End of Thailand-beginning of Cambodia
The rest of my time with GVI was really nice. On my last long weekend, we went back to Krabi. It was even better the second time! We met loads of people that we actually hung out with the whole weekend. From Scotland, Alaska, England, etc... It was a really good time. We got back on Sunday, and then in Tuesday I left with two other conservation volunteers and our coordinator to go to the Similan Islands for two nights. Basically whilst there, our job was to help the national park staff monitor tourist behaviors and keep things clean and make sure the animals aren't being picked on or anything. It was absolutely gorgeous there!
The camping part was a little tough the first night though.. It was so hot so we wanted to keep our tent windows open, we should've known it would start pouring though- it is Thailand after all! It rained for quite a bit and all of our things got soaked. We were so tired though that we both woke up a second, and neither one of us wanted to lose the window, so we just put our bags over our faces. I didn't even care, I just wanted to sleep. A couple hours later I had woken back up to a rat nibbling on my fingers! Absolutely disgusting. I twitched my hand and it basically scurried away super fast. So I didn't really get much sleep after that. Other then that, the Similans were really nice. You could hike up to a viewpoint to see the sun set which was really lovely. Around 9 or 10 is when the first boats with tourists arrive, and basically they keep coming and going until about 3 or 4. So we would basically patrol the beach all day until they left. It was pretty relaxed but did get tiring to be in the heat after awhile.
We got back to base on thanksgiving day, around 6:30 pm and everyone was cooking a thanksgiving dinner! I was a little stressed out cuz the next day I was leaving, but it was nice to be able to celebrate with people who had become like family over the last two months.
The next day, two of my friends, Olivia and Chelsea and I took a bus to phuket where we met my uncle Mike and two little cousins for dinner. It was soooo good to see them and also pretty cool that they got to meet my friends. My uncle generously got us a hotel room for the night and arranged a taxi for our early morning flights the next morning. Olivia and I were off to Phnom Penh, and Chelsea was going to Bangkok. Everything went smoothly, and Olivia and I met my good friend from home Maria in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia's capital is soooo different than anywhere I've ever experienced in Thailand! It's much more bustling and busy, and the poverty is much more visible. Maybe because it's a big city vs a small touristy area, or maybe just because there's more poverty in Cambodia than Thailand in general. But it was extremely shocking, humbling, and eye opening. I truly didn't know it would be so much more intense here and thought I had seen the worst. On the streets of Phnom Penh you see sick people, starving people, small children asking you for money or to buy whatever they are selling. It's really hard because if you express the smallest bit of interest, they see that and will not leave you alone. And if you cave and purchase what they're selling, other kids will literally flock towards you and just not stop. It makes me feel awful but sometimes you just have to avoid eye contact and shake your head. You can't help every single child on the street. And it's hard to know who's need is greatest, if the money goes right buying food or if they just hand it over to their parents for who knows what. Obviously there is a need here, but you just never know. On our first night, Olivia and I were headig back to our hotel room. It was very late - well past midnight. There were still small children running around on the street, and there was a man pushing another man on a stretcher bed. The man was really sick and it even seemed like he might've been dying. I've never seen anything like that before in my life and it was both scary and heartbreaking. We were locked out of the gate to our hotel and our key wouldn't work, i was so scared. We were trying and trying but it was just broken! A security guard even came over from across the street and tried to help us but it was no use. I literally thought we were gonna have to sleep on the street, I had no idea what to do. I really didn't wanna wake the owners of the guesthouse up, but we had no other option so I called them and they woke up and let us in. We felt horrible but they said it has happened before and not to worry. They were really the nicest people and it was family owned and felt very safe - we're staying there again when we get back to the capital.
The next day we went to the killing fields from the pol pot genocide. It was very surreal but really amazing to be there. It's crazy that it only happened about 40 years ago. Cambodia is obviously still recovering and very sensitive, and that's visible to outsiders who come into the country such as myself. The young man working the lobby at the guest house we stayed at lost multiple family members to the genocide. We shouldn't have asked, but when we returned he asked us how our day was and we asked him if he was affected by it. Once we realized how great of a loss he had suffered, it became obvious that almost everyone in our generation has been almost directly affected. That is absolutely shocking and I can't imagine what it must feel like. The very young kids on the street selling things, they are the first generation who have not been directly affected. That's crazy to me, how present the loss is today from such a tragic and massive event. These things don't just happen ages ago, they happen even today, and the aftermath is long lasting.
