Cambodia
Ugh. One 13 hour bus journey over potholes, caked in red road dust, been bounced out of our "seats" more times than we could count, we can inform our dear readers that the road to Poipet is not good. The road from there into Thailand, with VIP bus, air con, tarmac roads, reclining chairs is great. Bangkok's Khao San road is a post in itself, but I'll finish the Cambodian ones first.
Angkor Wat - amazing. We have an unofficial "wow" scale for the sights we've seen, my highest so far was the Moreno glacier at 8 (out of 10) wows. This is up there. Temples a mile wide. Fortified cities 2 miles wide, now deserted - wooden buildings don't last long in this climate. Remember the temples from Tomb Raider? That was shot in Ta Prohm, also here - really spooky, covered in jungle with great white trees growing on top of ruined gatehouses and stupas. More photos to come. As for seeing the temples, you pretty much need a tuk-tuk or motorbike, they're too far to cycle (we tried - it was hot). We only ate at one temple, so we can't say what Wats' wok's what.
Cambodia overall is a great country to visit. We were in the low season, which made the prices ludricously low ($6 for double room, private bath, satellite tv, 50m from beach etc). The food can be great, if you go up a bit in price (i.e. $5 not $2). There is hassle from the people, mainly the tuk tuk drivers - all the usual annoyances like driving their vehicle in front of you to get your attention and block your path. Quite a few commisions and kick backs - don't trust anything the guesthouse tells you, which is a shame. The $3/hour massages were great. Its quite a small country - 10m people- so there's not a lot to see. I'd certainly come back here.
I really hope Cambodia pulls itself up out of the mess of the Khmer Rouge. A bit more background - Pol Pot killed 1.5m people, 10% of the population. He got popularity by claiming he could stand up to the Americans - there was widespread fear that America would invade (the good old Vietnam war - the Viet Cong were using eastern Cambodia as a staging ground). One quick coup while the king was in Beijing, he cemented it by claiming imminent American air raids on Phnom Penh, and that the population had to be moved out to the country for their own safety. Of course, in this process, people and opponents got separated, dissapeared, and were completely reliant on his cronies to supply them. He also abolished banking and currency, as the state provided everything you needed. So come 1990 and the UN peace accord, they had no money, tons of unexploded bombs (mainly landmines), a completely displaced, fearful and ignorant people.
We think we have problems?
Anyway - its much more cheerful than that. There's food, freedom and the chance to earn an entire dollar and that's enough to make the people happy.
Light a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of the evening.
Set him alight, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Angkor Wat - amazing. We have an unofficial "wow" scale for the sights we've seen, my highest so far was the Moreno glacier at 8 (out of 10) wows. This is up there. Temples a mile wide. Fortified cities 2 miles wide, now deserted - wooden buildings don't last long in this climate. Remember the temples from Tomb Raider? That was shot in Ta Prohm, also here - really spooky, covered in jungle with great white trees growing on top of ruined gatehouses and stupas. More photos to come. As for seeing the temples, you pretty much need a tuk-tuk or motorbike, they're too far to cycle (we tried - it was hot). We only ate at one temple, so we can't say what Wats' wok's what.
Cambodia overall is a great country to visit. We were in the low season, which made the prices ludricously low ($6 for double room, private bath, satellite tv, 50m from beach etc). The food can be great, if you go up a bit in price (i.e. $5 not $2). There is hassle from the people, mainly the tuk tuk drivers - all the usual annoyances like driving their vehicle in front of you to get your attention and block your path. Quite a few commisions and kick backs - don't trust anything the guesthouse tells you, which is a shame. The $3/hour massages were great. Its quite a small country - 10m people- so there's not a lot to see. I'd certainly come back here.
I really hope Cambodia pulls itself up out of the mess of the Khmer Rouge. A bit more background - Pol Pot killed 1.5m people, 10% of the population. He got popularity by claiming he could stand up to the Americans - there was widespread fear that America would invade (the good old Vietnam war - the Viet Cong were using eastern Cambodia as a staging ground). One quick coup while the king was in Beijing, he cemented it by claiming imminent American air raids on Phnom Penh, and that the population had to be moved out to the country for their own safety. Of course, in this process, people and opponents got separated, dissapeared, and were completely reliant on his cronies to supply them. He also abolished banking and currency, as the state provided everything you needed. So come 1990 and the UN peace accord, they had no money, tons of unexploded bombs (mainly landmines), a completely displaced, fearful and ignorant people.
We think we have problems?
Anyway - its much more cheerful than that. There's food, freedom and the chance to earn an entire dollar and that's enough to make the people happy.
Light a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of the evening.
Set him alight, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
posted by Matt and Lizzie at
5:02 AM
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