Cambodia, the fake democracy

After our amazing journey through Vietnam, it was finally time for a new country, Cambodia. We had heard and read some sketchy stories about Cambodia, especially related to money. Cambodia is a country of two currencies; the official currency is the Cambodian Riel, however the American Dollar is equally widespread in the country and prices are often displayed in both currencies. From what we had heard, they can be very picky about the condition of American Dollar bank notes, often not accepting them unless they are in perfect condition. Fortunately we didn't run into any issues like that during our trip, but it was always in the back of our minds.

Our journey started with a bus ride from Saigon to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Since we didn't submit our visa applications online (because we didn't know the exact dates of entering and leaving the country before) we had to go through the visa application process on arrival. Our bus staff explained to the passengers that we can either complete the process ourselves, which can take up to 1h30min or give him a 5$ tip on top of the visa cost and he can handle the process in 10 minutes. After some discussion with other passengers, we decided that we want to arrive as fast as we can, so we agreed to go the faster route and tip him. Only a Russian couple refused and decided they will do it on their own. The process was indeed quite fast and smooth, but to our surprise, the Russian couple was done even faster, and paid 10$ less, not 5$. After discovering this, and having a heated confrontation with our bus staff, we demanded at least our tip back (5$pp). In the end he gave us half of that, because half of the tip actually went to the border guards (e.g. corruption 🫡). Nonetheless the rest of the trip was straightforward.

We grabbed a nice street food dinner on our way, some noodles and a meat dish. We later found out it was called Lok Lak, one of the national dishes. Meat in a tasty sauce served with rice and a pepper-lime mixture. A weird combination at first, but very delicious.

The following day we went on a free walking tour yet again. Our guide was a very educated and knowledgeable gentleman. We learned a lot about the history, economy and present of Cambodia. We had a lot of questions, especially about some of the more controversial parts of the Cambodian history and present situation. At some point he took us aside, and quietly explained to us (in Spanish for a change) that for his own safety he cannot answer these questions here because the area is filled with cameras. Later on a tuktuk ride and out of sight of cameras he explained that criticising or speaking against the government can unfortunately get you into jail. He clearly wanted the situation of his country to improve and he is trying to achieve it by sending his children to be educated so they would understand the issues, and urging his friends to do the same. This was a very eye-opening experience.

Our last stop in the capital was the S-21 prison complex. It's a place of horrible history. It used to be a school before the Khmer rouge, but then got transformed into a prison and torture center. During the Khmer rouge, the government got overthrown and a communist dictator, Pol Pot was ruling the country. His goal was to create the perfect communist country. His way of achieving it was to eliminate all educated people and anyone who opposed him. During his rule of almost 4 years more than 25% of Cambodians were murdered. The S-21 prison was one of countless locations where people were forced to confess to fictional crimes and eventually killed for them. When they were asking what they did wrong and why they got arrested, the most common reason was: "The act of getting arrested is in itself already proof of being guilty".

After learning about the things that happened, we took a bus to the southern city of Kampot, our Christmas destination. Here our accommodation was a cozy bungalow-studio, one of many that belonged to the same residence. It was located a 10 minute tuktuk ride away from the city center in a peaceful location by the river. We arrived on Dec 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve.

After waking up on Christmas Eve, we had to make sure it's actually Dec 24th, because it felt as far from Christmas as possible. Blazing hot sun, people chilling in hammocks (which our walking tour guide jokingly called their national sport), no decorations to be seen, and streets full of people and market merchants working as if it was just another day (for them that's all it was). It was up to us to make it Christmas for ourselves.

For our Christmas lunch we made our way to a restaurant we discovered the day before that serves tasty hand-made noodles and dumplings. We got some Christmas spirit from the fact that the dumplings closely resembles Polish pierogi, which are a traditional Christmas dish. For dessert we picked up some fruits from the market and went back to the bungalow to escape the burning sun.

We celebrated our Christmas evening by putting on the most festive attire we had and heading out for our Christmas dinner. Before eating we read the Christmas passage of Luke and afterwards we opened our only Christmas present, one we got before leaving home. This really enhanced the Christmas spirit, and for us it was enough.

The following day we took advantage of the kayaking opportunity that our accommodation provided. We took a double kayak and explored the river, which formed a small loop. The views were amazing, and very very different from sea kayaking that we had done before. Once again, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. Overall the loop took around an hour.

After kayaking we got hungry so we wanted to head out to have some lunch. This is when we noticed something is off. When we left to the kayaks we had two 50$ bills but when we returned there was only one left. We also noticed a few things seeming to be different in the room than when we left. Seems like someone came in and took our money.

After noticing this we confronted the owner, who seemed surprised but very helpful and cooperative. She brought up the recordings of the security cameras right away and we recalled what time we left. Together we reviewed the footage of the security cameras and found that indeed one of the staff members entered our room after we left.

After seeing this the owner immediately returned our lost money from her own pocket and seemed devastated about getting betrayed by someone she trusted so closely, while also apologizing profusely. Later she mentioned that similar situations had happened multiple times before which is why she ended up investing in security cameras to find out what's going on. So in the end it was a happy end for us, but a more difficult one for the owner.

After Christmas we took a long bus ride to Siem Reap, the city next to the largest temple complex in the world, Angkor Wat. We spent our last full day in Cambodia by waking up at 4.30am to make our way to Angkor Wat and see the sunrise by the main Temple. It was magnificent, and the thousands of other tourists would probably agree. It was not even 7am and the place was already packed. Now it was clear that it's high season in a very popular destination.

The rest of the day (until around 1pm) we spent exploring the various temples that were built in the first half of the 12th century. The whole area where the temples are located is enormous, around 400km2, so there was no way we could see all of it. Even the distances between the most popular temples was so large we had to hire a tuktuk driver for the day to transport us between them. But once again, please refer to the pictures for more details.

After our temple adventures we took some time for resting (early wakeup) and planning before dinner and bedtime. The next morning it was time to head to the final country of the trip, Thailand. As a final goodbye from Cambodia, one of the wheels of our bus started smelling burnt, so we stopped at a roadside car mechanic store where we spent around 45 minutes until they managed to get it fixed. Even here we saw some hammocks hanging around.

To start off the Thai journey, we made our way to the metropolis of Southeast Asia, the one and only, Bangkok.

Stay tuned for more about our adventures in Thailand...