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| Angkor Wat at Sunrise |
We (me, Emily, and Stephanie) started our 1st day from Bangkok and go straight to the Northern Bus Terminal (Mochit) to buy a bus ticket to Siem Reap. We arrived at the bus terminal around 10 AM and turns out, all of the tickets were sold out until 12:30 PM, so there is nothing else that we can do and we just wait there for 2 hours (that turns out to not be that bad (well at least for me)). So after 2 hours of waiting, we finally start our looong journey to Siem Reap! We arrived at the border between Thailand and Cambodia (Poipet border) around 18:30, and we go through all the visa on arrival processes. For me, it is much much more easier since I have a Southeast Asian passport and thus, I didn't need to make any visa! I won't talk about what happened in the border in detail just because there are a lot of other blogs that already talked about that. But in short, the experience wasn't as overwhelming as what people had said (again, at least for me)! Long story short, we finally advanced to Siem Reap using a minivan around 20:30 and successfully arrived at our hostel in Siem Reap around midnight. (We stayed in Onestop Hostel by the way, and the place was amazing -- everyone was so nice and the location is perfect!)
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| My bus to Siem Reap! |
2nd day
We decided to not to force ourselves to go to Angkor Wat on the next day because we realized that we really need to have some rest. So our second day was a very very lazy day. We fell asleep until 10, have some breakfast, rest a little bit more, wander around until we didn't have anything else to do until noon. Then we decided to go to the War Museum that located a little bit farther from our hostel and hire a Tuktuk to take us there for only $2 each. The War Museum was not like any other museums that you've been! Everything is outdoor, you can see everything (and even touch them if you want), and the tour guides are all veterans from the war. It was an extraordinary and heartbreaking experience to learn more about the war that happened in Cambodia not so long ago, about how the Khmer Rouge tried to banished all Cambodians from their own land. The museum is definitely a place to go if only you hire the tour guide, because if you don't, you won't get the feeling of the museum.
But apparently, it didn't take a long time to see everything in the museum. We finish after 45 minutes and it was only around 1 PM. We then talked to the Tuktuk driver and asked him about other good place that we can possibly see and be done at 4:30 PM (because we planned to see the sunset in Angkor Wat that day). And the Tuktuk driver decided to take us to the biggest lake in Cambodia and possibly in Southeast Asia: Tonle Sap, and that was a decision that we will never regret.
We have to pay $20 each for a roundtrip boat tour to the floating village that lives in the edge of the river. Even though we realize that it is such a big amount of money, but nonetheless, the floating village was so impressive! It's amazing to see how people with different lives, situations, and conditions live their life in a complete different way, and they survive anyway. So these people from the floating village lives in a house that is practically a boat. Every house should own a boat in order to survive, because every single place that they wanted to go (even if it's only to a neighbor's house) is only accessible through water. So unless they are able to swim every second, they certainly need a boat.
The next w-o-w thing that we found out was that every year, they have to migrate to the lake because every time the dry season comes, the river will run out of water. And when they move, they have to move everything; their houses, the school, the church, the health facility, and the market. How crazy is that??
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| Stephanie, Emily, and me on our way to the floating village |
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| The Floating Village of Tonle Sap |
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| Moonrise in Angkor Wat |
Neither my phone nor my camera was able to took a perfect picture of the moonrise. But it was there, the moon was only 100 meters from your face, it was the full moon night, the moon shone so bright and it was so big. So big. It was so amazing. So amazing. I can't even describe how amazing was it. The moon was so big and it looks like it touches the temple. I'm literally out of words to describe how startled I am.
3rd day
This day is our last day in Siem Reap and it's the day to explore the magnificence of Angkor Wat and the other temples in the complex. Angkor Wat is definitely so magnificent, it stood there big and proud but at the same time will give you some sort of happy and peaceful feeling. I can't really describe my experience in Angkor Wat, because for some people it could be kind of a spiritual experience and I believe being in Angkor Wat will bring a different impression and experience for everyone.
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| My Angkor Pass |
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| Entrance to Angkor Wat |
4th day
Unlike all the islands in Thailand that is so full with tourists, this island in the southern part of Cambodia is nothing close to it. We arrived at Sihanoukville around 7:30 in the morning and we immediately proceed to the pier which was only 10 minutes away from the bus terminal. The next boat will be at 9:30 and it is the slow boat that will take us around 90 minutes to get there (which turns out to be 150 minutes). But whatever, we surely cant wait for the next speed boat that will depart at 3 PM.
