Off the bus from Kampot to Phnom Penh, we went straight to the hotel Mary had booked for us and Rita was already there waiting for us. She had brought the candy from Paris, that Leo had asked for.
That’s about the last thing that went as planned!
We were barely seated when she first told Leo « why don’t you come to Bombay for a month, instead of Indonesia, all the kids are there on vacation, you’ll have a blast! »
Leo didn’t think twice about it, he was sold on the idea and too happy to have his bag and his parents off his back for a month!
Then Rita barely managed to hold it for five more minutes before turning to Mary: « You wanted to learn about recruitment. I have a new project starting and it’s the perfect opportunity for you to try this for a couple of months before returning to your job! Why don’t you skip Indonesia and come work with me instead ! »
The idea did make sense, it is indeed a good opportunity for Mary to try something else without having to handle two jobs at the same time.
And that’s how it took 10 mins for Rita to take away my wife and my son and leave me alone for the last leg of the trip! 💔
Eventually, we had to talk Leo out of it because it made no sense to loose the plane tickets we had already booked for him, and buy new ones, just to lock him in an apartment and watch TV for a month instead of visiting Indonesia !
But Mary’s mind is set; it’s her last two weeks in the trip. Then she’ll follow her sister, and I’ll continue through Thailand and Indonesia with Leo.
To change subject, we then went to the cheerful Genocide Museum that explains how Pol Pot brought the whole country to its knees between 1975 and 1979, and managed to kill one fourth of the Cambodian population ! 🤢
« S21 » an old school converted by Pol Pot to an interrogation and torture secret prisonMary and Leo posing with Bou Meng; one of the 12 survivors of S21 (out of 18000 people!)
Following up on our exploration of ancient civilisations, we arrived to Angkor Vat; a huge complex of Hindu and Buddhist temples built by the Khmers and dated 10th to 13th century AD.
It’s quite fascinating to visit them almost back to back after the Mayan Palenque, the Incas’ Machu Picchu or the Moais of Easter Island, because it calls for comparisons !
Well, I’m not going to wander too far in comparing things I am most ignorant about, but two aspects in particular struck me.
On one hand the carvings. Angkor Vat is dated four to five centuries earlier than the Machu Picchu, yet the carvings are so much finer and delicate here. Of course they’re completely different civilisations, yet in so many ways, it seems that even back then, the world was somehow connected.
The other one is the cut and adjustment of building blocks, which I was expecting in Machu Picchu but I was surprised to find also here in places, mostly on floor stones. Different civilisations, seemingly same concepts.
These temples are a confusing mix of Hinduism and Buddhism. They were built at a time when the Khmers were transitioning from Brahmanism to Buddhism and were later reused and modified.
There are so many clichés and books and movie sets inspired by Angkor Vat that we didn’t even know what to expect! For instance I was somewhat expecting to see the temple of King Louie in the Jungle Book movie, but that one was created from scratch for the movie, it doesn’t exist in real 😅
We spent 3 days visiting only a few of the dozens of temples in the complex. One can easily spend a whole week there. Of course after a while they all start to look alike, but there are lots of forest paths to explore away from the main road. Angkor Vat is the main temple but we found other temples more interesting than this one. Bayon, the second most important, is impressive with its many Brahma faces looking in all four directions, unfortunately the top level was closed for renovation. Then Bantey Srei, further away from the rest of the temples, features the finest carvings, in red sand stone. But our favourite was Ta Prohm whose ruins are covered with ginormous tree roots! We reached Ta Prohm from the « back door » via a path in the forest. On the way we encountered the most beautiful gate, alone in the forest, away from the crowd.
We had rented scooters to get to the temples. Rita was not very self assured at first, but she had already rented scooters when she was in Bali. And indeed once accustomed to the road, she was riding just fine, all the way to Bantey Srei and back.
But after lunch, one afternoon, she was just turning the bike around to the other side of a small road when another bike came waiting for her. But instead of quietly finishing her manoeuvre, she suddenly panicked by fear if disturbing the traffic, hit the gaz and got dragged to the side of the road where she fell!
We ran to her and realised she had a cut on the right leg and the left foot was swelling! By chance there was a dispensary just next door that quickly cleaned the wounds. Then we took her to the nearest hospital to get an x-ray and we were relieved that no bone was broken.
