My thoughts re Cambodia.
Climate in August. Hot and humid, daytime temps around low 30’s by afternoon seemed like 40°, frequent showers required
Obviously a third world country, still in the process of recovering from the devastation of the Pol Pot regime. Most of the professional people, in fact anyone with an education or who had been in contact with foreigners was tortured and murdered; somewhere between 20 and 25% of the population, that’s about 1.5 to 2 million people, difficult to comprehend. Also not limited to Phnom Penh as we had originally thought,this was all encouraged and supported by the Chinese communist party.
Most people seem to live pretty much a subsistence life style. The people are very friendly and helpful, most spoke some English, thank goodness, because we learned very little Cambodian, totally different language to Thai.
Small motorcycles are an essential part of life used for every purpose imaginable. From simple personal transport to towing large trailers loaded with everything they can manage to fit on them, including bricks, timber, steel, livestock (cattle, pigs etc), loads so heavy they battle to get the things moving--heaven knows how they stop. Carrying out a u turn in peak hour traffic was performed by simply finding a small gap and carrying out the manoeuvre, traffic in both directions simply stopped and gave way without complaint, amazing! Overtaking into oncoming traffic presents no problem, someone will let you in and what’s more no one gets or shows any agro. Traffic is chaotic, more so than Bangkok, no rules, millions of small motor bikes traveling on whatever side of the road that suits them as well as using foot paths if traffic is congested. Horns are used constantly, mostly to let others know you’re coming through.
We hired a very comfortable Lexus SUV with a friendly and helpful English speaking driver in Phnom Pehn for $45 a day, picked up at 8am, returned to hotel at around 4pm..The driver was very patient and met every request to visit and or stop without complaint. ,
Our second driver took us by road (about 6 hours) to Siem Reap. The country is almost dead flat, anything over 100 feet tall is referred to as a mountain, the actual roads are pretty ordinary and the near misses even in the “country” are constant. But still no agro!
Angkor Wat and surrounding temples are nothing short of spectacular, hard to believe they spent so much time and effort building these complexes then only occupied them for a few hundred years before moving on! Seems invasion and climate change may have had a lot to do with the decision; climate change was already happening 600 years ago in that part of the world.
Accommodation varied, hotels were reasonably priced, some interesting experienced, first hotel in Siem Reap required ascending 8 flights of stairs, fourth floor, we asked for a move and the following morning found ourselves back on ground level.
Coffee was surprisingly good, selection of what looked to be good venues was part of the secret, prices were reasonable.
Cambodian food is unremarkable; no cuisine of its own to speak of even Fish Amok is really only Thai green curry, beef Lok Lak pretty ordinary, thank goodness for French restaurants! There were quite a few good ones around as well as excellent bakeries also showing a strong French influence, food prices were quite reasonable.
Fresh tropical fruit everywhere , we particularly enjoyed the Pomelo, an Asian citrus, a bit like an enormous grapefruit first had it in Thailand, have never seen it here in Oz.
The spider market on the road to Siem Reap was quite an experience, couldn’t bring myself to eat a deep fried tarantula so bought a couple of Pomelo instead.
Enjoyed almost every minute, however, how can you say you enjoyed visiting memorials to those killed by the Khmer Rouge-- a sobering experience
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BBQ'd spiders, not for me.


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