Waking up, Flo felt like having a cold coming on. Given that we had booked our 10 hour elephant experience for tomorrow, I wanted him to rest in bed rather than visit a waterfall. Said waterfall had turned into a tourist attraction anyway with the zipline company advertising a spectacular line over the waterfall. That might have been fun but was too expensive for us with US$70 per person.
So instead, we had a very slow day at the Happy Elephant Bungalows. Flo spent most of it in bed, as requested, while I sat on the terrace/dining area in the afternoon to enjoy a breeze and some jungle views. I also tried the hammock in front of our own bungalow but while it was only at an ok comfort level, I got insect bites all over my back and so abandoned it again pretty soon.
We literally only went out for lunch which seemed to be very exhausting for Flo already and had an underwhelming dinner at our guest house before going to bed early.
deflated in bed in our spartan little cabin.
In lieu of proper photos of the place – have this. I was sick, after all!
Hanging out at the “restaurant” for a little while.
our little box, with the boardwalk leading there. Everyting swayed a bit.
The silver dolphin statue of our Silver Dolphin guesthouse. Didn’t I say they look like mini pot whales?
Leaving Kratie behind feels a lot like leaving the more “developed” part of Cambodia behind. As with the little shortcut we took to get here, the road leading east to the provincial capital of Sen Monorom was all but deserted. For the first half, still in the low lands, it was an almost exact copy: Very little traffic, small patches of settlement with mostly wooden buildings. But there was something else, something very subtle at first.
The ground got ever so slowly uneven – compared to the vast flatness of the lowlands. The occasional turn sneaked its way into the otherwise endlessly straight black ribbon. It really took off when we re-joined the southern road, following the Khmer-Vietnam border at a distance of about 50 km.
But before that, we hit one of those strange places you find on the wayside of all countries. At first, without proper context, we thought it was rather pretty. A monument clad in black marble, sitting on its island of red earth amidst the suddenly green bush all around. We stopped, took some photos and then I decided to go up to find out a bit more. I am still not 100% sure what this monument commemorates, but it was obviously not the appropriate place for happy selfies. The concrete murals at the base show the suffering of the Khmer people at the hands of Angkar and then some soldiers coming to liberate the people. I think. Definitively more “lest we forget” than “Remember that fun old King”.
That almost looks like jungle!
From here on, the environment changed rather drastically. The ground rose and the road became one of the most enjoyable rides on our trip so far. Long twists and turns through a green jungle on the slopes, then cool and otherworldly up on the plateau. Plus, virtually no traffic. Brilliant!
We made really good progress and decided to stop a bit before lunch time and only 40 km before our guesthouse. We actually only thought of having a drink of water, but got gently persuaded to have some lunch as well. When my weak defense of “we only eat vegetarian” got turned around on me and the lady of the lot produced fresh veggies with a friendly nod, we decided to stay. What a brilliant little coincidence again.
Local girl bottle feeding her pet monkey
The food was really good, plus our hosts were lovely and even commanded a bit of English. Enough to once again surprise them with our age and the fact that we still have no kids. She had a little boy and was looking after her sister’s daughter, because both her parents had gone to Phnom Penh to earn a living. The little girl had adopted a baby monkey and was nursing him with a bottle of milk. These tiny glimpses into other peoples’ lives are half what keeps us going. There are no easy categories – no lazy brown people here. Complex humans with lives that we sometimes can not understand at all.
Our guesthouse in Sen Monorom turned out to be the rustic kind we like, but lacking the hipster twist. It could be amazing, but for now it has to resign itself to being very affordable. After a very adventurous ride on their driveway and lugging our 50 kg of luggage another 20m downhill on a rickety wooden gangway, we settled into our bungalow for the next 3 nights. A bed, one light, no visible insects – $5 US a night.
