Dear readers,
Welcome to the Cambodia instalment of Stravelling the World with Alan William Silvester. For this entry I, Catherine Silvester, will be taking you on the Cambodia journey, which I have to say has been one of the most poignant so far. So…lets get started.
As you all know from the previous race post we both enjoyed the Angkor Wat half marathon and were desperate to see more of the complex. We opted to cycle round rather than hire a tuk tuk so we could take our time.
On the first day we had a well earned lie in and leisurely breakfast so didn’t make it there until well into the morning. We did the big hitter first and looked around the famous Angkor Wat. The temple is a representation of Mt Meru (important in Hinduism) and is truly huge and very grand. It is surrounded by an equally huge and impressive moat (and formed a big part of the half marathon route). We took about 2-3 hours to explore but with the many surrounding bas reliefs and the central temple itself you could spend a whole day just here! We did manage to go back the next day for the classic sunrise experience – it was worth it!
Sunrise at Angkor Wat
Over the 2 days we had to look around we visited all the big hitters – the Bayon temple; the gates of Angkor Thom and the Terrace of Elephants and the Leper King; Preah Khan; and the well known Ta Prohm (my personal favourite – it is stunning), as well as some smaller beauties within the complex.
We had a look at some of the exhibitions that show the restoration works (many of which are still underway) and the painstaking research this entails. They show pictures of what the temples looked like when they were found and some were truly just piles of stone which you could barely see through the surrounding jungle. Restoration works of temples like Ta Prohm were also purposefully minimised to give you a sense of how old the structures are.
Part of the ‘tomb raider’ temples (Ta Prohm)
After Siem Reap we went to a lovely more sedate little river town called Battambang. We took an 8 hour boat ride there (rather than a 3 hour bus) on the advise of our friends Alex and Kate who had been earlier in the year. It turned out to be very good advise – we got to see the traditional floating houses and get a feel for how people live outside the city. They are very poor and life is simple. We stopped to buy some food from a floating shop and use the conveniences (a hole in the floor to the river).
Floating village
We both really liked Battambang – it was cheaper than Siem Reap and much more chilled (as expected). Al found a strava route for running which we checked out on the first night. He tried to convince me that the 7.6km route included going over an abandoned railway bridge with very dodgy joints and gapping holes either side of the thin tracks. I’m pretty sure no serious runner would attempt this at even a jogging pace but he was sure so tentatively (and stupidly) I gave it is go – attempt 1 (100m) did not go well and after some wobbling, swearing and an immediate retreat I made Al come back too. Attempt number 2 in the morning did infact reveal the bridge we needed to cross is around 1km further up the river.
There were quite a few runners in Battambang at sunset, which was nice as no one looks at you like your crazy when they see you running past. On one evening run I met a friendly runner in his 70s (not sure I believe him he did not look 70 – I’m hoping running takes off the years from the face). We had a little chat whilst jogging and I accepted his sprint challenge. Luckily I did win but it was a little too close for comfort!
Spot the 70 year old
After the extreme off road running of the first night we took a tuk tuk tour of the main surrounding sites. These included the bamboo train – a scary ‘train’ which is a detachable bamboo seating platform on wheels that goes pretty fast along a small straight bit of track that doesn’t feel like it is connected properly! A rollercoaster ride and very fun – though the line is only single track so when you meet people coming back the other way one of you has to get off the line completely – the Cambodian drivers had this down to a fine art and de-railed in less than a minute. The end of the line was a recently closed brick factory and several clothing stalls.
Our bamboo carriage
We also went to a beautiful old temple at the top of a huge staircase – it reminded me of the martial arts training camp in Kill Bill – and to the killing caves (a cave out of the city where the Khymer Rouge prisoners were taken to be slaughtered) – it is now a memorial to the victims. The information around the site confirmed that Pol Pot’s regime had taken prisoners into the caves to be executed away from populated areas. This was the first of several burial grounds and torture prisons we visited in Cambodia and one of many that were dotted around the country during Pol Pot’s reign of terror.
