Everyone I spoke to for advice while planning Southeast Asia told me to rush through Cambodia. It was their least favorite of the countries I'm visiting, they'd tell me, and I'd be better off saving more time for Thailand and Vietnam. Well, this is a perfect example of why you can't always trust other people's opinions. I totally unexpectedly LOVED Cambodia.
I'm bummed as hell that I only had a week there... and originally it was meant to be five days. If I could have done it again, I would cut some time out of the Thai islands and spent more in this awesome place. I never got to see Sihanoukville, Kampot, or Koh Rong. I was seriously tempted to just stay a few more days and head down to the beaches of the south, but you can't do it all, and we've already only got two weeks in Vietnam. I guess it just means I'll have an excuse to come back someday.
Crossing the Land Border
We came from Bangkok on an 8 hour day bus. It doesn't quite take 8 hours just to drive, but the time builds up when you factor in immigration at the border. We left early in the morning to catch our 9:00 bus from the Northern Terminal, and we reached the Cambodian border at Poipet in the afternoon.
I had heard the border was really confusing and full of scam artists who will try to "organize your visa" when you can just do it at the official border crossing. Luckily our bus guide very specifically pointed out which building we needed to head to, but even then as we were all walking in a crowd to get there, these scammers swarmed around us going, "You need visa?" I saw them manage to lead away one of the group like a sheep being separated from the flock by wolves and immediately his friends started yelling after him to come back.
Anyway, I don't know that guy's fate, but we made it into the building and were stamped out of Thailand. We then had to cross the road in the no-man's land of casinos that make up the area between the Thai and Cambodian borders and head to the Cambodian immigration office. We paid 1200 baht for our visa, then we went into the next building to get stamped in. Our bus was waiting outside and we just hopped back on, so it didn't end up being too much hassle. The 999 Transport Co. which ran our bus was a good one to travel with. They even gave us water, snacks, and rice for lunch!
We reached Siem Reap at about 6 PM and were provided with a free tuk tuk to our hostel. It actually WAS free, but the driver basically pleaded with us to book our temple transport with him during our stay. We agreed to let him come meet us back at the hostel that night and we'd let him know what we'd decided. Actually, the whole thing ended up being kind of amusing. After how desperate he'd sounded for a job, he didn't even turn up that night and instead sent his friend Johnny. Johnny said he'd take us to Angkor Wat on the day we booked for, but then when that morning came it was actually his brother who turned up. We ended up not being able to go that morning because Lewis was sick, so when we rescheduled for Tuesday he told us his other friend Chai would take us instead. However, when the day came, it actually was Johnny's brother who came. Tuk tuk roulette.
Mad Monkey Siem Reap
This. Hostel. Rocks. I've been to a lot of hostels all around the world and this is easily one of the best I've ever seen.
There's a pool just next to reception with beanbags and hanging chairs around it as well as a pool bar which is open from morning to evening. That's not all though- there is also a rooftop beach bar with sand covering the ground, a beer pong table, and events like keg parties or bingo on every night. There's art all over the walls down the stairwells, halls, and the bar. The staff are all fun and helpful, there's an extensive food menu including loads of veggie options, an extensive drink menu including $1 beers and $3 cocktails, and you can book any transport or tours you need right at reception. It's a blessing and a curse to stay here, because you never actually have to leave... and I barely did.
Luckily we booked ourselves a private room here, because Lewis ended up getting really ill with a stomach bug starting on the first night. He didn't get out of bed for two whole days, so we had to push all of our activities back and extend our stay an extra two nights. I was not upset about having to stay longer (although, you know, not happy it's because Lewis was miserable and bedridden), and I spent the first full day drinking at the pool and bringing Lewis toast to the room at intervals. (To be clear, he told me to go enjoy the day as there wasn't much I could do besides bring him meals and water. I managed to snag him some electrolytes from a friend as well.)
I actually met some really cool people and had an amazing night out. Once the pool bar closed and I was already sufficiently tipsy, I met back up with my new friends at the rooftop bar for the "free punch party", shared two espresso martini buckets with one of the guys, filled up my Mad Monkey passport card with the required 30 drink stamps (those buckets gave me 9 each) for a free tank top, played flip cup, and had free shots that were supplied when the electricity briefly went out. When the bar closed at 12, we headed to the nearby Pub Street lined with real bars and makeshift tuk tuk bars. We had more drinks, pool, and dancing at X Bar. It was an awesome night. I didn't even realize I stayed out until 3:30 in the morning but I guess pinging on espresso martini buckets will do that to you.
