Cam-BO-dia!!!

Foreward: It seems that for some reason, many of the pictures in this post have been cropped. I believe it's obvious which ones these are, so simply click on them to see the full thing. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd rather it be yours than mine :)

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Where to start!?

...I entered Cambodia with many a nervous feeling: everything I'd heard cautioned me against what to expect... beggers, scams, relenetless touts... all brought about by desperation caused by extreme poverty and a very recent history of being the victims of mass genocide and war caused by the Khmer Rouge.

Is this country poor? Yes. Are the people desperate? Why, yes they are. Does that cause them to be unfriendly or scam me? Not in my experience. The touts can seem relentless, but they're always friendly... I'd say out of all the touts I've encountered so far in Asia, they best know how the game works--they know that I am a walking wad of cash, but furthermore they know that I'm more likely to spend my cash with them if they strike my fancy. In that way while they are always trying to help me with anything and everything I could possibly ever need, they always do it in a pleasant way and take my smiling and pleasant "No, thank you." and typically let me be. On the flip side, when I do want someone's help, they're more fun than you can imagine.

Maybe I just got lucky, but I like to think that my avoidance of scams and bad fortune during my time here was because of my ever-patient and happy attitude when dealing with anyone who approached me. I saw countless foreigners getting upset at the people trying to offer them rides or tours (or anything for that matter: you get approached for everything from a moto ride to sex or drugs)... or even getting in heated arguments and yelling down at them over a few cents... I personally didn't mind being a little generous with a moto driver that I found reliable and friendly---I knew he could use the money more than I, and hell---he was earning it.

And there were plenty of beggers, and most of the time I did pity them... you get approached by people without limbs, people with deformities, or with young and starving children. I did give to some, but turned away countless others---I can't help everyone. Whenever I saw a person that could have been begging but instead was trying to earn a normal living, I tried to do business with them... like buying a book from a person without arms who'd have a book bag slung about his neck.

In short: I believe I entered the Khmer culture with the right attitude thus allowing me to have the time of my life. What follows is a brief outline of my travels through the amazing Kingdom of Cambodia:

I started off in Koh Kong, a small border town on a large river. I arrived too late to catch the bus to Sihanoukville which was my ultimate destination, so I had a day to burn. The touts at the border offering me rides into town were numerous and relentless. There was probably a group of 5-6 of them following me around from the second I stepped onto Cambodian soil. One caught my eye and I negotiated a ride into town.

Comming from Thailand, I was quite taken back at how personable my driver was. We had a great conversation going into town and after checking in he and I decided to grab a beer and play some pool. After that he offered to help me with anything else I'd need during my stay there and so I took his number and he went on his way. Moto drivers are like single-serving friends. They'll be your friend in hopes of selling you more of their time or assistance. While this may sound lame, their company is actually quite enjoyable---typically they have awesome senses of humor.

As the town was small and didn't really offer any attractions which interested me, I decided to simply take a walk in one direction and see where I ended up. Here are some pictures I took of the town and the neighborhoods I walked through:








It was really crazy walking through the dirt roads of their housing area, speaking with many locals, having every child that saw me yell out "Hello!" along with all the other english they knew. For example: "Hello! ABC 123!" or "Hello! What is your name?!" If I were to respond to their question with my name and ask theirs, they wouldn't know what to do so they'd giggle and chat to their friends all excited... after all, a barang (not sure on the spelling of course, but it's their word for any westerner) just spoke to them!

Later that night while I was walking around the park, I believe I was approached by what looked like a 15-year-old boy wanting to sell me a blowjob for $20. It's just a guess, but given his hand (and mouth) gestures, I'm pretty sure that's what he was eluding to...... I passed on his offer >_>
The next day I found myself on a bus to Sihanoukville, Cambodia's most popular beach destination. Cambodia is absolutely beautiful and is completely dominated by flat lands. See below:






Sihanoukville it turned out was very heavily geared towards tourists. The main beach is completely lined with bars and, while pretty, can be pretty annoying and busy. Plus, there are tons of people walking up and down the beach selling sun glasses, food, messages, etc. accompanied by many beggers. As a result, it's not much fun being there for the beach. It did provide to be a fun destination for night-time drinking, however.

At the place I was staying, I hooked up with another group of fellow travelers. Trent, Shannon, and Chelsea respectively shown below. They're all from Canada, though they didn't come together, and we embarked on many an adventure.