An area of the cave complex is home to millions of bats which come out in a swarm at sunset – it is a spectacular site and pictures don’t really do it justice. Apparently there are so many they stream out of the cave for 40 minutes straight. They all head to the lake a few miles away to get some grub overnight before heading home in the morning for a kip.
The bats of BATtambang
The next day we hired some bikes and went for a ride along the river to a dried fish market, a Buddhist temple and one of the small prisons used by the Khymer Rouge to torture prisoners for false confessions and then execute them in mass pits – it is hard to describe how unreal it seems that this actually happened in the last 40 years and not several centuries ago.
From Battambang we headed to the beach (it had been too long) and landed at Sihanoukville after an 11 hour bus journey. We didn’t get off to a great start – Al bargained hard for a tuk tuk but the driver was not impressed and although grudgingly accepted what we were willing to pay (a hefty $7 for a 10 min, 3km ride – much more expensive per km than any other ride we’ve taken so far) stopped a short way down the road to tell us how unhappy he was and that he ought to leave us by the side of the highway as his colleagues were getting $8-10 from their rides. We paid him $8! It was the first time I’d felt bad about haggling (but obviously you have to do it). It makes you appreciate the real art of bargaining – everyone needs to be happy with the price!
When we reached our digs we finally met up with Mark and Sharon (from Brighton and also on a bit of a holiday/running tour in Cambodia and Thailand) who had been waiting for us for a good few hours. Several sangria’s and beers later we were much more happy and relaxed and ready to settle into our beach hut style room that smelt a little bit like bird poop with a possible hint of rodent urine. Al says my nose is hypersensitive and he couldn’t smell anything – but I have smelt that smell in caves before I know it! Still couldn’t be helped in a rustic beach hut and the bed was clean so all good (this would have disturbed me greatly about 2 months ago but luckily I can even take the baby roaches without squealing now).
We didn’t stay very long here. It was a pretty hedonistic place with some nice beaches but you got a lot of hassle there from hawkers selling souvenirs all the time – 1 lady did basically attack me with some thread (hair removal technique) and I have to say I was impressed with the results! Do try this at home ladies (and gents actually). She tried to persuade Al by asking him if he really wanted to be a monkey – she even got a few of his ear hairs but let him be after several yelps and protests.
From here we stuck to the coast and went to Kep where we stayed in an amazing (non smelly) jungle hut with a super swimming pool (nice surprise). The place was soo quiet (a little too quiet) but strangely had the best and widest roads we’ve seen in the country – it seems that Kep is being prepped for some serious tourism in the future. It’s not hard to see why, although small it has a nice little beach, is very close to beautiful tropical islands, has a hilly national park about 1km inland and some stonkingly amazing seafood.
Cambodia’s best KEPt secret?
The crab market in Kep is well-known for its seafood and we tried the renowned Kampot pepper crab dish which was pretty special (and so huge it took us about an hour to eat – we are not slow eaters). Although sluggish from the meal we made an effort to get up super early (yuk) for a morning jog around the national park (it was more of a walk/jog really) and went on a trip to the beautiful rabbit island (the location of the christmas photo) where we did absolutely nothing but swim, lounge, get slightly sunburnt for the first time, drink beer and listen to the last episodes of the Serial podcast – if you haven’t heard this it is very good.
After that it was time to leave the relaxing coast and head inland to the bustling capital Phnom Penh. It was from here that we went to the Killing Fields and the S-21 prison museum/memorials and learnt a lot more about the Khymer Rouge and what the Cambodian people went through in the 70’s, which was truly awful. People outside of the regime were forced to relocate from the cities to rural areas, worked and starved to death to meet impossible rice production targets (very similar to Stalin’s 4 year plan) and persecuted, tortured and killed for being (or suspected of being) educated or influential in some way (or even just wearing glasses); Vietnamese or generally foreign; disobeying, opposing or speaking out against the regime; or being related to anyone who fitted the above. The general motto was that it was better to get it wrong and kill an innocent that that a guilty person go free.