I ended up stuck in bed the entire next day as well after bringing food to the room, extending our stay again, and rescheduling our temple visits, but Lewis managed to make it upstairs for dinner and we finally got started on Siem Reap sightseeing the following day.
Tonle Sap Lake
We had originally booked a tour of the floating village, flooded forest, and sunset on the lake for Saturday, but since we'd had to extend our stay, we decided to switch over to the hostel-run "Cultural Booze Cruise" on Monday. It was meant to head to the same places but with the added benefit of free beer and shots.
I'm definitely not sure it was worth the $25. (Oh, by the way, although Cambodia has its own currency, you usually only get it as change- small notes worth 15 cents or so- and US dollars are widely used and accepted everywhere. Exciting to have a wallet full of green dollar bills again!) It was social, we sat around enjoying our included drinks, and we made our first stop at a crocodile farm. It was only for about five minutes and was just a bunch of crocs kept in a pen far down below a fenced viewing platform. They fed them a catfish, but I walked away because I don't care to see live animals being eaten.
However, that seemed to be the only destination. Next time the boat stopped, people started jumping in the water to swim, and we stayed there until sunset. The lake was pretty and all, but I said to our guide Jaffa (cool guy) that I thought we were meant to see a floating village. His response was along the lines of, "Yeah... did you see it near the beginning? We passed it." I had kind of thought we were actually getting off the boat and exploring or maybe having a meal, but none of that happened. Lewis says I should have expected that having booked a boat tour with a party hostel.
The Temples: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Bayon
Finally, on Tuesday, we made it to see the most famous sight of all. There's a few ways you can do the temples- generally either a small loop or a big loop. Passes are sold as 1 day, 3 day, or 5 day. We have seen a lot of temples since we've been in Asia and were already pretty templed-out, so we were happy just to do one day on a small loop of the most popular three.
Our tuk tuk driver, Johnny's brother (never did find out his name), was there to pick us up at 10:30 in the morning. We gave him $15 for the day (the same price it would have been booking through the hostel). Tuk tuks are probably the best way to go about sightseeing. Motorbikes aren't really available for rent in Cambodia, and it's way too hot and too far to do it by bicycle. He took us to each stop and told us where he'd meet us when we were finished to head to the next one.
First we went to the ticket office where we bought our one day passes. It costs $20, but it gives you access to any of the temples you want to view within your allotted day. They also take a really flattering photo of you so you can keep the pass as a souvenir forever.
Framing it!
Our first temple was Ta Prohm, which was apparently used in Tomb Raider which I've never seen. It reminded me of Indiana Jones or somewhere to have a mysterious jungle adventure. Actually, this is why the temples of Cambodia were my absolute favorite. They were so different from the temples everywhere else. They had this ancient hidden temple feel and were sprawling and unbelievable.
Ta Prohm is buried in jungle growth and has trees growing up along the walls and all around it. There are crumbling, moss covered stones on the ground, small passages, and carvings in the walls. On the walk in and out, there were people playing traditional Khmer music.
Bayon was next and it was massive. The unique thing about this one is that there are stone faces carved everywhere. It was a maze to walk through- stairs up and down, nooks with statues, and small paths between the faces. It took about ten minutes to find our way out after reaching the top.
We took a walk back towards the shopping area, passing other temples and terraces along the way. Lewis wasn't back up to full health and was really struggling throughout the day with the heat. We took a break when we reached the shops where I bought another painting and we had food at a restaurant run by our driver's friends. Sadly, this is the only time I ate outside of the Mad Monkey hostels while in Cambodia. Feel free to judge.
We had one last stop to get to, and it was already about 3:30 so we were reaching the end of the day. This was, of course, Angkor Wat, and it's definitely deserving of its hype. You come up to an entry gate first across a bridge which blocks it from being seen from the street. Once you pass that, you've got a long field in front of you with another raised path leading to the temple. The whole surrounding is scenic, including lakes and palm trees.
