Culture Shock!!!! Cambodia's Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

All aboard!!! The 29th of January we left a scorching Saigon and set out for Cambodia. I hadn't heard anything about Cambodia and didn't really know what to expect. On the bus we paid for our Cambodian visa which cost 25 usd. Cambodia uses a combination of USA dollars and their native riel as currency. As we had seven weeks planned for the South East Asia segment of our trip we decided we would stay five days in total in Cambodia. The first city we visited was Phnom Penh. Here we stayed in a place called Me Mates Place. (That really was it's name). It was a nice hostel with great storage space. It also had free wifi (like most hostels in South East Asia) and a bar which did have lovely food and drink.
In all honesty the hostel was one of the few things that impressed me in Phnom Penh. The first night we went out on the town and it was an experience to say the least.  The streets were full of older western men holding on to young Cambodian girls and women. We were horrified. We said we'd give the place a chance though and went to Pontoon night club. We are all serious dancers and it would be a woeful shame to deny the locals the honour of seeing us show off our moves on the dance floor. LOL. The seven of us stuck extra tight to each other that night. I must say it was one of the few times I felt a "tad" unsafe on the whole trip. I won't be socialising in Phnom Penh again. I'm afraid they'll have to forget about my dance moves!! Sorry guys.

A beautiful little coffee shop in Phnom Penh

We spent two nights in Phnom Penh before heading to Siem Reap. This was a 4 hour bus journey. As I have mentioned in my previous post we were travelling this part of the world during the Chinese New year celebrations. On arrival in Siem Reap we got a tuck tuck (a three wheeler 'baby' taxi) to our accommodation. They had double booked us. We were ripping!!!! Purely for the fact it was the Chinese New year and we had struggled finding this place in the first place. The people were very unhelpful and we were given the usual "I'm sorry this has happened but there's nothing we can do" speech. In other words tough luck go sort yourselves out.

Siem Reap river

We literally spent the best part of 3 hours driving around Siem Reap in two tuck tucks to with no joy. Genuinely there was a possibility that we would have had to stay on the streets for the night and considering our experience in Phnom Penh this didn't really appeal to us. Some how by the grace of God we stumbled on a place. Not just any place. A five star hotel. This was an unexpected surprise. It was 70 euro for the night and that's not usually in a backpackers budget but one must treat themselves from time to time. In this case we had to indulge and I didn't feel bad about it because none of us fancied a night on the streets!!! We made the most of the experience and had one of the nicest meals of the trip. Starter, main, dessert equals happy Maria. It was yum!! The next day was about relaxation. The girls spent most of the day in the pool while I was delighted to use the well air conditioned gym. It was a well needed work out after gaining a few holiday pounds!!

Siem Reap is famous for a place called Angkor Wat. It is a buddhist temple complex and is the largest religious monument in the world. Most backpackers will visit this historical location whilst in Siem Reap. It is famous for it's beautiful sunrises and large crowds gather each morning to witness this. We left our hotel at 5am. They charge 20usd to enter the park. Angkor Wat is also renowned for being one of the locations used in the 2001 hit movie Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.There are wild monkeys roaming around this place so keep your wits about you if you decide to go. They looked pretty aggressive and one actually jumped on a lady when she made advances towards him. The monkey must have felt threatened. Monkey see monkey do!!

Angelina Jolie starring as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider

Many backpackers like to go to orphanages whilst travelling. I for one struggled with the ethics of it and decided not to go. Each to their own but I felt it wasn't right for me. We took a boat ride down the river one evening driven by a Cambodian native. Initially we thought he was a lovely fellow. We passed an orphanage and he tried to get us to agree to buy a bag of rice for the orphanage. We had heard through the grapevine that this was a scam and that the rice does not go to the orphans in fact it goes to the people selling it. He suddenly turned on us and launched a verbal attack on us. Basically saying that us westerners have 'loads' of money and you think we would be a bit more generous. HELLO!! We are backpackers on a budget. Jog on.

A bar in Pub Street Siem Reap

On our final day some of us went to the killing fields memorial site. The one we went to was a tribute. The most popular tourist one is in Phnom Penh but we were not aware of this until later on. Apparently there are over 200 killing fields scattered throughout Cambodia. Cambodia's history is very sad. 1.7 million people lost their lives during the communist Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. These people were tortured and butchered to death in the most horrendous ways possible. This figure rises to 3 million when you include those who died from starvation. That Sunday was a very heavy day.

After the killing fields we went into Siem Reap's pub street. It had some really nice restaurants and happening bars. We could have probably done with another night there to rate it's night life adequately. Having said that Cambodia taught me a few valuable lessons. I now cherish the western world we live in. The corruption in Cambodia is brutal and no human race should have to endure what these people have. Research where you're travelling before you go. Don't end up feeling ill at ease in a night club like we did if at all avoidable. Double, triple and quadruple check that your accommodation is securely booked before you land in to a Cambodian city right smack bang in the middle of the Chinese new year celebrations.

See ya later Cambodia. It's time to party and back to Thailand we go. Time for a Facebook check in: Bangkok bound!!! Travelling to Bangkok Thailand with Catherine Loughran and 5 others at departures lounge Siem Reap, Cambodia.

xoxo