Still a bit wet from the New Year in Battambang, we did what seemed to be our favorite activity in Cambodia - rode in a few buses! We went back to Phnom Penh for the third time, had a quick bite to eat, then transferred on to the coastal town of Sihanoukville. For the first time on our trip, we realized pretty quickly that we didn't want to spend any time at the place we had just arrived. We should have known beforehand because people questioned why we were going there any time we brought it up. But reservations were made and it would only be two nights so, what the hell!
Sihanoukville is a place for college kids and sex-pats to go drink cheap beer and eat crappy food on the beach. If you happen to get service, which we were unable to do one night. We asked three different servers twice to take our order but they never did. We did get a free beer out of it though.
You will not be served here on this beach.
This is a typical sign around Sihanoukville. Black Panther beer is a thing. It's not that bad either.
Sihanoukians were still partying the New Year away so it was super loud too. Terrible dance music and karaoke filled the wee hours with awfulness. The beach wasn't great and it was still ungodly hot out so we did what you do in these countries when you are about to melt and your brain hurts from the club music...went to the movies!
The movies there are great because you get your own personal room with nice furniture and your own air conditioner. You can order food and drink some beer too. We watched Spotlight and ordered “happy” pizza. We left the theater and the pizza knocked us out for a few hours. We walked around the dirty little town but there really wasn't anything of note. Except for the casinos.
We did find this ode to Sexy Hexy, which is the nickname for the goaltending great, and current GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, Ron Hextall. Not sure what this was doing in Cambodia but, hey, let's go Flyers!
We wandered into one and looked around. First, we walked past an empty row of eight or so slot machines into a hallway. Then there was a small room with a few gaming tables and some tourists half-heartedly engaged in giving their money to the place. Further up the hall, there was another room with the door mostly closed. We walked on but there was nothing else there so on the way back, I poked my head into the semi-secret room. It was, uh, odd. The room was filled with gaming tables with dealers in attendance at each one but not a single player was in the room. The woman dealer at the table closest to the door gestured at the chips and chairs in a way that seemed to invite me to sit down. Reflecting on it later, I think she was simply practicing the gestures and I happened to catch her eye. Anyway, a moment later, a woman sternly told me to get the hell out, then slammed and locked the door.
It felt like it was just a front to launder money or something. Low and behold, it is exactly that. A local tour guide informed us about the practice just a few days later while we were touring around Kampot. But I'll get to that in a second.
Enjoying a beer on our patio wasn't bad. Sihanoukville wasn't all terrible but we could have done without visiting it.
With still not much to do and the night also being in the mid 90s, we jumped back into the the theater and watched The Big Short. We skipped the happy pizza this time. Both movies we saw are worth checking out by the way. Also, there are shops in Cambodia where you can take a thumb drive and upload movies onto it for 2 bucks a pop. Or they will just sell you a 2TB drive with hundreds of movies already loaded on it. I'm sure it's all totally legal. Totally.
We left that place behind (in a van if you can believe it) with nary a glance back and found ourselves in the quaint riverside town of Kampot - The Durian Capital of Cambodia. It’s also famous for its really good pepper. We stayed in a newish hotel room that was bigger than the last two places we stayed in combined. It had luxuries like washcloths and a shower that wasn’t over the toilet. It was a good place to stay to end our time in Cambodia.
Kampot seemed to have a more graffiti than anywhere else we had been in Cambodia. Some good stuff too. I'm particularly fond of this quote.
Teddy bear, laundry, graffiti.
These are actually in one of the ruins in Bokor National Park. Kids have no respect for ruins these days.
We had the Best Ribs in Cambodia, which were pretty good, and some good beer and cider. The big thing we did in Kampot was an all day tour to Bokor National Park, home to the giant Lok Yeay Mao Monument, the Ruins of the Black Palace, The Old Catholic Church, Wat Sampov Pram, and Popokvil Waterfall - which we did not see for reasons that will be made clear a little further on. The whole place is pretty much abandoned ruins spread out over several hilltops though a company is building a new casino development up there.
