Stung Treng to Siem Reap.......Cambodia

 The day I arrived in Cambodia I had left Pakse, Laos at 6:15 am and caught a tricycle to the bus station where a jeepney style vehicle left at 7am to head south. The vehicle was meandering into many small villages via a dusty, bumpy track where locals counted on the transport to get them out of their community. At one of the first stops vendors approached the jeepney windows with chicken/ cockroaches on a stick. The approximate 70 km trip was a bit torturous with the thick dust that was coming in the windows; all passengers put something over their mouth so as not to breathe in any of the fine dirt. Once the jeepney reached the end of the route I got into a taxi with 9 Cambodian guys and we crossed the boarder (that experience covered in the previous blog post) at Voen Kham, Laos and entered Koh Chheuteal Tom, Cambodia. We drove about 50 kms further until we reached a dock where a small boat took us across the Mekong to Stung Treng.

                         


  As I walked the dirt streets of this small city of over 100,000 I noticed that the people here seemed friendly. With only a couple of places to stay; booking a room was complicated by the Governor and other diplomats occupying many rooms. There were about 20 foreigners outside a guesthouse trying to arrange a ride south; I found that with only two buses per day coming and going into city that it may be everyone for them self in the morning.

                             

                              

That night in this sleepy border city was actually quit good as different foreigners hung out together in a restaurant; entertaining. One of the westerners stumbled on some locals getting drunk; they were celebrating that an owner of a car had stuffed many foreigners in his vehicle for a ride south, and charged them 3 times the going rate. They invited all of the other foreigners in this lodging area to have a drink with them, there ended up to be a fun party, although I did not drink like the others.

   I was not able to get on the bus in the morning, it seems that locals had paid days ahead to book a seat. I managed to find two couples who were willing to share a taxi at noon, that give me 6 hours to walk around among the locals. We arrived in Kratie at about 6pm, the first thing I did was buy my bus ticket for Phnom Penh the next morning.

                             

                             


There was a lot of poverty on the 150 km trip south; locals appear to live a very simple life in shacks,

                              


the roads were in very poor condition as the taxi bounced and swerved to miss large potholes. I just got to the bank and post office before the business's closed; that evening I ended up playing soccer with two workers who I had met.....again locals provided excellent comradery.

   The main attractions in Cambodia are the world famous temples that were built between the 9th-13th centuries. These sites were off limits for westerners during the tragic turmoil that Cambodians suffered under the tyrant Pol Pot who was the leader of the Khmer Rouge. In 1969 the Cambodians were carpet bombed by the American's during the Vietnam War so there has been hardship for these Asian's for decades. Pol Pot close off this country to the rest of the world to commit genocide (after the American's helped him become strong). Anyway, the last Khmer Rouge member fell in 1998, for years people like myself have come to this country to see the historic structures. Traveling in Cambodia can be slow (time consuming), disorganized (chaos); and can leave one very dirty.....if you want to witness these amazing temples old style.

     The bus ride from Kratie to Phnom Penh was good (although crowded), there was excellent scenery, many temples could be seen from the bus window.

                       


 I also saw a lot of garbage on the streets, many locals spit, pick their nose and pee just about anywhere. There were two English guys on the bus who had been to Phnom Penh before so I joined them in their tuk tuk, rather than fight with the locals who were trying to grab my backpack (they would get a kick-back for bringing a customer to a hostel or hotel); we went to a backpacker hangout by Boeng Lake. The alley that we ventured down was crammed with guesthouses and internet cafe's so I knew I would not stay there long. I took the same tuk tuk back downtown by the bus station and found a room at the Morakat Hotel for about $10 US. Once I checked in I went for about a 4 hour walk which enabled me to see the Independence Monument.

                           


 After the Monument I headed to the Kings Palace where I had to rent a shirt for $3, since mine was sleeveless, and then pay another $2 to bring my camera in. The Palace was okay, I took many photo's of the buildings, which were mostly temples.

                           

                           

                           

  There are a lot of beggars in Phnom Penh, this capital city of about 1.5 million. I had to get used to walking past these poor people without a reaction, after I had donated my daily allowance for charity. I went to the Wat Phnom which sits on the highest point in the city, there were so many beggars up there, and many children.

                          

 Two loose monkeys went after me when I tried to take a photo of them; I swung my small pack at them to keep them away until I was able to retreat. Once back down to street level I walked around to familiarize myself with the city of approx. 2 million. Many old boats were being navigated down the Tonl'e Sap River.

                        

    Often Cambodians can be seen playing Jianzi on the streets; this game originated in China about 2,000 years ago; players keep a feather ball in the air with everything but their hands (mainly feet), many people are very good (men and women). Many locals walk around with their pet monkeys.

    The hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh was a little overwhelming; there was a lot of honking and general city noise. After 2 poor sleeps and about 20 kms of walking to seek and discover, I had seen enough of this historic city and headed out in the morning on the bus to Siem Reap. The bus station was so small and crowded, 3 busy streets cross where all of the buses try to pull in, there is a lot of chaos. There were some motorcycle accidents on this day, one has to believe there are many daily when you watch the near misses on the roads. We stopped once to pick up a passenger and the police were there to receive some pocket money from the driver; I saw so much of this activity in different countries. The scenery on the 250 km trip was nice and there were entertaining views of locals.

                         

                         

                       

     Once we arrived at the bus station in Siem Reap all passengers were swarmed by tuk tuk and motorcycle drivers looking for temple customers. I shared a tuk tuk with an English guy; on the way to the Popular Guest House the driver stopped and wanted to negotiate where we were staying; he said "if I take you where you want to go then you use me to drive you to the temples tomorrow".

  It seemed like every road in Siem Reap was being worked on at the same time, while walking the streets I sucked in so much dust. There were a lot of tourists around since this city of 900,000 is the starting point for trips to the temples. Siem Reap is so much different than the rest of Cambodia, there are 5 star hotels where the patrons get a package deal for guided tours of the temples. The first lodging that I stayed in had a few rude staff members so when I woke up in the morning I found a new place to call home before I went on my temple excursion. I found Swan parked on the street and I hired him to take me to temples on his motorcycle. After about 650 kms of rough road travel through Cambodia, one of the best days of my life was awaiting me.