The Blithe Traveler

Cambodia: Some Fun Travel Facts

Q: Hey, Is Phenom Phen  Safre For Tourists?

A: Normally in Cambodia, suspected thieves are chased with shouts of "jao, jao!" (it means 'thief') and crowds seize the criminals and beat them to death.

The moral of the story seems to be, don't steal anything and you'll be okay.

Q. Are land mines a problem for tourists?

A. No. In the last four years alone nearly three million tourists have walked around Cambodia and nobody stepped on a land mine (though a few probably stepped in human excrement outside Wat Ounalom in Phnom Penh). To this day, there have been no reported incidents of any foreign visitor stepping on a mine in Cambodia (well, not including Vietnamese military personnel). Not one

Hey! We live in China! Excrement does not frighten us! 

Be back soon!

Priming the Pump

With which we grind to a halt on the Yangtze and turn our attention to Cambodia. Hey, I tried to get the Yangtze thing done before we left, but the Three Gorges is worthy of some deeper discussions. And I just ran an out of time.

So, I'll do a quick pump primer, and leave you hanging for some as yet undetermined period of time.

Cambodia. The name sends chills down my spine. The Killing Fields, Angkor Wat, the history, the challenges and the... okay, I'll say it, the beaches.

Here's a bit on Angkor, for those interested. I swiped this tidbit from Lonely Planet:

"Angkor Wat is the largest and undoubtedly the most breathtaking of the monuments at Angkor, and is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality and symmetry, an enduring example of man's devotion to his gods. Relish the very first approach, as that spine-tickling moment when you emerge on the inner causeway will rarely be felt again."

Angkor, the Mother of All Temples: built in the 12th century. Is your spine tingling?

The temple "complex," part of the Angkor Archeological Park consists of 400 acres of temples, some in fantastic shape (particularly for being 800 years old). Others are overgrown and there is a mix of everything in between.

 

Here's a map of the entire park. We'll only be there for two days, so we won't see every single temple, but we'll get an eyeful.

 

Then were off down south to the beaches! Pack up your sunscreen in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile! Wahoot!

The Ten Yuan Note

Remember not so long ago on the Li River, we presented you, dear reader, with a Real Life view of the etch on the back of the 20 RMB note? Here's a link if your memory is muzzy: 20 RMB note. Well, today is your lucky day and you get to see the real life version of what is on the back of the 10 RMB note! Here's the etching in question:

And here's real life:

The angle is a little different, but you get the general idea.

Can you tell I'm stalling here? I am sure we having a whiz bang time in Cambodia right about the time this pops up on your screen as a new entry.

The Weather Outside

Was generally pretty good for our cruising days. It was a little "overcast" the first day. Interestingly enough, the first day of the cruise takes you through some pretty blah kind of scenery. It's mostly industrial as the Yangtze at this juncture is pretty much lined with factories.

And this one:
 
We were carefully assured the grey weather was just weather, though. No pollution.

The Life Boats

When we arrived on the ship, the first question Tom had for Michael, our River Guide and Bait and Switch Operator extraordinaire was, "So, how many lifeboats does the President 1 have? Because, you know, the Titanic only had half as many as they needed." You have got to admire the boy for his interests in all things transportation related, although his timing might need some work.

I confess I thought it a reasonable question.

Michael said, "Two."

"Wow," said Tom, "They must be pretty big!" There were no more than 130 guests on the boat, but there must have been that many again as crew, so even I was puzzling over this one. 200-250 people? Indeed, they must be pretty big lifeboats. Curiosity, of course, resulted in a deceased feline, so Tom and I headed out to check out the lifeboat situation.

There were only two. Of these.

Enough room for Michael and maybe three of his best friends. I was like, "Wait, there must be more!?" And at the same time wondering if maybe in the next five minutes I could slip Michael a quick tip, To Insure Prompt Service, in case of accident, of course.

Good sense caught up with me, though, before I started digging through my wallet. Quite possibly there were more life rafts. Maybe there were even inflatable rafts somewhere. But, really, given our environs, life boats did seem a little silly. Here, look at this:

And this:

 

And this:

What I realized pretty quickly was that the President 1 was no Titanic. By which I mean, we were not out in the middle of the frozen Atlantic ocean. Quite the contrary. We were surrounded on all sides, all the time by other vessels. If the President 1 went down, my guess is that we would be stepping off of her rooftop balcony onto the rescue sister cruise ships who would head right on ove.

So, no worries.

Chongqing

From whence the Yangtze River Cruise departed. Yeah! Finally! That cruise we took!

The Yangtze River Cruise deal is something that just about every tourist whirl-winding two weeks though this country takes; most expats do it at some point, too. You do cover some fairly impressive territory, and it is rather nice to be able to hang out on a fairly comfortable boat for a few days while seeing the sites.

But, like many of our journeys in China, well, there are tales to be told. Let me begin. I can be wordy.

Isn't that gorgeous? It's the dock where our boat, the President 1 (the one farthest in the back) floated patiently waiting for us. Well, at this point, Hope and I were actually on board unpacking. Jeff and Tom took this photo on their way back from a snack and beverage run. But it is lovely, isn't it?
The Yangtze River is clogged with cruise ships. Big ones, little ones, fancy ones (although, no actual fancy-schmancy ones), budget cruises and cruise ships that I would describe as "derelict."

