E guds Nose

12/15/2023 - 01/09/2024

On December 15th We crossed the border on foot with the help of a travel agency that we got through our hotel. We read so many different things about the border crossing on the internet that we wanted to be on the safe side. And it worked out great without incident, even without a passport photo and US dollars, neither of which we had... Out of Vietnam into the new adventure of Cambodia. What does this country have in store for us? We didn't know much and weren't well read either. What we knew about this country: one of the poorest in Asia and therefore a high crime rate. That's it. It happens as it happens, we allow ourselves to be surprised and just drift along. The only thing we wanted to do and why Flo really wanted to come here was to see Angkor. This huge temple complex probably extends over 200 km2 and consists of over 1000 temples.

From the island of Phu Quoc by speedboat over to the Vietnamese mainland, by taxi on to the Vietnamese border, on foot to passport control, Xin chào, càm ón and further across the border, first show your passport again, then on to the border booth, fingerprints, photo : please don't smile, our “guide” probably does that every day and has already filled out some paperwork for us. So it went pretty quickly. Always smile nicely and then we had our stamp. One last freshly squeezed orange juice was paid for with a dong and then we set off in a minivan over bumpy, sandy “roads”. Since we didn't know for sure how long the border crossing scenario would take, we decided against driving straight on to Phnom Penh. So one night in Kampot, near the border and a day later by bus to Phnom Penh. Here we visited the S21 prison and then the Killingfields. The sad story of the Pol Pot regime while the Khmer Rouge ruled. With the help of audio guides, it was very clear to us what scary acts people are capable of. During this era, educated people such as teachers, doctors, artists and students were initially tortured using unimaginable methods and later murdered. Pol Pot wanted to transform society into an agrarian state and make everyone equal, and educated people didn't fit in there. However, he was later overcome by mistrust and paranoia, so that he also had his own ministers tortured and murdered. We don't want to describe the torture and murder scenarios to you in more detail, they go through the bone. They accompanied us for a few days (and nights). It makes you incredibly angry when you're told at the end that Pol Pot himself was only imprisoned for 30 years and then married again and saw his children and grandchildren grow up. What kind of unjust world is this when a mass murderer, under whose leadership a quarter of the Cambodian population was painfully destroyed, was still able to enjoy such a fulfilling life? During his reign between 1975 and 1979, two million people died. It's hard to believe that all of this was only 44 years ago. This Sunday Cambodians celebrate their “victory over genocide day”.

With Lucas and Marjorie, a French travel couple, we strolled through the streets of the capital in the evening, looking for cheap delicacies, although we actually enjoyed delicious vegetarian Cambodian cuisine during the day :-)

Then we continued by bus. Five hours later we were in Siem Reap with no luggage. Too much luggage, too small a trunk. We had to wait a good 30 minutes for the following bus to transport our luggage. Our hostel has a fantastic rooftop pool, but unfortunately we weren't careful when booking and there wasn't a single window in our private bunk room. Well, ok for four nights. In the evening we bought typical, airy tourist clothes for our upcoming temple visits.

And so a day later we rode to the Angkor Ticket Office on borrowed bikes. Not a single one of the 40 or so counters was occupied, we were the only tourists. We asked why, because 4,000 tickets are sold here every day, first thing in the morning and in the evening so that you can start straight away the next day. We arrived at 10:30. We have time so we treated ourselves to the 7 day pass. So then, continue on the bike in the Cambodian midday heat to our first temple complex, the most famous, the Angkor Wat. You have to show your ticket again and again. And not for the first time we were asked if we would like to have a guide. In the end we agreed and encourage everyone to do the same. He had scheduled 1.5 hours. We spent almost three hours walking through Angkor Wat with him. Absolutely impressive how much detail this temple complex was built with. And all this a thousand years ago! Angkor, the largest temple complex in the world, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. So there was a lot to visit in the coming days. We treated ourselves to guided tours again, traveling as a couple, and also as a group of three, with Miguel, a nice Spaniard traveling alone. We took time to take photographs, marvel at the sunrise on Christmas and also enjoy the sunset. Angkor Park not only contains temples, but also houses villages, schools and is home to many animals. So there is a lot to explore around it. We really enjoyed our time here, sometimes just sitting and enjoying the atmosphere. We were at some temples several times, depending on how the light falls through the trees, it gives the visitor a completely different feeling. At times it was almost magical.

Over Christmas we also treated ourselves to a slightly fancier hotel with a private bathroom, a light-flooded room with a balcony overlooking the inner courtyard, in a quiet location but still in the middle of the city.

Afterwards, Flo unfortunately fell very badly in a temple, luckily only a hopefully sprained ankle that needed rest and ice. So we moved a second time in Siem Reap and spent a few days in bed. Next to our hostel we found a tiny bakery where we were regulars for the next few days. They actually had pretzels!!! Not nearly as good as the ones at home, but they did cheer Flo up a lot during his bedtime.

