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Battambang is Cambodia’s second largest city with about 140,000 people. It’s a sleepy dusty place, much more relaxed than anywhere else we have been in Cambodia. It’s a colonial outpost, and the French imposed a grid street system……and there is a street numbered 1.5 and 2.5, in between streets 1, 2 and 3! That is where all the action is at, in these half streets (street pics above). There was “Independence Day” yesterday, and we queried independence from what. We were told it was from French colonization……they don’t speak of independence from the Khmer Rouge, and speak only in hushed tones about it. I queried a recent graduate accountant as to whether his generation talks much about the Khmer Rouge days, and he asked me why they should – that they look to the future! (I also learned that education at all levels is bought here – through extra tuition with your teacher. Those that pay, pass).
You can browse in the markets, without being hounded. You are not constantly targeted as a potential ATM like hole in the wall. We ended up staying a full week here, doing very little…..well…..doing quite a bit, but with no pre-plan of what we were going to do! The luxury of exploring a place we had no preconceptions about….just letting things unfold. A very relaxing week – with time for reflection and lots of swimming.

It took Daniel all of about two days to find out the best street food, and the most popular dish served there – a chicken and udon style noodle Khmer dish. His modus operandi is to cruise about on his own, unencumbered by kids or wife…..spot the places with the crowds, observe what is being eaten, find out what is being cooked, sample and taste, then bring all of us back to enjoy! Works well for us! In Battambang it has been at a riverside street food haunt, called 999. We missed the street food in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, but enjoyed some in Phnom Penh.

There was also the odd treat, which made Ilona the happiest little camper. It’s not often that we get smiles like this from her on this journey!
Battambang is in the West of Cambodia, not the wild-wild west of the province of Pailin, which was given as an administrative amnesty to Khmer Rouge 3rd in command in the 1990s, after he sided with the government. Pailin turned into a retirement refuge for Khmer Rouge pensioners. Apparently it is the most dense area in the world with land mines……..some were planted/placed as late as 1998.
We were warned not to stray of the beaten path, and have taken that warning seriously.

Many people were repatriated to Battambang in the pogroms of 1975, and many were killed here. There are killing fields and killing locations all over the place, beside ruined temples, beside or in Wats that were taken over by the Khmer Rouge.

I met a very interesting Austrian Anthropologist, doing a PhD on art in Battambang. It is marketed as a town with many artists, but he views it as a marketing ploy only, and is struggling to find art and creativity (as he defines it). The Pol Pot regime stifled creativity, in the social and economic uniformity it was trying to attain. We talked about fear and art (inability to express yourself due to political regime), art used as therapy (especially in the refugee camps, and through the famed circus here in Battambang), creativity and sociability, creative destruction (which he argued is non-existent here), planned versus spontaneous art, and many many more interesting ideas.
Then I discover this article in the Cambodian Times (English version):
Which was underneath this (dictates on how to create art!):

We rented a couple of motorbikes for a few days, and spent another few days walking or on push bikes.

The things you do that you wouldn’t do at home! We have been playing a game of spotting how many people are on one motorbike. I have seen 4, but Tadhg spotted 5 in Hanoi. Daniel, Ilona and Tadhg did a three personed moto ride!

The bikes got us out into the countryside, which has been described as National Geographic picture perfect.
It certainly is very pretty. Large flat tracts of rice plains, peppered with ‘phnom’s or hills.

We even visited some more ancient temples (the kids were tricked into going to see what was at the top of the steps, instead of telling them there was a temple; and they still weren’t too keen!).

We came across a few marriage processions, funeral processions and unidentified parades. In this picture, the groom’s family were bearing gifts to the bride’s house, deep in the countryside. I felt privileged to witness it, and there were smiles all around, even to us as observers.

We observed the maddest mass exodus of millions of bats (estimate of 2 million) from a cave at dusk, in Phnom Sampoeu. It was crazy. They just kept spilling out, filing in amazing patterned swoops and swirls.
Our only trouble was a massive thunder and lightening storm had crept up behind us, and we had to get back to Battanbang (about 15km away in pounding rain and lightening, on a motorbike. We were thoroughly soaked to the skin, and I was a bit afraid driving in the dark wet night, with Ilona clinging to me.

