Thursday 18/08 was my last day of teaching. Some students made a song for me to say goodbye. It was beautiful! Apparently some students even cried when I was leaving. That evening the teachers gave me a goodbye party with even a karaoke and a barbecue. It was very kind and we had a lot of fun. I thanked everybody for their hospitality and kindness. Friday morning they drove me up to the Chom Chong border to cross over to Cambodia all by myself, without the safety net of the school and my Thai family.
Friday 19/08 I crossed the border at Chon Chong, which is a deserted border without any busses, so I had to take a taxi of 60 dollars because it was a two hour drive to Siem Reap. My first day of Siem Reap I rented a bike and cycled around in the little town. It was completely crowded with tourist, that I felt even overwhelmed. I went to the market and bought some nice travelling clothes, a new backpack ( so yes brother I threw the ancient backpack away) and some nice souvenirs. You could have a massage for 1 dollar, a manicure for 1 dollar,... It was extremely cheap everything. Uschi it's your paradise! So many clothes for only a dollar or 5, 1 dollar massages,...
Saturday I went to Angkor Wat, which was already for a long time a dream. I actually got up at 4 o clock in the night to see the sunrise. It was pretty cool because I had to walk in the dark to the ruins with only the light of some flashlights of three other tourists. We were with 30 people sitting and waiting for the sunrise above Angkor Wat. The view was less than expected, but the atmosphere was amazing. That day I saw a lot of temples guided by me tuktuk driver who I had reserved from dusk till dawn for only 15 dollars. I could describe the temples, but not even a thousand words can describe how amazing beautiful and wonderful it is. You'll all have to see for yourself, or you can see my pictures in a while. I can't put the pictures on facebook cause this computer won't allow my USB, bollocks!
I took that evening the night bus to Phnom Pen where I arrived at 5 o clock in the night. I went to the hotel but I had to wait another hour and a half or else I had to pay for the room already that night. I met some Germans who just came back from a night out, and we decided to see the sunrise at the riverside. It was really extraordinary to see over phnom pen and the river the red sunrise. It was more beautiful than at Angkor wat, but here the place wasn't ancient and mystical as in Angkor wat. I met up with Tina and Julie afterwards. We went to see S21, the palace, the national museum and the killing fields. Although it was nice, we didn't had a good feeling about phnom pen, but I think we can blame it on the historical importance of visiting S21 and the killing fields which actually just leaves you with a really heavy sad and disgusted feeling. But you have to visit it otherwise it's a huge cultural and historical gap in your visit of Cambodia. It helps you understand more about the mentality of the Cambodian people who are by the way one of the nicest people I've ever met. They would make the French feeling ashamed ;)! They are more honest and don't beg as much as in Thailand although there is so much more poverty. In Thailand I was already shocked by some poor houses of my students, but even that was more of the exception. In Cambodia it is the usual and normal poverty of every day and almost every family.
Monday we went to Battambang, which was a 5 hour drive where we had to get up for at 5:30. The first day we visited the bamboo trail where hundreds of Asian people have died during the Japanese terror to build the rail. It's not used any more by trains, but the locals still use it to transport little things. We went with just two wheals, a motor and a bamboo cover on the rails. It went pretty faster than we'd imagined. We saw an amazing scenery of nature and people waving from the rice fields. We stopped to visit a stone factory where we learned also how the make artwork with papaya leaves. We gave the family some money because they were so kind but so poor. Afterwards we went to the killing cave where you can see hundreds of baths at sunset. We saw some monkeys on the way to the killing cave. A lot of little children came up asking us to guide for a dollar, but we say always no to children cause it's child's work.
The next day we visited an ancient Khmer temple. It was still beautiful but after you've seen so many of them at Angkor wat it kind a gets boring. We also went to see a pagoda where the Red Khmer also used to torture and imprison innocent people. Afterwards they just threw them in the cave, which is now called the killing cave. The last stop was a big lake which is probably the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. it was crowded with flowers and plants and lily's. We took a boat trip of an hour on the lake where we also saw houses on the lake and fisherman fishing. We took a swim right in the middle of the lake where we were completely in solitude.
That evening we got invited to a birthday party of a 2year old girl of the restaurant across our hotel where we had eaten three times. They were so kind and wanted to stay and party with their family. We got the whole evening to eat and drink with the family for free. And my god how the Cambodians know how to throw a party! It's nice to see a thing in common between Belgians and Cambodians :D! I'd like to go to an adult birthday party of a Cambodian, how they already partied the whole night long with music and lots of beer,... They wouldn't take no for an answer and kept giving us free beer and toasting to drink bottoms up. ( ad fundum) It really looked like a students Belgian party. But they danced like crazy, not good but they just let themselves go completely on the dancefloor. We went with two spanish, an australian girl and a Dutch guy to a club. The club was really cool but they already closed at 2PM, which is way to early so I got my cards to play an alcohol game on the rooftop of the hotel. We got even a free bottle of wine from the hotel. At 4:30 I finally threw myself in my bed to just get up about two hours later...to take the bus to the border.
Goodbye Cambodia, I fell in love with you and I really want to come back! Just amazing kind people Cambodians and really more trustworthy and open. The nature was incredible as well. It's just too sad that there is that much poverty. 65 percent of Cambodia has tuberculoses. Cambodia is one of the 6 poorest countries in the world with a high rate of HIV. I think I'd like to organize a fund raising for the childrens hospital and for the orphanage school. Only for 2 dollar you can let a child go to school for a whole month! They don't even have 2 dollars the month sometimes. There are also still a lot of landmines which causes still the day of today a lot of deaths or injured people and children. But it's a lovely country which everybody should visit!
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