3 Weeks In the Kingdom Of Cambodia

After 3 amazing weeks in Vietnam, we were ready to move on. Next on the docket was neighboring Cambodia and we really enjoyed our 19 day jaunt through this amazing country as well! We arrived from the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc via ferry and were immediately aware of the underdevelopment here. The border was nothing but a hodge-podge of broken down buildings & dusty, dirt roads. The patrolman impolitely forced us to pay a $1 immunization fee (even when we had proper immunization records with us!) and proceeded to check our temperature by aiming a scanner at our forehead! Not the most efficient way to take ones temperature as it was 100 degrees outside - of course our body temperature was going to be hot! This experience typified our Cambodian trip. The country is still digging itself out of decades of civil war coupled with terrible natural disasters, it's painfully obvious they're on the mend. Transportation is not to the standard of it's neighbors and I suppose that's because they've actually regressed as a society since the 70's. This underdevelopment actually added to the genuineness of our experience though. I still feel like the people in Cambodia were some of the nicest, most welcoming on our entire trip. The tiny Cambodian border town of Ha Tien & a brand new, gaudy hotel & casino greeted us once we overpaid our way past the check point. Ha Tien Vegas is a modern monstrosity that towers above the beautiful Cambodian countryside in which it's placed. No doubt an influx of $$ and tourism is starting to come this way, I just hope the traditional Cambodian culture isn't lost in all the Westernization.

Welcome to Cambodia!! Very Sketchy Border with a new "Vegas" in the Background

Beautiful Sunsets & Floating Crab Pots & on the Kep Coast

Our first two days were filled with peace & relaxation in the small coastal town of Kep. Kep used to be Cambodia's top seaside destination before the Civil War and recently has been getting back to it's glory days. We soaked in the charm of the town with leisurely bike rides surrounded by swinging monkeys, dining on amazing seafood at the crab market & escaping the oppressive heat with dips in our refreshing pool. The crab market was so good we ate dinner there both nights! There's nothing like ordering stir-fried crab with delicious local Kampot pepper, then seeing your waiter waddle out into the ocean right in front of you, open a floating crab pot and grab a victim. Minutes later, we were devouring the most tasty crab of our lives! Doesn't get much fresher than that! We also trekked the 7KM around beautiful Kep National Park and gazed at the gorgeous views of the area & the old, abandoned villas from the Khmer Rouge era. Kep was a great intro to Cambodia!

Local Crab & Kampot Peppercorns - AMAZING

Checking out the Broken Down 'Black Palace'

Bullet Holes & Graffiti In the Old Church

After two relaxing days in Kep, we hopped on a local bus for a one hour trek to neighboring Kampot. This laid-back riverside town was a great place to spend a few days. A quick jaunt outside Kampot is Bokor National Park. The mountain is undergoing some scary development at the moment. World class casinos & entire housing communities are being built on top of pristine national forest and the entire ecosystem is slowly being destroyed. Additionally, it's just a shame that this elitist community is being built by Chinese Investors who have injected billions of dollars to build 5 star hotels, golf courses & helipads for the super rich while the local community still lives in poverty & doesn't benefit from it (keep in mind, much of the population still lives on less than $1 per day). We learned this Chinese company has actually been allowed to 'lease' the National Park for 99 years of development! What a joke! Nonetheless, before the natural beauty of the place is completely destroyed, we rented a scooter & saw for ourselves. If development here is good, it's for one thing - the ease of getting there! Beautiful, new paved roads zig-zag up the mountain on what's got to be Cambodia's best road. It was a pleasure to arrive at the top in starkly different weather than we were used to - it was COLD! We stumbled upon the 'Black Palace' first. This complex was once King Sihanouk's summer residence where he used to escape the heat by relaxing in his luxurious villa. Now, fallen into disrepair & overgrown with weeds, the complex still has remnants of it's previous glory. We zoomed past the ugly resort hotels & construction projects in search of the hilltop pagoda & an old, abandoned church. The eerie church in particular was interesting because the Vietnamese fought Khmer Rouge troops on this spot and bullet holes are still visible littering the walls coupled with Khmer graffiti. If ghosts are real, this place is for sure haunted!

