture. In 2007, people here seem to be optimistic and are relishing in their first years of peace (apparently the country wasn't really stable until 97/98).

After a short stint in PP we headed to Battambang, a small city near the Thai border. Battambang province was one of the most hard hit by the KR as they retreated to the mountains on the border following the Vietnamese liberation in 1979. Consequently, there are still landmines in the area and it has only recently become more popular with tourists traveling overland to Siem Reap. This was good for us because it isn't on the Japanese/Korean tour bus circuit yet. I got more than enough of those tour buses in Siem Reap!

We ended up hooking up with a couple of local guides and traveled through the area on motorbikes. The guides were super friendly and knowledgeable and riding on the motorbikes was a rush for me (my first time!). We saw a small temple from the Angkor era and got a crash course in some Hindu creation myths and characters in the temples that prepared us for what was to come in Angkor. They also took us to a temple complex that had been used by the KR as a prison. There were some caves, called "killing caves", where the KR would dump their victims, sometimes still alive, into a deep crevasse. Apparently, after the war, families from the surrounding area had to make the trek up to the caves to look for the remains of their missing family members.

The rest of the tour was not so depressing... We gorged on fruit at a local fruit farm and took a ride on the Bamboo Train. The train was not really a train, more of a bamboo cart with a small motor that runs on a train track. The guides said that the local villagers invented the trains to transport goods along the track (built by the French a very long time ago and not used often by real trains) to the nearest towns. There are so many Bamboo Trains on only one track that if two come head to head, the one with the smallest load, or least amount of people actually has to be removed from the track to let the other pass. This makes for a very long journey!

Our next stop was Siem Reap- the famous Cambodian tourist destination. We took a 9 hour boat ride from Battambang to Siem Reap on which we moved along a very small river with many tight turns (we actually hit the riverbank a few times). It felt like one of those Disney rides. Anyway, the scenery was spectacular... the boat cut through flat-as-a-pancake countryside with dry rice paddies and sparse trees as far as the eye could see.

When we reached Siem Reap we were greeted by a pile of starving children (we gave them our bananas and water, not much of a help to anyone involved) and our trusty tuktuk driver who charged us too much for a ride the next day. Siem Reap is in a perfect location for trips to the temples of Angkor. We spent 3 full days seeing temple after temple. The first day Mr. Bin (lucky tuktuk driver) took us to the temples farthest away from the city. On the second and third days we rented bicycles and peddled around the closer temples, by far a better way to see the area. All of the temples were fantastic, old and hot. The famous areas of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were filled with tourists and a little less impressive. We ended up seeing about 10 temples in all and I much preferred the ones that were less famous, less restored and therefore less busy. My favourite of the famous temples was Ta Prohm. I liked Ta Prohm because it is one of the only temples being reclaimed by nature... There are huge fig trees growing out of the ruins, displacing blocks and creating nice shady areas. Also, it doesn't hurt that this is where part of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed haha.

After Siem Reap we reluctantly headed back to Phnom Penh to organize and rest before heading out to the wilds of the Northeast. Maybe it won't be wild, but I'm sure it will be dusty!