Short note on this blog. After getting lucky and some moving around in my schedule, I'll be leaving for a three day trek through the critically threatened Ratanakiri forest in the morning. After that it's hauling ass to the Mondulkiri Elephant Valley Project, so expect a full week of blogging silence.
A deep, relieving sigh isn't entirely inappropriate.
As an extra: three videos recorded in a local boxingclub yesterday
Spiders in a bucket. Will be fried and sold for consumption.
After ten hours in a bus, seeing Fast Five in Khmer and Apocalypto - what a movie! - in Mayan, being offered spiders as a snack (didn't do it) and bumping into Matteo againin Phnom Penh, the reception at the 'new' Ban Lung bus station was heartwarming. By heartwarming, I mean the blood boiling, headache inducing kind of reception that makes you squeeze your hands into fists so hard your knuckles turn white.
As the bus station is new, it wasn't on any of our maps, but it didn't take a genius to figure out we were not in Ban Lung itself. This pretty much ruled out walking the way to the village and bypassing the motorcyclists and tuktuks. After a lot of no thank you's and waving of hands, I got into a tuktuk with three backpackers I'd never seen before and was taken to some guesthouse which payed the tuktukdriver a commission to get us there. After the usual formalities of looking at a room and haggling for a price, I turned around and set out for the Tree Top Lodge.
That took me straight through Ban Lung, grumpy and belligerent as ever, but in the end I ended up at the right place.
A gift from the US of A, this one actually exploded
DutchCo
Logging
Having settled in Ban Lung, I went looking for Rik's Café. From there, a Dutch guy organizes highly reputable trekking tours throughout the region. Out here, you can't really do proper treks on your own and it's low season, so I was going to need some luck if I were to do a trek around here. There, I heard that there might be a possibility that I could join a trek two days later. Rik was honest about the whole thing, telling me I shouldn't get my hopes up.
Anyway, I spent some time talking to this Dutchman, as I was curious to know why he was here, what he thought of CBET's, the current state of Cambodia and what the future had in for him.This is one of those times where I don't say much about it and tell you to read my book when I finish it, if it gets written, as what he, and a lot of other people, had to say was quite shocking.
The end of touristic Cambodia in a nutshell, although it needs a dollar bill to finish it off.
Having to wait two days for word if I can go trekking or not, I needed
some entertainment. This was provided in bigger quantity than I
bargained for.
Cho Ang Waterfall
Road
Renting bikes, the easiest thing ever.Tree Top lent me one for a dollar a day and I set out for the Chu Ang Waterfall, supposedly the most spectacular of three present in the area. Thanks to Rik from DutchCo, I didn't miss the road that leads to the waterfall which was tucked away behind a gas station. Roughly thirty seconds after a gentle turn to the right I was sprawled out on the dirt road, with my bicycle rolling down the hill without me. Right, wet season! The dirt road was hard and slippery and was kind enough to provide me with the bruises on my butt to prove it.
Onwards it went, coming across a lot of logged forest, a village and a couple of pigs. The entrance was guarded by a girl in a hammock, I paid the 2000 riels and went inside.
Also present in Cambodia: idiots
Now, the rest of the experience through video footage.
Trying to film something ridiculous
Nighttime Visitor
Suspenseful music to be added later.
Boek Laeng Yaom Lake
The lake
The next day, I took another bike to Boek Laeng Yaom Lake. This volcanic lake is supposedly one of the biggest attractions Cambodia has to offer.Expectations were high, so was the entry ticket (1,75 dollars for foreigners on a bicycle, 0,125 dollars for locals).
I'm a spoiled brat, that must be it. When I laid my eyes on this lake, I immediately thought of the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. Back in the day, I was an intolerable kid that complained all the time about everything, giving my parents a hard time for dragging me to yet another place in another country I could give a damn about. One of those trips led to Croatia and eventually these lakes and waterfalls. Well, that place blows this place out of the water. They have more trash laying around here, though. Garbage bins are everywhere. These are practically empty as the plastic and garbage is slowly becoming a part of the walking path.
