Saturday 7th Dec.
We left Phu Quoc in Vietnam, with bus in the morning at
9.30am, then we took a very lively and rolling boat into the mainland again. I
really didn’t like this boat trip, it was just over the top, of how crazy I
like the sea! But we survived, and got on a small mini bus to the city center,
where we were placed on a little restaurant, where they made us our cambodian
visas while we waited, and then of course we could buy something to eat
meanwhile. We ordered 2 tuna baguettes, this turned out as a great idea,
because they tasted heavenly, and they even had some black pepper sauce to put
on the side (like ketchup etc.), which Erik fell totally in love with, so now
we need to find this to bring around!
After waiting for about an hour or so, we got on another mini bus, and drove the 1-2 km to the border crossing… This should take some time! Already on our way there, the woman controlling the visas asked us (in the bus), if any of us stayed in Vietnam longer than our visa lasted??? Everybody got pretty nervous, but after thinking and counting the days, no one seemed totally stressed… So WHO could it be – it turned out, that the staff on the restaurant already had brought our passports to the border crossing, to save us from waiting at the border… And probably also for the fact that we meanwhile bought some of their food. And with the good food, it turned out as a win, win situation in our case.
We arrived at the border crossing (first at the Vietnamese side – to “check” out), we finally got the problem solved, or actually not, we just found the “black sheep”, it was a guy from Switzerland, that ordered his visa from the Vietnamese embassy back in Switzerland, and because his girlfriend got a 3 months visa, he assumed that he got the same, but he only had a 1 month visa (HE DIDN’T CHECK HIS VISA EXPIRING DATE!!!) Thump rule number 1, check your visa expiring date! It’s obvious important that you don’t exceed your visa dates, or else the police can make a BIG problem out of it – and it will cost you some money!
Well while the rest of us, were let through the vietnamese half of the border without problems, the police held this guy back, and even his girlfriend wasn’t allowed to wait for him. Even though it took the rest of us quite a while to enter the Cambodian half of the border, which included a doctor check – or actually he just took our temperature with a laser in our forehead, and checked if we had a vaccination card with us… He didn’t check which vaccinations we had. Some guys who didn’t have the card, needed to pay 1 dollar – for not having it??? So it was nothing else, but another money machine!
After getting into our 4th country on our journey, without any problems, we got split up into 2 busses, one going north to Phom Penh (the capital), and one going west to Kep, Kampot and Sihanoukville… Unfortunately the swiss guy, were going in the same direction as us, Sihanoukville, so we had to wait for him, and even though we now had used more than one hour at the border crossing, there still wasn’t a sight of him. It took almost one more hour before he finally got through, and we could start our cambodian adventure.
The bus drive, took almost 4 hours, and we got dropped off in the middle of the tourist area in Sihanoukville just around 7pm… Quickly we realized that the city was packed with tourists, so finding a place for the night could be a big problem… We asked a few people around, and ended up taking a tuk-tuk to one of the more remote beaches in town – called Otres Beach, we wanted to stay there anyway, so why not go there to start with.
The beach was around 6 km out of town, and a very nice, little and quiet place, just as we had been told by several people we met the last couple of months. Getting a place to stay here, turned out to be just as hard as in town. We ended up at Otres Corner bar where the nice owner John and bartender, Charley (half Danish & half aussie), told us that we could leave our big bags there, while we walked around the area, checking for available rooms. After seeing a few rooms, and one huge purple and red lizard, I started to panic a bit, it was dark and mysterious, and I hate coming to a new place at night, because I don’t feel like I can orientate me good enough. Just as I was about to get really frustrated, we found a decent room, for 15USD. John already asked us to come with them to the big Saturday night market, 3-4 km further away… So when we had organized a room we went back to his bar, and had a few beers, before he drove us out to the market.
The market was a small area with western food stalls, swings in the trees, people were selling bracelets, paintings, happy fudge oreo crackers, beers etc. All shop owners were western people. In one corner was an open tattoo shop, in the other a guy selling homemade absinthe. There was an open scene for musicians and some were doing fire shows. An absolutely amazing place, with a very relaxed and easy-going atmosphere. We stayed there the rest of the night, feeling so lucky that we experienced this.
After waiting for about an hour or so, we got on another mini bus, and drove the 1-2 km to the border crossing… This should take some time! Already on our way there, the woman controlling the visas asked us (in the bus), if any of us stayed in Vietnam longer than our visa lasted??? Everybody got pretty nervous, but after thinking and counting the days, no one seemed totally stressed… So WHO could it be – it turned out, that the staff on the restaurant already had brought our passports to the border crossing, to save us from waiting at the border… And probably also for the fact that we meanwhile bought some of their food. And with the good food, it turned out as a win, win situation in our case.
