Species Hunting Adventures in Cambodia.

The Jewel, a massive ten floor complex within Changi Airport, is sort of a tourist attraction in its own right. Shopping, restaurants, a cinema, various attractions, lush green spaces, a monorail, it’s so mind-blowing that Singaporeans visit the airport when they don't even have a flight to catch! We only had a little time to spare before we had to head through to the gate for our flight, so we decided to visit the Rain Vortex in the centre of it.

This huge water feature is the largest indoor waterfall in the world!

Landing in Phnom Penh in the evening, the taxi ride into the city from the airport was crazy. I’ve never seen such congestion, so many motorbikes or so many people crammed onto a single motorbike in my life. At one point a motorbike passed as with a whole family crammed onto it. Two adults and three children! Our Taxi driver told us there was a huge festival happening along the Tonle Sap River. When we finally got near our hotel, we dumped our cases, got freshened up a bit, and went out for a walk to see what was going on.

It turned out that our stay in the capital coincided with the beginning of the Cambodian Water Festival, one of the largest festivals in the Cambodian calendar! Lasting three days, it celebrates the end of the rainy season and the change in flow of the Tonle Sap River. Millions of people take part and as our hotel was right by the river, the areas surrounding it were absolutely crammed full of people. There were stalls selling everything you could imagine, and motorcycle food vendors everywhere, basically a motorbike with a food stall built onto the side of it where you would attach a sidecar. The idea of trying some street food was quite appealing, until we took a closer look at the condition of some of the vendor's mobile food stalls that is. Not the cleanest, and that's being kind.  I also thought that the food was also piled way too high, to the point that there was no way it could be considered freshly cooked. The thought of all the food sitting for hours in the heat waiting to be sold also put us off. In the end, we decided not to try anything. Better safe than sorry! Also, some of the food on sale was a little bit questionable!

I've eaten grasshoppers before in Japan, but they came in a sealed packet. The thought of munching huge cockroach like insects that had been out in the heat for hours was just a step too far, even for me!

Lots of people were enjoying the evening, sitting in front of the moonlight pavilion away from the riverside crowds, having a drink or eating food that might make them ill.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the busy crowds, we left the street, visited a nice restaurant for some tasty pizza and headed back to our hotel. Not very Cambodian, and not even the local "Happy Pizza" either. We're not that adventurous! 

The following day, we did some sightseeing, it was still crowded following the Tonle Sap River south, but we headed away from the river slightly and spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds of the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace and it's expansive grounds were most impressive.

At the back of the Silver Pagoda, there was a scale model of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

I spotted my first Cambodian fish in the small moat surrounding the model! They were mainly tilapia, and a few small catfish. 

After sitting in a shaded cafe near the exit the the palace grounds, where we relaxed and enjoyed a nice cold fruit smoothie, we headed back towards the river and headed south again. Boat races were taking place with large crowds gathered next to the river to watch them.

All day long, for the duration of the festival, teams of rowers in these incredibly long boats would race down the Tonle Sap River, before rowing back up it again.

Keen to get away from the crowds, we continued our exploration by heading further south. Eventually, we reached what seemed to be the end of the festivities. I had wanted to do a spot of fishing to try to catch my first ever fish in Cambodia, and had spotted a couple of ponds on Google Maps that I thought might provide some shade and the opportunity to do a little fishing. Unfortunately, when we reached the spot the ponds were no longer there! Instead, a fenced off building site was in their place! That's what happens when you look at satellite images that are over two years old of a rapidly developing city!

Heading north again, we ended up stumbling across a roadside ditch. Ok, I took us back that way deliberately as the ditch was my backup fishing plan. Sadly, it was basically an open sewer, so my fishing tackle stayed in my backpack. Perhaps there were some fish in there, we did look for sign of activity, but we didn't see anything on the surface. I wasn't that desperate to find out, so we carried on, heading back towards our hotel, passing the Independence Monument on our way. By the time we got back, it was dark and stepping out onto our hotel room balcony, there were lots of neon lit boats on the Tonle Sap River.

