Day 413 - 28 Aug ‘24 - Phnom Penh. I’d love to know how many beds we’ve slept on now. I could work out, it would just take some time. Must be around 200!
The traffic stopped some time around 3:30am, and started back up around 6:30am, this time with toots on their horns. For the most part I slept not too badly, even though I ended up with a sore knee from the firmness of the mattress, but Dan had a miserable sleep.
The tooth fairy visited Abi last night. AGAIN. I swear she’ll have no teeth left soon! Cambodia deals in both local currency, the Riel, as well as US Dollars, and Abi was more than pleased with her $1 note, which then instantly started burning a hole in her pocket.
Our time in Phnom Penh was to be slightly more relaxed, with just four main things to do: visit Wat Phnom, the royal palace, and the national museum, and go on a sunset river cruise.
The first stop was to Wat Phnom. This temple was in the middle of a large roundabout, and was built on a man made hill of just 27 metres.
Legend tells that in 1372, a lady with the name of Penh found a tree truck floating in the river, containing four statues of Buddha and one of Vishnu. She ordered the hill to be made and a temple to be built on top, then asked monks to bless it.
On the side of the hill was a large clock, but it didn’t appear to be working. At the top of the hill behind the temple, was a large white stupa built in honour of King Ponhea Yat, who reigned around 1400.
The temple itself had been rebuilt a number of times, and inside was a large central Buddha surrounded by numerous smaller ones, as well as paintings on the walls and ceiling. It was quite dark inside and the colours were all muted, which was a shame.
From Wat Phnom we walked towards the water front, heading to the palace and museum. Part way there, we walked past a rundown looking massage place, offering hour-long Thai or Khmer massages for $10USD! We decided that a drink was first, so kept walking a little further, where we passed an even more rundown looking massage place.
We bought some water from a local vendor, and intended to go back to the first massage place.
“Why don’t we see how much this place is,” as we neared the dodgier looking one.
It was only $5USD for an hour, and the kids would get a discount. As we discussed where to go, the lady at the door kept talking to us and getting closer.
“Let’s just go in here then.”
Well. Abi and Alex were taken to one room, and Dan and I were in the next. When I say ‘room’ I really mean prefabricated plywood box that had pink flowery wallpaper on the walls, and contained a double bed with a hideous sheet on it.
I checked on the kids and they were in a similar room with a different sheet. Two massage ladies went into their room, and two came into ours. We were instructed to take off most of our clothes (as you would expect) but they stayed in the room while we did so, and didn’t give us anything else to put on. Dan’s lady even helped him pull his trousers down!
Dan and I then lay down on the bed; his massage lady climbed onto the bed between his legs and mine had to sit on the edge. We then had what could only be described as the worst ‘massage’ we’d ever had!
I swear I’ve had better rubs from the kids. My lady spent approximately two to six seconds on each area, and moved in a bizarrely random fashion.
Left thigh, right ankle, left toes, left knee, right inner thigh, left calf, right knee, left toes, right toes, left ankle, right inner thigh, right hand, left toes…
Dan’s massage was the same. He said there was about six square inches of his back that got rubbed.
Even when we rolled onto our backs, the massage remained as sporadic as before, except this time they rubbed our arms and hands…actually, my left arm was missed completely!
We spent the entire time, which sure wasn’t an hour (thank god), wishing for it to be over and wondering if the kids were okay.
When it came time to get dressed, we weren’t left alone then either, and the door was wide open. The kids were thankfully both fine, and Abi’s massage was free.
“I’m not sure if the $15USD for the massages was a good deal or not!” I said to Dan.
“No,” he agreed. “I’m pretty sure that was a place that had ‘other services’, judging by the size of the beds!”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing! Especially as her hands got awfully high up my thighs!”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“And I’ll be checking us all for nits when we get home, because those pillows didn’t look very good.”
It was an experience, that’s for sure, and it definitely gave us something to talk and laugh about!
We had some lunch at a nearby place, and I tried fish amok, recommended by a friend who once lived in Cambodia. It was a simple but tasty fish curry, and not in the slightest bit spicy!
After lunch we continued along the waterfront, and stopped to watch a man fishing by throwing out a net into the Mekong river.
The kids were appalled to see some children catching and keeping sparrows, so we had to tell them, yet again, about different levels of poverty in different countries and what people do to earn money or even eat.
We made it to the palace grounds, and had time enough for one photo out the front before it started to rain.
We joined a couple of soldiers and other members of the public, who kindly gave Abi and I their seats, and waited out the worst of the thunderstorm in a shelter. We watched three young Cambodian children having a whale of a time in the rain, scooping up leaves, splashing in the gutters, and even rolling across the tarmac!
It was almost 3pm, and the rain didn’t look like stopping. We decided to skip the palace since it was an outdoors thing, and go to the museum instead.
When the rain got slightly lighter, we left our dry spot and walked towards the museum. We didn’t get there though, as a man next to a tuktuk told us it was closed because of the weather.
