Rounding up Cambodia

Piles of dried shrimp (Ha-gow in Cantonese)

Grilled chicken on skewers

Fresh King Coconuts

So from temples to tummy aches we spent the day resting in bodhi villa, i lay on the bed listening to Gilles peterson's podcast with the famous reggae DJ Roddigan, being lulled to sleep by the sounds of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley. I'd decided to go on a coconut fast but the hunger pangs kept coming, come evening i'd given up and ordered a delicious plate of fresh veg. hummous and crispy baguette (which i fairly shared with mum). For pudding we had hot banana's in sago and coconut milk - it soothed my tummy and after a lovely chat with one of the long-term bartenders we went to sleep soundly. Actually the chat was very interesting - he spoke of leaving his mother for 10 years at 15 years old to go and find work and a more satisfying (financially) lifestyle - his reason for not going back to his mum was he couldn't keep intouch as she doesn't have a phone, internet and is illiterate (no letters)... He knew whereabouts his house was but could never remember the address - so after 10 years of the dissapearance of one of her 5 sons (considered a small amount of kids for a local cambodian family), she was stunned into silence on his return. Influenced majorly by his boss (a very cool, chill Aus. who spends his day running the hippie guest house, swimming in the Mekong, and smoking spliffs) he's off to Australia to see what he can find there. I couldn't help thinking the road ahead of him involved a lot more rough edges than he could foresee but I sent positive vibes for him.

Fresh crabs in a basket

The natural light of the sun streamed through the open space lying infront of our bed above the river, and we woke - did our regular yoga routine, and had a scrumtious breakfast of muesli, yogurt and fruit on the dock with our feet dangling into the Mekong. The day before we'd gone on a little bike-ride through Kampot - it wasn't as quaint as we'd expected, but there were some beautiful touches that could be seen in the French quarter, the elaborate designes on the eaves of the buildings, the sweet french cafe's etc. It was a Friday, and a big night was planned at the Bodhi Villa due to the departure of their long-term bartender. We decided if we had to wake up the following day at 6am to get our bus to Phnom Penh, a little shut-eye would go a long way. So we packed up and waved goodbye to the 60's, rainforest style, hippie California guest house - those adjectives seem most suitable. We moved everything (again.) to Bokor mountain guest house in the heart of Kampot town - the room smelt a little and the view wasn't great but there was TV, wifi, AC, our OWN bathroom and soft beds so we had no complaints. However when the electricity chose to only burn out in our room - we got upgraded to the room opposite which smelt nice and had a nice view, so we were sorted! 

Kampot pepper and a weird tasting wormy sea creatue

The ladies waiting to bring in the Crab

A woman preping crabs

We took a day-trip with our sweet-faced tuk-tuk driver Bunty (like bounty the chocolate!) to Kep, a close sea-side village. We were planning on hopping on the ferry to Rabbit Island that was half an hour away but the sky looked ominous and we decided against it. Kep proved to be more interesting than we'd thought - it's a village that wasn't really looked after at all, the waves lap against the unnatural sand that was imported from Suhanouk-ville years and years ago to keep up appearances of 'a beach'. The 'grub' market as Bunty kept saying didn't sound too appealing but despite our protests he took us there. it turned out to be a crab market, the famous kampot crabs! We watched the strong women reel in the crab pots as everyone steamed around grabbing at the bubbling blue and red live crabs that were stacked ontop of each other. Metres away other crabs were being boiled, and behind them fresh kampot pepper was being sold. We bought bags of the delicious stuff. We decided we had to try the famous kampot pepper crab, so for lunch we tucked in - what i love about eating crab is how present you are forced to be with your food, sucking, cracking, digging - it's such a process for such little flesh but when a really nice piece is found it's  more than worth it (i discovered a really amazing piece of crab-leg meat is priceless!)

A chicken in a bag

We looked around at the 'old palace' and 'old buildings' that were all only 100 years old, just abandoned, ugly houses really which squatters had taken over. 

We dawdled around in the room, packing, checking our emails, the usual. Then we got a little peckish - our bellies were still bloated (I soon discovered bowel movements is one of the first conversation most travellers have as everyone seems to experience either constipation or the runs - neither being particularly pleasant.)

We went back to the guesthouse we were originally going to stay at, Rikitikitavi - and ordered yogurt, chicken wraps and a wonton dish. With fresh apple pie and vanilla ice cream for pud! The spliff before dinner just made the food sparkle and burst in my mouth.The plan to watch a movie slightly failed and we crashed out comfortably. 

Fresh Vs. Cooked crabs :o

The morning after our Kep adventure, which we truly loved despite the grey clouds (it brightened up at times), we boarded our 7am bus. The bus we'd chosen to take so early because it would take the 'fast route' ended up arriving just after 12. Atleast we stopped on the way! Munching on boiled eggs with kampot pepper, and a fresh king coconut, we had no complaints. Unfortunately the public toilets aren't as well-kept as Hong Kong, but a toilet's a toilet - and when you're sitting for 3 hours on a bus bursting to go, anything will suffice.

