Cambodia: The heavy and the happy

We did it, we crossed our first border by bike! Entering Cambodia we walked through a series of booths first on the Vietnam side, then on the Cambodian. Its great when the warning from the guide books actually help you. Again, we were ready for the usual tricks played by police or government employees. The man at the 4th booth said there was a fee for the ministry of health, 30,000 Dong. This is were Lisa comes in ‘we were told that we only had to pay for our Visas, nothing more, no more payments’. I ask, ‘Do you have a form or official receipt for this? . ‘No, okay, 20,000 Dong’, he says. ‘You have to pay unless you have your immunization cards. Ha! We promptly wiped them out. The men looked surprised and could do nothing more. Later losers! We win.
As soon as we hit that invisible line, the world changed. The roads were dirt, the buildings all hand built, with palm roofs and there was space, fields and trees and very few cars. We were in Cambodia. The road was bad, the next 20kms were gruelling but beautiful. We were invited to join a wedding procession occurring along the road but we had to keep on, as the day, and the heat, were wearing on. We were worried but luckily hit pavement at the junction and the remaining 50km were far better.

The first thing you should do when you get to a new country is learn a few words. Hello, Thank you, good bye, yes, no, are a great start. It opens doors, helps people to relax, so you appear not so alien and misunderstood, it helps people relate to you, and they appreciate it! Its also the best way to get a group of girls hilariously giggling that they almost fall off their bikes. One market women was so tickled with Lisa’s greeting she kept giving her extra food. Of course there are those other times when someone calls you a ‘Barang’ and won’t help you either, its good to know those words too ;p.

Cambodia spoke to us in so many ways, and we listened. Along the roads children would yell ‘hello’ at us and we’d respond ‘so si die’ back much to their glee. We were celebrities in this endlessly rural landscape, counting 13 ‘hellos’ in one kilometre. Cambodia spoke to us through history books, (the second thing you should do when you get to a new country), museums, temples, its people and their limbless bodies. We are taken aback by its history, recent and ancient, and how it was brought to the present. Cambodia is still so rustic and undeveloped making it a beautiful place today, but having to bare so much pain it was not worth it. Cambodia in recovery as it wakes from the war.

For Cambodia, only 30 years ago, had lost 50% of its population to auto-genocide, headed by the Kymer Rouge. A communist faction hoping to create and impose a Utopian egalitarian classless society. Removing all freedom of choice, the entire city (Phnom Pen) was emptied and city people and city things (like cars, books and pens) were labelled capitalist. In April 1975 the people were marched to the country, enslaved and re-educated with forced labour, starved and dehumanized. Country people were given special standing for being righteous and given special privilege, the soldiers were God and carried out executions in private and at will. Everyone educated was evil, even people with glasses were killed. In short, the entire country became a concentration camp and a giant social experiment. Creating a DEEPLY classed society. Everyone had to eat together, wear the same clothes and had no individual rites. Money and religion were abolished. Everything was done in the name of The Angkor (very Orwellian), individual thoughts or wants were not allowed. Rations got so bad at times as 8 people per 1 cup of rice/day. Cans of rice became the new currency which the soldiers siphoned off from rations.
I could go on and on, but its best if you read “stay alive my son” or “first they killed my father”, harrowing survivor stories, real page turners that kept me up a night.
In the end what I learned from all this is the importance of the freedom of choice. And that the urge to make everyone think like you is a bad one. We must except our differences and not force or impose ideals. Education is important for all. Ignorance kills. There is no perfect society, to err is to human, and we must be allowed to err. Easily said, but why does this horrifying stuff keep repeating itself?
In one book I read the Author writes how the beauty of the world used to torment her when the world had gone insane. I can see why. it’s the pain of the contrast. Like when we visited the killing fields. In this beautiful place among singing birds, the soft rustling of leaves and under their dappling shade is where they found the mass graves of thousands. When paranoia stuck its highest among the Kymer Rouge, they started killing everyone who may want to avenge them. A chilling place where clothes still stuck up from the soil and the beautiful trees were used to beat the babies to death on in front of their parents. There is a deep silence here, a silence of the silenced. I don’t think any ghosts wanted to stay behind.
We also visited S-21. Pol Pots prison in Phnom Pen, not far from the killing fields. Here you can walk through the 3 x 6 cells thousands were kept in, or the torture rooms where the wire beds and shackles remain. Only 7 of 16,000 men, women, children and babies survived. It was created from a school that was emptied, another painful contrast. There feeling here, gets at your spine, there are some rooms I could not stand in.
Now all this might make the UN trails against the K.Rouge a little more interesting for you, though I believe the trails recently broke down??











This temple houses the skulls of thousands from the site in their honour.