We arrived at the border crossing (first at the Vietnamese side – to “check” out), we finally got the problem solved, or actually not, we just found the “black sheep”, it was a guy from Switzerland, that ordered his visa from the Vietnamese embassy back in Switzerland, and because his girlfriend got a 3 months visa, he assumed that he got the same, but he only had a 1 month visa (HE DIDN’T CHECK HIS VISA EXPIRING DATE!!!) Thump rule number 1, check your visa expiring date! It’s obvious important that you don’t exceed your visa dates, or else the police can make a BIG problem out of it – and it will cost you some money!
Well while the rest of us, were let through the vietnamese half of the border without problems, the police held this guy back, and even his girlfriend wasn’t allowed to wait for him. Even though it took the rest of us quite a while to enter the Cambodian half of the border, which included a doctor check – or actually he just took our temperature with a laser in our forehead, and checked if we had a vaccination card with us… He didn’t check which vaccinations we had. Some guys who didn’t have the card, needed to pay 1 dollar – for not having it??? So it was nothing else, but another money machine!
After getting into our 4th country on our journey, without any problems, we got split up into 2 busses, one going north to Phom Penh (the capital), and one going west to Kep, Kampot and Sihanoukville… Unfortunately the swiss guy, were going in the same direction as us, Sihanoukville, so we had to wait for him, and even though we now had used more than one hour at the border crossing, there still wasn’t a sight of him. It took almost one more hour before he finally got through, and we could start our cambodian adventure.
The bus drive, took almost 4 hours, and we got dropped off in the middle of the tourist area in Sihanoukville just around 7pm… Quickly we realized that the city was packed with tourists, so finding a place for the night could be a big problem… We asked a few people around, and ended up taking a tuk-tuk to one of the more remote beaches in town – called Otres Beach, we wanted to stay there anyway, so why not go there to start with.
The beach was around 6 km out of town, and a very nice, little and quiet place, just as we had been told by several people we met the last couple of months. Getting a place to stay here, turned out to be just as hard as in town. We ended up at Otres Corner bar where the nice owner John and bartender, Charley (half Danish & half aussie), told us that we could leave our big bags there, while we walked around the area, checking for available rooms. After seeing a few rooms, and one huge purple and red lizard, I started to panic a bit, it was dark and mysterious, and I hate coming to a new place at night, because I don’t feel like I can orientate me good enough. Just as I was about to get really frustrated, we found a decent room, for 15USD. John already asked us to come with them to the big Saturday night market, 3-4 km further away… So when we had organized a room we went back to his bar, and had a few beers, before he drove us out to the market.
The market was a small area with western food stalls, swings in the trees, people were selling bracelets, paintings, happy fudge oreo crackers, beers etc. All shop owners were western people. In one corner was an open tattoo shop, in the other a guy selling homemade absinthe. There was an open scene for musicians and some were doing fire shows. An absolutely amazing place, with a very relaxed and easy-going atmosphere. We stayed there the rest of the night, feeling so lucky that we experienced this.
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| Cambodian bordercrossing office |
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| Borderscroosing!!! |
Sunday 8th Dec.
We had basically no money, we used our last pennys on a big
bottle of water, we didn’t even have money for the tuk-tuk driver that drove us
into town, but after a few try we found an ATM, where we could take the maximum
amount of money out. Luckily Cambodia is calculating in USD, so their banks are
more developed than in Vietnam. We gave the driver an extra dollar for kindness
and patience.
Charley that spoke Danish with a very strong Sydney Lee accent, told us where to buy a mosquito net, we’ve been wanted to get one for quite a while, but haven’t really been looking for it, but now was the time. In a local market we found one, and bargained it down, to a price that we all could agree on. Yeah problem solved, for next time we enter a room with no mosquito net!!
We walked by a german/thai restaurant, and couldn’t resist the german food we saw on the pictures. Yeah they served potatoes, red cabbage, gravy, sour cucumber salad and a lot of other stuff. I ordered the mentioned stuff and a big beef roulade (benløse fugle), Erik had a huge portion of wienerschnitzel and fries. The food was brilliant but the service was horrible, even though it was a german guy running the place. Just like people over-eat at home, this time of year, we overate a lot and we both finished those big western portions, and afterwards it felt like we had been swallowing two big footballs, damn we were full!!
Stayed on Serendipity beach, in Sihanoukville and rested our stomachs. I was actually feeling a bit sick after all that food. Ohh it sure feels like Christmas!! Running into Jack again, actually didn’t even surprise us this time, perhaps we’re just getting use to bumping into the same people over and over again. Had a quick chat with him, and left towards Otres beach again.
Happy hour was on, at Otres corner, so we went there and watched the sunset from the waterfront. All restaurants and bars here, is right next to the water, so who can complain about that?? At night time, while I was working on the blog, Erik found his relaxing mode and napped his way through the night.
Only because we promised John & Charley to taste their pork roast at night, we got out of bed again, otherwise we would have stayed in bed, but we forced our exhausted bodies to walk to the restaurant. We pretty much just swallowed the food, and went directly to bed again.