We arrive in Pnom Penh, dump our stuff at our rather clubby hotel 'Number 9' (the manager looked like a pimp in a suit coming to greet us, lights flashed all round and the bartender was pacing back and forth trying to make eye contact and seduce you into buying a 'buy one get one free cocktail!') and we stretched into our body glove (yoga time!) I love that yoga orientates you, it brings you back and calms you down amidst whatever chaos exists at the time.

Notorious Kampot pepper crab

We shared a little spliff by the tiny pool on the third floor, overlooking a busy Saturday in Phnom Penh, and headed off to 'quickly collect' our dresses from the beautiful French-Cambodian shop that had totally seduced us ,'Ambre' (definately reccomended!) Our vulnerability got the better of us and we ended up trying on multiple dresses and purchasing 4 more items (To be fair we had saved on transport and accomodation.)

Apple pie and ice cream!

Our girly day wouldn't be intact without a delicious lunch (of peppered tuna, goats cheese salad and ginger/ soya halibut) and a trip to the hair salon! I've been obsessed with having some sort of radical change but went slightly safer (but still shorter!) with a meek side fringe. I had it straightened so combing through my seemingly thin, soft hair was all I did for the next few hours - allowing vanity to get the better of me. We returned to our room, got ready, and headed out to dinner with a yogi-friend of mums, Anna. When she turned up, all i saw was legs and blonde hair, a beautiful tall, blonde Russian woman who had amazingly had a child 6 months ago (you would never tell) pulled up in her big kundalini white four wheel drive. We felt suitable in our new dresses with our hair swishing back and forth. We were being taken to 'China house', i assumed this would mean plastic chairs and chopsticks but it was a very flashy two-floored resteraunt with beautiful modern art and dim orangy lighting. The women at the restaurant were all dressed to dine, long beautiful dresses and elegant hair pieces, we felt under-dressed! We were greeted with a shot of fresh gazpacho - followed by a salad, lamb skewers, lentil and avocado salad and for dessert, apple tempura with vanilla walnut ice cream! AH. They give you a taste of their rich dark hazlenut chocolate to top it all off. The wine slipped down, my temperature rose and the conversation lifted - it was a fabulous night. Sealed with a spliff, mum and I fell into deep sleep in our comfy beds (despite the room smelling like perming solution) for our last night in Phnom Penh.

Recipe of the day: Kampot black pepper crab

http://thehungrycyclist.com/kampot-pepper-crab-cambodia/

Cambodia: Day 10 & 11

Sangria's

As i'm not really writing this in chronological order my days are getting a little foggy - i guess that happens when you're constantly on the move. The only think that is differentiating the days from the weekends is when  my boyfriend's at work and when he's out partying (which determines our skype times). So yesterday (Day 9) we arose early, as our hut has no doors or windows we were hanging with the elements, wind, rain, sand - we were like one happy family. The sunrise was directly in my line of view from where I slept so it greeted me as soon as it was up - meaning we woke up naturally early most mornings at the beach. It was great though, gave you so much more time to do more with your day! We began with a lovely yoga set that's been customized by my mother (as she's a yoga teacher) and is based on my numerology - what i need to work on, my karmic numbers etc etc. I love the physical side of yoga aswell as the spiritual so this kind of kicks you up the ass and allows you to get intouch with yourself too.

View from our hippy hut

After yoga we had our regular breakfast at the amazing (but expensive) guesthouse a few metres down the beach. It's funny that at night whenever we walk back we find ourselves walking briskly, humming the protection mantra and clinging whatever valuables we had to us. At dark when everything merges together into one colour and anything could pop out of anywhere, it's slightly haunting - yet in the blaring 10:00am sunlight, a simple strip of land with a few half-constructed houses lie along the beach - harmful as ever.
Some may call us cheap but I call us clever, we'd lounge on their gorgeous white sunbeds and use their soft towels, eating their fabulous food (and respectfully paying the price with a generous tip) until we were ready to slope back to our cheap but quaint beach hut nearby.

For dinner on the 9th and 10th nights we decided to stay at our place - though the service is incredibly slow, it was more of a family-run establishment, the food tasted fresh and home cooked - both nights we ordered the fresh fish Khmer curry with rice and a side of fried vegetables. We loved the food (that was the same price!) down the beach, but being able to crawl into bed after taking a few steps was so worth it.

Breakfast by the river

Yesterday at lunch i experiences a slight knock out. I ordered fish with rice and babaganoush to start (this was for mum and i to share i hope you realize). The babaganoush appeared like clockwork and then a fresh creamy tomato soup with a crispy baguette. It wasn't my order and I don't know how 'fish' became 'tomato soup' but I was pleasantly surprised and munched it up rather fast. We'd ordered a red wine, soda water and sprite to make sangria's. I tell you, after a joint, a bowl of hot soup, and a sangria in the sun, your eyes begin playing tricks on you. Mum was talking to me - about something spiritual and enlightened i'm sure, but my mind was stuck at the top of a tree somewhere - I admitted defeat and slunk off to have a nap on a shaded sunbed.

