Well you've seen photos, but maybe you want to read about it. :)
Malaysia – a country all about setting world records.
Although the people of Malaysia apparently spend a whole lot of time attempting to break & set world records there is more to the country than just that.
Getting to Malaysia is pretty simple. You can fly, take a bus, drive or even take the train. We stopped in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia for a 2-hour layover, on our way to Singapore and sat in the ever so wonderful security section of the airport. Just a thought about airports… some airports are wonderful and I would spend (and have spent) nights sleeping in them. Then there are others that don’t have a lot in them and make you want to get to your destination sooner. Kuala Lampur’s airport is one that makes you want to reach your destination as soon as possible. There really isn’t anything wrong with it, but there isn’t a lot to see, do or eat.
From Singapore, we took the train back to Malaysia, with a plan to see the beautiful country we just flew over. If you ask locals or other travelers in the area about the train to Singapore many people may respond with “You mean, there’s a train that goes from Singapore to Malaysia?” Let’s just say it’s not a popular mode of transportation. We took a very basic train, which ended up costing close to the same amount as it would have for us to take a luxury bus. The train took 7.5 hours while the bus takes 4-5 hours. The train stops in many small communities or on the track for extended periods of time. This means you are stuck sitting and can’t leave the train that is stopped for what appears to be no real good reason at all. Furthermore, there were no snacks or food to purchase. Although the view was spectacular, it truly was a 7-hour view of the countryside (that I think looks like all the same after 7 hours); I think I could have done without the extended trip. Meanwhile, the bus goes from point A to B with maybe the occasional stop for bathrooms or snacks. If you plan on EVER traveling this route, take a plane that will take an hour or the bus. I guess this was just one of those “live and learn” moments.
We arrived back in Kuala Lampur by three in the afternoon. The great thing with the train station was that it was large enough to have a luggage lock area, info center and some good food. After locking our backpacks away and getting some food into our bodies we were off to do some adventuring. We went to the National Mosque and were hoping to make it to the Batta Caves. Due to a time crunch we didn’t make it to the caves. We later found out that they were closed anyways for Lunar New Years. After viewing the National Mosque we took the train to the Petronas towers. These towers are the tallest in Malaysia and were quite the site to see.
After viewingthe Petronas towers, my friend Ali and I took a taxi to her friend Jen’s house stemming back to the ‘good ole days of university’. Jen is currently living and teaching in Kuala Lampur and was kind enough to host us for the evening. We enjoyed a delicious supper and then had a great, yet short, night’s sleep at her place.
By five am we were up and on our way to the airport, destination Phenom Phen, Cambodia. Our flight left around seven am, but unlike all the airports I have traveled through in North America the airport in KL is close to an hour’s drive outside of the city. We got to the airport, checked in and got to sit in an even smaller space to wait for our flight. Once on the plane, we had a 2-hour flight to Phenom Phen. I remember taking off then shutting my eyes for a “rest” when suddenly I was awoken by the announcement “We are beginning the approach to Phenom Phen. Please put your seats in the upright position.”
Cambodia
What a country! We arrived bright and early on Tuesday morning and were immediately met by our tour guide Poleak Kim (adventureloop.com). First on the to do list was breakfast. We went to a trendy little restaurant, and then checked into our four-star hotel (Imperial Garden Hotel). Shortly after breakfast, we began our site seeing adventures. First we went to the National Museum. As my guidebook so nicely put it, the museum showcases “a millennium’s worth of masterful Khmer artwork, including the world’s finest collection of Angkor-era sculptures” (p.77, South East Asia on a Budget, lonely planet guide books). At this museum photography is prohibited. I am pretty sure the museum showcases the largest number of headless and partially destroyed Buddha’s, per square foot, in Cambodia if not the entire world. Yes, there were a lot of Buddha’s and although there were many more artefacts, our tour guide was difficult to understand. I recommend that you enjoy the museum for face value and skip the tour. (After doing a tour at nearly every museum and had the best tour guide in Cambodia, we found that we heard the same or similar stories many times).
Next up after the Museum was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Here we were allowed to take photos in certain areas, which was nice because the Pagoda’s were very beautiful and were quite well preserved. They were built in the Khmer period and were actually very well preserved.
