Aug 152011
 

Crossing Into Cambodia

We entered Cambodia by land at the Trapaeng Kriel border crossing with Laos. It was a fairly painless, although lengthy, process.

From our hotel on the island of Don Khon in Laos, we purchased bus tickets through to Kratie, Cambodia. From all the signs we saw, it looks like through tickets can be purchased just about everywhere on Don Khon.

We took a boat from Don Khon to the town of Ban Nakasong. While waiting there for the bus to the Cambodian border, a representative of the bus company had all the assembled tourists complete the various forms for exiting Laos and entering Cambodia – Laos departure card, Cambodian entry card, and Cambodian visa application. He collected the forms, our passports, and the requisite fees ($30 all told). At the border, he handled everyone’s processing on both sides of the border, and then handed back our passports with the Cambodian visa stamp now affixed.

For our part, we got off the bus at the Laotian side of the border crossing, walked a couple hundred meters to the Cambodia side, and then grabbed seats under the tarps covering some roadside food operations while waiting to board Cambodian buses for the ride south. It was raining, and it was muddy.

And this is where it became a lengthy process. We waited at the side of the road for an hour before a group from Pakse, Laos arrived and completed it’s processing; and then we waited inside our Cambodian bus another forty-five minutes as the crew counted, recounted, and counted again the passengers.

Finally, our bus – loaded with Western tourists – headed south. Three-and-a-half hours later, the two of us and one other couple got off at Kratie. The remainder of the passengers were continuing on to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.

 

Bus Ride Observations

Bus trips in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia have the following in common:
– You will only get forty kilometers down the road each hour, no matter how fast the driver drives.
– Incessant honking, frequent brake slamming, and bus-tilting turns will prevent any sleep.

Bus trips in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia have the following differences:
– Thais do not make bathroom stops (you have to have a big bladder), the buses don’t stop for lunch or dinner, and they barely stop to let passengers on or off (you gotta jump). One or two passengers will turn green, but they will probably keep their breakfasts down.
– Laotians only make bathroom stops when the men whine, and then just stop anywhere on the side of the road (girls don’t get to relieve themselves, so they gotta have big bladders); the crews stop for lunch and dinner; and buses will drop passengers right at their doorsteps, even backing up to prevent an extra fifteen meters of walking. Laotians have a designated vomiter for each bus, and most of the passengers will be hacking and spitting out the windows.
– Cambodians make frequent bathroom stops at designated points on the road (everyone has small bladders); and the crew stops for meals. Cambodians do not puke, but you might catch one spitting on the floor of the bus.

 

Kratie

Kratie is located on the east bank of the Mekong. By US standards, it’s a small town. We walked all of it in an afternoon.

It’s primary claim to fame is that it is reported to be the best spot on the Mekong to spot the Irrawaddy dolphin. It was raining the entire time we were in Kratie, so we passed on confirming the reports.

The two things that most distinguished Kratie for us were the riverfront morning market that kicked off at about 4:00am (the sea of people, motorbikes, and vehicles woke us up both mornings); and the open-air, street-stall clinics that lined one of the streets (you could see stall after stall filled with folks lying on gurneys, everyone with an IV stuck in their arm).

By the way, the reason for the makeshift riverfront market was that the actual market had burned down in June. Word on the street was that it was an arson job by the market building’s owner.

A third thing we first noticed in Kratie is the penchant of Khmer women to wear pajamas as street clothes. Since Kratie, we have seen pajamas everywhere – from city downtown areas to the mud lanes of rural villages. These are two piece pajamas – button-up top and pants-style bottom – in brightly colored patterns. They are hard to miss.

For accommodations, we stayed at the Santepheap Hotel (click here), which was adequate but not great.

We also took a look at two other hotels. The Oudom Sambath Hotel lost me when I saw old, torn up mattresses left about in the hallway. The room we saw was small and dirty.  The Heng Heng II Hotel was basic, offering no advantage over the place we were already staying.

For food, we ate at three places. Red Sun Falling had the best breakfast, but it closed during the middle of the day and on Sundays, making it an infrequently available option.  We had a soup at a corner eatery next to Red Sun Falling. It was unremarkable, so we did not return.  The restaurant on the ground floor of the You Hung Guesthouse II was OK, and got most of our business; but I still haven’t figured how they managed to make a flavorless curry soup.

Kratie is just not a culinary destination.

Overall, Kratie struck us as a dreary little town. Were it not for the dolphins, there probably wouldn’t be much reason to spend time here.

 

Kompong Chom

The bus ride between Kratie and Kompong Cham lasted about 4-1/2 hours. The bus was full, but this time with Cambodians instead of tourists.

The most notable thing about the bus ride was the videos played on the bus entertainment system. The videos started with some local comedy shows involving lots of slapstick-style, slip-on-a-banana-peel type of skits. There were lots of laughs from the passengers.