Spot the obvious munch

The tomato soup that seemed such a perfect idea at the time - sat in my stomach until about 3am when I couldn't take it anymore, thankfully I wasn't too disoriented to gather my thoughts so i neatly chundered outside our little hut, with the wind blowing and the rain coming down it felt rather dramatic I must say. The rest of that night wasn't the best, and the stale taste of tomato soup still resonates with me. "I chundered everywhah".. on my gap year, is a saying I can now confidently repeat with a laugh, from the youtube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU)

Presently, i'm sitting on a bed in Boddhi Villa, a totally hippie hangout with fumes of weed and a menu packed with munchy food - we're in Kampot, about 2 hours from Sahanoukville, overlooking the Mekong river. We arrived at the beach with the sun and left with the rain. The weather is still ominous but the mood is mellow and my weak body was given a slight kickstart by our daily yoga routine. Today I've decided to give my digestive system a break and have a day of king coconut (that didn't last when we sat down for my dinner king coconut but the amazing munchy menu tempted me)

I'm excited to be here, trying to enjoy and embrace the feeling of being on holiday without worrying too much about our return, packing up my room, saying goodbye to everyone - the future does not exist yet.. that's just something I have to meditate on.

Recipe of the day: Tomato soup

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2075/tomato-soup

Cambodia: Day 9

'HAVE ICE CREAM' haha

This morning we had a lovely, relaxed yoga set – part of the cria being to aid digestion, exactly what we needed with slight constipation from the constant travelling and the lack of routine in our diet. Part of the meditation involves singing for 11 minutes, it really lifts you, especially in the morning. ‘Universe’ means 1 song, so playing into the nature of the world and its surroundings we joined its harmony and said Buenas dias to another beautiful and sunny day.
Mum finished off her 31 minute meditation as i swam and lounged around, managing to successfully focus through another chapter of my book that’s not in the chapter of a man travelling through India, so the fact that I can relate to a lot of what he’s talking about makes the read slightly more gripping – though the constant dates and historical facts do cause my mind to wonder. We shared two great breakfasts, one of poached eggs and buttered toast, and the other of fresh fruits, muesli and yogurt. With a king coconut each for hydration and a press of coffee for a kick. I sorted out my whole music folder on my computer with the minimal access to wifi after breakfast. The guteral feeling of sorting out things on your computer was such a beautiful relief.

Is it literal?!

We returned back to basics (our hut), lathered up in sun-cream and lay in the sun with my afternoon joint. The high hit me and i got into the music zone again, in my mind i had a realization of ‘the lightbulb effect’ when you hear a song and realize how much you can connect to it, or how much you love it or understand the beats and why they’ve been mixed the way they have. Weed makes you notice detail I find, I watched the ants crawl across the segmented pine leaf, I remember noticing the segments looked similar to spiders legs. I watched my feet standing in the sand, they slowly disappeared as the sand sucked them up, and around me I watched the little clam-like sea creatures bubbling and elegantly drifting into the sand to be hidden from predators like me! Muahaha. No i’m joking – we decided to have a little walk, that turned into an hour and a half there and back, but it was worth it – we worked up an appetite and discovered another niche of the beach. It was slightly livelier, browned tourists lay on colourful beach beds, under great blue and pink umbrella’s.

Mmmm, breakfasts

Siesta's

We passed ‘Happy herb pizza’ with the promo sign reading ‘A JOINT $1.50’ – I didn’t know whether this was literal or not but it sure tempted me. The psychedelic mushroom village was nearby too, consisting of lots of round huts with cone shaped roofs imitating mushrooms. We sat and ate tuna and boiled egg salad with a fresh wedge of baguette. It filled the gap. After a quick dip in the sea we walked back, the sun lightly heating our backs. It was great to walk along such a wild stretch of beach with no development (yet). The day this place becomes industrialized and infested with tourists i thought, it will lose it's magic.. it's special charm that hasn't been ruined by the manipulation of money. We’re really enjoying the peace and the untouched-ness that this place offers. Right now we sit in our basic hut, with the blinds down and the wind blowing like crazy – I keep looking up and thinking our electric fan is switched on because the strength of the wind is turning the blades in an ‘on’ motion. The sun’s setting and the light is darkening – it’s sundowner time.



Recipe of the day: Salad Nicoise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/saladenicoise_6572

Cambodia: Day 8

Settling into the beach vibe

Another sunrise another yawn another day. I’m munching on hummus and baguette, sipping a coconut, looking out at white sand. Earlier we kayaked to a nearby island, it took about 45 minutes and the way back, though we were going in the direction of the wind and with the rythm of the waves, was far harder as the undercurrent was silently dragging us backwards. I had a moment earlier after a joint, when i put in my earphones and St. Germain came on. The jazzy rythm hooked my whole body as my mind let go i truly heard the music. I wasn’t just listening and enjoying the tune. I was fully engulfed, i understood the love for music, true love. I watched the waves washing in and hummed along. The hum eventually got a bit too loud as I was jamming along to the rythm of the music. I quietened down on realization and picked up my book – attempting to read the first page was a struggle beyond anything, trying to remain focused on such intricate language... The second and third pages were surprisingly interesting and I got into the detail and movement of the book straight away. At one point a comedian was telling jokes about the racism shown towards Islam – the jokes all had a dark underlying spiritual meaning and they all related to passages from the Koran. My mind went wild understanding the meaning of each sentence i was reading. But slowly my it drifted and the music carried me away again. Must go, toast is calling – munch!

