Phnom Penh - Cambodia

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Phnom Penh airport was what I can only describe as a ZEN airport (at least on the national arrivals terminal).

This was the first and only time I've seen a terminal with its own little ponds, and flowers, completely open space with no roof...so while you wait for your suitcase you can hang around by the ponds and admire the multicolour flowers...unless it's the late hours of the afternoon and the mosquitos are trying to make a dinner out of you, in which case you stick to the luggage belt and stare at the ponds and the multicolour flowers from a safe distance... We were having our malaria tablets every day but better not tempting your luck...

This time we weren't offered a car from the hotel so we took a taxi. We already knew the price was fix but still... we tried to haggle over the price, after one month haggling every day for everything we just started haggling without even thinking about it. It's like it's expected from you and people would take you for a fool if you don't do it...

Anyway, when we finally got to the hotel it was already dark and we were quite tired so we walked around the hotel and congratulated each other for choosing such a wonderful place. :-)

 

 

It wasn't the cheapest nor the closest to the river but like the Loreal's ad...we were worth it!

The first thing we did was to make good use of the swimming pool...I would swear I could hear the swimming pool calling our names... so 5 minutes into the hotel and the 3 of us were already in the water. :-)

Now it was time to find something to eat and luckly for us we were very close to a street full of decent restaurants so after a 5 minute walk we found a fantastic restaurant colonial style. Food was good and we didn't even have to use the chopsticks! they provided us with fork and knife...how luxurious was that!!

Right in front of the restaurant there was a shop were you could buy any film, tv series or documental ever made for one dollar each. It was truly amazing, there were lots of these shops in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, it was a normal shop with its air con, selves, and lots of dvds fully labelled and wrapped up... and they were as good as the originals with special features and everything!

Breakfast was included so we ate until we couldn't eat anymore and left for our first day in the capital...

The plan was to visit the temples and they weren't too far away so we decided to walk all the way there instead of taking a tuk-tuk... at some point we took the wrong turn and ended up walking along a non very touristic street...it was early in the morning but the sun was starting to make its presence noticed, and between the heat and the stink from all the rubish in the street we were all starting to regret the idea of walking...then we realised we had taken the wrong turn
without any argument from anyone we all decided to do the rest of the trip by tuk-tuk. The stink was too much to bear...so we stopped the first tuk-tuk we found, haggled for a few minutes over the price and off we went to the temples.

The price to enter the temples was exorbitant in comparison with an average salary, if I recall correctly it was something like $20 each although I suppose they would have a different price for locals. We got a bit dissapointed with the temples...they all had a clear Thai style unlike the temples in Siem Reap. You wouldn't say that out loud in Cambodia or you could end up with a black eye but although they were worth a visit, the temples in Thailand which follow the same style are far more impressive.

I suppose in the same way Vietnam was taken by the Chinese for about 1000 years and now you can see the chinese influences all over, in Cambodia you can see the Thai influences from their occupations.

At 11:00 or so they closed the temples, yes that's right they closed the whole place until 14:00 so instead of hanging around until then we decided to go back to the hotel and go back to the street with all the restaurants to try our luck with another one, so we picked a tuk-tuk at the exit from the temples, haggled with the driver and when the price was right we hopped onto the vehicle and made our way back to the hotel and from there to the restaurant.

Then we spent some time by the swimming pool and by late afternoon we decided to go and check out the river at night and find a place where to have dinner.

We got a tuk-tuk from the hotel...haggled a bit about the price and a few minutes later we were by the river... it was quite dissapointing so we decided not to go back the following day as we had planned, nonetheless we found a fantastic restaurant by chance. It was very popular with foreigners and it had all the walls filled with previous customers comments...from people all over the world in all languages and the food turned out to be really good. I'm sure it was recommended by some guide book otherwise how would you explain the influx of foreigners all going to the same restaurant? And we saw a couple of local guides who brought their group of foreigners to the restaurant...the things you find by chance sometimes...

The following day we decided to spend it by the swimming pool, reading and drinking, sorry re-hydrating... until it was the time to say good-bye Cambodia and go to the airport.

Asian Oddities

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For us, westerners some of the things asians do or don't do may seem a bit extraordinary. Below is a brief list of some of the things I personally found odd and different from what I am used to.

