Floating forest, blind massage and donating blood
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2005
1
82
90
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Kratie (Kracheh),
Cambodia
Monday, August 3, 2009
Kratie (5/7) Siem Reap 6/7- 10/7)
Kratie
After a full day of traveling and a somewhat long border crossing, we finally arrived at Kratie. For the first time in 7 months since we left home we were asked for our immunization cards at the border so make sure you have a copy of yours handy.... We had just enough time to find a place to stay when the late afternoon torrential rains came down. We were basically held prisoners at our guest house since the streets were flooded several feet high and the downpour was so heavy.
While looking for a place to say we were able to check the town out a bit and were honestly disappointed. The book raved about the architecture and other than a few cute buildings here and there, I thought the town was not worth stopping off at all. You can take a half day trip to see some very rare and almost extinct dolphins but since it was raining (and we've seen similar dolphins in Panama) we skipped it.
Since we wanted to make sure we had enough time to check out the capital and Angkor Wat we left town as soon as possible and took off in the morning. We had been told from a fellow traveler that there was a 3 day wait to get the Viet Nam visa (you can't get it at the border) so instead of going to Siem Reap we went to Phnom Pen to get the visa process started. It turns out they can issue the visa the next day (gargh to the lying traveler!) so no need to change your plans.
Siem Reap
The bus rides in Cambodia are different than other places we've visited in that they stop at rest stops practically every other hour. This is frustrating in that it makes the trip last so much longer but it's fun because we get to see all the insect food for sale. Up to this point all we have seen are skewered fried crickets but these stops have fried frogs (the head is chopped off and the body is stuffed with a grain of some sort) and live and fried tarantulas. Greg tried the frog and said it was pretty good but I think the tarantula was a bit of a push to try...
Siem Reap can get pretty toasty and we had to change guest house rooms after the first night since our room on the top floor was so hot we couldn't sleep. We found a great place to stay with a nice cool room on the bottom floor and it turned out our friends were staying there as well. We spent the majority of our days busy doing activities, seeing ruins. By the time we got home most nights we were too exhausted to go out despite the fun nightlife scene. Our last day in town we got up early for the sunrise at Angkor which had us done with temples by mid-day.
As always the people in town were super friendly, always with a big smile on their face. I was blown away at how excellent everyone's English is (by far THE best English speakers in all of SE Asia). Since tourists have been coming to see Angkor in droves for years it's had an amazing affect on the undereducated kids and women selling food and wares. The kids at all the temples selling scarves, post cards, etc. can all speak French, English, Spanish and some even Japanese. I spoke with some kids in Spanish just for fun and was really impressed at their grasp on the language, even if it was basic.
It would have been nice to see more in Siem Reap but we needed to move on and check out the capital. I would definitely like to come back and see the area more.
Things we checked out:
Flooded Forest- We knew we were going to spend 3 days seeing the temples but we wanted to check out the rest of the city as well. I had no idea there is so much to do in Siem Reap.. you could easily spend a week just checking out all the stuff in the city without even seeing the temples.
Since we had already seen a floating village in Thailand we decided to go for the less often seen flooded forest. Our tuk tuk driver said it would take a few hours and since we left around 1pm we figured we would have plenty of time to be back for the sunset. We first had to drive out to a village a decent drive away from town during which one of the tires on the tuk tuk got a flat.
We pulled over to fix the tire at a little shack on the side of the road in front of someone's home. While we were waiting for the tire to be replaced we hung out with about 7 kids of all ages who were fascinated with us. The whole ride through the dirt road to the village kids would run to the side of the road and yell “hello” and wave enthusiastically to us as we passed by. It definitely made my day seeing all the happy smiles from the adorable kids.
Once the tire was fixed we continued on to what the tuk tuk driver called his “brother's” home. We then got out of the tuk tuk and had to ride on two motorcycles because the rain had damaged the road so much it was impossible for a tuk tuk to navigate. Greg rode with the tuk tuk driver who seemed to have no experience driving in thick, wet mud as he skidded out and slipped all over the place. I rode with a 12 year old kid who deftly maneuvered around and never skidded out once.
