built for glory

Cambodia

Part Two: Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville



Our bus ride back to Phnom Penh wasn't too eventful until our stop in Skuon, where we saw people selling the traditional snack of fried spiders.

Sounds kind of fun, right? Well, it is until you realize they started eating arachnids there because they had nothing else to eat during the Khmer Rouge rule. And then you get sad and don't know what to do, because you have everything and they have a pair of flip flops, a hut and some fried spiders. Anyway, I thought about trying one but by the time I had worked up the courage, the bus was leaving.
For the rest of the ride, we made friends with Casey and Kassa from Calgary (he's an oil-rigger, she works for TD) and Leslie (recording original South Asian music on a scholarship). During that trip, Nate also made friends with Sylvain from Southern France (drinker, smoker and intense conversationalist). When we were about an hour from Phnom Penh, we noticed that the bus A/V system was playing the music video for BEP's "My Humps," which was shocking in and of itself, but then we really flipped when we realized the accompanying music was a Khmer song recorded to sound like the original! So darn crazy.
Once we got to the capital, Nate grabbed a tuk-tuk and we heade to our guesthouse only to discover that it was in a rather sketchy part of town. The place was clean anough, so we were okay with staying (maybe a little creeped out by the ubiquitous anti-child porn warnings in the rooms and elevators) but we decided not to walk to the restaurant that night. We went to Friends restaurant; definitely our best meal so far (things just keep getting better!).

We ordered french bread, sweet potato fries, spicy pumpkin soup (Nate's favourite), mango cashew chicken (my favourite), this amazing basil fish, and ravioli (Em's favourite). Amy who teaches in China and her mom, Annie, joined our table for the last few minutes of the meal and then we checked out the cool store next door and bought a t-shirt for Ben. The whole operation is great because it supports and trains former street youth.
Walking along the riverfront, we saw the most heart-wrencing poverty so far: shoeless three-year-olds wandering around unaccompanied; pre-teens with matted hair and babies on their hips; old, blind and limbless men begging; mothers sitting on the curb while their infants slept on the sidewalk. But you can't solve poverty in one night, can you? So we sat in a restaurant, had dessert and drinks, and just vented until we were tired enough to go back to our guest house and to bed.

the lovely waitstaff at our guesthouse, which was nicer by daylight
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Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Tuesday morning

It's a little eerie to be sitting below such a beautiful tree in the warm sunshine and realize I'm steps away from the graves of just a few of the thousands of people who were tortured and murdered here. I feel nauseous but also guilty. Not because I feel responsible, but because I don't feel nauseous enough. I remember the first time I saw actual video footage of someone being killed in real life--I think it was an old news broadcast from Vietnam--and how deeply disturbed was. And now, here I am in a place where real genocide took place and I keep catching myself wondering where the rest of the blood stains are. Thanks, Hollywood. My sense of compassion is now totally warped.




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After the genocide museum, we intended to go to the Silver Pagoda, but we forgot that it was a temple so we didn't have our "modesty kits" on.

riches

garbage is everywhere

We decided to head to Sihanoukville a little early rather than buy ugly t-shirts to wear inside the pagoda.
I was assigned a seat with no leg room next to an earnest young local named Buntha. We had a pleasant chat during which he asked whether I was married, and then why not? The only other major bus interaction was with this one old lady who kept squeezing my arms and yelling in Khmer, I assume about how white and fat I am, while her entourage of daughters and grandchildren looked on, giggling.

your typical Cambodian scene on the way

The scenery was beautiful (mountains!) and 4.5 hours later we got to Sihanoukville. We took three motos to today's lodgings; it was a short but rather uncomfortable ride due to the fact that most ladies ride sidesaddle here. They insisted we go to Coasters, which did have a couple of rooms available--Nate and Emily's is a quaint bungalow. Mine is a clapboard shack above the restaurant. Both rooms are outfitted with balcony seating, mosquito nets and beds... and that's it.

We tried the beach (white sand but full of trash) and water (warm and salty) before a dinner of BBQ on the beach (barracuda in my case--mmm, mmm, good!).


Then we walked around a little and had a beer under the breathtaking stars. Now I'm sitting in the Coasters bar having a fruit shake but the mozzies are so bad I can't think straight. Goodnight!
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rainy morning

Ah, Sihanoukville. The land of sunburn. Our first day on the beach, we trekked all the way down Serendipity Beach to Occheutal and a little beyond. We found a few square feet of sand between garbage and rocks and set up camp. It was nice and isolated and, in my opinion, the water was the cleanest and clearest we swam in the whole time. We hung out there for a couple of hours and then Nate and I went to see if we could find a cheaper hotel. Wandering through town was an experience. There were pieces of garbage EVERYWHERE (I hope because it was garbage day?!) and lots of goats, cows and various birds wandering around, picking at it. After a few unsatisfying attempts at finding a room, we stumbled upon a hotel for only $8 a night for a double room, if you just used a fan (air-con was $15 for the same room) which we thought might be nice. So Nate went back to get Emily and I hopped on a moto and went back to Coasters. There, I met the owner, a British fellow with one bloodshot eye who seemed straight out of a Dickens novel (named Bob, I think), and explained that we hadn't slept well at all due to some serious bass pumping out of Eden, one of the bars bext door, and that we were considering leaving. He assured me that it was rare for the music to get so loud and that he'd already talked to them. We finally decided to all stay in Nate and Emily's more scenic, private-bathroomed, two-doubled-bedded bungalow and Bob threw in the price of my room from the previous night for free.
With high spirits, we returned to the beach and plopped ourselves down on some deck chairs outside Serendip, which sells artwork by local kids in addition to the usual fare of baguettes, Khmer curry, BBQ and a long list of beverage options. We settled in and spent the next four hours or so reading, sleeping, getting pedicures and massages from the ladies who troll the beach, swimming, refusing to buy bracelets from children, and... to our later chagrin... sunbathing.

