Cambodia, Part 1
Day 31, January 28
I woke up pretty late since I stayed up way past my bedtime last night. We didn’t have anything that we had to wake up early for so I enjoyed the extra rest.
I went and had breakfast on the rooftop around 10ish (it was noodles again) and then went back downstairs to get ready and pack up.
After we were ready we checked out and left our bags in the front so we could walk to Starbucks to see if was open but it still wasn’t. I think Ho Chi Minh has completely shut down until the first of February so it was really good we were leaving.
As we were walking back we came across a local coffee place (and probably the only thing open in the city) so I got a drink there. It took them forever, though! We didn’t get back to our hostel until close to 11:45 and we still had to walk to our bus by 12:30. I didn’t really know where it was at so I wanted to give us plenty of time but that didn’t happen.
My GPS that has been so reliable would not calibrate correctly or quickly enough for me. So we walked around the block and then got pointed to some buses. They ended up being the city buses and not what we were looking for. Taryn went up to show the people the address of where we were trying to go and she said they all just ignored her. It really didn’t surprise me because I got the sense on the very first night that they didn’t like us. I don’t mean us personally but us as in Americans. I don’t know how the treated other nationalities but they were not that warm and friendly to us in Ho Chi Minh. This is just my view of it so someone else could say differently.
I finally got my GPS to route correctly and so I was able to lead us down the street to our bus. By this point I still wasn’t sure it was right but it’s what the GPS was telling me so I was just holding my breath. If this had not been right then we would have missed our bus because by this point it was close to 12:30. I passed 3 different buses and they were not our bus. I was starting to worry and then our bus pulled up. I immediately ran over and asked if it was going to Phnom Penh and it was. We had finally made it.
I had chugged my coffee and was running around trying to find the bus so when I got to my seat, I felt dizzy and like I was going to be sick. I drank some water and caught my breath.
Relieved to be on the bus
The bus attendant gave us visas to fill out for Cambodia which was awesome because we had not applied for it yet. This bus was awesome! They walked you through everything with the exiting of Vietnam and entering Cambodia. From what I heard, it could be quite a nightmare with other bus services so we really lucked out. We also got water, a banh mi with some kind of weird filling and a cool towel.
Questionable filling
We then got on the road and within less than 2 hours we were already exiting Vietnam. Once we crossed over we had to get out of the bus and go into this warehouse looking place where we then exited customs and got our passport stamped. I got in trouble for taking this photo.
Looks like where they would store cattle but it’s were you get your exit stamp
Almost got my phone confiscated for taking this picture
Then we got back on the bus and stopped about 5 minutes later to turn our visa applications in and get our stamp for entering Cambodia. That line went a little slower but it wasn’t bad.
First Cambodian picture!
Then back onto the bus. This time we went another 30 minutes or so and we stopped at a place to use the bathroom and buy food if we wanted. I wasn’t sure about this bus trip so I went ahead and bought snacks and was throughly confused when I went to pay. In Cambodia they take US dollars and will give whole dollar amounts back for change but they don’t do coins so then if it’s .50 they’ll give you Cambodia money for that amount. It’s all very confusing at first.
I then went and hit up duty free to spray on some perfume. The lady was following me and then tried to help me and I just told her I was here to spray it on. Then I went over to the restaurant area to see what they had.
They had a papaya salad that I tried to order but they weren’t serving that today so I saw bananas sitting there and decided I’d buy one of those. I asked the guy how much and they weren’t for sale but he asked me how many and I said 1 and then he tore off 2 and gave them to me for free. He has no idea but that made my day. I was so fed up with Ho Chi Minh and I’m not even an hour into Cambodia and already they were so nice.
After our 30 minute break at that stop, we boarded the bus and continued on. We were driving for maybe 30 minutes and then our bus pulls over and the attendant tells us something is wrong with the bus so we have to get off. We all get off right in front of a high school and they unload our luggage and the bus takes off.
Then another one comes and we load up on that one. But while we are waiting there all the school kids were waving at us. They were excited to see us and we were equally excited to see them. They were waving to us and giving the peace sign and some were even blowing us kisses. It was so cute! Cambodia has now completely won me over.
The little boy was blowing us kisses
School girls playing soccer
Kids waving and giving us the peace sign
Then we all got back on and were finally on the road for a good couple of hours before we stopped one last time to use the bathroom. The drive was actually very nice. The scenery was pretty and it was only about a 6.5 hour drive.
We even saw sunset and it was beautiful especially with the temples.
Around 7ish we made it to our bus stop. We got our luggage and let GPS guide us to our hostel, Mama’s Villa. It was less than a mile about .8 but with all of our bags it was hard. But we made it there and checked in without a problem. We are on the 3rd floor and there are no elevators so we had to hike up the flights of stairs with our bags.