The Independence Monument, built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodia gaining its independence from France.

Each evening during the festival, a procession of illuminated boats took to the river.

The morning of our last day in Phnom Penh was spent visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where we learned about the horrific things that happened at the infamous S-21interrogation and detention centre of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime during the Cambodian genocide. A former school, it became the central hub of a vast prison system throughout the country and between 1975 and 1979, this secret facility was used to detain, interrogate, torture and exterminate anyone deemed to be "political enemies" of the Khmer Rouge. Very few sent there survived.

In the afternoon, we headed south to visit the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, where many of the prisoners from the S-21 were taken to be murdered. These sites, known as killing fields, were in operation accross Cambodia. It is estimated there were approximately three hundred of them. A former orchard, the Khmer Rogue secretly converted Choeung Ek into one of these extermination centres. The bodies of almost nine thousands victims, including children and babies, were exhumed from numerous mass graves after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Human remains still surface to this day as the soil moves. Most of the victims were killed using farming tools to conserve bullets, typically pickaxes. It didn't feel quite right taking photos, so I only took one. The visit ends at the Bhuddist stupa that marks the site as a memorial. You can go inside the structure, it contains an enormous cabinet.

Housed inside the enormous cabinet inside the stupa are the skulls and other bones belonging to over five thousand of the victims.

The time we spent at both sites, listening to the audio guides and seeing with our own eyes the places where some of these atrocities took place, as well as the physical evidence left behind too, was an incredibly sombre, thought-provoking experience. How can human beings do such horrible things to one another? In the evening we discussed the day and took some time to reflect on what we had seen.

The following morning we caught a coach to Siem Reap, which was an interesting experience. It was very comfortable and at only seventeen US dollars, including breakfast, drinks and lunch, it was incredible value too. The drive took just over five hours, but the time passed quite quickly. On Cambodia’s roads, larger vehicles have priority, a fact other road users were reminded of repeatedly by our driver sounding the coach’s horn! Thankfully, other vehicles seemed to get out of the coach's way without any fuss and we arrived at the coach depot in Siem Reap in one piece.

The Water Festival was also being celebrated in Siem Reap, but seemed to be winding down by that point. As we crossed the Stueng Siem Reap, the small creek that runs through the city, there were still a few people out enjoying the festivities. After checking in to our hotel we decided to go out for a stroll before it got dark. Having failed to even wet a line in Phnom Penh, I was by this point getting pretty desperate to open my Cambodian account, so some fishing tackle came with us. Following the creek upstream, eventually we found a quieter spot away from the crowds. Using bread, I caught a couple of micro species using tanago hooks from close in next to some marginal aquatic plants.

At first I mistook this for the same species I'd caught in Singapore, but I'd later find out it was a Malayan tiger barb.

It was followed by a couple of these scissortail rasbora with some beautiful markings on their tails.

Whilst I had been fishing in close, Lillian had been tearing up little pieces of bread and feeding an area to my left a little further out. Before too long some, silvery fish were coming up from deeper down in the murky water and grabbing it. They were pretty cautious of my hookbait, but eventually I fooled a couple of them, and landed my third new species of the session.

Looking quite similar to a roach this is a Javaen barb.

Switching back to fishing closer in again, light had begun to fade when my pole float slid under again and I caught my fourth new species of the session. Not too bad for an hour or so fishing in a heavily coloured creek.

I'd later find out this is a Siamese glassfish.

Happy to have caught some fish in Cambodia, we headed back into the heart of Siem Reap in the evening for some food in a Cambodian restaurant, followed by an evening stroll including the very lively Pub Street.

As we enjoyed our meal we spotted lots of these gecko running around the restaurant’s walls and ceiling. Very cool little reptiles.

The very popular, and originally named, Pub Street!

The following day we went out to explore again. Near the Royal Independence Gardens we heard a strange noise and looking up discovered it was a tall tree full of flying fox, the worlds largest species of fruit bat.

