A family for two days, or Stories of seeking and finding

Hello friends :)

Let's continue on our trip through South-East Asia. Today our destination is Cambodia. 

This is where we arrived after a 10-hour bus trip from Bangkok. The ride was really comfortable, despite having to get up at 5 in the morning - but  food, drinks, air conditioning and comfortable seats were included. I would recommend this way of transport, not least because it's amazingly inexpensive: Only 25 euro per person. And don't be scared by the horror stories of the Cambodian border - it's really not that bad. All you have to do is to ideally apply for an e-visa online (which is cheap and fast, and will definitely save you time at the border), then, upon arrival, not let yourself be intimidated by the lurking scammers, queue, get a paper, fill it out, queue again and you're done. Then get back into the bus and let yourself drive all the way to Siem Reap.

Coming home in a Cambodian village

Because we have booked a homestay Airbnb* in some little village near Siem Reap, we have arranged with the host to be picked up by a tuktuk. As we arrived earlier than expected, without any means of communication, we had to wait for about an hour in the bus station building. Then, at 6pm sharp, a man worriedly rushed in, holding a sign with our names on it and telling us that he waited outside for quite some time already, but we just didn't see him. This man, Mr. Bun Then, later turned out to be one of the most gorgeous people we ever met, but all we knew at that time is that it was the tuktuk driver assigned with the task to pick us up. So we loaded our luggage in the vehicle and conquered the bumpy road to Siem Reap's rural outskirts.

Upon our arrival, we were welcomed by a couple of lovely girls around 10 years old, who showed us our room and asked us in perfect English at what time we wanted to have dinner. Then we had a little time to settle in, relax and explore the surroundings. Our place was a cute bamboo hut without electricity or wifi, but next to a huge field with cows on it. This is where we stayed:

Beds with mosquito nets

Simple "bathroom" - no warm water, but this wasn't necessary in such hot weather

We talked to the girls, who were daughters and nieces of our host (shame on me for forgetting their names), and they happily showed us around the village, which even had a little market with fruit and local baked delicacies. Despite their age, they could all drive a scooter and took us on a short ride. Note that this was my first time on a scooter, and it was driven by a 12-year old. Only one of many things to make this day memorable.

At dinner, we met our cheerful and smiley host, Tola, and his wife, as well as the other girls. All together, we had a feast of served delicious rice, veggie stew and chicken - and fruit. As we talked with the girls about music, it turned out that we had similar tastes. So they decided to surprise us: Suddenly they put on Dare by Shakira and performed an amazing, professional choreography for us. Then we even danced Macarena together. This was truly an unforgettable evening, and we went to bed happily. 

A journey to the 12. century

The following two day, we got a yummy breakfast of fresh fruit, waffles and fried rice (one day we had it three times a day :) and we once even saw one of the daughters cutting a palm leaf, only to see our breakfast served on it minutes later), before setting out to explore the famous temples of Angkor. These were built in the 12. century, under the Khmer kings Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII of the Khmer Empire. Angkor was the capital of this empire, and over 30 cities or temple complexes were constructed, of which Angkor Wat is the most famous. Many of them are rather ruins now, but a lot still remained to be marveled at.

Our kind driver was driving us around the whole day around the temples, gave us umbrellas against the merciless sun, and even brought us to a nice place to eat lunch imbetween. Enjoy the photos we took of that day - and forgive me for not remembering the name of each temple, but I will try to give you the most important ones.

Ta Prohm: Famous as shooting location of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones movies, it has this cool tree growing out of a building

Visitor art?

My lunch: Veggie something with rice

Essi's lunch: Seafood and veggie something with rice

Roar!

Entering Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer empire

Bayon,  a temple of Angkor Thom

By the end of the day, we reached the famous Angkor Wat, whose three towers are even depicted on the Cambodian flag. The photos are a little less spectacular because I didn't have my usual camera phone at the time. You'll find out why in a moment.

We even saw monkeys!

Many people come here for the sunrise, but we do it the other way round

The most impossible lost-and-found story

Some of you may already know this story, but it's still always fun to tell. So I left my phone (the one I take photos with, not my regular one - yes, I have two) at one of the Angkor temples and only noticed it when the temple in question was already closed. Well, I'll ask the guards and surely find it the next day, I thought. When we got back home to our Airbnb in the evening, the first thing Tola asked me was: "Have you lost your phone?" I was startled - how did he know? Has Mr. Bun Then told him?! He replied: "Well, your Dad just wrote me a message!" Wait, how on earth did my Dad find out?!

Turns out that a couple of travellers found the phone, and since it was unlocked and I had some contact numbers on there, they could call my Dad, who then contacted our host over Airbnb. As you may also have noticed, they even posted a message on my Facebook profile. When we found out the next day, Essi found it hilarious and I just died of shame. I could use Tola's PC to contact my parents (as I mentioned, no wifi) and also arrange a pick-up at the hotel for the next day with the honest finders. When everything was managed, I came back to the dinner table where everyone was eagerly waiting and asking me: "So, what happened?" All I could do was shrug helplessly. How the hell do I know?