The next day we’re heading to Thailand. Not by bus this time, but by plane because Rita needs a VISA on arrival which may not be done at the land border. With her injuries, it’s also better that way
Sunrise on Angkor VatReflections on Angkor VatStone puzzles reminding of the IncasFaces of BayonMary in BayonBantey SreiThe lost gate Ta ProhmPreah Khan
And there we are in Cambodia. We left Don Det and the 4000 islands in a small river boat up to the mainland where we hopped on a bus to Siem Reap, in Cambodia.
We had been warned about the “stamp fee” of $2 collected by the agents at the border. Not exactly legal, but tolerated by the authorities apparently! If you refuse to pay, they make you wait all day but eventually let you go. When we got to the border, it seems that no two people had the same treatment. We had to pay $2 per person to exit Laos, except for Leo, because even corrupt officers have their morality! Then we paid $1 for the 3 of us to the “doctor” who checked our temperature (it was 40 degrees outside, I’m not sure what she measured!), then the stamp to enter Cambodia was free for us. Other travellers in our group had to pay everywhere and for each person. So I guess Leo and maybe our Indian origin played in our favour! The rest of the trip went smoothly bumpily! It was a bumpy dirt road most of the way from the border to Siem Reap. All together it was about 11 hours from Don Det to Siem Reap.
The biggest news item about Cambodia, is that Rita will be joining us in Phnom Penh 🎉 Therefore, we’ll skip Angkor Vat for now and return to Siem Reap with her in a few days. But we still spent 2 nights in Siem Reap, to get some rest and explore a bit of the town before the next night bus to Kampot, in the south.
It’s the first time I see a country where they juggle constantly with two different currencies: you pay in USD and they give you change in Rhiels.
Cambodia beer -and a few other brands- have a fidelity program here: when you open a can, you may get the next beer free, or sometimes even win a few bucks. As I was walking back to the guesthouse, I decided to give it a try. I stopped at a shop to buy a beer, but they had none cold, so they sent me to the neighbour. There I find a cold can, pay 2500 rhiels and open it. The capsule say something, so I show it to the vendor. She reads, gets her glasses, reads again. I had just won 50000 rhiels! Beginner’s luck 🍀 My first beer in Cambodia cost me minus $10!
We won’t spend a lot if time in Cambodia so instead of stopping everywhere and living in the bus, we limited our visits to a few places: Kampot, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap / Angkor Vat, and maybe something on the way to Thailand.
We would have totally skipped Phnom Penh if it wasn’t for Rita, but the genocide museum is said to be interesting so we may try that (sorry Leo!)
Kampot is small laid back town in the south, between Sihanoukville and Kep. It is surrounded by the Bokor mountain and national park on one side, pepper plantations on the other and the ocean a few kilometres to the south.
There are a few waterfalls in the region, so the first thing we did of course was to rent a bike and go check them out. We tried going to the Ov Mal Veal Pouch waterfall, it was quite epic. The « road » to get there was a skinny band of concrete, barely wider than the width of my tires, mostly broken, climbing straight uphill. It was like riding on a tight rope (with holes in the rope!). It took us 2 hours to climb up. Leo and Mary often had to get off the bike when the road was too broken. We had almost reached the waterfall when some guys coming down told us it was completely dry! I found the route beautiful and rather amusing (although very difficult) but it was super hot and Mary and Leo were so mad at me for taking them there that we just gave up 500m before reaching, and turned around. The way down was just as hard but Leo was filming the road this time, so he had some fun. No waterfall for us, we just rode back to town and jumped in the Kampong river to freshen up and watch the sunset.
The next day we rode our bike up the Bokor mountain. We saw a lot of monkeys on the side of winding roads (would be a feast for the Woaronis as Mary said!), but the top of the mountain has been recently bought by the Chinese to build condos and casinos. They have been pouring concrete and completely disfigured the mountain, and apparently noone is even buying it.
Bokor also has a big waterfall site, the Popokvil. This one also was impressively dry. From the wide cliff, only a tiny stream of water was falling through a hole. But it was enough for us to take a very refreshing shower 🚿
Next we went visiting the pepper plantations. La Plantation is a popular one to visit. Rather recent, it’s actually a social project created in 2013 by a Belgian couple. The plantation provides work, income and school for the local community. It produces high quality pepper with the Fair Trade label. After the visit we tasted some delicious pepper flavoured ice creams 😋
On the way back, a part of the dirt road had been made wet by some truck and become very muddy. I slowed down but I didn’t realize how slippery the mud was until I lost control of the bike and we slipped in the mud! Mary was ejected from her seat but Leo was held in front between my arms and legs. Luckily the mud was soft and smooth, so noone got hurt; we were covered in mud but barely scratched. The bike was fine too and we rode back home safely.