Mum and I chilling in our hammock 

The pina colada’s as our sun downers slipped down quickly, the rum burning our throats but the fresh pineapple cut the heat. Our Asian glow quickly appeared and mum and I burst into fits of giggles as our faces glowed in the evening light. Sunglasses were put on and the bill was paid. One thing about travelling that my mum and I both share, is our love for feeling fresh and clean despite staying at really basic places. Having a good shower wherever you are, with adequate materials (shampoo, conditioner and soap) and a nice dry towel afterwards just does it for me. Getting into clean dry clothes that are mine, that i know, that feel safe and comfortable and warm is just the perfect way to settle into a place and feel that much more comfortable.

Beautiful beachy days

We breathed a sigh and I lit a joint by expertly holding up the hammock with my big toe, creating a wind-proof tent allowing the size of the flame to rise and the paper at the end of the joint to crackle and burn. The moment i let the hammock go the wind rushed and the joint began burning fast – something that always makes me feel slightly on edge knowing i can’t let the wind have it all. Mum and I engaged in light conversation and made our way down the beach for soda water and a cup of tea. Taking traditions with you to a new place just allows you to enjoy your holiday by truly feeling a new place but adding your own little touches to make the experience ‘top notch’ as my uncle Al would say. The drinks we ordered sounded far more reliable than our drinks earlier – a ‘papaya juice’ arrived as a thick blended mixture of what tasted like a mix between carnation milk, coconut cream, ice cream, papaya and sugar – a sweet, thick milky shake – straying quite far from the original request but I couldn’t complain, you can only laugh really. I accidentally knocked half of mums glass off the edge of the sunlounger, proving quite a relief as she only had to sip half the drink and not absorb too much sugar, fat and cholesterol – eugh. Another lost in translation moment occurred at breakfast when I attempted, in clearest broken English, to have 2 eggs – one fried for my mother (i explained this playing charades, using the hand-motion of a frying pan) and the other boiled for me (i created a small egg with my hands and placed it in an egg-cup) when breakfast arrived the order was perfect, apart from the 2 fried eggs we’d received, one sunny side up (exactly what mum wanted) and the other was fried on both sides and covered in oil, not exactly what i’d pictured when thinking of a light clean breakfast rid of oil and grease – oh well, i ate it anyway.

Delish breakfast

The Cambodian way of life we'd adapted to seemed to have the same effect on my mother and I, our ravenous nature causing us to go crazy at the sight of such great menu choices. I remember watching a ted talks on choices and how fewer is actually more satisfying than more as your brain doesn’t stress and go wild at all the choices you can’t have. We both chose the munchiest foods on the menu, big bowls of Texan chilli with potato wedges and salad. For pudding we shared ice cream and fresh local fruit with a chocolate chip cookie. Mm we slept well that night, the red wine with our chilli knocked us out to perfection.


Recipe of the day: The perfect chocolate chip cookie
http://www.mydish.co.uk/recipe/chocolate-chip-cookies

Cambodia: Day 7

Getting our nails done

The next morning the sunrise woke me as it streamed through the wooden blinds. I desperately needed to pee, but the painful thought of moving your body using energy, to have to walk 100m to the toilet and then get back into bed once you’ve jolted your body into awake mode didn’t excite me. To make things worse the toilet was busy for 20 minutes so I sat half asleep on our balcony until it was free. After I relieved my bladder I was able to go back to sleep for 2 hours. Mum’s rustling of pillows and sheets woke me, and we did yoga for the next hour until our tummy’s became ravenous for breakfast.

Loving the colours!

Due to the fantastic choice of fruits at our guest house (banana.) we chose to eat breakfast at the guesthouse we’d been the night before, and had fresh coffee with king coconut, fresh fruits, yogurt and muesli – a general favourite as i’m sure i’ve mentioned before.
We had our nails buffered, scrubbed and painted on the beach by a sweet lady looking for work - $5 for a mani and pedi didn’t sound too bad. With coral pink toenails and sky blue finger nails i paddled in the sea while it was mums turn. Reading our book and simmering in the sun we relaxed into proper holiday mode until we realized the time was flying by and lunch sounded like a good idea. We had fresh BBQ fish, rice, salad and cooked vegetables. It was perfect for filling us up and making us feel great.

Kier Royale

A dip in the sea

I lit another beautiful Cambodian spliff and went on a walk along the beach, having to swim a few metres inbetween to get to the other side as a little river for boats to go through broke the sand into two banks. It felt so lovely to walk along such an untouched beach, with cattle walking close by and villagers houses scattered and spread out along the grass. Pine trees let off a scent of wilderness and the salty sea air whistled around us. I sat and watched tiny crabs tediously roll miniscule bits of sand into tiny balls over and over again, any fast movement causing them to run terrified into their holes. I just wondered what the purpose of these balls were – why so many balls, to camouflage themselves as they ran along the sand? The fact that they were the same colour as the sand already did that didn’t it?
Right now we sit with the breeze in our hair, last night we sipped pastisse and tonight we sip on Kier Royale, blackcurrent syrup in sparkling white wine, yum, i love the beach.