I failed to see how an indoor building would be closed because of the rain, but we figured we’d just go home then and see the museum and palace tomorrow.
“So we won’t be doing our sunset cruise either?” Abi asked.
“Not today,” I said, “but there’s always tomorrow!”
As soon as we were back in the apartment, I had a shower. Not only to wash off the sunscreen and sweat, but also whatever lotion the massage place had used. Was probably more likely to be lubricant! Ha ha ha!
The rest of our afternoon was spent doing work and sorting out flights that had been changed. We were now going to be spending an unplanned extra day in Siem Reap, and the flight there in a couple of days’ time was also changed to earlier in the day!
For dinner, I cooked up the sauce and vegetables we’d bought yesterday, to go with a box of gluten free pasta. With no oil, salt, or pepper, the dinner was barely tolerable. The aubergine skin hadn’t softened as much as needed, the tomatoes were bland, and the sauce was flavourless.
“Think of the savings!” I said with a grin when Dan glared at me, and the kids complained.
“What savings?”
“Yes I know it’s not very nice, but it only cost us $7USD!”
When Alex asked “put your hand up who likes dinner”, and eight hands stayed firmly down, I knew I was fighting a losing battle. After a couple of helpings each, the rest of the vegetables were scraped into the bin, and we went to the shop for icecream!
“See? With the dinner savings we could afford to buy icecream!”
(And some crisps and chocolate bars for Dan and I to eat once the kids were in bed, ha ha ha)!
Day 414 - 29 Aug ‘24 - Phnom Penh. It being rainy season in Cambodia (and pretty much all of Southeast Asia for that matter), we decided to go to the palace first, to avoid the afternoon rain.
At the ticket counter, we discovered a major issue.
“This is fake,” said the lady as she handed back the $100USD note Dan had just given her.
“WHAT?!”
Sure enough, the note was printed on a piece of paper, there was a white border along the top on one side, and it even had the word ‘copy’ on it.
“But you got that from an ATM!” I said.
Yep - money from an ATM, at the airport, where it should have been pretty safe.
The tour guide we’d booked said we should report it to the police, but it was utterly pointless. Dan couldn’t remember the name of the bank of the ATM, or even the colour of the booth. Also, because we’d already left the airport, we couldn’t prove we’d received it from there.
“You could have printed it yourself,” Abi pointed out.
“Yep. We can’t do anything about it.”
Dan emailed the credit card company, but they just said to go to the bank.
“I guess, to look on the positive side, we’re lucky it wasn’t both $100 notes that were fake,” I said.
“Yep,” Dan agreed. “We’ve learned our lesson, to always check the money from ATMs! I really didn’t think we’d need to, so it didn’t even enter my mind. At least it was only $160NZD, and not any more than that.”
(When we went to another ATM later on, a message came on the screen saying to check the money, as once you walk away, the bank can’t be held responsible, and also displayed a number to call. When we leave Phnom Penh tomorrow, we will check the ATM at the airport and try our luck, but we’re not holding out any hope at all).
So, back to the palace. Our tour guide was a lovely man, who explained lots of interesting little details about the palace grounds.
First stop was a cannonball tree, which flowers every single day, but each flower blooms for only one day! So much effort for very little reward. The cannonballs on this tree were twice the size as the ones we’d seen in Penang.
The royal palace is still very much the residence of the king, except he was in China at the moment. We could only walk around half of the palace grounds, and could only take pictures of the outside of buildings.
The throne room was the central building, and inside was all golden. There were three seats and two thrones: the queen sat at the back on an elevated throne higher than the king (as women were more respected), the king’s throne was more elaborate than the queen’s and had a six-tiered golden umbrella above it (to represent six levels of heaven), and the three seats at the front were for the king and visiting guests. The king and queen would only get to sit on their thrones once in their lives - for their coronation.
Our guide showed us the palace building where the king stayed, behind more fences and with built up gardens for privacy.
Next to the throne room was the old residence, that is now a private museum for the royal family, that holds gifts from foreign heads of state. At the right hand side of the building was a platform that stuck out, for the king to mount his elephant!
“Now the king drives in a car,” our guide helpfully pointed out.
We then went to the public museum, that had some old bowls and platters, a lovely golden outfit worn by a previous king and queen for their coronation, and seven colourful uniforms worn by the palace staff on different days!
The next part of the palace grounds was a separated area for temples and monuments.
One of the buildings was a cast iron pavilion gifted by Napoleon III, which was apparently initially shipped over to Cambodia for Napoleon’s wife to watch the opening of the Suez Canal. It was undergoing renovations, and would eventually be opened up as another museum.
Inside the walls of this area was another massive mural depicting the Ramayana. Our guide told us it took 40 artists one year to complete, and parts of it were damaged by the Khmer Rouge. Recently, a team of Polish artists have started renovating the mural.
In the middle of the grounds was a statue of Napoleon III astride a horse, which stood in front of the temple of the emerald Buddha, also known as the Silver Pagoda.
