The Beauty and the Beast
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2004
1
15
23
Trip End
May 31, 2005
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Friday, January 14, 2005
Our foray away from the large Asian cities (Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong) and into Cambodia led us to the smallish city of Siem Reap in Cambodia
A Cambodian snack...
. As opposed to the hint of incense in the air in KL, or the smell of commerce we found in Hong Kong, or the scent of smog and exhaust we got in Bangkok, Siem Reap carried the distinct smell of garbage. As we wandered through the streets we felt a tangle of emotions- grateful, awed, sad. The children of Cambodia were often the ones that brought our emotions to a new height. They were truly amazing, and sadly many of them needed to sell little chachkes or beg so their families could eat. Despite that, they are like all other children, and once we broke through their facades we found them to be smiling, laughing kids who just wanted to play. Yet, so many of them have responsibilities that we could not imagine. We saw many kids taking care of kids; 6 year-olds feeding babies bottles. It is so sad, and yet so unbelievable how strong and resilient these people are. One of the other extremes we had to prepare ourselves for were the amount of people begging on the streets and the number of people (of all ages) missing limbs due to the proliferation of land mines. It is shocking at first to see. As much as your heart aches for these people we also saw something equally disturbing: we actually saw a well-dressed man send out dirty kids holding babies to prey on our guilt.
Anyway onto a lighter topic: the wonderful temples of Angkor Wat! Siem Reap, the town closest to the temples, is going through a major development. The open borders have also opened the floodgates for huge chain hotels. We were glad to be there before it gets Disneyfied. All of this was set up for people to see the nearby temples. There is a lot of hype about Angkor Wat, and it is well deserved, as they are amongst the most
magnificent things on earth, a true testimony to artistry
Hey hey we're the Monk(ee)s...
. Each temple is spectacular and awe inspiring in their own way and, with good reason, the pride of Cambodia. The temples are a tribute to The oldest ones were over 1000 years old and they each had different aspect of architecture that were more unbelievable than the next. In the main temple of Angkor Wat, there are the five pinnacles to climb (carefully!) and the wonderful bas relief sketchings displaying a Hindu story that is interlinked together and runs the length of the 850 metre long wall. At the Bayon temple there are over 216 faces etched in stone watching over you. The Elephant Terrace has a platform that is supported by columns and etching of elephants that run at least a 3/4 of a km. The temple of Ta Prohm looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie with its crumbling structure being held together by the roots and trunks of 500 year old trees. Truly unbelievable! We spent 3 days exploring these temples and still could have gone back for more.Another sight we saw was the Landmine museum. It was created and run by a 30ish year-old Cambodian man named Aki Ra who is a "de-miner". At a young age he lost both his parents to the Khmer Rouge, and then those same people recruited (forced) him to plant landmines
throughout the country. He was later forced by the Vietnamese army to do the same. For the last 10 years he has dedicated his life to disarm as many landmines as possible (he estimates that he has removed over 20,000 explosives) and to help the people that have been affected by them
Relaxing at the Elephant's Terrace
. He has adopted orphaned children (their parents have died from landmines)and children who have lost limbs due to landmines, and with a team of volunteers educates them and helps them live normal lives. His museum is shocking but powerful, as you can read the stories of different people who have been affected by the blight of hidden explosives and see many of the different types of disarmed devices. At the temples we met a couple of Canadians in line. We can always tell each other by our Lululemon and Roots clothes and MEC paraphernalia. Becci and Chad soon became our travel companions throughout much of Cambodia, and with the addition of one more person we started our Cambodian Supper Club. In the realm of 'hard to imagine' we were exploring the main temple of Angkor Wat when Lara heard her name being called. To our surprise it was a friend, Paul, from Lara's former employer Alias! Lara won the bet we had about who would run into someone they knew. In a country of 13 million, at a temple that covers over 2 square kilometres, during a crowded day - what are the odds of running into someone we know? We decided to stay out of lightning storms and buy a lottery ticket that day as well (Cambodia jackpot $20 US).
The rest of our stay in Siem Reap we spent tooling around in our tuk tuk, driven by a wonderful Khmer boy who had left school to support his family, but was teaching himself English between pickups
Trees Company
. When he found out that Chris was a teacher he asked him to help out with his studies, and Chris would do mini-lessons with him between temple visits. We regularly ate lunch with Teer and learned a lot more about the plight the Khmer people have faced over the last few decades. From SR we made our way to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Like Siem Reap, it was very dirty and impoverished, yet much, much bigger. During our bus ride there we were 'entertained' by Cambodian karaoke videos and bad, BAD, movies. Becci and Chad endured this with us, but Paul took the $6 bus, so he rode in style. Of course, no Asian city tour is complete without a stop to the market, so we popped by the Russian Market for a douse of bargaining. It has everything from silk goods, to art, to books, to CDs, to DVDs, to clothing, to bags, to footwear, to power tools! We still haven't figured out the Russian part, as most things looked Cambodian to us, except for the pirated software.
Our evenings consisted of meeting up with the CSC (Canadian Supper Club) at the original FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) for a PDD (pre-dinner drink). The bar oozes history and atmosphere- a throwback to the good old days of gin-swilling newspaper correspondents trying to forget about the world as they watch the sunset over the National Museum. From there we headed out to one of the many restaurants the city had to offer before retiring to our guesthouse.
While in PP we spent a day learning about the legacy of the Khmer Rouge by visiting the S-21 museum and wandering through the Killing Fields. S-21 was one of many torture 'camps'
Pol Pot and his comrades used to imprison and interrogate people
WARNING Disturbing picture! No JOKE!
. It was located at an old high school in town. As we walked through the standing jail cells and rooms used for torture we were struck by how much they still resembled classrooms. There were pictures of some of the 17,000 people who were marched through S-21, and it was haunting looking into the faces of those who suffered so much. These people were of all ages, from 1 year-olds to the elderly. Truly devastating!The Killing Fields was 15 km from town, although it took a while to get there as the roads are unpaved and unsteady. The first thing one sees upon arrival is a beautiful monument, but when you get closer you notice that the 17-storey building is holding more than 8,000 skulls that had been unearthed in the field behind it. A chill ran through our bodies as we saw the depressions in the ground where people found the mass graves. The atrocities are too much to go into to detail here, but PLEASE NOTE- we have included a disturbing image from our trip to the Killing Fields and have labelled it appropriately. DO NOT open this picture if you do not wish to see it. We did however think it was important for us to include it amongst our photos as it is a true depiction of the horrors that took place in Cambodia, and should not be forgotten.
Needing a break from the devastation, we returned to the city to visit the Royal Palace. It is the residence of the king and had several impressive structures covered in gold leaf as well as a silver pagoda. That evening as we walked along the waterfront, Lara and Becci were picked up by young Buddhist monks. They can be so cheeky. Actually, they stopped them to practice their English. This is common practice amongst the Cambodians, especially the Monks who often ask to exchange email addresses. It is quite an odd but pleasurable experience.
Still feeling the effects of our Day of Depression, we escaped the big city and made for the coast. There was no better place to decompress than on a perfect white sand beach watching the sunset from our balcony. We rested and recovered in Sihanookville before departing for Vietnam.
We were sad to leave Cambodia and would have liked to stay longer but we had our Veitnam visas to worry about. Our time there was truly memorable, an unbelievable experience that was moving and educational. Once you have been there you want to go back, and we hope we will someday.
