Cambodia - Signs of time past

Please don't take your RPG to the market.

Nowadays, it very safe to travel to and around Cambodia. If you have the travel bug, please contact

http://www.orientalcolours.com/

Cambodia - Sihanoukville Revisited Again

http://tinamue.blogspot.com/2013/03/cambodia-sihanoukville-revisited.html

The beaches of Sihanoukville are beautiful, superb, unspoiled, and relatively unused although the main beach can get crowded on weekends. Here in the rainy season, they are not much of an attraction because when it rains in Sihanoukville, it pours.

However, if you visit during the dry and warm seasons head east of town. There you will soon leave the crowds behind you while the beauty of the beach increases. Soon you will end at an estuary where your main risk is to have the tranquility disturbed by a herd of cows.

There are also beaches to the west of Sihanoukville – for example, Hun Sen Beach located a few kilometers before the oil depot - that are totally deserted. Almost no tourists venture west of the Port of Sihanoukville. The most likely reasons are that the first kilometers of road are in a terrible state of repairs and that this first stretch of road goes through slum-like fishing villages. Those facts will deter most tourists daring to venture outside of town on their own.

Cambodia - Phnom Penh

I like Phnom Penh. In the area around Wat Phnom, there are still several buildings in short distance from each other that showcase the architectural splendor the French colonial masters once provided.

Head office of the Cambodian postal service

Despite the increasingly jam-packed traffic, the pace is still relatively sedate. Based on my personal experience, the relative chaos lends itself best to either getting around as a pedestrian or by renting a motorcycle.

Motorcycle taxis (with two or three wheels) are inexpensive alternatives to the less adventurous visitor. One has to be more adventurous than me to try out the local snacks, which are for sale in the markets and by street vendors.

Fried snacks

Cambodia - Development Continues Unabated

Although the growth in tourists visiting Sihanoukville has stalled, the tourists continue to flock to Siem Reap in ever increasing numbers. That the economy as a whole grows at a high rate, which is evident in the increasing number of cars on the roads of Phnom Penh. The river bank has become a promenade while the road running along this promenade has become a traffic nightmare.

The luxury cars parked outside Phnom Penh’s fancy night clubs indicate the existence of a class of noveau riche with plenty of cash to spend.

That the Pizza Company (Thailand’s copy of Pizza Hut) has opened up in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville is an indication that the Cambodian middle class is expected to grow. The huge Olympia development a stone throw from the king’s palace is another example of that somebody is willing to bet big money on Cambodia’s future.

During my road trips around Sihanoukville, I ended up west of the refinery and oil terminal. Out there, they were putting the finishing touches on a new power station (co-financed by the Asian Development Bank) as power transformers from China were about to be installed at the substation. I also noticed that work is on-going to (re-) build rail road tracks from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and to Sihanoukville. So, Cambodia wants to become a “modern country”.

An aspect of this is the pursuit of development is the popularity of learning English. Since the government schools are of pretty low standards, people attend private schools in droves. This has resulted in a huge number of private schools or “academies”, which then has forced some ingenuity in terms of naming schools. For example, American Idol International School and Rockefeller School.   

All this makes me conclude: Anybody new to this region better hurry – visit Cambodia now before the good old days with laid back atmosphere and grand old architecture are gone.

Or skip the main tourist destinations and visit Kep or Kampot. 

Cambodia - Sihanoukville Revisited

A couple of years ago, when visiting Sihanoukville, I got the feeling it had become like a town in the wild west – money could buy you anything and opportunities abounded for investors flashing cash. Russian tourists and Russian money (of dubious origin) poured in. Big plans were hatched and entire islands were snapped up (e.g., www.morakotisland.com) by investors with deep pockets.

Now, the situation is quite different. Some of the Russian money men stepped on the wrong toes and their projects went nowhere. The bridge to Koh Phous (Morakot Island) was opened with great fanfare January 1, 2012, but then closed almost immediately thereafter.

Russian tourists no longer flock to the beaches around Sihanoukville, so several hotel projects have been put on hold. For a guy like me, that’s great because I don’t like crowds and the beaches near Sihanoukville are superb.

One side effect the “Russian boom” (although now bust) has had is that the Internet got filled with warnings that the Cambodian islands all were about to be turned into playgrounds for the ultra-rich. Among back-packers, this created a rush to visit these islands before they disappeared. To stay on one or more Cambodian islands became an almost mandatory activity for back-packers passing through Sihanoukville.

As a consequence, the few rustic resorts that were on the islands could not cope with the demand and they expanded capacity. Moreover, entrepreneurs rushed to sign lease agreements and build new resorts in order to meet the demand. Still today, occupancy rates on the islands remain high so more and more bungalows are being built on the islands.

