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Cambodia travel info
THAILAND-LAOS-CAMBODIA:
26 days summer 03
INTRO ABOUT
CAMBODIA
Kind of travel: alone in a wholly independent travel
When: heart of the
wet season (2003 summer)
How I moved: by
minibus, by bus, by pirogues and by moped
Where I slept: in
very cheap hotels (hotel...uhm.. it's a big word)
How much: few
countries in the world are as cheap as South Asia. If you come from the western world
everything'll be just peanuts. 10$ each day can be enough for a low budget travel. But
watch out for the visas: they're expensive (Cambodia 15 days, 40$)
Baking or freezing?: baking and sweating, this'll be the worst.
Dangers: the north is not as
safe as Siem Reap and Phon Pen it's said to be the worst place as concerns safety in
Cambodia. But frankly I didn't have problems.
What I liked: "not
pushy at all" attitude of the people, how much "history" I learnt just
travelling there and travelling on the roof of the boat from Stung Treng to Kompong Thom
What I disliked: the
f...ing superhumidity and hotness, that made my brain melted, and travelling 10 km/h on
the superbumpy roads!
What you do need: nothing
more than few T-shirts, some pants, and, if you wanna enjoy the travel, don't bother for
the hygenic local conditions. The last but not the least, see more than SIEM REAP!
THE TRAVEL
I
don't really know why it's years that the idea of hanging out
in Indochina buzzes in my mind; attracted by this cluster of
nations so known as stages of some past human madness (from
the '65-'73 war to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge), on the opposite
so few mentioned in their actual situation.
At the beginning I was mainly focused on Vietnam and Cambodia,
but then, for several reasons, despite already handing an expensive
Vietnamese visa, I swapped the Hochi Min country with the earth
of the elephant: Laos.
To
fly to Bangkok rather than directly to my goals was the only
way to save bunches of euros and if you add I had to wait
the Laotian visa for 5 days in the north of Thailand you figure
out why part of my travel passed through the former country.
PREPARATION
I prepared this trip
for months before leaving: first of all reading
pages and pages of funny reports to plan my itinerary
and at the end I completely changed my way following
my instinct and some funny fellows known on the
road (thanks Leigh, thanks Enn). But this is the
fun of travelling.
"Travellers don't know where they are going,
while tourist don't know where they have been".
Moreover I straived to carry just the indispensable
stuff on my shoulders encompassing gears for my
daily fight against supposed mosquito swarms. However
evidently they were on holiday somewhere else and,
as every travel (maybe even more than others), I
utilised just a part of my 19 Kg bag... this freaks
my out every time I come back!!!!! (equipment
tips)
I've promised myself next
travel just two pairs of slip and a toothbrush (I'll
borrow the paste) in a plastic bag ;-))
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ITINERARY IN CAMBODIA
[In
Thailand]
[In Laos]
I enter Cambodia from the border with Laos
after having spent few wonderfull days on the Mekong.
It has been an hassle to cross the border and I immediately
experienced how these two countries differ.
Cambodia few years ago came out from a
30 years war, and this obviously cannot be devoid of consequences:
while Laotians are far far more laid-back and smiling, in Cambodian
I felt a kind of melancholy. It took one day to get to Stung
Treng by a kind of wooden boat floating on the Mekong and
this was definitely an off-of-the-beaten-track leg. I got well
impressed by this colonial town far from everywhere, where I
knew my first cambodian friend who took me to know his mother
in the darkness of his "hut" (read
the story). Then another day to Kompong Thom, still sailing,
but now on the roof of a fast steel boat... no way, the first
steel boat I've seen in the last 20 days!!
And finally one day more through the
dusty bumpy roads of the flat Cambodia to get to the famous
Siem Reap,
where I stopped some days enjoying the eases to be in so a touristy
place.
Then again on the road for the last bumpy hours before reaching the Thai border, where a
four lane highway takes you to the crazy Bangkok, where I spent three days sweating and
sorting out images, thoughts and memories crowding my mind.
IMPRESSIONS ABOUT CAMBODIA
Cambodia, Kampuchea, Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge.... all these
names echo fears and sadness in those who know the Cambodian thirty years long civil war.
Now the war is over, but the present is inevitably son of the past and as result Cambodia still shows his deep wounds. Neither Laos is a develop
country but when I entered Cambodia I immediately noticed a general different mood. The
calm and kindness were the same characterising the whole Indochina, but I felt a kind
melancholy and a hidden anger in the people, being aware of a bad past and an uncertain
future: not so many smiles handing you your fried chicken, just bought at the stall,
compared to the ones you received in Laos or Thailand. The roads and the means of
transport are the worse you can find in Asia and the UXOs (unexploded ordains) are still
spread in many areas. In addition the country is governed by the vietnamese party (CPP
(07/2003) that exploit the resources and threat the Cambodian confidence. But for a
traveller, not for a tourist scared by the bumpy roads, Cambodia is
charming. No pushy or dodgey people, no real hassles crossing the country; on the
opposite it has been a great chance of understanding an important part of the world's
history and its consequences.
I still remember how fun it has been driving a crap moped in the night in Stung Treng
searching a stall for a noodle soup, or floating on the slow and endless Mekong in one of
the wildest part of the country sit a kind of big trunk called "boat".
I think in Cambodia, unlike Laos or Thailand what really pays you off is what you
understand of the country more than what you see, and if you're eager of it than get
there, despite the hot, the humidity and the pouring daily rain typical of the wet season
(June-August).
If you're heading just to Siem Reap, you'll see a cute town (I liked it, maybe just cause
I finally rested there) and awesome temples, but Siem Reap is not
representative of Cambodia, you must be aware of it!
Cambodia is fast changing and, for a traveller, not to the wrong
way.
Alby
Note: the paragraphs INTRO,
PREPARATION and ITINERARY are equal to those in the Loas and Thailand chapters since the
travel was the same, while the last one about the IMPRESSION differs for the three
countries
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