So, what did I think of Cambodia.
This is a tough one to explain as I was not sure if I was going to go to Cambodia at one point.
I have to say that it was the most interesting place out of all the 5 countries that I have visited so far as the people definately look quite different to all the other peoples from all the other countries. They are only half the size of the people rom the other countries. {Philippinos tend to be a small bit heavier than the others but Cambodians look emaciated.}
When I entered Cambodia, I never thought I would ever empathise with people who scam you for money or people who charge 2 - 6 times the price of a local for food/clothes/goods but in this case, this is ok as these people REALLY have nothing. When I write that, let me emphasize that some people have everything and the vast majority have nothing. There are plenty of huge 4*4s on the road so some people are making money. It appears that a lot of people are left to fend for themselves and if they can't do that , tough look. Do what you need to do to earn a living. That's why morals go out the window. At the same time, If the government lets Siem Reap develop like it is developing, then it will be a real cowboy town in 10 years .
I am not sure if orphanages are sustainable in certain parts of Cambodia. There are 52 orphanages in Siem Reap alone and it's not a big area. I am not slaggin the orphanages. They are doing the best they can but maybe a birth control policy might work. In saying that, I am not sure if I would listen to a government after the history of the previous governments here.
As for my views on all the areas that I visited...
Siem Reap:
During my time here, I saw the temples at Angkor Wat and then I had the 2 week stint at the orphanage. The temples are reall cool and they are a nice link to the past. The selling of trinkets and nick nacks by kids are a link to the present and a reminder that obody has anything and these kids should be in school but the reality is that they can't afford to be in school or their parents need the money.
In Siem Reap itself, the tuk tuk scene there is crazy, there are far too many of them and don't forget that there are other modes of transport like motorbikes so there is always a shouting game with the tourist. Sometimes, some drivers when they recognise me (and know that I will never take a tuktuk!) just chat away as they are bored senseless while waiting for business. These guys were cool. The guys that offered everything under the sun so that they could earn a buck got really annoying but at the end of the day , I should ot complain as I am not he one who is struggling here. It just annoyed me that nothing seemed to be sacred here (e.g: walking down the street without harassment.)
Also, I learned that it is better to take a mode of transport than to walk 4 minutes in the rain. If you walk in the rain or after the rain, your clothes will be destroyed especially if you wear sandles andthe water rides up your legs afterwards...dang!
Battambang:
The entrance into Battanbang was an experiance in itself. The tuk tuk driver that saw me sitting on the bus must have jogged a good .05 km alongside the bus to grab my attention (and at the same time piss me off. I have to say that he was the coolest driver that I met so far though. The tour that he gave to the scarf making house (and the farms) was pretty original and I have the scarf to show for that! As for the place itsel, It is the second city in Cambodia but you woould never guess this when you are walking around the area. The people seem to be friendly enough. Most people (not just in Battambang or indded Cambodia But s.e. Asia in general) seem to come out around dusk time for a couple of hours so the streets come alive (speciically, the places where they sell food at night.) There weren't too many chancers here and the Tomato inn was a really friendly place to stay. All the guys that owned the place tried to help us out and it was interesting to see the phenomenon of 'betting on the weather' using walkie talkies by standing on the rooftops/verandahs of your abode and looking at the clouds. It brings a whole new dimension to 'Weather Forecasting'. Maybe RTE need to adopt this policy!
As for the actual monuments, I will never forget the ones that I saw in this place (Or indeed Phnom Penh) It's good to see that they are very open with their history. It's very gruesome and It has occured in many of the locals lifetimes but they are willing to pass on everything to the next generation such that this stuff doesn't happen again.
It was cool to have a quick cycle around the area. When I went for the cycle, I realised a few things...
1. I am not fit.
2. I still sweat too much.
3. I need to stop or water ALL THE TIME. I think I might turn into a 2 litre bottle of water soon enough.
4. If there is any spare piece o land around an area where there is a tourist attraction, call it a car park ( a place to park cars and all types of bikes) and charge money. Well, that's a good way to get money and after I have just cycled 15 km in the midday heat, I would pay any money not to see a bike for a few hours!