To round off the day we walked into town to check how long it would take us to get to the pick up for the Elephant Valley Project the day after tomorrow. The answer turned out to be 15 minutes, so we grabbed a coffee / tea at the project’s little cafe before heading across the street for our dinner in the lonely planet recommended guesthouse.
A French traveller we met, riding a Cambodian bike (with a Cambodian helmet…)
The silver dolphin statue of our Silver Dolphin guesthouse. Didn’t I say they look like mini pot whales?
No one seems to be going east…even though it is getting greener
Suddenly, there was this giant monument next to the road
Pulling up at the steps to check it out
Atrocities by the Khmer Rouge would be my guess
Amazing contrast between the red earth and the green
That almost looks like jungle!
Local girl bottle feeding her pet monkey
Lovely people running a roadside eatery
Approaching some hills
The drain had been
Riding down the drive way
A strip of concrete in the middle meant no stopping is possible with the bike. Flo couldn’t reach the ground.
An abundance of benches along the main road
One of the commonly spotted rubbish bins made out of lorry tyres
Today was our full day in Kratie. Travelling slowly means you get a bit more time in each place which is actually very cool at the moment. After breakfast, with the temperatures rising to another hot day, I pushed for a visit in Kampi.
Kampi is about 15km north of Kratie but there is almost no tourist infrastructure there so everyone needs to stay in Kratie. But Kampi is interesting because at its location next to the rapids in the Mekong River. Tiny rapids, however, they seem to have the side effect that dolphins like to hang out around there. Yes, around here, there are freshwater dolphins here. Theoretically. The Lonely Planet states that there are under 100 left so that seemed like there is only a small chance of actually seeing one. I wanted to try anyway.
the boat and the small sandbanks in the river.
We took Rocinante out and found the place soon enough. It is quite well organised. For US$9 per person, Flo and I got a fisher boat with a driver for ourselves and off we went onto the river. While we still looked around the rapids and islands, I saw the first dolphin jumping out of the water. It took me by surprise that a minute in, I would see the first dolphin. Also, they look quite funny with a bulbous head…like a mini version of a pot whale.
From here on, we paid close attention. Our driver who stood in the back of the boat would also try to spot more dolphins and then point them out to us. We saw many, including at least four of them swimming and playing together, but it’s really hard to take any good pictures.
The Mekong still has its usual brown grey colour here but if you look into the water, you can see quite a lot of smaller fish swimming around. Our driver also kept an eye on the rubbish level in this section and asked us to fish out a blue plastic bag that was floating around at one point.
The best shot we got … not too shabby, I’d say.
After an hour, the trip was over. We had seen so many dolphins! Walking back to the bike, it was incredibly hot. Well, it was noon by now. Shortly before we reached it, a minibus exploded next to it and spew forth at least 20 local tourists who all gathered around the big bike. It was so funny that I took a picture.
Flo, then, had the idea to visit a temple on the way back. In theory, I was all for it but when I saw the 500 steps that we had to climb in the heat, my enthusiasm dwindled. Anyhow, we made it to the top of the hill, next to the temple where I, once more, got upset with tourists. Before you tackle the last flight of stairs, there is a note on how to behave and please, do not disturb the monks. Thus, please keep silent. But no, people on the top were chatting away quite happily. Cultural insensitivity, anyone?
booze with views
Back in the guest house, I looked up online what the temperature in Kratie was supposed to be today. Flo remained stubborn that it is “around 30 degrees, as always” which I couldn’t believe because it was so hot. Turns out that it was 37 degrees. That was the excuse we needed to just chill for the rest of the afternoon. 🙂
Only when we realized that the sun was about to set, did we leave the guest house again. It was still so hot that a simple stroll to the riverfront resulted in sweating. Here, I convinced Flo that we should sit down in the fancy as “Jasmine Boat” restaurant, have a cocktail and simply enjoy the view. Which we did. It was enjoyable. We ended up having nice neighbours (once again that the best Americans are to be met outside of the USA) to chat with and then had Khmer food, which wasn’t even that expensive here.
