Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Chapter's end
The six-hour-long bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was tough, but considering the US$6 per person ticket price, not unbearable.
We arrived at Siem Reap's bus station just past 4pm and were swarmed by overeager tuk-tuk drivers the instant the doors to our bus swung open. The claustrophobic mess of travellers, tuk-tuk drivers and random touts made it near impossible for us to collect our luggage from the bus, so we resigned ourselves eventually to waiting for the crowd to subside before picking our battered backpacks up and out from the dust.
Our 'bargain copy' of the Lonely Planet Cambodia (purchased on the streets of Bangkok) was less than helpful in navigating the city centre. Fortunately, the tourist mecca of Siem Reap is awash with English-language signage and once we located the vibrant Bar Street, finding accommodation was a breeze.
We chose to spend three nights at the very comfortable Molly Malone's, an Irish themed guesthouse-cum-bar where US$45 per night bought us an air-conditioned room with a hot-water shower, mini-bar, wi-fi access and a beautiful four-poster bed.
Even in the midst of first world comforts, however, Cambodian street food is still Cambodian street food. Jim's stomach was quick to take issue with his penchant for cold, milky fruitshakes, making its dissatisfaction known with a long, painful night in the bathroom.
Thankfully, the issue resolved itself after one day's rest and we were able to take off on a day-long tour of the famed Angkor ruins on our third day in Siem Reap.
A UNESCO Heritage site, Angkor once served as the capital of the ancient and powerful Khmer empire. The site comprises more than one thousand Buddhist and Hindu temples, including Angkor Wat which is widely considered Cambodia's greatest national treasure.
With the help of a nearby tour agency, we hired a tuk-tuk driver and English-speaking tour guide for a total of US$40 for the day. Our 26-year-old guide (whose name eludes me) very enthusiastically guided us from sight to sight and was so eager to share his impressive knowledge of Khmer history that we had to tell him to slow down after visiting our very first temple, Bayon, for fear of being 'templed out'.
We were feeling rather intimidated by the masses of pushy tourists at Angkor Thom and Bayon but things improved as the day progressed. Thanks to an unconventionally early lunch break, we were able to do most of our sightseeing while other tourists filed into the restaurants, so visiting Angkor Wat and the 'Tomb Raider temple', Ta Prohm, was very enjoyable indeed.
We left Siem Reap for Phnom Penh the next morning on yet another uncomfortable yet irresistibly cheap bus ride. Once in the modern-day Cambodian capital, we were reunited with Joel and Viren and spent the final night of our South East Asian trip at lakeside bars, preparing ourselves for the journey home and beyond.
We arrived at Siem Reap's bus station just past 4pm and were swarmed by overeager tuk-tuk drivers the instant the doors to our bus swung open. The claustrophobic mess of travellers, tuk-tuk drivers and random touts made it near impossible for us to collect our luggage from the bus, so we resigned ourselves eventually to waiting for the crowd to subside before picking our battered backpacks up and out from the dust.
Our 'bargain copy' of the Lonely Planet Cambodia (purchased on the streets of Bangkok) was less than helpful in navigating the city centre. Fortunately, the tourist mecca of Siem Reap is awash with English-language signage and once we located the vibrant Bar Street, finding accommodation was a breeze.
We chose to spend three nights at the very comfortable Molly Malone's, an Irish themed guesthouse-cum-bar where US$45 per night bought us an air-conditioned room with a hot-water shower, mini-bar, wi-fi access and a beautiful four-poster bed.
Even in the midst of first world comforts, however, Cambodian street food is still Cambodian street food. Jim's stomach was quick to take issue with his penchant for cold, milky fruitshakes, making its dissatisfaction known with a long, painful night in the bathroom.
Thankfully, the issue resolved itself after one day's rest and we were able to take off on a day-long tour of the famed Angkor ruins on our third day in Siem Reap.
A UNESCO Heritage site, Angkor once served as the capital of the ancient and powerful Khmer empire. The site comprises more than one thousand Buddhist and Hindu temples, including Angkor Wat which is widely considered Cambodia's greatest national treasure.
With the help of a nearby tour agency, we hired a tuk-tuk driver and English-speaking tour guide for a total of US$40 for the day. Our 26-year-old guide (whose name eludes me) very enthusiastically guided us from sight to sight and was so eager to share his impressive knowledge of Khmer history that we had to tell him to slow down after visiting our very first temple, Bayon, for fear of being 'templed out'.
We were feeling rather intimidated by the masses of pushy tourists at Angkor Thom and Bayon but things improved as the day progressed. Thanks to an unconventionally early lunch break, we were able to do most of our sightseeing while other tourists filed into the restaurants, so visiting Angkor Wat and the 'Tomb Raider temple', Ta Prohm, was very enjoyable indeed.
We left Siem Reap for Phnom Penh the next morning on yet another uncomfortable yet irresistibly cheap bus ride. Once in the modern-day Cambodian capital, we were reunited with Joel and Viren and spent the final night of our South East Asian trip at lakeside bars, preparing ourselves for the journey home and beyond.