The foot slowly got better and we left the good tuktuk kitchens and tuktuk bars of Siem Reap on December 31st. There has been a lot of work and organization on the streets here over the last few days. Every year there is a competition between the three largest cities in the country to see which New Year's Eve is the most beautiful. Neither of us knew that our “new” city we were going to was celebrating this. When we arrived in Battambang, we were told that there would be a few food stalls and some music on the river bank in the evening. Cambodians celebrate New Year three times a year: the Chinese New Year in February, the Cambodian New Year in April and the Western New Year on December 31st. So we didn't expect much and were extremely surprised. There was a main stage with changing musicians and dancers and in front of it there were chairs, everything covered with fancy covers, a second stage with a program at the other end of the river, tons of food stalls, rides for the children, you could buy clothes and accessories. All in all, comparable to our fairgrounds, only bigger. (The next day the internet told me 370,000 visitors) At some stalls you could buy individual fireworks rockets and sky lanterns. We bought the latter in the old year and let her climb up into the starry sky with the wish for peace. We still don't know why they celebrate the Western New Year so much here, because we didn't find 15 Western-looking tourists the entire evening. People looked at us as if we were an attraction, many children greeted us with waves, men toasted us and thanked us for visiting their country, older women smiled mischievously at us and teenage girls giggled when we walked past them. It seemed to us that many of them had never met anyone who looked European. After finding something vegetarian to eat, we sat down on the boardwalk when the girl next to Flo said that his boyfriend was sitting down there on the stairs. We were amazed when Lucas and Marjorie came to us. The acquaintance from Phnom Penh had actually wanted to be in Thailand for a long time and what kind of coincidence was it to meet in such a large crowd? So we actually celebrated New Year's Eve with friends. At midnight there was a huge fireworks display planned by the city with lots of gold showers and sky lanterns going up. What a great experience. The atmosphere was right, it wasn't hectic, not too loud, a great atmosphere to start a new year full of adventures. There was partying and dancing until one o'clock. The chilled beer was slowly running out - everything on New Year's Eve in Battambang was sponsored by Ganzberg: German Premium Beer. A German master brewer who brews beer here in Cambodia and markets it quite well. That was actually the first advertising banner we saw after crossing the border. You can see the gold and red characters everywhere. Between us, there are significantly better German beers! After we wished our families a happy new year via video call, the lights went out at 3:30 a.m. and the raclette was dismantled for those who stayed at home. Once again, the time difference is a strange thing in itself.

In the next few days we drove through the area around Battambang with a tuk-tuk guide, but also alone on a scooter. We visited a rice liquor distillery (1 liter for 1.15€ on sale), a “factory” for delicious bamboo sticky rice, the fruit bat trees and of course also rode the famous Bambootrain, which was a really great experience. The rails were laid to make it easier to transport the crops from the fields. The route from Phnom Penh to the Thai border is only one lane. Bamboo train, as the wagons used to be pushed with bamboo sticks, like when punting. Nowadays the train still runs twice a day as scheduled and tourists can always sit on a small piece of floor that is placed on two axles, a small engine is placed on the back and the “train driver” regulates the speed in whatever way, we will never know. When another “car” came towards us, there was a loud discussion about who had to clear the tracks. The base part and the two axles were then quickly placed next to the railway tracks, one drives past and then the other is put together again on the tracks. It was a nice trip, unfortunately we had to move out of the way three times on the outward journey, but we were allowed to remain seated on the return journey. In the evening we hiked up a great Buddhist mountain temple for sunset and at the end of the day we walked from there to the Batcaves: shortly after sunset, when all the bats go looking for food and come out in a huge swarm for about 30 minutes. According to Google there should be 15 million there. An absolutely crazy natural spectacle. When we were exploring the area alone on the scooter, people looked after us, waved at us or even stopped next to us to say “hey”. We drove through what appeared to be very poor villages, some of which were just corrugated iron huts with round little huts next to them for emergency use. Our destination this day was the wetlands near the dam in Battambang Province. Huge lotus farms that were previously hidden from us, lush green rice fields that Tine only knew from Bali and lots of bushes and trees in the flooded areas, perfect homes for a wide variety of birds. People live here too, beyond electricity and running water. We have already noticed that running water is a rarity where we are. There are often huge concrete vases next to the houses to collect rainwater. We got off our scooter and looked for birds. We took forever to look for birds to photograph them, or simply to enjoy the moment when a shimmering kingfisher flew hastily over our heads.

We will stay here in this very sleepy town with 151,000 inhabitants until tomorrow.

We wish all friends and readers of our blog a happy and adventurous New Year. May we all see each other again in good health! In our minds and hearts we sometimes share one or two moments with you!