The floor of this temple had more than 5000 square floor tiles of solid silver, with most of them now covered by carpet for preservation. The central Buddha image was made of gold, and was covered in2086 diamonds, with a 25 carat diamond on his headpiece, and a 20 carat one on his forehead!
All around the walls were display cabinets filled with gold and diamond artefacts, like cigarette boxes, hats, brooches, and bowls, and loads of smaller images of Buddha. The ‘emerald Buddha’ was either 19th century Baccarat crystal, or 17th century other type of crystal, and was a lovely pale green colour.
Within all of the palace grounds were some incredible examples of topiary, either circular, rectangular, or looking like a bottle brush.
One of the sweetest things, I thought, was a stupa for a previous king and his four-year-old daughter. The stupas hold the cremated remains of the kings, and normally just the king by himself, but this particular king asked for his young daughter’s ashes to be placed next to his. The other stupas were also just plain white, but this one had golden doors, and a solid gold heaven umbrella on the top.
Once we left the palace, we walked to the national museum of Cambodia, and were accosted by frequent tuktuk drivers or tour operators, trying to get some business from us.
“No thanks, we’re happy walking,” we kept repeating.
The museum was a lovely deep red colour, and was built in 1920. It houses loads of Cambodian artefacts such as bronze statues of Buddha, and stone carvings of Garuda and Naga.
The Cambodian government has in recent years begun the task of repatriation of artefacts from around the globe. As late as July this year, the United States returned 14 statues, one of which was dated to the 10th century.
I then introduced Alex to the debate surrounding the repatriation that is happening worldwide.
“For most people around the world, they will never leave their country, and if they do, it will most likely be to a nearby one. Their only opportunity to view other cultures’ artefacts would be in a museum in their own country. On the opposing side, many of the artefacts were taken or bought, either legally or illegally, from the original country to others around the world, and they want them back, as they were things that nobody had any right to sell or give away.”
“But if the countries take them back, then people around the world can’t see them.”
“Exactly the point I’m making!”
“The only way for people around the world to see other countries’ artefacts would be if exhibitions were sent to different countries on either short- or long-term loans,” Dan joined in with.
“But that doesn’t happen very often. I saw Tutankhamen’s mask and other Egyptian artefacts in New Zealand about 25 years ago, and he was only back there last year. And he’s the world’s most travelled exhibition!”
The museum wasn’t very large, and was designed in a square around a central courtyard, which was very pretty to look at.
Once we left the museum, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then discussed how to spend the rest of the afternoon. Dan and I decided that the museum on the Khmer Rouge killing fields was a bit too much for the kids, even though it would have been very educational and informative. Yes, we’d taken them to a concentration camp, but seeing 8000 skulls and photographs of tortured victims, would have been too much for Abi.
“What about a massage?” Abi asked.
Dan and I looked at each other. We’d both been rather put off after the last one!
“Am I the only one who kind of liked it?”
“Well, that just says everything, doesn’t it!” I laughed. “‘Am I the only one who kind of liked it’!”
Dan looked online and found a far more reputable place, just a 10 minute walk from where we were. Not only did it have a website, but it had reviews!
When we got there, it was absolutely lovely. We were each given some beautifully printed menu books, and there were soooo many options to pick from, and all at amazing prices.
“Oh my goodness, a THREE-hour massage including reflexology and aromatherapy, for just $80USD!” I said.
“There’s a four-hand massage here, too!” Dan pointed out.
“Can you imagine how amazing a three-hour, four-handed massage would be?!”
It took us almost 10 minutes to decide, and in the end Dan and the kids picked a 90 minute aromatherapy massage, and I picked a 90 minute Khmer style massage, which was very similar to Thai style.
The price was just $45NZD each.
We were given a cold wintergreen-scented flannel to wash our face and necks, while our feet were washed with like water and scrubbed with salt. We were then taken to our two rooms, where we were offered a shower before or after our massages (turned out we all picked ‘before’).
90 minutes of bliss later, we were again given cold flannels, a lemongrass flavoured warm water, and three pieces of dragon fruit!
“We should come back tomorrow!” Abi said with a smile.
“Wouldn’t that be nice!” I wistfully replied.
“Shame we didn’t come here yesterday,” Alex said.
“Yes, but then we wouldn’t have a story we can laugh at.”
The sky was clouding over once again, so rather than hang around in town for another couple of hours for a river cruise, we went back to our apartment, then out to the nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner again.
I’m sure the river cruise would have been lovely, but the weather wasn’t very favourable. As we’ve said all along, we can’t do everything!
Day 415 - 30 Aug ‘24 - Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Once we’d checked in at the airport and dropped our bags off, Dan went to the ATM that gave us the fake money, to see what he could find out.
When he returned he showed me a photo of the machine, and there on the unit were pictures showing the user to check their money and call a number if there were problems.
“The cost of calling the Cambodian phone number would almost be the equivalent of the money we lost,” Dan said. “Plus, we walked away and didn’t check it, and we have no proof. There’s no point in doing anything more.”
He was right. We have definitely learned our lesson!