After our guide stopped for a mountaintop view of Kampot and told us about the salt fields and argued with a French man, our next stop was the 29 meter tall, androgynous statue of Lok Yeay Mao. Evidently, giant statues are kind of a thing in Southeast Asia. Although a nice guy, our guide didn’t tell us much about it. He mostly just talked about the corrupt Cambodian government and about other tours he gives. This was when he let us in on the “secret” that the casinos exist basically to launder money. Fast fact - it is illegal for Cambodian citizens to gamble. Anyway, I Googled the site for all of you and can tell you the statue is considered a protector of the spirits of travelers. Which is just great for us! It is a fairly new monument and the figure is still very vibrantly colored.
Here is Lok Yeay Mao, a massive statue on top of a hill. There were many monks taking selfies with it. And a lot of selfie sticks in general.
Here is the close-up of the statue's hand you were all just clambering for.
Then there is another giant statue, this one of Buddha. They also really love statues of Buddha in this part of the world.
This one is big but it is not even the biggest Buddha we've seen.
More statues of Buddha. Really, they are everywhere and there are all kinds - golden, painted, wood, metal, stone, standing, sitting, big, small, and hundreds of poses and hand gestures.
We continued our tour with the old church which is covered in lovely orange moss and is falling apart. There is a great view point a short climb up the hill behind it. After this, we shuttled down the road to the abandoned hotel/palace, ate some so-so lunch, and shuffled through some dusty interiors.
Heading out of the park, we made a final stop at a Buddhist temple area called Wat Sampov Pram, which means "5 boats wat" because of five rocks carved as boats. I did not see these rocks because our guide didn't really tell us anything about this area except to be back at the van in 20 minutes. This place also had some nice views and intricately carved details. About 5 minutes after we got there, though, some booming club music started blaring from speakers inside one of the buildings. It was really odd. We snapped a few shots of the statuary (and the stolen shot of the monk) and went on our merry way.
The decaying church in the park is in pretty bad shape but the moss is nice.
The church is filled with graffiti and dust and rubble but do not F' with the Jesus and Mary statues in there. They are in pristine condition.
It was a nice place to hang out and actually kinda cool because of the breeze.
Black Palace Hotel and Casino. Abandoned to tourists for forever. Or is it?
Details of the monk's temple at Wat Sampov Pram.
And funnytime graffiti artists!
This guy is styling in his festive hat. He is probably heading to the dance party.
We jumped in the van to head back to town. About 15 minutes into the journey, our guide pulled over to ask if we would like to see Popokvil Waterfall. The thing is, Cambodia is basically in a drought and there is no water, so he left it up to all 14 of us tourists to decide. Well, I'm a loud, opinionated American, so after 30 seconds or so of everyone sort of just glancing at each other, it was clear no one wanted to go. I spoke up from my seat in the back and said, “Nope, back into town we go.” This was followed by some more quiet discussion but everyone eventually agreed. It was amusing because why would anyone want to see something that isn't there?
The last part of our tour was a sunset river cruise to see some lightning bugs. It was a fun little trip and we had some good conversation with a fellow American traveler, Mark, who shared our affinity for good alcohol of all kinds. We had dinner with him at an Italian place that was recommended to us by Miguel, a pizza shop owner from Battambang. It was good stuff, Miguel, thanks!
We met someone who also likes alcohol and then we drank together. Shocking!
There were a few other boats on the river but it was pretty peaceful most of the time.
Our time in Cambodia came to a quiet end the next morning as we boarded yet another bus, this one heading towards the Vietnam border. Although Cambodia wasn't in our initial travel plans, it was a very worthy addition to our itinerary. Despite some missteps (looking at you Phnom Penh) it's a pretty amazing place overall and I think it is a country that will only be getting better in the future. Angkor Wat is definitely worth it and would be a great place to visit again but during the wet season next time. We heard that it is a completely different experience. Next stop - a place where no one speaks English!