After we dropped off our bags we went downstairs to the restaurant next door and had dinner. I had eaten way too much of my snacks so I really wasn’t all that hungry. I just got the fresh fruit dish.
We then went across the street to a mini mart and loaded up on waters and more snacks for tomorrow.
Almonds and Anchovy…my favorite combination!
So far I love, love Cambodia. I really enjoyed Vietnam, as well, I just did not care for Ho Chi Minh so I am happy to be in a new place tonight.
At one of our stops I saw a group of adults and children (towards back of photo) at a gas station playing games, laughing and dancing. When they saw us they all started waving. They all looked so happy to be enjoying each others company.
Day 32, January 29
I woke up feeling really dizzy for some reason. The room is really dark with no windows so as soon as I woke up I went downstairs for breakfast. Usually I lay in bed for a bit but the room felt like it was spinning so I had to get up and get some fresh air.
I got the omelette with a baguette and coffee. The coffee came out with ice and was incredibly sweet. They use condensed milk like Vietnam does, I guess.
After breakfast we booked a hop on hop off tour for the afternoon. We had a few hours to kill before the bus was to pick us up. Our hostel is centrally located to just about all the attractions we wanted to see so it made it very easy to roam around.
Our first stop was the National Museum of Cambodia. We didn’t get the audio tour but I don’t really think you needed it here. The museum consisted of a bunch of art from the Khmer Empire period. The Khmer Empire was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist empire where present day Cambodia is.
Front of the National Museum of Cambodia
Giant Urn
After the museum we decided to go check out the Royal Palace. When we got there it was closed so I was only able to get pictures of the front.
After seeing the front of the Royal Palace we still had time to kill so we went over to the lake, Tonle Sap.
We decided to eat really quickly before going on the tour because we wouldn’t be back until 6ish to our hostel. So we stopped at the first place we came to. Our mistake. We all got the vegetable salad and it came out looking like this. My vegetables consisted of 2 tomatoes and red bell peppers. It was the saddest salad I’ve ever had. Fail on our part.
We got back to the hostel and waited for about 30 minutes until our hop on hop off bus came to get us. We were one of the last stops so it was off to the first attraction. This was not like any of the hop on hop off tours I’ve done in the past in other cities. First off this one was more of a tour that consisted of 2 stops that we all did together. And secondly, they were 2 very sad and depressing stops: The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and The Choeung Ek Genocide Center aka the Killing Fields.
I knew absolutely nothing about the genocide that went on here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 1975-1979. It was started and carried out by the Khmer Rouge regime led by an evil man by the name of Pol Pot. The death toll was estimated at 1.5 to 3 million Cambodians. The Khmer Rouge was trying to create a form of agrarian socialism. There were executions, forced labor, torture, malnutrition and disease that combined for a total of 25% of the Cambodian population being killed. The genocide ended in 1979 when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia.
Needless to say, both sites were very hard to go through. The audio tour gave great detail to the torture and killings of the innocent people. It was hard to listen to most of it.
Prisoners from Tuol Sleng were taken to the killing fields where they were executed and buried in mass graves. Below are pictures from the school that the regime used to torture the people at before sending them to the fields to be killed. Some of the rooms we went into still had dried blood on the ground. It was really horrific.
They put up the barbed wire fencing so that none of the people could commit suicide before being tortured
Then it was on to the killing fields. The audio here was even harder to listen to. Below are some pictures of the fields were the mass killings took place as well as where the unidentified bodies were dumped.
I thought this was really pretty in a field of such atrocities
After our time at the killing fields it was time to head back to the city area. On the ride back they showed a quick documentary about the genocide and how it came to be. The documentary stated that it will take Cambodia at least 100 years to bounce back from the genocide. It has only been about 40 years.
The Cambodian people have such resilient and kind spirits. I knew nothing about this horrible tragedy before today and I was already saying how nice the people were here that I have encountered so far. To have something like this in their past not that long ago and to be as open with their country as they are, is truly amazing.
We were very drained from the day so we just went next door for dinner. We were starving so we got the goat cheese balls with spicy avocado. It was so, so, so good. I could have eaten 5 more plates of that and been satisfied. But instead I got the chicken masala and for dessert we split a pineapple pancake. We thought it would be the pancake we got in Vietnam but it was an actual pancake.
After dinner that was it for us. We headed to bed.
Holly
January 30, 2017
The mysterious filling kind of looks like tofu!
Jillian
January 30, 2017
That’s what I thought too but it wasn’t.