First stop, Siem Reap, the world famous home of Angkor Wat. Before arriving here, we had to make it across the Olympic-styled obstacle course that is know as the Thai-Cambodian border. Many missing papers, returning to the end of the line, extra fees, fake embassies and 42 degrees (no joke) later, we crossed the border. Now, it was time to find transportation for the 2.5 hour journey to Siem Reap.
Option 1 - fake's posing as expensive tourist buses, which are lovely air con buses, which only take you two km, then drop you off for a much older, slower bus.
Option 2 - fake's posing as a government bus who only take you two km, at a cheaper price, before dropping you at a much older, slower bus.
Option 3 - 'taxi'. and by 'taxi', it means any individual with a car that can speak these 2 words "Siem Reap?"
Mom's first experience getting into a random car (with all luggage on your lap due to lack of space) with a random driver to take you 2.5 hours - check.
Hours later, after awful aircon with windows closed and a wonderful time with a relatively well speaking Khmer (Cambodian) driver we arrived. For dinner, we enjoyed a $1.25 khmer fish curry (most fish is fresh water fish that it caught in the Tonle Sap lake, which is fed by the Mekong and is responsible for a huge portion of the nations fish supply) and enjoyed many 50 cent draft beer. The cold beer was a treat, as it turned out that April truly is the hottest, most dry month in the country. When the locals are sweating and complaining of the heat, you know its hot. We went to bed early, to prep for our day at the temple's.
Instead of taking a tuk tuk (again, who chooses the option that is faster and less sweaty?) we decided that the scenic route would be to rent bicycles and self propel the 6 km to the main temple grounds (which is the arena for the famous three tiered temple that is most well known in photos) After escaping the parking mafia (apparently the grass is owned by locals for parking for a fee more than we paid to rent the bikes - but we were informed that parking anywhere else could lead to a popped tire) and wiping the sweat from our eyes, we took in our first view.
All three of us had previously determined that we weren't 'sight see-ers' and that temples and museums are usually not high on the list - coupled with the heat and the bike ride, we were expecting a short jaunt around the grounds and a quick retreat...... but we spent a few hours (just in one complex) and were amazed at the sight. Well worth the entry fee. We enjoyed lunch at a beautiful cafe on the grounds, and biked home - exhausted and happy.
The next day, we made the journey to Battambang, via local bus. Here, we succumbed to the scam of óooh, nice bus', which nice it was indeed, for the 2 km it took us before dropping us off at the much older, slower, hotter bus.We roasted with our seat mates - which included two young lovebirds that decided this was the time to practice making out - and were greeted at the bus stand by a fever of touts selling their guest houses. Luckily, we made eye contact with a young gentlemen named Somal, who was a fantastic Khmer character that spoke Australian accented English (his teacher was Australian) and he whisked us away to a beautiful hotel (what we would consider a hotel at home) that included two floors rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city - the perfect place for Amaris to whip out her three new hoola hoops (much to the joy of some local fellas, session abruptly ended.)
Somal spent the entire next day with us, taking us to the sights of Battambang - which included the Bamboo train (a track that is used to transport goods and passengers on platforms powered by tractor engines, which is scheduled for demo next year - a video is soon to be posted) and the Killing Caves, a historic temple that was turned into a place of mass murder during the time of the Khmer Rouge. Nearing the end of the day, the three of us realized that we had invited some Cambodian bacteria to party with the already comfortable Thai bacteria, and everyone decided it was best to relax in the room for the night.
After enjoying the sights of Battambang, and enduring the heat in an urban setting, it was decided that it was time for the vacation portion of Mom's trip, and we headed to Sihanoukville, a small ocean side village in the South of Cambodia. We arrived a few hours later than planned (might have the been the 50 year old bus, who knows) and chose a place in the dark. After a long, hot day of traveling (these days are always the hardest) we fed our bellies with the best fish dish we have ever eaten, and crawled into separate bungalows. Lucky for us, trevor had decided that it was time to relax on the bed (a position usually assumed only in the dark) and strum on his guitar while Amaris unpacked - and much to our surprise, a fanfare arrived, in the shape of small, dark tic-looking critters. MMM. Wanting to assume that these critters were just a few bugs (no surprise if they were) Amaris took herself the nearest computer station and typed in google "bud bugs, images". Wouldnt you know it, the little bastards were not there for Trevors sweet sounding music, but his flesh. We woke Mom up (her flesh was saved), checked out, and checked into the closest available hotel (as most in the area were full for the upcoming Khmer New Years) to complete the night (which only had a few hours remaining by this point). Amaris stayed up a few hours later, resulting in a 4 hour sleep night, because the room had a BATHTUB and she couldn't pass up the opportunity. Poor, poor bathtub housekeepers - I am sorry for my backpacker filth.