A promenade runs along Kratie’s riverfront.
Obviously not sea sick
We opted not to do the kayaking thing – too hot!
the boat and the small sandbanks in the river.
First one caught on camera.
The best shot we got … not too shabby, I’d say.
There must be an easier way to steer …
These are not all people coming out of that one van.
This is half way up the first flight.
Wrong steps, there were the living quarters.
statue at the top
The view was pretty good, although with trees in the way
Not sure, but there were a lot of monk statues following a snake lady
The river took a bite out of the road – this is the first bit of major un-repaired damage in all of Cambodia.
Cambodia = epic sunsets
Little boats ferrying the tourists over to the sandbank
booze with views
I guess this would look epic with a tele-converter
Today, we made it almost all the way off the main tourist trail and poked our noses into rural Cambodia. The ride from Kampong Cham to Kratie was pretty short, only 130 km. We decided to take a bit of a back road – the lowest category that is still sealed. The turn off came about 40 km in. There was almost no traffic on this road, a real plus, and we finally saw the return of turns. On the other hand, for the first time really (other than the dirt roads) we also saw the return of potholes.
Other road users…
The houses here are simpler, a good bunch of them still traditional wood – all built on stilts and many with carved stairwells leading up to the first floor. Oh, and a brief return of mosques. The minority of the Cham practice a local variety of Sunni Islam.
Hitting the Mekong once more (there will be many more times traveling up Laos) instilled us with awe once more. The Mekong is truly mighty, even in the dry. It almost feels like an elongated lake rather than a flowing water. A short while later we checked in to our guest house – with river views, of course. The room was huge and still quite cheap. The only downside was that we had to lug all our stuff up three flights of stairs all the way to the “rooftop”.
Lazy and still a bit cooked from the road, we gave the guesthouse lunch a try. Which was – moderately edible. The oddest thing of all, though, was that we both had to change our order after half an hour because they apparently ran out of rice. To be honest, I would not have thought that possible to happen in a country where “eating” literally translates to “eating rice”.
I like that the river fronts are still accessible for the public. Best sunset spots ever
Later that night we went out to enjoy another majestic river sunset. The red orb sank right at the opposite side of the river and we had front row seats on the city’s long promenade. We went to one of the lonely planet recommendations for dinner, but for once it was rather forgettable and we hurried back to the guesthouse. With a last beer / Baileys on the rocks, we finished up a blog entry and retreated to our room. Not much, really, but a nice and well rounded day on the road.
Crossing the Mekong in the morning. Our hotel was the one next to the tower 😉
The Old French lighthouse on the other side of the Mekong
Exchange trucks for potholes
Detour over dirt. The normal road was a construction site
The detour had some interesting bridges like this wooden one
Other road users…
Lovely rural scenes left and right
Sunset over the Mekong
I like that the river fronts are still accessible for the public. Best sunset spots ever
Gym class on the footpath. All you need are speakers with really loud music and an enthusiastic crowd
Crossing the first of the two great rivers in Phnom Penh
Time to get moving again. After two days in Kampot, we now looked northwards…and to the East. Distances are not too great but since 80 kmh is the fastest we usually can go, it still takes time. For now, we ended our stint to the South and went back up again. Not wanting to end up in Phnom Penh for the night, we had set our eyes to Kampong Cham instead.
It was a good day for riding even if the weather is back up to over 30 degrees. Most days are okay as long as you are in the shade but riding on the roads, perpetually having the sun shine on your helmet makes you heat exhausted and drowsy quite quickly. So we stop for water breaks every now and then. Though Cambodia doesn’t have the always convenient warungs of Indonesia, it has small, garage-sized shops everywhere along the roads. These shops sell everything you might lack: From cold drinks to soaps and shampoo, a pen, some cookies, you get the jest. They all have an ice box (often literally) outside; the fancier ones sell ice cream, the more regular ones just cooled drinks.