5. Those family shops that are dotted along the roadside are really handy. They seem to be the rage in Cambodia and lots of places will sell local cakes and sweet foods.
The local restaurant that some of the guys that were staying at the hostel and I went to was interesting although I didn't really like the way a couple of people just joined the table. To be hinest, If I was that pissed off , I really should have said something then ,so I guess that's a lesson learned as I am sure that that will happen again.
Phnom Penh:
This place seemed to be fairly seedy in areas. The local tuktuk drivers intimidated you more than the ones in Siem Reap and that is saying something. In saying that , some locals had a cool sense of humour (like the women who was shouting at people to come into her bar. As I was passing she mentioned going into her place and there is a barbers upstairs. I had to ask her to repeat what she had just said!) To be hinest, the Cambodians do have a real dark sense of humour (well, the ones that can speak English. My Khmer is ... how do you say....crap ) They have all the time in the world to talk to you ad they will do their best to have a laugh with you.
As for the place itself, I am sick of seeing royal palaces so I did not go into the one here. The kiling fields and s21 were horrible and I will definately never forget those places.
I will definately never forget the card guys trying to set me up or the lady of the night propositioning me to proposition here her at 11.30 in the morning either. That was such a weird day. At least I know a couple of ways of cheating if I ever want to play poker!!! I think I'd better stop accepting tea\drinks from strangers though!
Kratie:
Kratie was a real backwater. I thought it was going to be a well built town with plenty of modern builldings. It turned out to be a town that seemed to have 9,000,000 hostels and only 3 streets. If you ever go here , rent out a push bike ($1) or a scooter ($7) and find the Dolphins and the 100 pillar temple {this temple is too far for a push bike if you are coming from Kratie though.} The Dolphins tend to swim quite a distance from the boat so don't expect to get good photographs! There are some nice local food shops near the temple though .If you have the time, have a walk through the local town. Expect people to stare at you though (If you look different to them!). The scooter journey is cool but don't be too put off if there are policemen by the roadside. They are there just to make sure that you are wearing your helmet and that there are sidemirrors on the bikes. If they had seen all the things that were wrong witht the scooter that I was driving , I think they wouldn't have deemed it roadworthy.! Again, Kratie is well worth a visit and if you can find some guys that are traveling, it's a cool place to hang out when the evening time comes around (although, remember - most hostels do shut their doors, so if you are not back in bed by closing time, tough luck - Enjoy the fresh air!!!!)
In general, I think Cambodia was by far the most eye opening country that I have visited. The people are doing their best to get by and (with the exception of Poipet and the grifters) they seem to be a friendly bunch. I am not sure how people would react back home if their place was completely flooded and they got no help from anyone (To be fair, that's a crap comparison as Cambodia and Ireland are 2 very different countries) There is a similar sense of dark humour between the residents of the 2 countries though.(Much more than Thailand.) This country is well worth a visit but just be careful as there are scams around every corner but never let that cloud your judgement of the people as a whole.I never got the chance to go to Sinoukeville (It's a real touristy destination so I am not really too bothere that I missed out anyway.) but I am really glad that I visited this place.
Anyway....I guess should wind up this section by talking about the few days that I spent back in Thailand before heading to China.
Oh Yeah, Before I forget, a big shout out to Clare and Tom.
It's a boy!! Congrats. I will send on a card at some stage once I can find a post office and once I have not lost the letter that I had already wrote (and was partially destroyed by the rains\leftover biscuits at the bottom of the bag\trampled on by a cockroach)
Anyway, I heard that I needed a 3 month holiday visa to get to China. I am going to fly there on the 16th of October and I had to get out of Cambodia by the 5th so that gives me 10 days to get the visa somewhere. I reckon it wasn't enough time to get to Laos and go to a Chinese embassy there and fly from there. Also, most flights through Asis tend to fly from either Bangkok or K.L and I have already been to K.L 4 times this summer so I decided to head back to Bangkok and hang out there.
