Cambodia - Koh Kong, Sihanoukville and Kampot.
12th July -Hat Lek/Koh Kong
When we awoke it was still raining, but not too heavy so we decided to move on to Cambodia. We wondered into town to get some breakfast and Kat and I got some hideous passport photos done, then the "three pregnant turtles" were on our way.
My leg was still pretty painful. It was swollen and bruised from my toes until half way up my calf. Pain shot up my leg with each step I took. Without my bad, I had found a relatively painless way to walk: whereby I use my right leg and press lightly on my left, but now with my huge bags this method was impossible. I just really concentrated on my walking, trying not to let on the pain to Janna and Kat (otherwise we would end up staying in Thailand another day) I was throbbing and my leg was stiffening from the bruises but I just bit my lip and looked forward to when we arrived!
We waited for over an hour, in the hot sun, for our seelaw in the hot sun, even though we had been told that there would be one every 10 minutes. Once we had arrived at the ferry port we only had about 30 minutes to wait, then we relatively easily managed to catch buses and seelaws through Trat and within no time we arrived in Hatlec, with Cambodia in our sights.
As I imagined the boarder offices were very minimal and basic, and basically little hut with young boys in them to stamp our passport, fill out forms, take money. To be honest it was rather a blur getting through, it was 7.30 at night and we only had 30 minutes until the boarder was due to close, so we got shoved here and there, and got charged more than we should have for our actually visa, but there was not much we could do about it and they refused to give us a receipt. Oh well what can you do? ( I bet they make a fortune)
Once arriving the other side we met up with a Cambodian man named Whiskey, who was actually a friend of the Scottish woman who co-ran Independent Bo's. He was incredibly easy to understand and insisted on practicing his Cockney rhyming slang on us. He then took us to change some money (where we actually got really duped) and then we settled in to his small but pleasant guest house called the 'Koh Kong guest house', where we enjoyed a lovely Thai style meal and then passed out!
13th July - Sihanoukville
Today is a Friday, so suspicious people might say that it was a very unlucky day being the 13th, but we managed to have a good day, well as good as a day spent travelling could be :)
We were all up early and had a freezing cold was in our bucket in our 'bathroom' then went out to wait for the bus to Sihanoukville. We had originally planned to catch the boat, which would have taken half the time, but apparently the seas were too rough for the boats to run. The bus was really late but, it was a good excuse for Kat and I to play with the gorgeous little puppy that lived at the guest house. My ankle was still pretty painful so I was relieved when the bus eventually came, we boarded along with a French couple, and Irish couple, an English guy and a Cambodian guy.
Again the journey was interesting, more incredibly bumpy and windy roads full of holes and deep puddles and slippy mud. It was hard enough to remain on my seat and also prevent my head from hitting the ceiling. As I looked out of the window I could tell that Cambodia is much poorer than Thailand, the sights I saw and the houses reminded me much more of the Philippines. The most crazy parts of our journey was the ferry crossings: We had four or these in total and each time they seemed to get worse. As we approached the river side, we were asked to vacated to bus "because it was likely to sink" and then went slipping and sliding about in the mud trying to board the 'ferry'. Now I say ferry, but what I actually mean is four canoes with bits of wood over the top of them all and an old motorbike engine to move the whole thing. I was pretty petrified as our bus, along with a few other cars drove on to the wobbling planks of wood, followed by us. I really couldn't believe that this was the only way to get across the river. With thanks to god all of us, our belongings and the bus survived all four crossing with nothing more than very muddy feet ( I was wearing flip flops, but by the last crossing it looked like I had a lovely pain of reddish brown ankle boots, made from mud)
I am currently reading 'Survival in the Killing Fields' which is written by a Cambodian man who basically managed to live through the Pol Pot/ Khmer Rouge regime (which is a truly horrific book) but in the story he explains about how he and his family along with their vehicles cross the river and, the way he describes it is exactly how we did it today. I actually can't believ how much my book is influencing everything I have seen so far in Cambodia.
Anyway, late afternoon we arrived and had to fight off hundreds of people in order to catch a mini-bus to 'Serindepity beach'. Apparently by taking the mini-bus we were taking away business from all the guys on motorbikes waiting to charge us a fortune to take us. They even tried to park their bikes in front of our bus, I thought that is could turn nasty but luckily it didn't and we all made it to the beach without too much trouble.