So today, we leave Battambang and Cambodia. I think that Cambodia is in a massive state of flux. I think my perceptions (and perhaps practices) have been altered, from my time spent here. Contradictory influences to my norms have left me with much introspection, in a space of wondering, not sure whether it will lead to a cultural transformation…..but it has heightened my sense of cultural awareness.

And as a p.s., a note to self: don’t get your hair cut in Battambang.

Ilona and Tadhg are sure they have the bravest Dad “eva”! What superhero Dad would offer his sole as piranha bait?! Only a slightly-bonkers one! Yes, Daniel dipped his toes into this:
Then immersed his feet completely in the tank much to the shrieking delight of the kids! It was amazing, the fish thronged to his feet, and nibbled away at the dead skin. A fish foot spa. I placed my hand in (just to reinforce my own bravery, not to lose face in light of Daniel’s resplendid heroism), and man! the fish bit and nibbled, and it felt all too weird on my one offered finger!

We had a lovely time in Siem Reap. Staying in a luxurious boutique hotel, hidden at the very end of a dusty rickety lane helped. You walked through secluded tree covered boardwalks over a fish pond, surrounded by coconuts, palms, banana, bourganville and frangipani trees into a little haven. The swimming pool was divine, and perfect to restore inner calm.


….and zany enough to have a dance with banana trees!

The difference between rich and poor, the haves and have nots, the tourists and locals is stark here. Initially on going around Angkor, I considered all the slave labour that went into its making, over many centuries and considered myself lucky that I didn’t live back then, as I would certainly have been a slave, lugging stones. However, in further reflection, I would not! By dint of a lottery of where I was born, and the opportunities that have been offered to me through my life, I realise I am very very fortunate (and lucky). Being able to take these four months out to travel is a luxury that I am so thankful for.

So in a way, I am enjoying the luxury of all that we are experiencing here, being chauffeured around in tuk-tuks, eating new foods and really enjoying life, but do not take it for granted, nor feel in any way entitled to all that we can afford. We feel it is just the luck of life’s lottery that we were born into privileged societies…..and it is really difficult to know how to change that arbitrary and unfair system.


I do not take any of it for granted no matter how I present these amazing photos, as there is poverty all around us.
From the parents huffing glue on a park bench at 8pm at night, with their wide-eyed malnourished docile baby sitting vacantly half naked on the ground beside their bench, idle; to the ever so friendly amputees trying to engage us, showing off their stumps and scars and asking for money; to the begging teenage girls, babies on hips brandishing empty milk bottles pleading for money; to the persistent kids selling trinkets, postcards, books….anything…. at decreasing dollar value as you try to politely shake them off; to the silent forlorn and weary “have-nots”, melding into the rubbish piles on the street, barely visible and forgotten by their families and by society.

We frequented an Aussie social enterprise cafe, (run by two sisters from Geelong!) which trains and gives employment to street kids. It was called Sister Srey (after the very ornate temple) and the kids returned every day for pumpkin soup (they miss their Watties favorite!). We met interesting and kind people there.

We also went to a “made in Cambodia” Market, and were able to buy some ethical recycled products, and got to talk to two gorgeous street kids who were running the stall by themselves – aged 10 and 14. Their stories are sad, but their inner serenity and outward smiles were uplifting. There were other worthy organizations there – women who collect plastic and recycle it to make bags, placemats etc; craftswen who make silk; villages who make clothes, children’s fabric books; jewelery from can tops; we tried to spread the money around….as we are passing through; though the people in this country need long term solutions.

Siem Reap is very touristy, and we ate luxuriously. Ilona couldn’t resist ordering a curry served in a coconut shell, and devoured it!

We went to a Khmer dinner and dancing performance, which although a bit twee, was beautiful.