The journey back through Poipet and over the border was pretty uneventful. The minibus actually stopped at that pozy restaurant again (It took us the guts of 3 hours to get through the border crossing in the stifling heat so the atmosphere was ... let's just say that it wasn't a happy atmosphere.) and everybody except one couple stood there , really pissed off at the drivers. It was so bad at one point that the drivers actually wanted to leave the restaurant also but a couple had bought food so everyone was forced to wait while they ate. In fairness to them, they saw this and took their time eating!!!
piccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc of the restaurant.
I was just happy to leave the border but there is no way that I would buy anything in that place! The rest of the journey (around 200km) passed pretty slowly At least, I had the seat beside the driver (as we were all crammed in the minibus!) so I had a good view of what mainly consisted of a main road :-(
Anyway, I was on a mission as I had a visa to order!
A few days before I headed back to Thailand, I was looking at the internet and I noticed that there was a race occuring in Bangkok and I had not tried a 10km this year so I joined! It was cool to attempt a race while traveling! At the same time, I hadn't a clue as regards finding the park where the race was located so I had to get a taxi to and from the event itself. I had heard that they actually run meters in the taxis in Bangkok. I had not seen this when I had been here ebfore but I decided that I would try that out when the time came!
I decided to stay in the Korean run garden hostel (which is on Rambuttri road). The place was quiet and I could have a rest there without been eaten alive by various creepy crawlies so that was a bonus.
As for the jog itslef, I woke up at 4 a.m on the morning of the jog. I had to get to the park at an early stage as the race itself started at 6. So, I grabbed the first available taxi at the taxi rank and showed him the location of the race. Little did I know that hhe would lose his way twice while trying to find the location. I moaned consistently at him as ...
1. It was 4,20 (approx.) in the morning....
and
2. I didn't know he he was actually taking the piss.
As it turned out, he was a cool guy, every time he made a mistake ,he turned back the taxi meter to the start again. We eventually got to the place and I wish I knew the Thai for 'I am really grateful that you got me here' but I didn't have the time so I did the necessaries and jogged to the starting line.
I never saw so many people of a certain age jogging at the same time!! I know it was called the seniors 10km but there were thousands of over 60's here. I don't think such an event exists back home but it dooes seem like a cool idea. Everybody was given a sort of blue sweater before we started and I made the mistake of wearing it during the race (Which I found out after 6km when the sweat accumulated on the sweater and the weight of the sweater quadrupled!) The race itself was fairly tame. I could actually see the first maybe 100 competitors for a couple of kms before reality kicked in and I started the process of dissolving into a pool of water again. I started jogging beside one guy who seemed to know what he was doing so I tried to stay up with him for a few kms.To be honest, It was nice to see the finishing line after (what I guess was) 46 - 47 minutes [The endomondo app. on my phone stopped after a few kms, dang!] We were well looked after at the end of the race as there was plenty of coconut ice cream, coconut milk juices and water to go around. I wanted to warm down and as it was only 8 am , I was able to have a quick look at another market before jumping in a taxi back to Bangkok.
The journey back into the center of Bangkok was interesting to say the least as the taxi driver told me (about 6 times) that a taximetered taxi is much better that a txi where you barter the price. This is normally the case unless you tend to bring the passenger on a round the country tour of Bangkok (which this guy decided to do.) At least I know that Bangkok consists of an awful lot of interconnected highways!
I decided to hang out with a couple of local people while I was in the area... Thanks for meeting up with me Suree [Thanks for the chat] and B. I am sorry if I was a bit quiet though as I had my mind on different matters like getting that visa! I was nice to see an authentic local market where you could buy some threads and design your own garments (if you wanted to)
I had to get that visa and to do this, I had to find out the location of the Chinese embassy in Bangkok. There are a few local kiosks around the Siam malls and the girls in the kiosks were more than happy to give me directions to get to the embassy. From what I could see, I had to get a local bus then , a MRT train followed by a local train to get to the place. I wished I was ready for all the questions afterwards though. The first time I went to the embassy (I went there at 9.30 in the morning and there was a queue around the block. There had just been a 7 day festival taking place in China so there was a bit of a backup.), they looked for photocopies of everything followed by a letter from somebody in China. So, After I gathered these together,
I went back the following day and they looked for a return flight or an onward journey. I didn't realise it at the time but there was a rule if you flew from Thailand that you had to have an onward journey. This applied specifically to Thailand. So, I had to buy a ticket to Hong Kong at some stage in the future. Ah well.....Third time lucky!!!