It's so tragic it's funny.
Millipede?
Grasshopper
Two Days Later
Two days after I started writing this post, it has become apparent that I can't go trekking with DutchCo, which is the first real downer of this trip. 39 Days of being here, you could say I was due for a setback. Today I will explore some alternatives, do the math on my budget and for the first time since Angkor, do a genuine attempt to relax, as I'm starting to feel the strain of being up and about all the time. It's also time to let all the information I've gathered over the past few weeks sink in, as there is a lot more to Cambodia than meets the eye. And almost none of it is good.
Arrived in Ban Lung, the north of Cambodia. Added photos and videos to this entry.
Chi Phat
Chi Phat
Getting to Chi Phat was fun. Leaving the sleaze of Sihanoukville behind, I hopped off the bus to Koh Kong around halfway and wound up in a town called Andoung Tuek. There I was welcomed by one (ONE !!!) motorcycle driver who offered me the ride to Chi Phat for 5 dollars. The result was 45 minutes of bumpy dirt track riding through rainforest and grassland. Chi Phat used to be famous for its loggers and poachers, but now it is part of a Community Based EcoTourism program in which tourists are welcome to live in the village, socialize, learn and do some trekking. They can do this in fancy ecolodges (not that immersive), guesthouses (sort of immersive) and homestays (the real deal). I choose the last option, as it was also the cheapest.
This is what you work with, so improvise
Chi Phat is in the Cardamom Mountains, which aren't really mountains, but the pictures that will be added to this blog will provide further clarification. This is again pretty protected forest, but it didn't stop a Chinese, Singaporean and Cambodian conglomerate trying to build a titanium mine dead in the center of this thing. That was prevented by the Wildlife Alliance, more on these people later.
Forza Italia
Adventure!
All you need to have some crazy kind of fun on a jungle trek are, as it turns out, a Cambodian guide, a Canadian girl and four somewhat crazy Italians. Acting completely on impulse in joining this lot, we nailed a 22 km full day trek in half that time, because the Nell (the Canadian girl) and Matteo, Marco, Paulo and the other guy (who's name I keep on forgetting - sorry -) had to catch their bus in the early afternoon. The result was, among other things, a leech on almost every one of us - all of us live to tell about it - swimming in/under/behind a waterfall and getting the roughest massage shower thanks to another one, which also had bats.
Dropoff
We went into the jungle, were ferried across a river in a water hungry wooden boatlike contraption, walked in the tall grass and waded through all kinds of stream, ponds and waterfalls. Add some pigs, cows, birds, butterflies, waterbuffels, bugs, leeches and a chicken or two and you've got yourself the whole package. Oh, and a thunderstorm.
Taking showers
Wildlife Alliance
Logged
This NGO is behind the CBET program in Chi Phat. I need to read up on these folks and, in the meantime, suggest you do the same. I've spoken to one of the employers of this in France based NGO and they do what they can in this - to put it lightly - unpredictable country. They have a reforestation program -although primary jungle is lost for good-, train poachers and loggers to become guides, train rangers and enforce the law, as the Cambodian government is unable to do it themselves. I've also met Jimmy and Helene, the former from New Zealand, the latter from France, who've been volunteering in the village for a while now. A big part of our conversation involved documentaries, being vegetarian/vegan and Paul Watson, who's still nowhere to be found, apparently. Anyway, I keep on meeting great people on this trip, keep doing great things on this trip and I'm getting my hands, legs and feet dirty so I'm completely happy with this trip.
I intend to go into the Cardamom Mountains next and live with the locals, so next updates will be less frequent Leaving Kampot
A month into this trip, finally a guy walked up to me and called me an idiot in a language I could understand.
Good on him.
