I believe a visit to Angkor Wat is the #1 thing to do in South East Asia. Being the 8th Wonder of the World (so I guess that would make the Plain of Jars the 5th) it is kind of hard to take a pass on. I am pretty temple, church, synagogue, etc. out so I probably wasn’t the most thrilled tourist ever to visit the place. The town of Siem Reap is the main lodging area with the Temple complex less than 20kms away. As this is the epitome of tourist sites in SE Asia and Cambodias shining star, it is heavily tourist based. The cost for the site also reflects that with a one day pass $20, three day $40, and one week $60. I opted for the one day. After so many ancient structures, and the pre-warning by everybody that the worst mistake you can make would be to try and see too much, the one day was fine. A very nice thing that they did do is allow you to purchase the ticket the evening before and allow you to enter for the sunset. Using that option I got the ticket and bee lined it to the sunset hotspot with a thousand other people. Not such a great idea and a pretty lackluster spot. The next day I followed a one day itinerary and visited a few places in the morning and then a few more in the evening. It was more than enough for me and made the day not so bad.

Here’s a few of the better shots.

The sunset spot. Peaceful huh.

You can see Angkor Wat from here although the sunset is the opposite direction. I didn’t quite understand that.

Sunset.

Crossing the moat.

Leading up to Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Proof I went and didn’t just download photos off the net and pocket the $20Us (although I thought about it).

Not bad.

Found this guy at the napping field.

Something to do with that Laura Croft movie. I haven’t seen the movie so not sure. This is a temple where the jungle has started taking over. Pretty neat structures with these root systems enveloping them.

I think it looks more like Pirates of the Caribbean Octopus head guy.

Same same but different.

Erector set.

Cool.

The big head temple.

$20. There better be dancing girls.

Big heads everywhere.

Sasha standing in for Angelina Jolie in another movie shot location at the East Enterance.

Elephant temple.

The main entrance.

Choueng Ek is where most of the people from S-21 were sent to be disposed of. Most of the people thought that they were being taken to a “re-education camp.” Large lorries packed with people would arrive and the people escorted to holding stations. From there they were sorted and taken to the back of the complex to where the pits were. There they were killed using farm implements as bullets would have been too costly. Most were executed the same day. Walking around the grounds today there is the large skull filled monument, and directly behind a lot of what looks like bomb craters. The grounds are littered with these large excavations. What is eerie is that there are still bones and lots of clothing protruding from the sides of the holes. There are a few areas that are labeled like the section where kids were killed, a tree for torturing and hanging, and where large speakers were set to cover the sounds of the screaming.

Places that I think are ripe for it to happen again.

China
North Korea
Afghanistan
Iraq
Israel/Palestine
Zimbabwe
Somalia
Sudan
Congo/Rwanda/Burundi
Kenya
Central Africa
Russia
Caucasus
Venezuela
Thailand

I really didn’t know much about what occurred here and at the time neither did anybody else. There was that famous movie made about it but beyond that I can’t actually remember ever learning much about it.

Two million people eliminated in three years, eight months, and 21 days in a nutshell.

This was an offshoot of the Vietnam War. The leftist political group Khmer Rouge was a conglomeration of rebel groups and those loyal to the disposed King Sihanouk. As the present leadership weakened during the Vietnam conflict, the Khmer Rouge was able to take control over the country. The leader of the movement was a Paris educated small village born man named Saloth Sar (aka Pol Pot or Brother no.1). On April 17th 1975 he began the implementation to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasent-dominated agrarian society. Basically what that meant was that he was taking his country back to the basics. What he wanted was a peasant society where everybody was a farmer and rice became the driving force for the country. No more technology, education or even towns. People were to give their lives to growing rice. With that, all persons were forced out of the cities and into the fields.

The first steps toward implementation was to cleanse the population. First to be exterminated were the politicians and military who were in charge prior or were against his beliefs. Second, those that were educated or even looked educated, ie. wore glasses. Third were the city dwellers as they were the opposite of the type of people that were wanted to make up the society. Forth were those affiliated with the Vietnamese and foreigners. Fifth anybody who rebelled . Sixth anybody else deemed necessary. There was no discrimination, all were killed, including children.

In Phnom Penh lies the notorious Tuol Sleng or S-21. It was originally the Toul Svay Prey High School. It was used as a centre for detention and torture. It cycled through approximately 17000 people in three years with most being taken to Choeung Ek for extermination. Like the Nazis they documented the people that were processed with most being photographed often times before and after torture.