The flight to Siem Reap was a short 45 minutes in a twin prop, and Alex raised his eyebrows a few times when we felt the turbulence a lot more than in previous flights.
This area of Cambodia was completely different to Phnom Penh; very flat, very green, and very warm. The drive to our hotel was an hour long, and when we got there, we were both surprised and disappointed with our room.
Make that rooms!
Dan had booked a ‘villa with a private pool’, which had two bedrooms and two lounges. We were given a ‘family room with a private pool’ as well as a second, separate room, upstairs, via an external staircase.
The family room had a king and two singles, and the separate, completely unconnected (it even had a different number) room upstairs, only had a king.
Not surprisingly, neither child wanted to stay in the upstairs room by themselves, and nor should they have to, which is exactly what we wrote in the message to the booking platform.
“Not only that,” Dan pointed out, “but the family room by itself was $90USD cheaper than the villa AND had included breakfast! We don’t have included breakfast with the villa.”
We had dinner at the on-site restaurant, which was lovely, and when we got back to our room, Dan had received a reply.
“They’re sorry the room doesn’t meet our expectations. If we stay in the family room and not use the other room, they will give us the breakfast for free.”
“Well that’s nice, but what about the other $90?!”
Later on we got a reply to say we should email our booking website to get our reservation cancelled and refunded, but our booking was non-refundable. No harm in trying though, so Dan sent an email to ask.
Before going to bed I bought our tickets to Angkor Wat for tomorrow. As soon as I’d purchased them, I got an alert on my phone that the credit card wasn’t part of Apple Pay. I didn’t think much about it, but Dan also got a message, except his one said the card had been frozen due to suspicious activity and it was possible it had been involved in a safety breach!
Oh crap.
I checked the website, and it was the correct government one; I’d even scanned the link out of my Lonely Planet book, and they definitely wouldn’t have fake ones in their book.
“It makes me think twice now, after the fake money, if the tickets that have been emailed are real ones!”
“The payment went through okay,” Dan told me, “but we can’t use that card anymore.”
It definitely threw a spanner in the works. Dan ordered a new virtual card, which is fine for point-of-sale transactions, but it just means we can’t withdraw any money from ATMs until we get a physical card, which obviously makes things a little problematic. The credit card company does allow for withdrawals, but we just have to remember to request to unfreeze the card beforehand, and refreeze it immediately afterwards.
Day 416 - 31 Aug ‘24 - Siem Reap. For the first time in a while, my alarm was set, but this time for the SUPER early time of 4:30am.
We were picked up at 5am by yesterday’s driver, whom we had booked for a day tour of some of the main temples of Angkor.
We hadn’t realised that Angkor Wat, one of the most famous temples in the world, and, in fact, the world’s largest religious building, was just one temple in a vast area of temples that covered over 40,000 hectares.
Once our driver parked the car, we walked up a long tree-lined path until we reached the moat that surrounded the temple, and picked our spot to watch the sun come up.
We were very lucky to have a clear sky in the middle of the rainy season, but it unfortunately wasn’t a particularly spectacular sunrise. However, the moody blues and blacks, with a very faint blush of peach, was still very pretty.
Once the first light had come up, we crossed the bridge over the moat, to get inside the temple grounds. I had to show the tickets I’d bought last night, and was asked how old Abigail was.
“She’s 10.”
“Why did you buy four tickets?” the man asked me. “Only 12 and older need a ticket.”
“Oh! That’s not what the website said. Could I get a refund for that?”
“No.”
“Well that’s a bit rubbish!”
As we walked away, my brain slowly ticked over.
“Oh no! It was my fault, I made a mistake with the tickets!”
“What do you mean?” Dan asked.
“The website kept popping up with red messages saying people born after 30 August 2012 didn’t need to buy a ticket. I looked at the date and thought, oh dear, Abi was born in July, so definitely before 30 August, and then I got the year wrong! I even thought how clever it was that the date changed every day to make sure people under 10 didn’t have to buy a ticket!”
“But 2012 is under 12!”
“Yes, I realise that now…”
At $37USD each ticket, it wasn’t a small price to pay by accident.
“I guess we just need to think of it like we’ve paid more money as a donation,” I said.
“Yeah - we’re just throwing away money in Cambodia!”
That was three financial f*ck-ups in as many days, so hopefully that would be them all done!
After the moat was an outer wall, and we came to hundreds of people sitting on the grass or in front of a reflection pond, waiting for the sun to properly rise.
We walked along a stone path, then crossed through another wall into the central temple area. The stone structure was amazing to see up close, lightly bathed in the sun’s early rays.
We kept walking around to the back, where we had an excellent view of the central tower and what looked like just two of the remaining four smaller towers.
Finally, we went into the middle area and climbed up the stairs into the temple proper. No child under 12 was allowed to climb up the stairs due to how steep they were. Abi was initially refused entry, but we told him she was 12 and then showed him that we’d bought her a ticket. He didn’t really believe us, and compared Alex to Abi in his argument, but he let us up regardless.