This tree was covered in flying foxes.

Following the Stueng Siem Pear north, I fished again briefly but only managed to catch a couple of Javaen barb. We did see a small catfish and a snakehead lurking around in the margins, but they both quickly dissappeared when they spotted us! We ended up walking quite far upstream, before taking a left turn and heading west. After an hour in the Angkor Botanical Gardens, where I saw plenty of colourful fish, we visited the APOPO Humanitarian Demining Visitor Centre. They train African giant pouched rats, known as "HeroRATS", to safely detect explosives and use them to help locate landmines and other unexploded ordinance in Cambodia and beyond. Obviously, the reason that these amazing animals are needed to do the work they do was quite depressing, but the work they do is making a massive difference to ordinary people who live and work in places effected by conflict.

A deactivated anti-personnel land mind was on display in the ground for educational purposes.

The HeroRat demonstration gets under way.

Working with two handlers, the HeroRAT is guided back and forth between them and can clear large areas much faster and more safely than other methods of detection. With an amazing sense of smell they can sniff out explosives from up to one metre away, and are not heavy enough to trigger a landmine. When they detect explosives, they begin scratching the surface and recieve a reward in the shape of some banana. Once the demonstrations were over, we got the opportunity to meet one.

It's not everyday you meet a Hero.

Such an amazing animal.

Naturally inquisitive too!

Our last day in Cambodia was spent exploring several of the ancient temple complexes to the north of Siem Reap. We hired a Tuk Tuk driver to take us from one temple to the next and I took some fishing tackle, so I could try to add to my Cambodian species tally should the opportunity arise. Angkor Wat is the largest and best known of the many temples in the area, so was of course the first complex we visited. It didn't dissapoint!

Angkor Wat is vast and impressive! An incredible feat of ancient engineering. The artistry and effort that was involved in its construction is almost beyond comprehension!

Walking all the way through the complex and exiting on its eastern side we walked further east along a path through the jungle, until we reached a foot bridge that crossed over the Stueng Siem Reap, the same creek that flows through Siem Reap further south.

Much further upstream, Stueng Siem Reap was much smaller and also much cleaner.

Fishing from up above it from the bridge, I caught a few Javaen barb from the deeper runs before I spotted some smaller fish congregating around a few rocks in some shallower water by the creek’s edge. Tying on a smaller hook and using a smaller piece of prawn I managed to catch a couple of them.

I’m reasonably confident, based on the depth and standard length, that this is a pale rasbora. My fifth new species in Cambodia.

Walking back through the temple complex, we met up with our Tuk Tuk driver again, and he took us to our second temple of the day, Ta Phrom. Dropping us off at the temple’s eastern gate we walked right through the centre of the complex and met up with him again at the western gate. 

Ta Phrom was much less grand than Angkor Wat. It had some enormous trees growing over its structures.

We were then taken to Angkor Thom, famous for huge carved faces on its towers. There were lots of monkeys around the perimeter of the temple. Seeing them, "monkeying around" was quite enjoyable, but unlike some other visitors, who were stupidly trying to hand feed them, we kept a reasonable distance.

Most of the faces have been eroded away but some remain. 

You’ve got something in your fur boss. Let me get that for you. 

Monkey business was clearly too tiring for this monkey. 

The last stop on our temple tour was Phnom Bakheng. This temple sits atop a large hill, and after a slow walk up around the side of it and a climb up some stairs, we joined a crowd of people on top of the temple and watched the sunset.

A beautiful way to end an amazing day.

Our time in Cambodia had come to an end. We both really enjoyed our time there, and in a relatively short time, the country and its people, as well as its history, both ancient and recent, had left a big impression on us. In the morning we were heading to the airport again. The next stop on our adventure was the Thai capital of Bangkok, but we were only staying for two nights before moving on to Phuket. We planned to do a fair amount of sightseeing in that relatively short time, but I was also hopeful I could perhaps squeeze in some fishing and catch a fish or two as well!

Tight lines, Scott.