And of course there was the not so trivial matter of the rugby World Cup Final. Daniel had quietly extended our stay in Siem Reap, making sure that the telly worked and showed the sports station (even calling a technician in to get a crisper picture). Tadhg, Ilona and Daniel went around sporting All Black transfers on their faces and arms the day of the match.

It was a very exciting game. The only unfortunate thing was that the English commentary was dubbed over in Khmer….probably as an interpretative measure, to tell anyone who was watching it what was going on, as rugby is not a sport that is played here at all. I have seen more sport played here in Cambodia than Vietnam. Kids play a badminton footie game, volleyball and there are many early morning aerobic classes on riverbanks and in parks. Anyhow, Tadhg and Daniel were super-excited by the win and crowing happy for a few days, following all the post-match stories from the NZ media.

There is a rather dark side to Scambodia (as one of our tuk-tuk drivers described his country). The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has been in power for the last 32 years, and has vowed to rule until he is 74. He seems to have his cronies, who do very well out of the status quo. One such example is that the ticketing system for entering the Angkor area, a UNESCO World Herritage Site is privatised! One person benefits from a country’s heritage, determining who can sell what within etc etc etc. It is really corrupt.

We also met two young American students who spent three months working in an orphanage. One of them lived here 9 years ago, with his parents who were doing humanitarian work. They were a bit idealistic, and felt they achieved a lot in their time here, but were also critical about the functioning of orphanages, and some of the dodgey practices they observed – regarding obtaining status as an orphanage, the funding they get, and charging volunteers to work there.

There is an opposition party – The Cambodian National Rescue Party – and interesting to see the political signs and slogans throughout the countryside, marking political territory outside houses.

There are more Cambodian’s People’s Party signs about the place though, the ruling party. They are everywhere, outside communal buildings, factories etc.

Last week while we were in Siem Reap, two opposition politicians were badly beaten up by government supporters. There is quite a murmur of disquiet over corruption and cronyism, although those who have spoken to also said they shouldn’t be speaking about it. Muted democracy here, although I find the English version of the Cambodian Times fascinating….

They do English grammar sections occasionally in the paper, which are quite scathing of current affairs, in a sort of mocking way, under the pretext of teaching grammar.
There also seems to be scant justice delivered to the former Pol Pot regime. Interesting to see that it is reported in the media, but little recourse to justice. Pol Pot saw his days out under house arrest, but with free access to his children and grandchildren, dying of natural causes – a luxury not afforded to the millions of Cambodians brutally murderred under his rule. There are some trials occurring at the moment, with the accused pleading his innocence due to a lack of choice, and evoking faithfulness to the Cambodian King (It still is a monarchy, with the ruling family reinstated during the 1990s; after the abdication of the King in 1975 and subsequent appointment to a high position within the Khmer Rouge regime).

I also read about an interesting NZ link, as evidence given under Parliamentary Privilege by a NZ Green Party member to the NZ Parliament in 2011 was the only outlet for placing this information into the Cambodian public domain. The NZ interest seems to come from a brother of a NZ man killed between 1975 and 1979; but with the court ruling that the brother was not directly affected by his brother’s killing in one of the class action trials!

The dust hasn’t settled in this country yet, and it has a long road to travel.

Along with all the amazing buildings, temples and enduring ruins, nature builds more transient structures, creating landscapes and viewscapes that are inspiring. The reclamation of the trees over the buildings in Ta Prohm was a testament to this. The micro detail of a rich fauna and flora we saw was a great contrast to the iconic long-lived buildings. All are transient, though their lifespans differ.

More spectacular than the Phnom Bakheng that Ilona and I visited, was the scene we came across on our descent from the hill. Hundreds if not thousands of large black ants pulled a dead millipede across the path. We watched the spectacle for the ten minutes it took them to cross the path, with renegotiation of direction and strategy of pulling when they encountered a large stone. The ants joined together, and created long ropes with their bodies only. It was amazing.

This photo shows the size, in comparison to a shoe, of the ants. After leaving the path, they made their way up a grassy hill. Amazing coordination in nature…..

As all over the world, spiders are industriously building their sacrificial temples to themselves – a place to net their catch. The early morning starts to visiting the temples gave us a chance to glimpse at the dawning daily activity, in the shafts of first light.