Choeng Ek is the actual location for what is known as the Killing field. This is where prisoners were taken to be executed. It was thought to be a re-education camp. Most were executed the same day but often times there were too many people so some were held overnight before being processed. The cost of killing so many people started to rise so instead of shooting they converted to just bludgeoning them to death with farm implements. Mass graves were used to bury the bodies. Around 129 of these graves were found.

Although both of these facilities are the most known, there were hundreds of similar set-ups throughout Cambodia. It was actually pretty good timing getting to see and learn about what happened here. Right now the news is all over the story of the trial about “Crimes against humanity” against the man that was in charge of S-21. The relevancy level shot up ten fold. I think what I have learnt the most by actually seeing the places were how small and mundane they were. S-21 is just a small concrete style high school. It is tiny compared to the schools back home. Same with Choeng Ek where the people were mass killed and buried. When you thing killing fields of thousands and thousands of people you imagine these huge plots, but in actuality it all took place in a really small confined area.

Again and again? Yea, it will happen again. From my travels one scary aspect is that I have seen too many places where human life is valueless. I also know that the majority of people are followers and can be manipulated easily. With that you have a recipe for again and again. Hell, it is going on now. The things we do to each other.

After a hotel swap and finding a real gem of a place, I headed out to look for a hard drive and to scout out the camera repair shops. I had heard the main area to look for electronics was around the new market. Getting there I had to take the main road which I found to be lined with computer shops as well as camera repair shops. I quickly felt relieved that my choice for coming here was correct.

Hard drive- With all those computer shops (some very large and modern) I was surprised at how difficult this turned out to be. The laptop I am carrying is about six years old and uses the old IDE connection. All the shops only sold SATA style. I lucked out when one really nice computer shop had a few of the old style hd’s. I was able to pick up a 100gb for $50US.

Camera- Like the hard drive, at first glance it looked promising but quickly became a grind. My first and what I thought would be the best all around solution was to go to the Nikon center. Now, this wasn’t just some little combo camera/photography studio type shop, but an actual Nikon only business. That was a mistake. Apparently the owner is the only person that is allowed to know or is able to actually do anything and is never to be contacted. Sweet. It took about fifteen minutes of attempted communications to figure out the above and that the owner would not be back for four days. Great. Next stop was the retail camera shops on the strip. I picked the largest and most modern one and which in turn was full of westerners. While waiting I heard a conversation between a girl and the sales clerk. The girl asked the guy how much it would cost to fix her camera. The guy stated that without knowing the actual problem, the general cost would be between 40-60 dollars. That kind of surprised me as it seemed kind of high for an unknown problem. Hell, it could have rust on the battery terminal or a bad switch and that in no way would cost that much. The lady shocked me even more when she pleaded with the guy that even if it cost more she would pay it. She even did what you should do and repeat the info to make sure there is no questionable issues, but in this regard she wanted to press into this guys head that if he wanted more money, no problem, she would pay it. I felt really good about getting a good deal after following that. I showed him my camera and the problem (camera boots up, lens extends, screen works (menu) but shows no picture, nor does it take photo.) He took a look and told me about 40-60 dollars. I just shook my head and figured I would just let them look and see what they would come up with. The following day I went in to see what they had found. When the guy came back he said that they could fix it and the price would be $45US. I asked what the problem was that would make it cost $45. He didn’t know and went to the back office. When he came back he said there was something wrong with the lens and motherboard. I told him that it seemed too expensive and that I would just take the camera back. He said I would have to return in the evening. When I went back it still wasn’t there and I had to return the next morning. When I finally got the camera back it not only did not function at all, but now there was a dent in the side of the lens housing. I showed the guy the problems and he said that he would send it back to the tech and have it repaired to the way it was. I went back the next day to find that he had forgotten to send it off. Now I was getting pissed. We got it worked out and I finally got it back in the afternoon. The third option to my camera plan was to go to a shop that I had found by searching the Yellow pages on the internet. It was also mentioned in a person’s blog so I stopped there to see what they could do. This guy turned out to be really nice and seemed very knowledgeable. He explained to me that all of the main street camera shops are just middle men and send the cameras to repair shops like his. He said that he should be able to fix it for $30US and that I could pick it up in a couple of hours. Sweet. When I went back, it was not ready (surprise, surprise) and that it was a bit complicated as it was new. I was to come back the next day. The next day I went back to an unsmiling apologetic face. He couldn’t fix it. His recommendation was to throw it away as getting replacement parts for it would be difficult. That was a blow. I questioned him a couple more times about what exactly needed to be repaired. I guess I broke him down enough in that he said he knew of the shop that the main street store had originally sent my camera to. I ended up going to the next repair station and they said they could fix it for $40US and it would take three hours. Not so convinced but slightly hopeful, I returned that evening. It seemed the guy was just finishing up on it and when he brought it out it was taking pictures and the dent in the lens was gone but luckily I noticed that the auto focus function was not working. He said that I would have to come back the next day. The next day I returned and it was finished. Finally.