1.- The masks

The very first thing that stroke me when I got to asia was that some people were wearing a mask, masks like the ones surgents wear in an operating theater.

My first thoghts were...pollution and swine flu.

As it turned out, that wasn't the case, well a small minority may use them for one of those reasons but I did ask to one of our guides in Vietnam (I´m always the one making all these weird out-of-the-blue questions to guides and other locals). It seems that it is only or mostly women who wear the masks and that is because in Asia being brown is not attractive, being white is *VERY* attractive...yes, you have read that last line correctly. If you have a white skin and never get tanned on the beach...Asia is your place!!!

Women wear a mask, sunglasses and long sleves and long trousers or dresses. Being tanned means you're a farmer hence you are always under the sun, if you are white/er it means you spend a long time indoors, which means you're either rich or have a good job that allows you to stay indoors most of the day.

Our guide confided in us the little fact that Vietnamese men like Japanese women the most for three reasons. They are whiter, loyal and family oriented.Maria and Susana tried to push the guy to get the girls point of view...so what do Vietnamese girls like then? but the guy either didn't know or didn´t want to tell us.


2.- What´s with the pyjamas

This brought a few laughs during the trip. I think the three of us were really impress with this. People in Asia go out (specially at night) in their PJs...yes that's right Pyjamas and I´m not talking about something that looks like a PJ or just standing by the door at their house. I´m talking about wearing a fully fleshed Pyjama, the real McCoy! men and women go for a strall unashamely in their pyjamas, they travel by motorbike wearing nothing but their classic looking PJs and it is the most normal thing ever for them. In Hanoi, by the lake in the centre every night and morning you can see tens and tens of people exercising in their PJs by the lake.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it? there are lots of questions that spring to mind when you see something like that...do they have a spare pyjama for looking sexy on the street and then another for sleeping in or is it a two in one kind of deal? When they buy their PJs do they wonder how they´ll look in it walking by the lake? I wonder whether they give you one when you join the local gym...


3.- Haggling

This is not a curiosity or a past time you can endulge in when you feel like...no...this is a skill you need to learn and quickly if you don't wanna pay more than what you already pay in Europe. You have to come prepared for this...it's not something that you do when you fancy it's something you have to do all the time...you fancy a pack of chewing gums...well get ready for at least 10 minutes of haggling over the price...you are a forigner hence the initial price may be the equivalent to 2 € for example...I can't tell you the amount of times I past by a shop were I wanted to buy something like a bottle of water and because I knew the work involved in buying it I just prefered to go thirsty...too tired for haggling. On the other hand if you are prepared  for it and rested, it can be quite fun and you can end up with amazing deals. I think the lessons and tecniques we learnt in this trip are worth a post of their own.

A word of caution, haggling on your own is very difficult, going with a partner in crime makes things much easier...they do it too...they always consult with their husband,brother,sister,whatever on the phone to "check" whether they can reduce the price and how much.It´s part of the theater that comes with their haggling tecniques.


4.- Chopsticks

You better learn how to use them back home because when you get to asia you won't have the chance to request a set of knife and fork you'll get a set of chopsticks and off you go mate!

On the 2 weeks we've spent in Vietnam I can't recall any one time where we were offered a knife and fork...it was always chopstiks...so now you know...start practicing if you're planning on visiting Vietnam.


5.- Bribing

Just get used to the idea you´ll do it at some point...or you´ll suffer the consecuences of not doing it. Corruption levels are quite high and western currencies are too strong so as far as they are concerned, we (westeners) are loaded so what´s a few spare dollars to us...when they can live for a month with those few dollars. Sometimes you´ll get people asking you to pay them, other times you'll make the suggestion just to avoid wasting lots of time or some other unpleasent consecuence...

Over here I would really get some problems to get to sleep should I have to bribe someone...over there I didn´t even flinch about it...it just came naturally... and I didn't lose any sleep over it. Everyone  over there was expecting it.

Siem Reap - Phnom Penh

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It´s funny how we all start getting used to certain things that we would have thought impossible back home, like bribing all type of officials at the airports.

It's actually pretty hard not to do it! I think anyone travelling to or through Asia should make a special allocation on their budget for bribes.