Angkor Wat, which translates to City of Temples, was built in 1150, originally as a west-facing Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, but was changed to Buddhism by the end of the century. All around the galleries were over 2000 bas reliefs of apsaras (celestial dancers), each one of them apparently unique.
We walked around the other side of the temple, following the well-planned directional arrows through the galleries and gateways, until we were back at the front. We crossed the moat again, but this time on a floating bridge made of pinned together plastic cubes, which was rather disconcerting to walk across when it bounced up and down and water came through the gaps!
We met up with our driver, and asked him to take us somewhere to eat breakfast. It was a simple, yet costly, affair. Abi, Alex, and I, all had different plates of fruit, and Dan had an omelette and baguette with spready cheese. Our fruit cost $7USD each, which was a ridiculous amount, but it was very tasty.
“How much would this cost in New Zealand?” Alex asked.
“About the same, but you’d probably only get half as much,” I answered.
“So, twice the price,” Dan added in simpler terms.
“Oh wow!”
Alex had mango, Abi had watermelon, and I had banana, apple, pineapple, watermelon, and dragonfruit - yummy!
Our next stop was Angkor Thom, which translates to Great City. While Angkor Wat was the largest religious building, Angkor Thom was a far bigger area, covering nine square kilometres. As it was a city, it originally had lots of house for its inhabitants, but only the foundations of those remain.
The city had a walled outer area, and exactly in the middle of the square was our stop, the Bayon, a temple built in the 12th or 13th century.
We hired a tour guide to lead us around this time; we’d used them a number of times on our travels, and had decided they really were worth the money, as we learned so much and saw more than we possibly would by ourselves.
Around the outside of the temple was a continuous bas relief depicting battles of the Khmer with the Chinese against the Cham, and the king’s victory. (The Khmer have the long earlobes, the Chinese have the topknots, and the Cham have helmets that look like lotus flowers).
Some of the other bas reliefs depicted everyday life like sports, markets, women having babies, and children playing with their friends. Other carvings showed the navy in their rope uniforms.
But of course, the main features were the massive carved faces (possibly of Brahma) on the towers. There were originally 49 towers with four faces on each tower, but only 37 towers remain, and some no longer have four faces.
Our next stop was Baphuon temple, built in the 11th century. This temple was still within the boundaries of Angkor Thom, and had a 200m long, raised pathway leading up to it.
Unfortunately, the guard at this temple refused to let Abi go in, so Dan stayed with her while Alex and I went in.
It was a three-layered temple, and the steps to the top were incredibly steep - it was rather obvious why the guard wouldn’t let Abi go. That being said, Dan and I both reckoned that Abi would have been far more fit and agile than some of the other people who were allowed up…
The view from the top was pretty cool, and we could see the foundations of what must have been another pathway or gallery.
I found out afterwards that this temple underwent a type of restoration called anastylosis, which is where the building is basically broken apart and rebuilt on a stronger foundation, with internal strengthening, and replacement blocks added where necessary. Workers catalogued over 300,000 blocks, which were strewn over a 10 hectare piece of land. However, the Cambodian civil war stopped all works, and unfortunately the catalogue was lost! It then took almost 50 years to complete what was known as ‘the world’s largest 3D jigsaw puzzle’!
We carried on walking towards the carpark, and passed the Elephant Terrace, a long platform that was undergoing renovations for most of it.
We met our driver, who took us to our last temple site of the day, Ta Prohm. This temple was also known as the Lara Croft temple, after it featured in the Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie.
Ta Prohm, built in the 12th or 13th century, had been slowly consumed by the jungle. Fantastically shaped trees draped their roots over the stonework, forcing the blocks to move to their will.
Moss and lichen gave the temple a beautiful hue, and everywhere we looked, were more tree roots clinging to the walls.
In 2023, a preservation effort included removing dead and rotten branches, polishing trees to remove buildup, and injecting some roots with rubber to prevent disease and help with stability.
But of course, the main drawcard was the tomb entrance used in the movie, where everyone took their turns to queue up and be in a photo.
Because the temple was abandoned for almost five centuries, the jungle had plenty of time to take hold. In an interesting restoration technique, the temple was allowed to remain as it was, purely for picturesque reasons! In 2012, boardwalks and roped off areas were created, which have restricted visitors to certain areas, to slow down the deterioration.
Every time we got back in the car, our driver gave us a chilled bottle of water and a cold flannel scented with lemongrass - lovely! When we got back to the car after Ta Prohm, we decided we were done for the day.
“We’ve been awake for seven hours!” Alex proclaimed.
“Yeah? And?” came the unsympathetic reply.
It was only 11:30am, our tickets were valid until 5:30pm, and there was so much more to see. But…the kids were done, we were all hot, and both Dan and I decided that as incredible as the temples were, they were all now much-of-a-muchness.
And so, we said goodbye to the ancient historical site of Angkor, and went back to our hotel.