Motorcycle wobble: Lots of ideas but no clue. I stopped by a off road cycle shop and the guy said something about the back being bad. He showed me that y rocking the back of the bike the rear wobbled a bit. I assumed he meant the rear wheel bearings were bad. He told me that the best place to go was the Russian market. I found a machine shop place and had the guys replace the bearings. I was so sure that was the solution that the next day I left to go to Siem Reap. It was not until I got back on the highway before I learned that the wobble was still there. After I got back I found a suspension shop and the guy took a look. He instantly said that the tires were bad. That actually clicked for me as I had driven for almost 200kms with the tire being warped on the rim. I had new tires put on and low and behold problem solved.

Thailand Visa. A success story. I go to the Thailand Embassy. Filled out the form and handed it in. Noticed a sign in the window that for two months they are issuing free 30-day tourist visas. Score. I returned the next day and picked up the passport. The end. Nice.

So, although it took extra time, Phnom Penh is somewhere you can get stuff done. And I was back to running on all cylinders.

The last time I wanted to get into shape I went to Nepal and climbed over a shitload of Himalayan mountains. That was waaaay too much work. Going back further in time, when I caught Malaria and Dengue Fever in Africa, they both were very effective at cutting weight. Disease wise Giardia is pretty effective, that is the one where you pretty much piss out your ass anything you eat or drink. Sudan in the summer is pretty good because you sweat out most of your bodily fluids and it is too hot to eat. In the Omo Valley, Ethiopia where the only food was Injeera and goat for every meal really reduces the amount of voluntary intake. Being up above 4000 meters curbs my appetite as well. Hotels with slimming mirrors are really good too.

Since the above did not fit my current situation I had to come up with a new plan. I kind of figured the key to my problem was that my intake far outweighed my output and therefore I was ending up with a surplus (fat).

The fix.

1) One meal a day being a mid-afternoon heavy dinner followed by dessert. The rest of the day was subsidized by fresh squeezed sugar cane juice. This was fairly simple as normally I am not a breakfast eater. A couple of sugar cane juices and I powered through no problem.

2) Keeping busy was pretty important as eating fried chicken and Coke while watching tv does not create abs of steel. Being on strike allowed me to take a more adventurous route through Cambodia so I was being a good tourist and really hitting the sites. Moving from city to city is usually a full days work and when I am riding I rarely stop for food. It did help that Asians seem to eat on a fairly strict schedule and often times if you miss feeding time, there is nothing open. I usually arrive in a new town in the early afternoon, there is often times no opportunity to eat anyways.

3) No Coke. Sugarcane juice and lots of water.

4) Tarantula larvae and fish nuts.

A few hard driving weeks later and the mass lump is gone and back to abs of steel (intermixed with a bit of pliable foam and gel.)

Stung Treng was my first stop and for some reason it really felt familiar. I figured out that with the combination of river, river promenade, market and food stalls, family evenings in the park, and a nice hotel, it was just like being back in Kampot when I crossed along the south. I ended up staying a few nights as I was worried about the problems with the bike. I had to re-do the total front brake lever, brackets, and cables as I was using a set-up from a Honda Wave scooter and my replacement stuff was not all the right matching parts. The wobble was still there but I figured that it was the bearings and I would have them replaced when I got to Phnom Penh. At higher speeds the wobble went away so it was manageable. The only doubts were that the whole thing would come apart and kill me. Oh well

Even though the bike wasn’t a 100% I felt comfortable enough that I could still get around okay.