Koh Rong Samloem is so amazing with its emptiness. The whole island was still a forest, not inhabited with anyone. Someone told us that it just opened for public for less than two years! But in that two years, we could already found a few bungalows that are available to be rent. But still, this is probably one of the best places if you want to run away from the hassle in the city or just to find some peace.
In order to see the sunset, we have to walk across the forest and go the beach that located in the other end for about 30 minutes. We prepared ourselves with flashlight, because after the sun sets there will be no light to guide us in the forest. And all the exhaustion of walking for 30 minutes and the nervousness of the need to go back in the dark just by the three of us was paid off after we saw the sunset.
Do you know the moments when you just sit in silence and wonder how great God is? This is definitely one of those moments. (And yet again neither my phone nor camera was able to capture the moment)
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| Sunset at Koh Rong Samloem |
Moments in the island was all about leisure, lazy, and simply enjoying life. I spent the whole day reading the book that I found there, lay by the beach, drink some shakes, and just enjoying every moment. This is unfortunately our last day here, because at 4 PM (which turns out to be 4:45 PM) we have to take our speed boat back to Sihanoukville. From there, we will be separated and each go to their own ways. I will proceed to Phnom Penh and look forward for the capital of Cambodia, Stephanie will take the bus back to Bangkok and then go to Myanmar, and Emily will take the bus to Siem Reap and catch a flight to Bangkok from there. This is the moment when we have to go our own way, and say goodbye to each other for good...
6th day
The journey from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh was just 4-5 hours. So since my bus departs from Sihanoukville at around 8 PM, I arrived at Phnom Penh around midnight.
I spent this day with my personal Tuktuk driver that drove me to all the touristy places in the heart of Phnom Penh such as the National Museum, Silver Pagoda, Royal Palace, Independence Monument, Wat Phnom, and last but not least I took a boat trip in the river that connects Tonle Sap river and Mekong river. Since my hostel (it's Onestop hostel again!) is located in a very good location, thus I was able to see the Sisowath Quay (the river) just from my window.
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| Me riding a Tuktuk! |
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| Silver Pagoda |
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| Royal Palace |
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| National Museum |
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| Sisowath Quay |
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| Sunset at the boat trip on the Mekong River |
7th day
My seventh and last day in Cambodia was the day my heart broke and was the day I question the humanity of every human. This day I ride in my comfy Tuktuk again and go to the outskirts of Phnom Penh to two of the 'best place to go' in Phnom Penh: Toul Sleng Museum and Choeung Ek Killing Fields.
If you don't know (I also don't really know before I came here), in the 1970s there was a massive killing for all the Cambodians in Cambodia. It was initiated by the Khmer Rouge who was strongly influenced by communism. They believe that Cambodia needs to be fulfill all of their needs by themselves and they do not accept any help from the outside. And in order to reach out this dream, they will gladly killed everyone that stood on their way. But as we all expect, they start to put suspicion to everyone; from woman to kids, farmers to intellectuals, doctors to foreigners, students to the homeless. This is where the genocide starts, and they successfully killed more than three million people from their only four years of ruling the country. People said that some of the people died because of the killing, hunger, or illness, and some of them died out of hopelessness and loneliness. And for me, those was the worst reasons to be died from. And do you know what's the saddest part? The ones who kill the Cambodians are the Cambodians itself.
I spent the whole day wondering how could human being be that evil? What kind of reason that can push them to do such a horrible thing to their own kind? I kind of believe that humans must be the most ruthless creature that God ever made.
Do you know what is the last message that they gave to you in the voice guide? It sounds like something like this: "......what happened in Cambodia had also happened in other places like the holocaust in Germany, and some other countries. And this is probably not the end. Humans will always come up with something to be fight for, and there is a big possibility that people will ended up doing the same thing again. So please remember our story and take it to your heart, because no one knows if this will happen again someday..."
May all the souls rest in peace.
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| Mass grave of the victims |
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| The skulls of some of the victims of the genocide that showed in Choeung Ek |
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| The victims |
I ended my travel in Cambodia in not a really fun way, but I'm happy that I did went to these places. This makes me remember how fortunate I am and how I need to be thankful even more. This day I went back home to Jakarta at 5 PM, and finally ended up my trip to Cambodia.
In a nutshell, Cambodia was one of the most amazing, impressive, rich in culture and history, and of course, worth-to-visit country. I'll surely come back again!