Inside the walls, there's a courtyard and then the main tower in the center. We stood and waited in line to climb the steep stairs to the top. Once you're up there, there are views from the windows, shrines, and the peak of the tower in the center which isn't accessible.
We got lucky with the weather because as soon as we got back in the tuk tuk to head home, it started battering down rain. The streets were so flooded on the ride back that people on motorbikes were getting their feet soaked.
I seriously enjoyed our day out, not just because it must be done in Cambodia, but because it was awesome.
Phnom Penh
I was sad to leave Siem Reap, but after five nights, the time had come. There were three options to get to Phnom Penh- the $18 "luxury" bus, the $8 local bus, or the $13 minivan. Weirdly, the minivan was only 5.5 hours whereas the other two were both 7-8, so we went with the middle price for the shortest trip. It was comfy, cool, and stopped for just the right amount of time for food and bathroom breaks.
I had loved Mad Monkey so much that I booked us into the one in Phnom Penh. It definitely didn't live up to Siem Reap's standards, but it was a good place. It's split into two buildings across the street from each other, one with reception and the pool, and the other with the restaurant and the top floor bar. We stayed in a dorm this time which was much cheaper and ours was located right next to the bar up way too many flights of stairs. On the bright side, the restaurant had a different menu than the last hostel with just as many options, so I once again had every meal at Mad Monkey (we did try to go out once and Lewis had his meal at the place we found, but there were no appealing veggie options for me).
Since we'd taken the van at 8 AM, we were in Phnom Penh by 1:30 and had the whole evening to ourselves. We took a tuk tuk to Wat Phnom in the evening just to see something. It's a temple on a hill with a nice garden around it. Only $1 to get in so while it wasn't anything spectacular, it wasn't a lot of money to spend.
Lewis sharing my excitement over all the settings on my new camera.
Our driver took us past the river on the way back, and as we were driving through Phnom Penh I decided I really liked it as a city. It's full of wide open spaces and parks, no overly tall buildings, and some of the architecture is a bit colonial looking. It's nice! We also passed by the Royal Palace which looked a little similar to Bangkok's.
The Killing Fields & S21 Prison
Easily the most impactful day we've had so far in Asia was a half day visit to the Killing Fields and the prison. It's one of the most heartbreaking places I've ever been. If you aren't familiar with Cambodia's history, which is quite possible because it's something I don't remember learning about at all in Western schools, they experienced a communist revolution in the 1970s which led to mass genocide of somewhere between one to three million of the country's population.
In 1975, after Cambodia had suffered heavy hits from US bombs during the Vietnam war, a new regime called the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh. At first, the people were really happy about this. They thought it meant times were looking up. However, very quickly, soldiers began forcing people out of the city and into the rural areas.
The psychopath in charge was named Pol Pot. He and his communist party wanted to eliminate the class system and place emphasis on rural work. He did this by rounding up anyone who he deemed to be an intellectual or the "new people"- city people- and executing them. This escalated to include anyone he suspected of opposing him and the entire families of anyone murdered, including children and babies, so that nobody would later seek revenge. Eventually, as his paranoia mounted, even those who had served as guards and executioners were killed themselves.
Along with this, he destroyed national monuments, places of worship, schools, hospitals, and more. People were arrested for things they hadn't done or for minor offenses like taking an extra piece of fruit from the fields for their starving families. Over the course of four years, he had destroyed and dismantled Cambodia.
The prison in Phnom Penh was called the S21, or Tuol Sleng. People who were arrested were taken here, locked up, tortured, forced to sign false confessions, made to accuse others of crimes, and kept either in bare single cells or mass detention rooms before they either died from the torture or starvation or were murdered. Of the 17,000 some people who passed through the prison, only seven survivors are known.
It was previously a school before being taken over. The grounds themselves are green and pretty, but now there's a monument to the dead and a collection of 12 graves for the final victims. The old outdoor equipment was turned into torture gallows, and the classrooms became cells.
There are four buildings labeled A through D. Building A was used for special prisoners and interrogations. There are flat metal beds in bare rooms on which people were shackled and tortured. When the Vietnamese finally came and liberated Phnom Penh at the end of 1978, the Khmer Rouge guards murdered the final prisoners being kept in this building. There are black and white photographs of their bodies when they were found which are hung in each respective room.
