Brothels, Bad Attitudes and Blacky

Cambodia has treated us well so far, and if we are ever in strife or in a situation, then you can count on Annie to pull us out of it. Here’s a direct quote that pretty much sums up my general vague attitude to life and traveling and how Ann is responsible for several ‘near misses’ at the hands of moi.

“AD has taken the reins on the collision course that is CG’s life”

However, Cambodia is no Thailand, there are significantly less tourists, and the locals have been (in our relatively limited experience) substantially unfriendly. We had a horrid tuk tuk driver who tries to rope us into a tour with him one night, when we were tired, it was raining and it was well into the early hours of the morning. When we disagreed, he demanded more money from us, and continually abused us (well mostly me) for a good 10 minutes whilst Annie sorted out our check-in at the hostel. Poor old CG was fairly unequipped to deal with such aggression at such a late hour after such a long day, and it was only after he told us to very specifically to *beep* off, and followed us to our hostel room, did we begin to feel quite unsafe. The hostel staff didn’t even bat an eyelid as this creepy mid 50’s tuk tuk driver with crazy eyes followed us to our room and threatened us. Terrible. Ann was scared to leave the room (she was convinced that he was going to try and steal her shoes – long story) so I left to get them from downstairs and he spat at me. Horrid.

Downtown

However we have been ripped off A FAIR BIT in Siem Reap so far. Seems CG is not as adequate at bartering as she once thought. Conversations often go like this;

“How much to go to the temple?”

“$10”

“$7..?”

“No”

“Okay!”

*gets in the tuk tuk”

Ridic.

Elephants aren’t treated very well here, so we have decided to not go with the classic signature photo of us riding an elephant in Cambodia. Did take a photo of his backside though. They are so cute Annie almost fainted.

Risk your life to establish a secure power connection in Siem Reap

Classic Siem Reap

We’ve visited the Landmine museum, that damned our spirits with the stories and reality of the landmine situation in Cambodia, and how it still affects many lives today. Children are continually orphaned, people of the older generation crawl along the streets begging for money and after visiting a museum, hearing survivor stories and donating to the orphanage, we rode home in silence.

#malaria

Rural Siem Reap, on the way  to Landmine museums 

They use the US dollar more than the Cambodian riel here, which is something we didn’t expect. Apart fromm gassing people in a five metre radius as we layer up the bug spray, or wincing as we pass westerners here for sex tourism, Siem Reap has a night life alive with backpackers, cheap buckets of booze and travellers wanting to escape the reality that confronts them in Siem Reap. We met some friends from our bus ride for drinks, and ended up meeting a crew of backpackers from all over. We spent many of our nights at “Angkor What…?! Bar” in which if you consumed a ridiculously irresponsible and uncomprehendable amount of alcohol, you were awarded with a free t-shirt that had “Angkor What?!” on the front and “..promoting irresponsible drinking since 1993” on the back. The night life in Siem Reap is actually quite fun, there’s one main pub street, where to echoes of terrible karaoke are heard, feral cats wander the streets licking up vomit and people do mass rounds of the Nutbush in the streets. Massage parlours offer happy endings, and we’ve learnt the ways in which you can tell that a ‘massage’ parlour is actually disguised as a brothel. Red fairy lights around the doors is one example, another less obvious one is  women clinging onto men as they walk past screaming ‘happy ending, happy ending!!” and attempting to drag them into the building. Children are put forward as well, and it’s been one hell of a confronting city to be in. Ask me about the sex tourism I’ve witnessed, the child sex industry…the stories will shock you. Eek.

 She almost fainted again trying to stroke feral dog, whose name was Blacky. Blacky didn’t respond well to human contact and consequently reacted by biting Annie on the hand. All of the dengue fever, malaria and general health risks we’ve managed to avoid with no shots and no tablets, and Annie acts like this. Petting feral dogs foaming at the mouth.

“But it’s Blacky! He fooled me with his cuteness…I thought he’d be nice”

Yeah, ok pal. Enjoy rabies then. 

Defeat of the Thai

Siem Reap means ‘defeat of the Thai’. Many years ago, in a land far far away  (9^th/10^th century AD Cambodia) the Thai military had a dispute over the Thai/Cambodian border. The Thai military overtook the Siem Reap province as their territory expanded into the Angkor Wat region. The Khmers (different to the Khmer Rouge, more the ‘Khmer people’) at that time decided, in proper warfare fashion, to take it vigorously back. Hence, defeat of the time. Holla.

Only 25% of the people in Siem Reap are employers/employees – the remaining 75% are farmers. We passed several rice patty fields – often at dusk, with our hair flowing, children waving and farmers slowly lifting their heads to see who’s passing by. But so far – malaria free. Cambodia is quite a hot spot, and all my friends were grilling me about getting shots or taking malaria tablets, as they were all suddenly experts on travelling to Asia. However so far, so good. We’ll see. We’ve been pretty vigilant with insect repellent, and most of the other travellers we’ve spoken too haven’t bothered with them. But knowing me, famous last words.

The houses in the outer Siem Reap province are on stilts; for the floods that often occur in the rainy season. The locals sell fish, fruit, bottled water and gasoline in glass bottles on the side of the road…fresh eggs sit in the sun at 50 cents each, and women walk the long dusty roads making attempts to sell silk scarves. According to the BBC on third of the population live on under $1 a day. Kids sell magnets and postcards for $1, and kids are my weakness. Most of them seem to be in school, but chatting to locals revealed that they work ‘shifts’ – for example school in the morning, and then take over selling in the afternoon, and vice versa. Under $1 a day? Safe to say CG bought a fair few postcards that afternoon. Bless them.

Corruption is deep rooted in Cambodian society and the poverty is far greater than I imagined. I’ve been exposed to it before, but I’ve not met a traveller who wasn’t even the slightest bit affected or found it confronting. Day after day, it’s a little heavy. The amount of people you see still living with the consequences of landmines is horrific. More about that later, maybe.

I suppose it’s my own laziness and the general overwhelming feeling associated with the temples of Siem Reap – does it make me horribly ignorant that I can’t quite accurately put names to each photo?

Undoubtedly, yes. I’m sorry. I feel shocking, and I could have gone and Googled all the names and typed them in and written a little into about them like a Lonely Planet writer, and pretended to be someone I’m not. But I’d be living a lie. I’m too lazy, I’ve forgotten and currently the nightlife of Siem Reap awaits us. I’m no LP writer.

Sorry kids, hopefully the photos blow your intelligent minds and you forget all about it.

CG out~

Can you even imagine?

Sneaky lunch time nap