Instead of heading straight down to Phnom Penh, I figured that I would make a slight detour and head east to the Ratanakiri province to swim in a lake and take a nap as lakes are usually pretty good napping territory. The town I stayed was Ban Lung and was neighbor to the circular crater lake of Boeng Yeak Lom. I spent the morning and evening just wandering around the lake area as well as catching naps in the little rest areas. It was a nice step off the normal trail with only a couple of tourists seen in the three days that I was there.

It was nice returning back to Stung Treng and having familiarity but I figured it was time to keep moving so I followed the Mekong as it wove its way south.

Kratie is about 150kms south and is another tranquil river town where the tourist thing to do involves a lot of grabbing a seat along the Mekong river and watch either the world go by or the sun go down. One thing of interest which makes it a tourist stopover is dolphins. Just up river from Kratie is the home to the rare freshwater Irrawaddy river dolphin. Along this stretch as well as at the Laos side of the border are deep pools where these dolphins habitate. I’ve seen dolphins all over the world but you gotta take a look. I went to the tourist section to find a little park and a view point over the river. At the base is a little dock where tourist boats wait to take the bus loads of tourists out on the river to view the dolphins up close. I kind of fell into a situation where I got to see the dolphins without having to pay the incredibly inflated entrance cost. It was a bit of a ride to the area so I parked my bike by a sugar cane juice stand and had a sit down. After a sit down I took a walk over to a little viewing point thinking that it was an overview station where you can get a look but at a real distance. As I was standing there I got to see a couple of the gray mammals breach the surface. It was pretty much what I remember about the pink dolphins of the Amazon, the ones that would swim by the boats in Africa, and the canal swimmers that came through the Keys. Luckily they popped up just as I got there as a security guard came over and said that I needed a ticket. I thought it was interesting enough of a place to have a sit down and shouldn’t cost very much as I wasn’t interested in taking a boat ride or going down closer to the water. Besides, the money supposedly goes to support the Dolphins habitat. When I went to the ticket booth they wanted something like $7US for a ticket to go where I was at and $10US to take a boat ride. What the hell. No thanks. I got to see the dolphins, check.

It was here where doing an inspection of Sasha I realized the cause of the wobbling. When I and again when the tire repair guy put the back tire back on the rim the bead did not seat properly causing the tire to be out of round. The way I could tell is that there are little lines etched around the bead where you can eyeball the tire to make sure it is seated correctly. A $1 service and I had the tire unmounted, old oil used to lubricate the rim and the tire put back on correctly. That however did not fix the problem. It still wobbled. I was perplexed. I figured that possibly driving with the out of round tire had caused the suspension to wear out and making the bearings go bad. I figured I could make it to Phnom Penh (PP) and could get it sorted out there.

From Kratie I had two options. I could head farther east to the hilltop area of Mondulkiri which is known for a cooler climate (great napping) but I ended up vetoing the idea as I had quite a wide area I wanted to cover and did not want to get another visa.

I chose to head farther south to Kompong Cham. This one was definitely one of those where the destination takes back seat to the journey. There is a good route where you travel alongside the Mekong and at some point cross over to the other side and finally arrive in Kompong Cham. The route was a flashback to the rice fields of Vietnam because I don’t know how but following a huge ass river like the Mekong just isn’t as easy as it sounds. At one point I thought I was following the river valley as you can’t necessarily see the river the whole time but if you keep the open air sections (no trees) close by, the river usually is there. Well, I took some wrong term and followed what turned out to be a valley of corn and the river disappeared. I also missed the river boat cross over and ended up taking the local paths the whole way down on the east side passing through many villages and huts as I trial and errored my way south. One thing I learned is that the Minsks handle sand really well.

From Kompong Cham it was a quick jont down to the capital city of Phnom Penh.

The crossing from Thailand to Cambodia was actually one of the nicer stops along the way. I was a bit worried at the border crossing (like usual) as I was now in possession of a Vietnamese bike registered to a Vietnamese local, which was brought into the country and registered with customs by a Spaniard, and now I needed to get it out of the country and into another country which still wasn’t the originating country. In thirty minutes I had passed through the gates with only a few window to window shuffles. Cambodia was even easier as they didn’t even bother with the bike. I even went back to the customs office twice just to be sure and they just kept waving me through.

