Reflecting on History from Sunrise to Sunset in Cambodia

Coming to Cambodia I was really excited to see Angkor Wat but I didn’t know what to expect from the food. I had assumed something similar to Vietnamese cuisine but I found so many tasty curries it reminded me more of Thailand! I also wanted to learn more about what happened during the Khmer Rouge, even though I knew it would be difficult. What you learn in textbooks back home barely scratches the surface on what you experience when you visit the sites themselves.

Walking Across the Border

Early in the morning we left in a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, headed for the border. The drive to the border was only an hour or so, but then we had to take our luggage and walk through the Vietnam exit. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy yet and we got through pretty quickly. There was a VIP line for those who qualify (I don’t know specifics), or you could pay to go through if you wanted to get through faster (hmm). Then we walked across the actual border and went through customs to enter Cambodia. 

It all was pretty quick and some people exchanged Vietnamese Dong for Cambodian Riel with a man by the exit. Since Mr. Wander had looked ahead, he knew they would also take US dollars so we brought some with us so we didn’t need any Riel yet. We found out that they were picky if the dollar was old, worn, torn or marked, they wouldn’t accept them because it had been hard to get new ones since Covid. We boarded another bus, surrounded by the many casinos lining the border. It is illegal for Vietnamese to gamble in Vietnam so Cambodians have placed several along the border to help bring income into the country.

We had a quick lunch along the way, arriving in Phnom Penh several hours later and checked into the hotel. That evening we got a cyclo tour around the city. A cyclo is a sort of reverse tricycle with a seat for the rider in front while the driver pedals behind on a tall seat. Cambodian Cyclo Association, which employs drivers who are down on their luck and provides medical care in an economy still rebuilding since the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Our first stop was this statue of Lady Penh, with pictures around the base depicting her life.

The temple next to the monument, Wat Phnom Daun Penh, was built on top of a man-made hill to house the 4 Buddha statues found by Grandmother Penh. Phnom Penh is named after this temple, as it translates to Penh’s hill. 

Our cyclo drivers weaved in and out of traffic expertly, they stayed as a group and for the most part the cars were nice about letting them through and keep the group together, but there was the odd one or two car that was in a hurry. Our second stop was the Independence monument which commemorates Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953. It is also a memorial to those that gave their lives in the fight for independence.

We walked along the nearby park to meet up with our drivers, where they took us to the final stop, the palace.

Time for dinner, we said goodbye to the drivers and walked to a restaurant a few blocks away to eat food from a chef that used to cook for Gordon Ramsey when he came to the city. Needless to say the food was amazing, I had my first Cambodian curry and it came in this cool crock. It was absolutely delicious, and I realized it was the final cure for the homesickness I had felt in Vietnam. I think I just missed the curries!

Brutal Reality of the Khmer Rouge

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this was a very hard day, yet important. We cannot forget about the horrors of the past, otherwise they will happen again. We had a local tour guide join us on the bus and at the sites, not only giving us context to what we were seeing, but also some personal accounts. The first stop was the killing fields just outside Phnom Penh, known as the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. Everything about how people were brought and even to the methods of murder was to maintain secrecy to the point these fields were not discovered until years later. They used sharp palm leaves or knives instead of guns because they were quieter and less costly They did most of it in the dark where the prisoners were blindfolded, bound, and led to the edge of a new mass grave. In the site we were at, only 80 of the hundreds of mass graves have been exhumed to learn what was done, the rest have been left for the victims to rest in peace. However, because of monsoons, often bones, clothing, or the wires used to bind the deceased have surfaced. There was one large tree that is now covered in bracelets and ribbons as visitors want to leave something in memory of the children who were killed on that tree.

I am sure you can understand why I found it difficult to take pictures here. This last picture is the monument that has since been built. Inside are hundreds of skulls that had been uncovered, organized by age on each of the 4 sides and with indicators sharing either the mode of killing or other injuries found.

The second stop was at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This site used to be a high school and was turned into a prison and questioning center, known as S-21. Most prisoners were those in power when Khmer Rouge had entered Phnom Penh in 1976 and any who were educated: Teachers, doctors, engineers, students, factory workers, soldiers, monks, and eventually their own party as they became more paranoid. They were tortured for names of others they knew at work, in school, in their community, etc that could be found and brought in themselves. They also wanted to find family members to avoid any type of revenge that would rise against them.

