Holiday in Cambodia

Cambodia is the bomb, both figuratively and literally, as the country is littered with land-mines and you meet many people there who have been seriously injured by them. Nonetheless, the place is great. We especially liked Siem Reap. It didn't look all that great to begin with though. We had a pleasant enough flight from Singapore and the immigration people kindly arranged visas for us on arrival. The tuktuk trip from the airport to our hotel was very enjoyable and the hotel itself was cute and clean and had adorable sheets with pictures of gnomes on them.
But then our troubles began. We were unable to pay our hotel bill, as our credit cards weren't working. As we had no Cambodian money, we went on a mission to find an ATM and extract some funds. We were very successful in that we found a total of 6 ATMs but unfortunately, none of them were willing to spit out any money for us. After a while we began to feel despair, worry and dehydration creeping in. It was, after all 38 degrees and sunny and we didn't even have change for some water. We also got a bit lost. I didn't ejoy it one little bit! In the end, we went back to the hotel and broke out our emergency dollars. Whoohoo! Suddenly, everything was good again. We didn't even have to find a money changer, as dollars are as freely accepted in Cambodia as the Cambodian Riel. We took to the streets of Siem Reap brandishing our funds and suddenly it was a completely different place. The hot, dusty, crowded little town had transformed into a buzy and inviting haven, filled with appealing bars and restaurants. We lost no time in finding the best coffee in town (Angelina's Cafe - they also do a terrific Swiss breakfast), and then moving on to beer at the Central Cafe with great pavement seating where you can watch the world whizz by on a moped, carrying all it's belongings.
After that, we were entranced. The town is small and easy to navigate. The people are friendly and charming. The food, oh the food, is abundant, varied and always tasty. Siem Reap is worth visitnig just for the cafes and restaurants alone. But of course, that is not why people flock there.
It's all about the temples. And what temples they are! We took two days to explore just the closest and most famous ones. There was Angkor Wat itself, huge, massive, grand and impressive with endless stone carvings of battles fought and won by the Khmers in ancient times. And Angkor Thom! With the Bayon, covered in gigantic faces and the Elephant terrace and the terrace of the Leper King. Not to mention Ta Prohm, overgrown with giant trees and seen by many in the first Lara Croft film. All these magical and amazing places we saw on our first day. On the second day, we ventured further afield. After an hour and a half racing through the Cambodian countryside we came to Kbal Spean. Well, almost - we had to trek through the jungle for half an hour to get to the actual site (luckily it was not as muddy or leech infested as the Borenean jungle). Kbal Spean is a groovy and slightly naughty sacred place. In essence, it is a riverbed that hundreds of Lingas (phalluses) have been carved into. Very cool, very penisy! On the way back to town we stopped at Banteay Srey, the temple of women. It was designed, built and carved exclusively by women. It is smaller than many of the other temples, but most beautiful and richly engraved. It is also pink!
Yes, the temples were amazing! When you go to Siem Reap to see them, just remember to get breakfast at Angelina's Cafe (we're talking baguettes, croissants, ham, salami and gruyere - bliss after a week of noodles or overcooked eggs for breakfast) and dinner at the Red Piano. Hulda's Spaghetti Marinara was crazy tasty and my fusion coconut chicken carbonara was as sublime as it was unusual. I am definately going to try to recreate it when I get home! You can also get great Maxican food there, and yummy salads and anything you could ever wish for. Oh, Siem Reap, surprizing culinary Mecca and deliverer of so many of my food-based desires. (And of course, when travelling, food becomes of utmost importance and concern, along with toilets!)
From Siem Reap, we took the boat to Phnom Penh. We sailed down the river for a while in a rickety little boat and then tranferred to a bigger speed boat once we reached Tonle Sap, Asia's biggest freshwater lake. We sped past water villages, crocodile farms and even a floating basketball court while sunning ouselves on the deck and cooling off in the breeze. It was a most delightful six hour journey. When we got to the capital, we were floored by the intense heat and the size of it compared to little Siem Reap. We caught a tuktuk to our hotel, a lovely converted colonial house and collapsed for a bit in our air-conditioned room. Despite only staying in Phnom Penh for 24 hours, we managed to see the two places we were most interested in, Tuol Sleng - grim and the Silver Pagoda - shiny! Tuol Sleng is a former school that was transformed into a prison and ''interrogation centre'' during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Thousands of people were held captive there, tortured and killed. It is a horrible place, made all the more poignant by the fact that these things took place such a short time ago. The Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh in 1975, the year of my birth. There I discovered that Pol Pot, a man who must be in the top the list of most hideous and cruel people of the 20th century, was 50 years older than me, to the day. I must admit that I am none too pleased to share a birthday with such a person.
The Silver Pagoda was a much more pleasant place to visit. It is situated in the gardens of the Royal Palace and while it is not actually made of silver, it's floor is! It is stuffed with treasures, including a life-sized Buddha encrusted with over 2000 diamonds, the biggest a whopping 6 carats! My two favorite things in there were a lovely, although slightly out of place, French Art Nouveu mirror and the Emerald Buddha. He looked so lovely and minty fresh, I just wanted to lick him! Unfortunately, he was sitting on a 3 meter high gold platform.
After the delights and shinyness of the Silver Pagoda, we caught a Mekong Limousine bus to Ho Chi Minh City - or Saigon, as everyone stills calls it. It was a most pleasant bus trip. The bus was almost empty so we could spread out and we were provided with not unpleasant baked goods as snacks. The bus stopped smack dab in the centre of Saigon, just a hop, skip and jump away from our hotel. Perfection! And that was the end of our holiday in Cambodia.