Both sights included an English audio tour that was very detailed and harrowing – the cruel and seriously twisted torture techniques used, the training of young people in these techniques (they made them practice on animals and then prisoners so they wouldn’t feel anything for them) and the execution of babies and children are sickening. It is hard to believe what they did to Cambodians (1 in 4 people were killed by Pol Pot and everyone who lived through this must have some terrible physiological scars). It is also hard to believe that the genocide trials of the top KR leaders only started a few years ago. Most, including Pol Pot are already dead and lived out their lives without having to answer for what they did.
Apart from learning about the sad history we also did many runs along the riverside, ate a lot of pork/egg dumplings (my new favourite food) and went on a tour of the local Kingdom brewery which had some very nice beer. We enjoyed the city a lot but Alan got his most recent bout of gastroenteritis just as we were leaving for higher ground and the forest in Mondulkiri.
Beer fit for a king (or queen)
This part of the country in the east is beautiful and cold!! A mere 17C (can’t handle anything below 25C now) and very windy. Poor Alan was feeling very rough at this point so we didn’t do a whole lot up here. Luckily we were staying in another great (and cheap) hut where we watched series 2 of Peaky Blinders (great series about gangs in Birmingham set after WW1 – highly recommend if your looking for a new series to watch while waiting for the next Game of Thrones instalment to come out).
We did manage one day trip to the forest where we got to walk with elephants, try some rice wine (did not go down well with Al’s stomach) and go to a traditional tribe village. The highlight was definitely the elephants – seeing them so close was amazing. They are so intelligent and friendly, esp when you have bananas! We picked our tour carefully, as we wanted to support projects that look after and provide income to the indigenous tribes. The tribe we visited (the Buong) look after the elephants as they are very important to them, so while they weren’t wild they were living in their natural environment, roaming around the forest eating a lot of bamboo – they eat 100kg a day (the tribe has to move regularly so there is a new source of food for the elephants and new plots for growing rice and veggies) and you could ride them through the forest etc which is definitely a good thing! They did let us help wash an elephant in the stream and swim around her – she also gave me a very short ride back to the shore which was awesome! Poor Al was suffering at this point and I think the cold water dip would have finished him off so he took some pics from the bank (see link for video also).
Alanphant
Elephant bath time! – a short video
We had planned to go further to Randilkiri for some mountain biking but Alan definitely wasn’t up for that and by now had a cold sore and a rash on his eyelid so instead we thought it best to head back to Phnom Phen to a western doctors and check him out. Since it’s quite a long journey we stopped for a day and night in Kratie and managed to catch several glimpses of the rare Mekong river dolphins – they were great but very elusive when the cameras came out!
After our brief stop (less than 24 hours) in Kratie we headed directly back to Phomn Penh for the last time and visited an eccentric but kind and helpful doc from the UK who had been working as a doctor in Cambodia for 23 years. After giving Alan the once over (and a course of antibiotics for the stomach bug) we chatted to him and found out that Cambodia has a huge healthcare issue.
There are very few licensed/trained Khymer doctors mostly due to the former Khymer Rouge purge of the educated generation and the current government corruption of the education system (if your well connected you pass exams, if not you don’t). There are a lot of unlicensed practitioners in the rural areas that locals prefer to go to – these are mostly older people who were trained to care for KR soldiers in the 70s and generally (due to the above) have a better basic understanding of healthcare than the licensed doctors. Also the (too few) state clinics are expensive and don’t make calls outside of hours. I could ramble on about this for a while as I got quite interested in it and downloaded a few podcasts on the subject but basically the UK NHS is fantastic compared to this. I will try to remember that the next time I have to wait several months for a referral appointment.
