CAMBODIA

I went to Cambodia for Christmas 2015 and, I’ll be honest, I felt quite lonely and apprehensive for the almost three weeks I was there. South East Asia was new to me, and I could have done with some company, ideally someone who knew their way around. The Cambodian people that I met were helpful but not effusively friendly and I don’t blame them – I really hadn’t made the effort I should have done. I had over-planned the trip but under-researched the people and their story. Afterwards, althought it had all gone to plan, and I had seen some amazing things, I just didn’t feel I got as much out of it as I should have.

I’m not a big city lover but I did like Phnom Penh. My tuk-tuk ride from the airport was my first experience of Asian traffic chaos – animals and very small children wandering about near the road, but somehow everyone weaves in and out of each other without the angry impatience of the west. I wasn’t staying in the built-up area and the streets were shabby but lively with some great architecture. There is a lot of french art deco buildings including the striking central market where I managed to buy a forgotten phone cable for next to nothing, and get my bus ticket to Kep.

During the seventies Kep had been the sophisticated resort of Cambodia and lots of French modernist-style villas were built here. All of them abandoned during the Khmer Rouge period, and their shells exist all over the town hidden by overgrown vegetation. I climbed over a few fences and walls to get a good look at some of them hoping for evidence of opulence, but anything of value has been ripped out and sold.

There were still some expensive-looking holiday houses here, and I was surprised to come across the Kep Sailing Club that seemed to consist of one catamarang and a bar.

Tourism here doesn’t yet support the local economy and most Kep locals still make their living by fishing for crab among other things. The town is laid out around the very attractive Crab Market.

It felt right that, on Christmas Day, my main meal should be the famous local crab and Kampot pepper sauce dish. I was recommended one restaurant and was surprised to find it completely empty, but I guess Christmas Day is just another ordinary day for the locals. Eating crab covered in sauce is incredibly messy but there were lots of little sinks near the tables for handwashing afterwards. I drank cheap, watery but refreshing local beer and listened to the waves under the floorboards. It was really quite a special Christmas lunch in a very untraditional way.

There were some good walks in the area mostly within the Kep National Park. One day I found a little bar in the middle of a forest run by an Australian. She gave me a beer at 10.30 in the morning. Her toilet was in a spiral and had no door and she told me to sing while I was in there so that nobody came in. I found the butterfly farm which was lovely although I don’t like seeing captive butterflies in spite of the good intentions. Oddest of all was finding the Led Zep café where I went a few times. The views were great and I had delicious crêpes and lime juice drinks. I was always surprised I was the only one in there each time I went.

I flew to Siem Reap for a couple of days primarily to see the temples of Angkor. I could have spent a whole week there – there are over 1000 temples covering a site of about 400km² many of which are hidden in vegetation and have not yet been excavated.

I got there very early planning to head off to Ta Prohm first. I had decided to walk and it took much longer than I had thought so, by the time I got there, it was already busy. But I still enjoyed this mad-looking temple with all its tree roots wrapping around the temple structure itself and growing in between the mortar-less building stones.

I then walked most of the way to Bayon temple passing Prasat Kravan. Bayon was built late and consists of over 200 smiling buddha-like faces. The effect is slightly hypnotic and a little bit disturbing despite the smiles. I liked the frieze around the bottom of the whole temple.

I made my way back to Angkor Wat. It’s a huge temple complex but not quite as interesting as some of the others I had seen. In hindsight, I should have hired a bicycle as I would have seen a lot more, but walking had its benefits – I passed a few gates and statues hidden by the roadside that I wouldn’t have noticed on wheels.

I like it when someone goes to a bit of trouble to be arty. These sculpted pineapple sticks were just what you want on a hot day.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole trip was the day spent sailing from Siem Reap to Battambang.  It was about seven hours through the Tonle Sap lake and down the Sangkae river. There were about ten of us in total, all squashed in quite a small boat. I believe there are ferries that do the trip when the water level is higher but I enjoyed our little boat and didn’t mind the obvious discomfort of several hours sitting on a bench. As the water level was quite low there were several times where we had to be punted or pushed as we got stuck, or our luggage had to be offloaded to lighten the craft. We also got lots of reeds stuck in the motor and had to stop to clear these out. But this was all part of the fun of it and the reward was passing through the floating villages, farms, schools, even churches. Everything was so colourful and friendly. 

We stopped for a decent chicken stew lunch in a floating restaurant. Our toilet stops were few and consisted of briefly mooring by an open field with zero privacy but by that point none of us cared.

Along the river are these tall bamboo structures which are frames from which a fishing net is lowered into the river, then pulled up and gathered.

We finally arrived at Battambang after most of the day afloat. My bum was very sore and I was a bit wet, but it had been a great experience. I took a motorbike taxi to my hotel in the centre of the city. I had used them a lot in Cambodia and had forgotten how much I enjoyed riding on the back of one despite the lack of protective clothing. Riding with my heavy backpack on my back was a bit of a challenge however.

I stayed in Battambang for a few days and it was here where I felt really lonely. It wasn’t really geared up to visitors like Kep had been, and I didn’t know where to go or what to eat. One sad day I passed a lovely looking food shop and I went in thinking I would point to what I wanted, but the people inside wouldn’t serve me – they just smiled but served the customers behind me. Most of the food I ate was at the hotel and it was western style done badly. I wandered around for a few days looking at architecture and temples, but I was really only in the city because of the boat trip, and I should have gone back to Phnom Penh earlier, and spent more time there, or spent more time at Angkor.

I did make a trip to the bamboo railway and its norry trains. Run on a single track there are lots of little engines and trolleys. My driver was the only woman and didn’t speak any English but I got the idea what you have to do. If you see someone coming back in the opposite direction, you get off and lift your train off the track to let them through then put your train back on the track.

At the end of the line there is a café and a shop and I was surrounded by smiling children. The lady in the café knew my ‘train’ driver. She told me that if I gave her a tip at the other end, then the men would take it off her, so I had to make sure I gave it to her before we got back to the depot. This railway was once a cheap way of getting around for the people, but now is run just for tourists.

I took a shared bus back to Phnom Penh. I no idea where to get off but the Central Market is a useful landmark and I was able to find my hotel quite easily. By now I was dirty, and tired and very hungry and spent my last days in Cambodia relaxing and eating. My flight back was via Bangkok and Istanbul where everything was grounded due to a heavy snow storm. What a contrast to where I had just been. I had to spend the night there and my luggage got lost for the only time in my travelling life (I got it back about a month later). By the time I got home, Cambodia felt like a lifetime ago.