On the third day, I went back into the office and they collected all my paperwork and told me to come back in 4 days (I had 4 days left before the flight anyway....if I had 3 they would charge for express delivery and there is an express,espress delivery if you want the visa on the day of the flight,Anyway- they took my details and I was free to go somewhere for a few days. While queuing up on the second day, I started talking to a girl who was looking for a working visa for China [She was looking for the express express visa] . She mentioned that she was from Pattaya and that it's a cool place to visit. I thought to myself, if I hae the time, I might as well go here as it's only 2-3 hours from Bangkok anyway. I had heard of the place before but I couldn't pinpoint where I had heard of this place. ) I decided to head off down there and see what it was like anyway...
The journey to Pattaya took 3 hours. When we arrived, I got a motorbike as the hotel was very difficult to find. The guy on the scooter got lost (This is a common occurance,I never realised that many people do not recognise their own cities! To be honest, I would include myself in that as anybody who has asked me about directions could attest to.)
Anyway, I found the hotel and there was a swimming pool there! yay!. I had a go at swimming and I bumped into a girl from Liverpool (Louisa) who was here as she had to bail her brother out of a Thai prison ...ouch...the brother nicked some champagne and cheese and got checked into the local clink. Louisa was told that beating occur pretty frequently in those places.Note to self: never get too drunk and take some food/drink. That's one place I NEVER want to visit!
I went for a foot massage just to see how different it is to the course that I took. I must have been a bit annoying to the lady giving the message when I started telling her that it was better to put all her her fingers through all my toes at one point as it is much better.. Anyway, it was VERY different to the course that I took....She gave a bit of a head massage and for some reason a hair massage!!!
I had a quick look at the T'V (something that I have avoided for the most art over the last few months) and happened to see the 'Pattaya' channel. Then, I realised where I had seen this before. This place is like (or what I imagine as I have never been there) Ibiza. I started wondering what that girl at the Chinese embassy was talking about!
Later that evening, i headed out for a walk and got lost ....again...after finding my bearings, I went to a bar and chatted away to a girl called Nim and her friends who were all working in the bar. She was saying that she worked in a factory for 5 years but it closed (but not permanently) last year due to floods so they give her money to keep her on a retainer I guess until the job is there again.Nim seemed like a cool girl as she understood most of what I said but to be honest, her job was getting people into the bar and spending money so it was kind of difficult to have any kind of conversation with her without realising that she is only talking to you (and by you , I mean me) as I was drinking at the bar.!! The only thing was, I wasn't really in the mood for drinking so I only had a couple of beers. Wen Nim saw that I was never going to drink much, she started a normal conversation and I became an agony uncle....I can't believe I became an agony uncle ton a gogo girl.... I need to get to China and fast!!
I went on to another bar . These places are even tackier as the girls are there pretty much to entice you into the places but they are all over you when you walk by the bars...I have never seen so many older men (When I say older, I mean guys in their late 50's to late 60's age range) looking for younger women here.It does look a bit odd. I went back to the other bar where Nim had actually kept some pad Thai (I thought it was supposed to be the other way around where I give food/drink to the girls but it was fine by me as I needed a bit of grub!) It was interesting to listen to her though. Apparently, her dad died 6 years ago and her husband died 2 years later ,2 months after she gave birth to their child (Garfield) . I haven't a clue if this was true but to be honest, she did seem fairly cut up when she was recounting stories and it seemed like she genuinely wanted to chat. (Unlike some of the other people in the bar who seemed to be throwing faces!)
Anyway, the next morning, I went for a thai massage (I had always gone for a foot one before this time) and I heard the neck cracking.I think the woman who was giving the massage got a bit of a shock when I jumped up as it freaked me out (even if it did not hurt!). The message itself was very tough in comparison the the foot massage. The woman must be exhausted afterwards as there is a lot of stretching and putting knees to the back and stretching but it was a good massage to try and I was not paralysed by the crack in the neck (which was a bonus.)
epic read boy, keep it up
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