Cambodia-2016

This trip came about from the purchase of an online holiday voucher. Originally two days Phnom Pen and five days Siem Riep which I changed for three and four respectively. Will comment later on the voucher but the value that they offer seems remarkably good. I know for this one alone they sold 4,000 alone.

Note to self.....read instructions for online Visa better next time. Arrived at the airport only to find that not only did I need to complete the form but I also had to send them off to get the visa.. Nothing that $300 couldn't cure. That fee is for somebody to meet me at the arrival airport and usher me through immigration. Hey isn't Vietnam a low cost layout country. Anyway won't let that spoil my holiday.

Booked Vietnam Airlines and was excited to know that I would be going on a Boeing 777, well that was until I knew that it was probably the first one ever built. Let's just say I know wines and cheeses that have aged better than this plane. The major compensation however, was that the plane almost empty - I could have as many empty three seat blocks as I wanted. 

Anyway, an uneventful flight to Ho Chi Minh City where I would have to clear customs and immigration and transfer for a short flight to Hanoi. Always wanted to see Hanoi so thought I would add it as a one day stop to check it out and if it is anything good, I'll add it to a trip in the future.

$A300 gets you a greeting party at the airport to usher you through the three minute process to get the visa. A two hour wait for the next flight and guess what.....a crowded but brand new 787 Dreamliner. So let me get this straight Vietnamese Airlines uses its old shitty planes for long haul and brand new planes for short domestic flights. Hmmm

At the airport an Asian gentleman approaches me excitedly asking if was Anthony Bourdain and shows me a picture of him that he had already called up on his phone. Flattered as I was I pointed him in the direction of the nearest optometrist. I would love Anthony Bourdain's life, travelling the world, eating great food and learning about different cultures - hey that is my life only I don't get paid millions of dollars to do it.

Anyway arrive at the airport and become an instant millionaire when $US110 gets me 2.4 million Dong. Forty minutes $US20 taxi to the hotel rather than the $US96 transfer offer by the Sofitel Metropole Hotel. Arrive safely and off to sleep at 23:00.

Next morning a coffee and croissant, one of the good legacies of staying ate French managed hotel and I meet my tour guide in the lobby. There is an online organisation which arranges fully free and no tips allowed tours of Hanoi. The young 22 year old lady speaks perfect English and explains some of the colonial history of Vietnam as we taxi to the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the mausoleum, one pillar temple and other historic sites within the precinct.

We then walk the short ten minutes (according to Ms Nguyen) but actual twenty minute walk to the temple. All of this was very interesting and very much unknown to me. The country is certainly upwardly mobile was per capita GDP tripling in the past 10-15 years but even to go on my $2200 per annum. To put that in perspective my guide's annual rent for five person sharing a large room is $US2400 per annum and food costs around $1800 per annum so the average person still struggles.

Not that I would doubt their claims but apparently Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world.

A fantastic lunch at the guide's recommendation at Quananngon. $A12 a head for a Vietnamese feast in an extremely large, modern and attractive restaurant - recommended if you get to Hanoi. Traditional Vietnamese omelette which one wraps into rice paper together with mint and greens to make a spring roll.

After lunch we visit the infamous Hoa Lo prison which was primarily used by to French to house their political prisoners in unthinkably bad conditions with their feet manacled to the floor in a room slanted down from their feet to force the blood to rush to their heads. Gruesome.

Around 14:00 and 13 kilometres of walking she guide's me to the Water Puppet Theatre where I buy a ticket for the next show at 15:00.  It consisted of a show with puppets on water manipulated on long horizontal poles by a large crew of puppeteers. While I didn't understand the plot line the show was very entertaining and worthwhile.

A rest at the hotel and visit to the right market which, although huge running maybe two kilometres along one Street, is same old same old - clothes, souvenirs and other chachkas.

A can ride with a driver who struggled with the destination and a great dinner at Nineteen 11, a French/Asian fusion restaurant under the very impressive Opera House.  Standard French dishes but all some Asian influence. Also recommended.

Three minute walk to the hotel and a good night's sleep.

Up early next morning and off to the airport for my flight to Phnom Penh. Lucky I was a tourist yesterday while the weather was warm and inviting unlike today when it was cool, wet, raining and foggy.  

