After eating savoury rice porrige (typical Cambodian breakfast) with the
kids at the orphanage we said our goodbyes and cycled the 80km to Kampot
in pretty serious heat. On our way we met a dutch cycle tourer on the
road, the second in 2 days cycling in Cambodia. Since then seeing cycle
tourers on the road has been a daily occurance, which was very strange for
us because in the two months we were in Vietnam we met only one couple.
Kampot seemed like a very nice town but I won't be able to confirm that because we pretty much arrived, ate at our guest house, slept and then left early in the morning such was our rush to get to Sihanoukville for Xmas. We decided to beat the heat of the midday sun and start early, so rose at 5am, woke up the people at the guest house to get let out and get breakie, only to find everything was closed. And we couldnt get back into the guest house again because they had locked up again till 7am. So when we finally got on the road we were thinking about that extra 2 hours sleep we could have had.
It was worth starting early though...much better temperature for cycling
and everything was bathed in a beautiful orange early morning sunlight,
accentuating the beauty of the hills of Bokor National Park and the ocean.
It wasnt long before we reached Veal Rinh, the town where we planned to
stay the night. Infact it was only 11am so we pedalled the rest of the
way to Sihanoukville, found a FREE place to stay and settled into a bar.
Sihanoukville is a strange place. We started getting that impression even before we arrived. In Cambodia the majority of the cars on the road are brand new 4x4 SUVs; Lexus', Toyota Landcruisers and the like, owned by currupt officials. But on the road to Sihanoukville we were supprised to be passed by a pair of all black Lamborghinnis doing about 150mph. Its a pretty surreal sight on a Cambodian road surrounded by wooden shacks, cows and dirty kids.
And once in Sihanoukville we kept on seeing Harleys, Hummers and other status symbols on wheels. Basically there is a lot of money there. Its wierd to see in a country where most people are lucky to earn $1 a day. Tourism has the potential to raise peoples quality of life, but the extreme divide must cause resentment. Adding to the wierdness is the fact that S.Ville has a reputation as a paedo hang out so there are signs everywhere reminding you that sex with children is a crime!
I should admit that thinking about this didnt stop us having a totally great time over xmas and new years, basically becoming model hedonists; eating, drinking and partying then lying on the beach when it all got too much.
Utopia, the place that gave us a free dorm bed also supplied a few free
drinks and free food at their parties so we did rather well. We loved it
there so much we even helped promote their parties on the beach by giving
people free tequila shots (and got payed with more free drinks)! We hung
out with loads of cool folks and together all pretended that it really
felt like xmas.
Ten days later our livers told us it was time to leave so we struggled onto our bikes and out of Sihanoukville to see some more of Cambodia minus the Hummers and Paedos. The 3 day ride to Phnom Penh was a struggle. We were definately not in top shape and faced a headwind the whole way. The road was a bit boring because it was dead straight and flat the whole way.
Arriving in Phnom Penh we headed to the area by the lake where there is a
street of guest houses, restaurants and bars. We checked into a $3 room
in one of the wooden structures precariously overhanging the lake and were
told at least 10 times "Its ok to smoke here. You can smoke here, but i
dont mean tobacco. Do you want to buy marijuana?" Ok we get the message!
It was a cool place though, and we met lots of nice people and saw an
amazing sunset over the lake.
On our second morning we got up to leave but it was a really hot day and I
was not feeling that great. We also realised we had not seen any of the
sights of Phnom Penh appart from our guest house bar and the one
backpacker street. We figured we should leave the following day, and so
hooked up with a couple who had organised a tuk tuk for the day and
visited the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison
(where people were
imprisoned, tortured and then masacred under the Khmer Rouge regime).
More than a million (maybe as many as 3 million) Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime. It was really harrowing stuff, especially when you think it happened so recently. I found it really interesting to read the guest book to find out what was other peoples take on the museum and on these chapters of Cambodias history. Many people were making the point that we dont seem to learn from history and that it is still happening today while the West does nothing about it and the newpapers pretty much ignore it. Zimbabwe, Darfur, Rwanda.
I felt it was an ommission that the Museum had no up to date info about
the tria ls against those high up in the Khmer Rouge supposed to be taking
place. However reading a comment from a Cambodian visitor maybe went part
way to explaining why. She wrote that many of those involved in the KR
regime are in positions of power today and are among those driving the
expensive SUVs around.
After the visiting these sights of massacre and torture we were feeling pretty shocked and depressed. The market seemed like a good antidote, and so we went and got lost in the massive main market amongst stalls selling anything you could ever want or dream of.