Category Archives: Cambodia

Phnom Penh to Saigon

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The road from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh starts very impressively, smooth, flat, straight and wide enough for nearly everyone, but not the whole way. Once again air conditioned mini bus, so there was a great deal of overtaking going on, and when we actually got to a double bend sign, the driver thought he had hit lucky , was Justin Button, and had a chicane to negotiate. So the bumpy parts of the road were an odd relief. Lots of road works to “upgrade” the road, but that doesn’t stop things, you just bump more.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is very pleasant, plenty of classic French colonial buildings, as well as 1930s and some art Deco apartments. The city is on a big river, with the Royal palace and lots of temples. There are huge government buildings, and the Central Market was built in the late 1920s. There’s one sky scraper being built! One Department store, but more like a market, and high high blocks of flats, which go back a long way and I guess half the rooms have no windows. picture below.

The road in front of the Palace is closed at the moment, so people can pay their respects to the King, he is lying in state, but not publicly, just a picture of the ornate coffin in a gold painted room in the palace. He was much revered, despite the rather bizarre history of his reign.

There was also an ASEAN ministers’ conference ( guessing that’s Association of South East Asian Nations) also Obama came to address them after being in Myanmar. So there were roads that you couldn’t go down as there were cavalcades of politicians driving along. I managed to be in the wrong place and have a policeman blow his whistle and shout at me!!!

So after three nights there, I took the fast boat to the border with Vietnam, 5 or 6 hours, lots of floating villages and fishermen, then hung around and caught a coach to Saigon another 7 hours. Best thing all day, when I checked into my hotel, no window, but who cares with aircon, but a BATH. Oh bliss!

Had a wander round yesterday, having trouble getting my head around the currency, cashed $100.00 and got over 2 million dongs. Was certainly ripped off by a cycle rickshaw and in the market, but just put it down to experience.

Ho Cho Minh City is a complete contrast to Cambodia, but then they’ve had longer to recover since their war. Sky scrapers and some very very expensive, chic shops, and hotels. Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, not fakes . Not the sort of communism the Americans were fighting.

I warned you that I would have more useless facts sooner or later. The population of Ho Chi Minh City is 10 million, and there are 6 million motorbikes, I think they all drove at me at once when trying to cross the road. About 1000 road deaths a year, mostly in the country where they drink Happy Water! rice wine. The authorities are obviously trying to do something here, as there are helpful green uniformed zebra crossing guides, they don’t stop the traffic, but I guess if too many tourists get squashed they will stop coming here.

Today I went to the Cu Chi Caves, the tunnels that the Viet Cong lived in to hide from the Americans and fight their guerrilla war. Well worth the visit.

Tomorrow off to Nga Trang, about 450km, so another 10 hour coach journey. (Eqivilant of national express this time…….not hairy scary) Hopefully a good bit of sea and some islands at the end of the trip.

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Mr Blue, Bamboo Train and Boats

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Mr Blue was the tuk-tuk driver, who despite charging an exorbitant amount when I got off the bus in Battambang to the hotel, I paid to take me on a drive around the countryside the next day, forgetting to bargain for a price again!!

First we went to the bamboo train, this is only a tourist attraction but run along the track that used to be the main line from Thailand to Phnom Penh. It consists of a bamboo palette resting on the axels of a set of small train wheels, and is driven by a diesel motor. So you’re sitting fairly low to the ground where it is easy to see the rails , which are neither smooth nor parallel. The tracks runs ( thankfully) in a straight line for about 10 k through some villages, and flat flat countryside, to a village where there are brick kilns. Three beautifully built kilns, fuelled by rice husks.

What do you do when a train is coming in the opposite direction? Simple, passengers get off and your train is dismantled, two or more trains going in one direction, win over a single train in the other direction.

The trip round the countryside was very beautiful. Very few of the old wooden houses left. Here, when you do well and get rich, you build a new house out of modern non sustainable materials. Mr Blue thought the English were mad, when I explained it is the opposite and we aspire to a 300 year old house. I saw a village on the river where the exclusive business is drying fish, palette after palette of what looked like kippers lying in the sun to dry, some fish are smoked and they also make fish paste in the village, which goes into a great many dishes for flavour. It involves leaving fish to ferment for about three months, ( maybe I heard him wrong) and then doing various things to it. To my surprise it didn’t smell much. I must be getting acclimatised!