We had lunch at the restaurant, and in the afternoon, the kids travelled between the main pool and our private pool, having a great time until a sudden rainstorm put an end to it. Once it passed, I took them for a brief walk around some nearby streets for a Pokemon Go achievement, and then I hopped in the pool to cool down.
After dinner, we watched the Tomb Raider movie, and enjoyed recognising lots of the sights we had seen today!
That’s actually something we’ve all been really loving because of our trip - the recognition of places on computer screensavers, movies, or TV shows, always accompanied by “we’ve been there!”.
We’re so very fortunate!
(Extra bit of info: the Cambodian government is not restoring the temples by itself. It sent out an international plea for help, and we saw some information signs saying that India, France, and South Korea had answered the call. There is even a Japanese Government Team for Safeguarding Angkor (JSA) that has regularly donated tens of millions of dollars in restoring various areas).
Day 417 - 1 Sep ‘24 - Siem Reap. Today was Father’s Day in New Zealand; Dan had been reminding us of this for a while, as last year we all completely forgot, including himself.
In the morning, after Abigail gave Dan a mentos, and Alex gave him a very short massage, we gave both of our dads a video call to say happy Father’s Day to them.
After a free breakfast (still sorting out the price of the accommodation with the booking website), we hopped on a Cambodian tuktuk into town. It was slightly bigger than the Thai variety, and a lot comfier to sit in.
This morning we were off to the APOPO visitor centre, which is where African giant pouched rats are used to detect land mines.
It is estimated that some six million land mines were laid in Cambodia from various armies. About 19,000 people have been killed, and 57,000 people injured, with half of them being children.
Our tour guide explained that children will either accidentally stand on the mines, or will find a small mortar and perhaps use it to throw into a mango tree to get the fruit, or throw it to each other as a game, as they aren’t aware of what it actually is.
There are school education programs that teach the children what the mines look like, and what to do if they find one, but not every child goes to school, and sometimes they don’t see the mines…
Our tour guide showed us the Anti Personnel mines (now made of 90% plastic), the Anti Tank mines, the tripwire mines (the mines will fly one metre into the air once the wire is tripped), and also the small mortars, that they regularly find, thanks to the rats.
These rats come from Tanzania, where they are trained for a year. From four weeks old they start socialisation with humans, and at 10 weeks they start training. Every time they’re fed, they hear a click. They then get introduced to the small metal balls that usually hold tea leaves. One day, they don’t get fed, and are shown the metal balls again, except this time one holds TNT. When the rat goes to the one with the TNT, it hears a click and gets rewarded. Next step, they bury the metal balls, and the rat hears a click when it starts to dig at the TNT. The last step is a blind test, where they go into the field and have to find 10 buried balls of TNT. If they miss just one, the training starts all over again for another year.
Rats are used to detect the land mines because not only do they have an incredible sense of smell, but they are light enough not to trip the mines. An AP mine will explode if more than 5kg pressure is detected, and these rats weigh between 1-1.5kg. Our tour guide also explained that the AP mines explode instantly, not like in the movies, where the soldiers hear a click and then stand still while someone comes to their aid.
We then got to watch a demonstration! Out came Nina, a female rat, and she was clipped to a rope that is worn by two handlers on their legs. The handlers walk half a metre at a time, and the rat will walk from one side to the other, sniffing all the time, before the handlers take the next step.
We watched Nina completely bypass a metal ball with nothing in it, then further up the sandpit, she stopped and scratched. The handler clicked, and she ran over to get her treat. Just to make sure, she was let back onto the sandpit and she repeated the scratching at the same place, and got her click and treat again.
We learned that rats cover 5x20 metre sections in just 30 minutes, whereas a person with a metal detector has to stop at every single piece of metal to check it, which would take hours. The rats can also smell TNT under up to one metre of dirt!
The part we were a bit confused about was the order of events when it came to the rats sniffing. They can only work on land cleared of vegetation, but how do they clear the vegetation if there are land mines? It was never fully explained to us, and one picture on the wall said heavy machinery is used, but surely they could suffer damage on a mine?
Whatever the order is, in the last year alone, 21,292,123 metres squared of land had been cleared. The 59 rats in Cambodia found 706 AP mines, 3 AT mines, 128 cluster munitions, and 550 explosive remnants of war. 17,582 people directly benefited from this (it was their farmland, or where they walk), and 30,485 have indirectly benefited (it was land next to roads).
It’s frightening to think of the number of land mines still out there, and how the original targets of the mines, the opposing armies, are long gone, and the victims now are just people going about their regular day; farmers, children, not soldiers.
The best part of the visit was when we got to hold the rats! We all had to wash our arms and hands to get rid of sunscreen and insect repellent, then we all took turns to hold one.
They were so big! More like a small cat in terms of size. The one we got to hold was a four-year-old male called Glen, and he was a bit sleepy to start with. He eventually woke up, and started licking our hands and fingers! Some people after us even got their necks and faces licked!
The African giant pouched rats are also used around the world for other land mine affected areas, and some are trained in a different skill: sniffing out TB infected sputum. Those rats can go through 100 samples in just 20 minutes, whereas it would take a lab technician four days.
