Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in China, and therefore, Brian had a week off from school. We try to take advantage of every break he has, and this was no different. I've been wanting to go to Siem Reap, Cambodia, for a long time - the pictures of all of the beautiful temples there had me intrigued. The flights to get to Cambodia from Hong Kong weren't ideal, and most involved connections through either Bangkok or Singapore. So, we figured, why not see Singapore too?
I can't really describe accurately how different these two societies are, so, as it goes, I'll let the pictures do the talking for me...
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| Downtown Singapore |
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| Typical home, Cambodia |
In Singapore, we traveled on their slick public transit system, which was spotless inside. In Cambodia, we traveled in tuk-tuks, where I was wishing for a handkerchief to keep the dust and fumes out of my eyes and lungs. In Singapore, we ordered two Singapore Slings at the place where they were invented, the Raffles Hotel, and paid $50 USD for them. In Cambodia, our most expensive meal, including a full bottle of wine, was $35 USD (and it was amazing, clean, with fantastic service). In Singapore, it is against the law to not flush the toilet (I'm serious). In Cambodia, some of the toilets had to be "flushed" by drawing water out of a well.
I think you get the idea... and can imagine what a shock to the senses it was to travel from one to the other. But, we enjoyed both, just for different reasons. I could see myself living in Singapore someday. It's a city that "works". I loved visiting Cambodia, but I'm not sure that I could live there.
Anyways, that's the high level. A few stories to share with you:
Singapore doesn't necessarily have a lot of big "must see" sites. It's just a very livable city, and we enjoyed just walking around and seeing what another of the world's mega cities is like. It actually felt a lot like Hong Kong, only cleaner, and with a more diverse group of citizens. It's a major cross road for trade, and always have been, so "Singaporeans" can "look" very Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, or a combination of all of the above. There were also a huge number of expats in certain parts of the city... kind of like Hong Kong. There are several "quays" along the river, each with a slightly different feeling... one was clearly the party quay, another was definitely where the expats live. All was kind of quiet, I think, because of the Chinese New Year holiday.
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| Clarke Quay |
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| Chinatown with a big Snake for the Year of the Snake |
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| Hindu temple near Chinatown |
The one kind of "must-do" in Singapore is the Botanical Garden, and, more specifically, the Orchid Garden inside. Brian and I didn't really figure out the weather pattern until our last day... at this time of the year, pretty much from about 11 to 3 it will be a torrential downpour - happened every day we were there! We arrive to the Botanical Garden around 1:30... and, yes, it was pouring. We decided that we should stay anyways, because, when are we going to be here again?!? The Orchid Garden was totally worth it, and the rain even slowed down for a little while while we walked through.
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| Gorgeous Orchids, and so many different kinds! |
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| But, we were SOAKED afterwards and definitely were quite the spectacle on the train!! Oh well! |
Our last day in Singapore, we had to catch an afternoon flight, so we had just enough time to go on the Singapore Flyer, which is very similar to the London Eye - a giant Ferris Wheel with great views of the city! Not for those afraid of heights!
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| View of one of the pods... and the Singapore skyline! |
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When we got to the airport, the rough patch of our trip began. I know that I can be a pretty intense person, but normally, at airports I try to keep my cool. I've personally found that being nice to people usually gets a better result than being, well, you get the idea. We went to check in, and the guy was taking a very long time, so I was already a bit concerned. Then, he told us that Brian couldn't go to Cambodia, because he didn't have any "visa" pages left in his passport. We were kind of confused, because there were several open pages in the back of the passport. He pointed out that these pages are marked "endorsement", rather than "visa", and the Cambodian government would not put a visa on this page. For those of you scratching your heads, a visa is just basically a one-page sticker that goes in your passport to get into many countries in Asia (and the world in general). Brian had just gotten his visa for Tanzania, and they had put it on an endorsement page, so we kind of didn't believe the guy, and my blood pressure was rising. He insisted that we could not go without an open visa page. So, I did what one of the old Asia vets told me he used to do to save pages... I started peeling out one of Brian's old China visas, scrap by sticky scrap. I'm pretty sure that I was acting as a caged animal at this point, and I'm not really proud of that. But, it happened. We successfully cleared a page with a tag-team effort. The guy told us that this was not good enough. That was when I absolutely lost my s***. This sweet lil' gal from Ohio totally dropped an f-bomb on the poor guy at the desk. Okay, not my finest moment. But, it worked. We had to sign a waiver that if we were not able to get into Cambodia, we would not hold the airline accountable, but they gave us our boarding passes. We proceeded to hit the nearest bar and down a few beers to calm our nerves. I seriously am not sure what we would have done... I suppose we would have been deported to Hong Kong?!? Glad we didn't have to find out... but, it's a note to the travelers among my readers - CHECK and make sure you have not just an open page but an open VISA page before going anywhere where you will need a visa on arrival.
Anyways, as I mentioned, it was a bit of a rough patch. We arrived to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and could not get cash. Anywhere. No ATM would work for us. Cambodia has its own currency, the riel, however, they really use USD there. We had some to get us by for the meantime, but not enough. I spent an hour on the phone with our bank (don't even get me started about HSBC...), and proceeded to find out that only Union Pay ATM's will work. I have seriously never had a problem in any other country, but this is good to know. We had an awesome tuk-tuk driver that night that took us from one ATM to another until we found one that had the Union Pay symbol. We had dinner, then went to bed. We were both exhausted and had to get up early to catch the boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.