On our last day in Kampot, we rented a Kayak on the river and went swimming on some hidden river beaches. Leo wanted to play in the waterpark, but they refused my $20 note because it had a tiny stain of ink in the corner. Apparently the banks here refuse to take stained or damaged USD notes.
We are now on our way to Phnom Penh, we’ll meet Rita in a couple of hours.
French colonial architecture in Siem ReapMonk bowing to the ancient warriors Music at the templeMonk in Wat Bo, Siem ReapSunset on Siem ReapPortrait of our tuktuk driver in KampotUp the hill to Veal Pouch waterfall Leo at the ruins of the Black Palace in BokorGraffitis in the ruins of the Black Palace in BokorA little girl is posing on her Chinese astrological signYoung men watering the Shiva Linga for fertility Chinese idea of an idillic hill station, in BokorMary overlooking the dried out Popokvil waterfall Oh there’s a little stream down there!Leo and his electric skidding scooter
Siem Riep et hôtel piscine Quand on est arrivés à l hôtel qui était luxe avec une piscine je me disais que ça ne pouvait pas être cet hôtel là et j’étais super excité car c’était celui-là. 🙀😻 Mais à part ça c’était vraiment que mon père qui avait exploré ma mère et moi on est resté à l hôtel 🙂
Quand on est arrivés à Kampot l’hôtel que maman avait booké était plutôt pas mal avec une télé avec Netflix gratos bonbons gratos et mini golf gratos 😎donc j’étais vraiment content. 😀
La cascade introuvable Ce jour on voulait aller se baigner dans une cascade 🚰 Et c’était super difficile. 😣 On a pris des heures à monter avec la route la plus étroite et la plus raide et la plus cabossée et la plus dangereuse ☢️ que je connaisse. 😳 Quand on était à 2 mins de la cascade, on est retournés car quelqu’un nous a dit qu’il n y avait pas d’eau. 😭😭😭😭😭 Je suis déçu 😿 
Après cette décevante aventure, nous avons savouré des Takoyaki, délicieuses boulettes de poulpe 🐙 enrobées de sauce soja, de mayonnaise, d’algues et de peau d’oignon frite 😋. Ce qui a vraiment été amusant, c’est lorsque j’ai fait de la moto et qu’elle a dérapé, c’était hilarant 🤣. En réalité, c’était une moto électrique pour enfants avec une roue avant stable et deux roues qui peuvent pivoter dans toutes les directions, ce qui permet de faire déraper la moto 🤣.
Un jour on est allés pour voir la plantation de poivre avec tour guidé gratuit. 😋 La partie la plus intéressante 🧐 était quand on goûtait les poivres et je peux vous dire que plusieurs sauces arrachent un max. 😄😀😛😕🙁😟😣😖🥵😳😳🥴🤢🤮 En partant on a glissé en moto et on a fait notre premier accident, 💥 Ma mère disait qu’elle s’est cogné la tête et qu’elle s’est fait un peu mal mais à part ça aucun blessé. 😅
Buddha black palace
Nous nous dirigeons vers une statue de Bouddha (comme à notre habitude 😕). Il s’agit cette fois d’une imposante représentation de Bouddha, bien que sa tête soit déformée et ses couleurs plutôt laides 😑. Juste après, nous avons découvert le palais du roi, qui était malheureusement recouvert de graffitis 👻 et se révélait être un espace assez restreint. Ce palais, connu sous le nom de Black Palace en raison de sa roche sombre, pourrait être nommé simplement “Black” d’après moi 😶.
Cette journée n’a pas été grandiose, car nous avons visité une cascade qui s’est révélée être en réalité une modeste chute d’eau. Mes parents s’y sont baignés, mais quant à moi, j’étais satisfait de simplement les observer😁 Je m’amusais à éclabousser des petits insectes qui flottaient sur le peu d’eau douce Cette petite cascade était plutôt charmante avec les trois ou quatre légers traits d’eau presque comme des cheveux qui coulaient et qui tombaient sur le sol glissant recouvert d’algues vertes qui polluent la roche rugueuse d’un subtil ton gris.