We also visisted the land mine museum. There are approximately 3-6 million landmines still buried in Cambodia. This museum/orphanage is run by an ex-Kymer Rouge child soldier who has personally remove 50,000 landmines himself- more than he had planted during the regime. Many are slowing continuing this battle.

All this being said, the feeling in Cambodia in general is a warm one. There are so many warm gentle welcoming faces here, that seem innocent and in love with life. Its hard to imagine this all happened so recently. The people have strong spirits and lots of help from the outside!
One thing we’ve noticed in Cambodia is a strong NGO presence. Every town had at least one restaurant that helped support the disabled or street kids. We frequently saw Unicef trucks or anti-landmine vehicles. Ancient pottery revival and traditional crafts to empower women. We enjoyed putting our money to work and shopping and eating at the right places!






We cycled from the border up to Phnom Pen. Our second day there, Lisa’s neighbour from work walked through the door of our hotel. We figured this must be a sign to spend a few days sight seeing together! Very uncanny!
















The scenery was consistently gorgeous with little traffic, excellent air. Lots of smiling faces to buy fruit from along the way, but we played a constant game of Good Road-Bad Road. It went from nicely paved road to dirt and rocks where occasionally we’d have to get off and walk. After our time in Phnom Pen we couldn’t get a clear indication of what was coming between there and Siem Riep (where Angkor Wat is), there was also no way of knowing is there were enough places to stay along the way, its seems only small villages for the next 300km or so. So we took a boat! Scenes alway the way included bathing water buffalo, and many tiny rural settlements like this one!



















Siem Reap was a cute canal town near the temples of Angkor, we found a really nice and cheap guest house so we happily hung out and spent 3 days exploring the ancient temples. An amazing chapter in Cambodian history, full of kings and queens, princes and peasants, Buddha and his temples. Many of the statues lost there heads during the Kymer Rouge regime but…there are still many treasures to be found in and around the temples of Angkor…





















































Beware, too many temples have inherent risks!





























A scene from a town along the way. Cradle amongst the rebar. Most cambodians have to take their children to work, or work where they live.







We were sad to leave Cambodia, but my back tire finally gave in. After an arduous ride of 102km, some bad roads, two flats, a ripped tire, and a makeshift patch, I walked my bike for the last km into town. We were forced to take a car to the nearby border of Thailand, once on the other side we trained it to Bangkok. The only place on our entire route where I could get a replacement. No more broken spokes and flats! I was elated!
Goodbye gorgeous Cambodia…hello mega city Bangkok!

Is that plastic bag moving?

We left India without a hitch, having spent 6 hours outside Mumbai airport, they’ll only let you in 3 hours before. Our flimsy bike boxes were shrink wrapped and off they went. We arrived in Singapore, having reverse culture shock, we wanted to roll around on the carpets they were so clean. Everything was orderly and shiny. If you look out the window in Singapore there’s a sterile order, eerily there’s not a speck or piece of litter on the ground, an un-lived-in feeling compared to the seething life of India. After a few hours of luxuriating we hopped the next flight to Ho Chi Minh (or Saigon); every place that’s been conquered has at least 2 names.
We were prepared, having read our travel book we went for the reputable taxi company and pre-paid a reasonable fair to the city. On the way out he handed his half of the receipt to the man at the ticket booth, who I saw dropped it. They were in cahoots. He made actions of payment, trying to suggest there was a toll, doing so with the worst fake laughter ever. I showed him my ticket, which he tried to snatch away. He took us into town, and ferociously complained like a whining spoiled child as he didn’t help us find our hotel. It was like living in a cheesy over-dubbed movie where he spoke Vietnamese and acted crazy and we acted crazy back in English. 5 minutes later we did find the hotel. Lisa made it very clear that he’d be getting no more money from us, with an evil stare and threats that needed no translation. So much so that he stopped complaining, asking or even looking at us. I knew her bodyguard talents would come in handy on this trip! Yay, she kicks butt.
Anyhow, that being our first mildly annoying experience in Vietnam, is was our last. The people have been warm, happy, kind, every taxi driver since then has been fair and taken a direct route. We’ve received offers of people wanting to buy us coffee who we meet while cycling. 4 times so far locals have shared food, given us fruit we’ve never tried, or bought us a little gift at the market. It touches us every time, we’ve learned to except, say thank you in Vietnamese, always share food with people around you and not always think you have to give something back.
Arriving here we immediately noticed the difference in air quality in Vietnam. Though it is still not great and people are conscientious enough to wear trendy breathing masks while scooting around on mopeds. And that’s what everyone does. There are hundreds of mopeds at any given intersection in Saigon. Crossing the street here is a different kind of art. It is done slowly, as the mopeds weave around you, and you make no sudden moves. Actually its quite safe when you get the hang of it and no one drives too fast.