This was followed by three hours of non-stop music videos. The prevailing themes were men drinking too much, women keeping their men in line (often pulling them around by the ear), and women wanting money from their men. There was a lot of line dancing involved. Most of the videos were light-hearted, involving a lot of teasing and smiles. It was all much more upbeat than Thai music videos, which involve a lot of heartache and melodrama – crying, fighting, slapping, and suicide attempts.

Right off the bus at Kompong Cham, we were swarmed by moto and tuk-tuk drivers wanting our business. It was not overwhelming, but I always find the crush of touts to be irritating and a bit disorienting. As has become our standard procedure, we waved them off, grabbed our packs, walked away a bit, and then paused to get our bearings.

Once oriented, we headed to the hotel we had selected, based upon Internet research over the previous two nights. Along the way, we were followed by a handful of moto drivers, who kept asking us the standard range of questions (where are you from, do you have a hotel, do you want a ride, etc.). At the time, this seemed excessively pushy and intrusive, and something to be stiff-armed – at least that’s what all my prior experience in poorer countries was telling me. Now, in hindsight – after going through some rural villages, and spending more time in Cambodia – I am wondering if this was not just genuine curiosity and willingness to help on their part.

By the way, a moto driver is a guy on a motorbike, who can be hired to run you around on the back of his bike.

We spent four nights and three days in Kompong Cham. For accommodations, we used the Monorom 2 VIP Hotel (click here), which was a decent place and located on the riverfront.

For food, we mostly ate at the Smile Restaurant next door (click here), and at the Mekong Crossing Restaurant (click here) about a block away.

For transport, we rented a motorbike from the Mekong Crossing Restaurant at a cost of US $5 a day. During our three-day stay, we got our money’s worth out of that motorbike, hitting most of the sights within reasonable riding distance.

To the east of town, we stopped to photograph fishing houseboats that have large bamboo-framed nets for catching shrimp. We also biked through thirty kilometers of farmland and rural villages, much of it on a rutted and potholed dirt tract, to see Wat Mah Leap (a wat that had largely survived the Khmer Rouge period, thanks to their use of it as a hospital). Everyone we encountered was extremely friendly, and we received lots of “hello” calls from children as we biked along. When we stopped at a roadside shop to drink a beer, the family brought chairs out for us, and then sat around watching us like we were the most fascinating television show they had ever seen.

The only negative encounters we had were a squatter yelling at us as we approached a run-down building on the wat grounds; and a lady yelling at us from the cab of a truck that almost hit us at an intersection.

To the west of town, we went to AMICA village (an NGO project village that makes fabric and some other craft products), and the temples on “Man Hill” and “Woman Hill.” At “Man Hill,” we spent some time watching and photographing a troupe of monkeys.

To the north of town, we biked an hour or more through riverfront villages to reach Wat Hanchey, which boasts a great Mekong River view and some 8th Century ruins.

Closer to town, we put the bike onto a pontoon ferry and headed to Koh Paen, an inhabited island in the middle of the Mekong. The ride along the length of the island wasn’t that remarkable, but we did meet an English-speaking journalist who covers stories on the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders.

In the evenings, from the balcony of our hotel room, we watched the nightly promenade along the riverfront – sidewalk eateries, teenage boys and girls cruising the strip on motorbikes, older folks taking an evening stroll – as the sun set over the Mekong, and lightning occasionally lit a distant cloud.

The days spent in Kompong Cham were good ones.

 

Impressions of Cambodians

Cambodians are much more curious about us than had been the case with Thais and Laotians. Some of this is probably due to us being Americans, as it appears there aren’t many Americans that make it around this country. We have seen lots of French, and a handful of other Europeans, but no other Americans. In Kompong Chhnang – the country’s third largest city – we were told by a group of moto drivers that we were the only Americans visitors they had ever seen.

There is a lot of effort being made by a lot of Cambodians to learn the English language. We run into someone who speaks reasonably good English just about every day. In tiny villages, children try out “hello,” “where are you from,” and “what’s your name;” and it isn’t too challenging to find an adult who knows enough English to lend a hand with a purchase or directions. The couple small books stores we have entered were mostly dedicated to materials for learning English.

While there is a strong interest in learning English, there is also a strong interest in helping visitors learn Khmer. Show even the slightest effort to speak Khmer, and you will be coached by everyone from the girl selling you a water bottle on the roadside to the guy selling you a bus ticket. Unlike Thais and Laotians, I have not had to ask for help with phrasing and pronunciation – correction and encouragement to try again are freely offered. I like this.

As a group, the Cambodians we have met have been much warmer than Laotians, and at least as friendly as Thais. Given the immense trauma of their recent history, we are somewhat surprised by just how friendly they are. It is much more than we expected.

