My Cambodia Diary Part 3

(Sorry for the lag in posting...been darn busy...oh, Happy 2008!)

It was at Preah Khan that I bet the cute children whom I gave my 'Snap Me' button to. After we lost sight of our driver, Rachel and I ventured on our own and finally waited for him at a small coffee store at the entrance of the temple. Having awaken at 5am for the sunrise, we were famished by 11am, so we ordered stir-fried chicken and pineapple. A simple meal like this cost about $2-$3 Sing dollars...

Sophal seemed upset that we kind of 'abandoned' him in the temple...but honestly, it was much more adventurous and both Rachel and I felt more at ease without him around. He has been nice and everything, but I guess he doesn't know when to stop filming us... He constantly whipped out his handphone to take pictures and videos of us that we felt a little...violated.

After Preah Khan, we headed to Prasat Neak Peen, the reservoir, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Here's some pictures!


They have 4 sculptures at all directors, namely one of lion, a serpent, an elephant and a human. The water supposedly flows out of the mouths of the sculptures.



Now what's really cool are the works of nature we spotted there. Check out this huge tree growing around the temple. If I'm not wrong, this is Mebond Temple (provided Sophal gave me the correct spelling of the temple...heh)

We then set off to see Bre Rob Temple, which is actually a crematorium (I eavesdropped on the guide next to us). Rachel's overwhelmed by the steps we had to climb up so she rested at the bottom of the temple whilst I ventured up myself. It's basically a couple of pagoda shaped strutures which served as a crematorium. I guess after 2 days of temples, they kind of look the same... :p

Here's where we spotted lovely little Kevin! Those big round eyes charmed Rachel and me completely.


We headed for the floating village with much anticipation. We thought that it'll be similar to the floating villages we've heard so much in Thailand..but we were deeply disappointed. When we reached the dock, we had to pay USD12 for the boat. (12 for each of us, which makes the trip USD24, when initially Sophal told us was only going to be 10) We bargained a little and they claimed that as the boat has to take only 2 persons, it has to cost more. Since we've already travelled so far, it doesn't make sense to turn back. A Filipino guy who arrived shortly after us was quoted USD20 (as he's alone) and when he joined our boat, he's charged USD12 too. Well, you would think that after charging tourists such exorbitant prices, there would be much to see at the village right? See for yourself...

All we saw were run-down houses by the bank of the river and lots of beggars... and I mean lots. Those merchants with wares to sell were basically selling bananas and drinks. The poorer ones were just paddling around in tubs begging for money from tourists in passing boats. The waters were murky and there were shrubs growing around, it was virtually impossible to even see what's underneathe it. Our boatman, an elderly man who's very quiet, stopped his boat in the middle of the river (which almost looked like a big sea to me) and before we realised it, many merchants were rolling their boats up to ours and asking us to buy something. There were only 3 of us in the boat and I figured that the boatman was definitely not going anywhere if we don't buy something...so I gave in and bought a bottle of mineral water. This little girl with the snake freaked us out for a bit when she almost climbed on board...

I gave the water to the boatman who looked really appreciative and he offered to show us crocodiles for free. Yes! Finally, something's free around here :)

We saw more beggar children paddling around the souvenir shop where the crocodiles were kept. We heard someone said that the crocs were fed only once every 2 weeks... poor crocodiles. One little girl of about three-four had red hair and Caucasian looks, and I really felt bad about not buying stuffs from her. She too, had a snake around her neck and she cried when we left. I wasn't quick enough to take a picture of her..wish I had though, 'cos she's really beautiful.

What really angered me and Rachel was that after charging tourists so much money to visit this place, the authorities are not doing anything to improve it. I'm not angry that I felt ripped off, but angry that the huge amount of money is not going anywhere in helping to improve the lifes of the people.


Sophal drove us to this quaint little home restaurant where we experienced their local culture in a way. We were seated on this straw mats with hammocks to lie down on (if we wanted to) and restaurant is perched on wooden stilts above the waters. Sophal ordered chicken steamboat and the rice was free-flow. The soup tasted very much like our salted-vegetable with duck soup, except that there's hardly any meat in it...but plenty of chicken bones. But we're not complaining.. it costs only about USD 5 or so for 3 persons. They even had a karaoke system there which the locals would come and sing during weekends. I also took pictures of the kids of the owner.



By 4pm, we were bushed and we really didn't want to see anymore temples for the day, so Sophal recommended a cultural village or the war museum. Of course we chose the war museum! The entrance cost us USD3 each but it gave us an insight of the lives of Cambodians who've suffered because of the war.

The guide service was complimentary and our guide was this ex-soldier who've lost his eye and leg during the war. Several times, he mentioned about the death of his wife who was killed by a landmine in 2002. It really broke my heart to see how he had to suffer because of the greed and foolishness of mankind.




Apart from machineries used during the war, there were also pictures of victims of landmines. Some were as young as 4-5 and they've already lost their limbs. Rachel mentioned that after returning to Singapore, her hairstylist actually said that we shouldn't pity some of the victims as they were only there to dig out landmines to sell, and thus, resulting in their misfortunes. In other words, they had only themselves to blame. I totally disagree. Poverty makes people do things that they can't control. If stealing landmines can feed your starving family, I'd do it too, even if it means risking my life. Our guide (I wrote his name somewhere..and now I can't find it:( ) also has a daughter, who is about 7 or so. He mentioned that he has only just learnt English to do this job but he has to leave soon as his failing eyesight in the other eye is giving him a lot of problem. As a token of appreciation, both me and Rachel gave me USD1 each.

Sophal drove us back to the guesthouse where we took a short rest and headed to Dead Fish Tower. It's actually a very cool restaurant with live-band performance. An open-concept restaurant and when I say 'open', I really mean 'open'. There's no walls around it and waiters take your orders and slide it down this fishing line. They too, had a crocodile in the restaurant, but it hardly moved, and Rachel kept thinking it's a fake one. After a meal of grilled eel with rice and lemonade, we ventured around the market place for a while longer before settling for dessert at Blue Pumpkin.





There ya go! End of Day 2!