The President 1 was on the very high end of the Chinese run boats. And there is at least one American run cruise line: Victoria. This would be the highest end cruise line on the Yangtze. And the ship we were initially planning to take. Unfortunately, we ran into an interesting problem, which is that we are not Chinese. Given that our Mandarin is not up for booking travel, I had my Chinese baby sitter call a local travel agency to book the trip. And we got a great price! Better than anything our friends had mentioned getting on their cruises! It really was relatively inexpensive, given that we needed two rooms, and that we would get three nights on the ship with all meals and day trips included.

Alas, it was too cheap. When the Chinese travel agent verified our booking with the American company, we got kicked us off the boat. No kidding. We had gotten Chinese pricing. Not American. They took one look at our passports and the deal was off. Not only did they boot us off the boat, but they wouldn't even talk to use about re-booking at a higher rate. Go figure.

So, we moved on to the President line, a Chinese cruise ship line that has ships that run the gamet. The President 1 was their highest end vessel. Banish all thoughts of the Love Boat, please. We arrived in Chongquing quite early for boarding, and I have to say, we were a little *concerned* as we peered down from our transom (see that little box like thing that looks like it might be on a steep track? It is, that's the little transom you ride down to the floating peer to get on the ship). The ship was quite a bit rattier in real life than it was on the web-site (shock!), and it seemed, so, well, small. 

The ship had been renovated in the early 2000s, so it wasn't terribly out of date. Maybe just a little more threadbare than I would have expected. Or hoped for? Anyway, we boarded just about first, along side a rather Jolly Canadian Tour Group. They were very nice people, and were very, very excited to be traveling through China.  They traveled as a pack, so we didn't see too much of them.

The Jolly Canadian Tour Group was hustled off by their very fabulous and efficient tour leaderess, a woman who was 110% professional and who had the best travel outfits I have ever seen. I have decided I want to be her when I grow up. She was always properly coiffed, dressed in a style I would describe as Casual Elegance With A Flat Shoe Sort of Sensible, Early Post Modern Flair.

Alas, the Jolly Canadian Tour Group Leader dealt only with her Jolly Canadians. We were met by Michael The River Guide. There were two River Guides on our cruise, one male and one female. They were Chinese born with excellent English skills and what I can only imagine was a course in Disney Hosting 101. And 201. Heck, they probably had MAs in Disney Hosting. They were friendly, funny, self-effacing, flattering and in many ways truly reminiscent of Julie the Cruise Director from the Love Boat. No kidding.

While I did grow to quite like Michael by the end of the cruise (he clearly aced his Advanced: Recovery When You F*&k-up in the Disney Masters program), Michael had the unfortunate job of pulling the classic bait and switch on us when we arrived, alone and un-guided on the boat. Luckily, we are savvy people, but as we were not exactly prepared, it took a bit to sort it all out. Basically, we bought the cheapest cabins on the ship. Every cabin has a balcony, so we figured, why spend more than we have to?

Michael, bless his River Guide Disney trained heart, took us to the absolute worst cabins on the ship. Right next to the entrance lobby and right over the pulsing engines. He was apparently fairly new at this, so the next cabins we saw were the Presidential and Vice Presidential Suites. At a price that would have required that we leave Hope behind as payment. Jeff being the King of Negotiation finally worked out what was going on, and he was able to upgrade us one deck for a reasonable price. But the experience did leave the tiniest bit of a sour taste in our mouths. 

I couldn't find any 'interior' shots of our lovely cabins (one for Jeff and I, and one for the children). The rooms were sizable enough for two, and even three, but maybe a bit squishy when we were all huddled in bed reading or nursing random illness. 

The balconies were great, really the best part of the whole cruise. We could open the glass doors and have fresh (relatively) air all day long. I spent a few hours over the days on board just knitting and watching.the scenery go by.

A deck. Good for contemplation.

But, I am dithering, and it sounds rather like I am complaining. Which, I really shouldn't. We got settled quickly enough, and bedded down happily for the night, as the President 1 set off down the Yangtze.

The 2 Kuai Shop

I love the 2 Kuai Shop. It's like the Dollar Store, only everything is only 28 cents! Well, not every single thing. There are some things that cost more than 2 kuai. But this didn't:

This is just so awesome! I was over the moon about the "stink-proof" bit. It would have to be stink proof in order to live in your nose, don't you think? And "In order to make your little nose clearer, more beautiful and full of happiness!" I confess, I woke up this very morning and thought, "Gosh I wish my little nose were more full of happiness and less full of whatever the gunk in the air is."

Here's the back, just so you can get the full on effect of this little beauty:

I *think* this thing is meant to torque your nose into some cute, desirable shape. Which I find weird and shocking, although in a dang-that's-funny kind of way. But riddle-me-ree, gentle reader. Why on earth is the entire package in English? Maybe it's a subtle hint to us Big-Nose barbarians, er, foreigners, to get with the program??

My Favorite Local Shop

They sell eye glasses! I wish my Mandarin were better; I'm not sure how to say "X-ray vision??"

Great Advertising

Or maybe not.

I have Googled this one six ways to Sunday, but I cannot work out who Derby are or what they sell. Splinters?

A Brief Interlude in the Seemingly Endless Travelogue

This is my child.
 

This is my child in her passport photo.

Any questions?

Like, "Hey! When did you swap out that cutie patootie for a felon?"

I will say, in our defense, that Hope, Tom and myself were able to take a bus to a local Kodak shop and have passport photos taken. This is all kinds of awesome.

I mean, think about it. If you were going to have passport photos taken, wouldn't you have to furrow your brow and ponder it all for a bit, wondering, "Now where in the heck do you get those things done?" Now add living in a foreign city, no car or driver, and fairly limited language skills on top of it and you will have to agree: we are made of win!

 The photo, however, is just tragic.