Almost there, but the fatigue has hit pretty hard.
So after an hour, we stopped at one of these and bought two bottles of cool water. The owner made some chair appear for us in the shade, so we plopped down and downed our water. Since this is also the “break from the bike” time, we hung around. So the owner came to talk to us. His English was really good and he was very interested in what we had seen so far in Cambodia and where we still planned to go. It always makes people happy when they realize you are actually interested in seeing their country and are not just stopping at Angkor Wat before being lorried out to Laos. He recommended the East to us again and said people are even more friendly there. When we asked him about his English, it turned out that he had worked with an NGO, had to speak English all day while helping former drug addicts. But now he’s more of a businessman and advocate for Cambodia.
We left him to continue our journey but stopped in Phnom Penh for lunch, then continued. It took us until 4.30pm to arrive at the Mekong Hotel. There, the most amusing thing was the security guard, trying to help us carry in our luggage. The panniers are too heavy for most but he still tried without complaint, although the 40 kg obviously nearly broke him. Dinner was had in another training restaurant with lovely staff. It was yummy, even though it was out of its signature black pepper squid dish, to Flo’s dismay.
Crossing the first of the two great rivers in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the one capital we came through that still feels less developed.
On a rural road in eastern Cambodia
Almost there, but the fatigue has hit pretty hard.
Hard to see, but see the IV on the scooter – not the first time we’ve seen this,
Dragged ourselves out in our “sleeping” cotton shirts 🙂
We had planned to go on a little ride-out to find a lookout and hill station in the Bokor National Park. But once we had taken our breakfast at our still lovely guesthouse (we had decided to stay one more day, by the way) did the stomach demon strike. And that was it, pretty much.
We dragged ourselves out two more times to get food – Lunch at the Epic Arts (no experiments) and dinner at a more forgettable expat pizza joint in town, but that is it. A lot of sleeping, a lot of watching youtube.
No – honestly, that is it. So why don’t I use this to give an update on our more recent thoughts on the route from here on out and on our changing plans?
Why?
We had no illusions that all big plans we might have come up with in New Zealand had to have a level of flexibility when it comes to execution. Over the last two months, this has evolved and grown a bit beyond minor details. So, what are the issues? Why change?
First, because frankly, we have run out of money. Even though we have received incredible support to keep us going, we felt that we should at least consider cutting it a bit shorter to reduce our future outstanding obligations.
Further, we have felt an increasing pull to “come home” – to a single place for a good long while. Not so strong that we want to pull the plug entirely, but strong enough. We are both pretty sure that this will be a once in a lifetime trip and we would cut future adventures down to 1-3 months maximum.
Most importantly and urgently requiring a change of plan though was the fact that we realised that we do not want to go to Pakistan. Most importantly through Baluchistan. After a lot of talk it boils down to this: We do not want to risk our lives and more importantly the lives of some poor soldiers just to draw a line on a map. We, for now, have no pull towards Pakistan and would only be there to get to Iran.
There are other, minor bits: Nepal, our other big highlight, is in crisis right now with no clear end in sight. Myanmar required an expensive guide and can be well done some other time on smaller bikes. India is a mixed bag, but the long list of horror stories from the road (including fatalities) are playing into it as well.
The Plan 2.0
Right. So our new plan is to complete the Cambodia – Laos – Northern Thailand loop, then do Bangkok and fly either from there or from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. Then we would do a little loop through Oman to visit Nina’s best friend and her lovely husband and come back to Dubai to take the ferry into Iran. Persia is, after Laos, the big “want to go there” item on our list.
After that, we would travel on to Istanbul, as a sort of unofficial end point and dash, broke as we are, back home across Eastern Europe.
