The world that doesn't exist. My trip in Cambodia

Now the passion for the south-east Asia for me is "known to the disease."
Cambodia. Even now, back from the trip, even the name of this country I have a strange effect. A name that evokes mystery, adventure and years of horrors unknown to many ...
As usual we start from Barcelona, this time in the company of Stephen, co-worker, traveling companion, but, above all, a friend ...

 

PHNOM PENH

The many hours spent in air does not remove the emotion when you land at PHNOM PENH.
For $ 20 you can get the visa on arrival, just like experimenting bureaucracy Cambodia has nothing to envy to the Italian ... A crowd of about 20 customs officers, paid no more than $ 100 a month, you pass the passport l 'with each other. Each will have their very specific functions: one tells you the price, others browse the following documento.Il Cercal blank page, one puts the stamp and the signature things ... and so on for 10 minutes ...
Outside, a thunderstorm and we welcome a swarm of motorcycles made in china envelops us. Cambodia will be welcome.
The riverside of the capital is where the few hotels are concentrated, and through the indispensable Lonely Planet chose the California2Guesthouse. $ 19 for a room with river view conforts and totally unexpected.
The days pass in PHNOM PENH with the humidity almost unbearable, and a succession of conflicting emotions as between them, which will leave an indelible mark in our minds for a long long time ...
The Royal Palace with its Silver Pagoda (which is most reminiscent of the complex of Bangkok), the Wat Phnom, the monument to independence, the houses and buildings dating back to the period of French colonialism are the main attractions of a capital light years distant from the world designed by us ...
The monuments are all going to visit the city on foot, by opting for the longest distance one of the many tuk-tuk or mototaxi ... forget what is considered a public transport service, here is something totally unknown ...
In PHNOM PENH there is then a building that deserves a note: the Tuol Sleng Museum.
An old school converted into a torture center during the dictatorship of Pol Pot Sadly known as S-11, the complex, perhaps because of its condition, perhaps for the solitude that few tourists add to the solitary classrooms, is know who goes among the thousands of pictures of faces long lost, a fact, a genocide for the most unknown. And all this happened just 26 years ago.
Image of pain, of a nation and a people decimated by its own leaders and forced to kill their neighbors and their families, culminating with the visit of the graves of the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Reached in about 30 minutes, the only route between the outlying suburbs and the countryside around PHNOM PENH worth a visit ...
... markets Psaro Tuol Pong (Russian market) but especially the central Psaro Thmei market with its fried spiders and worms, metal parts of unspecified vehicles and clothes of all kinds of butchers in the open air, we lose that smile that part of the day we lost ...
... so we leave after 3 days, PHNOM PENH, with its elephants, monkeys and smiles a great population, which already has begun to catch ...

SIHANOUKVILLE

7 am. The appointment is one which is considered the city bus station. More semplicemete a flood of old means of at least 20 years parked some where it happens in the middle of the main square. The tourists can be counted on the fingers of one hand and so, waiting for our coach to succeed out of its parking lot (at the end we succeed, but "Office" a bus and a petrol pump!) We have with people like us waiting a bus to who knows where ..
230km to go we put most of the day, but at least it is impossible to miss, since all over the country there is only one paved road itself ... the trip, although exhausting, it is extremely fascinating, passing through rice fields innondati , huts and small urban markets with the inevitable, but all marked by a hygienic situation to the limits of imagination, cha do with children in swimming pools of black water where there are no fish but the waste of all kinds ...
SIHANOUKVILLE, which is considered the main tourist resort on the coast, is a quiet village that chaotically trying to appear as one of the many coastal resorts of nearby Thailand. But the difference is enormous. And not a negative.
Occheutel stay at Beachside Bungalows, where again the standards far exceed the average of the country. $ 15 beautifully spent, among other trovadoci in 1 minutes from the beach called Serendipity.
For three days we are dedicated to doing sweet nothing. Apart from a boat to nearby islands, including the beautiful Bamboo Island, we spend the hours to eat and mingle with the Cambodians who have decided how to spend our weekends at the seaside. Tourists also can be counted on one hand. So we find ourselves surrounded by a multitude of children ... and I can not do without innnamorarmi two of them. They are intelligent and friendly and their gioa of living will remain forever in my heart ...
SIHANOUKVILLE can not 'be neglected in a trip to Cambodia ... and the walks in search of a bar in the most absolute darkness of the night, yet I remember them laughing ...

SIEM REAP

Is certainly not for the highways that we have chosen Cambodia, but a unique way for long-distance roads across the country who always have to have to go through the capital, does not help to make a little less sfaticante the reach SIEM REAP ... if during the 12 hours bus will accompany chickens, spiders and at least 60 children (note: the bus has 48 seats ...) and sing squarciagola charts the successes of the Cambodian ...
Find a tuk-tuk to the station x reach the city center is not difficult. Would be not difficult to find.
We choose the hotel Villa Rosa T. (NH6) just 5 mins from downtown. This allows us a room clean, fresh and a staff in the best style cambodian. And only a person E.6.
Siam Reap is very small, but at the same time the number of visitors far exceeds that of capital, and hotels and restaurants are everywhere. And all you have to close to the archaeological complex of Angkor.
The city itself does not offer many tourist attractions, but the central square with its small market and bars all around are perfect for relaxing after hours of walking among the ruins of Angkor ...
Stephen and I ... so we decide to rent a pair of bicycles and riding out of the land: straw huts and smiles we have made the company the whole trip (totally at random ...) and doing so we breathed a little Cambodia real ...
Angkor is a must. And of course get expensive ($ 20 x day), but definitely well-spent. A single day is enough to visit the most important temples. Their beauty is immense. A tuk-tuk contracted through the streets of S.R. x is essential to move inside the archaeological site, and $ 8 for all day is a price that most honest.
Angkor Wat, the complex most famous and impressive but not the space to describe in words. Only the eye can see ... and avoiding expensive elephant, do not miss is the tramanonto from Ta Prom Kel. Unforgettable though somewhat too crowded ...
We have also devoted a day to visit the floating village on Tonlè Sap Lake, the largest of the South-East Asia.
Stephen and I were the only 2 tourists on the large boat to pass between the piles and floating homes where poverty affects one of the most profound soui spikes, leaves an indelible mark in the soul. And children according to the surface in large pots, spontaneously using oars as large branches of a tree and attacked the boats as pirates demanding a paltry dollar, leaving a silent pain, impossible to heal ...
And it is with everything that we leave Cambodia to return to reality, or better poggiore just do not know, without doubt unfair.
Cambodia I have nothing, but all to envy. But talking to them, walking on their streets you find that, surprisingly, also have something to envy them: that desire to live and go forward and that smile, the real, which are always ready to give.