The other day leaving Vietnam we paid to get our passports stamped without having the ridiculous piece of paper they gave us on the way in, and yesterday when travelling from Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn, at the airport when we were trying to check in our luggage, they official at the desk looked at us and told us we would have to pay $26 for excess baggage.

Pardon for my french but excess baggage my ass, 3 tourists, lets see how much money we can get from them. 57 Kg between 3 people was less than 20Kg each but after almost 3 weeks in Asia we didn't even flintch.

Susana started with the "Dickens' routine" and said we were poor, last day in Cambodia, we had no money and we had to buy food (as if it came straight from a Dickens' story), but the guy didn't take it so she went
to phase two. Diminish the reason for which they are asking you for your money.

She said no problem, opened her suitcase and for the guys amazement she took a loaded rucksack from the suitcase (taking 9 kg out of the total weight), so they guy immediately changed his song and said, ok, ok...you can put the rucksack back in, only $10 for everything...

and Susana moved to step three. "Always ask for a discount" and said 5$ with discount?, and the guy said...no, no, discount from 26 to 10...and that's when Maria came out of the blue and said ok, ok, how about if we meet half way: $7, no 5 no 10 and the guys with some resignation accepted (the resignation face is part of the acting routine they always do after any haggling...they always pretend you just robbed them).

This time we even haggled on the bribe they wanted us to pay them to take our luggage...I think we've reached a whole new level!

Mind you, all these negotiations are accompanied with a lot of conversations in Spanish among the three of us, pretending we are offended and even outraged sometimes, they are asking for too much, putting ugly faces etc... Serious haggling can only be achieved with a team...you need at the very least another person. They do it too...they pretend they confer with their sister, brother, husband, wife or whatever and they agree to reduce the price just a little bit more.

No wonder people complain when they try to open a supermarket with fix prices!

Siem Reap - Cambodia

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That´s it! The three of us (Maria, Susana and myself) made it to Cambodia in one piece.

Leaving Vietnam was a bit tricker than anticipated. We forgot we had to return a piece of paper they gave us when we entered the country. Maria and myself had checked it with the rest of the luggage so we didn´t have it with us and Susana never got to even see it so there we were at customs and without the bloody paper.

It was my first bribe! I´m not very good at haggling and getting the best price but I think I was very smooth and convinced the customs officer to ignore the paper for $10 and after he accepted I asked him whether the deal could be extended to Maria and Susana, he chated for a little while with his colleague and said yes...so 2 minutes later and $30 lighter we left with our passports properly stamped.

Siem Reap it´s a big change to the system, quite different from Vietnam...it´s more tourist oriented, prices are all quoted in dollars and they are considerably higher than in Vietnam...goodbye to those lunches for 3 people for under 2 €. On the positive side...no more haggling to death for a pack of chewing gums...fix prices again...

I think I´m gonna miss all the theater that came with the haggling...:-)

We are fully booked for the next 3 days. We are gonna visit the Angkor temples. We´ve got our own guide (for the 3 of us) and a driver with a tuck-tuck for the 4 of us, Maria, Susana, the guide and myself. A very decent price for all that. After seeing the prices around I was expecting to pay an arm and a leg for visiting the temples.


UPDATE 14-JAN-2010


So we made it to Siem Reap and we had a car, sent by the hotel, waiting for us outside the airport.

Most of the time in these countries you get offered a car to pick you up at the airport for free, not because of your wonderful telephone skills or because your charming personality left a warm feeling in the hotel personnel and they can't wait to see you.

No... what *really* happens is that if you take a random taxi and tell the taxi driver where you wanna go...he'll tell you that that hotel you want to go to was burnt down last week (or some other natural or not so natural disaster) but don't worry, today is your lucky day because he knows of a good hotel, cheaper than the one you wanted to go...so he can take you there instead if you want...then the hotel owner pays the taxi driver his usual fee and the guy splits leaving you in your new hotel with your fingers crossed :-)

So in order to avoid this, in many occassions, reputable hotels offer to send you a free car to pick you up so that some sleazy taxi driver doesn't take you to some other hotel.

This time we had a good hotel, no swimming pool but we had wifi in our rooms, it was clean and it had a cool look and feel to it. The prices for excursions, tuk-tuks etc were among the cheapest we found in Siam Reap so, all in all it was a pretty good hotel.