Sadly we had to leave Cambodia the next day for the 8 hour bus journey to Vietnam – first stop Ho Chi Minh City! In Cambodia we have met some lovely people, enjoyed the varied scenery and friendly elephants, had the best food on the trip so far and learnt a lot about this country’s struggles with imperialism, dictatorships, genocide and corruption. It’s fair to say we leave with a lot of respect for the people living here, including those from western nations who want to help.
The running bit
Firstly thanks to my lovely wife for composing the Cambodia blog post. It’s a great read I’m sure you’ll agree. However it would be remiss of me to not give you a quick update on the running training during our time in Cambodia, so here it is.
After the successful completion of the Angkor Wat HM we moved in to Battambang which turned out to be pretty good for running routes in the centre and saw us get up for a couple of early morning burns.
On one of these I identified a cheeky strava segment to have a crack at. As the centre has a river running right through it, most routes involve running down one side and up the other. In the centre a wide pavement is available but firer out you switch back to roadside but all in all its a city suitable for runners, and with an outdoor gym also, useful for some body weight strength exercises. Jackpot.
The segment I had a go at was called Big Battambang Loop and is 7.4kms long on flat sidewalk with just a few busy roads to cross so pretty reasonable to tackle the leading and only time of 34:12.
The result? A satisfying 32:14 and a CR.
Following Battambang we moved on to Sihanoukville where there were certainly some long stretches of flat open road to to get out and run on in the mornings, but beware the dogs. As we have experienced in many places the dogs are still in security mode early on and run too close or too loudly or just if they take a dislike to you and you can get chased and in my case get a little bite for your troubles! Blood drawn but no rabies so a decent outcome.
Another coastal town in the area is Kep and as its a much quieter resort you can have open roads and pave,mets for miles without having to dodge mopeds, fruit stalls or dogs for that matter. It therefore proved to be a fantastic place for a short 10km. Another tick in the running towns of Cambodia box.
Next up was Phnom Penh and as with many capital cities it is ridico busy. Running on the streets is impossible unless you have a death wish, but it does have two saving graces. One, the river has a decent promenade for much of its length in the centre. Two, there are a couple of parks / closed roads near the palace and independence monument.
This meant that another two early morning runs could be banked with one evening presenting the opportunity for a crack at a 1.2 km long segment along the river…
This time no CR, just a measly 4th place and time of 4:43. Poor.
That was that pretty much that for the running in Cambodia (due to a bout of gastroenteritis) but as I write this we are just seeing in 2016 so it presents a good opportunity to do the classic running statistical review of the year just gone. So let’s look at the numbers…
Total miles run = approx 1,800 miles (an educated estimate due to changeover from Garmin to tomtom watches and periods when watch less cannot be exact).
Average weekly miles = 34.6
3kms races = 1 (best time and PB of 10:00 @ Withdean. Annoying!)
Parkruns run = approx 28 (best time and PB of 16:51 @ Hove Prom)
5kms races = 1 (time of 16:55)
XC / trail races (variable distances) = 6
10kms races = 5 (best time and PB of 34:51 @ Phoenix 10k)
10 miles races = 1 (best time of 1:03:55 in a 10m race @ Haywards Heath or 57:07 as part of a HM section which technically doesn’t count but 1:03 is pretty unreflective of form I think and something to work on later in 2016)
Half marathon races = 5 (best time and PB of 1:15:00 @ Maidenhead)
20 mile races = 3 (best time and PB of 2:04:26 @ Windsor Eton Dorney marathon prep race)
Marathons = 2 (best time and PB of 2:41:54 @ Berlin)
I’m not one for New Years resolutions, so I’m not going to lay out any specific goals but of course a sub 3 at London would be nice and getting that 10m time under an hour is a must!
Other than that I hope to remain injury free and keep running in some fantastic places whether at home or abroad.
Happy new year all! And I hope your running New Years resolutions stick also.
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