Yellow opacity in the sky: that was the first thing I noticed about Cambodia as I looked down from the plane. We left the Phnom Penh and ate lunch in a restaurant across the airport. We tried the Angkor Wat beer, which was a bit too bitter. The owner of the restaurant was very friendly and cooked up an extra dish of vegetable when we complained that there was too little vegetable.
Then we hopped back onto the tour bus and headed towards Angkor . Looking out on the streets from the tour bus, the living condition of the Cambodians looked poor. There were many motorcycles. There were also cars that were so crowded some people even sit on the roof of the car! There was a lot of yellow sand on the road, and lots of rubbish: this country is probably so poor that the rubbish does not get disposed of properly. One of the first things I noticed there were the thin cows: these cows were the thinnest I’ve ever seen in my life! You can count the ribs so easily. Some people said they looked like horses, some say they’re like dogs, but personally I think they looked like mummified cows as they don’t even have an ass! The weather was very hot, approx 30-40oC.
The local tour guide Xing started telling us about the sad history of Cambodia . In 1975, dictator Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge killed approximately 1/3-1/2 of the population! It is a country that has shed a lot of blood. The communist party only ended approximately 10 years ago and the country only started developing recently and is still in a state of confusion/disorganization. Xing says the local people are thin like those thin cows, and if we can find a fat local, we should take a photo with him/her! He also mentions that if you have money, you can buy through many things: as a child he learned that the students who pay the teacher a special “tuition fee” passes their exams, and those who don’t fails! The police also enjoy getting extra income from penalizing people as their income is so low that they are unable to support their families, many of which have more than 10 children! It is also a custom to give tips in this country.
In our first rest stop, we saw something horrifying: fried spiders, fried locusts, fried water cockroaches etc, for eating! Those black hairy spiders were huge; each of their limb seemed almost as thick as my little finger! Xing placed a live spider on his palm and showed it to us. Then he prepared to give us a bag of fried spiders! We challenged him to eat it first before we do, and he didn’t, so none of us ate it! We also tried the coconut, but found it sour and not pleasant tasting.
Our second rest stop is by a tranquil lake. We tried out the yummy green mangos!
On the way there are many “high legged” houses because it tends to flood in the rainy season. The “legs” need to be square so snakes can’t climb up! Outside each house there is a household idol. We saw many weddings being held: it might be a lucky day on their calendar that day!
After 5hours, we finally arrived in Angkor . Xing made a joke saying Phnom Penh and Angkor are very close by because there is only one traffic light between the two (but really, it is because there are no traffic lights at all along the way)! We visited a fruit market and found that most of the fruits are very small compared to other countries. I found the jackfruit and the star apple the yummiest! We then left our luggage in our comfortable hotel room and went for Cambodia massage. The massage was pleasant and some of the other tourists say it is very similar to Thai massage!
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