Cambodia is a country of richies and pain, a culture who more than a generation after the Khmer Rouge, the killing fields and Pol Pot Cambodia is still a country of vast contradictions. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Cambodia and only saw brief glimpses into its tortured soul but what I found is that her people are resilient. Even though they have been through horror they are lookimg forward not wallowing in their past, the scars are still present but they are less a reminder of the dark and instead show how far the Khmer people have come with their cultural spirit intact.
They have been through the crucible and made it out of the other side. Her intellectual riches cut at the knees but what they are capable of still stands as Ankor Wat and the temples that surround her show the best of what the Khmer are capable of achieving.
When I left Thailand I took a bus destined for the Casino wasteland that hover on the border. Right on the border are a wide swath of Casinos that call to Thai’s who seek the edge and thrill that gambling provides but that Thailand disallows.
The casino bus leaves at 7 am everyday from Lumphini Park taking intrwpid gamblers so that the house can releive them of their hard earned BAHT. It is way cheaper than any of the other options I found in Khaosan road which ranged from 1000 baht to 1600 baht.
The bus cost 200 baht and took 3-4 hours and once across the border you had to find your own way to whatever destination you were heading to. Me and Maddie who was also traveling to cambodia took a shares taxi for a total of 700 baht to the city of Battambang.
This city wa devoid of the usual tourist trappings and was completely local in its feel and ambience. It is home to the bat cave where nightly a stream of millioms of bats but on a show that only nature could provide. Between 4 and 5 pm the bats stream out of their cliff bound cave to feed on the morsels in the sky. It ends up looking like a thread spreading outward from its spool.
We went to the killing cave that brought death to many and drips what was a cave carved wat into a sorrow stained hole. Battambang seems less like a city and more like a large town. It feels smaller than its population suggests. It sits on a river and there is no building higher than 4 or 5 stories.
We stayed at the Royal Hotel but all the hotels I saw had the same look and same signs except for the names. It reminded me of sim city like someone just copied and pasted the exterior of all the hotels for each one.
There are a few temples and even a Pepsi bottling plant that still feels as if its frozen in time. Left in the rise of of the Khmer Rouge and left as a memory of what was and a potential still not yet fully realized today. We took a cooking class from the chef of the Smoking Pot in Battambang. The chef brougjmht us to the local market where we bought ingredients and got to cook 2 dishes.
Beyond learning a bit of their culinary history my favorite part was taking to the owner who revealled he prefers the cooking class to the restaurant. I think because he can interact with his students it makes it more personal and engaging for him. The cooking class was $10 and well worth it. We started at 10 am but he usually starts a bit earlier. At the end of the class we were given a cook book with local Khmer recipes ready for creation by those willing to give it a try.
The next day we said goodbye to Battambang and began to make our way to Siem Reap and Cambodia’s cultural magna opus that is Aknor, not just Aknor What but its fields of temples and projects that defined the Khmer people before its golden age receded from global memory.
We were traveling in the heart of rainy season where the river flooding makes it possible to go from Battambang to Siem Reap by boat via a long 6 hour boat ride that goes through a narrow twisting river that empties into a flooded lake and passes through the many floating villages that dot the river’s edge and the lake’s shore.
That was my introduction to Cambodia ans her people, Siem Reap would bring in a new texture. A tourist trap to rival any in the region made for westerners and full of beggers, merchants and bars for all your needs.
Cambodia works on a 2 currency system where prices are quoted in $ and change given in a mix of $ and riel. 1 USD is 4000 riel with 1000 riel being equivalent to .25 cents. While accomdation is cheaper than you would find in Thailand food is more expensive in part because it is priced in dollars. I found this meant I didn’t have as much eoom to maneuver on price because a lot of goods were priced .50 cents or 1 dollar or more.
Its just something you should be mindful of when budgeting for Cambodia. So next I’ll get into Aknor and the mysteries within its long silent walls.
NOTE – This post is s bit rough cause I’m doing it on my phone but I will add links and do some much needed editing when I can get to a computer.