All of this will probably cut two months out of our trip, making a perfect early summer return date. If all goes according to plan … 😉
For breakfast, we went out to the Epic Arts cafe. This cafe is staffed by disabled people, mainly deafmutes, and is collecting money so that disable artists can teach art. Apart from this, it is just an awesome place where “every person counts”. Full of hippies, tourists (it is in the Lonely Planet after all) and stuff that you can buy to support the cause.
To order our breakfast, we got a form with pictures and descriptions of the dish. As always, I went for the continental option while Flo picked the granola-yogurt-fruit option. Also as always, we ended up sharing. My tea came in a pot this time and I’ve had about four cups before we started our tiny sight-seeing tour.
We had seen the durian roundabout yesterday afternoon but we wanted yo take a picture of it so we walked there. Another alley brought us to the Old French bridge which has been repaired in a mix of styles. Walking back to our hostel along the riverfront and through the small alleys, we decided to have a bit of a rest day and relax in our cool (temperature-wise) room over noon.
Each lady can process up to 3 kg of black pepper a day.
A short hop out of it at 1pm for lunch told us how right we had been as it was really quite hot. So we waited until about 4pm before taking the bike to FarmLink, a pepper plantation. Kampot pepper is special in its taste. In 2010, it received a “geographical indication” which is something you might be familiar with for French cheeses. It’s only the real thing if it is from the right region.
Growing and especially sorting pepper is s.o. m.u.c.h. work and it is done by hand here. All three sorts of pepper (black, red and white) come from the same plant. It depends on the time of harvest and the further processing involved. So we tasted our way through the peppers which was amazing but also kind of weird. Definitely a first for me.
80% of FarmLink’s pepper is exported to Europe, especially to France. However, the finer local restaurants are using it, too. I like it if a local product also gets some local use, like Flores coffee for example.
Afterwards, we sat at the riverfront again, watching yet another sun go down before trying a “Jamacain 10-speed” in Rikitikitavi.
The what, the why?
Someone is happy about breakfast
Cool mural at Epic Arts Cafe, upstairs.
Giant Fruit Basket sculpture … why not?
Oh we miss Hoechst and “our” Wunderbar
It started out all like the first white segment and got messier with each fix
The old bridge again.
We really liked it here and it was soo cheap!
Very tempting to buy some peppery souvenirs – alas, no space
All black pepper here is sun-dried – go solar power!
Little demo plantation at the FarmLink manufactory.
All pepper produced here is sorted by hand
Each lady can process up to 3kg of black pepper a day
Leaving Phnom Penh in the morning, we planned to ride to Kampot, the long way around. Kampot is a small river town which had been used as a “seaside retreat” before the civil war. It is still small and charming but on the rise and we decided to check it out rather than the beach town of Sihanoukville.
5m wide, 27m long … this strange pattern is found all over south-east Asia.
There is a pretty direct road to Kampot from Phnom Penh, however, in order to see at least a bit of Cambodia’s mountains, we used the “scenic route” which led past the Elephant mountains. The Cardamom mountains still elude us. Lots of eco-tourism opportunities are available for trekking in the National Park of these mountains but they are all not accessible with a motorbike. Most of them actually start in tiny village that you reach via a boat cruise up the river. Leaving the bike behind feels wrong so I guess, we will have to come back to Cambodia at some time.
The route was nice and it was a great change to see some mountains again in this flat country but we completely forgot to take any pictures. Through the detour, the day’s ride was quite long again with 240km; and we drove it almost in one go.
Would fit into an Alsacian town juts as well
Entering Kampot via a bridge over the river, we liked it immediately. A sleepy little town with roundabouts as their sightseeing attraction and a great riverside promenade with restaurants and cafes. Our little Pepper guest house, carefully checked out via the internet in advance, also was lovely and the rooms with fan only cost US$7 per night. Glad that we had booked two nights already, we went into town after a shower.
There are many colonial buildings still standing here and it gives Kampot quite the French atmosphere. When we reached the river (not far from Pepper guest house at all), the sun was just starting to set, tinging everything in a warm yellow. Sitting down and watching it for a bit, we then decided to go to a Lonely Planet recommendation for dinner, even if it was a little more expensive than the other options around.