So, why visit the wonderfully majestic Royal Palace? When you walk into a magnificent structure like this, it feels like stepping into an oasis of peace. You walk through the gates and are met with luscious gardens breath taking architecture, and the silver Pagoda. You’re probably wondering what the difference between a pagoda and temple is? A Pagoda is a building with multiple eves, often associated with Buddhism. It is here that the Monks and people come to pray or show their respect to the higher powers such as Buddha. Whereas, a temple is where the Monks live and carry out their daily lives. The silver pagoda that we visited was a building that paved with 5000, 1kg silver tiles and housed a Buddha statue within. I highly recommend this peaceful, enjoyable and astonishing place.
Now I know you’re thinking I should be on to day two already… BUT when you’re backpacking to three countries in 7 days, you don’t waste a minute…
After the National Museum and Silver Pagoda, we enjoyed a city tour via cyclo. Cyclo’s are a dying form of transportation. They are essentially a reverse tricycle: one wheel in the back, two in the front; one on either side of the passenger seat. The back is like the normal back of a bike. The drivers of the cyclo’s are mostly farmers from nearby villages who can’t provide for their family and being a cyclo driver provides the extra income they need to feed their families. Often the farmers end up moving to the city literally living and working on their cyclo. They often don’t have homes in the city and whatever money they make they send home to their families. The company we supported (smoke free cyclo) provides the drivers with breakfast, lunch a shower and a leased cyclo. Each driver must work to pay his cyclo off at a rate of $0.5 USD a day. You may think this is minuscule but when you make approximately $2 USD/ day the rent to own rate impacts their net earnings greatly. Supporting the dying industry was a great experience. Ali, Naz and I were all amazed as we wove in and out of traffic seeing Phenom Phen from a completely different perspective.
Our cyclo tour ended off at a bunch of “docked” boats along side the river. When I say docked I don’t mean a nice marina with fancy docks. What we saw was people’s houses, life and everything loaded into a boat like structure and pushed ashore with a plank of wood. We boarded one of these boats and which took us to see the city of Phenom Phen from afar. As the sun went down we saw more floating houses on the river, and a few smaller islands. I would love to be able to advertise a particular boat company here, but if it weren’t for adventureloop’s very own Poleak, we wouldn’t have experienced such an amazing trip. Poleak truly knows the locals and prides himself in providing a more authentic tour experience; without the huge tourist traps!
One private boat tour down we decided to go to a local restaurant to enjoy a meal on the patio. Unexpectedly, we came across a group fitness class that we of course had to participate in. Eventually, we did finally make it to the restaurant where we ate traditional Khemer food and reminisced about the days’ adventures. I wish I could tell you the name of this amazing place, but I can’t. The group’s consensus for the day was that traditional Khemer food is delicious and that Cambodia is a breath taking, eye- opening and phenomenal city.
Day 2 in Cambodia…
What a sad day! After the day’s experiences, I realized how happy I was to be alive, healthy and to have had the opportunities I have had in my life so far. In deed I have had a very fortunate life so far!
We started off by visiting the Tuol Sleg Museum. Once a school, this site held a lot of history, stories and memories. In the transition from school to museum this site was a torture site for Pol Pot’s security forces in 1975. It was known as Security Prison-21 (S-21), and many people still call it S-21 today. Although the torture only occurred at this location for just over 3 years, ending in early 1979, the preservation of this site is something else. Words can hardly describe what we saw and heard. There were times we were holding our breath, as we tried to comprehend all that occurred and people endured. Many of our guides on this trip had survived the rise of the Khemer people and have stories that are sickening and heart wrenching.
The moment that caused me the most mixed emotions at this museum was when we met a survivor of S-21. Bou Meng, a former artist survived the daily torture sessions because of his ability to draw. Because of his talent, he was to draw photos of Pol Pot the leader. (Remember here the Khemer people were the poor towns’ people who were essentially trying to close the gap between the rich and poor. Their solution was to kill the rich and educated). Although Bou Meng was “saved” because of his ability to produce art, he still faced daily torture sessions. Now Bou Meng, survives on what money he makes from a book he has written. Call it a “tourist trap” if you want, but meeting him was the first time in my life when I realized that I was so happy to be alive and living. Hearing his story, seeing the torture chambers with the blood still on the floor, clothing, skulls, bones and photos of the lives lost, made for an emotionally hard morning. I am in awe of the people of Cambodia and their strength to share the realities they faced and the resiliency to go on living.