We have also seen many butterflies flitting about the place. One little blue beauty landed on Ilona’s finger, which had fresh pineapple juice on it! That freaked her out a bit. There are many yellow ones all over the place. Margaret, can you identify these two?

Lotuses are revered in this part of South East Asia, and many grow in the moats, but also in ponds throughout the countryside. They are a sign of prosperity.

Other beautiful flowering trees daub colour through the bush.

The sound of frogs characterise Siem Reap, and indeed Cambodia, for me. Their croaking at night time is quite soothing, if not rather exotic. Ilona dared not find out whether this little beauty would turn into a prince with a kiss, but it was definitely a charming placid frog.

Angkor is predominantly jungle, and there is megafauna there as well. Elephants were used in the construction of the temples, now are used to show tourists around. It is impressive to see these gentle giants in the jungle – such amazing creatures.

And of course….the moon…..who is prevalent in our travels. Our last waning moon was beautiful in Angkor. We wind down our travels with November’s new moon, and arrive home to Ireland on the full moon (howl howl!).

I can’t help but think that this is a place that Colm and Mom should be on holidays together, instead of me! It must be a conservation architect’s Mecca and a heavenly place to get lost in the deep and mysterious art-history.

My words, however descriptive I try to make them, with whichever collection of cliches I choose, will fall short of doing justice to the remarkable place that is Angkor! Words will fail me, so I resort to pictures and photographs. It is really hard to choose from the 100s of photos I have taken over the past four days, but I shall litter a lot of them through out this post!
Angkor in Khmer means capital. The Khmer capital was based in Angkor between the 9th and 14th centuries. During that time Buddhism replaced Hinduism as the dominant religion of the Khmer empire/Cambodia, and the distinct architectural and artistic changes are evident. In its heyday during the 12th century, Angkor was the biggest city in the world, at 1 million people (0.1% of the then world population). Such social and political organisation is amazing (and I have a full appreciation of it after listening to the “a history of the world in 100 objects” podcast on the Ur Standard: worth listening to – click here…not now but later if you are still interested!).

Mystery abounds here – especially as to why Angkor was abandoned as the capital – rendering it impossible to maintain the vast array of buildings, palaces and temples.
The scale of the buildings are truly expansive, but more so the size of the entire Angkor area, covering some 1,000 square km. The capital temporarily relocated to outlying areas such as Koh Ker for short periods (ranging between 50km to 150km north east of Angkor), where there are other sites that we didn’nt get to visit. I could spend WAY longer here, and would do it again without kids, whose attention span is less than mine. They claim to be “templed-out” right now, and did protest too much.

The logistics, physical effort and manipulation of elephants and slaves to haul the stones is truly staggering. Many stones have round holes in them, tell-tale signs of how they were transported. Sandstone (cut into blocks) was brought from a quarry 50km from the site – slaves hoisted the stone to the riverside, elephants loaded the stones onto barges, which were carried down the Siem Reap river to Angkor, where slaves lugged the stones and boulders into place. I am not sure whether the carvings were done in-situ at each temple, but I suspect they were. The design and vision in the planning process could be considered crazy! Initially they created artificial landscapes from the jungle, through forest clearance, then constructing ‘barays’ (some HUGE) wherein water was diverted and elaborate irrigation reservoirs were constructed to support the burgeoning Angkor population. A baray is an artificial reservoir which has not been excavated, but in which the water is contained by dykes. One such baray remains, and water has been maintained in it for over 900 years.
Others have dried up, leaving vast rectangle plains, now used for agriculture.

The most recent theory as to the switching of the capital from Angkor to Phnom Penh is that the irrigation system was damaged (perhaps by invading Chams, perhaps through local change in climatic conditions……no definitive answer)….experts aren’t sure. Angkor was described as a “hydraulic city” because of its complicated water management network, which was used for stabilising, storing and dispersing water throughout the area. One of the temples I visited was out on its own, with little physical walls or defences. This was because it was built in the middle of the biggest baray, and would have been surrounded by water.