Recipe of the day: Mediterranean style BBQ fish and grilled veg
http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/recipes/recipe/-/13495872/grilled-fish-with-mediterranean-vegetables/

Cambodia: Day 6

The banana and the flower

After a disturbed sleep last night in which i continuously woke up with images of burn victims and dead bodies, we awoke early and did yoga in the soft light of the 6:00am sun. Sun salutations to stretch out stiff limbs and a variety of crea’s to eradicate the ego and jolt the system into ‘awake mode’. A yummy breakfast of tea, a banana shake and a  tomato and choritzo omelette set us on our way for the four hour bus ride to Sunhuk-ville. A much awaited break by the coast after a rather intense few days of culture and history. Ironically the tuk tuk driver the hotel did end up choosing for us, was of course the one that I’d attempted to rid ourselves of last night. His ominous face smiled goodbye as we hopped onto our bus, a minute before it began to move.

Basic living

Cambodian poppy music is playing in the background at the moment. It slightly reminds us of the loud revolutionary music that they used to blast during the executioning of the Cambodians at the killing fields that we were able to listen to on our audio device; the loud revolutionary music was blasted from speakers that were placed on ‘the magic tree’, ‘magic’ music that was supposed to deafen ears to the screams of their friends and family. The music was combined with the ongoing hum of the truck motors that brung in and out prisoners for execution – the thought makes me feel uncomfortable. I slowly nodded off and before I knew it we’d arrived.

On our way up the beach

We tuk tuk’d passed ‘happy herb pizza’ joints and ‘mushroom point’ with psychedelic pictures of mushrooms and trippy colours all over the place. We finally got to ‘Otres beach’, in ‘Suhanukville 2’, basically meaning totally out of the way of everything, on the second stretch of beach, away from tourists and loud music. We’re staying at an eco-lodge called golden sunset, no other tourists are here right now and we’re locking away all our valuables in a wooden box under the mattress that we’re sleeping on in open air huts 5m from the sea, a.k.a directly on the beach. It’s wild here, a really homely vibe, we ate home made chicken noodle soup for lunch.

Yoga outside our hut

To properly relax into the beach vibe we know so well, I lit a lovely joint (the windy weather not making the rolling of this joint easy in any way) and mum and I slowly connected over the hundreds of stories of her youth... funny ones about being lost in remote area’s of Croatia or mombassa, the notting hill carnival when she was little, her friends acid trips in Chiswick park and shrooms and joints on beaches in Thailand, I learnt of her old-school introduction into the music industry and someone's acceptance into it based on their ability to roll a good joint. Sad stories of friends that had gone wayward because of too much coke, or become addicted to heroin in Cambodia (when it was so corrupt the police were all dealing due to lack of money). So many stories about people i’d known or met growing up but never realized they were druggies or alcoholics, I suppose as a child you don’t realize so much if you’re not aware, she told me she’d made a point of keeping me away from all of that - an important message indeed. It's sad really, I feel more sympathy towards them than anything, the responsible image of an 'adult' that you see when you're younger had now turned into them looking more like lost children than anything. I feel more understanding now towards drugs, as a method of experimentation, to have fun but not let yourself become controlled or taken over by them – having the same ultra-sensitive constitution as mum really aids that.

White sand, coconuts and coffee

 We drank pastisse, I had another joint and we strolled over to another of the mere 6 huts on the beach. This place was definitely the most lively, with about 7 other guests compared to just us two at ‘golden sunset’. We ate our hearts out as the muchies took over, having already munched absent mindedly through a pack of Pringles (the good/ bad thing about not being at home is you eat whatever’s around you when you’re hungry, but if there’s nothing to eat, you just do without, in this case i finished off the muesli bars and Pringles pretty damn fast.) For dinner I ate a delicious burrito with grilled beef, tortilla, salsa, yogurt, salad and Mexican rice. Mum had fresh battered fish and wedges. And for pudding, ah for pudding, home-made brownies and fresh vanilla ice cream. We definitely felt it as we walked back down the beach – having no trouble getting to sleep with the lul of the waves and the soft wind.


Recipe of the day: Mexican beef burrito's
http://www.donmiguel.com/mexican-recipes/burritos/beef-burritos-recipe.php

Cambodia: Day 5 (the day of death)

Ridiculous rules

Today shall be referred to as the day of death. As i write this I sit on a straw Cambodian mats on a raised platform in our guest room at the Bodhi leaf guest house. Opposite resides the S-21 prison in which thousands of detainees were held, questioned, tortured and killed in the most awful and harrowing conditions. This was one of the most fascinating aspects of Cambodia for me before we visited, the talk of the traumatic killing fields was something I’d always wanted to experience; the idea of death is such a foreign concept, it fascinates me hearing stories about what happened to people, of course it shocks the soul that humans just like you or I are capable of subjecting other individuals to such torture.