Charley that spoke Danish with a very strong Sydney Lee accent, told us where to buy a mosquito net, we’ve been wanted to get one for quite a while, but haven’t really been looking for it, but now was the time. In a local market we found one, and bargained it down, to a price that we all could agree on. Yeah problem solved, for next time we enter a room with no mosquito net!!
We walked by a german/thai restaurant, and couldn’t resist the german food we saw on the pictures. Yeah they served potatoes, red cabbage, gravy, sour cucumber salad and a lot of other stuff. I ordered the mentioned stuff and a big beef roulade (benløse fugle), Erik had a huge portion of wienerschnitzel and fries. The food was brilliant but the service was horrible, even though it was a german guy running the place. Just like people over-eat at home, this time of year, we overate a lot and we both finished those big western portions, and afterwards it felt like we had been swallowing two big footballs, damn we were full!!
Stayed on Serendipity beach, in Sihanoukville and rested our stomachs. I was actually feeling a bit sick after all that food. Ohh it sure feels like Christmas!! Running into Jack again, actually didn’t even surprise us this time, perhaps we’re just getting use to bumping into the same people over and over again. Had a quick chat with him, and left towards Otres beach again.
Happy hour was on, at Otres corner, so we went there and watched the sunset from the waterfront. All restaurants and bars here, is right next to the water, so who can complain about that?? At night time, while I was working on the blog, Erik found his relaxing mode and napped his way through the night.
Only because we promised John & Charley to taste their pork roast at night, we got out of bed again, otherwise we would have stayed in bed, but we forced our exhausted bodies to walk to the restaurant. We pretty much just swallowed the food, and went directly to bed again.
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| Gas station in Sihanoukville |
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| German food.. Yummi!! |
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| An injured cow.. The girl said that the animal rescue was on their way, but we doubt that, cause it was still there when we came back several hours later. Poor animal!! |
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| The queen of tuk-tuks |
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| A kid trying to sell us homemade bracelets, but we don't support childens labor |
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| Hidding from the mosquitos |
Monday 9th Dec.
Keeping our promise to ourselves and each other, we went for
a 5 km. morning jog. It’s very refreshing and everything is so quiet and
peaceful in the mornings. Only a few people are up, drying clothes or showering
outside their house in dirty water, and a few food stalls is getting ready to
open after sunrise.
The only issue in the morning is the aggressive dogs, who’s trying to protect their property, and after being chased by them once this morning, we decided to run on the beach on our way home, but the dogs saw and heard us, and run after us, barking and being unfriendly to us. We had to stop, Erik jelled at them and made quick and big movements, 2 of them left but the last one got closer, and in the end Erik splashed water towards it and then it left. Even though Erik love dogs, they made us uncomfortable, and considering how beautiful and perfect it felt running on the beach, the dogs ruined the beauty of it. They're nicer during the daytime. We think that early in the morning and late at night, they feel threatened by people crossing their property. There’s no better way to end a hot and humid jog, than jumping into the sea and getting cooled down. A better start on a day is hard to find.
For breakfast I’m really sick and tired of the white baguette bread we get almost every morning. I’m happy that we can get bread, but I’m tired of eating the white bread all the time. So while Erik was enjoying his English breakfast, I ate some of my favorite food, spicy coconut sauce with tofu, rice and vegetables - called Amok! I gotta learn how to make that myself. Yummi! A super friendly guy sold us some tickets for a boat trip the next day. We’re surprised over the Cambodian people, they have a very friendly and welcoming attitude, personal I really thought that this country would be the worse travelling in, but they are very easy going.
The day went by with me writing blog, and Erik snorkeling. Earlier we decided to try windsurfing, so when the wind was picking up speed after lunch time, we enjoyed some surfing. Erik had a 30 min lesson, that wasn’t worth the money, the teacher didn’t tell anything that I didn’t know, so we could have saved those pennys, but how should we know! After that we had 1½ hour surfing together.
I was surprised of how easy it was, I remember it being much harder, but I might have been out in worse (or actually better) weather conditions, where the wind must have been stronger. Erik was picking it up quite fast, and he didn’t know anything about the wind, so I’m actually impressed of how well he handled it.
This day there was almost no wind, so a perfect day for beginners, but next time we’ll pick a day with more wind. Again we enjoyed the sunset in some nice and cozy chairs on the beach, while the waiter was serving us foods and drinks. Some dogs were approaching our table and started begging for food with their big puppy eyes, but after our experience in the morning we just wanted them to leave us alone, so we pushed them away from the table with all sort of things, like chairs, menucards etc. And with time they left us alone. Again today we were both really tired, and slept before 9pm. Oldies but goldies..!
The only issue in the morning is the aggressive dogs, who’s trying to protect their property, and after being chased by them once this morning, we decided to run on the beach on our way home, but the dogs saw and heard us, and run after us, barking and being unfriendly to us. We had to stop, Erik jelled at them and made quick and big movements, 2 of them left but the last one got closer, and in the end Erik splashed water towards it and then it left. Even though Erik love dogs, they made us uncomfortable, and considering how beautiful and perfect it felt running on the beach, the dogs ruined the beauty of it. They're nicer during the daytime. We think that early in the morning and late at night, they feel threatened by people crossing their property. There’s no better way to end a hot and humid jog, than jumping into the sea and getting cooled down. A better start on a day is hard to find.