I had bought a bus ticket to Sihanoukville two days prior at a tourist information center and it turned out that they didn't confirm my seat. That meant that while I was awaiting the promised pickup at my guesthouse, my bus was somewhere on route to the coast without me. Cue this random Cambodian who saw the boss of my guesthouse explain the unfortunate situation to me. He walked up to me and said something along the lines of: 'STUUUUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID! YOU SO STUPIIIIIIIIIIIIID! OH MY BUDDHA, HAHA, YOU SO STUPIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!' Before I got on a motorcycle to get to a minivan that would take me to Sihanoukville, he failed to explain to me how this was all my fault, but well, details....
Turns out the minivan dropped everyone off right in front of a batch of hostels, instead of the bus stop two kilometers up the road, so apparently I should be stupid more often. Sihanoukville
Not quite sure what that does out here
Boy, do I dislike this place.
Look, a coconut! (and a drainage pipe)
I've never been to a beach so filthy, next to a town so sleazy and expensive that I need to take a deep breath before walking out the Monkey Republic, an otherwise fine establishment in this plastic and dirt filled hole. There is not much to be said. The beaches are filthy, the resorts and restaurants ugly and everywhere, literally everywhere, is plastic. Also the amount of middle aged to senior Caucasians walking around with disturbingly young-looking Cambodian women and the suggestive looks I've been receiving from the latter hints at a booming 'alternative' industry, so does the downright ugly lighting near bars and hotels, making it look like Las Vegas for Neanderthals. Also, a fair amount of the women here haven't always been women, although they hide it fairly well. When talking to a local named Bora, who I actually had met briefly in Kampot, I asked why everything was so full of plastic over here. She said: 'Well, people don't care. ' After I asked if it wouldn't affect tourism in the long run, she said 'Probably not, stupid tourists have come here a long time and will continue to come here long after you're gone.'
There Is A Party In My Mouth And Everybody's Invited
MILESTONE: I'm away from home for 31 days. I must be having fun, because time is flying out here.
In Kampot, there is a small cafe which is called the Epic Arts Café. Today, I almost not went into this place because I wasn't sure they were serving food. As there is no way of mourning an undiscovered treasure, it's difficult putting into perspective how much of a loss that would have been to this trip.
The Epic Arts Café employs disabled people, most of them with limited to no hearing abilities. They offer drinks, breakfast, lunch, scarfs, bags and bracelets. You order by checking a paper with a pencil and you communicate through smile and gesture. The food is amazing, it's right on par with what I ate in Battambang, the drinks generously poured and the atmosphere is terrific. It's dead quiet in there, no music but the talk of guests and the monosyllabic sounds that some of the staff use to accentuate what they are saying. Still the place is full of life and activity. The walls are brightly colored and you can see your food being cooked as you wait. Most people come to Kampot for the Ghost Village in the mountains or the pepper being sold here. The Epic Arts Café has to be one more reason to come here.
Epic Arts cafe
And there is another one: The Kampot Music School For Orphans And Disabled Children. Unfortunately, I'm here during the weekend, so I'm unable to see the public rehearsals on weeknights. I took a stroll inside the building, it looks great and I have little doubt it'll sound great as well.
Taking The Tour
15 Dollars in Kampot get you about 3 high-priced meals, 10 low-priced ones, and it gets you a tour to a ghost village, a waterfall and a boatride on the river.
At about 8:45 I got in a minivan with 10 other people, including the driver, and we set out to a place called Bokor. In the van I started talking to James -27- from England. We spent the day talking about traveling, giving each other tips and hints for what's to come, and we both just 'went along with it' today, because there was little else to do. We were expecting to see a ghost village up on a mountain, but things were kind of dodgy right out of the gate because we were driving on what must have been the best road in Cambodia, leading straight up the mountain.
The first thing we came across was a sandy parking lot, next to a
gigantic statue of a woman staring out to sea. Next to the hill leading
up to the statue were 3 and half a house being consumed by time, weeds
and graffiti. Turns out the big giant statue is interesting for
Cambodians, the rotting houses for "the rest". These houses were part of
a French settlement during colonial times, but were abandoned when
'Nixon US came here'.