We all booked into a nice place called 'GST guest house' where it was two pounds a night for a double room with two double beds and even a bathroom with a SINK, I was so happy to see a sink again for the first time since leaving Korea! We were all ravenous so all of us (from the bus) gathered for a nice dinner then took a stroll along the beach. We tried not to get wet, but the fast coming waves soon got our shorts wet. As the sun went down we decided to stop for a quick drink, but as usual one drink turned into three or four and we ended up being pretty late for bed. There were lots of young boys walking up and down the beach trying to sell their artwork, bracelets and other things. As usual we felt sorry for them and ended up buying a woven shark key ring off three of them, and the Irish girl (Rebecca) bought a picture. We finally all retired to bed by about midnight leaving the busy beach and all the kids behind!
14th July - The Market
Today was a rather uneventful day. Due to the rain we spent the morning on the incredibly slow Internet catching up with emails and trying to update our blogs and then in the afternoon we tried to find a place we had read about in our guide book, where we could book trips. Unfortunately when we got there it had closed down for the rainy season and was not due to open again for another couple of weeks, we aimlessly walked around the dead town (where everything was closed due to low season) and eventually found somewhere to eat.
On the way back to the beach we stopped of at a thriving local market. It was fantastic, people shouting, throwing things around and local bargaining everywhere. It was all sectioned out. The food section was rather smelly but I was amazed by the sheer quantity of rice. My favourite part was the dress makers section, there were women everywhere basically fixing things and making clothes. You could chose your own material and get an outfit made especially for you right there and then. I mist say I was tempted, but I must also remember that I do not have anymore room in my bulging rucksack for any more clothes!
That evening we all went out for a Khmer meal. Kat and I chose luk lok steak, which was delicious and Jenna enjoyed a Chicken Mok curry, then we all shared battered bananas in rum for desert. I really like Cambodian food (although I loved Philippine and Thai too)
15th July -Ream National Park.
What a crazy day. It all started with breakfast on the beach, it was the usual Cambodian favourite of 'crispy baguette' with butter and bananas! We then met our guide and a nice girl named Marijke from Holland and headed off to the national park that we had heard so much about. It was raining when we arrived, but for once it wasn't too heavy so we were determined that it wouldn't spoil our day. The four of us boarded a boat along with the driver and our very smiley guide and headed off along the river. At times, I thought that we might capsize but I was soon distracted by all the mango trees and fishermen. Our guide informed us that sometime dolphins come down the river from the sea, I kept my eyes peeled but unfortunately didn't see any!
Our boat ran aground a long way from the shore, so we had to roll up our shorts and wade through the very stick mud to the river side. As we did we passed many families hunting for cockles, muscles and crabs. One little girl was delighted when I picked up a large live crab and gave it to her. Everyone was filthy and a few times I actually though I was stuck in the mud. I was relived when we got to the riverside and also happy that the rain had stopped.
We spend the next few hours trekking through the jungle. We passed a little school, which was basically a little bamboo hut with desks in it and a few old books and a map on the wall. We also passed some very rural houses with all their surrounding animals and little kids who would rush up to say hello.
Due to it being rainy season most of the jungle was pretty flooded, we kept having to alternate between bare feet and our trainers, after about 20 minutes of this I gave up and just trekked in my trusty flip-flops. It was very strange seeing little fish swimming through the jungle. I bet that this place is so different out of rainy season!
I also held a small iguana and was fascinated by the termite mounds. Apparently termites (who look like large ants with big heads) have 'workers', 'royalty' 'breeders' and 'guards'. We watched the streams of small working termites and all around them were the much larger guards. If we put a twig or leaf anywhere near the workers the guards would attack. I didn't realise how intelligent these small creatures were! After an hour or so we found a lovely deserted beach, we relaxed there for a bit before heading back through the jungle to the river side for lunch.
Just before we headed back to our boat we saw a water snake in the water, Jenna hates snakes so it look a little persuasion before she agreed to wade back out through the river. This time Kat and I both cut the bottoms of our feet on sharp shells and I got paranoid that our cuts were going to get infected (like my still swollen leg). We all enjoyed a nice lunch on the boat, consisting of: fish with pepper and lemon, salad and another baguette. We then headed back before the next bout of torrential rain.