For breakfast I’m really sick and tired of the white baguette bread we get almost every morning. I’m happy that we can get bread, but I’m tired of eating the white bread all the time. So while Erik was enjoying his English breakfast, I ate some of my favorite food, spicy coconut sauce with tofu, rice and vegetables - called Amok! I gotta learn how to make that myself. Yummi! A super friendly guy sold us some tickets for a boat trip the next day. We’re surprised over the Cambodian people, they have a very friendly and welcoming attitude, personal I really thought that this country would be the worse travelling in, but they are very easy going.
The day went by with me writing blog, and Erik snorkeling. Earlier we decided to try windsurfing, so when the wind was picking up speed after lunch time, we enjoyed some surfing. Erik had a 30 min lesson, that wasn’t worth the money, the teacher didn’t tell anything that I didn’t know, so we could have saved those pennys, but how should we know! After that we had 1½ hour surfing together.
I was surprised of how easy it was, I remember it being much harder, but I might have been out in worse (or actually better) weather conditions, where the wind must have been stronger. Erik was picking it up quite fast, and he didn’t know anything about the wind, so I’m actually impressed of how well he handled it.
This day there was almost no wind, so a perfect day for beginners, but next time we’ll pick a day with more wind. Again we enjoyed the sunset in some nice and cozy chairs on the beach, while the waiter was serving us foods and drinks. Some dogs were approaching our table and started begging for food with their big puppy eyes, but after our experience in the morning we just wanted them to leave us alone, so we pushed them away from the table with all sort of things, like chairs, menucards etc. And with time they left us alone. Again today we were both really tired, and slept before 9pm. Oldies but goldies..!
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| My breakfast was tofu coconut amok.. My favorite asian dish so far |
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| Our dinner company |
Sihanoukville video
Tuesday 10th Dec.
Today was the first day in over a week where we actually had
booked a so called tourist trip, a full day boat trip including snorkeling,
swimming, jungle trek, lunch and breakfast for the sweet amount of 24dollars
(130kr) for both of us. We can barely get a breakfast that cheap at home, so a
really great deal.
Sometimes we forget to compare with the Danish prices, but we need to do this more, to realize how cheap it is around here. Still we often find ourselves bargaining about 1-2kr, and even ending up leaving if we can’t get the right price. It’s really small money, but who cares, it’s all about principles.
Breakfast was served at a restaurant attached to the agency where we bought the tickets, and after everyone had their food, we left the beach with a wooden boat, and sailed out to the first island on the way, where we went snorkeling for half an hour. There was really not much to see, only a small amount of fishes and some corals. The locals are catching fishes every day around here, so we only saw some spiky black sea urchins... There’s no laws, that we know of, about which fishes is legal to catch, and the locals eat all of them, even the tiny ones, that other people usually throw back in to the sea.
Oh well, we sailed to another island for a swim, and while we relaxed on the beach, our guides had been fishing and caught 2 small sharks, that they would bring home for dinner. So no wonder that the exciting sea life around is missing. On the island we trekked through the jungle, where there used to be some animals to see, but now there’s too much tourist walking the path every day, so the animals is not in this area anymore. Our guide was telling us, how she left her hometown in western Cambodia, to become a tourist guide and to earn enough money to support her mom back home. She’s sending money home each month. Her mom retired and needs money to survive, so her daughter is expecting to work here the next 8-10 years, until she get enough experience, to go back and work on one of the few tourist attractions in her home town. This girl really had the right spirit to become a good guide, very few people in these countries have the same ambitions as her, so fingers crossed that she can keep on supporting her mom, and eventually go home again.
The trekking in the jungle took us to a remote beach, Erik & I walked along it, and saw some old bungalows that were abandoned, and they left the place a bit creepy. When we left this island again we stopped for the second time to go snorkeling, and no one was excited to jump in the water again, because there was probably nothing to see there anyway. But the guides told us it was different from the other places, and more beautiful, so some of us tried it anyway, but we got disappointed again, and quickly people got back on the boat. On the way back to Otres beach, the guides stopped by their fishing net in the water and pulled out a very small amount of fishes, and a single crab, which they brought back. It’s really dumb that they eat all the small fishes, they totally kill all animal life in the sea. So there’s no good recommendation to go snorkeling around here.
We had a quiet one in the night, we only went out for dinner, and I got my favorite dish over all (tofu coconut amok) again. We also booked a bus for the next morning, to Phnom Penh.
Sometimes we forget to compare with the Danish prices, but we need to do this more, to realize how cheap it is around here. Still we often find ourselves bargaining about 1-2kr, and even ending up leaving if we can’t get the right price. It’s really small money, but who cares, it’s all about principles.