Of the over 1,000 temples of the ancient city(ies), many were abandoned and fell to wrack and ruin, under the recolonisation of the jungle. Others such as Angkor Wat have been in continuous use over time, albeit through changing religions and worship through the kalpa (cycle of time in Hindhu).

I had a spine tingling experience on first casting my eyes on the silhouette of Angkor Wat, in the muted darkness of pre-dawn. Breathtaking grandeur shrouded with wonder left me with a humbling admiration for this ancient civilisation. Raffles, who founded Singapore, also spent time in Java (one of the first Westerners to discover Borobudur temple) and believed fervently in the concept of civilisation. He never defined it, but his clear markers were: the possession of a writing system, the second is social hierarchy and yet another was the possession of complex stone architecture in his view.
Eastern civilisations seem all the more rich and ingenious than our presumed golden epoch of Western Modernity. I personally think that Eastern civilisation will rise and dominate globally – perhaps South-East Asia coat-tailing on the rise of China and India…..in a Phoenix like resurrection following the most recent two centuries of turbulence. The interesting political question, for me, is to what extent the tentacles of Russian investment will influence this rising, curbing its flight.

Visiting Angkor requires making dizzying choices regarding which sites to visit, out of the myriad of literally 100s of options in the total Angkor area. Temples are predominantly made from sandstone. The right to dwell in stone buildings was reserved for the Gods only. All the wooden structures that would have constituted the distinct cities and city areas within Angkor have long since decayed, been rebuilt and disintegrated again and again. Skeletal ruins of once magnificently adorned edifices that were enamelled with gold, bronze and other embellishments are all that remain, although there are villages scattered throughout the entire Angkor area.

The Bayon (within Angkor Thom)
It’s difficult to pick highlights or to describe the sheer complexity, ingenuity, scale, beauty and quirkiness in each structure that we saw……but for me, I returned for a second visit to the Bayon (within Angkor Thom, which was the last and most enduring city of the Khmer empire) – famous for its monumental carved faces – over 216 in total, facing in every-which direction. The Gods are omnipresently watching over everything. The Bayon was built over extended timeframes, with successive architects whimsically leaving their mark, adding buildings within buildings……resulting in a haphazard complex maze of corridors, nooks and crannies.


On the first day at the Bayon we lost Ilona and Tadhg, as they were having an intrepid climbing adventure, in one corner of the Bayon! I was relieved to find them, despite other times wishing we could lose them! (Joke!)


I particularly like the Bas Relief (carvings) in the sandstone at Bayon, which differed to those at Angkor Wat. A way to teach history through art…..passing down stories through an amazing enduring visual medium. The language of Art.

Some more pictures (can’t help myself, as I think this place is awesome!).

Parts of the structure have been restored, but there are piles upon piles of stones yet to be sorted, catalogued and organised for this giant 3-d jigsaw puzzle.

The Bayon is part of Angkor Thom, and the gates to Angkor Thom were pretty spectacular. Again a moat runs around the old Angkor Thom city, and each gate have depictions of the Gods holding the serpent, a theme that runs throughout a lot of the temples although built in different times. Our first gate was the Southern one, and some of the restoration involved the use of different materials than the original (many of which were destroyed over the centuries – apparently surprising was that there was little destruction of these sites during the shambolic Khmer Rouge regime).



The shafts of light at the north gate were spectacular the day we went there.

Also within Angkor Thom is the Baphuon, which is a large temple mountain. Under 12s were not allowed in, so I sat this one out with Ilona and Tadhg, as Daniel scaled the steep internal, and managed to take this shot of us (I think Tadhg and Ilona were doing a pre-rugby World Cup final haka!

The Bauphon is pretty impressive, with an amazing walkway to it. What bemused me was that this was one of the first sites that restoration began on.
Out in front (where we were sitting) there were rows upon rows of stones in neat lines. The project began in the early 1970s, with archaeologists dismantling much of it. However, the restoration project was abandoned in 1975 due to the war. Alas, the plans were lost, so it is a nightmare now to try to piece back all these large stones.