The next day (after receiving Mom's passport that was held hostage because we refused to pay for the rooms that were bug infested) we trekked to another (quieter) beach to find where we would call home for 8 days. We settled in and spent the remaining time on the Occhealteal beach, which is extremely popular with Cambodians (mainly from the capital city of Phnom Pehn ) on vacation, which was nice to be surrounded by locals. We read, ate fresh caught ocean fish, read, ate pounds of fresh Papaya, Coconuts, Mangos (its mango season here, nom nom nom) Pineapples and Bananas, suntanned, and read some more (thanks for the books Mandy, they came just in time!)
Within a few days, the area was completely full of Cambodians, arriving for the three day event of Khmer New Years, a large festival style party that is marked by huge amounts of food, fireworks every night (not professional but a show performed by the thousands of people on the beach purchasing illegal-in-Canada fireworks and blowing them up in succession for an hour) and a concert to mark the final night.
After the big party night, it was off to Phnom Pehn, the country's capital, to spend a day before Mom's exit. We spent another entire day shopping shopping shopping and bargaining bargaining bargaining and sweating sweating sweating in the big city, and Mom left us (she made it out of the Cambodian traffic crossings alive!)
We are currently writing from Phnom Pehn, and tomorrow we leave (also) to Laos (not Vietnam, a change of plans). Cambodia has been an amazing experience that wasn't planned to begin with, and has given us more joy than we expected it would. The country has been an adventure, with travel being more difficult (and along the lines we are used to) friendly, beautiful, and emotional. We will miss it. It is so difficult to express the emotional experiences that happen, and even more so to remember them at all. Each country has given us these amazing moments that have been literally wrapped in brief seconds - a glance of eye contact, a small child's face, a conversation with a woman, the recognition of hardship, the moving moments of realizing why we are alive; each of this passing experiences compound into such a universal, overall change in who we are, our spirits, our person and cannot be expressed as singular events.
We hope to have done the country justice in such a condensed blog - but we are moving to an area with limited to no internet availability and we wanted to keep you informed!
All photos for this portion of the trip were taken with Mom's camera, and she has promised to tag Trevor and Amaris in all the photos so that everyone can see them when they get posted - theres a video, too!
Loads of love -
from the two changelings.
.
Option 1 - fake's posing as expensive tourist buses, which are lovely air con buses, which only take you two km, then drop you off for a much older, slower bus.
Option 2 - fake's posing as a government bus who only take you two km, at a cheaper price, before dropping you at a much older, slower bus.
Option 3 - 'taxi'. and by 'taxi', it means any individual with a car that can speak these 2 words "Siem Reap?"
Mom's first experience getting into a random car (with all luggage on your lap due to lack of space) with a random driver to take you 2.5 hours - check.
Hours later, after awful aircon with windows closed and a wonderful time with a relatively well speaking Khmer (Cambodian) driver we arrived. For dinner, we enjoyed a $1.25 khmer fish curry (most fish is fresh water fish that it caught in the Tonle Sap lake, which is fed by the Mekong and is responsible for a huge portion of the nations fish supply) and enjoyed many 50 cent draft beer. The cold beer was a treat, as it turned out that April truly is the hottest, most dry month in the country. When the locals are sweating and complaining of the heat, you know its hot. We went to bed early, to prep for our day at the temple's.
Instead of taking a tuk tuk (again, who chooses the option that is faster and less sweaty?) we decided that the scenic route would be to rent bicycles and self propel the 6 km to the main temple grounds (which is the arena for the famous three tiered temple that is most well known in photos) After escaping the parking mafia (apparently the grass is owned by locals for parking for a fee more than we paid to rent the bikes - but we were informed that parking anywhere else could lead to a popped tire) and wiping the sweat from our eyes, we took in our first view.
All three of us had previously determined that we weren't 'sight see-ers' and that temples and museums are usually not high on the list - coupled with the heat and the bike ride, we were expecting a short jaunt around the grounds and a quick retreat...... but we spent a few hours (just in one complex) and were amazed at the sight. Well worth the entry fee. We enjoyed lunch at a beautiful cafe on the grounds, and biked home - exhausted and happy.