The four of us decided to rent some motorbikes in search of a better beach. We saw gorgeous landscapes and friendly locals, naturally having a blast (we also taught the girls how to ride, which was an adventure in and of itself =P).

Below is a picture of me buying fuel for my bike. As gas stations are few and far between here, road-side stands sell gas by the litre stored in used glass soda bottles.




































We finally found what we were looking for. A perfect beach! We swam for awhile, enjoying being the only people in sight. The temperature of a warm bath---almost too warm to be comfortable! And the bottom was nothing but sand for as far as you could touch down, which was quite a long way out indeed.




Motorbike adventures, I quickly learned, are never without their troubles. On this adventure one of our bikes had a loose spark plug cap that would periodically fall off, causing the bike to stall. We'd have to stop and simply put it back on every 10 minutes or so.

The next day we turned in the faulty bike and rode out toward some waterfalls we heard about. These plans were quickly ended by a monsoon that swept in. On our way back the four of us got separated just in time for my bike to get a flat tire. Getting drenched, Chelsea and I walked down the highway back toward town (which was probably about 10km away yet) trying to communicate with every local we saw to get help. The response we got was universal---a pointing finger toward town. As we were walking, a local on a motorbike pulled over and through gestures, communicated for us to take his bike and to follow him on ours. He was a light guy was able to negotiate our bike to a small shop where they fixed our flat for a reasonable $1.

Can you imagine that?! We all were completely taken back at how trusting and kind this guy was helping us with our flat tire in that way. Not only did he help us get to a shop to get our tire fixed, but he trusted us with his bike. I was met with this kind of kindess all throughout Cambodia. Amazing. Simply amazing. This sort of thing would never happen back home.

As it turned out, all of our next destinations were the same so we chartered a taxi (it ended up being cheaper than a bus) and headed to Kampot---a small town around a river.

Here we stayed at the best guesthouse I've yet to come accross. It's a renovated old house, complete with a very comfy "chill area" with a bar, a beer garden, a tree house, a pool table, and a dock. It's like living at a riverside bar. The guy who owned it was hilarious, and everyone we met there loved to party. We all stayed much longer than we intended due to simply loving the place and the people. It was so much fun being able to hop in the water at any time, and it was the perfect temperature to be refreshing but not cold. On one of the nights here, me and this huge guy from Norway (aptly named Igor) organized a huge BBQ. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from that night because I misplaced my camera one night and didn't find it until I left :*(

It was a stellar time... you'll just have to trust me!

However, here's some pictures I was able to take of the place and people there!












Aside from partying, the 4 of us took a moto trip to some nearby caves. There was some guy living in one of the caves who some local kids warned us was a druggie and to not give him any money if asked. But if you'll see below, he was a true caveman :)

On another one of the days here, Hue (the guy who ran the place) led almost the whole guesthouse (about 12 people) on a 6km jungle trek to a remote waterfall. We first rode motos out as far as we could, through some of the hardest terrain I could have imagined---nothing like learing to ride a moto (I'd maybe only 13 total hours logged) through 4 inch sand at times, dodging tons of potholes and ditches at others, through overgrown trails at yet others, etc. I'm awaiting pictures of this ride from Chelsea who was on the back of my bike... so again, you'll just have to trust me---it was nuts. At one point, the trail we had to take was only about a meter wide with a 3 meter drop-off onto a flooded road on the right, and a barbed-wire fence on the left---talk about being nervous!! I only fell once though, and it was because of, and thus into, sand. Nevertheless, my legs were pretty thrashed---not just from falling, but from trying to keep the bike upright through these trails.

After riding as far as possible, we started the trek. Treking through jungle like this is rather undescribable. Suffice to say it was beautiful, tough, and loads of fun. Upon getting to our destination we went for a swim.


Somehow, way up there was this large man-made cube. We had to take a guide to know how to get to the waterfall, and he didn't even know who built it there... but it was big and had a tree growing over it. See for yourself!


My next destination was Phnom Penh, the capital city. Trent, Chelsea, and Shannon continued on to Vietnam.

