Cambodia — a reflection

Cambodia is a confusing place – dangerous, and confusing. It doesn’t seem to quite know what or who it is….it had a schizophrenic relationship with itself – with its continued ‘dollarisation’, it’s fake hotels which rest obscenely against (or on) the abject poverty immediately surrounding them, the madness and lawlessness of its traffic, the unenviable status of one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and scant regard for life, mixed with a passion for itself, hard working people subsisting on less than a $ a day, and seeing families on the street and in doorways huddled around a meal, sharing stories, laughing and attending to their children. That said, I will continue to be baffled by the contradiction of a clear love for children, yet every other moped having a baby or toddler precariously balanced over the speedometer while the parent weaves, one hand on the kid the other on the throttle, through mindless, unrelenting traffic. It truly is a country of profound contradiction. It has an undoubted collective trauma which is etched across the landscape – I passed a museum for land mines, (still a significant issue) and I was moved my a political billboard that read ‘Wipe away the tears…keep moving forward’. This was not from the ruling and absurdly inaccurately titled ‘Cambodian Peoples Party’….their countless ‘offices’ are grotesquely plonked amidst shacks and squalor and demonstrate a contempt for their own people by building these obscene mansions.

Anyway….back to cycling! Before I left Siem Reap I went to a Killing Fields memorial – the photos are a bit graphic so not for little eyes (Niamh!!) or sensitive souls.

My initial poor impressions of cycling here in Cambodia were, I think premature. After the first two days of utter chaos and sheer panic on the roads, there was some improvement, in that there have been times where there is a hard shoulder on a number of roads, and once I got the hang of how to survive the chaos, it wasn’t too bad. There has been an unrelenting head wind all across Cambodia but…..I’ve learnt to ‘cheat’ …by jumping on the back of slow (ish) moving vehicles and getting a ‘tow’ sometimes for 10+ Ks if I get a good one…so I’m able to plod along at 25/30 as opposed to 15-18! I’ve made it my business to stop in bustling market places and soak up the atmosphere (and food), and occasionally I’ve taken a ‘minor’ road …for that, read ‘track’, but doing this allows me to see a hidden Cambodia.

What I’ve loved are the kids….always smiling, shouting ‘hello’ and riding their bikes with me for a bit…so special. I’ve mostly stayed in guest houses, which have been rough and ready! On Wednesday night I had had no luck with accommodation, but noticed that there was a number of hotels on Bronze Lake, about 3k off the main road down a track. So…I headed down only to find them all abandoned! I cycled in to (yes, literally) one which had its doors left open, and I decided to ‘camp’ there as I was shattered. It was a massive hotel completely deserted. As I made myself comfortable, a guy rocks up and says I can have a room! The place was shut since March but was hoping to reopen in December (gee they’ve a lot to do!) but was happy for me to have a room…which I did! Dusty, dirty and smelly, crawling with all sorts of wildlife, but a bed, a shower, lights and he even got the wifi to work. So I spent the night completely alone in this derelict hotel!

I have finally got my visa to Vietnam so….I’m off to Vietnam on Saturday!