Breakfast was served at a restaurant attached to the agency where we bought the tickets, and after everyone had their food, we left the beach with a wooden boat, and sailed out to the first island on the way, where we went snorkeling for half an hour. There was really not much to see, only a small amount of fishes and some corals. The locals are catching fishes every day around here, so we only saw some spiky black sea urchins... There’s no laws, that we know of, about which fishes is legal to catch, and the locals eat all of them, even the tiny ones, that other people usually throw back in to the sea.
Oh well, we sailed to another island for a swim, and while we relaxed on the beach, our guides had been fishing and caught 2 small sharks, that they would bring home for dinner. So no wonder that the exciting sea life around is missing. On the island we trekked through the jungle, where there used to be some animals to see, but now there’s too much tourist walking the path every day, so the animals is not in this area anymore. Our guide was telling us, how she left her hometown in western Cambodia, to become a tourist guide and to earn enough money to support her mom back home. She’s sending money home each month. Her mom retired and needs money to survive, so her daughter is expecting to work here the next 8-10 years, until she get enough experience, to go back and work on one of the few tourist attractions in her home town. This girl really had the right spirit to become a good guide, very few people in these countries have the same ambitions as her, so fingers crossed that she can keep on supporting her mom, and eventually go home again.
The trekking in the jungle took us to a remote beach, Erik & I walked along it, and saw some old bungalows that were abandoned, and they left the place a bit creepy. When we left this island again we stopped for the second time to go snorkeling, and no one was excited to jump in the water again, because there was probably nothing to see there anyway. But the guides told us it was different from the other places, and more beautiful, so some of us tried it anyway, but we got disappointed again, and quickly people got back on the boat. On the way back to Otres beach, the guides stopped by their fishing net in the water and pulled out a very small amount of fishes, and a single crab, which they brought back. It’s really dumb that they eat all the small fishes, they totally kill all animal life in the sea. So there’s no good recommendation to go snorkeling around here.
We had a quiet one in the night, we only went out for dinner, and I got my favorite dish over all (tofu coconut amok) again. We also booked a bus for the next morning, to Phnom Penh.
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| One of the island that we visited |
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| My new friend |
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| An abandoned bugalow |
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| The guides are making a buoy for their fishing net |
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| This "little" fellow was welcoming us home again. |
Wednesday 11th Dec.
Again we went for a jog in the morning, but this time we
planned the route, so that we would avoid the barking and angry dogs, on our
quiet and peaceful run.
We left gorgeous Sihanoukville (Otres beach) at 7.15am and the busride went smooth, nothing exciting to declare, we got to Phnom Penh early afternoon. We read a little about the city in our bible, and for the first time in the bigger cities that we have visited, it wasn’t obvious, which area we should stay in, there was no specific area for backpackers, so we took a change and assumed it would be near by the river.
We then met an English bloke, living in Phnom Penh, and he told us where we should go. Street 172 is an upcoming backpacker area, with good value hotels, guesthouses, bars and restaurants.
All streets have unlogical numbers here, so it’s easy to remember, compared to all the street names with difficult pronunciations , but when it comes to housenumbers it’s more chaotic. Some houses adopt the same house numbers, so on one street it’s possible to find 3-4 houses with the same house number. We walked to the 172 street and found a hotel to 8 USD, and got it bargained down to 7 USD. A reasonable price for that small and dirty room.
In the afternoon we went for some sightseeing, or actually most of the places were about to close, so we only saw them from the outside. A tuk tuk driver approached us, and started asking what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go. We wanted to see the Tuol Sleng museum and the killing fields of Choeung Ek, the next day, so we arranged that with him. It was actually his friend taking us on the tour, and he would drive us to the places and wait around for us the whole day for the silly amount of 15USD.
They were both really friendly and didn’t try to rip us off. In general the Cambodians are very nice, friendly, easy to get around, speaks great english and there’s always a smile to find on the streets. We both agree that they’re the nicest people we have met so far, and we’re so happy that we decided to visit Cambodia, even though it wasn’t planned to begin with. Well, this tuk tuk deal was a great value for us, since we didn’t want to rent a motorbike and drive in that stressful traffic by ourselves.
We walked a lot that day, just around the city. When we finally found a place to enjoy dinner, at a Mexican restaurant, we were both tired, and decided to take a tuk-tuk home to the hotel.
We left gorgeous Sihanoukville (Otres beach) at 7.15am and the busride went smooth, nothing exciting to declare, we got to Phnom Penh early afternoon. We read a little about the city in our bible, and for the first time in the bigger cities that we have visited, it wasn’t obvious, which area we should stay in, there was no specific area for backpackers, so we took a change and assumed it would be near by the river.
We then met an English bloke, living in Phnom Penh, and he told us where we should go. Street 172 is an upcoming backpacker area, with good value hotels, guesthouses, bars and restaurants.
All streets have unlogical numbers here, so it’s easy to remember, compared to all the street names with difficult pronunciations , but when it comes to housenumbers it’s more chaotic. Some houses adopt the same house numbers, so on one street it’s possible to find 3-4 houses with the same house number. We walked to the 172 street and found a hotel to 8 USD, and got it bargained down to 7 USD. A reasonable price for that small and dirty room.