Having been to Ho Chi Min city I had always wanted to visit Hanoi and see the blend of Asian and French influences. When I had the opportunity to add a stopover on my Cambodian flight I jumped at the chance to see if the city was worthy of spending more time in the future. Well I kind of feel that o have seen Hanoi, covered most of the tourist 'must sees', and if it happens again in the future then fine but for the time being I can cross it off my list.

That said it is a very interesting place with an extraordinarily interesting history and culture. Glad I went.

Easy checkin for the short hop to Vientiane wherever and whatever that may be. A thirty minute layover and the next short hop to Phnom Penh where my travel voucher includes hotel transfer which I hope happens.

This trip is a very new experience for me. It's if the first overseas trip I have taken without schlepping my beast of a computer with me. Australian airport regulations allow a maximum 7kg carry on and are being heavily enforced. Well I think my computer and charger exceeds that limit. So, in an effort to lighten my load, I am travelling without my computer which sits at home with the ability to login and use it remotely from my iPad if I need to. So far so good.

I buy a data SIM - can't be without connectivity - and sure enough the driver is there. He is a graduate of a four year degree in Tourism and the best job available is as a driver for a five star hotel. I learn a lot of history and cultural facts from him as he is happy to interact and speaks excellent English. Average salaries are $US140 a month, garment manufacturing is one of the leading trades, many people illegally cross into Thailand where wages are substantially higher and  earn money to send home to their families.

He monitors our arrival time and as I get out of the car there is a very attractive young lady greeting me by name and ushering me to a seat in the enormous (think Bali) lobby where I get a cool towel and ginger and mint ice tea while the checkin takes place. They tell me there is a problem with the third night as the package was originally 2 days Phnom Penh and 5 days Siem Riep but I changed it to 3 and 4 on advice from my daughter travel consultant. Anyway all sorted and I am taken to a beautiful junior sweet where I unfold myself and my luggage.

High tea is served between 15:00 and 17:00 and included so I go to the 12th floor for a great view of the city and of course some watermelon juice and cake. This city is a long way from being 'developed' and it is not a big leap to think it was very much a third world country and no that long ago. You do see cranes and some tall buildings on the landscape but they somehow seem out of place.

I spend my cake 'fressing' time planning the next two days and manage to hire a taxi and English speaking driver for four hours tomorrow (Sunday) and again Monday with the intention of seeing:

•   The killing fields

•   Genocide museum

•   Royal palace

•   Silver pagoda

•   Wildlife rescue zoo

He quoted me $US40 for each of the four hour tours which seems above the $20 suggested by TripAdvisor ('TA') but who am I to stand in the way of capitalistic zeal.

I spend an hour in the adjoining shopping mall which is 100% out of place but interestingly I didn't see one thing there, including in the supermarket that I couldn't buy cheaper in Sydney - truly amazing. I guess it must have been a place for the wealthy people in Phnom Penh. Well surprisingly my shopping totalled $US10. On that subject everything here is denominated in $US including menus, shops in the mall and supermarket - one has no need for local currency. 

Saturday night and I decide on an up market Cambodian restaurant Malis which was recommended by the driver and rated well on TA. The venue, sitting in a garden with trees and fountain/pond was great and the food equally as good. Traditional Cambodian cuisine beautifully fresh and well prepared using a lot of herbs, spices and the freshest of vegetables. The lobster was particularly memorable especially when the waiter offered to rescue the lobster meat from the shell.  I even tried the black pepper creme brûlée which was quite tasty.

Sunday and busy day planned. Asian buffet breakfasts are great and this was certainly no exception but had to be careful as the 'free' brunch I was having later in the morning is reputed to be sensational.

I found a car bc driver who arrived promptly at 10:30 and took me to the Killing Fields. Now Pol Pot was around during my early twenties and I knew some of the history from that time but what was to come was quite shocking. After around 45 minutes in shocking traffic we arrived at the Killing Fields. Accompanied by one of the best audio guides I have experienced I learned about the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Being Jewish and the son of a Survivor, I a have an unusually high interest in the Holocaust but here is a man who killed between two and three million people and was never brought to justice. He lived for 20 years in the Thailand/Cambodian border country after he was chased out of power BUT the west's Cold War fear of alternatives was so great that they continued to recognise him as the legitimate power in Cambodia.

The most tragic moment of the visit was the recounting of soldiers picking up children by their feet and bashing them against a tree until they were dead. That tree, 'The Killing Tree' still survives today.....so sad.