Khmer Rouge soldiers - look how young they are

The prison chambers were ridiculously small, some rooms contained just a metal bed on which a metal bar that was used for beating the prisoners lay. A cast iron box was there for their excrements (that some were made to ingest) and glass on the windows to try and contain the screams of the prisoners as they were bludgeoned, hacked and lashed. Large wooden boxes lay in other rooms in which paintings on the walls illustrated the story of how the prisoners were to lie in the boxes full of water as electric shocks passed through them continuously but never to the point of death, as that would destroy the massachistic purpose of the Khmer Rouge.

The man responsible - Pol Pot

We learnt that 1000 prisoners were taken their every day, the numbers on each prisoner was to be re-used after they were killed so as not to waste any material. The prison was divided into three buildings, the third of which was untouched, with the mesh and barbed wire still lining any chance for the prisoners to escape through the doors to commit suicide – a far less painful idea than what awaited them. The rooms were divided into tiny sections by wooden or cement walls for each individual prisoner, and walking through the dark corridors sent shivers down my spine as I envisioned the unimaginable pain they must’ve gone through. In the ‘B’ building there were mostly biographies of prisoners or soldiers of the Khmer Rouge. Portrait photographs of Cambodian women, men and children stared out at us with a range of emotions on their faces – from pure shock to hatred to happiness to pain.

One of many prisoners

The individuals weren’t always aware of what they were going to experience before the photographs were taken, while some had their prisoner numbers pinned into their necks, with the rule being that no tear of pain was to be shed otherwise further torture would commence. The soldiers were so young, little girls and boys from the ages of 8 – 19 were everywhere, all wearing their monotonous black uniform and red and white chequered scarves. There were other photographs of victims after their torture, bloated, swollen, skeletal, blood stained, lashed, burnt, the list goes on. Mothers watched their children being smashed against walls, brothers watched their sisters having their heads drilled in and all of them must have heard the screams of their inmates.

One of the cells

 I can only imagine their fear, as they conjured up the next ‘fake’ story to stay alive when they were questioned about what they’d done wrong – these stories included supposedly working for the CIA or KGB, stealing rice or burning down another’s house. When one ran out of these ‘confessions’, they were killed. The goal being to create a sense of guilt and shame in everyone for no valid reason. Every viewer in the prison wore their heart on their faces as they walked around, absorbing the shock of this painful reality that ended a mere 30 years ago.

Behind the wire mesh (so prisoners couldn't commit suicide)

One of the babies killed

At the killing fields we were aided by an audio tape, a recording of an individual who had escaped the killing fields and was able to describe the torturous events of every corner of the area, from the grave where 250 individuals were bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting bullets, to the torture chamber, to the tree where babies were smashed against. Mum teared up, as it held more sentimental value to her, and I slid off my pink string bracelet to hang on the fence surrounding the grave as a symbol of peace and sorrow. We listened to recordings of survivors who’d experienced rape, witnessed murder or those that were forced to issue torture to others.

'The magic tree' where babies were whacked against
in front of their mothers before being thrown into a pit

The bones and skulls were stacked high in a memorial stupa for the thousands that had been killed. Pol pot, a sick man that had himself had the priveledge of an education, killed all those with glasses, soft hands, intellectual capabilities or talent, and everyone related to them – he managed, in his (almost) four years as the leader of Cambodia, to murder a quarter of the population – over 2 million individuals. What’s so shocking is that some of the Khmer Rouge leaders are still on trial today, with the thousands of deaths that hang over their heads, charges have still not been decided. A sense of oppression has fallen upon my mother and I today, of betrayal and pain and sadness. Knowing that most people in Cambodia today are probably linked with a victim of this period of Genocide. And while life goes on, the earth continues pushing out bones and clothes of the victims from 30 years ago as a constant reminder that these people existed. I suppose we feel humility at the moment, an appreciation for life and for the circumstances we’re in now. This event is not the only one either, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Genocide in Ruwanda, North Korea, Libya, the list continues – all events, places and people that demonstrate this sickness, this hunger for power and money at the expense of  innocents. That was during the Piscean age, as we move into the age of aquarius, hopefully this pattern will stop. As I close my eyes i mutter a few words of thanks, to whatever energy surrounds me, and I truly hope that the spirits and souls of all those lost unfairly in the Genocide are freed and at peace.