Abandoned house
Weird lady statue
Nixon US is the Cambodian name for Operation Menu. at the time a secret
bombing campaign authorised by then president Richard Nixon. The goal
was to bomb the entire Laos and Cambodian border with Vietnam, in an
attempt to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which the Viet Cong were using
as supply lines. Never before, and after, was so much ordinance dropped
on a region for so long. And never before has so little ordinance hit
the ground without exploding, effectively making the entire region a
death trap for the locals. Some say here that 200.000 Cambodians died
during the bombings and people will be dying for a long time thanks to
undiscovered bombs lying around somewhere, waiting to go off.
The good road situation was swiftly clarified after we stopped for our last available toilet. Our minivan pulled itself over next to a 'development showroom', which had a scaled model for a gigantic resort which is under construction here. They were building a toll house to start asking money for road usage next month, so we dodged a tiny bullet there.
Bokor is a National Park making it even more mindboggling to see that a parcel of land for a house costs 300.000 dollars, there is a huge hotel (ultimate setting for a remake of The Shining) being built with 450 lavish rooms, a casino, a lift for getting to and from the valley real fast and all other sorts of junk. Now this place is basically abandoned houses, rainforest, a waterfall and a weird statue (more on those in a second) all tied together with a high-tech road and it's a National Park.
'Progress'
Next stop in this hill of construction horror: The Church
Abandoned church
Ideal for a horror setting, this place was frequently used as a hideout for homeless people, but no longer as there is a sign that says that you can't sleep there anymore.
If you believe that, I'm sure you're nice and all, but also sort of an idiot, be it a fixable idiot.
Up next: The Abandoned Casino.
Abandoned casino
The Casino is pretty much a grey concrete building, which could have been anything from a school to a factory. About fifteen minivans were parked in front of this thing and everybody was having a picnic.Very cozy.
The place is being renovated, thanks to none other than former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarko dropped by here a few months ago and urged the Cambodians to fix this place, as it was - to his mind - a hazard to the heads for visiting French tourists. Big attraction was not the casino, but the deep ravine that had you looking over the jungle, dramatically revealed or concealed by the clouds moving under you. Enjoy it while you can folks, because if the owners have their way it's going to look like a Western suburb in a decade or so.
Then it was lunchtime near a waterfall. Lunch was fried rice, nothing wrong with that. Lots of things wrong with the waterfall though, as it's massively polluted by plastics and other chemical junk. The rapids before the actual waterfall betray pollution as the produce a white/yellow-ish sort of foam, which kids use to play around with. The actual waterfall is quite steep and visitors are allowed to literally stand in it, so no Niagara Falls type of safety precautions here. It all boils down to: You jump and/or slip = you die. Nice and simple.
Waterfall
We finished up our lunch and headed back to town. I can't say that I liked what I've seen today, but in the meantime, if this is a National Park, I can't wait to see how ugly and for sale the regular parks are.
The Karaoke Story And More Boats
The day ended in a boat ride on the river. It was nice, easy, quiet and scenic. There were about 15 people on the boat and the atmosphere was enjoyable. Floating plastic was there too. And a swimming cow.
House on stilts
Also today, I picked up a story from James about karaoke.
Karaoke, in Cambodia, basically means that you go out with some friends (if you're male). Walk into a karaoke bar and you wait. Then about the same amount of girls show up and every guy 'picks' a girl. The night then involves a lot of drinking, off tune singing and the very explanation of why every condom being sold in this country has the image of three guys singing karaoke on it.
This post may contain some inaccuracies thanks to the wobbly English being spoken by guide or local throughout the day.