It's hard writing this and switching from the tragedy above to going back to the hotel and just how magnificent the brunch was so I won't do it other than to say it was hands down, no doubt the best buffet I have had in my 100 kilos - I mean my life.

I rejoined my driver, Mark, who was a fountain of knowledge about the Kingdom of Cambodia and graciously answered any and all questions.

Next stop was The prison where the Khmer Rouge housed all their prisoners, torturing/interrogating them in the most horrific ways and as soon as they felt there was no more useful information to be had from where they shipped them to the Killing Fields. The building was originally a school and all of the classrooms were converted to jail cells - a full room for a high ranking political prisoner, eleven men of medium 'worth' in other classrooms and forty to a room for 'lowly' prisoners. The eleven person rooms were divided by bricks into cells and I can attest that there was no enough room to place a single bed on the floor in each cell. Prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor and relieve themselves into small boxes passed from cell to cell.

I am not really sure why I was quite as shocked as I was. I think it was because it seemed unimaginable that just thirty years after the Nazis that the world could allow someone like this to happen again.  I just wonder if it can happen again in the future but history (Rwanda, Kosovo, Syria, Iraq) and so many other places suggest that it certainly can and likely will.

Feeling emotionally drained not to mention unbelievable hot and bothered I head to the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace. Lovely tranquil places with more karma about them than earlier in the day. Now the current King of Cambodia is around 62 years old. He has never been married and has no children. The supposed reason he has never married is that he has been too busy with matters of state. As our tour guide of the next night told us, he his father legalised gay relationships and he is known to have some let us say 'Bunga Bunga' parties in the palace which look less than heterosexual. Luckily he has a nephew ready to take over the throne.

Exhausted, I get back to the hotel at around 17:00 having covered a lot of Phnom Penh. I avail myself of the massage voucher and am feeling quite relaxed and zenned out so I indulge in a quick bite of Japanese in the hotel restaurant and a good night's sleep.

Next morning a quick breakfast and a TukTuk ride ($US2) to the Central Markets. Interest mainly around food and fruit but outside of that same old same old. Back to the hotel for a cooking course. As I think I mentioned they sold something like 4,000 of these vouchers so not surprised that there were seven other Aussies there. The chef was one of the Sofitel chefs who taught us to cook a traditional Cambodian banana leaf Salad, a beef main and a tapioca pumpkin desert. This was then all served to us for lunch. The takeaway for me was the lovely marinade of the beef.

Mark the driver is there at 12:30 to take me to a wildlife rescue centre about one hour drive out of Phnom Penh. I fed the monkeys and elephants and saw bears, lions, tigers and various other animals. I would have been more into it had it not been so hot but it was very interesting and worth a visit. 

Back to the hotel for a relax before Ducky picks me in a TukTuk up for my roving food tour of Phnom Penh. Now Ducky is a 35ish Australian lady who came to Phnom Penh for 3 months and has now been here for three years and I think by Cambodian standards she makes a nice living. We meet up with the other three people on the tour, a thirty something Filipino American couple from New York (he photographer, she marketing) and their Chinese American friend - lovely people and good fun.

First stop is the Eclipse Bar, an open air bar atop Phnom Penh's tallest, don't get carried away 16 storey, building. It's funky and we enjoy cocktails and chat about the city and life. Nice ice breaker.

Next on to the Lost Room, a restaurant run by an Australian lady who prepares modern international cuisine. Falafels with beetroot and hummus relish atop Cambodia black rice, followed by crab cake and then a blue cheese pancake with mango dip, finished with a serve of warm goats cheese and crudités on the side. Pretty darn good.

Third stop was traditional Cambodian food, a local restaurant with a band playing in the background. A chicken curry, a prawn salad, a pork curry and I did pass on the ant salad and KFF or Kentucky Fried Frogs, both considered delicacies in these parts - and here they will remain. The TukTuk drivers, Mr Smiley and Lucky, joined us and we're lovely and interesting people.

The last stop was in Doors, a modern tapas, bar food and dessert place. Very nice, again with cocktails and desserts using local ingredients.

Well worth the $US70 - Urban Forage - and I compliment Duckie on her business idea and talent in guiding the tour as well as her generosity. She also runs a BBQ food tour as well as a market and other tours.

