Saturday, October 18, 2014

The 2 faces of Cambodia

So, here I am sitting in my hostel in Phnom Penh waiting for a tuk tuk to pick me up and bring me to the airport, next destination: Singapore.

I have to admit it, I am a bit sad to leave Cambodia, this country and its people have been extremely sweet to me.

My first stop in Cambodia has been Siem Reap. I just loved this little town. Siem Reap is the gate to the wonderful temples of Angkor Wat. I spent there 4 nights, wandering around temples and just relaxing. There are so many nice bars where to hang out, you can get massages and enter swimming pools of big hotels for really fair prices and there are also lots of nice restaurants where to eat authentic Khmer cuisine. Plus it is a lovely city to just wonder around. Siem Reap appears to be quite western if you don't dare to walk a bit aside the center and "pub street", but once you do you start feeling the real Cambodia, still very poor and underdeveloped. Cambodia is also still very dirty all around and I can say that there I saw the biggest rat ever running just in front on me...oh dear...

Cambodia's reality only hit me in the face when I took a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. As usually, I have to over-complicate things: none of the bus schedules proposed by the agency would suit me so I asked "Is there a bus around 10am?" and the sweet girl at the agency "of course mam, let me arrange this for you, it's 7 dollars for 8 hours trip". Waw, I thought that was a very good deal, so I paid and off I went with my ticket. I didn't know that I just bought a ticket for a "totally local bus for locals only", and that I would have the scariest and the most interesting experience of my entire stay in this country. So, the morning after a minivan picks me up and brings me in the middle of a dusty field where a rusty, old bus is waiting for me: I jump in and I immediately realize that I am the only western and the only tourist in there, all the rest are Cambodians carrying on the bus any sorts of goods, from chickens to scooters - yes we transported 4 scooters on the bus itself. I take a sit and look around me: water is dripping from the air conditioning system over me and on the roof there are hundreds of rusty cables pending just like that. The bus is filthy, smelly and mostly just overused. Funnily enough, there are fake flowers everywhere and a very loud radio with local music, which can be not bad, depending on your degree of tolerance :)  My first instinct is to leave that bus, but then I think that if so many people take it with kids and everything it should be fine: Cambodians don't want to die, do they? So I try to relax but first I have to change sits twice before finding a spot where water from the air conditioning system would not fall on me. During this long trip we passed by so many villages, where kids were swimming in the mud together with cows and buffaloes or just sitting naked surrounded by trash. In these villages there were no roads and also the road we were taking was not a proper road but just dust and bumps and cows and dirt and puddles of mud - that's why it takes 8 hours to get to Phnom Penh. After a couple of hours I finally completely relax and start talking with my neighbors about Cambodia, life there, the government etc...in the meantime the bus breaks down twice and the driver very efficiently goes out with keys and screw drivers and fixes the engine - I saw him also putting water in there to cool it off. At this point, instead of being stressed I was totally amused and definitely in love with Cambodia.

They told me that if I liked Siem Reap I would not have enjoyed Phnom Penh but actually I really did! What once was the "Pearl of Asia" is a crazy city, hectic, full of dust, dirt and traffic but at the same time quite relaxed and I felt really at ease here. The most touching thing that you can do if you are in PP is to visit the genocide museum and the killing fields. Not fun, for sure. I feel so ashamed for not knowing what happened in this country not more than 40 years ago: over 3 millions people died under the regime of Pol Pot, so why we never heard about this in school or at the university? I find this crazy. And what surprises me the most is the attitude of Cambodians: even if they lived hell on earth they are so smiley and friendly and welcoming and it's a pleasure talking to them.

Interesting people I met in Cambodia:

A Brazilian girl with Japanese origins: during WWII her grandparents were sent from Japan to Brazil with the promise of a better life. Once they got there, they were made slaves in the farms. Today they hate Japan and would never go back because their country betrayed them.

An English girl with Indian origins: we went out together for a couple of nights, she was really fun and as 23 years old she already traveled alone half of the world.

An English doctor traveling alone from Australia to South East Asia. Nice dinner with him.

A married Australian couple that sold everything and quit their job to travel indefinitely. Very inspiring.

A Dutch guy tired of European life that now lives in Phnom Penh as a freelance consultant. He wants me to get a job there too :)

A Japanese girl and an American boy living in Bangkok. 3 Malaysian girls, 2 of which living in Singapore and Indonesia.

A very sweet girl from Singapore.

A French girl living in Hong Kong, that knows a Belgian friend of mine living there too. The world is small.

A Korean girl who lives in PP, friend of a friend of mine. We met up for dinner and was very interesting to hear from her about daily life in Cambodia. She works for an NGO who takes care of Cambodian development, so her stories were super interesting!

Traveling alone is great, you are never alone!


Things to do and places to visit in Siem Reap:

In Siem Reap I stayed at One Stop Hostel. This place is great! Definitely recommended!

Angkor Wat temples. Blossom Cafe and Sister Srey Cafe for breakfast: both very nice and relaxed places. Phare Circus: Cambodian artists and a mix of theater and acrobatic performances - very very cool! Temple bar on pub street has an Apsara dance show every evening at 7.30 pm. Although this show is mostly for tourists, the dances and the music are really nice and the dresses are just lovely to see - they change many times during the show. Pura Vida if you feel like having a massage or any other beauty/relaxing treatment. Many hotels let you use their swimming pool to chill by paying 4/5 dollars for the day. Do some researches on the internet and you'll find plenty.

Things to do and places to visit in Phnom Penh:

In Phnom Penh I stayed at Me Mate's Villa. Location is great and the place quite nice.

Genocide Museum and Killing Fields. Wat Phnom. Russian Market and Central Market. Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Ounalom Pagoda. Just wonder around in this crazy city.

Good bye Cambodia, part of my heart will stay here with you.

Ps: Cambodia's food is delicious!

No comments:

Post a Comment