We left the APOPO centre and got a ride into the town centre of Siem Reap, and stopped at the Royal Independence Gardens. The beautifully manicured and fenced off park, had a number of bronze statues of obviously important people, but their inscriptions were all in Khmer.
Next to the garden was a temple with musicians playing, and outside the fenced area were loads of stalls of fruit and flower displays to take in to the temple as offerings. The lotus flowers were particularly pretty.
Right beside the park were loads of trees filled with fruit bats! They were making quite a racket, and we were surprised to see them out in the open.
After a quick stop at a 7-11 for some drinks and snacks, we went back to our hotel for a relaxing afternoon. The kids managed to convince Dan to play with them in the pool, and we all had fun throwing and finding sinking toys, until Alex threw one at my head!
When we were cooling off in our room again, there was a tremendous thunderstorm - one of the rolls lasted about 30 seconds straight.
Tonight we had a special treat: a buffet dinner at an Apsara dance show! The food was amazing, with three different plating sections. It turned out the fish amok we’d been eating, which had all been delicious, was not the correct dish at all. The fish amok at this place was the proper meal - a mousse-like consistency cooked in a banana leaf. It, too, was lovely, but both Dan and I decided we preferred the liquid nature of the fish ‘amok’.
The dancing show was split into five sections: the Ramayana, cardamom harvesting, bokator (Cambodian martial arts), the peacock dance from the Pailin region, and Apsara dancers.
They were all wonderful to watch, and the dancers were very talented. We found the Apsara dance very similar to ones we’d watched in Bali. These Cambodian dancers also had genetic ability of being able to bend their fingers backwards and independently. In fact, a few of the ladies could bend their elbows backwards too, which was a bit gross.
We had fantastic seats, right up by the stage, and we could see the strain the girls put their arms and hands under, moving their limbs super slowly yet making them appear fluid. It was mesmerising!
All too soon the show ended, and we got a tuktuk ride back to our hotel. We had some new neighbours staying as a large family group, and they were having a good sounding party in the room one over from us.
By 9:45pm they were still going, but luckily the kids had managed to fall asleep. At 10:30pm we’d had enough, and I went to reception to get them to sort it out.
I woke up the man asleep on the couch, asked him to tell them to turn it off, and then went back to our room.
The noise didn’t stop.
At 11:10pm, the loud music was still pumping, so I went back to reception, and once again woke up the man asleep on the couch.
This time, however, I stood off to one side and watched while he went to the room. When the music didn’t stop, and he came back to me and said ‘I don’t think they could hear me’, I knew he’d not spoken to them earlier.
He then said he’d call their room, so I watched and waited while he did. After almost a minute, the man said something into the receiver, and the music stopped.
“They will stop now. Have a good night.”
“Thank you. I hope we DO have a good night.”
By the time we went to bed at 11:25pm, they had started playing the music again. We could still hear it faintly, but when I pulled the covers over my ears, the sound disappeared.
Day 418 - 2 Sep ‘24 - Siem Reap. It was raining when we woke up at 8am. It was raining an hour later when we woke up again. It was raining when the kids went to order breakfast, and it was still raining when the food was delivered.
“The pool is overflowing!” Alex excitedly said. “The water came over our jandals!”
Our noisy neighbours were at it again, which was just plain rude, but with no plans for today other than relaxing, it was the perfect time to do schoolwork!
Alex spent an hour-and-a-half doing rates of conversion with fractions (Caleb uses 1/3 of a bottle of cleaner to clean 5/7 of his bathroom, how much does he use to clean the whole bathroom), and Abi apparently did multiplication.
The computer timer went off partway through a sum.
“Yay! We can go and play now!”
“No,” I disagreed. “You can finish the problem first!”
“You don’t have to finish the problem when the bell rings…”
Hmm…got me there.
I gave them time on their computers to play, then that timer went off.
“Can we please have more time?”
“Why?”
“To finish the game.”
“You don’t get more time to play when the bell rings…”
HA! High five!
It finally stopped raining shortly after midday, at which point we left our room to go for a short walk to a nearby barber. Abi and I left them to get some drinks, and by the time we came back Alex was done, so the three of us walked back to the hotel.
Minus the room key.
“That’s okay, we can just play pool,” I suggested.
“There’s only two cues, the chalk is wet, and there’s a ball missing,” Alex said.
The owner came over to say the little boy from the noisy room had been throwing things around, including stones into the swimming pool. We all looked for the missing ball, which was eventually found under a chair.
“Have the people in the room gone?” I asked.
“Yes, they were very bad. Sorry. I told them at 9pm to be quiet, and they kept noisy. Sorry. The other people are away at the temple today, so you can play pool and go swimming all to you!”
Thank goodness they’ve gone. Nobody needs noisy guests like that.
The kids and I swam in the pool for a while, and we all had a few games of pool as well. We spent the rest of the afternoon back in our room, then had dinner at the hotel restaurant again.