The tallest scalable structure is Phimeanakas, still within Angkor Thom. Very pretty…..nearly as pretty as the photo of Ilona with it as a backdrop!

We also walked on and saw the Terrace of Elephants, Harry Potter look-alike towers (mainly because they were wonky) – Prasat Suor Pat – which were 12 nearly identical towers, and the kids rambled through and explored umpteen Windows, frames, corridors, gateways etc. exhausting but most fabulous days.

Preah Khan
I also loved Preah Khan, once a university with an accompanying surrounding town/city all to itself. The proximity of each temple to eachother masks the fact that each temple had a hey-day, and not all of the temples would have been used at the same time. The chronology of the temples was beyond me……but another thing I would like to learn more about.
Preah Khan is a fusion of Hinduism and Buddhism. It combines buildings and carvings of both religions.
I lingered here longer than any other temple, for two reasons: 1. I met a really interesting older English lady and we sat on the ancient stones and conversed for ages. 2. Subsequently I realised I lost my wallet in Preah Khan, so retraced my steps through the fallen down blocks and boulders, rubble and ruin of stones, in a vain attempt to locate it. St. Anthony was even called upon, despite there being no room for Christianity here (I was thinking that I should be evoking St. Jude, as the chances of finding it was as great as finding a needle in a haystack!). Alas, I left Preah Khan walletless, and a heavy heart at having to cancel bank cards, the loss of some dear photos I kept there and my NZ SIM card. Ilona and I continued through some temples hungry and lunchless, but I was adamant to see as much as we could while we had the chance! Luckily for me, my new English acquaintance had accidentally taken my wallet somehow, while we were exchanging information and stories! She said she had the greatest adventure trying to locate me to return it, and located me in the evening! Another new friend made, as I know our paths will cross again.

 

Another iconic temple is Ta Prohm, now more famous for the location of Lara Croft, Tombraider (I confess I have not seen the film). The temple is spectacular. I could go into the history (one of the kings built this for his mother, before dedicating the neighbouring Preah Khan to his father…….but those details only come alive when you are in a place, me thinks…..so I will let the pictures do the talking!). This is one of the temples where the jungle has taken over, resolutely claiming its patch back over the transient buildings, however spectacular.

There is a restoration process going on, with one part completely reconstructed (with support from the Indian government):Yet in other places on the site, you are stepping over ornate lintels and embellishments that I have no names for:

 

 

 

Angkor Wat

It is needless to mention that it is impossible not to be enthusiastic about Angkor Wat itself – Cambodia’s iconic temple, the largest religious building in the world. The moat and exterior wall is 1.3km x 1.5km. The temple itself is 1km squared. I visited it twice also – once for sunrise (along with the throngs and masses of people! See picture below of all the people watching the sunrise, from the prime position to get the reflection of the quincunx on the water),and the second visit to focus on the Bas-relief (sandstone carvings) that surround the 1st level exterior. This is the most ornate wall, and truly is an amazing feat of craftsmanship.

Angkor Wat is a three tiered pyramid crowned by five lotus like towers (symbolic of prosperity in Buddhism). It is 65m from ground level, constructed as a Hindhu temple, but Buddhist since it became Khmer/Cambodia’s dominant religion in the 14th century. It was thought to be a mausoleum, or Chedi as it faces west, but there is no evidence of burial. It was here that I learnt the beautifully descriptive word “quincunx” which describes an arrangement of five objects in which the four occupy the corners and the fifth the centre (like the arrangement of dots on the five side of a dice – hat-tip Colm, and his hat-tip to Auntie Lil’s ancient brown dictionary conferred to Dad….in lieu of inheriting the house, donkey or cart he (Dad) fondly also remembers!). It is also the representation in stone of a “Kalasa”, which is a pot filled with water and plants, symbolising prosperity – a kind of cornucopia.

There is symbolism galore in Angkor Wat, as in the other temples. It is supposed to resemble the earth and Mt Meru (from Hindu). Making a pilgrimage to the top requires huge physical effort, with steep steps in the inner towers of the third enclosure, as you ascend out of the earth and into heaven.