We stayed 5 days in Saigon where we ate at vegetarian restaurants, organized our Cambodian Visas and visited the war remnants museum. It’s a good one, so much so that we both cried. In this place, the Americans were a horror. Terrorising the civilians and poisoning them for at least a decade to come. What a horrible, terrible, dreadful war and a sad mirror to look into.

Vietnam is enchanting in its own way and hits way closer to home. We only spent time in the most southern part of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta and my reflections speak only of this region. Its been easy to navigate, almost too easy. Vietnam is modern and no so at the same time. There is a large middle class and the cities, roads and hotels are spiffy. Homes range from solid walls with colourful exteriors to shacks on stilts patched together with tarps over hanging polluted water ways. Its a mix of two worlds between the cities and rural Vietnam.

Our presence does not seem so alien, we are not the subject of relentless staring in restaurants, nor does one worry about showing too much leg or do we seem so incredibly privileged like a couple of futuristic space aliens on shiny bikes rolling into a village. So things have toned down about ten degrees which is comfortable, but sometimes too comfortable.
We still do get children blowing kisses and waving ’hello’ at us and they still crowd around, like when we stopped to fix a flat. Here’s a picture of a group of kids Lisa taught to say nose, mouth, eye and bum in English, to many giggles. Then they taught her back in Vietnamese, in a chorus as she pointed to each body part. Precious, absolutely precious. If I hadn’t had so many flats and broken spokes I would say it was a blessing in disguise.




























Cycling itself has been a breeze. There’s usually a shoulder, its pancake flat, most people travel by bike or moped and the big trucks are used to 2-wheeled travellers generally giving lots of space. Besides my wheel our only major problem has been the heat. Its so very humid here, it’s a completely different ball game. We sweat buckets and have to drink buckets. I’ve constructed arm covers out of an old pant leg to stave off sunburn. By 11am the sun is grumpy-inducing so we’ve started leaving at 530am rather than 630am and max out at about 80km.
After leaving Saigon we had a few hard days of finding vegetarian food. With no help from the Lonely Planet we eventually learned that all we had to do was look for the word CHAY. Buddhists here eat 4 days out of the month as vegetarians, otherwise everything has meat in it. Once we figured it out, every town seemed to have at least one Chay restaurant and a few chay street stalls. We ate cheap cheap cheap!
The Vietnamese have a reputation for eating anything that crawls, flies or slithers. Deep fried sparrows are a speciality…I’m serious. A trip to the local market was always an experience, we saw things like water snakes and some large endangered molluscs. One morning we had bought some boiled eggs on the street for an early morning breakfast. When I cracked one open I noticed a thin reddish liquid leaking out. Ódd’I thought, continuing I found the egg was a partially formed chick, with a spinal cord, a large eye spot and a liver. ahhhhhhhhhhh! I hid the egg from Lisa, who can’t make it through the meat and game sections of the market.
If you order something any where, whether street stall, market or store, it goes in a plastic bag. We’ve done our best, to many bedazzled looks, practically fighting people off, to stop them from giving them to us. But there is little conscience about litter here. We’ve seen waitress clean tables by throwing the plastic bottles over the railing into the river. For many who live along a canal, is how you take out the garbage. No one looks twice, except us, as the ocean and the rivers have stopped washing the garbage away and chokes more and more back at them. One could make a HUGE global impact here, by getting India and SE Asia to deal with its garbage properly. Thought it’s a price of cheap progress (plastic) with no infrastructure.




EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING goes in a plastic bag. Can you guess what he's about to do? Yes...its still alive.









Along our route we hopped over on the “Super Dong ferry” to Pho Quoc Island were we stayed a week by a beach we couldn’t swim at for jellyfish and took a snorkelling trip! The first location was beautiful, the second, kind of sad for all the fishing nets that had snared the reef, it was in obvious decline, with signs of bleaching. Even the tour company decided to take a piece! We regretted not asking if the company had an environmental policy before heading out. Language barriers can be problematic at times like these.

We plan to write a few letters about this one! Luckily some areas are protected, though they do not exist in a vacuum and the reefs still battle with the effects of pollution, poaching, global warming and litter.
















I couldn’t have imagined the beauty of the reef, it was an emotional experience.












































Then...We headed for the Cambodian Border….
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Here’s a posting of our route through the Mekong delta region for interested parties:

Saigon-My Tho - 70km
May Tho-Ben Tre - 20km
Ben-Tre to Vinh Long - 80km
Vinh Long to Can Tho - 34km
Can Tho- Loung Xuyen - 65km
Loung Xuyen-Rach Gia - 80km
Rach Gia-Doung Dong, Phu Quoc Island - ferry ride plus 18km
Return as above - 18km
Rach Gia to Ha Von - 72km
Ha Von to Ha Tien - 20km

Total Days in Vietnam = 20
Total for Southern Vietnam = 477km

Finally lots of continuous riding!