Everything Grinded To A Halt
After a safe return to Phnom Penh and a very pleasant evening with Robin and Lea, it was time to say goodbye to the Swiss, as they would take a bus south in the morning and I would be running around in a museum somewhere. Unfortunately, what I got instead was a fever, chills, joint pains and an immense headache.
One night of that and a morning waking up with 39 degrees Celcius had me asking for a doctor. Too bad, because as previously mentioned, I had big plans for the day: passing by the Royal Palace, S-21 and the National Museum. Instead I crawled on the back of a motorbike and got taxied through Phnom Penh to a local 'international hospital', which was like a very big house and it had two receptionists that couldn't speak any English. They looked at me with genuine curiosity and gave me a piece of paper to fill, which turned out to be just a way for me to kill the time and avoiding conversation. It was a complicated form about vaccinations and things, so good on them for shoving it in my hands.
Enter dr. Gavin Scott who, as far as I can tell, has the perfect name for a movie character/superhero. He's tall, British, has an impressive combover and positive attitude. Educated in Manchester and living in Cambodia for a while now, he listened to my complaints, pushed me here and there, took my bloodpressure and listened to my breathing. Turns out that practically all tropical diseases start out the same. So whether you have malaria, dengue fever, typhoid or something else, the first day or two they all look alike. So a blood-test was going to have to clarify the situation and the result would be available after six hours. Taking my blood was somewhat more primitive that what I'm used to, but my veins are as fat as a gardenhose ('Doctor's delight!') so no problems there.
Total damage: 150 dollars.
Yes, you read that right.
50 Dollars for the consultation and 100 for the bloodtest. Doesn't matter from which direction you look at it, it still hurts.
On doctor's orders, I returned to my room and stayed there until the six hours had passed. Then it was back on the motorcycle, back to the house, back to the receptionists. Luckily, the doctor came in swinging the very second I put my behind on a chair, so the awkwardness was limited to the absolute minimum.
The verdict: A mild bacterial infection with unknown origin. Nothing that antibiotics and my white bloodcells wouldn't fix, so all I had to do was get me some of the former and I'd be on the road to recovery in no time.
In this video, I complain alot
Hell On Earth
The following day, after sleeping like a baby again, I hit the ground running and walked across town to S-21 or Tuol Sleng. This was a highschool at some point until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a deathcamp from 1975 to 1979. Words can't convey what I've seen today, neither can pictures. The experience was somewhat similar to the killing caves in Battambang, only here the instruments of torture are still here, the beds are still here and the photographs of the people that got imprisoned, tortured and died here, are still here.
Some the victims
At one point you walk into a room which has a rusty bed in it. On the bed lie rusted metal instruments and an ammo box for machinegun bullets. On the wall hangs the picture of a person who's been tortured to death. The picture was taken by the Vietnamese when they liberated Phnom Penh and entered S-21 for the first time. 14 People were found this way, tortured and killed off in a hurry before the Khmer Rouge abandoned the capital.
Around 20.000 people passed through S-21, seven were alive when the Vietnamese entered the compound and around 25 people were supposedly released. For the rest of them, it was a one way ticket to torture, starvation, false confessions and a brutal death. Every 'inmate' was photographed and had a file. These pictures are on display now and it's as if these people are staring at you from another world. Among them are childeren, elderly, disabled and full grown men and women. A bit further down the hall are more pictures, but this time of the same people, minutes after they died.
Barbed wire prevented the 'inmates' from killing themselves
National Museum and The Royal Palace
Without boring you with the details, the National Museum was nice and so was the Royal Palace. The National Museum, an impressive building in its own right, houses some of the busts, statues and murals from ruins from all over the country. Among them the true Leper King, of which I saw the replica in on the Terrace of The Leper King in Angkor Thom.
