South East Asia: Cambodia

I’m in Cambodia! 

and I have a whole new adventure to tell you all about, so sit back and enjoy the blog.

I think the prime reason Cambodia has been so exciting is because it wasn’t part of my original plan. I came travelling to be free and independent, and going to Cambodia in the spur of the moment has made me feel these things. I came abroad with a fixed agenda- all my accommodation booked and everything, and I regret it. You don’t need a path to stick to. I got ‘to wander’ in Thai tattooed on my ankle because I’ve realised travelling isn’t about having direction. If you’re going travelling for the first time, like me, don’t be afraid to go with the flow. I’ve followed my heart, not a plan. 

I came to Cambodia because my friend, Tom, was there for a while and I thought I’d join him. The first piece of advice he gave me which I think is important to share with anyone wanting to come to Cambodia is that crumpled dollar notes are not accepted so don’t accept them if they’re given to you! He learnt that the hard way. After I found Tom my first day in Cambodia was extremely uneventful however the next day began with a 4:15am wake up call to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the most famous temple in Siem Reap. It was definitely worth losing 4 hours of sleep for, and I saw my first monkey! After that we had a lovely tuk tuk tour of around 7 temples and they were so insanely cool. My favourite was Ta Prohm where they filmed Tomb Raider, but unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Lara Croft in the floaty, patterned trousers I was wearing. 

Afterwards, I was approached by a little boy trying to sell little wooden flutes in a pretty weaved cover and I thought I would help him out. It was only $1 and I knew it would make a nice souvenir, but then I was swarmed by about 4 other children trying to sell me books or bracelets or instruments, etc. I was shook by the lack of emotion in their eyes. They were 5 years old bargaining with me as if they were adults. It was heartbreaking- almost as if they’re not having a childhood. I’ve seen a lot more poverty here in than in Thailand. I didn’t see a single homeless person or beggar there but here it’s a very different story. Also, people trying to sell you things are a lot more persistent. One man at Angkor Wat tried selling us a guidebook and Tom said ‘no, thank you’ about 26 times (not exaggerating) while we walked on as he followed us shoving it in our faces. I’ve had my arm yanked and my clothes tugged and it’s really not pleasant.

We travelled to Battambang particularly for the Bamboo train which Tom had researched when he was back home in the UK. You sit on a small square of bamboo on wheels and a track for 4 kilometres of countryside, however, the old station was closed so we ended up on a relatively new, wooden train with leather seats which didn’t seem so authentic. The views weren’t particularly impressive either. But then we travelled by tuk tuk to the bat caves to watch them pour out in their millions for over 12 minutes at sunset and it was truly spectacular. The scenery on the way to there was gorgeous as well so it definitely made up for the morning.

By the end of my time in Thailand I had learnt to sleep on transport from all the long journeys I had to make, but it’s not so easy in Cambodia. Because there are so many bicycles, motorbikes and tuk tuks on the roads larger vehicles beep their horn to warn them that they’re coming through... like every 30 seconds. Cambodian bus drivers also really like sharing their music with their passengers... at full volume at 5am in the morning... and it’s REALLY not good music. I can’t say I got a good nights sleep on our long journeys in Cambodia, my first being to Sihanoukville, on the south coast.

My expectations of Sihanoukville were lowered drastically as we were driven from the coach stop to our hostel. Every building seemed to be under construction or being demolished, there were families living under sheets of plastic in the same fields as buffaloes, and I have never seen so much litter accumulated in one place in my life. After a while I came to the conclusion that Cambodia generally isn’t a very clean country. The quirky hostel gave me a glimmer of hope and once we visited the beach I felt much better about our decision to go there. There wasn’t a whole lot to do there apart from snorkelling and little island hopping excursions but nothing we deemed worth our money so we sat on Otres Beach all the time and we found a gorgeous little puppy! The beach was very beautiful and not far from the main village. We only ventured into Sihanoukville once for a music event at one of the hostels but it looked pretty lively. On my last day someone stole my flip flops which was really irritating as I wore them everywhere but I couldn’t complain too much because they were only 50p from Primark. I said goodbye to Tom that morning as well since I was off to Malaysia soon after and he fancied staying by the beach for a couple more days but it was fun being with him for the short time I was. The rest of my day was spent on a bus to Phnom Penh next to the hairiest man I have ever seen. 

When I arrived, after I bought a new pair of flip flops, I decided I hadn’t been experimental enough with my food. So I went to the closest local restaurant to my hostel, and choose something randomly from the menu. About 5 bites in my eyes were streaming, my nose was running and I had beads of sweat forming on my forehead. It was so so so spicy. I couldn’t finish it because my mouth was so numb!The morning after it seemed as though everything in my body wanted to come out, and unfortunately I had booked a tour to see the Killing Fields that day. Luckily there is medication for these kinds of things so I survived the day with clenched bum cheeks.

Our first stop of the Killing Fields tour was at S21- a high school that was converted into a torture chamber which is now a museum. People’s stories were written on the walls of their cells which were so tiny I couldn’t even extend an arm in them. Mugshots of hundreds of victims covered the place. It was very personal. Only 7 out of the 14,000 known prisoners survived this place. I was devastated by so many things there, one being the barbed wire nets that covered the building to stop those desperate enough from committing suicide. Then we were driven to the Killing Fields. More than a million people were brutally murdered there and buried in mass graves- their remains still being found today. My heart broke so many times during the tour but I learnt so much about the country’s history. The worst part is that this ruthless killing happened only 40 years ago. It definitely put a damper on my happy camper attitude for the day. 

The nights in Phnon Pehn were made very uncomfortable by the unbearable heat. The air conditioning in my hostel didn’t work so I just had to adopt the starfish position, close my eyes and hope I would be able to fall asleep despite the pool of sweat I was lying in. If you’ve ever tried sleeping in 30*C heat you’ll know that it’s not so easy.

As I’m writing this post it’s my penultimate day in Cambodia. Tomorrow I have a 10 hour bus back to Siem Reap where I’ll catch my flight back to Thailand. From there I travel to Malaysia where you can expect another blog post from me! 

So until then friends.

Wishing you a happy few weeks!

Lizzy xx