In the afternoon we went for some sightseeing, or actually most of the places were about to close, so we only saw them from the outside. A tuk tuk driver approached us, and started asking what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go. We wanted to see the Tuol Sleng museum and the killing fields of Choeung Ek, the next day, so we arranged that with him. It was actually his friend taking us on the tour, and he would drive us to the places and wait around for us the whole day for the silly amount of 15USD.
They were both really friendly and didn’t try to rip us off. In general the Cambodians are very nice, friendly, easy to get around, speaks great english and there’s always a smile to find on the streets. We both agree that they’re the nicest people we have met so far, and we’re so happy that we decided to visit Cambodia, even though it wasn’t planned to begin with. Well, this tuk tuk deal was a great value for us, since we didn’t want to rent a motorbike and drive in that stressful traffic by ourselves.
We walked a lot that day, just around the city. When we finally found a place to enjoy dinner, at a Mexican restaurant, we were both tired, and decided to take a tuk-tuk home to the hotel.
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| A part of a temple we passed by |
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| Time for a rest |
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| There goes the appetite, on the left it's small fried lizards... |
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| No space on the pavements, so we're walking on the street most of the times. |
Thursday 12th Dec.
We met up with our tuk-tuk driver, or actually he found us
on the street where we enjoyed breakfast, he waited till we were done and drove
us to the Tuol Sleng museum (which is an old prison).
When we entered we got a flyer that shortly described the horrible story that happened in here. An awful story about torture and executions. The Khmer rouge, that was leaded by Pol Pot, killed over 3 million cambodian people between 1975 and 1979. I’m not into history at all, but this story was really touching and heartbreaking. I really can’t understand how people can be that cruel to each other.
The prison used to be a high school, but the Khmer rouge didn’t want people to go to school, they didn’t want people to develop themselves, they wanted the old country back where people were working in the fields and had no rights. They even tortured women and children. Some of the floors in the prison hadn’t been washed since the massacres, so we could still see blood on the cell floors, a little too authentic for us. After this uncomfortable visit, we drove to the killing fields.
We had to adapt our impressions, before entering the killing fields, so we sat down and had lunch outside the entrance. When we felt ready to go in, we rented an audio guide, to make sure we got the full story out of it. This was the place where the people from the Tuol Sleng prison was transferred to, they were told they were transferred to another prison, all of them were blindfolded, vulnerable and most of them naked, or only wearing pants.
There was loud music playing (so no one could hear what was happening) and then Khmer rouge killed them all one by one, and put them into graveyards that could fit over 450 people at once. Woman and children was put into separate graveyards, where the controllers first killed the children by beating their heads into a big tree and after that thrown in the graveyard to their suffering mom. After the Pol Pot regime were stopped in 1979, people started digging in the graves and found all bones and skulls, which they now keep in a big memorial monument.
Every year in the rainy season, there’s still mortal remains from the bodies, washed up from the earth. After 2½ hour of sadly and destroying stories, we found our driver again, and he drove us back to the city.
We searched for sunscreen in the big central market, but with no luck, they only had whitening sunscreen and sunfactor 50. All Asians use whitening lotion and sunscreen, because they don’t want to get more tanned, and they see tanned people as poor people working in the fields. So it’s a status symbol to be as white as possible, so I appear like a millionaire in these countries.
We found a private tuk tuk driver for the following day, where we wanted to experience the wildlife sanctuary, 40 km south of the city. At night when we came to the reception, we met Henrik & Andrea (that we met several places before), but this time we kind of knew that we would meet them, because Erik mailed with Henrik the night before. We had dinner with them in the hotels restaurant, and Erik went out with Henrik.
When we entered we got a flyer that shortly described the horrible story that happened in here. An awful story about torture and executions. The Khmer rouge, that was leaded by Pol Pot, killed over 3 million cambodian people between 1975 and 1979. I’m not into history at all, but this story was really touching and heartbreaking. I really can’t understand how people can be that cruel to each other.
The prison used to be a high school, but the Khmer rouge didn’t want people to go to school, they didn’t want people to develop themselves, they wanted the old country back where people were working in the fields and had no rights. They even tortured women and children. Some of the floors in the prison hadn’t been washed since the massacres, so we could still see blood on the cell floors, a little too authentic for us. After this uncomfortable visit, we drove to the killing fields.
We had to adapt our impressions, before entering the killing fields, so we sat down and had lunch outside the entrance. When we felt ready to go in, we rented an audio guide, to make sure we got the full story out of it. This was the place where the people from the Tuol Sleng prison was transferred to, they were told they were transferred to another prison, all of them were blindfolded, vulnerable and most of them naked, or only wearing pants.