I had read some reviews online about this boat, and they weren't pretty. But, the reviews about taking a bus were even worse, so we went for it. I have to say, this is one of the things I would have done differently. This thing was like a metal death trap. The windows did not open, and I never did see a life jacket. I'm just glad that nothing happened! We were on the boat for about 7 hours, and, to be honest, it was great to see the Cambodian countryside despite being afraid for my life. Even my daredevil husband was concerned, which made me even more nervous!!
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| The death trap we rode on for 7 hours |
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| Cambodian Countryside - the houses are all on stilts because of the flooding season |
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| Fishermen on the river |
Before we boarded the boat, there was a guy asking us if we wanted to have an arrangement for a tuk-tuk driver on the other side. As we hadn't made arrangements beforehand, this seemed like a good idea. The further we got into our trip, the more I thought that there was no way that someone would be waiting for us on the other side. I totally thought we had gotten scammed. Pleasantly, there was a guy holding a sign with our name on it on the other side. However, when he asked me what time he could pick me up the next morning, and I told him that we had a driver included with our hotel package, his demeanor immediately changed - he was banking on repeat business. He started walking, and I stayed as close to him as I could. Brian, meanwhile, was trying to figure out where the heck our bags where. The guy started driving in his tuk-tuk, and I caught up with him. I asked him where he was going, since our bags were still back with the boat. Well, the guy just took off without us!! So, here are Brian and I, standing in a dusty river area, with our two suitcases. I was not enamored with Cambodia at this point. We negotiated with a car to take us to our hotel, and I vowed to think a little more closely about these "great deals" in the future.
The rough patch ended as soon as we arrived to our hotel, the Borei Angkor. This place was absolutely fantastic - the kind of place where the staff refers to you by name and they put a complimentary bottle of champagne in your room. All of the stress from the past hours was immediately washed away.
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| Our room at the Borei Angkor |
We got a good night's rest, and got ready for...
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| our 4:30 am wake up call to go to see Angkor Wat at sunrise! |
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| And it was totally worth it... what a gorgeous site! |
We saw several temples this day, including my favorite, Bayon Temple. I loved all the smiling faces at the tops of the towers. :)
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| Bayon Temple |
We also saw the temple filmed in Tomb Raider - Ta Phrom.
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| Brian and I at Ta Phrom - we are laughing because there is a line of about 50 people waiting to get their picture taken in this exact spot and we were trying to move quickly!! |
Like I said above, the food in Cambodia was amazing and cheap. I want to give a little more information about one of the restaurants we went to in Siem Reap, Haven. This restaurant was started by a Swiss couple, who during a visit to Cambodia, asked at an orphanage what would be done when the children reached the age at which they weren't allowed to stay any longer. Their question was answered with a shrug, and the couple decided to take action. They went home, raised some money, and then opened this restaurant in December of 2011. They take adult orphans, provide them with a home, food, COMMUNITY, and the skills they need to work in the restaurant industry. They have a one year training program, and then assist the employees find permanent jobs afterwards. I have to say, sitting at dinner, and thinking about the fact that these young adults serving us had never had a parent to love them, I just started crying. How does that happen?? But, this place really is a haven for them... they act as a family and you can just see the pride in their eyes as they serve the delicious food they have prepared. An amazing restaurant with a worthy cause. Here is the link:
http://www.havencambodia.com/en/welcome/
We had to fly back to Phnom Penh on Friday morning, the 15th. Our trusty tuk-tuk driver from our other night in PP had kept his promise to us, and was waiting outside our hotel for us when we were ready to tour the city.
Phnom Penh was a bit of a sobering experience. Most of the things that we did in the city were centered around the remains from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. So, this next part is not going to be pleasant to read, but bear with me... it's a part of history that certainly was glossed over when I was in school, and these people deserve for their story to be heard. In the mid-to-late 1970's, a man named Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia. He believed in an agrarian society, and immediately moved everyone out of the cities and into the countryside, where they could work on the land. Any "intellectuals" - doctors, lawyers, people who spoke a foreign language - were brutally murdered. Out of a total population about about 7m at the time, 2M were killed, either for being an intellectual, or by being worked to death in these fields with little to eat. Our driver in Siem Reap was born in 1979, the year the Khmer Rouge regime ended. His parents had lived in the rice paddies. He told us about his father saving small crabs he found in the fields in his pockets for later, just so he could get a little protein. What a terrible way to live! Cambodia has come a long way since 1979, and the population is up to nearly 15M, more than 50% of which is under 25 years old. This country will find its way too, I'm sure, but, would have been a lot further on the way without these years of rule by terror.
About 15k outside of Phnom Penh are the Choeung Ek Killing fields, which are a site where about 20,000 Cambodians were brutally murdered. This is a memorial where the remains have been lovingly taken care of and enshrined in a beautiful pagoda.
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| The Killing Fields, with the memorial pagoda in the background |
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| Many tourists leave bracelets on site out of respect for all those that lost their lives here. |
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| Thousands of skulls enshrined in the pagoda |
We watched a great movie about all of this, called "The Killing Fields". It was well-made, and I'd highly recommend it if you have the time to watch.
It was difficult to see all of this, but I'm glad we went. Every trip that we take fills in a little bit more of the history of parts of the world that I know nothing about. Brian and I continue to just pinch ourselves that we are fortunate enough to have these experiences, and I'm happy to get to share them with all of you! Big hug from Hong Kong! :)