There were other industries, still done in the old way, making rice paper that is used for wrapping spring rolls, weaving, and drying thin strips on banana, 3 kilos can be sold to the shops for $1, that’s a lot of bananas and work.

I visited a temple that is now closed as it had been used by the Khmer Rouge, as a detention and torture centre, before slaughtering people, men, women children and babies. But I didn’t want to visit the caves that they threw people into, dead or alive, it didn’t matter to them. It seemed appropriate that it was Remembrance Day, these horrors should never be forgotten either.

The return journey to Siem Reap was on the boat, this was long and crowded , but included a few local people who had obviously been to Battambang to stock up on the goods that the shops in the local villages don’t have. The journey was along a river where there were lots of fishermen in their little dug out boats, and our boat weaved between them, so as not to get tangled in their nets( their livelihood). We then travelled along the top end of Tonle Sap lake (claimed by the Cambodians to be the largest lake in South East Asia) where there are many floating villages. The stronger houses are on stilts but the poorer ones are built on bamboo rafts. So every time a boat with its huge wake goes by their house rocks.

Before leaving Siem Reap , I will tell you a little about the school. Lunch break finished now, back to work!

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Stranded in Sisophon…

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Took a quick breather and leg stretch on a long bus journey, snap a photo, turn round and the bus was pulling away……..but was assured by a local that it would be back in 10 minutes. Well, 10 minutes in Asia can be long time……Might have been worse, could have been waiting for a Network Rail connection.

The bus was back in 20 minutes and on I went to Battambang.

Nothing like a bank holiday!! Especially one to celebrate independence from the French in 1953. So, I had a long weekend. Could have gone to Phnom Penh, but have heard that as the king is lying in state, ( he died in October, and the funeral will be in February, I presume embalming is a local skill much practiced) that some of the Royal Palace is not open. Hence the trip to Battambang.

As the Cambodians say,” Same, Same , but different”another French colonial city on a river. Unusual name for a restaurant, I think, reading the menu at the Write Rose Restaurant, only to notice next day when I went there for breakfast, that the sign outside says White Rose! And as for some of the typos on menus, you really wonder what you’re going to eat. Biggest difference is that there is not a huge area given over to bars and restaurants for travellers and tourists. One street for mobile phone shops, can they sell that many mobiles still? One for pharmacists, what a hypochondiacal people they must be. One for restaurants, and best street of all , salons where you can have a make over and get your outfit for weddings and other special events, along with the photographers’ shops that go with these occasions.

And weddings there were, they start at 5.30 a.m. Goodness knows what time the Bride has to get up to get ready. And finnish about midnight. Not only was this in the hotel two down from mine, but also two mornings running!!! The event takes place under a very colourful awning right across the street and the music and chanting are all broadcast on speakers across the neighbourhood. In addition to weddings, similarly noisy events were taking place in the town and countryside to celebrate the end of the wet season. Music and chanting , a huge meal, and the monks come along to bless the village and take back lots of food and goodies to keep themselves going.

You’ll have to wait for the next instalment of my bank holiday weekend…

Just a picture to give you a flavour of what I’m talking about.

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Siem Reap

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After lots of sea, sand and snorkelling, good company and plenty of fresh seafood, I had a day’s travelling, more hairy scary driving, and am now in Siem Reap. Arriving here after dark and all I saw was a long road of monumental looking hotels full of air conditioned luxury coaches in their car parks. It all looked like something out of Hollywood , and all have Angkor somewhere in their name.

There’s a great market here, lots of the usual stuff, but some good fairtrade local art too, beautiful silk. Lots of “jewellery” stalls, they also change money, as the $ US is the main currency, with the local currency the subsidiary one , something like 5000 riel to the dollar, so all those noughts again.

One moment tat, the next you are in the food market, fruit and veg fine, but you don’t want to be in the meat and fish section late in the day as it’s getting a bit hot by then. And a man with a sewing machine who took up my trousers to make them into shorts for $2.00!!

A day is probably enough to find your way round Siem Reap, which left me a day free, so off I went at dawn (again) to see Angkor Wat. It’s so enormous it’s hard to take in, but I still prefer European Cathedrals which are more delicate and feel less claustrophobic. Like them it is probable that a lot of the stone work was originally painted, but then of course, the stone would have the soft colour of new sandstone, not black and polluted. Later on the day I went to another temple, which I much preferred, and got the tail end of the daylight.

So just waiting to be picked up by the school, first day back nerves, think i’ll by winging it.

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