The local fishermen leaving for another nights catch
Rikitikitavi is across the road from the river so that the terrace looks out over it. While entering, we noticed the big sign of “2 for 1 cocktails from 5-7pm” which was now. So we ended up ordering a mojito, a home-made lemonade and Khmer dinner. The staff was so friendly and while nibbling on the salted peanuts that we received, the cocktails arrived. Just…they weren’t mojitos but we totally forgot to connect this fact with our order and started sipping them away. They were good. Made with fresh pineapple juice. Wait…pineapple juice in a mojito? It was right then that our mojitos arrived as well…and we were really embarrassed that we’d forgotten what we ordered. The waitress said it was her mistake and she gave us the first round of cocktails for free. So in the end, we both ended up with four cocktails at the price of one. 🙂
Not bad for $7 US
Town is filled with quirky little details like this that we love.
Almost at the riverfront
5m wide, 27m long … this strange pattern is found all over south-east Asia.
Would fit into an Alsacian town juts as well
A national park takes up most of these hills
The local fishermen leaving for another nights catch
I have actually finished all the history and info sections about our countries so far ..
It is hard for me to fathom, and is actually getting harder as we get on with our trip, how immensely privileged we are. The insane randomness to be born white and male, as a German in the most peaceful and prosperous age Europe has know in its existence. To have had all the opportunities that I have and all the doors that are open to us.
How? Well, let’s start with the obvious. Yesterday, we basically ran out of money. What we have in cash on us is pretty much all we have, and it may last us a month. For the majority of people we interact with daily, heck, for the majority of people, that is an existential everyday issue. But not for us – we are privileged. We have a network of friends and family that will support us, lend us money. Understand that there is no existential issue here – we do not need money to survive or get out of a dire straight. We are able to peruse happiness as we see fit, due to the incredible friends and families we are lucky to have.
More important, we grew up not knowing the realities of real large scale violence and war, yet we got to grow up not fully ignorant to such things. As it is a remarkable thing Germans do. I have stood in the field of graves at Verdun and have been terrified by the silence that lies over Buchenwald as part of my publicly funded education. Glimpses of horror and chances given to us to become weary without ever really being threatened to suffer any such things ourselves.
High school turned torture prison turned museum…it looks so innocent from the courtyard
Today we went to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum located in what has become known as the S-21 prison of the Khmer Rouge. Once again, we got a glimps of horror into a world that we will never have to truly understand. But we have to try. Because the perpetrators, in all these cases, from the Mongol rider to the KZ prison guard, are not some other beings. These were all humans, just like us. It is in us to commit unthinkable acts of violence. A shift in morals or ideology can happen any time, any where. All individual steps to insanity are … understandable in some way.
Rules for “interrogation”
The horror lies in the ordinarity with which atrocities are committed. For me and in this place, it is the obsession with the confession. Most vile acts were committed by the Khmer Rouge and millions of people died. The machine soon ate its own children as well. Yet this insane system could not just be OK with killing the prisoners or “enemies”. Everyone had to confess first. People were tortured for weeks, to get the confession. Confessions were obviously bullshit, full of lies. Heck, most of the time people would not even have anything to confess to begin with and just not know what their tormentors wanted from them. Everybody would be killed in the end anyway, but so much pain was induced to just “follow the rules” and oblige to the internal logic of this devilish farce.
I am privileged without end to be able to learn in these places without ever having to suffer anything remotely close to the horrors that happened here. I feel deeply for the Cambodians and am utterly impressed with how positive and lovely everyone is that we encounter.