A picture taken on the way from the bus:


Phnom Penh is a great city. It's large, but doesn't have much in the way of huge sky scrapers or anything like that. It's all "one level" in that there are very few raised highways (if any?? I didn't see any...), no sky trains, and no subways. In fact, I don't recall seeing any public transportation systems to speak of at all. The tallest building that I saw couldn't have been taller than 20 stories. Although it is entirely possible that I just missed them because the city is so big. Because of this, while it is the largest city in Cambodia, it still has a quaint feeling that I enjoyed about all Khmer cities while posessing anything you could want.

Here are some pictures of the city:





Traffic in this city it nuts though. It's amazing that I never saw a traffic accident. To the average driver, stop lights seem to be more of a suggestion than a law, and often times there are no signals at all and there are four lanes of trafic all weaving through eachother in an instersection. And as a padestrian, crossing these roads was scary at first, but then you realize that as most people are on bikes they can easily dodge you... so you just kinda walk out into traffic---after all, if you waited for a break in traffic, you'd never get anywhere.

Oh and some spiders and other bugs at one of the markets:



While here I saw S-21, a prison/torture and "interrogation" area used by the Khmer Rouge and also the Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge had thousands of people brutally murdered and cast into mass graves.




While at the Killing Fields, I had my first (and only) unpleasant encounter with some children beggers.



After acting nice and talking to me for a minute or so, they quickly dove into begging me for a dollar, "just one dollar" they'd say. They followed me around asking again and again, when one of them mentioned he was thirsty. So, since I wasn't going to give him any money, I offered him a drink from my water bottle. This kid then said he wanted to keep the whole bottle and furthermore was telling me that I told him he could have it. This of course wasn't the case and I took the bottle back. He still had the cap, however, and the little brat then tried to hold the cap ransom for the dollar he wanted. Completely frustrated from arguing with him (he simply woudln't give me the cap back. He was saying telling me "a dollar for the cap or I get the water") and not wanting to let him win in his treachery, I poured the entire contents of the water bottle onto the dirt right in front of both of them and walked off scolding them for being brats.

While I felt bad for wasting water they both surely could have used, I simply couldn't reward them for behaving in such a way.

After Phnom Penh I headed north to Siem Reap, probably the most heavily touristed city because of the country's landmark: the Angkor Temples. I spent three days looking at these temples and got tons of pictures. You have to see them for yourself, but the level of detail and craftsmanship devoted in crafting these is truely amazing.

I ended up staying in Siem Reap a lot longer than I had planned because I met some people who were volunteering at a local orphanage teaching english. I decided to do this for a day or two, and ended up doing it for another week after those two days. The children are adorable and love to learn---leaving was harder than anticipated. I also spent an afternoon swimming with and de-lousing them.









I would have stayed longer, but I had to continue on...

...to Battambang, the country's second largest city, though you'd never know it. Very quaint, another great destination.

Here I took a cooking class! I can now cook one hell of a beef Lok Lac, and found out that frog, when cooked properly by yours truely, tastes pretty damn good---like a mix between chicken and fresh fish.

I also went on a long bike ride to check out a temple located on a nearby mountain. The road was horrible. It was about 16km of potholes and rocks jutting out of the dirt, plus it rained in the middle of my ride so there was plenty of mud as well... and passing cars and trucks didn't seem to mind speeding by and dousing me with muddy water. At the end of this day I was thoroughly exhausted and filthy.



When I reached the base of the mountain, I ended up meeting a couple monks and talking at length with them. They offered to give me a tour of the sights as they very much enjoyed practicing their english.







During the walk, I spotted this---a perfect example of any Cambodian's resourcefulness. Every Cambodian is a world-class McGuiver and will use anything and everything they have for a purpose. One of the motorbikes I rented even had a plastic water bottle on it as one of the parts.



I enjoyed the company of the monks so much that I completely lost track of time and had to hurry back home. I lucked out and made it back into town just as it was too dark to see the road. I can't imagine navigating this dirt road had it been darker...



That pretty much concludes my Cambodian adventure, at least that which I've bothered to tell y'all about. I left out a lot due to not wanting to spend a whole day typing this up... you understand.

I went back to Phnom Penh for a day to make a shipment back home of things I'd collected so far on my journeys, and then chartered a bus to Vietnam.

As this post was brief, please feel free to look at the plethora of pictures I've uploaded but did not post on here. They can be located under the "Cambodia!" section on James' website, found by following the link on the right side of this page. Also, please excuse any spelling errors---the "check spelling" feature doesn't seem to work on this computer :(

Thanks for viewing!