On the other side of the Stung Koh Poi river is the border town of Krong Koh Kong. Usually border towns are pretty dirty and crap, but this was a pretty cool little town with a nice laid back vibe. I hit it just right with a Festival going on down along the riverside walk way. During the day I hooked up with a great little all meat food stall at the market so I spent breakfast lunch and dinner picking different types of meat dishes all with rice of course. It was nice to get some road time in a small town and to be able to just bounce around on Sasha checking out the local villages.

The next leg was going to be my most adventurous as it was about six to eight hours of driving with four major river crossings. From what I had read it meant the use of local boats to transport across the rivers. It was also a large stretch which was lined sporadically with small local villages. This worried me a bit as Sasha breaking down in the middle of nowhere seemed the only logical conclusion. Well, the ride turned out to be rather pleasant. The road was all nice and smooth, the rivers all had brand new bridges, and even though there were only small villages along the way, Sasha never hiccupped once.

Sihanoukville is a tourist resort beach town with a good mix of modernization, touristy, and laid back. I ended up staying there for a week as I wanted to do some beach time, use up some of the visa time I paid for, and I caught a cold. Probably the most interesting part of my time there was also attributed to having my own transportation and the ability to move my residence around. After a long drive I stopped in the first backpacker zone which was called Station hill. I guess back in the day it was the first location where the backpackers had set up shop. It was on top of the hill overlooking the ocean and the beaches. Now the new backpacker zone had moved down beachside to the area called Serendipity Beach and Station hill had turned into the area where local girls come to look for Old white guy love. Serendipity was your typical beach tourist zone where I spent most of the day at the local shacks lining the beaches eating, drinking, and being merry. I ended up meeting a girl who’s family ran a hut place at a secluded beach area called Occheuteal. There it was very secluded with only a few places and hardly anybody around. There I pretty much lounged around until I was healthy again.

Oh yea, Cambodia is known for its excellent off roading so I did take some time to do some dirt action. Have you ever watched on ESPN where those guys are doing those massive jumps like Supermans with a no hand tail grab or a hands free double back flip, and those racers that fire around a berm gunning it at the apex and kicking up dirt a hundred feet high. Well, I can’t do any of that. I can however maneuver down a dirt road pretty damn well. Still pretty fun though.

The next place was another relax spot, Kampot. Kampot is a French colonial influenced town which was built along side the Prek Kampong Bay River. Here again the thing to do is chill out. I spent a lot of time driving around the dirt roads which led to small fishing villages all along the river. Here I found another small local restaurant where I ate my meals, a sugar cane juice stand along the river where I quenched my thirst during the day, and a juice stall at night where I got a locals smoothie. Here also Sasha started to fall further into disrepair as bumping along the dirt roads caused the front shock seals to go and oil started to leak from the cylinders.

My last stop was the even sleepier town of Kep. Kep is where you go to hover around comatose without actually needing medical care. Sleepy it is not, comatose it is. It did however have seafood. Cheap and plentiful seafood. Wonderful, sea tasting seafood. One of the specialties of Kep is the crab. For about five bucks you get a medium size plate of boiled, fried, or baked crabs, rice, tea, and fruit. Good times.

And that my friends is Cambodia along its bottom side. Kind of boring if your reading it and not living it, but I guess who really likes watching other peoples vacation pictures (photos). Cambodia has some really cool stuff, hell they even have one of the Eight wonders of the world (The Temples of Angkor). They also have a big stretch of the Mekong, and some pretty cool jungly stuff. This is still just a get to a repair center for Sasha so I will be making another run through Cambodia so just keep an eye out in the upcoming months as I will be heading back through for a little more quality time.

Cambodia stuff off the cuff:
Cambodia is a bit more ruralish compared to Thailand. Off the main path things get pretty stickish really quickly.
The food reflects above. Definitely more scaled down versions but still very acceptable to me because it is very meat and potatoes (rice). The color and range of flavors drops but the fun at the stalls is the same.
This applies to both Cambodia and Thailand, the language is not a romantic tongue. Wow, does it give me the chalk board shivers when females are talking. I guess that there is a lot of inflections that have to be made as the same word can be spelled the same but the tone changes the meaning. I don’t know what it is but I get the same feeling as if I am nagged by a woman, it just makes me constrict.
Cambodia has no road rules.
They have their own money (Riel), but the dollar is widely used with the Riel given as change. Even the ATM’s give out dollars.
So far it has been a very budget oriented travel spot.