There was loud music playing (so no one could hear what was happening) and then Khmer rouge killed them all one by one, and put them into graveyards that could fit over 450 people at once. Woman and children was put into separate graveyards, where the controllers first killed the children by beating their heads into a big tree and after that thrown in the graveyard to their suffering mom. After the Pol Pot regime were stopped in 1979, people started digging in the graves and found all bones and skulls, which they now keep in a big memorial monument.
Every year in the rainy season, there’s still mortal remains from the bodies, washed up from the earth. After 2½ hour of sadly and destroying stories, we found our driver again, and he drove us back to the city.
We searched for sunscreen in the big central market, but with no luck, they only had whitening sunscreen and sunfactor 50. All Asians use whitening lotion and sunscreen, because they don’t want to get more tanned, and they see tanned people as poor people working in the fields. So it’s a status symbol to be as white as possible, so I appear like a millionaire in these countries.
We found a private tuk tuk driver for the following day, where we wanted to experience the wildlife sanctuary, 40 km south of the city. At night when we came to the reception, we met Henrik & Andrea (that we met several places before), but this time we kind of knew that we would meet them, because Erik mailed with Henrik the night before. We had dinner with them in the hotels restaurant, and Erik went out with Henrik.
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| Monks asking for alms at restaurants |
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| The tuol sleng prison |
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| Brutal sight |
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| Dusty highway out of Phnom Penh |
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| Happy outside, but destroyed inside (after the awful stories) |
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| Visitors are leaving bracelets on the graveyards to show their sympathy |
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| Some of the skulls in the memorial monument |
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| A clear sign of discrimination against foreigners |
Friday 13th Dec.
Andrea & Henrik wanted to join us on our trip to the
wildlife sanctuary, so we met up early in the morning, and our tuk tuk driver
picked us up at 7.30am.
It was a long and dusty road to the wildlife park, we brought hospital masks to cover up our faces. It was horrible with all the dust and dirt in the air. When we finally got off the unfinished and chaotic highway, we were able to breathe normal again. After almost 2 hours in the bumpy tuk tuk, we arrived at the wildlife park. We hired a private guide to show us around, and before we even got out of the tuk tuk we were surrounded by kids, that wanted to sell food for the animals to us. We literally had to tell them to back off, so we could get out of the tuk tuk. We bought some sweet potatoes and bananas for the animals (even though we're against children working and against suppoting them). But what are you gonna do!
As soon as we got into the enclosure the deers and monkeys quickly recognized the silver bowl we carried the potatoes in, so we got tackled by them in the very beginning. The videos below will show our experience in there.
The only people that we met, on our way was a bunch of monks, but despite them we didn’t see any other tourists. The journey back to the city felt quite long, since we were all tired from getting up that early and being in the sun most of the day.
Everyone, except for me, went for a nap when we finally reached the hotel again. I was busy with writing and wasn’t that tired (but well I didn’t come home at 03.30 in the night as the boys did). After the big bear finished his snoring, we went just across the street and enjoyed a big and tasty kebab, just as we were swallowing the delicious food, a motorbike accident happened right in front of us. Two motorbikes almost drove into each other, the one with a very young driver, drove directly into a tuk tuk that was parked on the corner, the other one with two parents and their kid (of cause without helmets) was knocked over.
It all happened so quickly, but the kid was dropped on the ground and got hurt or maybe just shocked. No one was yelling or making a big scene out of it, the family quickly drove away again, and the young guy apologized to the tuk tuk owner, and that was it. No one exchanged numbers, insurance information or anything like that. That’s just how it is here.
We’ve seen people hitting parked cars or motorbikes several times, and no one is leaving a note behind. People just move on with their daily life. Welcome to Asia, take it or leave it.
It was a long and dusty road to the wildlife park, we brought hospital masks to cover up our faces. It was horrible with all the dust and dirt in the air. When we finally got off the unfinished and chaotic highway, we were able to breathe normal again. After almost 2 hours in the bumpy tuk tuk, we arrived at the wildlife park. We hired a private guide to show us around, and before we even got out of the tuk tuk we were surrounded by kids, that wanted to sell food for the animals to us. We literally had to tell them to back off, so we could get out of the tuk tuk. We bought some sweet potatoes and bananas for the animals (even though we're against children working and against suppoting them). But what are you gonna do!
As soon as we got into the enclosure the deers and monkeys quickly recognized the silver bowl we carried the potatoes in, so we got tackled by them in the very beginning. The videos below will show our experience in there.
The only people that we met, on our way was a bunch of monks, but despite them we didn’t see any other tourists. The journey back to the city felt quite long, since we were all tired from getting up that early and being in the sun most of the day.
Everyone, except for me, went for a nap when we finally reached the hotel again. I was busy with writing and wasn’t that tired (but well I didn’t come home at 03.30 in the night as the boys did). After the big bear finished his snoring, we went just across the street and enjoyed a big and tasty kebab, just as we were swallowing the delicious food, a motorbike accident happened right in front of us. Two motorbikes almost drove into each other, the one with a very young driver, drove directly into a tuk tuk that was parked on the corner, the other one with two parents and their kid (of cause without helmets) was knocked over.