The killing fields - the grooves in the ground are graves

The Khmer Rouge uniform

Foods ability to console the mind and the body is something to be praised and respected. The meals of the ‘day of death’ shed a bit of light over a very dark day – breakfast not so much, though the guest house we were staying at was charming, the non-functioning AC, constant sound of drilling and poor service and food didn’t give the place a very good rep in our heads. But for lunch we had a delicious clear Taiwanese wanton soup with fresh greens, and for dinner we walked along the sea-front, choosing a French restaurant called ‘bouganvillier’... I walked along to the restaurant with my stomach clenched and my eyes darting to every tuk tuk driver in the area... having scored earlier from our tuk tuk driver, who i’d made the mistake of asking as he knew where we were living – i was quite nervous not knowing whether he was linked to the police, I could imagine returning to our hotel room with five men in uniform ready to tear all my bas apart.. due to the mass corruptness of the police in this country (just a tip, if buying weed, always be wary that the locals could easily be working with the po po which would result in a bit of an unpleasant confrontation and a lot of money) ... I really didn't want the responsibility of ruining our bonding Cambodian holiday – the hurricane of butterflies in my stomach increased in number and i could feel their tiny wings batting everywhere, the constipation from travelling and moving around so much not being of any service to the my nervous state!
A quick skype sesh with my boyfriend only got my heart racing more so as we walked along passed the pubs and restaurants before choosing Bouganvillier, my mind was scattered and my heart was pumping in my stomach. The ambience of the restaurant was odd, we had a group of French and Cambodian people sitting near us eating from the French-Cambodian buffet, waiters floated around in tail coats but no other customers were in the restaurant creating a slightly ghostly vibe.
 We ordered a glass of red wine to share, duck confit for mum and pan fried salmon with ratatouille for me. The wine was great, and the fresh French bread was delicious, but the food could’ve been vamped up just a tad – dry duck and oily salsa verde wasn’t a good look. We had a treat of ice cream at ‘the blue pumpkin’ a few blocks down, I chose chocolate rocky road (with almonds and raisins) and vanilla with brownie in a cup. Mum treated herself with just one scoop of rocky road in a cone. Mmm sitting by the sea with our ice cream, nostalgically running through childhood stories of sneaking lots of ice cream toppings into my cone under the scoop of ice cream so mum could never see. The grass situation turned out to be fine and I had nothing to worry about, but getting rid of the tuk tuk driver allowed me to breath a deep sigh of relief.


Recipe of the day: Grilled Salmon with Ratatouille
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/fishseafood/r/salmonrata.htm

Cambodia: Day 4

Yum, crickets

The next morning we were up early, yummed down a quick fresh orange juice, ginger tea and water (which passed through me within half an hour, on the bumpy bus.. how unfortunate.), we ate fresh muesli and fruit with a warm baguette and homemade mango jam. Mum ate her banana porridge with soya milk and we set off on the bus to Phnom Pen. A 6 hour bus ride, sleeping until 5 and a half hours into the journey – but on the way i wrote a bit of this travel log, read my book, and sat back and listened to some funky tunes. Rickie Lee-Jones played, the scissor sisters, Diana Ross – all the great old tunes that you don’t really appreciate when you’re rushing around and not absorbing the lyrics and the true feel of the song.

On our stop-off people munched on fried crickets, cockroaches and tarantula’s while I morishly cracked open pistachio’s that were finished within... 2 minutes? I love pistachio's, but the excitement of getting to the actual nut after cracking open the individual little shells can take over just a bit and you go from a bowl of nuts to a bowl of empty shells.

Cockroaches anyone?

We finally arrived, staying at a sweet fresh hippy guest house, that was quite creepily situated opposite the S-21 prison. We quickly unpacked our stuff and sat down to a delicious red curry and rice, which we shared (the best thing about travelling with another person who shares your taste in food and portions is you can just share anything and save buckets). We then made our way to the highly recommended shop Ambre... I sifted through a few dresses, not too impressed by the selection of rather middle-aged, French coats and shorts. The floor however had two floors that were each divided into different rooms. Some rooms painted lilac with their selection of blue and purple clothes – dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets, trousers. The green room filled with a lush green display and the colours went on. I found one room in which my eyes lit up, so many choices i grabbed them all. And as if by magic, when trying them on they all fit perfectly – it made the decision of choosing two pieces (as they were all from $75 - $150 each!) slightly difficult. Mum was lucky with her choices as well as they fit her slim and trim figure like gloves – the orange silky French dress to the masai-style top to the flouncy beach dress. She chose 6 pieces by the end and i settled on a beautifully simple baby pink crochet dress that i’ll wear for years to come, and a stunning turquoise green bandage dress that’s hem comes just above the knees.

Some scrumptious pig tongues, snouts and the like

That evening we walked to a recommended Khmer restaurant, choosing a delicious sour beef and green vegetable curry soup served with jasmine rice, and grilled coconut wrapped in pork. Though our stomachs bulged we still squeezed in some caramelized banana in warm tapioca crepes and coconut ice cream! Mmm. 









Recipe of the day: Khmer chicken curry
http://www.turkeynose.com/TurkeynoseGoesGlobal/recipes/mains/khmercurry/khmercurry.html

Cambodia: Day 3

Mum and I on bikes

We decided a break from the tour guide was necessary, and as we live in such a hot country with not much opportunity for riding bicycles around busy roads, today we’d explore Angkor-Wat and it’s neighbour Angkor-Thom on the bicycles that were available at the guest house. I love building up great momentum and just gliding along a flat surface with the wind blowing through your hair, ah. My road sense was put to the test as we went straight into fast paced Cambodian traffic and Cinderella carriages, my mother was not impressed with my signalling skills. But come on, if you’re used to flicking a switch for signal lights to go on, and haven’t ridden a bike in ages, sticking your arm out and balancing a bike with motorbikes circling you is a bit nerve racking. I got the hang of it after a while and we had a nice cycle around the ancient city of Angkor-Wat, walking at some points and cycling at others.