It is estimated 20,000 had been imprisoned at some point and only 11 are known to survive, 7 adults and 4 children. Two of the workers and one of the children who had survived were actually at the museum when we were there, selling books they wrote about their experiences and able to answer questions.

I found it really difficult to take any pictures, but you can find many online if you search. It was really a strange place, there were some areas that looked really nice with gardens and a central area where the high school students had gym class, such as a structure that held ropes for climbing. Then you saw the barbed wire along the walkways of the buildings, between classrooms that became the prison cells, and heard that the structure meant for rope climbing was used for torture to get people to talk.

The VIPs each were in their own classroom, chained to their bed. Some were put into tiny 1 square meter cells built using bricks inside classrooms to house many more prisoners, each with their own bar and iron loops to hold their ankles, and to make noise if they moved-they had to ask to be able to sit up, lay down, or turn over. The lowest level prisoners were kept in large rooms all attached to a single long bar where they had to lay alternating to either side. Like I said, really hard to take pictures, not that I’d need the pictures to remember as it will stick with me for a long time.

Back on our bus, our tour guide told us the story of his experience. He grew up closer to the Thai border, and he was about 8 when the Khmer Rouge sent him and his siblings into the fields to work with the rest of the children. Only 3 of his 8 siblings had survived the 3 years, fed only on rice porridge and whatever crickets or other things they could find and eat without being seen. He told us about how one day they were told by those supervising that the Vietnamese was invading, trying to paint the Vietnamese as the enemy. The soldiers fled into the forest but some of the children stayed where they were.  A few days later his mom showed up, they didn’t recognize her as she was so skinny, until they heard her voice. It was moving to hear him recount this memory, I don’t think it is something he has shared often simply because he hadn’t been asked. Our tour guide explained that while it makes him angry to learn that someone of the Khmer Rouge can be free, if he were to act on his anger that will not help his family have food to eat nor does it bring his siblings back. He said they would never forget, and though they could not forgive they had to accept it to move forward, and help build the next generation.

Reflecting in the Mekong

Our CEO advised that after such a heavy day, it is good to sit by the river to reflect and move forward. He suggested and arranged for us a sunset cruise around where the Tonle Sap River flows into the Mekong.

It was hard to say no when he said the words “unlimited beer” but I had a little help accumulating so many of these empty cans. And despite what you might think, Krud tastes better than it sounds ;).

It was a nice evening with our group getting the entire boat to ourselves, taking pictures and getting to know each other better.

We also saw several small boats with families who fish for a living and live aboard. These boats were so small, most barely had a roof to sleep under a 5’ section.

Afterwards we walked to a tiny restaurant covered in drawings by those who had visited, several had been on a GAdventures tour based on their drawings, and from many different countries.

Spiders and Lakes

All along our tour there was actually a second GAdventures tour running parallel to ours. We met one of them during our cooking class in Hoi An, but this time both tours shared the bus that took us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. It was a long drive and along the way we had a rest stop at a place called the Spider Market. There you could buy and eat fried Tarantulas, crickets, among other insects. A few of those on our tour tried a tarantula leg, but only our tour guide would eat the body. I just about tried a leg but chickened out. It didn’t sound like it had much flavor beyond being overly fried so I don’t think I was missing much.

Walking around there were several kids with live tarantulas in their hands, and they wanted to get you to take a picture holding it, or it on your shoulder, so you would pay them. Our CEO suggested not encouraging it as the kids should have been in school. If they earn money they won’t go to school which is the most important.

For lunch we stopped along the Tonle Sap Lake to have lunch at a restaurant over the water. We had to do a photo op at this cute heart. We arrived at our hotel tucked back into the middle of the block down an alley, and was surprised at finding one of the nicer rooms of the trip. We got a quick orientation by our CEO from our hotel by a temple and along a small river towards Pub Streets, pointing out good places to eat along the way.

That night we had booked an excursion to see the Phare Circus, which funds a school for many Cambodian kids to learn a skill that they could make their career in dance, the circus, or creating art. Before the show while we ate dinner, a few younger girls performed the traditional Apsara. This was related to the school, giving the dancers opportunity to perform in front of a crowd.