At one point the dirt road was so impossible to drive on we had to get off and walk! We had no preparation for any of this and since our flip flops kept getting sucked into the mud our driver said to just leave them with my driver and the tuk tuks. Of course about 10 minutes later the almost calf deep mud (which was torture since I hate things in between my toes) turned into hard, dried mud that was super painful to walk on.
Previous tire tracks left indents in the mud so that each indent formed a raised portion that practically pierced the bottoms of our feet. Basically it was very painful to walk and it didn't help that our driver had calloused feet and was practically running ahead of us. Despite the torture, we were surrounded in beauty with scenic flat lands, gorgeous blue skies and awesome clouds.
After about 30 minutes of walking barefoot on the dried mud we reached our destination, a small boat landing. We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into since our tuk tuk driver made it sound like he would drive us to a boat and we would see the forest and then go home. He left out a LOT of details. :)
The driver of our boat was an 8 year old boy (no joke) who sat behind the wheel of a 10 passenger wooden boat. His 12 year old brother was the captain and would help him navigate around bends in the river. Incredible. We first floated through an amazing town built on stilts high over the riverside (apparently the river gets quite high later on in the rainy season).
The banks were dotted with tons of personal boats and it seemed like each family had at least one boat. There were also bamboo cages off the river bank which held all kinds of fish and some even had alligators. On shore there were bamboo cages for pigs which were placed close to the water so that all their poo ran right into the water. This is of course super frustrating since not only are they loosing out on valuable fertilizer for their crops, they are also polluting their source of water!
We continued on and eventually the homes decreased and more and more trees popped up along the riverside. Apparently the forest becomes totally flooded later on during the rainy season (which I was mislead to believe was now, grrr) and the trees become submerged up to half their trunks in the river. While the forest was beautiful to see, I was a little disappointed that the water only covered the first few feet of the trees.
The tour continued on past the forest where the river opened up into a huge lake covered in algae and floating plants.. It looked like one large green covered lake for miles and miles. We were told we could go swimming if we wanted but neither of us were remotely tempted to take a dip. Hehe The boat ride was really great since we got to see fishermen heading home in their small wooden boats (more like a canoe than boat), homes floating on boats attached to the riverbank (which were super cool), and supposedly some monkeys in the trees though we didn't see them.
We thought the tour was over once we headed back but we ended up checking out the stilt town too. Several girls bombarded our boat and wanted to sell us notebooks and pencils for the school kids. It was one of those situations where you don't have much of a choice and we felt that our money was going to something good so why not.
It just so happened that there was a Buddha procession going on when we got to town. The whole town (of less than 150 or so) was walking down the dirt road carrying trees made of silver and gold with dollar bills attached and other ceremonial pieces they held high up over their heads. It was definitely a sight to see.
From what I understood, the monks in town were going into a 3 month phase of meditation and were not going to leave the temple. This procession brought together all the townspeople to commemorate the beginning of 3 months. Everyone brought money and food to give to the monks so they could get through the 3 months.
Once the procession made its way to the temple two boys took turns pounding the large drum that could seriously be heard throughout the whole town. Pretty much every temple we have been to on this trip has one of these big drums in front and I have always wanted to hear one so I was super excited to finally hear it played. The drum is so large that it could probably barely fit in the back of a pick up truck....
Since the procession was going on school was obviously done for the day so my plan of giving the teacher the notebooks and pencils we bought to pass out to kids was foiled. Instead, the women that sold us the stuff to give out picked out a few kids nearby and poor Greg had to pick which kids to give something to. The whole scene was very awkward and it didn't even seem like the kids really appreciated them anyways... We now wonder if the notebooks are given back to the sellers to resell to the next tourists... lame.
Luckily we didn't have to walk back to our bikes since some locals from town offered to drive us back to them. Wahoo! We got to one part where we had to drive through a stream that was so deep the water went up to the middle of my calves. The entire experience took well over double the time we were told it would take. We asked the tuk tuk driver if he was going to do any more tours to the forest and he said absolutely not until there was more rain (I guess you usually get the boat much closer to the first village so you don't ride a motorcycle). It was definitely an amazing experience if not an unforgettable one.