Labels: Cambodia
Friday, January 9, 2009
And all our yesterdays pave the way
Each day I spend in Phnom Penh is another blow to what’s left of my soul. Ravaged by war, genocide, and more recently, an infestation of morally perverse sex and drug tourists, Cambodia’s capital city is a painful example of resilience during the darkest of days.
Max, Jim and I arrived in Phnom Penh on January 4, just three days before the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime.
Although most, if not all, surviving Cambodians consider liberation from the regime a victory, the January 7 celebration currently is a source of much controversy. The current political power, CPP, seems to have hijacked the celebration to further its own agenda. Meanwhile, the opposing Funicipec and Sam Raimsy parties argue that true peace did not come to Cambodia until the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on October 23, 1979.
My own political ignorance aside, Cambodian politics seems to be a horrid tangle of corruption, defamation and greed. Corruption seems to pervade so deep into local law enforcement that theoretically illegal drugs including marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and opium are openly sold on the streets, and even in the form of ‘happy’ pizzas and shakes in backpacker-oriented restaurants that line the Boeng Kak lakeside.
I am normally a strong supporter of legalising and regulating sex and drug industries, as I believe that regulation ultimately is beneficial to public health and safety. Sadly, in Cambodia, these industries exist in a legal ‘grey area’ that provides all the cons and none of the pros of the throbbing, thriving night.
One night, a misunderstanding between a tuk-tuk driver and ourselves led us to a thinly veiled karaoke-brothel. As we made our hurried escape, we passed a papasan with his flock of scantily clad girls, many of whom looked barely -- if even -- in their teens.
Another evening, Max, Jim and I happened to be seated just a little too close to a working girl, her much older client, and her client’s twenty-something year-old male friend. I was horrified at the explicit, vulgar memoirs that she so generously (and loudly) shared with the group, and even more horrified by the fact that she’d brought her young daughter with her.
It pains me to overhear young male backpackers speaking with older sex workers about $2.50 sex with ‘very young’ girls. It worries me to see bright local boys no older than twelve hawking marijuana. And it fills me with an overwhelming rage when I read the ridiculous graffiti strewn up by selectively sighted backpackers on cafe walls; graffiti that denounces Western capitalist chains like 7-11 as destroyers of ‘exotic’ South East Asia, while saying nothing at all of the sex and drugs being bought and sold in those very cafes and on the streets.
We left Phnom Penh on January 8, with Max flying back to Australia via Kuala Lumpur, and Jim and I heading westwards, overland, to Siem Reap and the ancient ruins of Angkor. Here’s to the hope that the ancient temples revive in me some pride in mankind...
Max, Jim and I arrived in Phnom Penh on January 4, just three days before the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime.
Although most, if not all, surviving Cambodians consider liberation from the regime a victory, the January 7 celebration currently is a source of much controversy. The current political power, CPP, seems to have hijacked the celebration to further its own agenda. Meanwhile, the opposing Funicipec and Sam Raimsy parties argue that true peace did not come to Cambodia until the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on October 23, 1979.
My own political ignorance aside, Cambodian politics seems to be a horrid tangle of corruption, defamation and greed. Corruption seems to pervade so deep into local law enforcement that theoretically illegal drugs including marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and opium are openly sold on the streets, and even in the form of ‘happy’ pizzas and shakes in backpacker-oriented restaurants that line the Boeng Kak lakeside.
I am normally a strong supporter of legalising and regulating sex and drug industries, as I believe that regulation ultimately is beneficial to public health and safety. Sadly, in Cambodia, these industries exist in a legal ‘grey area’ that provides all the cons and none of the pros of the throbbing, thriving night.
One night, a misunderstanding between a tuk-tuk driver and ourselves led us to a thinly veiled karaoke-brothel. As we made our hurried escape, we passed a papasan with his flock of scantily clad girls, many of whom looked barely -- if even -- in their teens.
Another evening, Max, Jim and I happened to be seated just a little too close to a working girl, her much older client, and her client’s twenty-something year-old male friend. I was horrified at the explicit, vulgar memoirs that she so generously (and loudly) shared with the group, and even more horrified by the fact that she’d brought her young daughter with her.
It pains me to overhear young male backpackers speaking with older sex workers about $2.50 sex with ‘very young’ girls. It worries me to see bright local boys no older than twelve hawking marijuana. And it fills me with an overwhelming rage when I read the ridiculous graffiti strewn up by selectively sighted backpackers on cafe walls; graffiti that denounces Western capitalist chains like 7-11 as destroyers of ‘exotic’ South East Asia, while saying nothing at all of the sex and drugs being bought and sold in those very cafes and on the streets.
We left Phnom Penh on January 8, with Max flying back to Australia via Kuala Lumpur, and Jim and I heading westwards, overland, to Siem Reap and the ancient ruins of Angkor. Here’s to the hope that the ancient temples revive in me some pride in mankind...
Labels: Cambodia