The circus had 5 men and one woman using different props and costumes to tell stories along a theme with very few words and many acrobatics, including balancing, diablo, a spinning ring hanging from the ceiling I’ve seen in Cirque du soleil, and several stunts involving the entire group stacking or flipping on top of each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and highly recommend it, I wasn’t expecting it to have so much humor, too!

And the Sun Rises

This morning we woke up very early and left the hotel at 4:30am to reach a spot where we could sit and watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We watched from across the moat on the west side, getting some great pictures. 

Since we left before breakfast started, our CEO got the hotel to pack up boxes to have breakfast on the go, and we sat on this wall overlooking a lake near a coffee shop so people could get their caffeine pickup if needed. It was a really good breakfast with toast and jelly, croissants, hard boiled eggs, and a banana. 

Angkor Wat is the central city built 900 years ago but our tour guide took us to a few of the many temples in the surrounding jungle with the plan to start at Angkor Wat first thing the following morning to try and avoid some of the crowds. The first temple we went to was the Ta Prohm, known for being part of the setting of the Tomb Raider movie. We managed to get this picture before a large group of tourists caught up with us.

There were so many trees growing out of the temple, and they were huge trees. 

There was one building inside where if you put your back to the wall and pounded your chest the chamber would amplify the sound. I forget the reason for it if our guide told it to us but probably something you wouldn’t know about without a guide.

In many locations they had construction, or photos of a before and after where they had been restoring the temple. It was not made using mortar, instead stones were cut and placed with keystones and arches to support the structure.

Our tour guide for this day used to be a photographer, so a few times he had us do interesting poses to get a unique picture. Near the West gate, he had Mr. Wander stop in a certain spot to get this shot. Once others in our group saw the image he had to do at least 5-6 more.

Our next stop was Bayor Temple, which was built along with Angkor Thom after Angkor Wat was sacked at the end of the 12th century. The Temple originally had 54 towers but only 37 remain, all with carved facing each of the 4 directions. Around the walls were many inscriptions depicting stories from Buddhism and Apsara dancing. The heat started to get to me so I have forgotten most else of what the tour guide told us in search of shade or a breeze.

Some of the group were ready to get back to the hotel out of the heat or visit the pool so they took a Tuktuk. The rest of us went with our CEO and visited his village and ate at a nearby restaurant.

He showed us his house and we met his wife, two of his kids home from school for the mid-day break, and his mother in law. We were also treated to see their wedding album, where I lost count of the number of outfits they had changed into with a photoshoot in each one, the other members of family and wedding party also changing outfits. Some looked more western style dress or tuxedo but very colorful, some were very traditional in the Khmer style. After looking through the album, his wife had some sticky rice in banana leaves that you dipped in palm sugar syrup for us to try.

His neighbor harvests sap from nearby palm trees and makes the palm sugar syrup and sells it for his income. Our CEO walked us around a bit and showed us the chief’s house, which had the most protective dog of all we encountered, and a few local craftsmen. Most of the houses are built up high on stilts for protection from flooding during the rainy season. Under the home are platforms and hammocks where it is common to take naps during the heat of the day, and resume work or school in the later afternoon. 

Taking his advice, we all went back to the hotel where we relaxed in some A/C and took a nap after the early morning. For supper the two of us we walked to a Restaurant our CEO had pointed out the previous night. The food was delicious, Mr. Wander tried a local dish, Lokluk, which is stir-fried beef in a brown sauce served with rice and a pepper sauce we were introduced to in Ha Long Bay. It is just fresh lime juice with salt and pepper but it’s a very delicious dipping sauce for shrimp or in this case, beef. I had one of my favorite meals, a smoked pepper chicken cashew stir-fry. I had several of these over the next few weeks but none had flavor quite like this.

Many steps of Angkor Wat

The next day we visited inside Angkor Wat itself. Originally built as a Hindu temple to honor Vishnu, it was gradually converted to Buddhism over the years but some of the Hindu carvings remain.

There were carvings everywhere, but some were in various degrees of completion. It is amazing how well things can be repeated to look nearly identical when it was all carved by hand!

