Cambodia, Week 3

Cambodia, Week 3

Friday, June 26th:
This morning we toured Tuol Sleng (aka S-21).  This was the prison that the Khmer Rouge used to interrogate and tourture prisoners.  It was a very surrealistic place.  Initially the three -story buildings were a local high school in an urban setting.  When the Khmer Rouge took over, they converted the school to a prison.  Thus, it was very disturbing to imagine that all of the horrors that took place here were right in the middle of the city (except that during the Khmer Rouge's regime they had forced everyone in the city out into the country to work in the fields, so very few people were actually left in the city of Phnom Penh).  As we walked through the buildings, we were able to see some of the cells and grizzly pictures of what they did to some of the inmates (they kept meticulous records and pictures). Fortunately, I don't think the kids fully understood what happened here.  

 

 
We then went over to the Russian Market to browse the stalls and sweat to death (the market is somewhat "indoors", in that most of it is covered under corrugated metal with no fans).  We purposely told the kids that the only exit out was through the seafood section with all of it's wonderful smells.  

Later that evening Terry and Jennifer's translator, Sareth, and his wife and daughter came over for dinner.  His daughter Thavy is a little bit older than Siena.  Thavy was not feeling well, so they did not stay long.


Saturday, June 27th:
Becky and I walked over to the National Museum to check out some of the statues and artifacts from around Cambodia.  Unfortunately you could only take pictures out in the courtyard and not inside the musuem.  Since we had already toured the temples of Angkor Wat, most of the artifacts in the museum seemed lack lustre to what we had already seen.  

We then went for a walk along the riverfront and then over to the central market.  While there Becky somehow lost her brimmed hat.  We retraced our steps, but since the market is very large with hundreds of stalls and corridors, we eventually gave up.  We then tried to look for a vendor selling hats, but couldn't find any (even though when we didn't need a hat everyone seemed to be selling one).  We decided that Becky could just wear one of the girl's hats and make do.  Suddenly, Becky spotted her hat on top of a garbage can, right as we had given up hope and were about to leave!  Thankfully people here don't have as sticky fingers as some people in other countries do!

Later that evening we took a sunset cruise on the Mekong River.  It was interesting to see all the fishermen with their live-aboard boats all lined up along the shore.  There were also dredgers sucking up sand from the riverbottom and filling up barges to expand the riverfront area.

 

Sunday, June 28th:

This morning we went to church with Terry and Jennifer out at a small branch on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.  The people were very friendly.  Their mission president, President Moon was there and talked.  Terry was also asked to give a short talk as well.  From there we drove out to the coast.  Along the way we passed through a small town's market, where Becky saw a lady selling all kinds of meat, including a whole horse leg, just in case you were in the mood for one tonight at dinner. 

 We made our way down to Kep, a small city on the coast.  We walked around the crab market and had lunch on the beach.  

In the afternoon we drove up through Bokor Mountain National Park.  The mountain rises up over 3,000 feet from the sea.  Though it is a "national park", there is a lot of commercial development at the top.  So far a huge hotel and casino have been built up there, and there are plans to build a small city.  Fortunately, this is not the land of fast developments, and at the rate they are going, everything could be done in about 30 years.  The French had set up shop here way earlier and built a small town called Bokor Hill Station about 90 years ago.  Most of the those buildings are now just remenants of gutted buildings.  One, a former hotel and casino sits perched right on the edge of a cliff with tremendous views down to the sea.  The French elite came up here to get away from the heat and humidity.  The temperature at the top was only in the 70's and fog constantly rolled in and out.  The kids loved running around inside the building.

We then drove over and looked around a buddhist wat that sat on the edge of the cliff.  With the fog rolling up off the cliff and around the pagoda and monks in orange robes walking around , it was a very peaceful place (except for those four white kids that kept playing hide and go seek in the rocks and trying to catch pollywogs in the fountain...oh wait, those are our kids). 

 

 

 

We then made the long, winding drive back down to the city of Kampot (famous for its Kampot pepper) and spent the night along the river.

 

Monday, June 29th:

This morning we drove down to Sihanoukville, which is the largest resort town in Cambodia.  We found a nice place on the beach to eat lunch and play in the ocean.  In the evening we had dinner on the beach and the kids lit some fireworks off with grandpa.

Tuesday, June 30th:
This morning we drove around Sihanoukville and checked out some of the other beaches.  We went back to Serendipity Beach and played for the day.  The kids stayed out in the water a little too long and turned a nice reddish color.  Later in the afternoon we said goodbye to Terry and Jennifer as they needed to head back to Phnom Penh.  We then took the girls out and let them try snorkeling.  They both did an awesome job.
Wednesday, July 1st: 
We caught a boat out to the Island of Koh Rong.  The boat ride was supposed to take 45 minutes, but ended up being more like and hour and a half.  The water was quite choppy and several times we got pretty wet, even sitting inside the cabin.  Fortunately, none of us got sick (though a lady sitting behind us was puking like crazy...Becky gave her several of the barf bags we kept from the plane ride).

  Once we got the island we hiked down the beach to Treehouse Bungalows resort.  This ended up being a great place for us since it is a ways down the beach and away from the noisy backpacker places down by the pier.  The resort sits in a shaded jungle area and has a large outcropping of rocks out front, which made for some decent snorkeling.  We ended up getting one of the newer bungalows for $35 a night.

The resort also has "treehouses" that you can rent.  The older ones are in pretty rough shape, but they are currently in the process of building nicer ones.

In the afternoon we went out snorkeling, but it was a little rough and we got banged up on the rocks.  For dinner, we ate at the restaurant at our resort.  It was very quiet and laid back.  When we got back to our bungalow we found out that our pillows had a putrid smell, something along the lines of the hair of a nasty backpacker that hadn't showered in months.  The next morning we asked for new pillowcases, but they smelled too.  Oh well!

Thursday, July 2nd: We went for a hike down the coast collecting shells and coral.  We tried snorkeling in a few spots, but the water was murky due to a storm that blew through the night before.  While we were playing on the beach we found a sign laying down that said "beach closed for filming until July 16".  After talking with some other Americans, we found out that they are actually filming the next two seasons of "Survivor" on the island!

Friday, July 3rd: 
The weather was actually pretty calm, so we went snorkeling in the water right in front of our bungalow.  Even though it was not deep, there was quite a bit to see.  Right as we were getting out, something stuck to Matt's arm and stung him.  we don't know what it was, but it almost looked like a tiny starfish and left a little blister mark.  

In the afternoon we rented two double sea kayaks and went kayaking up the beach.  The kids thought this was very cool, except coming back we were going against the wind.




Saturday, July 4th: 
We packed up our stuff and hiked back down to the pier.  The boat was running late, so we had to relax on the beach for a couple of hours.

The boat ride back to the mainland took a lot longer.  The water was very choppy and we could only go half speed.  Plus, we were on an older boat that was pumping out the diesel fumes.  Some of the people getting off of the boat looked like they had been working in a coal mine.  Since the water was rough, the boat had to drop us off down at the harbor, which meant we had to cram all of us and our backpacks into a tuk-tuk back into town.

We then had dinner on the beach and lit of some fireworks for  the Fourth of July.  Lots of other people we lighting off fireworks as well, so it felt somewhat like home.  Tomorrow we're off to Koh Kong and then on to Thailand.