In other words, the big bad Russian plans are no longer a threat to the Cambodian islands, but the demand created by back-packers is gradually resulting in that the Cambodian islands soon will be Paradise Lost just like Koh Samui and Koh Phangan and many other Thai islands are.

Anyway, if you are not a beach freak, there is also a quite nice waterfall to visit while in Sihanoukville. That is, if you can find the dusty road that will take you there. They could do a lot to improve road signage in Cambodia, but I get by with sign language to get directions.

However, some times this approach may result in mistakes and detours, which simply has to be taken as an added experience. In one instance it may take you to a rural village during rice harvest or it may take you through a slum where one gets a taste of what it really entails living on less than USD 2 per day. 

Cambodia - Kep

Kep is a former playground of the French and Cambodian elite. Crumbling mansions, razed by the Khmer Rouge, still sit atop the hill.

Over the last few years, much of the beach-side property that had for decades hosted nothing but ruined villas and tangled jungle has been snapped up by foreign royalty, merchant bankers, expatriates and wealthy Khmers among others.

But the town should not be visited for its architectural beauty. People seeking beautiful sandy beaches should also go elsewhere. 

   

Kep offers tranquility - which basically is a nice way of saying that the most exciting thing is the "local products" annual fair with rickety merry-go-rounds - and is an excellent base for motorcycle rides into the countryside. 

In fact, the sunset viewed while enjoying the food at a seafood restaurant located right on the beach is one of the best things Kep has to offer.

Cambodia - Angkor Wat

After putting it off for years - due to expectations of extreme commercialism - I finally made my way to Siem Reap and to the temples of Angkor. 

While the town's backpacker center was glitzy and fake, it was somehow not as bad as I had expected and certainly not as bad as Bangkok's Khao San Road or as in Luang Prabang. And the temple complex is indeed impressive although it gets "busy" at some places.

So, I'm glad I made the trip although I most probably will not bother going there again. In two full days, you can rush through the sites with some advance planning, but if you have the time, I suggest that you allocate three days.

The southern gate of Angkor Thom (which means Great City) is one of the most famous sights. The bridge crossing the moat is flanked by 54 demons (asuras, on the right) and 54 gods engaged in an epic tug of war as they are pulling a giant seven-headed naga. They're probably churning the Sea of Milk.

This is part of the Hindu creation myth where the gods and demons cooperate for 1,000 years by alternately pulling a giant naga (Vasuki) coiled around Mount Mandara to produce the elixir of immortality. As in real life, once the objective is achieved, one partner to the deal cheats the other. In this myth, the gods refuse to share the elixir with their partners (the asuras) who then try to steal the elixir.

It makes me wonder, if you cannot trust Hindu gods, who can you trust?


Bayon looks like a pile of rubble from the distance but actually has bas-reliefs more impressive than those of Angkor Wat. Bayon has three levels and on the first level alone, the bas-reliefs stretch for 1,200 meters.

The Ta Phrohm temple is very interesting because the temple has (almost) been left in the same state as it was when it was "found" by the French around 150 years ago. This means that the jungle has only been partially cleared; in particular, several large trees have been left standing such as the silk cotton tree in the picture below.

The last picture is from Angkor Wat and is basically only chosen because the sky was so wonderfully clear and blue that day.

Cambodia - Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville Railway Station is an icon of shitty 1960s concrete architecture.

In 1955, a construction team arrived at what was then known as Kompong Som to begin work on Cambodia's first (and only) deep water port. When the port was finished in 1960, the area was renamed Sihanoukville in honor of then King Sihanouk. 

Today, with a good road from Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville is drawing a steady and growing stream of backpackers along with expatriates and locals coming down from Phnom Penh for lazy weekends. Russian tourists have also started arriving in droves.

The first time I visited Sihanoukville (over 10 years ago), I loved it; there were kilometers of white sandy beaches devoid of humans. In particular, Otres Beach was totally undeveloped as it could only be reached by motorcycle as there was no road (only a narrow dirt track) leading to the beach.

Now, seediness kinda starts to outshine the prettiness, especially at Weather Station and Victory Beach. The impacts of sex tourists and Russians with ill-gotten wealth flooding in cannot be hidden. Nor can the forces of "development".

For example the once abandoned Independence Hotel has had a makeover while a large portion of the previously public beach nearby was "sold" to a wealthy Khmer with, you guessed it, connections in the local government.

The trend is in the wrong direction, but outside town, one can still enjoy the sights of rice farmers and salt fields or go trekking in Ream National Park.