 
Even the most is a feat of engineering; its serene and beautiful!

In “A history of the world in 100 objects”, McGregor describes the universal paradox of religious homage through monumental buildings: you need huge material wealth, acquired only through intense engagement with the rest of the world, to build monuments that inspire us to abandon wealth and to leave the world behind! I fear that in the West we are acquiring that wealth, but in no way abandoning materiality for any religious or environmental (which is akin to religion in my estimation) cause. It’s a baseless selfish democratised accumulation of wealth!

Interesting podcasts of relevance I have listened to:

The Borobudur Buddha of Java , of course in relation to another site, states that humans…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/CPbWMMoFSnmUlSHF3dkf5A

We caught a cramped hot bus to Sihanoukville, accompanied by young hungover backpackers, who shared stories of their nocturnal exploits, the price of beer in each joint they frequented along with in-depth précis and merits of the dj and music in each. I always thought Monaghan CIE bus station was the worst, but there is a contender for this status in the place we stopped – somewhere between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville (which is down on the Cambodian coast). The iconic (in Cambodia) Angkor beer comes from Sihanoukville. Angkor means “capital city”, and Sihanoukville sure ain’t that!

We were advised by an interesting Aussie ex-pat forester to go to Kep, which is less of an over-exploited resort coastal seaside town. However that advice was a day too late (after we had made bus and accommodation booking). Shame!

We were on our guard when we arrived, as we had also been warned that Sihanoukville is overrun by prominent Russians. A quick Google search reaffirmed some trouble, and also made us more alert to their presence. It is definitely a holiday destination for Russians, perhaps for their Winter holidays.

We arrived to our resort hotel, obligatory pool in front courtyard, and felt like consumers of mass tourism. Not my kind of a holiday, but after a couple of days I relaxed into it, and took an opportunity to swim a lot, read and do little else. Monitors poolside helped a lot! Tadhg came on in leaps and bounds with his swimming and confidence in the water, managing to swim a full length of the pool on his own! Life’s little accomplishments, and we are lucky to have all this time while travelling to observe them.

I visited the beach, and went for a brisk walk up and down it, in the vain hope of finding a nice spot to return later. Alas, it was filthy, rubbish strewn everywhere – plastic bottles, polystyrene, jandals, plastic bags and other flotsam. Overflow pipes stopped abruptly on the sand right on the beach, I had to avoid stepping in cow dung – some fresh some not, and pools of green stagnant smelly water lined the beach.

Most of the beach was covered with corrugated iron walled and coconut palm leaf roofed structures, containing tightly packed hammocks to sit in if you buy something from the bar. Women carrying the long stick over their shoulder – which balanced small burning charcoal pots on one side and their fresh clams or crabs legs on the other – they walked up and down and would bbq the seafood in front of you. Other ladies selling trinket laden baskets, balanced miraculously on their heads, passed up and down. People selling selling selling, vying desperately for your dollar. It’s really not my idea of a fun time at the beach. Give me a stretch of lonely Donegal beach anyday, or a slice of beautiful coastal New Zealand for spirituality and tranquility.
I have had the discussion many times as to whether a clean environment is a luxury good – but it shouldn’t be. If we build our populations and cities, based on industrial advance and inventions based on energy from oil, we should at least clean up after ourselves. The pervasive presence of plastic, so enduring and destructive (a bi-product of the oil industry) is really sickening. I know I carry cultural norms which make it normal to have clean environs, which makes me wonder how people can possibly live with bags of rubbish lying around in front of their houses; or how they are happy to inhale the smoke from the fires when they frequently burn the plastic laden rubbish. But equally I know I get looked at strangely for all the unusual things I do and people probably question me passing through these places too!