The next day our loyal driver brought us to the hotel to pick the phone up, and I met the finder who handed it over to me. Thank you again, Julia and Vincenzo, for the incredible help. And Julia even turned out to be from Ukraine -  the world is so small. Oh, and the two kindly took a sunset picture from a hill with my fugitive device. :)

And this is where I left it

First-hand crafts and clueless drivers

On our last day in Siem Reap, we had to say Goodbye to the Papaya family which was incredibly hard. Almost all of them gathered together and gave us best wishes for our way, along with a letter and a traditional, white and red checkered Khmer scarf. This is where we learned the Khmer expression for Goodbye: Leah sin houwy. And we could say to them the one word we still remember in Khmer: Arkoun - Thank you, pronounced with your palms joined in front of your heart. They all were still waving at us when Mr. Bun Then took off of the village with us for the last time. :'(

Group photo time

On the way, we passed by Mr. Bun Then's house as he had to run some errand and met his beautiful wife and cute little daughter. So many emotions. This day, we actually wanted to see more of the temples but he had more guests to drive around, so he left us at Artisans D'Angkor Arts and Crafts Centre, a museum aka boutique aka workshop where you can see how sculptures, paintings and accessoires from the most diverse materials are made. There was a misunderstanding, because we thought our driver would come back for us later, but he didn't. We already bought our bus ticket to Phnom Penh and had a few hours to spend at the museum and shop before departing. So we were saying goodbye to Siem Reap for good.

Then we boarded the bus, which was much less comfortable than the one we took from Bangkok (obviously, but also much cheaper). The music was running on maximum volume, the driver was constantly honking and the lights didn't work. We thought we would need 5 hours, turned out it would be 7. As we stopped at a resting place at the middle of nowhere, we could just scrape together enough Cambodian riel to buy a portion of fried rice and fruit for the way. Normally you can use dollars, but it only seemed to apply to the bigger cities.

Having arrived in Phnom Penh completely exhausted, we caught a tuktuk immediately and told the driver our address**. However, he seemed to have no clue where to go although the host has provided us with instructions including landmarks, and so we must have desperately cruised for almost 2 hours, while he asked literally everyone on the way where that mysterious address might me. On top of all that, he seemed to have consumed a few beers in advance. Essi charged her phone in a shop on the way to be able to contact anyone, and eventually, we found the host's husband's number and could call him. We agreed to be picked up on a motorbike motorbike, just at the moment as we were passing their gate and could see him with a startled look on his face. By then, it was almost midnight. The husband was, nevertheless, very nice and relaxed about this, while his wife was still out for business. Lesson learned: Never trust tuktuk drivers in Phnom Penh! Distressed and even more exhausted, we could finally go to bed.

Saddest episodes in Cambodian history

The next morning, we received a free breakfast at a nice nearby café and some tour suggestions as well as a (thankfully skilled) tuktuk driver for the day. Our host, Nathalie, turned out to be a rough but very kind and humorous French architect who has made it her duty to restore traditional Khmer houses and rent them. You certainly need to have a warrior spirit to deal confidently with Cambodian corruption and merciless market. The house we stayed in, her home, was one of them as well.

This day was destined to be emotionally hard, and requires some brief historical explanation. In 1963, the communist Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar) became the leader of the Communist Party. Its members and followers were called Khmer Rouge. After having studied in Paris, he returned with a head full of insane ideas and was determined to set Cambodia back to a pre-industrial state by extuinguishing "capitalist" habits and resistance to the party. When he took over the country as a dictator in 1975 and named the totalitarian state Democratic Kampuchea (note the irony), in the following four years, he was responsible for the death of over a million people, according to different estimates perhaps rather more than two. No wonder Cambodia's population is pretty young nowadays - effectively one fourth of it was killed only fourty years ago. 

Our way led us to the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek), where his gruesome orders were carried out. I did not take any photos here, but I believe imagination is enough to picture the remaining horror in this former orchard. Imagine fenced mass graves, signs saying "Please do not step on the bones", and a tree covered in colourful self-knotted bracelets left by visitors, against which babies were once smashed to death. An authentic audio guide made the experience even more poignant. 

This is the Choeung Ek Monument, a Buddhist stupa, which shall remind of the events and which contains hundreds of victims' skulls:

Then we also visited the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, a former prison where many of the victims were being kept. There are also survivors: One of them signed his book on the site. I thought it must require a lot of strength to keep coming back to the place where you were once waiting for death.

Memorial in front of the prison

We could visit the cells, and see displays of photos and explanations. While Pol Pot died in 1998, only three other ciminals received life sentence in the highly contrversial Khmer Rouge Tribunal. It should be noted that the Khmer Rouge remained a member of the United Nations all the time, with the rest of the world watching.

The bright side of Phnom Penh

After such a day, as another guest in the village in Siem Reap has noted, you need something fun to do to distract yourself. So we decided to go out in the evening, much to the amusement of Nathalie: "You will not find a tuktuk at this hour". All the while, they were standing just a few meters away. Even though everything seemed to close quite early (it was a Monday as well), we found one restaurant where we could spend the night with a nice dinner, wine and mojito. 

On our last day in Cambodia, we had to catch up on some tourist activities and see the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh, visit a market to stock up on tourist equipment (colourful trousers, bags and other souvenirs), and take a stroll through the city marveling at the Buddhist monks with their orange gowns and yellow umbrellas.

A part of the Royal Palace, built in 1860, where the Cambodian king Norodom Sihamoni resides. The palace remained empty during the Khmer Rouge regime

Mekong river

Preah Sisowath Quay

Last meal in Cambodia :'(

Later that day, our flight for Hanoi was departing. We left Cambodia very reluctantly, an aspiring, beautiful country with a rich history, which, much as ourselves, has experienced ups and downs, and which will hopefully be much luckier in the future. Despite its poor current state, people are extraordinarily friendly and happy here. It was the destination that impressed us the most, and we can't wait to come back one day.

See you again soon for updates from Vietnam! :)

* Learn about the Papaya family here
** Extraordinary homestay in Phnom Penh