Pour me faire plaisir de temps en temps, nous avons décidé de passer cette journé dans un parc aquatique. L’endroit était tout à fait charmant, et nous avons commencé par une agréable session de kayak, explorant les multiples petites plages qui bordaient la rivière. À notre retour, nous avions prévu de profiter du parc aquatique gonflable, mais malheureusement, notre billet présentait une infime et frustrante trace de stylo 😒.Raison pour la quelle il a été refusé par le personnel du parc. J’étais donc reparti avec une légère déception, mais je me suis rapidement ressaisi. Puis, nous avons eu l’occasion de goûter pour la première fois du durian. Personnellement je ne suis pas particulièrement friand de ce fruit.
Rita Phnom Penh et prison On est tous excités, 🤩 on va voir Rita, 😄 Je crois que j’étais le plus excité, 🤩 Je suis même excité 🤩 de vous raconter que je suis/étais excité. 🤩 Bon bref en arrivant à Phnom Penh on a vu Rita… 🤩 Et j’étais excité 🤩 je suis même … bon bref j’étais excité 🤩 quoi. 😶 La première chose qu’on a fait avec excitation, 🤩 c’était aller en prison … mais non on a juste visité une atroce prison 😀🙂🙃🤨😑🫤😕🙁😞😣😖😢 Elle était horrible et voilà. 😳 (Tout le monde était torturé et voilà) 😖 (Enfin c’était un camp de torture de Pol Pot et voilà mais par contre là j’étais pas excité)
Angkor Wat
Jour 1
De Angkor Wat on voulait faire un beau lever de soleil mais on a raté car les billets pour rentrer étaient de l’autre coté de Angkor Wat et on a visité un énorme temple qui est magnifique, 🤩 C’est un vieux temple composé de plein de duplex et cette immense beauté est remplis de touristes. 🙃 La place principale où il y a une magnifique vue est interdite aux enfants🥺🚫car les escaliers pour atteindre ce view point sont un peu raides. Ensuite on est allé à Bayon et c’est la bas qu’on a vu des singes, 🙈🙉🙊 le seul problème à Bayon c’est qu’il y’a beaucoup de détails dans la pierre qu’il est très difficile de comprendre quand quelqu’un prend une photo sinon cet endroit est connu pour ces Buddhas sculptés dans plusieurs briques. 😁Et je trouve ça magnifique 🤩
Jour 2
On a réussi à faire le lever du soleil sur Angkor Wat 😃 et c’était incroyable. 😻 J’ai même réussi à prendre un Time laps (accéléré) trop beau. 🥰 Ensuite on a re visité un peu Angkor puis on a fait une heure de route pour aller dans un monument moins connu qui s’appelait Bantey Srei. Cet endroit n’a vraiment pas d’ombre et il fait super chaud 🥵 mais le plus intéressant c’est que toutes les pierres sont rouges oranges et ça rend l’endroit très beau. Mais on a pas fait une heure de route pour ça on a fait une heure de route pour manger du Num Ban Chok qui est une soupe de nouilles au poisson 🐟. Il faut savoir que s’est la deuxième fois après longtemps que Rita n’a pas fait de scooter 🛵 donc elle est très stressé. 😬 Et un moment en repartant elle voulait tourner mais elle bloquait la route donc tout le monde la regardait donc elle était pas bien et elle a foncé à 1000 km/h et elle est tombée. Tout le monde s’est garé,et les gens sont venus. Elle avait très mal et son pied commençait à gonfler et elle avait deux coupures à la jambe, mais heureusement il y avait un petit hôpital local à côté. L’infirmière a juste désinfecté mais elle ne pouvait rien faire pour le pied. Donc on a dû aller à l hôpital de Siem Riep pour faire un X-ray 🩻 mais ils disaient qu’elle n’avait rien .😒 Donc on est rentrés à l’hôtel et on s’est baignés dans la piscine 😞
Jour 3
Le dernier jour on est allés dans un des endroit les plus beaux. 🤩 Car il y a les temples recouverts de grands arbres magnifiques 🤩 et toute les rats euh racines sont super belles mais ce jour Rita et moi n’on rien fait appart ça 😜