16555 km Siem Reap
Door: Erik en Tjeerd
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Erik en Tjeerd
20 Februari 2008 | Cambodja, Khett Siem Reab
We left Vietnam last week. Just 11 km from Go Dau we already arrived at the Vietnamese/Cambodian border. We had heard some horror stories about the corruption there already. Well we can confirm it's corrupt like hell! First the officials tried to overcharge us 5 dollars, while the sign above his head clearly mentioned 20$ instead of the 25 he wanted. In the end he finally agreed to go with 20$ but only if we paid in dollars instead of the Vietnamese Dong we had on us. We paid with a 100$ note and got 3 twenties in return. One of the notes he gave us turned out to be a fake but luckily we noticed that and we went back to get some decent change. We suppose he did not want any more trouble, he obviously noticed we were angry. He put the fake twenty back in a separate stash, which contained the rest of his fake money and gave us some decent dollars in return this time. So much for a welcome in Cambodia :)
Two days later we arrived in Phnom Penh. It was a pleasant ride from the border to the capital. Nice and quiet. It seems the Cambodians are significantly poorer than the Vietnamese so there are not so many cars and scooters on the road here. The scenery in the Mekong area is not that special. It all looks pretty flat, mostly farmland, but even the tiniest of villages have the most amazing Khmer Pagoda's. Those are absolutely beautiful.
The Cambodian people are very friendly and like Vietnam there's loads of kids everywhere yelling from the side of the road saying hello to us. People have an amazing enthusiasm here and everybody is just smiling all the time. It makes us feel very welcome. Knowing the background and recent Cambodian history it's even more remarkable people are so cheerful.
In Phnom Penh we went to see some of that history when we visited the killing fields. 17.000 people were killed on this site. Most people were beaten to death to save precious bullets. In the 4 year that the Khmer rouge was in power almost 2 million people, a quarter of Cambodian population, have died as a direct on indirect result of this regime. It's quite unbelievable human beings are capable of doing these things.
After a tough morning we went back to the city center to see the royal palace. Some amazing things are to be seen here, like a 98 kilogram Buddha made out of gold and another made out of Emerald. The palace is grand and beautiful and a sharp contrast with what the Cambodian people have to get by with. In all aspects Cambodia seems to be a country that is trying to get back on its feet. Lots of NGO activity is going on to support that and many bridges/roads etc have been build by foreign initiatives to help the Cambodian people. Things are getting better here and that's good to see.
In Phnom Penh we met Matthew, whom we had previously met in Iran already. It's a small world indeed. He swapped his backpack for a bicycle and has been cycling from Hanoi heading for Singapore. We cycled together from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and had a good few days together. Eating barbecued spiders and some strange fruits we still have not identified :) Except for some headwinds the first days it was an easy trip. Paved roads all the way making it easy to cruise our way here. Here our roads will split again because he'll head straight to Bangkok while we plan to go north first. You can read up about his trip on www.macamat.com, the site has some pictures of us on it as well.
Meanwhile we have been in Siem Reap for a good 4 days now and I guess you might know why.....
Angkor Wat !
Whats there to say? This is by far the most impressive temple ever build by human hands. It's just mind boggling to be confronted which such a massive and marvelous site. We bought a three day pass to see the temples here, there are so many here. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the two main sites but there's plenty of other impressive sites scattered over the region. We've been looking at lots of them in the past 3 days, making the most of our time here. So nice to have bicycles doing that sort of thing :)
Tomorrow its time to move on again. Everyone here either moves west to Poipet (Thai border) or East to Phnom Pen. But we are going of the beaten track and take a nice little unpaved jungle road north into the mountains. Heading for the Thai border there at Anlong Veng and almost straight on to Laos. So plenty of new adventures ahead of us for the coming weeks.
Take care all,
Yours Erik and Tjeerd
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/erikopdefiets/28%20Cambodia/
Two days later we arrived in Phnom Penh. It was a pleasant ride from the border to the capital. Nice and quiet. It seems the Cambodians are significantly poorer than the Vietnamese so there are not so many cars and scooters on the road here. The scenery in the Mekong area is not that special. It all looks pretty flat, mostly farmland, but even the tiniest of villages have the most amazing Khmer Pagoda's. Those are absolutely beautiful.
The Cambodian people are very friendly and like Vietnam there's loads of kids everywhere yelling from the side of the road saying hello to us. People have an amazing enthusiasm here and everybody is just smiling all the time. It makes us feel very welcome. Knowing the background and recent Cambodian history it's even more remarkable people are so cheerful.
In Phnom Penh we went to see some of that history when we visited the killing fields. 17.000 people were killed on this site. Most people were beaten to death to save precious bullets. In the 4 year that the Khmer rouge was in power almost 2 million people, a quarter of Cambodian population, have died as a direct on indirect result of this regime. It's quite unbelievable human beings are capable of doing these things.
After a tough morning we went back to the city center to see the royal palace. Some amazing things are to be seen here, like a 98 kilogram Buddha made out of gold and another made out of Emerald. The palace is grand and beautiful and a sharp contrast with what the Cambodian people have to get by with. In all aspects Cambodia seems to be a country that is trying to get back on its feet. Lots of NGO activity is going on to support that and many bridges/roads etc have been build by foreign initiatives to help the Cambodian people. Things are getting better here and that's good to see.
In Phnom Penh we met Matthew, whom we had previously met in Iran already. It's a small world indeed. He swapped his backpack for a bicycle and has been cycling from Hanoi heading for Singapore. We cycled together from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and had a good few days together. Eating barbecued spiders and some strange fruits we still have not identified :) Except for some headwinds the first days it was an easy trip. Paved roads all the way making it easy to cruise our way here. Here our roads will split again because he'll head straight to Bangkok while we plan to go north first. You can read up about his trip on www.macamat.com, the site has some pictures of us on it as well.