National Museum
The Royal Palace was quite expensive (6,25 dollars for foreigners) and my visit was drenched in liters of water. This had me running for cover in a place called the Silver Pagoda, deriving its name from the 5000 tiles of silver that are built into the building. Inside there is a Buddha statue out of Bacarrat crystal, and a golden one weighing 90 kg and is adorned with all kinds of expensiveness, making either one a perfect McGuffin for a heist movie, which may or may not involve a protagonist named Dr.GAVIN SCOTT, with intense performances by some Nicholas Cage type of actor. I'll write the music. Anyway, you heard it here first.
A funny little place in the very south of the country, Kampot is famous for its pepper. Here I was just walking down the street, minding my own business when the Swiss showed up again. It ended in an evening tuktuk ride through the rain, playing pool (we sucked), a concert by a 'local' band with at least one Australian guy and a drummer that looked like he had been around since the States carpet bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He looked like the perfect blend of John Hawkes and the hippie from That Seventies Show and actually played quite well. Among the songs played were Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" and Iggy Pop's "The Passenger".
The evening ended with me hopping into a tuktuk with four strangers, two of which had been had a little too much ganja exposure and saying goodbye - this time for real - to Robin and Lea, whom I'm very glad I've met and hope to see again some day.
Darkness pool
Which reminds me, it's pretty much impossible to walk the streets in Phnom Penh without being offered 'some of the good stuff', which is actually a lot of the bad stuff and could get you killed by overdose or robbed, thanks to excessive stupidity. Small children also roam the streets in the capital offering to sell you books or flowers. Know that this is child slavery, so don't encourage it, if you ever come here.
Yesterday I set out from Siem Reap, saying goodbye to Angkor and the nicest staff I've ever encountered - of the 'Okay 1 Villa' - and got my behind on a bus to Battambang - pronounced Battambong -. On the bus I met Steven, unfortunately no picture available, a 31 - year old Cambodian that has been spending the past 8 years either in China, the Philippines and other places. He was on his way to his family and introduced me to some of the local and not so local cuisine. During the 4 hour bus ride we took a break in a village somewhere where they were selling what looked like big hollow sticks that you use to smoke things out of. To my surprise, the contents were somewhat more healthy: sticky rice, coconut and beans. The thing you do is you tear the wood apart and feast on the goods inside, which was stuffed in the hollow wood and heated. When I encounter it again I'll be sure to have my camera ready.
Mom and I
Among the not so local cuisine there was Chinese cookies and Chinese spicy pork. You've read that right, pork. As I am a vegetarian in body and mind, I have sinned. I've sinned here in Cambodia and in Vietnam as well. In Vietnam, most of the time you don't know what you're eating and even if you ask for a vegetarian meal, you get the occasional chicken or fish anyway - or beef for that matter - and when I'm offered food by people who don't have half of what I have, I tend to shove my principles up my own ass rather than blowing off a friendly gesture.
Hak Tola is his name, and he's as awesome as his name
Then when the bus arrived, same same circus, but different. Tuktuk drivers were lurking at the bus stop, looking for people to transport to their hotels. The experience is somewhat less hectic and the atmosphere less hostile than in Vietnam, but I wouldn't go that far as saying that I enjoyed it.
Battambang
In come Robin and Lea, two friendly people from Switzerland that were on a mission to 'take care of me', as the staff of the Okay 1 Villa feared I wasn't going to recover from the loss of their hospitality. Having met them briefly the day before, they got me onto a tuktuk that would take us to the Chhaya Hotel in Battambang. There I asked how much a bed in the dormroom was. 'A dollar', he said. 'Sold.', thought I.
Rains, Monks, A Pig And Vegetarian Food
Truth be told, there isn't much to Battambang, although compared to a Vietnamese city of the same size, this place was nearly abandoned. Two people from Switzerland and one guy from Belgium was the party, finding a place worth looking at was the challenge. We eventually found it in the form of a cemetery which was inhabited by Buddhist monks. Educated as we were after Angkor, we spoke of naga's, garuda's, The Churning Of The Ocean Of Milk and coconuts as if we've been there for a lifetime, all but the latter adorning the graves we encountered. Then the skies opened and rain came crashing down from all sides again. Raining cats and dogs, as they also say over here. We fled under a roof of a temple, saw a pig running around in the rain and greeted monks with umbrella's. We talked some more about life and other things and grew hungry, so it was time for some food and boy, was it good food.
