Hello Lady, tuk-tuk? (E)
Posted by loerchs on 24.12.2008
No, Lady prefers to walk or to take a moto. But let’s start from the beginning. After getting to know Singaporte’s airport pretty well I flew to Phnom Penh. I was pretty excited about it. Immigration went without any problems (20 dollars plus three identical forms to fill out and you’ll get a big sticker in your passport which allows you to travel Cambodia for 3 months). Furthermore I was amazed that the roads in and around Phnom Penh were perfectly paved. I really did not expect that after having seen the roads in Rwanda. Additionally I had to get used again to the right hand driving. At least most of the times, but if there’s more space on the left… why not…
My taxi driver brought me to the guesthouse I had chosen where I tried to catch up with the sleep I didn’t get the last two nights. But at 4 pm my hunger made me go out to find something to eat and toothpaste (which was confiscated at the airport). So I went to the Sisowath Quai where most of Phnom Penh’s night life takes place. There I had my first real Cambodian dinner (Chicken amok which is a sort of a Curry) and I also found tooth paste. Furthermore I found the cheapest internet ever (and for 0.5 USD it was actually quite fast). But still I wasn’t really in form so I went back to the Guesthouse to get some sleep. Unfortunately my room was located directly above the Restaurant which was quite noisy so I went there and took a beer (a Cambodian one… could have been worse) and afterwards went to sleep with Oropax. They worked way better than I had assumed which is why I didn’t hear the alarm in the morning and woke up two hours later than I had intended. But then I immediately went to the Silver Pagoda and bought my breakfast on the way (fried banana). I spend the whole morning at the Silver Pagoda (no fotos from the inside) and the Temples around it. The Silver Pagoda was build by the last king of Cambodia – Sihanouk – in 1962 and obtained its name due to the 5000 silver panels of which each wheighs roughly 1 kg covering the floor. Most of them are covered by a carpet to protect them. Furthermore a golden life-size Buddha statue (90 kg) decorated with 9584 diamonds is found inside. Except of the temples of Angkor the Silver Pagoda is one of the few cultural riches which where not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge dictatorship. Next to the Silver Pagoda is the King’s Palace which is like other buildings between the pagoda and the palace not open to the public.
When I left the Pagoda it was alredy noon which is why I went to the Central market to get lunch there. But before eating I walking along the stalls selling silver and gold jewelry, bags, coocking equipment, foods and staples and more or less anyone could think of. Especially the foods where quite diverse and most of the time I didn’t have a clue what it was (Although I could identify fried spiders). Anyway’s I avoided the spiders and had a decent lunch.
After the Central market I took a moto (not a tuk-tuk) to the Tuol Sleng Museum. Before the Khmer Rouge dictatorship Tuol Sleng used to be a high school which was then turned into a prison known as S-21. In total more than 17000 humans where imprisoned there and almost all of them where taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where they where cruelly murdered. The museum shouwd lots of fotographs of both victims and the people who worked there also providing information about the personal life of some of them.
After having spend there the afternoon I went back to the Guesthouse to take a rest before I decided to walk to the other side of the city east of the Tonle Sap river and to have dinner there at the Mekong riverside. On my way there I met again a German who spontaneously joined me. But this time we took a tuk-tuk as it turned out that it was pretty far away. When we arrived there at a Restaurant it was already dark and we could just get an idea of the river. But we actually arrived in a pretty tourist-free zone where virtually nobody spoke English any more (on the other side of the river almost everybody spoke English and many of the pretty well). Using hands feet and the fotos on the menu we could finally order some food.
The day after I took the bus to Battambang which took untill the early afternoon. I hadn’t even left the bus I was surrounded by moto and tuk-tuk drivers as I was the only tourist who was arriving with this bus. Anyways in comparison to Rwanda it is sheer mass tourism here. Even in Battambang everything is designed for tourism.
One of the moto drivers was the lucky one who could take me to the hostel (I wish I had a foto of us. My huge backpack on the handlebars and us including my laptop and handbag on the seat. I guess I don’t have to tell you thet we did not reach high speeds…
Already on the way to the Guesthouse he (more or less unnoticeably) told me that Battambang was famous for its entourage and he would be available as a tourist guide to show me around. So finally I hired him for the next day. I did not have any plans for the same day except of having dinner at the local night market and going to sleep early.
When I came back at 8 in the morning from breakfast he (Socheath) was already awaiting me in the Guesthouse and we could leave to the villages. After a 45 min we had the first stop in a village where the rice papers fr spring rolls are manufactured. The rice has to be milled first and is then processed to a very liquid dough only with water. The dough is then distributed on a cloth which is spanned over glow. There it is covered with a lid until it is cooked. Afterwards the rice paper is put on a frame to dry in the sun.
After the village we went to Wat Ek Phnom which is a partly collapsed hindu temple from the 11th century. In the course of time it was also used as a Buddhist temple but as most to the cambodians anyway practice both relifions it is quite convenient. The next stop was at Phnom Sampean (sailing boat mountain) which obtained its name in respect of a legend telling the formation of Cambodia (Socheath knew lots of legends and stories to tell). Up onthe mountain close to the summit is a cave which is one of th emany sad sites in Cambodia. During the Khmer Rouge dictatorship thousands of people where killed there and threwn into the cave. Nowadays there is a site that contains the bones of the victimes.
After lunch in one of the cookshops we went to Prasat Banan (beadhouse) from the 11th century. It is also located at the summit of a mountain (all temples are constructed on mountains as they believe that there they are closer to the gods) and more than 300 steps lead up there. Prasat Banan reminds a little bit of Angkor and is also richly decorated with stone carvings. Being dirty and powdered with the dust of the streets we went back to town but not exclusively by moto but also by train. Well,…train is not exactly the word. The bamboo train is constructed of a probably 3 m long frame that is covered with bamboo and has a tiny fuel engine. This system works perfectly on the single line track because if two trains meet from both sides the one with less people is taken off the track and the other one can pass. Actually this was a day where I have experienced so much and seen so many things I can’t tell everything but I hope you can imagine it a little bit due to the pictures (see german text).
In the evening I bought a ticket for the boat from Battambang to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is the city close to the temples of Angkor which is supposed to be my last stop. The boat tour is considered as the most beautiful one in Cambodia and was supposed to take between 3 and 8 hours depending on the water level. AS it is dry season right now the level was very low and it took us almost 8 h. But it definately was a stunning tour as we saw remote landscapes and floating villages which are only accessible by boat.