This was the chilling out area...and chilling out we were...

Siem Reap it's a weird place since due to the tourism it has been developed much more than the rest of the country.

The whole town seems to have been "designed" to accomodate the influx of tourists pouring in every day. Lots of restaurants accomodating any and every flavour from Cambodian food to Italian, Indian, etc... Massage parlours, Apsara dancers, one zillion tuk-tuks, book stores with only foreign books...

Prices are also quite high in comparison with the rest of the country and always quoted in dollars.

You always had to use a mix of dollars and Cambodian Riels. The currency system worked like this: 4000 Riels were the equivalent to 1 dollar so if the price was $1.50 you would pay 1 dollar and 2000 Riels, or 2 dollars and they would give you back 2000 Riels.

Although prices were considerably higher than the rest of the country they were still quite reasonable for us, instead of $2-$3 for food per person in Siem Reap we had to start paying around $5-$10 per person. On the positive side, because all restaurants were for tourists, the service and the food was of a very high standard, some places even had a band singing.

They also had lots of places with these fish that clean up your skin (they eat all the dead cells of your skill), I had seen them before in Thailand but it seem to be far more popular here. You stick your feet in a small pool filled with these little fish and they come to your fish and start eating away...it doesn't hurt at all but it feels weird...you can feel them biting...

After haggling for a little while we managed to get the three of us in the pool with the fish + a massage for one dollar each. María was the first one to try them...unfortunatelly for her as soon as I put my feet in the pool all the fish in it came to me leaving María with two or three little fish circling around her feet. Clearly she takes too much care of her feet so the poor fish were starving with her...thank God I was there to feed them properly. :-)

I think after me they weren´t very hungry anymore...

Back to the trip. We spoke to one of the guys in the hotel and we were offered several excursions, in the end we opted for a three day visit to the temples...although in the end we only did 2 days but I'm getting ahead of myself...

Below is a map with most of the temples. The first day included a visit to the outter ring, the second day a visit to the temples which are the farthest away and the third day the rest.

So, the following day early in the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel... we met with our guide and driver, we hopped into the tuk-tuk and off we went to Angkor Wot...

There are way to many pictures from all the temples we've visited and it's hard to tell now which is which after all this time so this is just a small selection of some of the temples.

I think apart from Angkor Wot, the one that we found more interesting is the temple with the trees. All these temples were abandonned for hundreds of years and only when they were re-discovered the jungle was cleared out and the temples cleaned up and in more recent times they have started working on the reconstruction of some of the temples. In some cases, trees grew up in the middle of the temple and they did so for hundreds of years.

On the way back the guide stopped by the road where there were making and selling some products from sugar cane. They extract the contents of the sugar cane and put it to boil on a big wok, once it becomes liquid they either put it in pots like peanut butter or they let it cool down and cut it off as sweets which they then sell for 3 packets for a dollar...

I've always considered myself to have sweet tooth and everyone that knows me would testify to this, but I must admit that even I found these sweets extremely sweet. Nonetheless we bought 3 packets (one for each) and then María with the intent of killing everyone with some minor insuline deficiency at her work decided to buy 15 packets...The girl selling the stuff couldn't believe her luck! :-)

Packaging + sweets

That night when we got back to the hotel we decided to go and see the Apsara dancers so we went to a place our guide recommended. The place offered a big buffet, despite of the huge selection available to us, food wasn't as good as in the restaurants but we weren't there for the food. :-)

The folloing day we decided to have breakfast in a local bakery instead of the hotel...and it was so good we repeated the following day. :-)

After breakfast, back in the tuk-tuk and off to the temples although this time we decided to try the ballon. Fantastic views.

Angkor Wot seen from the ballon

We were tempted by the elephants...but we didn't do it in the end.

Random photo. Travelling by tuk-tuk

This is another random photo. Susana in her role as wedding photographer couldn't resist another bride. Apparently this is the typical wedding dress in Cambodia.

On the third day we had already visited all of the most important temples and it was so hot that we decided to stay in and relax, go for a walk in town and do some minor haggle-haggle-purchase...

When it was the time to flight to Phnon Penh, we got a car to drive us to the airport and we got ready for the last stage of the trip...the capital...