By the time we got back to our bungalow, we realized we had all overdone it. Nate motoed into town and got some after-sun lotion, which we used pretty much all of that night. After we'd rested and moaned a bit we walked down the street about 10 minutes to a joint called Mick and Craig's. I was feeling extremely out of it but I think the fajitas (or maybe it was the ginger ale... mmmm...) helped.
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A somewhat restless but still effective sleep was had by all and then we plodded painfully down for breakfast. I was about ready to call off our boat trip, but as we had bought our tickets in advance, there was really no question. Off we went to try to find the guy who had sold us our tickets.
Nate eventually found him and beckoned us over to a cluster of chairs where we met our co-sojourners for the day: a Swedish couple, four of their male friends and three Cambodian female friends of theirs. First stop was at a little island to do some snorkeling. It was fun... although Nate lost his wedding ring. We figured at least it made for a good story. It started to shower just a little while the sun was still shining and wow, was that beautiful! About 45 minutes later, we hopped back on board and motored off to Bamboo Island.

The island was beautiful! Empty-ish; just a few huts and an outdoor bar. Trees for shade. Clear, garbage-free water. P.G. Wodehouse and Nick Hornby to keep me company.

And... we got scorched. Again. I felt about as bad as the day before, but Nate and Em were in agony. We started to feel it on the way back (we had another snorkeling stop; this time Nate scratched his feet on some coral) but it really kicked in when we reached the bungalow, where we lay moaning and rubbing aloe leaves all over ourselves (at Bob's sympathetic suggestion). Eventually Nate and I hobbled down to the restaurant for some really excellent pineapple, ham and veggie pizza, but Em was too nauseous to even manage that! Needless to say, we crashed early again.
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Saturday morning
I'm sitting in bed in a huge, echoey, Colonial French front room in a riverfront hotel called The Red Hibiscus, which is where we quickly ended up yesterday. We had planned to catch a bus around 8, but due to stiffness, pain and nausea, 8 came and went, and then 9 took off, too. So by the time we were ready to depart Sihanoukville, our only options were to wait a couple of hours or hire a car. Nate managed to negotiate an air-conditioned car for $40, which we all agreed was well worth it. After a completely incomprehensible five-sentence exchange with Bob, we were off!
As for the drive: Well, if you don't like sitting in the passenger seat of a right-seat-steering-wheeled car driving on the left side of the road--especially in a place where the rules of the road seem to be that everyone is playing a huge game of Chicken at 100 km/h--and so you can see oncoming traffic a good 10 seconds before the driver can as he pulls into the opposite lane, or if the continual threat of knocking entire van-fulls (roof, too) of people and uniformed children on bicycles into ditches makes you uncomfortable, or if sudden, jerky stops due to cattle crossing the road make you queasy, you might want to try the bus.
I'll admit, though, that we arrived in Phnom Penh not only unharmed and without having injured or killed any living thing in our path, but also in half the time the bus took. We went straight to The Red Hibiscus and checked in. Emily crashed right away while Nate and I went to find a pharmacy. We got our hands on some aloe and aspirin (also, some delectable treats from one "Kiwi Bakery"--hello, Lamingtons!) and returned to medicate ourselves up and relax. I, of course, got restless, so I went to see the Silver Pagoda and all that jazz.

It was quite beautiful and would have interested me greatly had it not been so darn sunny, and had my legs not been blistering. So I made it quick, took some pictures and headed off to find more medicine.

My tuk-tuk driver gently explained to me that Western medicine is too expensive and went on to tell me about some local concoction for treating sunburn involving frog skin and coconut milk. I remain undecided on the effectiveness of this kind of traditional medicine. I bought more aloe vera($16) and some burn cream from France($3). I took it back to a greatful Nate and Emily who recovered all afternoon with the help of sattelite TV, but I once again got restless and ran off to the Russian market to buy souvenirs.
As I was negotiating a price with the tuk-tuk driver, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and sure enough, Luke and Natalie were sitting in a cafe a few feet away! We exchanged hurried hellos and planned to have dinner that night; turns out they were staying at the place next to ours. I made it to the Russian Market just around closing time, which was disappointing, but considering the poor shape I'm in, it's probably good that I didn't push it too hard. I got some very cool scarves and bags, so I'm happy. Dinner was nice, especially considering how crappy Nate and Em were doing. We went to a Thai place called Lemongrass.

The conversation was lively, the food was tasty and I now have a place to stay if I ever want to visit Adelaide.

a room with a view

End Notes
Well, we made it to the airport safely and the flight was fine (Man of the Year was pretty interesting). But when we went through Quarantine at Taoyuen Airport, Em and Nate got stopped. Sure enough, they both had raging fevers and had to get blood tests to make sure it wasn't too serious. I was okay but was pretty much unable to eat for about two weeks. It turns out that in addition to our sunburns, we also picked up some kind of bacterial infection.
When I think about my trip, though, my health is the last thing that comes to mind. What does? Adorable but hard-working children; a population in recovery; front yards filled with trash; skinny boys carrying big, fat blocks of ice; a lack of traffic rules; the smell of fire; billboards advising people to turn in their machine guns, stop burning trees and beware of STDs; police that don't seem to do anything but take bribes; and families of seven all riding on one moto.
When people asked me how my trip was, my mind would blank. All I could come up with was "uh, well, intense." And that seemed to satisfy them. But if you ask me to expand, I'll tell you that I learned Cambodia is a beautiful country. But I also learned more about what a miserable place this world can be and how much more we could all be doing to change that.