The next day, we made the journey to Battambang, via local bus. Here, we succumbed to the scam of óooh, nice bus', which nice it was indeed, for the 2 km it took us before dropping us off at the much older, slower, hotter bus.We roasted with our seat mates - which included two young lovebirds that decided this was the time to practice making out - and were greeted at the bus stand by a fever of touts selling their guest houses. Luckily, we made eye contact with a young gentlemen named Somal, who was a fantastic Khmer character that spoke Australian accented English (his teacher was Australian) and he whisked us away to a beautiful hotel (what we would consider a hotel at home) that included two floors rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city - the perfect place for Amaris to whip out her three new hoola hoops (much to the joy of some local fellas, session abruptly ended.)
Somal spent the entire next day with us, taking us to the sights of Battambang - which included the Bamboo train (a track that is used to transport goods and passengers on platforms powered by tractor engines, which is scheduled for demo next year - a video is soon to be posted) and the Killing Caves, a historic temple that was turned into a place of mass murder during the time of the Khmer Rouge. Nearing the end of the day, the three of us realized that we had invited some Cambodian bacteria to party with the already comfortable Thai bacteria, and everyone decided it was best to relax in the room for the night.
After enjoying the sights of Battambang, and enduring the heat in an urban setting, it was decided that it was time for the vacation portion of Mom's trip, and we headed to Sihanoukville, a small ocean side village in the South of Cambodia. We arrived a few hours later than planned (might have the been the 50 year old bus, who knows) and chose a place in the dark. After a long, hot day of traveling (these days are always the hardest) we fed our bellies with the best fish dish we have ever eaten, and crawled into separate bungalows. Lucky for us, trevor had decided that it was time to relax on the bed (a position usually assumed only in the dark) and strum on his guitar while Amaris unpacked - and much to our surprise, a fanfare arrived, in the shape of small, dark tic-looking critters. MMM. Wanting to assume that these critters were just a few bugs (no surprise if they were) Amaris took herself the nearest computer station and typed in google "bud bugs, images". Wouldnt you know it, the little bastards were not there for Trevors sweet sounding music, but his flesh. We woke Mom up (her flesh was saved), checked out, and checked into the closest available hotel (as most in the area were full for the upcoming Khmer New Years) to complete the night (which only had a few hours remaining by this point). Amaris stayed up a few hours later, resulting in a 4 hour sleep night, because the room had a BATHTUB and she couldn't pass up the opportunity. Poor, poor bathtub housekeepers - I am sorry for my backpacker filth.
The next day (after receiving Mom's passport that was held hostage because we refused to pay for the rooms that were bug infested) we trekked to another (quieter) beach to find where we would call home for 8 days. We settled in and spent the remaining time on the Occhealteal beach, which is extremely popular with Cambodians (mainly from the capital city of Phnom Pehn ) on vacation, which was nice to be surrounded by locals. We read, ate fresh caught ocean fish, read, ate pounds of fresh Papaya, Coconuts, Mangos (its mango season here, nom nom nom) Pineapples and Bananas, suntanned, and read some more (thanks for the books Mandy, they came just in time!)
Within a few days, the area was completely full of Cambodians, arriving for the three day event of Khmer New Years, a large festival style party that is marked by huge amounts of food, fireworks every night (not professional but a show performed by the thousands of people on the beach purchasing illegal-in-Canada fireworks and blowing them up in succession for an hour) and a concert to mark the final night.
After the big party night, it was off to Phnom Pehn, the country's capital, to spend a day before Mom's exit. We spent another entire day shopping shopping shopping and bargaining bargaining bargaining and sweating sweating sweating in the big city, and Mom left us (she made it out of the Cambodian traffic crossings alive!)
We are currently writing from Phnom Pehn, and tomorrow we leave (also) to Laos (not Vietnam, a change of plans). Cambodia has been an amazing experience that wasn't planned to begin with, and has given us more joy than we expected it would. The country has been an adventure, with travel being more difficult (and along the lines we are used to) friendly, beautiful, and emotional. We will miss it. It is so difficult to express the emotional experiences that happen, and even more so to remember them at all. Each country has given us these amazing moments that have been literally wrapped in brief seconds - a glance of eye contact, a small child's face, a conversation with a woman, the recognition of hardship, the moving moments of realizing why we are alive; each of this passing experiences compound into such a universal, overall change in who we are, our spirits, our person and cannot be expressed as singular events.
We hope to have done the country justice in such a condensed blog - but we are moving to an area with limited to no internet availability and we wanted to keep you informed!
All photos for this portion of the trip were taken with Mom's camera, and she has promised to tag Trevor and Amaris in all the photos so that everyone can see them when they get posted - theres a video, too!
Loads of love -
from the two changelings.
.
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