That afternoon I ventured out alone on a motorbike to get some bits and bobs from the market, post a letter and try and find my jacket that I had stupidly left in a bar the night before. I was nervous about going out alone, but I soon felt confident and enjoyed the fact that I did feel safe. My jacket was thankfully exactly where I left it in the bar. That made me realise how honest these people can be. Everyone I encountered while being alone was incredibly helpful and went out of their way to help me. I wouldn't like to travel totally alone but I must say I enjoyed my afternoon alone. I feel like I noticed more things and got talking to more people.
That evening we headed out to the beach to a bar run by deaf people, called the 'Dolphin bar' for dinner, as we tucked into our noodles suddenly a huge ball of fire landed on or table, we jumped back in shock. Soon after we realised that the owners of the bar had been practicing 'fire acts' and while spinning a wire with two huge petrol soaked balls of fire on each end the chain had snapped and this had resulted in one of them landing on our table!
The deaf girls at the bar were full of apologies, but everything was fine, they were so sweet and no one was injured and we got a free meal and a couple of free 'buckets' of cocktails to make up for it. We got talking to a few interesting people including travelers from Israel and Germany. We had come from where they were going and viceversa, so we could exchange our stories and advise each other where to go and what to see.
16th July - Kampot.
Due to the rain, we all decided that there was not much point staying at the beach, so decided to move on up the island to Kampot in order to find more to do. Then 6 of us piled in a small car and off we went. Our driver was a retired police officer and he told us that he usually tries to get 4 in the back and two on the passengers seat in his car, and that it was totally legal. A long the way we made up a game called 'spot the most passengers in a car' I think the most we saw was 12...yes, 12. There was the driver, with a kid on his lap, two in the passengers seat, four adults in the back with two kids on their laps and 3 people and all the luggage hanging out of the open hatch back boot! I couldn't believe my eyes, but our driver insisted that if the car had a roof rack, they could get at least another four on there. I tried to imagine this happening in England, hilarious.
After about two or three very squashed hours we arrived in Kampot. Which is a small provincial town, with colonial style houses, situated on the Teuk Chhou river only 5 k from the sea. I could see that the town had very clear French influence., but again it was all very quiet and very run down. We moved into our rather dirty room and then went off for a walk along the river to look for pagoda. Everywhere we walked people were stopping us, desperate for us to ride in their tuk tuks or on the back of their motor bikes, and many people who were just trying to practice their English. Sometimes it can all get a bit to much, but I think most of these people are relatively harmless and they are incredibly friendly and their faces are always beaming with smiles. After being stopped about 100 times, we eventually got to the spot where the pagoda should have been, but yet again our out of date guide book was wrong and it was no longer there! On the way back to our hostel we saw many disturbing sights, such as whole baby chicks on sticks, ready to be cooked and live pigs stretched out and squealing in 'pig shaped baskets' It really was enough to turn a person vegetarian.
That evening I decided to refrain from eating meat and instead was delighted when I saw 'jacket potato with beans and cheese' on the menu. This is something I have been craving for over ten months. It was okay, but rather hard, the Cambodians really don't know how to make a jacket spud :(
We got back to our room and with in about 5 minutes, while getting ready for bed, we saw a hole, where spiders, insects and mosquitoes were getting through and two mice even scampered across the floor. We changed rooms, to a much smaller room, where we had to share a bed, but at least we weren't sharing with vermin and insects!
17th July - Bokor National Park and the deserted hill station
Today we booked ourselves on a trip to visit 'Bokor National Park' and the deserted hill station and casino there. We were up early and while we ate breakfast it began to rain...heavily. Shortly after our OPEN-TOP jeep arrived to take us. We were not looking forward to getting into the back of the jeep, which already looked like a swimming pool. A few people backed out of the trip, but we decided to just get soacked and make the most of it. Just as we zipped up our rain coats and got ready to hop on board, our guide notified us that there was too many people and some of us would have to get in the car, we quickly volenteered and cheekily pushed our way into the shelter of the car. Jenna and Kat got into the passangers seat of the jeep and I along with an English couple and a german guy got into the car.