The view of Angkor Thom from the top

It was nice to appreciate the detail on the temples without having to absorb constant stories about old gods and deities.. As our bums slowly became more numb and our stomachs began to growl we headed to the ‘Angkor cafe’ to have a light bite of tofu salad and fresh vietnemese spring rolls. The fresh veg feeling light in our stomachs, meaning we didn’t have to worry about any flat tires along the way! After cycling around a little more, we climbed to the tallest tower in Angkor Thom, looking over the entire ancient city. It was quite magical and surreal looking at all these old ruined that had that ancient charm but to think about what they must’ve been like in their heyday full of jewels and painted beautifully with lovely dressed servents and workers floating around the well kept grounds while water cleansed the dried reservoirs. 

Descending the steep steps

We finally cycled back after a refreshing break of King coconut (one of the most vitamin rich drinks by the way! One coconut contains all the nutrients you need for an entire meal!) The cycle home seemed far longer than the cycle we’d done earlier, and the heavy traffic became bothersome as our patience levels went down. The dust in our eyes, the inability to ask for proper directions home, going back and forth along a long unknown road and constantly seeing this huge image of the queen of Cambodia (who’s birthday it happened to be on that day) who looks surprisingly western (we found out she was half French half Vietnamese which explains the slightly mixed look) got the better of us, but after asking a few people for directions we finally got back to the guest house and returned the bikes.

We rested and showered the days exercise off us, before dining at a poor choice on my part - an Indian restaurant. Mushy tomato with balls of chicken was ‘butter chicken’ and blended spinach with rubbery cheese was ‘panneer in spinach curry’, the naan and misi-roti (roti made from chickpea flower) wasn’t bad.. but the mars bar we munched on at home infront of the documentary ‘The September Issue’ elicited much more pleasure than the meal.


Recipe of the day: Asian tofu salad
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/asian_tofu_salad.html

Cambodia: Day 2

A Temple at a distance

Another awesome tree!

Cambodian Siestas

The next day we’d planned to wake up at 7:45 so we could get an ‘early’ start on the next day of temples and whatever else Siem-Reap had to offer. We had a delicious breakfast of fresh local fruits (white dragon fruit, juicy yellow mango, ripe banana’s and green melon), covered in creamy yogurt with toasted oats, sunflower seeds and raisins. We drank hot ginger tea and fresh king coconut. A big breakfast to set us up for our first full day in Cambodia.

A glimpse of orange

A very sweet little girl

We first made our way to ‘the river of a thousand lingums’, we had to walk uphill for 1800m to this rather average stream with a lot of round shapes carved into the stone and a depiction of shiva and the gods on one side of a huge rock. This water was believed to be holy water, and the king would swim in it to cure him of his lepracy – i cheekily reached over the rope blocking off the stream and splashed a little on my hands and arms, if this was holy water there was no chance i was missing its benefits!

Glutinous vegetarian dumplings

We walked down passed deep and shallow caves in which monks used to sit and meditate, the crumbling ceilings looked a bit dangerous to repeat this but the thought of meditating in these caves by a running waterfall was lovely. We stood by the waterfall for a while, soaking in the fresh energy, before descending back to where we’d started. Our tummy’s were grumbling so we stopped at a restaurant and ate fried morning glory (a lovely crisp green vegetable) with white rice and minced pork omelette. We had two more temples to get through and as awful as it sounds, the thought of more temples wasn’t too exciting as the excitement slightly wears off after about 7.

Foetus eggs :s

The lingum's in the river

The temples were beautiful, one was situated in a jungle that was hidden surrounded by a reservoir and cornered off by four big stone elephants – it was beautiful, but returning back to the guest house for a rest was lovely too.

Chilling on a tree

 Skyping with my boyfriend brought back a sense of home and I enjoyed reciprocating what i could remember from the experiences of the day – the great thing about exploring is there’s always interesting stories to tell. That evening we went for a Khmer meal again, we hadn’t tired of the food yet and wanted to get as much in while we could! We ate a delicious set of food served in a round bamboo basket with different sections consisting of about 8 choices, eggplant with pork, amok fish salad, sweet beef, rice, spring rolls, satay, the list went on. Dessert wasn’t necessary as the sweetness of all of the food still resonated on our palettes.

Over-exposed by the waterfall

The delicious Khmer meal

That evening we lay in bed and watched ‘Julie and Julia’, as much as i love being outdoors and active, bumming around in bed is so nice! Any movie with a focus on food is one to watch, and ‘Julie and Julia’ was much enjoyed. I loved the fact that it was a true story also, there’s something nice knowing that what you’re watching actually happened and isn’t just another Hollywood fantasy. It also inspired me to write this blog – thanks Julie.


Recipe of the day: Fresh Khmer spring rolls
http://theyoungrens.com/blog/casa_de_youngren/recipe-sunday/recipe-sunday-khmer-spring-rolls/