We kept winding our way along pillars and up stairways, our tour guide sharing many stories of the carvings on the way. We finally arrived at the top central temple. To protect the longevity of the stairs, they had built wooden stairs overtop for tourists to get in and out, but it was still really steep and had many people a little afraid to come down, having to go backwards.

On the top there is a loop with 4 courtyards in the middle and a few buddhas. It had a lovely view out the east side with a hot air balloon in the distance.

We worked our way out the West side which had a lovely view over this small reservoir.

As we walked away from the city, it was fun to look back and see the far towers rise higher the farther we retreated.

After this we visited two more temples, Neak Poan is accessed by a long bridge over a moat, and Pre Rup Temple that was a great workout with steep stairs.

The bus picked us up and brought us back to the hotel, some opting for another tour of the fishing villages.We went to relax a bit out of the heat and find some lunch. That evening we attended the GAdventures service project for the Cambodia part of the trip, which also doubled as a farewell dinner for the group. Our ride to and from the restaurant were in Tuktuks, but through a certain company that hires and supports women drivers in the male-dominated industry. The drivers gave us each a lotus flower on the ride.

The dinner was at a restaurant called New Hope Cambodia, which is also where our CEO worked prior to working at GAdventures. The restaurant supports school programs, medical care, and a crisis center for kids whose parents cannot afford to pay for school supplies or other costs of education. The goal is to break the cycle of poverty in the particular village in which they serve. GAdventures has always been a major supporter of New Hope but during covid the tourism industry vanished and New Hope nearly did not survive, and wouldn’t have without GAdventures. Our CEO told us he had lost his job for 3 years since there just weren’t tours, still only 50% of CEOs have been assigned to tours because tourism in Cambodia is still recovering.

The dinner was delicious, it was served family style with appetizers, a curry and I think the Lokluk again, and fruit for dessert. I forgot to take pictures and so its hard to remember what we all had! There were some fun and tasty cocktails as well.

Back to Bangkok

The next morning we boarded a bus headed for the Thai border. The tour was just Vietnam and Cambodia, but because Cambodia airports don’t have any of the long haul international flights GAdventures has the tour end in Bangkok, so most people can make it back to their home country easier, which was Europe and North America for everyone on our tour.

It was a few hours to the border, and then our CEO had arranged a few porters with large carts to take and watch our big suitcases and backpacks while we went through customs. Getting out of Cambodia was pretty quick, but the line to get INTO Thailand was over an hour long. We had a quick stop for 7-11 snacks and bathrooms along the way, a longer stop at a food court with another 7-11. Mr. Wander and I both had a series of snacks since we weren’t terribly hungry. We did grab a few random things, one was a ring shaped chip that reminded me of Pringles. My favorite were melon wafer sandwich cookies, the Coconut wasn’t bad but the Melon tasted like honeydew, yum!

It was a solid 6 hour drive so it was late in the afternoon when we arrived at our hotel in the heart of Chinatown in Bangkok. We all got checked in and cleaned up and then wandered to the alley by the hotel to start what became a progressive appetizer of street food. First up was Chicken Satay, hands down the best satay we had in Thailand. The group shared a stack of 15 so we all could get just a taste. Then there were spring rolls, we shared a small plate with another couple, they weren’t too bad but very scant on filling. We found a beer while some were getting some mushrooms on a stick. Then back on the main street it was getting even crazier. We went to a place with pork buns, which might be second to the one we had by the shrine in Nikko, Japan. 

We crossed the crazy street, and tried to make our way along the throng milling on the other side in search of Pad Thai. No luck, but we did find mango sticky rice that we bought to eat as our dessert. At this point we all scattered to find what we wanted to eat for dinner. Mr. Wander and I going back for the chicken satay, and going up to the room to eat. We all met back up on the rooftop bar of our hotel and enjoyed a few rounds with some last group photos and individual photos with the CEO. 

To all of the sticky rice family, it was great to meet you and I hope we meet up again! Perhaps when we come to Europe this summer or if you ever find yourself dreaming of visiting the Midwest of the US we can be your tour guide ;).

Learning of the Khmer

• Khmer = Name for language and people of Cambodia
• Cheers = Choul Mouy
• Hello = Suostei
• Thank you = Arkoun
• Currency, They will take USD and give change in Cambodian Riel; 40,000 Riel ~ $10 USD