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Cambodia!

Okay, I found some time for my second update. The one about Cambodia. Cambodia... Thailand and Cambodia are worlds apart from one another. As soon as you cross the border (btw: that's a nice story to add to our horrors) you see a different world. The land is dry, red sand, very flat, the written language is even harder to understand than Thai - although they speak much better English than the Thai -and people have hardly a thing to do. To get a better picture of what Cambodia is like you should think of those old western movies. The roads aren't surfaced yet(accept te main road), a lot of nature is still untouched - or so it seems - and then suddenly, out of the blue, you see a shed (rather 4 poles and a corrugated iron roof)in which someone is selling drinks or food or both. You wonder why someone desires to live in the middle of nowhere selling drinks to... who actually? Hardly someone in the area!!

These small size entrepreneurs are a typical thing in Cambodia. In a similar 'shed' you'll find a barber, restaurant, repairshop, etc. Everything is improvised. As nothing is surfaced you shouldn'tbe botheredabout your feet being dirty. there's nothing to do about it. Another typical thing is that the whole family is often helping out in these business. So when you enter a restaurant you'll probably see one person working and ten others doing nothing. Later we learned that the unemployment rate is extremely high in Cambodia. It doesn't matter whether you studied or not, the best way to make money is find a job in tourism hence why most guys become a tuktuk or moto drivers. A lot of Cambodian people are still struggling to survive from day to day, saving money is not an option. Many also stay in their parents house for the rest of their live to save on costs. It's a luxury to live on your own. Me and my sis got so many impressions of this country, its difficult to summarize in a blog. One thing I can say for sure, Cambodia is changing and the Cambodia as it is now will most probably dissapear very soon in the near future. Many roads are being surfaced and houses and hotels are coming up as mushrooms (Dutch expression??

Wink
). They too experience the benefit of tourism.

Enough about the country, let me tell you what we did in this fascinating country. We started in Siem Reap with a visit to Angkor Wat. This is so very beautiful, but after 7 hours of temple watching you can't really tell the difference anymore. So we decided to use our time to do other things. Eventually, we ended up in the swimmingpool (it's so bloody hot here). We decided to leave Siem Reap after one day already and visit Battambang. We heard great stories from a Dutch guy in Bangkok, so we took his advice and went into the rural area of Battambang with two moto drivers. This was definitely one of our best experiences. They could tell us so much about the day-to-day life of the Cambodians. We could ask them anything we wanted to knowand learned so much about the cambodian culture. Next day we left already for Phnom Penh (due to another horror story, my backpack was on the wrong bus). We checked in at a very layback hostel at Boeng Kak (a lake in the middle of Phnom Penh!!). We didn't do much this day as we had a terrible busride (3 hours delay due to technical failure). Next day we decided to explore this 'great' city by bicycle. You should understand that after a few days of eating dust, paved roads are so very exciting! We went to the museum that summarizes all the horrors done by the Khmer Rouge. This is really aweful! You really can't imagine that people are capable of doing these terrible things and that the UNignored the troubles inCambodia for many years! The Khmer Rouge, although overthrown in 1979,have had a seat in the UN untill the 90s!!!!!!!!!As you can imagine, we weren't up for the killing fields no more. We decided to chill andexplore the river views by bike and later the russian market. Then, again, we decided to move to the next town as we wanted to see some jungle in the Cardamon Mountains (horror, horror, horror). I'm not going to elaborate on that right now, but I can tell ya: we didn't see any jungle. Instead, we saw Kampot. Also very nice! Then it was time to leave Cambodia and go for Vietnam! Webooked the Mekong Delta tour in Phnom Penh and left Cambodia with all its charme behind.

Let me close this blog with one tip: anyone who wants to try to reach Cambodia via Poipet, please read all the online forums on this subject. There are so many scams on the way to the border that you should be really confident about what is true or not. The truth is: Yes, you can get a visa at the border for 20 USD and no you don't have to pay for quick service and no, you do not need to get stamps at two different places, and yes, the consulate the travel agency brings you to to get a visa is a fake consulate.

Laughing

Bye bye now! My time is up, but next time I'll give you our and my experience in Vietnam!

--Suzanne

Reacties

Reacties

Rob

Hey Suus!
Wat een epistel weer.. :) Heb je ook ergens foto's staan?
Ben jaloers, enjoy!

Charlie

Hey laiverd!

Interessant wat je allemaal meemaakt. heb je wel fotoruimte? Of heb je te korte tijd op internet om het erop te zetten ben erg benieuwd naar de veel op elkaar lijkende tempels. En waarom je geen jungle hebt gezien ben ik wel erg benieuwd naar maar dat hoor ik later allemaal wel.
trots op jou zusje!! Zet hem op en heb veel plezier daar!!!!

Dikke kus

Tamara

Haai Suus! Leuk die verhalen! Ben wel echt benieuwd naar die horror en meer horror ;) Klinkt als a good time! Hier alles prima, lekker bieben (wordt je niet vies van!) Geniet ervan en ik ben benieuwd naar je volgende verhaal! x T.

Tom

Hey Suzanne!

Volgens mij gaat het wel lekker daar in het verre Oosten?!? Geniet ervan en probeer ons ook wat beeldmateriaal te bezorgen :-D Je verhalen maken iedereen behoorlijk nieuwsgierig geloof ik!

Grtzz Tom

Rosanne

Hé Suus!

Leuk om je verhalen te lezen! Zo nu wel een swimmingpool gevonden? haha
Veel plezier nog en de groeten aan Heleen!

Tot snel!
Veel liefs Roos

Ingeborg

Hey Suuz!

je maakt wel veel horror mee he!!! Al met al heb je het geloof ik wel naar je zin! Geniet ervan en see you in 6 weeks! K

kuskus

Sabine

he meisie,
super cool! geniet er van!
dikke knuffel

Olly

Heyie surviver hoe is het daar on "your tour off duty"!!??

seek Anderson for me:) echt super tof dat je het zo leuk hebt!! geniet ervan! kusjes van hier xxx

Chantal

Hey suus,
zo te lezen heb je het echte super naar je zin en maak je veel mee. voor mij begint de tijd nu ook op te schieten. over een week of 6 vertrek ik ook. nog heel veel plezier en geniet ervan. Groetjes Chant

ben

Lieve Suus,
Ben heel benieuwd naar jouw verhalen over oa horror, talloze tempels en valse consulaten. ik zie wel dat jullie het leuk hebben gehad. Hoe gaat de reis verder?
liefs Pappa

Ilvie

Soesan,
Wat een verhalen! Erg leuk om te lezen! Ik ga je binnenkort een uitgebreide email sturen,ik heb je al veel te lang niet meer gesproken.. Ben blij dat je zo'n supertijd hebt, globetrotter :) Mis onze dates :((

Kus Ilvie

Oncle Laurent

Binnenkort lezen we het beste recept -en varianten- van Vietnamese loempia's?

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