Cambogia DIY
Perhaps this is a trip I dealt a little superficially with, and which, instead, has upset me. For most people visiting Cambodia consists in taking a plane from Bangkok, stay a couple of nights in a hotel next to the temples, and admire the majesty of Angkor
It’s not the same thing as traveling along the roads, full of holes and mud or dust, depending on the season, observing the extreme poverty conditions in which most of the population survives. The impact with the city of Phnom Penh was strong. Choeng Euk killing fields, the stupa made of skulls, the display cases full of bones, Tuol Sleng prison, and the crowd of beggars waiting outside, limbless, blind, faces devastated by the mines explosions, naked children who sleep alone on the streets, made me feel on my shoulders all the nastiness and stupidity of mankind
This series of episodes, combined in a single day, generated the irresistible urge to hide for a few hours in one of the best bars, to meditate on the good fortune that I had to be born on this side of the world, sipping jugs of green tea to relieve from the heat
There are situations I don’t recall with pleasure, though I’m happy I have lived them. The most beautiful experiences of Phnom Penh was visiting the National Museum, and a stop at the FCC, the bar frequented by journalists during the war. A lovely riverside terrace, and a beautiful exhibition of photographs inside. The National Museum does not store exceptional treasures, but it is an oasis of peace with its ponds filled with water lilies, and offers many opportunities to conversate with Cambodian students who want to practice English
On a shabby bus I reach Kampot, a graceful French colonial town with beautiful buildings a bit ruined, I sleep in a guesthouse with 3 US dollars. There is no hot water, and the sink does not have a siphon, so opening the tap water ends up directly on the ground, on my feet. To balance this flaw, however, the TV is equipped with satellite, so I can even see the CNN. The pension is a little secluded, and to get there in the evening I have to walk through dark streets (torch is essential) infested with hysterical dogs.
Kampot is the base to visit the Bokor park, nothing really extraordinary, but it has some beautiful waterfalls and French spa buildings in ruins. However, it will remain forever in the memory because: 1) the way to get there is a hell, I do not know how many hours to travel a few kilometers 2) it’s the first and, so far, only time in my life I got bitten by a leech, and I got scared, because it did not stop bleeding. Try to travel alone and without insurance, and you’ll understand why I was scared
In Battambang I meet a fellow citizen who works here as a volunteer to project and builds agricultural wells
The city seems teeming with mice, one runs on my feet even in an internet point. Another gem of the trip is the transfer via barge on the river that connects the city to the Tonle Sap lake, and then Siem Reap
I go on the upper deck, asking to a farmer the permission to sit down on his sack of rice, and for 8 hours I will stay glued there, sunburnt, afraid of losing my position. I look at the life that flows on the edge of the Sangker river
The villages near the point of landing are very poor, the children are naked and afflicted by diarrhea, the toilets do not exist, and they evacuate everywhere.
I find a guest house close enough to the river
on the east side of town. It’s the Green Town Guesthouse run by Cambodians, the cost is $ 6, and the room is pretty
I reach the city center on foot. I eat at the market
while a pair of hungry kids stare at me. I buy them a bowl of rice, I season it with some of my left curry, and I offer them some bananas. Some guards protect the restaurants entrances, it seems excessive to me. In the area, several very nice bars, which make forget for a moment the immense misery all around.
I visit the local hospital, “I am here to I make a donation”, I say to a guy who approaches me. I leave the money in an urn and I ask to be taken around. It is very simple, and poor, of course, but very clean. In future years I will see much worse in India. What strikes me is the crowd of parents camped outside, who are now cooking their meals, but I assume will be sleeping as well, in a courtyard next to the dormitories.
The temples of Angkor? Well, you know them … I’ve visited them in a day, with a tuk tuk. When I saw the sunrise I felt excited, and privileged, I was thinking “this is not for everyone”
The stairs to access some buildings are as narrow, steep and dangerous as those of the Mexican Mayan temples
The sector that most impresses me is Angkor Thom, where the vegetation has almost engulfed the buildings
Close to the a lake, where I stop to eat, I give some balloons to children, they inflate them and use them as a lifesaver, diving into the water.
I tell my tuk tuk driver that I want to eat somewhere “cheap”, he takes the situation very seriously, and accompanies me in a kind of chicken coop, no kidding, there are chickens which wander and shit around everywhere, including benches. Already this is not wonderful, but the fried rice they serve me is so bad that definitely close my stomach. Last but not least, a guy comes with his scooter, and a pig, alive, tied to the rear rack, paws up, screaming like crazy. At first I fear they could slaughter it front of my eyes, and so start to sweat, but fortunately the guy only had to collect some money, and then, with his pig, leaves.
I know, it’s not a great lesson in Khmer history …. …. 🙂
In short, after two weeks of Cambodia I felt a great desire of Thailand, dreaming to fuck around the beaches of Ko Phangan