We followed our Lonely Planet guide to a very small place in a relatively small street which seemed anything but cozy. We sat down and took a train ride to veggie heaven. The place didn't have a menu yet, so a very kind Cambodian woman explained to us what was available. I took the 'beef' with noodles. The beef is made out of mushrooms, but unlike anything I've ever tasted. It also really had the consistency of meat, in such a way it had the three of us second guessing the place as we voiced our complaints that it was real meat. Then she showed us the uncooked version and we kept our mouths shut after that.
This morning we had breakfast there again, price was less than 3 dollars for three people, and set out on a tuktuk for an impulsive adventure with a wobbly bridge, wine tasting and disturbing caves.
Testing the wobbly bridge
Wine
Cambodia has it and they harvest up to three times a year. I don't know half a thing about wine, but I'm lead to believe that is a lot. The wine was sour and had a chicken aftertaste, so it was good for me! Then we had another thing which didn't have alcohol and finished it off with honey and ginger, experiencing why Andy Serkis drinks it when he plays Gollum.
Wine and things
The Deafening Silence
Artist impression of the killing caves
After a scenic tuktuk ride, guide negotiating, entrance fees and a climb up a mountainside, things got serious really quick. We arrived at Phnom Sampeau, which is famous for the Killing Caves. During Khmer Rouge reign in the '70's - I think it was four years, but I'd have to check-, anywhere between two and three million Cambodians were killed. Most of them died anonymous as they tried to cover up their identities, especially if they were educated, as all educated people were executed on sight. If you would like to know more about the events that happened here, you can, among other things, see the movie 'The Killing Fields' (but forget the music edited on the last minute, seriously) or read the book 'S-21', about a place I will be visiting in a few days in Phnom Penh. Over 10.000 people died here in the caves, 300 of them children. Most were locked up in a temple-turned prison and awaited execution. They would have their throats cut, or not, and tossed over the side into the pointy pit of the cave, some of them not dying instantly and dying of starvation among hundreds of corpses. Some of the skulls and bones of the victims are on display here and it tears you apart to see it. A temple was erected here inside the cave to make the place more solemn and although the blood has been cleaned off of the walls and the stench has subsided, you can feel what happened here and are unable to grasp it at the same time. Special thanks to our 18 year old guide who provided the surprise of the day by educating us and managed to get the three of us real, real quiet.
Kliang
After that kick in the face, we made our way up to the top of the mountain where we saw a snake climbing a tree and two artillery cannons pointing at the valley, also a relic of another time. On top we encountered a 36-year old monk - dressed in orange, short haircut - who, as everyone here, thought I was 20 and he proposed me to come sit next to him for a talk. His English was excellent and we started off our little encounter by trying on each other's shoes. It turned out we had the same shoe size and he jokingly proposed if we couldn't swap sandals.
Kliang
He had been a monk for 13 years - no girlfriend, no possessions, no kids - and had just gotten his school for orphans and poor children up and running, all built on donations. He informed if I was looking for a job as an English teacher, not earning money, but maybe picking up a girlfriend in the process or, I could become a monk. His class has about 200 students and are from all ages and he's been teaching classes for 3 years, only getting government support as an official NGO three months ago.
Sometimes I have the arrogance of passing myself off as important. Well, compared to this guy I'm as important to society as that fly that just crashed into your windshield is to your life.
After that encounter we had a coconut each and tuktuk'ed our way back to Battambang.
Na-na-na-na-na-na...Tuktuk! -batman song-
Tonight, Tonight... and videos
I hope we journey back to veggie heaven, before we leave for Phnom Penh in the morning.