The manager presented me with a printout of their fish amok recipe, as well as a small plastic jar of the amok paste! So kind!
“I’m not sure how we’re going to transport it for the next two months,” I said to Dan when we were back in our room. “We have to keep it refrigerated, as well as try and get it through multiple customs!”
“Well, you need to at least take it away from here,” he answered.
I would absolutely love to be able to use it some time in the next couple of months, but I think, in all honesty, it will end up left somewhere along the way.
After dinner, Alex had a swim in the pool, and Dan and Abi had a game of pool. If I’m ever in a house big enough, a pool table is something I would definitely have! I’m not particularly good, but it’s heaps of fun, and I’ve certainly won my fair share of games. I’ve also only had two ‘down-trows’ that I can remember, so I can’t be too bad!
P.S. Our booking website refunded us the difference in the room prices - yay!
Day 419 - 3 Sep ‘24 - Siem Reap to Koh Rong Samloen. Today was a long, and multiple method, travel day.
We started at 7:30am in a van, when we left the hotel and made our way to the airport. One thing that has definitely struck us was the similarity between Siem Reap and Tanzania, and on our drive, it was even more apparent. The poverty levels can be clearly seen in the scrap metal shacks lining the sides of the roads selling whatever they can, raised wooden platforms with hammocks strung up, and food vendors cooking…something.
Our tuktuk ride to the APOPO centre cost $6USD one way, and the driver was willing to wait an hour-and-a-half to secure the return payment, rather than us get a different driver. Dan’s and Alex’s haircut (plus beard trim) yesterday was $7USD total. Dan told me the man’s face lit up like Christmas when he gave him a $10USD note.
When we hired the tour guide at Bayon temple, he told us he was very happy and his family would be happy, because he worked that day.
Yet, go a couple of streets over from the shacks, and there are massive hotels and brand clothing stores, pubs and restaurants, manicured gardens and decorative light features.
Siem Reap airport is rather large and only one year old, and was built (and owned) by the Chinese government. They aim to get 10,000,000 visitors through here a year!
Our plane for Sihanoukville departed at 10am, and the flight was a little bumpier than our last one. Not only did we go up and down, but there was even a bit of sideways movement at times. As we landed, we seemed to fly over an extraordinary long stretch of runway before touching down.
Our third transport for the day was a car to the ferry pier. We were super lucky that the 11am boat was still there at 11:30am, so we were allowed to board it.
What followed was a less-than-enjoyable boat ride over choppy water. Half the boat got sprayed from the waves, and rained on, despite the boat being fully enclosed by covers.
It was like being on a rollercoaster the whole time - a lot of sudden ups and a lot of smack back downs. We stopped at two piers, and then were told to put on our life jackets.
“What?!” Alex yelped. “We’re going to drown?”
“No, we’re not going to drown,” Dan replied, “but we must be about to go over some very stormy water. Look at the next lot of rain coming!”
Sure enough, our last leg on the ferry was the worst one. This time we were going side on to the waves to get between two islands, so the boat was rocking rather sharply from side-to-side, as well as still going up and down.
“Is he deliberately trying to kill us?” Alex asked.
“No! Don’t be silly,” I said. “He’s actually doing a pretty good job. He hasn’t stopped turning the wheel once, look…he’s turning left, now he’s turning right, and left, and right. He’s also constantly looking out different windows.”
I admit, I may have blustering a bit, as I, too, was finding the movements a tad unnerving. But, as soon as we were within the bay, the wind died and the waves disappeared.
We pulled up to our pier, and once we’d collected our bags, we were met by some people from our resort. Transport number five of the day was a small blue boat that we waded out to, to go just 450m up the beach!
Our room at the resort was literally beachfront, with sand right up to our patio, but unfortunately the view was blocked by a large palm tree. We had lunch at the restaurant, and the rain poured down.
“So that’s us for two days!” Dan cynically said.
“Ha ha ha! Hopefully not!”
After lunch, the weather cleared and the kids mucked around in the pool for a while, generally making a racket and annoying everybody within earshot.
We don’t necessarily mind the volume per se, but it’s the stupid croaky noises they’ve been coming up with recently, that really drive us nuts.
Dan and I eventually joined them in the pool, diving for sinking sharks we took turns in hiding. While relaxing afterwards in our gazebo, we all enjoyed some cocktails/mocktails in happy hour - I finally got the pina colada I’ve been after since we arrived in Thailand!
The kids went to the beach to dig holes and build dams, as you do, and then we had dinner at the restaurant. After dinner, we went for a short walk up the beach and spotted somewhere to do our laundry. At 1kg for $2USD, it was a little pricey, but we were rapidly running out of clean clothes.
“Is that for a wash and dry?” I asked.
“It dries in the weather,” was the response.
That was somewhat less than ideal, considering it rains heavily and frequently during the rainy season! But, needs must, so that would be on tomorrow’s agenda. Tonight’s plan: hope the bar’s party music stopped at a reasonable hour (our room was right beside the restaurant), and work out what to do in Vietnam, when we head there next week.
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