My Cambodian Diary Part 3

Day 3

Today's officially our last day to sightseeing in Cambodia. We woke up relatively later and had breakfast. I had banana pancake with baguette, which is one of the common foods around there. Think I heard someone mentioned before that it's because Cambodia was under French ruling for a while...


Anyway, a simple breakfast like this is about USD2. After breakfast, we were on our way to Banteay Srei. It has very elaborate carvings and it looked distinctively different from the other temples we've visited. The walls are much redder and the carvings, I feel, though elaborate, seems harsher. (I did a search on wikipedia.org and it's because the buildings are made of red sandstones that can be carved like wood...oooo)

Here's the pictures to judge for yourself :)

What happens afterwards is going to be one of the most memorable period in my life.

Sophal stopped by the side of the road for us to buy some local produce. It's actually palm tree candy and the palm trees grow outside the houses of the occupants. We were just trying out the candies and there I go again, giving out my own candies to the kids, when I noticed this little boy with a wound on his foot.
His mom said that he had a fall but it looked more like he was ran over by something. The wound was so big that there was a gaping hole in it. Any child in Singapore would've been wailing in pain by then, but this little boy of 4, was just peddling around in his bicycle. The mom said that she didn't have any money to bring him to the hospital so me and Rachel gave her some money each. Their house was for 7 people and it was very small, about the size of one-and-a-half parking lots, and needless to say, it was sparsely furnished.

After buying the candies, we were getting ready to head off to some other place but there was this nagging feeling in my heart. Whilst on the Tuk-tuk, I turned to ask Rachel how much does she think seeing a doctor would cost there. We then decided to turn around and bring him to the hospital. Sophal was very glad we did that. When we went back, his aunt was shocked to see us, and we found the little boy, playing in a swamp at the back of his house...

We told the Mother our intentions and she came along with us to bring him to the hospital. Sophal said the hotel actually called to say that we would need to pay extra for that, but we really couldn't be bothered.

Throughout the ride, the boy was very quiet and well-behaved. He only let out a shriek of delight when he saw cardboard cut-outs of animals along the road. Villagers who saw us bringing him to the hospital also smiled and waved to us. Suddenly, I was doing an 'Angelina Jolie' there. Hahaha...

At the hospital, which looked more like a clinic, the boy was very quiet when the doctor applied medication for him. He didn't even whinced when iodine was poured to the wound. He only cried when the doctor gave him an injection. And even then, he stopped when his Mom told him not to cry. I haven't seen such a well-behaved kid in ages.

The little girl in the picture is his cousin. Her name Taa, which means 'Gold'.

I gave out some more candies to the children at the clinic and they too, returned my kindness by offering me their food, which was actually charred corn.

The doctor bandaged his foot up and it cost only USD10. Whilst on the way back to his home, he actually feel asleep on my shoulder. :)

After bidding the family farewell, we stopped over to have lunch at this restaurant. And it was there that I kind of 'confronted' Sophal. You see, we had to pay him a fee for the days he drove us around and the rates were already stated by the guesthouse. I never read anywhere before that we had to top up for petrol or for the driver's food. However, during the course of 3 days, we have been paying his petrol (which ranges from USD1 to USD4) and his meals. At one of the kiosks, I actually witnessed another driver paying his own petrol.

While Sophal was dining with us, I actually asked him if he had been lying to us. He was flustered, and looked guilty and tried to cover up by saying that we're nice people, and that there were nasty people around who didn't care about the welfares of the drivers. He even said that he once had a passenger from USA who tipped him USD40 but there were also others who didn't tipped him at all.

I was angry at him honestly. Yes, he was just trying to earn that little bit extra but I felt that he could've been honest with us. I actually said that we may not be rich, but if he had been honest with us, we could have given him a bigger tip. However, after this incident, I highly doubt we'll tip him much. He apologised profusely but I guess the damage had been done.

I actually felt guilty for scolding him afterwards and Rachel thought I was too gung-ho by reprimanding him in his own country... I could've been dragged and killed in some corner ya? But I think that no matter what, despite the poverty and all, we should have integrity right? (Ok, despite me mentioning about willing to steal landmines to feed my family...I still think he shouldn't have lied la!)

On our way back, I took a picture of this young boy who was trying to sell us his postcards. I gave him a pen and look at the smile on his face. So charming hor?

We asked Sophal to drop us off at the market place so we can venture on by ourselves. He still seemed very upset after the prep-talk I gave him, but we just paid him the amount (we only tipped him USD5) and walked off by ourselves. At the market place, we spotted many stalls selling books, like Lonely Planet for USD5. Earlier on at Bantaey Srei, we bought a book for USD9, and when the boy turned around with his earnings, he was beaming and cheering. Rachel simply said, "I think he must've earned a lot from us."

Anyway, we walked around their market place hoping to buy some stuffs back, but all we could find were scarves. Some owners were nicer but there were a few, who probably were sick of tourists, were extremely rude. Like there was one who wanted to sell us one scarf for USD5 and when I expressed surprise at the price, she merely muttered "If too expensive, nothing for you to see here already."

I thought that was very foolish of her. Please...the whole market sells scarves, if you're going to be rude, what makes you think I'd buy from you!? Anyway, we bought a couple of scarves from another seller and also walked around their wet market. It's a very interesting experience actually...almost like visiting Singapore's wet market in 1970s. We chanced upon this manicure salon and had our manicures + pedicures done there for USD3! The manicurists are like experts and are so skillful I even took a video of them doing the manicure and pedicures for us.

Afterwards, we walked around and settled down at this Bubble Tea cafe. They sells vintage dresses upstairs and I bought one for USD5, whilst Rachel bought a bag. We even ordered cheese fries (SINFUL) and wanton soup, complete with bubble teas and a game of 'JINGA'.

End of Day 3! Going home tomorrow!