That night we went to the movies and on the tuk tuk back to our guesthouse, someone literally tried to mug me! Basically a tuk tuk is a little carriage attached to the back of a motorbike. It's the cheapest way to get around. I've read online about people getting their things snatched out of the tuk tuk in Cambodia- especially Phnom Penh but I didn't think it would happen to me! You never think it'll happen to you till it does. We slowed down at a stoplight and two younger men on a motorbike pulled up next to us and reached over and kind of hit me and tried to grab my things. Olivia immediately reached over and hit him and yelled at him and they drove away. We were so shocked and scared! It was pretty late and it was a dark street so I am in no way surprised. The tuk tuk driver was definitely in on it as well. Normally they won't go down dark roads and they will drive at a normal speed, but this guy was diving unusually slow. We thought about asking him to speed up but didn't. Moral of the story-tuk tuk drivers can be really shady, make sure you get one who at least appears trustworthy. And use the same one over and over if you can! That way you build a relationship and you know you can trust them.
The next day the three of us made it to siem reap. It's amaziggggg there I loved it! We had a tuk tuk driver arranged, he's a guy that Maria's boss knows and uses every time he goes to siem reap so he trusts him. The guy was absolutely lovely- always on time to pick us up, kept us safe, was very friendly... We were really lucky. It's so easy to get scammed by drivers so it's really good if you can get a good driver who you trust. We went to ankor wat and a couple other temples- they were amazing. Ankor wat especially. The first day we also went to the floating village which was very cool. The people living there have literally nothing expect their little floating house, and you can tell that they don't really like visitors from outside coming and boating through, which I totally understand. I don't think I'd like it either. Once we noticed that we tried to be as respectful and polite as possible, as you always should when entering a new place as an outsider.
There's a really cool street called pub street in siem reap where we ate most of our food and spent most of our time. It's very Westernized and full of tourists, but it's really cool. It's blocked off from cars and such so it's nice to walk along.
When it came time to leave siem reap and make our way to the coast, we decided a hotel bus was the best option. The idea was that we would leave without needed to spend money for anther night of accommodation, get a good nights sleep on the bus and arrive in Sihankorville just in time for breakfast. That is sooo not how it worked out. The bus left, we were all settled in our little beds and ready to sleep. At around 11;30 or 12, the buses engine just stopped and it was rolling along until it stopped moving. I was half asleep and not sure what was going on but thought it was a bathroom break. I hopped down from my bed and walked outside to see what the deal was- the engine had broken down. The drivers and other staff were dumping water on it and it was just sizzling so it was obvious that it was very hot. I looked around and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. No one was around, except the huge trucks that would pass us. It was horrible. I went back into the bus to try and fall back asleep, I was exhausted since we had woken up for sunrise that morning. But the AC was off and the bus was overheating. It became impossible to breath in there and I had to go upside. It was about 2am at that point and there was another hotel bus pulled over to try and help, but they couldn't do anything. At about 3 they left. We were all sad to see them leave cuz then it would just be us on our own and it didn't seem like the driver was making much of a difference trying to fix the thing. I was scared and super annoyed cuz that was 3 hours off our journey. By about 3:30/4 we finally left. The air con wasn't really working thigh cuz they didn't wanna overheat the engine again. That was awful- we were sticky and hot and everyone really needed a shower. It's not like it was very spacious in the bus either. At about 4:30 we stopped again because another bus was broken down. We took some of their passengers and kept moving. We finally made it to the capital at about 9 am, which was when we were supposed to reach the coast. We didn't reach the coast until 3pm. None of us had bright enough food for all that time and we were so hungry. But we are here now, we've shower we and we are resting until a bit later when we'll go out to the beach where there are bars and restaurants.
All in all, Cambodia has been quite the adventure so far. It's very different than Thailand and I'm so glad I'm here to experience it. I'll write more when I get back to Thailand around December 8th! Thanks for reading. Xxxx
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