I get emotional, it's what I do. My first day at Angkor was stressful, exciting, frustrating and relieving all at the same time. So then I came back, sat myself behind a computer and got to work. Forth came a typed version of my impressions which were all one can come to expect from a first impression, where I got some things wrong and got some things right. Now, after three days of biking, climbing, reading and exploring, I can now look back and make up my mind about this place.
Love It And Hate It
Angkor is a circus, there is no denying it. Tuktuks - a motorcycle with a seated cart attached to it - buses, motorcycles, the occasional elephant and, shamefully in the minority, bikes are everywhere. Angkor Wat looks like a beehive from sunrise to sunset, Ta Prohm is a construction site and Angkor Thom looks like a parking lot at a drive-in. Despite all of that, there is beauty to be found, no doubt about it.
I was incredibly lucky to get my hands on 'Angkor', a book by Dawn Rooney. The book is somewhat out of date as the temples are changing rapidly due to the anastylosis that is applied all over the place. It basically means that they are reconstructing the crumbled temples, while trying to preserve the actual feel of a ruin.
Still, the background this book provides is invaluable if you truly want to appreciate this place. That is where I went wrong on my first day at Angkor. Endlessly obsessed with having a place to myself, I raced through the 'big attractions', trying to get rid of the circus that a World Heritage Site is forced to endure, not appreciating the details these places have to offer. The book offers, for example, a fantastic tour of the Angkor Wat temple that enables you to feel as if you were there 900 years ago, even with all the hassle of Japanese tourists with the same hats, noisy Brits or locals that use their cellphones as ghettoblasters.
The Temple Offerings
Every once and a while, a guy will show up with burning sticks, asking you to make a donation for the temple. Don't do it. For one thing, you're not an ATM and it's funny that these guys only show up in the popular temples. If you want be respectful: dress appropriately, don't eat in the temples or leave your trash and be quiet. Nothing more, nothing less.
Monkeys
This place has them. (watch it in glorious 720p)
Should I Come Here?
Yes, you should. Take me with you, especially if you're female, good-looking, up for a serious challenge and of course, single.
How?
Get in shape, show some backbone and hop on a bicycle. Bring an MP3 player for the busiest roads, switch it off on the quiet ones. Bring cookies and water, and plenty of them.
Take a few impulsive turns and don't be afraid about getting lost in this place, because you should.
Bring a good book and read as you explore the temples. Works better than the smile and nod approach with guides.
When traveling this time of year, bring a raincoat.
If you are unable to ride a bike, take a bus or a tuktuk, but do your homework. This way you know what you want to see and when you want to see it. It's a good idea spending your first day exploring every temple, so you can decide on which ones you want to see in detail.
Be here before sunrise, leave at sunset. Unless rainy season drenches the late afternoons, then there is little point to it.
Be here for three days at least.
In Closing
I was deeply impressed by this place. I've seen things I didn't think existed and even without keeping in mind that it was built around 900 years ago, it remains almost unearthly. Eating my peanut cookies drenched in honey, after a tropical 20 km bike ride next to the Northern Gate of Ankor Thom will go down in history as one of the greatest experiences of my life, but it's impossible to convey the feeling to others in writing, so you should just take my word for it.
When/if I write my book, I'll include detailed descriptions of all the things I've seen and done, as it a bit too much to include it all in this blogpost. Instead I'll provide you with what you all wanted to see: a crapload of pictures.
Catching Up
Here are some videos which I've finally managed to upload. Some are now more than a week old, so consider this extra content :). Mai Chau
Saigon, Baby!
Phnom Penh, Capital of Cambodia
The Temples of Angkor
The Future
Tomorrow I leave this place for Battambang . Oddly enough, I'm recovering from a cold which I contracted after a crazy amount of water fell on my head while riding my bicycle, so that must be dealt with as well. It's a little strange to say "mission accomplished" after 20 days but yeah... Mission accomplished. Now, for the next 60 days, let's see what's else is out there.