After visiting S-21 and learning all about where and how people were tortured, we went to visit the Killing fields of Choeung Ek. People were taken to S-21 to be tortured until nearly dead, then brought to Choeung Ek where the essentially dug their own grave and were killed by Pol Pot’s “security forces.” Cambodia isn’t what one would consider a “wealthy” country in terms of the economy, so guns and bullets were considered expensive. People here were did not face a painless death, some were buried alive, others cut open and left to die. There was even a tree on the premises that was known as the ‘baby killing’ tree. Infants were taken away from their mothers and had their heads smashed against the trunk of the tree until they died.
Words can’t describe the feelings, emotions and heartache from this experience. Although an emotionally hard morning, I would HIGHLY recommend going to visit S-21 and Choeung Ek. If nothing else you’ll have gained an appreciation for your life today.
If you’ve followed this far, I commend you.
It was only noon. After lunch we spent around 4 hours biking through Phenom Phen, and three neighbouring islands. Although this wasn’t originally a part of the tour plan, we asked if we could do some biking and sure enough Poleak made it happen. We were supposed to have visited the Silver Pagoda during this afternoon but instead he shuffled things around, making this bike opportunity possible.
Biking in Phenom Phen is nothing that I am ecstatic about. Traffic doesn’t stop for anything and there are no road signs, stoplights or rules on the road. In Cambodia, drivers pay the specified amount of money for a driver’s license and away they go. As we were told, there really aren’t any problems with the traffic system, until you get in an accident. (Great advice I know). We started out by riding through the city of Phenom Phen on the main streets with the locals. After crossing a bridge 8-10kms in to the journey we began riding on the side of the highway… shockingly slightly less stressful as there isn’t traffic going every which direction, as often. Eventually we turned off and started riding back roads where we experienced the real Cambodian life. Riding through villages and eventually over and through three different islands (with the help of some ferrys). On the islands we experienced true dirt roads, watched some authentic weaving on what is known to be the silk and cotton weaving islands and stopped to drink some fresh palm juice that a local family was collecting from neighbouring palm trees.
After a phenomenal afternoon of biking through Cambodia, we went for supper and out for ice cream. We bumped into other tourists who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the evening. These four great people were students on an exchange from a university in Seoul and were currently all living in Kuala Lampur. Soon their semester would be done in Malaysia and they would return back to Seoul. When they return, we will hopefully meet up with them again and embrace the Korean culture together.
Day three in Cambodia was a long day with lots of driving. We woke up early to hit the road. Destination: Siem Riep. Along the way we stopped at a local market to eat tarantula at Cambodia’s oldest temples and ate a picnic lunch. Some wild monkeys joined us, stealing little bits of food that we would offer. Our final stop was at Poleak’s parent’s house. There we met his precious little daughter. Because he provides for his family and is always on the road, he can’t care for his children. His wife currently cares for the new born, his parents care for his youngest daughter and his sister cares for his eldest son. We all found this quite interesting. I couldn’t imagine these realities of life daily. Sadly this is what happens in order for many Cambodians to make ends meet and meet the needs of all members in the family. Poleak is such a warm-hearted individual. He provides for more than just his immediate family by helping his parents, extended family and community.
After a long drive, we finally made it to our amazing five-star hotel, which was exactly that. BREATH TAKING! Gosh what a life rich people live. We got a crazy deal on this hotel. It turned out that the price of our hotel was the same price as the three-star hotel, which was full. So we HAD to stay at the five-star one! We took advantage of the beautiful outdoor pool and other amenities at the hotel. For backpackers, this was truly luxury!
Day 4 and final day in Cambodia (for me)
We had a four a.m. wake-up today so we could be at Angkor Watt before sunrise. Gosh was it ever worth the effort! Angkor Watt was absolutely stunning and breathtaking! We took many beautiful photos, but honestly they don’t do Angkor Watt justice. I guess it just means that if you’re reading this you need to go visit Cambodia to really appreciate it. J
Following the sunrise we went back to the hotel to eat some breakfast and then drove back to Angkor Watt and the surrounding temples. We spent the whole day going through various temples, learning about history and hearing stories. Each story and event was unique and different.
After a wonderful day of temple exploring, we visited the famous night market and packed our belongings for my long journey back “home.”
By far, this was the best trip I have taken in my life and I would highly recommend visiting Cambodia with ‘adventureloop’ if you get the chance. It is reasonably priced, and everything goes without a hitch. Poleak is a great guide. J
No comments:
Post a Comment