Greetings everyone from Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia. It is time for us to reflect back on the month we spent in Cambodia. (We also visited Cambodia back in October (rainy season) 2006) So we left Vancouver on January 2nd bound for Shanghai (some 18 hrs distant) where we held over for 5 hrs. before completing the final 5hr. flight to good old Thailand. This was one brutally uncomfortable flight aboard a Airbus 700...and the strange thing is that the China East Airlines staff did not allow anyone to open any side window shades the entire trip...a cave would have been more friendly!
So 'Blingkok' was the same old same old...good food and cheap beer which makes it a great place to base from. (We also lost the 3rd somewhere over the top of the world and landed on the 4th) A few days later we hit the road NW for Cambodia arriving in Siem Reap the same day... a bit different from 06 when it took over 10 hrs from the Cambodia border to reach Siem Reap via a horrific pot-holed dusty one lane road! This place is tourist central and I doubt it there is any single feature in the world that receives a many visitors as Angkor Wat in Siem Reap! We cannot recognize anything from 06 and tourism figures indicate that visitors doubled from 06 to 08 to 2 million annually and the amazing growth in tourism continues! Of course no one goes to Siem Reap without visiting Angkor Wat and we paid up for three days two of which we spent riding bicycles through the ruins, which are as amazing as ever.
One big disappointment was that the neatest temple system called Ta Phrom was being rebuilt. In 06 we had to explore our way through the ruins which were left in their original shape since being discovered by a french explorer in the 1800's...the huge trees growing throughout and through the ruins were amazing (the movie Tomb Raiders with Angelia Jolie was filmed here), but today there are hundreds of tourists travelling through these same ruins on board walks and all of the neatest areas are being rebuilt with all kinds of metal and wood scaffolding...its badly needed but sure ruins the experience! We also checked out some remote ruins and stream carvings that we didn't see last trip.
After 5 days we bounced down some pretty rough dirt/blacktop roads to Phnom Phen, Cambodias capital of 1.5 million. This place was pretty dodgy in 06...today is is close to Bangkok...what an amazing change! Just don't eat at the KFC (we think they substituted crow for chicken) nor the Dairy Queen (offered about 5 icecream options and tasted like it was made with goat milk!...otherwise great food...oh yeah and the beer is CHEAP. (also great Margarittas for 1.50 and some amazing food options!
Next stop is Sen Monoram which is a mountain village about 10 hrs northeast of Phnom Phen...I should add 10 hrs of hell ride via a bus that resembled good old India! None the less we made it and spent a few days exploring some waterfalls, farms and small patches of jungle that remain intact around this high elevation (we were actually kind of cold!) using 5 dollar a day scooters...a great way to go but hell on the ass! (One of the long drops was so bad (flooded) that by the time I got into it my urge to crap was replaced by the urge to puke. Back to Phnom Phen and civilization!
Here we come Kampot...a sleepy colonial town resting on the shore of the Bay of Thailand. Checked into the Kampot River Bungaloos for a big 6 (dollars that is)...had to share our stick and thatch hut on stilts with a couple of cool 8 inch gecko's and various flying creatures (Lori wasn't impressed!) Renting motos to check out some cool local mountains and ruins was a ton of fun and a few days later we moved about 30 km down the road to the small community of Kep where we did some jungle hiking (in other words crawling up and down slippery hills in thick bush and trees without seeing anything! (anything that moves has been eaten by the locals unless it is poisonous!) Still a very laid back place to visit and actually got some beach time.
Back to Phnom Phen for a couple of days of relaxing (checked out the torture prison, Mekong River boat ride and our old digs around PP where we spent time in 06)
From Phnom Phen we travelled the roads to the city of Battambang and spent another day riding motos and visiting some pretty amazing caves (killing caves where the Khymer Rouge bludgeoned thousands of people then threw them down into caves where their bones remain) There was also a few good ruins to check out and just by riding around one could get a pretty good sense of what folks in the farming communities lived like...life is pretty rough for these good natured, hard working folks.
At this point in time we decided that we would fly to Malaysia vs. busing it back to Thailand then down to Kuala Lumpar where we are flying out to the Phillipines on the 5th. So to get back to the closest airport (Siem Reap) we took a boat across Tonle Sap Lake and this truly was an amazing day. This is dry season in Cambodia and the rice farmers (number one export is rice) are located on the lowlands around Tonle Sap preparing the fields. Most live on boats but also have temporary tents etc. set up as once rainy season comes only a few places are above flood waters.
