I spent a small amount of my time in Cambodia, a major reason I wanted to go was to see one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. My original goal was to go in a circle, Thailand to Cambodia to Vietnam, up the coast to Northern Laos, then Northern Thailand, and finally home. That didn’t work out to plan as I didn’t realize the waiting time it took for a Vietnam visa. Though only three days to wait, it still felt like too much time, as I was already trying to smush so much into a short time before heading back to school. So I decided to bypass Vietnam and go along the length of Laos instead.
I had many memorable moments in Cambodia, though short as it was. I was shocked right off with my arrival into the city of Siem Reap. Leaving the airport with my bag, I was shocked to see there weren’t hundreds of taxis and people calling for me, there was just one polite booth that spoke English well and helped me to the car and right to my hostel, no problem. I felt completely safe wandering around Siem Reap alone and was having a great time. The hostel woman introduced me to some other people there and I ended up making dinner plans with them. I realized a little late in the night that they were all Europeans so that meant a much later dinner than I was used to. We went to a great small restaurant with some amazing Cambodian food. I was starving by the time everyone was rallied to go but I really enjoyed the presence of others and we had a good night, they offered for me to go out for drinks after, but I had a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat scheduled that I really didn’t want to miss, so I said farewell and went back to the hostel.
Angkor Wat had hoards of people there for sunrise, but I understood why as it was magnificent to walk up through the grass and watch as the burning fiery ball of our sun rises in tangs of orange and yellow above the structure. It gives it an air of importance and for just a moment it feels like you can feel what the people who built it must have felt. I covered my shoulders with a purple and white shawl from my friend in Thailand and ventured into the ruins.
A large part of me wondered and was annoyed that as I stared at the many depictions of naked women carved into the ruins I was sweating heavily in long pants and wrapped in a shawl. They worshiped these women, a woman’s body was not something that was purely sexual and needed to be covered, it was beauty and art that they depicted. I was slightly angry that some people from an entirely different culture decided it was a religious and sacred sight, now women must be ashamed of their bodies and things as simple as our shoulders and knees must be covered. Especially in a place where that may not have been the case back in the culture that created this temple.
It feels so strange wandering in a place that is so old and holds so many secrets. You wonder what may have occurred there, did we have it right or wrong? What were these people like and what were they worshiping? Too many questions and all speculation as to what happened.
Other than Angkor Wat, I traveled to a small island called Koh Rong Sanloem. It has a more relaxed vibe than the party island of Koh Rong and I hoped to be able to do a bit of hiking. I stayed for three days and unfortunately was not in the right season or week as it downpoured the entire time. Much of my time was spent wading in the ocean in the rain or relaxing to the sound of raindrops plopping on the tin roof of my hostel.
I moved on from the island, where I met a couple in Sihanouville who were taking a van back to Phnom Penh, I happened to meet them on the ferry and was relieved they knew where to go as Sihanouville was a bit more populated and difficult to navigate than I expected. I went to the van area which was a sketchy old garage and asked for a ticket, at first they said they were sold out, then they came back and said yes they had room. I was happy not to wait longer or wander the strange dusty, and quite dirty (loads of garbage were everywhere) streets alone looking for another bus station.
They decided to plop a piece of wood between the two front seats of the van and I sat on that wood for the long drive. This was by far the craziest journey of my entire trip. They drove like maniacs on this two lane road across the country. The driver would speed past cars going too slow for them by turning into the oncoming traffic lane. It worked for a bit but the whole drive consisted of massive lives of cars in our lane. That meant, quite often, when oncoming cars were approaching, the driver would wait until the last minute, yank the wheel to the side, driving the van off the road and onto the dirt side of farmland.
There I am, sitting on a wooden plank in between the two front seats, clinging with white knuckles as the front ends of the cars came within inches before we veer off to face dirt farmland. The rusted out white van maintained full speed, plowing through the red-orange dirt, with the windshield wipers going full speed to clear off the kicked up dust. As soon as the lane was clear again, the driver would swerve hard back up the little hill to the road without losing any speed at all.
We passed multiple army jeeps and humvees and our driver was just swerving all between them. I continued clutching my plank of wood, getting a full frontal view of the madness that was occurring and realizing a small crash could be my death. I came up with a hopeful plan to fall backwards instead of into the windshield in the case of an accident. It definitely had my adrenaline pumping as I slowly slid off the wooden plank and stepped out in the city of Phnom Penh.
I waved to the couple as I made my way to my next hostel. From there I was able to book a tour of the S21 Museum and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It was humbling and very difficult to see and learn of the horrors the country faced through civil wars and the impact of the Vietnam War on the people here. I learned so much of the history and it gave me an appreciation for where I lived and gratitude towards the people here who survived so much. It was definitely worth visiting for those wishing to visit Cambodia, as a way to learn about an essential part of their history.
I didn’t have much time in Phnom Penh so I moved on to take a sleeper bus from there back to Siem Reap where I could catch a van to the border of Laos. It surprisingly worked out well as I hopped off the sleeper bus early in the morning and was able to catch a tuk tuk to the office area where I needed to wait. I was worried about being the only one there, but luckily as the van pulled up, it was already half full with other tourists heading to Laos. We all had a relatively uneventful ride as we slept and stared at the passing fields and forests from the window. It wasn’t until we got to the border that things became interesting. The van stopped about a mile from the border and told us we had to walk the rest of the way where there would be another van on the other side to pick us up and bring us further into Laos.
We all looked a little confused and got out into the boiling heat before filling out a small card with pens and walking ourselves to the border. For once I was really grateful to be in a group of other confused tourists. We made our way to the booth and began registering, now I’ve heard mixed reports on whether this happens or not but it ended up happening to my group. Our passports were held by the border guards until we paid up. Now I had read it was USD 5 to 7 and I didn’t care, I just figured I would pay it and move on. This time they were asking for around USD 50 which was way too much to many of us in the group who were already traveling on the cheap.
Lucky for me, some of the group were from the UK and called the embassy to handle the situation. Without them, I would’ve had to pay up since we were sitting between borders with no passports. The embassy handled it, even for me, so we got our passports back from an angry guard and basically all ran our way to Laos, where we paid the extra USD 2 bribe fee and started walking off down the road.
Luckily not too far from this border was the truck with seats in the bed that was waiting to pick us up and the adventure to Laos was underway.