There's a section upstairs as well with stories from women who were forced into marriage during the regime. Many were raped, didn't meet their husbands until the day of the ceremony (or sometimes even know they were being married off), had to convert religion for their new partners, or made to get pregnant and then forced to continue work in the fields until giving birth.
Building B now holds photos of prisoners, pictures of the Khmer Rouge officers, old uniforms, and more. We had paid the extra $3 for the audio guides (both in the prison and in the fields) and I would never recommend you go without one. To fully appreciate the tragedy of it all and understand the significance of each place you're standing, you need to listen to the stories.
Building C was probably the worst for me personally. There was barbed wire covering the outside which was installed after a prisoner had attempted suicide by jumping over the balcony. Nobody was meant to die until the regime was done with them, although a couple managed by various means such as stabbing themselves in the throat with a pen or pouring the oil from a burning lamp over their head.
This building was full of individual cells. The bottom floor cells were built out of brick. On the second floor, it was just hall after hall of wooden cells with the doors swung open. I was alone up there and I'm not sure what happened but I got so freaked out I had to go back outside.
The top floor held large, bare rooms where prisoners were crowded together in mass detention.
Building D had more photos of prisoners. Most were mug shots from when they were brought in, but there was a room full of post-mortem photos of prisoners who had died during torture. The pictures were graphic.
The final room in Building D contains skulls from the dead, similar to the display at the fields.
Afterwards you can go upstairs where there are reading rooms, movie rooms, and a White Lotus room filled with meditation mats where you can sit and process.
As we left, there were actually two survivors near the exit selling their books. I was actually so blown away to see these two men in real life who had been through this prison and survived it. One showed us a photo of himself as a prisoner there. The other's wife had been murdered in the Killing Fields.
The Killing Fields (the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center) are about 15 km out of the city. For me, this was the more emotional experience. The fields are beautiful and green which makes it that much more surreal that it was the site of the absolute massacre of the Cambodian people. This, by the way, isn't the only killing field in Cambodia. They were located all over the country.
As you walk around, you pass the truck stop where people were carted in during the dead of night. They'd be told they were being relocated to a new home, only to be brought to the fields and either killed immediately or, after they started bringing in too high a volume to dispose of in one night, thrown into a shack where they'd be packed together until being killed the following day.
There are signs marking where the officers' quarters used to stand, the storage unit for DDT and other chemicals used on the dead bodies, and the detention center. The buildings were all torn down in the aftermath of the regime being overthrown.
Rounding the field, you'll come across the mass graves. Almost 8900 bodies were excavated and grouped into these graves together, but even now bones still surface during rains. It's not uncommon to walk along and see bones in the fields. Caretakers come along and clean up every so often, but so many bodies were buried here.
There's a green lake where you can sit and listen to the stories of survivors of the regime.
Afterwards, you head back to the field and keep walking. There are containers holding rags and clothes of the deceased, and another full of bones and teeth.
The Killing Tree, located next to a mass grave of women and children, is where executioners would beat babies until their heads caved in. Rarely were people shot because bullets were too valuable. Instead, heads were bashed in and throats were slit.
Surprisingly, this wasn't the tree that made me tear up, it was the next one. Called the Magic Tree, this is where speakers were set up to drown out the sound of screams and torture. As soon as my audio guide played a clip of the traditional, peaceful Khmer music that would be playing as the backdrop to the horrors happening around it in the dark of night, I got pretty choked up.
The final stop is the memorial in the center. I had seen it coming in- a tall, pretty white monument. What I didn't realize until the end when I approached it was that it is full from floor to ceiling of the skulls of executed victims.
You can go inside and see that the bottom tier of skulls are labeled. Some sections show different ages, some different genders, and some are labeled by the method of execution. There are holes in many. It was unreal.
You can't help but feel thoroughly depressed as you leave these places, but if you visit Cambodia, it's something you need to see. The fact that it happened only 40 years ago is even more surreal. People still alive today experienced this and lost immediate family members in this mass genocide.
So, it's hard to bounce back off of that onto an uplifting topic, but I really loved Cambodia. I don't know if it was the scenery, temples, history, hostels, or people I met, but somehow it became my favorite Asian country I'd visited so far (until Vietnam!). If I had more time, I would have stayed much longer. As it is, I hope I'll get to visit again one day and would strongly encourage anyone to devote some time to seeing it.