Cambodia

We spent about two and half weeks traveling through Cambodia visiting Siem Reap, Battambang, Kep, Kampot, Sihanoukville, and Phnom Penh. While we were in Siem Reap, we spent a day wandering around Angkor Wat and some of the surrounding temples with our excellent guide Chhay.  We also visited some of the night markets and saw some traditional dancing.

After visiting the temples, we made our way to Battambang - the second largest city in Cambodia and home to the bamboo train.  For an interesting ride through the countryside, you can jump on a small raft-like train with a motor in the back and chug along the tracks at 30 km/hr or so to a nearby village. If you come across another bamboo train, there is no need to worry - you simply jump off, disassemble your train, and let them pass.

We also took a tuk tuk through some villages on our way to Phnom Sampeu: a mountain with a killing cave from the Khmer Rouge regime.  Our guide lived through the regime and had some very interesting and sad stories to tell about his life. We passed by a school near to the mountain which had been converted to a hospital during that time and in which our guide was treated as a young boy.  The doctors had all been killed so the hospital was run by young girls without training who would treat people with things like young coconut juice.  Some of the stories seem so cruel that it is hard to believe they actually happened, especially in such recent times.

Remains in the Killing Cave

On our way to the mountain, we passed by a roadside restaurant with a small sign written in Khmer.  Our guide stopped and pointed the sign out to us and told us that it served "special meat", or "the fast-running cow" or in other words, dog.   In Cambodia, it is not very common to eat dog and so the restaurants prefer to use discrete signs to advertise their offerings.  Good to know. 

We also stopped at a villager's house in the area.  Like most houses in the countryside, it was raised on stilts.  Our guide explained that during the day, the residents will spend their time underneath the house where it is cooler.  Come nightime, they must move upstairs to sleep and be careful when walking around outside due to the cobras.  After hearing that, we were more than ready to hop back into our tuk tuk and be on our way...

After Battambang, we traveled to Kep, a small town on the coast famous for its delicious crabs. It was a popular seaside resort during the French colonial era and there are many old abandoned French villas around the area.  Nowadays, there isn't much to do other than eat crab and that is exactly what we came here to do.  For $4-5 dollars, you can get a large plate of fresh crab - literally - once you order, you can watch the staff wade out into the ocean to take out some live crabs from the traps they keep offshore.  The local specialty is fried crab with Kampot pepper, a world-class pepper grown nearby.  It is one of the best meals we have eaten throughout all of our travels.

The town of Kep's signature statue

Rabbit Island - nearby Kep

The delicious fried crab and Kampot pepper

Abandoned villa facing the sea

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Kep and its crabs and move on.  We made our way to Kampot.  It was a quiet place and we didn't get up to too much.  The most exciting thing that happened while we were here was finding our neighbouring guesthouse on fire. We chose our accomodation wisely I suppose.

In Sihanoukville we enjoyed more seafood on the beach and relaxed. One day, while Adam was napping, I went to the beach to have a pedicure and was accosted by a couple of young girls selling bracelets. Despite their age, I found them particularly mean and had to listen as one girl explained to me why I was without a boyfriend (clearly I had to buy some of her bracelets to remedy this problem).  When I later told the story to Adam, he laughed and said he was hassled by some very mean young girls a few years back.  A later stroll on the beach confirmed that these same two girls have apparently been terrorizing the beach for years.

Our last few days in Cambodia were spent in Phnom Penh where we walked along the riverside, scoured some markets, and visited the Tuol Sleng Museum: a high school that was converted into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.  Although the museum is incredibly depressing, we think it is important for people to see.