Bokor Hill Station

What a View!

The highlight on the mountain has got to be Bokor Hill Station. Built by the French in the 1920's, this hauntingly beautiful colonial building was used by their elite to escape the oppressive heat of Phnom Pehn. In the 50's, Prince Sihanouk used the building as a grand casino & recently, it's been the backdrop for Hollywood movies including 'City of Ghosts' starring Matt Dillon. Recent development has made the building accessible although less interesting. We got lost wandering up and down spiral stairways, strolling down countless hallways and into abandoned rooms. The views from this place are spectacular! We could imagine huge parties thrown on the veranda overlooking sea for miles. It was a special place. Having a motorbike allowed us to stop and go as we pleased, so we leisurely made our way down the mountain stopping at viewpoints along the way. If anything, the ride there and back was worth the trip on it's own! We headed into the beautiful countryside after getting back down to sea level. Absolutely loved motoring along the bumpy dirt roads flanked by traditional houses on stilts, smiling kids & animals everywhere! Interacting with locals in their own environment is a real pleasure in Cambodia. We enjoyed a sunset run along the riverside as well. After living in America for a few months now, I wish we treated strangers with a smile and a wave. It really goes a long way to making you feel welcome. O and I highly recommend the Magic Sponge Guesthouse in Kampot. Miniature golf, unlimited DVD's, $3 dorm beds & 25 cent draft beers - can't beat that!

Exploring the Beautiful Cambodian Countryside

Our Digs on Koh Rong

A Welcome Resident To Our Bungalow

Next up, we headed to the remote, tiny island of Koh Rong. Consistently ranked as one of the best beaches in all of Asia, we just had to make room for this place in our travel plans. We stayed in rustic bungalows on the beach. Very rustic! Thank God for the mosquito nets at night to protect us from the countless buggers. Aiding in the mosquito defense were big tokay geckos. We were well aware of these fellas from our time in Thailand & their extermination efforts were appreciated despite their constant squawking. The island isn't fitted with proper electricity yet, so we only had lights for 5 hours at night. It was awesome to get away from it all and really have some time to ourselves to enjoy this island. We spent our days kayaking & exploring abandoned beaches, visiting local waterfront villages, playing games at our "resort" & trekking across the island to the incredible 7KM beach! I can honestly say that this beach was the most beautiful that I've ever been to! 7 kilometers of pure white sand, crystal clear azure waters & no development! We had the place to ourselves and that afternoon lounging in paradise was magical. We didn't want to ever leave this place but had to get back, so we started the 2 hour jaunt & met a local dog who helped us.

7KM Beach on Koh Rong - As Close to Paradise As You'll Find!

Our Own Guide Dog

This dog we dubbed 'blackie' guided us the entire way home! He didn't do a great job protecting us from snakes though. One of the other reasons why I wanted to go to Koh Rong was to swim in bioluminescence. It had been on my bucket list ever since I saw the movie "The Beach". This island is one of the best places in the world to see the phosphorescent plankton because of the minimal development & light pollution. Every night once the electricity cut out, we waded out into the water spent hours frolicking in another world. Every movement would send specs of light twinkling like stars in the blackness. It really was like a dream and I can now cross this amazing experience off my list!