Angkor Children's Hospital- As the rainy season continues the amount of dengue cases increase which means there is a great need for blood for transfusions. There are two hospitals that have a great incentive to get tourists to donate blood; they give out a free t-shirt. The whole process was very professional and I even got to find out what blood type I am (they will email you if you're positive for certain STI's). Unfortunately, I have very small veins and they are quite hard to find and can get punctured easily if not handled properly. I ended up getting a massive, ugly bruise that has been on my arm for over a week now.. yuck. The hospital has some really great projects to raise money for street kids and to help get medical care to those that can't afford it as well.
Puppet Show- La Noria guest house (which is really an upscale hotel so be prepared for hotel priced meals) has a free puppet show and traditional dance show every Wednesday at 7pm that we stopped in to check out. Our book didn't tell us what time the show started so we unfortunately missed the part we were most excited to see which was the puppet show. Puppet shows have quite a history in Cambodia as they were used as a way to tell stories... We got to at least see the puppets and they were really cool. The other dances that night were fun to see, especially the coconut one though we would have skipped them if we knew we were missing the puppet part.
Angkor Night Market- The night market is an upgraded version of the old market selling paintings, t-shirts, jewelry, the popular comfy knee length shorts and the weird fish massage where you can sit on the edge of a huge tank and have little fish eat the dead skin cells off your feet. Unfortunately, the people in the market are used to tourists and absolutely refuse to bargain at all (some women were downright snotty with me!). It's such a stark contrast to the women that sell many of the same things at all the temples who are so eager to bargain with you.
Seeing Hands Massage 4- After Greg and I bike rode through the temples all day we decided to treat our bodies and put our money towards a good cause. There are copy cats out there that actually take advantage of the blind so make sure you go to the one we used... I have never been massaged by a blind person before and had no idea what to expect. It was definitely unlike any massage I have ever received.
We showed up just as two other people did so all 4 of us got massaged in the same room at the same time. We all put on the MD scrub-like outfits that were not the best in our oven-like room and just made us sweat more. The entire massage concentrated on our back and legs, we never flipped over onto our backs. To further add to the weirdness of our massage, the masseurs talked the entire time which doesn't really help anyone relax. Overall I don't know how helpful the massage was in working out the tight muscles but I'm glad I tried it.
Traditional Dance at Temple Bar- Temple Bar has free traditional dance performances every night and we had plans of checking it out each night but ended up too tired to make it. We finally came by our last night in town, still exhausted from temple seeing all day, and got there for the last few dances. Since we were with friends it was hard to concentrate on the show too much especially since we were pretty far back. It's worth checking out if you have the time.
Butterflies Garden Restaurant- The restaurant really has butterflies flying all over the enclosed patio while you eat some yummy food. Though the food is pricey, the restaurant supports good causes such as Cambodian Living Arts and helps communities affected with HIV/AIDS. I was a little sad to see how many dead butterflies there were on the ground which makes me think that either certain species should not be bread there or they don't have the right plants for them to survive on. There is also the Singing Tree Cafe which has a way better menu and also supports great causes. While it doesn't support any causes, I may as well pimp out Curry Walla, some of the best Indian food since India. YUM!
Photos and videos to check out:
Photos:
Cambodia Photo Highlights
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggoodman/sets/72157621834968322/
Laos/Cambodia Border Crossing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggoodman/sets/72157621708945345/
Food of Cambodia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggoodman/sets/72157621833386462/
Videos:
I eat frog for the first time at a rest stop in between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfKzze6myAA
Local music being played at the Phnom Penh Royal Palace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfKzze6myAA
A boat ride through the village on stilts next to the Flooded Forest of Kompong Phhluk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwgJuFbRPak
Road to the Flooded Forest of Kompong Phhluk riding through shin deep water on a moto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nBRQgab6Ks
Buddha celebration at the village on stilts next to the Flooded Forest of Kompong Phhluk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qumHjriH_bc
Traditional Cambodian Dance - The Coconut Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-zNKuUWJ-g