Random tourists in a roadside eatery =P
Right there and then though, we got reminded once more how we are privileged in a whole different way again. We were somberly making our way through the former high school turned torture camp turned museum listening to the very well done audio guide. Then, I see someone wholly unexpected. Right here, of all places, we ran into Celia and Tig, or hosts from Darwin again. It was the strangest of moments that can only really come from a trip like this. To see someone else we know and care for, admit the horrors that surround us was elevating and humbling at the same time.
We chatted a bit awkwardly over the first surprise of reunion and then agreed to meet after we were through with the audio tour to hang out a bit more. So we did, and it became a lovely evening of reminiscing, catching up on travel plans and some engine talk. If both our plans go as we think, this will be the last time we see the two of them before Germany (the invitation to stay with us is already issued). Never say never, though …
So yeah, we are privileged. No point being ashamed of it, same as there is none to be ashamed of being born into less privilege. We try to make the best of it, seize the opportunities that we got and stay as humble about it as we can.
High school turned torture prison turned museum…it looks so innocent from the courtyard
Though the barbed wire still remains
Rules for “interrogation”
The memorial for the victims. S-21 was just one torture prison of about 200 after all
The harsh cuts are sometimes rather weird. outside a developing country, inside cosmo posh.
Phnom Penh caters well for European tourists…they have bakeries so you are able to get a “continental breakfast”. We went to the “Blue Pumpkin” which is also an ice cream parlor and a training cafe. The upstairs seating area with a view over the riverfront was lovely and we got a mix of “continental breakfast” with a pain au chocolate and a “healthy breakfast” with muesli and fruit to share. Full and happy, we were ready to start the day.
First on our list of sight-seeing objects for this morning was the National Museum of Cambodia. I, particularly, was hyped for this one. But we were a bit disappointed: After having been to Angkor Wat already and also spending time in the Angkor National Museum, this one didn’t offer much that was new. In my opinion, the history of Cambodia needs to be researched more and treated scientifically. At the moment, the great focus is on religion as the temples give a good foundation to base work on. However, with no history texts surviving in Cambodia itself and the frequent mentioning that all information about the early periods comes from Chinese accounts, one would think that a translation of those accounts is available. But no. At least not for the visitors of the museum. All you get are the names for the eras in Chinese which is probably a butchered version of some old Khmer name.
Guardian, concrete, 21st century.
In the end, we didn’t stay too long. Walking to the royal palace, we already knew that it is closed to the public at the moment/that time of the day. We still took some pictures from the outside before heading to an early lunch. So much food today!
The afternoon was spent in our room, blogging, checking out a route for the next couple of days and booking accommodation in advance. I am very keen to visit an elephant sanctuary here as we have skipped elephants on Sumatra, Malaysia and Thailand so far. However, since it’s the high season, we only got a free date on the 17th of February. That’s a bit later than we wanted to but not too bad. We just have to plan what to do in the meantime.
In the late afternoon, we managed to have a long Skype call with friends of ours in Germany. It was well overdue. Having friends with kids means that you are acutely aware of how much time must have passed between calls as half a year makes such a big difference.
Not wanting to spend much money on food again, we had a look at the street food outside of our guest house. One the square next to the market was a night food market including music and a big stage. Obviously this was part of the Chinese New Year’s celebration. Anyhow, it was amazing as a food source. 🙂 We ordered our food from the stalls around and sat down with the locals on the big patch of mats on the ground. Not any less comfy than ale-benches and much cleaner!
This is where the Tonlé Sap flows into the Mekong, or vice versa, depending on the season.
Nice promenade along the mighty river
Small boats moored in the heart of the city.
The harsh cuts are sometimes rather weird. outside a developing country, inside cosmo posh.
One of many (rebuild) temples in the city
Angkor everywhere
Part of the palace, I think for waving at parades and such
Guardian, concrete, 21st century.
Build in the 60s in a retro Khmer style.
The guards were armed with what seemed like antique rifles 😉
King and Faith – important pillars to deal with the traumata of the past.
Nina’s lunch in the “friends” restaurant. Yummy and for a cause.
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