So far, we are very much impressed with Cambodia and it’s people.

 

Kompong Chhnang

The bus ride from Kompomg Cham to Kompong Chhnang is a little over three hours in duration. The draw of Kompong Chhnang was the nearby floating villages on the Tonle Sap.

Our first challenge, as always, was securing acceptable accommodations. For this, we snagged and held onto a tuk-tuk and driver, who took us to three different hotel operations before we settled.

The two we passed on were the Sokha Guesthouse and the Somrongsen Hotel. The Sokha Guesthouse gets some decent reviews on the web, hut the room we were shown was completely unappealing. Maybe they have something more to offer. If so, the lady running the joint wasn’t showing it to us. The Somrongsen Hotel just looked unused, and the room we were shown smelled.

We settled on the Sovannphum Hotel (click here). It has major shortfalls, but of the three it was the easiest pill to swallow.

For meals, we ate almost exclusively at the Sovannphum Hotel’s restaurant. It wasn’t that great, but we never found anything better. The principal waiter there speaks decent English, and will help you with honing your Khmer if you show interest.

For transport, we rented a motorbike from the hotel, at a rate of $10 a day.

During the one full day we spent in Kompong Chhnang, we checked out the nearby floating villages, and biked northwest to the non-operational airfield constructed by the Khmer Rouge.

To see the floating villages, we hired a boat operated by two Vietnamese women…or maybe they hired us. As we rode along the port waterfront, two women approached and asked if we wanted to rent a boat. When we continued without answering, they literally ran after us. We continued, only to have them cut us off with motorbikes – one on each side. After running after us, they had jumped onto the back of two guys’ bikes and had them run us down. They did it all with a smile, so we rewarded their aggressiveness by hiring them – after haggling a few bucks off the price, of course.

One of the women stayed on the shore to highjack more business, while the other took us for a two-hour ride through the house boats and floating shops that comprise the floating villages. The boat was a small wooden thing, with her standing at the stern and propelling it by sculling with two oars.

As we transited through the villages, we received non-stop “hello’s” and waves from villagers, with children being almost ecstatic in their greetings. Some of the houseboats were nice to the point I wouldn’t mind living on them; others were decrepit huts. Most had their own fish cages to hold past catches for future meals. Intermixed were floating machine shops, floating battery charging shops, and floating stores. And between all this ran small boats, many of which were busy catching shrimp.

After the floating villages, we headed to the Khmer Rouge-built airfield. The best part of the excursion was finding the place, as we had to stop frequently and break out the phrase book to ask directions. Most people met us with jaw-dropped amazement, which indicated to us that not so many Westerners came out here.

All along, the sky was filled with large storm clouds, and we could see sheets of rain falling around us. Fortunately, we never got drenched, although a passing sheet of rain came within a hundred meters.

The airfield itself is not that remarkable. There are some buildings, now used by squatters; and the airfield and surrounding fields are used by cattle. Biking around the runway, my biggest concern was losing traction in a fresh cow pie.

The story has it that the airfield was built with forced labor, and that the Khmer Rouge executed tens of thousands of the laborers during the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. We drove to a nearby hillside where the mass graves of the victims are suppose to be. The only evidence we saw was signs of excavation.

 

Learning to Speak Khmer

Finally, some thoughts on learning to speak a bit of Khmer.

With Thai and Laotian, you have the advantage of overlapping words and phrases. The transition between the two is not that difficult. Khmer, however, is entirely different. You get to start from scratch.

Learning numbers is particularly challenging. Cambodians have a complicated numbering system, based upon fives and tens, and incorporating Thai numbers just a touch (the one overlap between the two languages).

For one through five, there are distinct word. However, for six through nine, the number is expressed as five plus something else.

For the numbers ten through nineteen, numbers are expressed as ten plus the additional digit; and if the additional digit is greater than five, it is expressed as five plus something.

For twenty, you have a word that means twenty – but that has no resemblance to the number two – to which you add additional digits for the numbers twenty-one through twenty-nine.

For thirty through ninety, Thai numbers are used (words that mean three tens, four tens, etc.), but these are never used again in the Khmer numbering system.

On top of that, there is a different word for each additional digit from a hundred on up – a word that means hundreds, a word that means thousands, a word that means tens of thousands, etc.

So, to illustrate, let’s take the number 67,239. It would be expressed with words that translate as: five plus one ten thousands, five plus two thousands, two hundreds, three tens (Thai words here), five plus four.

If that doesn’t make your head hurt, I don’t know what will.

We are working the language and the numbers, and finally starting to get some traction, although we recently discovered that my pronunciation of the word for tens of thousands was a bit off. Instead, I was saying “chicken” – which probably explains the confused looks we received when I said what I thought to mean “two ten thousands.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 3:49 am