It all happened so quickly, but the kid was dropped on the ground and got hurt or maybe just shocked. No one was yelling or making a big scene out of it, the family quickly drove away again, and the young guy apologized to the tuk tuk owner, and that was it. No one exchanged numbers, insurance information or anything like that. That’s just how it is here.
We’ve seen people hitting parked cars or motorbikes several times, and no one is leaving a note behind. People just move on with their daily life. Welcome to Asia, take it or leave it.
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| Getting into the asian lifestyle |
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| This car was packed with people, probably around 20 in there, and the last one on the rooftop. Safe driving! |
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| A strange couple |
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| No it's not a piece of a tree floating in the water.. But take a guess. |
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| Is anyone keen for a kiss...?? |
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| The weidest bear we've ever seen.. A mix between a bear and a lion. Such a odd sight. |
Wildlife Sanctuary videos
Saturday 14th Dec.
Today was the time for our first cooking class, a day that I
have been looking forward to. Especially because it included 3 of my favorite
Asian dishes, and the fact that we haven’t been cooking our own food for over 2
month, didn’t make it less exciting.
We met in the restaurant at 9am, and we were 15 on the course. Luckily for us we were the only two that booked a whole day of cooking, all the others only booked half a day, which meant that we would get a great afternoon, with private lessons, and lots of time to ask questions and talk to our teacher.
She learned some from us (mostly me) as well, so everyone was happy. The khmer food we made was tasty and incredible delicious. Definitely some dishes, that will be part of our daily food, when we get home.. If we get home!
We talked back and forth with the teacher, she’s teaching everyday (7 days a week) from 9am to at least 3pm, and makes 3 USD each day. Then 6 nights a week she’s working as a waitress, and makes 2USD a night. She’s 30 years old, and sharing a one bed bedroom apartment with her sister, sleeping in the same bed and never has time to go out and find a guy. Her and her sister is also supporting their mom, who retired and needs a lot of help. There’s nothing called wage raise in these countries, even though she had a special job, she could never ask her boss for a raise (or she didn’t dare?). We really felt sorry for her, and realized how privileged we are, but also the big difference between poor and rich in these countries.
We paid each 23$ and the ones doing the half day course paid 15 $ each, so that’s 203 $ in total, and there was 4 working there, each getting 3$ each, so that makes it 191$ left, the kitchen were just a simple one made on a rooftop, so nothing expensive at all, and the food was maximum 10-15$ - so left for the owner is 176$ a day which is A LOT here!!!!! But we can’t save the world, only be blessed that we live in a more privileged country.
We were very full when we left the rooftop terrace. Erik was so tired that he needed a nap (notice that he’s napping more than me, very uncommon). In the evening we had foods and drinks with Henrik & Andrea in the hotel. Erik tried for hours to get a good connections with his lads back home –because he was invited for their yearly Christmas lunch, but it didn’t succeed. We had a lot of beers in the restaurant at our hotel, and I think we all wanted to go out, but only Henrik made it, the rest of us got to knackered.
We met in the restaurant at 9am, and we were 15 on the course. Luckily for us we were the only two that booked a whole day of cooking, all the others only booked half a day, which meant that we would get a great afternoon, with private lessons, and lots of time to ask questions and talk to our teacher.
She learned some from us (mostly me) as well, so everyone was happy. The khmer food we made was tasty and incredible delicious. Definitely some dishes, that will be part of our daily food, when we get home.. If we get home!
We talked back and forth with the teacher, she’s teaching everyday (7 days a week) from 9am to at least 3pm, and makes 3 USD each day. Then 6 nights a week she’s working as a waitress, and makes 2USD a night. She’s 30 years old, and sharing a one bed bedroom apartment with her sister, sleeping in the same bed and never has time to go out and find a guy. Her and her sister is also supporting their mom, who retired and needs a lot of help. There’s nothing called wage raise in these countries, even though she had a special job, she could never ask her boss for a raise (or she didn’t dare?). We really felt sorry for her, and realized how privileged we are, but also the big difference between poor and rich in these countries.
We paid each 23$ and the ones doing the half day course paid 15 $ each, so that’s 203 $ in total, and there was 4 working there, each getting 3$ each, so that makes it 191$ left, the kitchen were just a simple one made on a rooftop, so nothing expensive at all, and the food was maximum 10-15$ - so left for the owner is 176$ a day which is A LOT here!!!!! But we can’t save the world, only be blessed that we live in a more privileged country.
We were very full when we left the rooftop terrace. Erik was so tired that he needed a nap (notice that he’s napping more than me, very uncommon). In the evening we had foods and drinks with Henrik & Andrea in the hotel. Erik tried for hours to get a good connections with his lads back home –because he was invited for their yearly Christmas lunch, but it didn’t succeed. We had a lot of beers in the restaurant at our hotel, and I think we all wanted to go out, but only Henrik made it, the rest of us got to knackered.
Cambodian Cooking Class