I get the impression that Cambodia is a still a land of commercial opportunity, but I learned that it is the most corrupt country outside of Africa and that should make anybody thinking of investing here very cautious.

Exhausted by this stage I get back to the hotel and crawl into bed ready to get up again at 07:30 for my short flight to Siem Riep.

Next morning breakfast, checkout and hotel car service to the airport where I board the 66 seater twin prop plane for the forty minute flight to Siem Riep which would take approximately 6 hours by car for the 300 kilometres.

Hotel car pickup and check into the hotel where I decide to stay in for the day and simply relax, something which has escaped me this far.

That night I head to the night markets which are large and vibrant. In the middle there is Pub Street, a series of restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. Having acquired an upset stomach and accompanying symptoms, street food had no appeal so back to the hotel for a light snack and sleep.

The weather is very warm here - over forty degrees. That's ok most of the time when the heat is dry but sometimes it's very humid and that is unpleasant. I shouldn't complain as there head been no rain to date.

Next morning I continued the tour of the markets buying absolutely not a thing but absorbing the scene.

Afternoon tea in the lobby bar and off for a sunset quad bike (ATV) ride around the outskirts of Siem Reap and through some villages - me another person and the 'leader' who was on a trail bike. I should have been wary when they gave me a mask to wear saying it will be dusty. Dusty? Dusty? I arrived back totally covered in dirt and dust - thankfully four items a day of laundry included in the voucher.

Anyway the ride was amazingly good fun. Saw a fish farm where we fed the fish, drove through two villages, saw kids finishing school, lots of what looked like emancipated grey/white cows who I was assured were well fed and some signs of apartment and villa development.

Oh for anybody thinking of coming here don't think for a moment in terms of local currency. Everything is denominated in USD, all payments in USD and all change in USD apart from odd cents which are in local currency.

Still not feeling great I opt for a very light dinner in the hotel's French restaurant, somewhere I will visit again in two days time for my included French dinner.

Up early next morning to meet the guide for my temple tour. The three temples we visited were amazing. The size, scale and longevity was unbelievable. Built in the 12th Century they are still in outstandingly good condition.

Quick history lesson. The Cambodians were originally from south India and migrated here around 100 AD. They were practicing Hindus who had split away from those that remained in India.  The temples were originally built as Hindu Temples but around 1500's the King converted the country to Buddhism as were the Temples.

The lava and sand stones for the temples came from 60kms away and it is reputed that more than one million people were involved in the construction of Angkor Wat. Looking at the scale of the Temple and the surrounding moat that number is certainly believable.

The temples were multi-level with the King and royal family allowed to pray in the top level, the privileged middle class on the middle level and the general public on the lower level.

It was VERY hot and, while strenuous, was VERY tiring in the heat. Having said that it was very worthwhile and VERY worthy of a visit. I knew a little about the temples and am glad I made the effort to see and learn more.

The guide was exceptionally knowledgable and very affable and would urge anybody coming here NOT to consider visiting the temples without a guide. Although included in my package he normally charges $US30 a day plus $US18 for the accompanying TukTuk.

One interesting factoid is that when one gets married here, the groom is expected to pay a dowry. For a provincial wife it is $US5,000 or four year's average GDP double that for a city girl and double it again for a wife from a privileged family. 

He had an interesting past. He worked in hotels in Siem Reap before moving to Phnom Penh to open a restaurant. He went bankrupt and still owes $10,000 (guess he ain't getting married any time soon) and came here to work as a guide while at the same time studying tourism.

After the temples he takes me to a local eatery which mercifully has an internal glassed off room which is YAY air-conditioned. I hardly ate anything but drank a LOT.

The mandatory stop at an Asian Boutique selling all things Cambodian and finally an artisan enclave where challenged people work making lacquered goods, statues, carvings, silk wallets and such. The tour of this study was good but the prices were unbelievably high so I didn't buy anything.

Back to the hotel for the included afternoon tea - iced tea and no cake so that will tell you where I am with my tummy. And here I am bringing my blog up to date.

The last few days were simply relaxing and lounging around the resort as well as a Cambodian massage which was strong but very very good.

On Saturday it is off to the airport to Ho Chi Minh city and transfer to a plane to Sydney. All went smoothly for a great trip.

I would recommend Cambodia for anybody interested in an Asian culturally rich experience.