A Great Hair Experience

Feeling Like Royalty

Man we had 3 awesome days in Koh Rong but it was time to get back to the real world. 4 hours on a miserable bus later and we found ourselves in Cambodia's capital and biggest city - Phnom Penh. Once considered the 'Pearl of Asia', Phnom Penh is a charming French Colonial city that despite years of destruction and decay from Civil War, retains old school charm. We loved strolling along the grand boulevards & riverside boardwalk & were lucky to visit during a Independence Day. I got a legitimate haircut by a street barber. No hairdryers or electric razors here. Without electricity he had to use manual clippers to 'shave' my head! It was a fun experience and definitely not the worst haircut I've ever gotten. One evening we went to the famous Elephant Bar at the Raffles Hotel. This historical landmark was where foreign journalists stayed when the Khmer Rouge seized the city and it's been the hotel for foreign dignitaries including Jacqueline Kennedy. Cool atmosphere to try innovative cocktails & lounge with Phnom Penh's well-to-do.

Celebration!

Phnom Penh Decked Out for Independence Day

Harsh Rules at S-21 Prison

No visit to Phnom Penh would be complete without visiting & learning about it's recent checkered past, so we met up with an American friend we met in Laos who randomly was there at the same time and headed out to the Killing Fields and S-21 prison. It was an extremely depressing & sad day learning about the atrocities that were committed by the Khmer Rouge regime against their own people! Over a quarter of entire population disappeared during the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge reign. Anybody with glasses or a respectable career was considered an "intellectual" and immediately disposed of. The idea of this communist party which came to rule in 1975 was to create a self-sufficient society not dependent on outside influence through a focus on agriculture. So, everyone was moved & torn apart from their friends & families to work in farming 'camps'. Tragically, thousands ended up dying of treatable diseases like malaria despite the availability of medicine. Arbitrary executions & torture were carried out all the time. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or S-21 Prison is where a lot of these 'intellectuals' were kept, tortured and eventually executed. This ex-high school housed 17,000 prisoners of which 12 have survived! It was a gut-wrenching couple hours wandering in and out of the prison cells & gazing at all the young faces now lost forever.

Thousands of Faces Lost Forever

Human Tooth & Bones Just Lying There

As terrible as the Tuol Sleng prison was, the Choeung Ek Killing Fields were even more sad. It was at this location that the actual executions took place. Choeung Ek is only one of hundreds of killing fields located throughout the country where the Khmer Rouge killed & disposed of the 1.7-2.5 million people they murdered. To preserve bullets, the Khmer Rouge soldiers (often brainwashed teenagers) would utilize any objects on hand to kill. Blunt metal objects were repeatedly bashed on top of heads & sharp bladed plants were used to slash throats. The thousands who died needlessly were thrown into great mass graves (some of which still haven't been excavated today). The reality of this place struck me when I looked down & saw a human tooth just sitting on the surface. I broke down. It's very common for bones & clothing to surface after rainfalls due to the large number of bodies still buried in these shallow mass graves. It felt wrong to be walking over bodies, but there are simply too many of them & they had to allow visitors in order to raise awareness to the horrible atrocities that took place here. One particularly horrifying spot was the 'killing tree' amongst which infants were smashed against & tossed aside. I just couldn't believe that one human being would do that to another human being! At the end of the tour (great audio tour BTW) we came to a towering Buddhist stupa where they place the skulls of all the victims they find. Every year, rows & rows of skulls are added to the monument & it puts into perspective the scale of the genocide. Definitely not a honorable burial, but it's just impossible to identify these countless victims individually. Coupled with the Nazi concentration camps, I can honestly say that this place was one of the saddest places I've ever been in my life. To add to it, once the Khmer Rouge were forced out, Pol Pot, the leader of the regime lived out the remainder of his years in relative peace & prosperity - how's that for justice!

I'm Lost for Words

So Many Victims

Our Cambodian trip took a turn for the worse when we learned about the Khmer Rouge & all the horrible things which occurred a mere 30 years ago. A tough & sobering experience but a necessary one. The society is definitely still digging themselves out of this terrible time & I hope they can learn from their checkered past so that it never happens again. The final destination we visited was Siem Reap & the glorious temples of Angkor Wat - which I'll save for it's own post. I'll finish with a happy picture.

A Phnom Penh Specialty - Happy Pizza. Guess What's Sprinkled On Top!