Meanwhile we have been in Siem Reap for a good 4 days now and I guess you might know why.....
Angkor Wat !
Whats there to say? This is by far the most impressive temple ever build by human hands. It's just mind boggling to be confronted which such a massive and marvelous site. We bought a three day pass to see the temples here, there are so many here. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the two main sites but there's plenty of other impressive sites scattered over the region. We've been looking at lots of them in the past 3 days, making the most of our time here. So nice to have bicycles doing that sort of thing :)
Tomorrow its time to move on again. Everyone here either moves west to Poipet (Thai border) or East to Phnom Pen. But we are going of the beaten track and take a nice little unpaved jungle road north into the mountains. Heading for the Thai border there at Anlong Veng and almost straight on to Laos. So plenty of new adventures ahead of us for the coming weeks.
Take care all,
Yours Erik and Tjeerd
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/erikopdefiets/28%20Cambodia/
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20 Februari 2008 - 18:21
Kirsten:
Super gaaf die tempels! Heel veel succes nog met jullie fietstocht! -
20 Februari 2008 - 20:42
Schuur:
Tjeerd, is die spin echt naar binnen gewerkt of is de foto voor de show? Heb je geen foto waarop je zit te kauwen (met nog twee van die lekkere dikke harige poten uit je mondhoek)? ;-)
In elk geval prachtige foto's!
Verbouwing gaat bij ons tot nu toe voorspoedig. Wel druk met alles regelen, dus we hadden wat minder tijd om jullie avontuurtjes op de voet te volgen, waarvoor onze welgemeende excuses. Maar we houden het wèl in de gaten natuurlijk.
Veel succes met door de jungle fietsen!!! -
20 Februari 2008 - 21:49
Jelle:
Leuk dat jullie naar Angkor Wat zijn geweest, schijnt inderdaad een van de bijzonderste bouwwerken ooit te zijn.
op de foto's zag het er vrij vervallen uit, is dit zo of hebben ze het grootste gedeelte nu gerestaureerd?
Klopt www.macanet.com wel, ik kom op een site van een golfwinkel uit... -
20 Februari 2008 - 22:23
Mieke:
wat een goed verhaal!
Toevallig zaterdag gesproken met Ernst van der Pasch die me vertelde dat hij naar Shangai gaat liften waar een vriend van hem zit die jullie blijkbaar weer ontmoet heeft; ik heb hem beloofd de link door te sturen; zal ik ook gauw doen; hij trad bij ons op; toeval bestaat niet.......... dus dan weet je hoe dit verhaal straks weer in de wereld is gekomen! -
20 Februari 2008 - 22:28
Hans B:
Kerels,
Het is inderdaad weer anders dan anders op de foto. De stenen monumenten doen ietwat grauwig aan en denken aan een slecter tijd. Jullie hebben het met die spiders kennelijk prima naar de zin. De magen zijn ook sterk zo te horen.
Leuk hoor. Ja, dan is die autorit van mij elke morgen supersaai. Erik, overigens mooi shirt, dat geelrode. Ben je in Azië nog een LyondellBasel vestiging tegengekomen?
Weer veel succes verder allebei!
Gr.
Hans -
21 Februari 2008 - 07:23
Peter S.:
Erik, die foto met die zonnebril op he. Beetje ho. Beetje boel ho. Maar goed, sinds Istanbul heb ik niets meer gehoord over vrouwelijk schoon, maar ehh... hoe zit dat nu? -
21 Februari 2008 - 08:30
Maaike:
The killing fields al gezien? Jungle roads hmmm nou dat word vast de ultieme fiets test. Ben benieuwd naar jullie verslag.
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21 Februari 2008 - 09:19
Marielle:
Onwijs gaaf die tempels!!
Maar gatverdame, gefrituurde spinnen!!!!
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21 Februari 2008 - 22:04
Hercules:
Ranzig die spinnen, maar wel lekker voedzaam.
Vergeet die gouden Buddha niet mee naar huis te nemen.
Doet bij de huidige goudprijs 1M euro de man!
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22 Februari 2008 - 11:57
Karen:
Mooie verhalen en foto's weer!
Je huis is nog steeds heel :-)
Liefs uit die mooie stad aan de Maas... -
23 Februari 2008 - 11:22
Erik:
small correction made its www.macamat.com
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24 Februari 2008 - 15:57
Maartje En Kim:
Hi mannen!
Ook in Siem Reap? Misschien zien we jullie nog, barstreet??
Anders misschien in Laos! Wij gaan niet via Thailand, maar gaan via het noord-oosten. Komen dus via het zuiden Laos binnen, misschien komen we elkaar daar dus nog wel tegen! We contacten! Heel veel plezier! Groetjes Maartje en Kim -
26 Februari 2008 - 14:36
Maarten:
Ha Erik en Tjeerd,
Goh. al bijna de halve wereld rond. Wat nu nog? Indonesie? en dan? Toch nog naar Zuid Amerika?
Groeten,
Maarten -
28 Februari 2008 - 13:04
Gloria&Gerard:
Saw two pictures that looked familiar. Nr 3 (usee to be nr 1) of the girl reminds me of the girl trying to sell us a DVD at the Pakistan-India border. And there is another one that reminds me of the statues on Easter Island (Paaseiland). Thor Hyderdahl would have loved to see that statue.
A pity you did not eat the spider. After all, we thought you to eat what you had selected yourself ;)
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