The journey, as usual, was very bumpy, and our driver was a maniac, wrecking his car and susspention hurtleing down the crazy roads. He spoke no English, but I tried to relax my nerves by nattering away to him about how to drive safer and asking him how on earth his car survives abuse like it was getting. I also had a good chat with the English coulpe, who must have beenin their 40's, and told me about their travels over the last 20 years. I listend intently to their stories about the best places they had been and took all the advise they could offer. I got incresingly excited about my future plans to visit South America, Africa and India, listing to their amazing stories.
Feeling well and truely sick and having many bumps on my head we arrived at Bokor National Park. which is packed with tropical forrests and hiddern waterfalls. The first stop was Bokor mountain and the 'Black Palace' which was the former kinds residence. It was pretty ruined, but you could make out which rooms were thae bathrooms, kitchens etc. We looked out at the highest point of 1800 meters, from Cambodias second biggest mountain, from here we had an impressive view of Veitnam to our left and the over the gulf of Thailand to our right and a panaramic view of Kampot its self. Luckily the rain had stopped so the views were actually pretty clear. I could see rice fields for miles and miles around. Our guide informed us that women carry 40k baskets on bamboo rods accross their backs from these fields to Kampot. I couldnt believe it. I struggle with my 15k bag!
We all gathered in a large building for lunch, which consisted of a large bown of a vegetable stew type thing, served with a baguette and rice. It was relitively nice, but we found numerous dead ants floating in it. Needless to say, most people stuck to the baguettes, I just thought of the added protene!
The second stop was an old French hill station, 'There was a church their and the main building called the Hotel Bokor Palace. our guide informed us of how they had been abandoned twice in history. First in the 1940's when the Vietnamese took over whilse fighting the French and again in 1972 when it was over run by the Khymer Rouge, who turned them both into prisons and tourcher chambers. We had a chance to look around the gutted remains. It was actually really eary. A real ghost town, mist was all around us and my heart was pounding as our guide told us the stories of what happened to the place. The doors were filled with bullet holes and the main ball room hall was almost totally flooded. I imagined the scem out of "Titanic" where the boad transforms back to its former self before our eyes, I bet that this place was truely wonderful. I wouldn't have liked to see it when the Khmer Rouge took over though.
It pained me to think what the Khmer Roughe did to people in there and we could even walk to the edge of the cliff where thousands of Cambodians had been forced to jump off. Many Cambodians stay away from the area as they fear the spirts of these ghosts who were treated so badly and died with out a cerimony.
On the way back, I opted to go in the back of the Jeep. A guy had been speared in the neck by a rotton spikey plant and wanted to take my place in the car. Kat also offered to take another girls place. I must say it was one of the most crazy couple of hours I have had in a while. I had planned ccatching a bit of sun and looking out for elephants, lepords, bears, and gibbons, but this was not to be. Instead I spent the whole journey ducking and trying to avoid branches and plants. The Cambodian at the back, spent the whole time shouting "duck, spiky plant" or "spider" Everytime I raised my body I got whipped in the back by a brance or if I was caught in conversation I would get whipped in the face. At one point the hugest spider I had ever seen was litterally two inches from my head and as I whiped the wed from my face, a few baby spidesrs dropped ito my lap, it is a good job I am not afaid of spiders, but later I learnt I should have been as they were said to be poisionus!!! Numerious times I almost got bounced out of the back of the Jeep all together, my nuckles were while from clinging on and both cat and I had red whip marks alover our backs and spent a while fetting all of the leaves out of our hair when we got off.
I was releived when we all got out of our vehicles and clambered abourd a nice canal boat. We were greated with a nice cold beer then and enjoyed a leasurely cruise back along the Touk Chou river to Kampot, while Kat and I told Jenn about our experience in the back of the Jeep.
Once we were abck in Kampot the English couple (who had been in the car with me on the way) and a pleasant French man all found our way to a bar run by an English guy who cooked me the most delicious sausage and Mash follwed by cheese cake. That certainly satisfied my craving for home cooked foods. Absoulutely delicious.
Tomorrow we are heading up to Phnom Phen. I would like to appologise for my rushed blogs, but really these computers are useless and I really never find myself with much time to dedicate to my blogging. I am such a busy girl, as I am sure you can tell, so I hope that you can get the basic gist until I get chance to sort it all out! :)
- Posted by emily1183 on 23/07/2007.
- emily1183's site
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