Once you looked past the dastardly effects of lack of environmental management, it was still possible to see beauty in places (cropping photos to hide unwanted extrusions!).
There was life on the beach, despite the hammering it gets from humans and their waste products. Tiny jelly like beads contained active squirming tadpole-like juveniles of some species, washed in on the tide.
Crabs bravely surfaced from their sandy dwellings on the ebbing tide, burrowing and making magnificent, delicate but transient patterns in the wet sand.
Early morning fishermen walked their nets into the ocean, still at benthic levels, not far from shore and landed small but shimmering silver catches. The women I saw quickly un-netted the catch, weighing them on small well used kitchen scales, passing them on to the next in the chain……to be bought by those that cook and peddle produce up and down the beach. Every small margin on labour hard earned.

There is still a magical quality in some of the images I captured – a family eating breakfast and skirting on the margin of the waves.That solitary beauty in an early morning beach walk, when evidence of the revellers of the night before cannot quite dispel nature’s soothing magic:The appreciation of the industriousness and doggedness of those who continue day after day, making their living: The less industriousness of abandoned projects, half constructed ground works leaving their aura of more desperate times behind:
So all in all, I feel we could have given Sihanoukville a miss. We did get to ride scooters for a couple of days, which was fun. We got out of the main touristy area, but still didn’t meaningfully engage with any Cambodians. We tried nice bbqed food off the street, but that was about it.
As it was my first time ever on a “Moto” it took a little getting used to cycling on it….albeit only going at 15km per hour. The mandatory tourist pull-over by the (s)Cambodian police proved a bit tricky, as I hadn’t quite mastered how to stop! They tried to find fault…..but I managed to produce my international driver’s licence (hat tip Daniel, as I wouldn’t have been bothered with such trivialities!) and all was well, sending me on my merry way, with Tadhg riding pillion, clinging to my waist.

We stopped to see a troop of monkeys, who brazenly were hanging around a fence. I managed to stop the bike, and was concentrating on what I needed to do to quell the machine, turning off ignition, playing around with balancing while trying to get stand up and not wobble Tadhg off. One of the monkeys were strutting over to our bike in a direct b-line, as Tadhg was holding a wafer bar in some shiny wrapper that the guy at the petrol station had given him, when we fuelled up. The monkey clearly knew what he was holding, and before I could even unclench my fingers from the handlebars, the monkey jumped up on Tadhg and sat on his lap. I was freaking out, but not as much as Tadhg! Cheeky monkey! Daniel quickly tossed some food to the monkey, and I went put-put-putting on he bike out of there as quick as I could!

So all in all, I feel we could have given Sihanoukville a miss. We did get to ride scooters for a couple of days, which was fun. We got out of the main touristy area, but still didn’t meaningfully engage with any Cambodians.

ooooh…..and while we were thre, we spied another amazing full moon. We travelled out of NZ on a full moon, left Thailand on a full moon, and fly to Ireland on a full moon. Not pre-planned, but still conscious of our lunar escapades. This is our last full moon while travelling, and it was spectacular. All in all that means we have less than 28 days in South east Asia (Ilona is revelling in that fact, and it’s what keeps her going……she is adamant she would prefer to be in Ireland now).

As an antidote to confronting the horrific history of the former Pol Pot regime, the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and the suffering of the Cambodian people, we also did some fun things and sightseeing in Phnom Penh. Wats, Palaces and exploring the city, soaking up the distinct charcoal and grilled smells, along with the more pungent odious odours near streams and waterways that are littered with refuse and rubbish…..not to mention the fumes from burning rubbish by the kern side.

As part of our strategy of bringing the kids to Choeung Ek, we had promised them to go to a science museum and multi-storey kids centre in the afternoon, where they enjoyed laser tag. The science installations came from NZ, as did the indoor climbing walls – we were proudly informed! Daredevil Ilona managed to cycle off the tightrope – I think her lesson was not about counterweights which (supposedly) kept her up on the tightrope, but not to go to extremes and do the impossible (she tried to cycle past a buttress at the end of the tightrope, and ended up unbalancing the wheel groove from the tightrope, turning the bike nearly perpendicular to the rope. Lucky for NZ safety standards with the harness!

They also got to stay up late and watch the rugby…….Daniel had unceremoniously extended our stay in Phnom Pehn to ensure that we would be able to watch the semi-final match!