So we had a fantastic time in Cambodia but the old saying that the first time is the best time is true...it is the new places that we visited that we enjoyed the most in terms of finding new and exciting things to do and see. The Cambodian people are pretty amazing so it is good to see that their country is definately doing alot better financially than back in 06. However compared to countries like Malaysia, Cambodia has serious problems that will be very difficult to overcome. Their population is rising at over 2% per year and despite having 25% of their land-base in Parks the environmental degradation is horrific...illegal logging is rampant and in terms of litter and water pollution Cambodia matches India with stinking raw sewage pouring into the Mekong right in front of the best tourist areas in Cambodia. Poverty appears as bad as India yet in Phnom Phen there are Rolls Royce dealerships (500,000 $US), Range Rovers (150,000) Porches, Toyota PUs and we even saw some Ford 450's with 50 inch tires on at least 20 inch lift kits (can hardly fit on the roads!) along with hundreds of crippled beggars, mothers with a pile of young kids etc. Looks like the ultimate capitalist state and government corruption is daily news.
After 5 days we bounced down some pretty rough dirt/blacktop roads to Phnom Phen, Cambodias capital of 1.5 million. This place was pretty dodgy in 06...today is is close to Bangkok...what an amazing change! Just don't eat at the KFC (we think they substituted crow for chicken) nor the Dairy Queen (offered about 5 icecream options and tasted like it was made with goat milk!...otherwise great food...oh yeah and the beer is CHEAP. (also great Margarittas for 1.50 and some amazing food options!
Next stop is Sen Monoram which is a mountain village about 10 hrs northeast of Phnom Phen...I should add 10 hrs of hell ride via a bus that resembled good old India! None the less we made it and spent a few days exploring some waterfalls, farms and small patches of jungle that remain intact around this high elevation (we were actually kind of cold!) using 5 dollar a day scooters...a great way to go but hell on the ass! (One of the long drops was so bad (flooded) that by the time I got into it my urge to crap was replaced by the urge to puke. Back to Phnom Phen and civilization!
Here we come Kampot...a sleepy colonial town resting on the shore of the Bay of Thailand. Checked into the Kampot River Bungaloos for a big 6 (dollars that is)...had to share our stick and thatch hut on stilts with a couple of cool 8 inch gecko's and various flying creatures (Lori wasn't impressed!) Renting motos to check out some cool local mountains and ruins was a ton of fun and a few days later we moved about 30 km down the road to the small community of Kep where we did some jungle hiking (in other words crawling up and down slippery hills in thick bush and trees without seeing anything! (anything that moves has been eaten by the locals unless it is poisonous!) Still a very laid back place to visit and actually got some beach time.
Back to Phnom Phen for a couple of days of relaxing (checked out the torture prison, Mekong River boat ride and our old digs around PP where we spent time in 06)
From Phnom Phen we travelled the roads to the city of Battambang and spent another day riding motos and visiting some pretty amazing caves (killing caves where the Khymer Rouge bludgeoned thousands of people then threw them down into caves where their bones remain) There was also a few good ruins to check out and just by riding around one could get a pretty good sense of what folks in the farming communities lived like...life is pretty rough for these good natured, hard working folks.
At this point in time we decided that we would fly to Malaysia vs. busing it back to Thailand then down to Kuala Lumpar where we are flying out to the Phillipines on the 5th. So to get back to the closest airport (Siem Reap) we took a boat across Tonle Sap Lake and this truly was an amazing day. This is dry season in Cambodia and the rice farmers (number one export is rice) are located on the lowlands around Tonle Sap preparing the fields. Most live on boats but also have temporary tents etc. set up as once rainy season comes only a few places are above flood waters.
So we had a fantastic time in Cambodia but the old saying that the first time is the best time is true...it is the new places that we visited that we enjoyed the most in terms of finding new and exciting things to do and see. The Cambodian people are pretty amazing so it is good to see that their country is definately doing alot better financially than back in 06. However compared to countries like Malaysia, Cambodia has serious problems that will be very difficult to overcome. Their population is rising at over 2% per year and despite having 25% of their land-base in Parks the environmental degradation is horrific...illegal logging is rampant and in terms of litter and water pollution Cambodia matches India with stinking raw sewage pouring into the Mekong right in front of the best tourist areas in Cambodia. Poverty appears as bad as India yet in Phnom Phen there are Rolls Royce dealerships (500,000 $US), Range Rovers (150,000) Porches, Toyota PUs and we even saw some Ford 450's with 50 inch tires on at least 20 inch lift kits (can hardly fit on the roads!) along with hundreds of crippled beggars, mothers with a pile of young kids etc. Looks like the ultimate capitalist state and government corruption is daily news.
