Cambodia seven (bonus)

Cambodia seven

parted ways with my english traveling partners and with battambong on a seven hour boat ride through the small little water villages of central cambodia. the water wasn't any more than three or four feet deep for most of the journey. the communities that we passed through were incredible; small houses on stilts lining the river banks. pretty safe to say that these people are not watching much greys anatomy. it seemed so very far from how we live our lives. the people were very poor and very happy. were the seats in the boat comfortable? no. did i have to get out of the boat several times and push? yes. were there crocodiles in the water? yes. did i almost poop my pants everytime i was in the water? yes.

in siem reap now, home to angkor wat and the many infamous temples. yesterday two aussies and i rented bikes and rode them to the temples to catch the sunrise. had to wake up at 530 but did not have to prepare for a day of pleasing customers or enduring the always varying mood of a self possessed boss. sunrise was pretty incredible so were the masses of japanese bus tours. spent the next twelve hours cruising around the many temples. i have never in my life seen something so incredible. each one outdid the previous, i was in complete awe the entire day and i really don't think that it has sunk in yet. you look at these massive temples from afar and you are blown away, then you get up close and the detail of every square inch is its own little story or carving. everyone should make an effort in their lifetime to see this. i think i took a thousand photos, felt pretty japanese myself. most of the temples were completely empty and many of them required climbing these crazy steep stairs that eliminated about ninety percent of the tourists. after riding for twelve hours and sweating atleast five gallons under hot cambodian sun, i was done. absolutely incredible day, will surely go down as one of my top one hundred.

Cambodia six

what i do not miss is hot water. what i do miss is being able to drink a gallon of water everytime i take a shower. if you do not have the habit of drinking excessive amounts of water while you are scrubbing down you are doing yourself a major disservice.

took a cooking class today which was amazing. went to the market with the chef master. bought the fish alive, left with them not so alive. i am pretty sure the market would not pass too many health inspections in the homeland. it was like going to a petting zoo but the zookeepers are all violently killing the animals. cooked up an amazing three course meal. fish amok to start out: cocunut chile sauce with catfish and vegetables. mango salad: green mangos, chiles, peanuts, amazing. basil stir fry with steak which had this garlic sauce which had my moto bike driver suffering in the latter day. seven bucks for three meals and some lessons, not bad. please send my compliments to the chef.

afternoon spent riding moto bikes around the backcountry river villages of battonbong and then to the bayon temples where we were greeted with some very nice monkeys and a thousand step climb. may have to get a $3 massage tonight. to get back to town we rode on this thing they call the bamboo train. basically a wood platform that these kids set on to two axles and fire it down rickety tracks with a moto bike motor. went about 10km on that which reminded me of riding an outdated roller coaster on flat turf. indiana jones was not there. friday night cock fight night.

Cambodia five

when they tell you that a bus has air con know that it only lasts for the first ten minutes of the trip. the rest of the time you will find your back sticking to the seat and a rancid smell will gradually invade every square millimeter of your nostrils. when they tell you that there will be entertainment provided they are not referring to the loud khmer style music or the five inch zenith playing ku fu movies they are referring to the people that actually use this public transportation. they only charge per seat so many times entire families will sqeeze into a row. kids are constantly popping their little heads up to stare at the funny westerners. it reminds me of that game at the fair where you try and bop the little animal heads when they come out of the hole.

six hour bus ride to battanbong today which ended on a particularly sour note. pouring rain here all day today but that was the least of my worries. apparently my pack was stored under the bus today next to what smells like a mixture of soggy third world nation waste, deceased fish, and the underwear of a homeless man that just ran three games of 5 on 5. i have squeezed lemons all over it, sprayed two bottles of air freshener on it, hand washed it. the smell is the absolute devil of all scents. i cannot tell you how absolutely rank it is. i didnt even eat dinner tonight because i cant get the smell out of my nose and i am deathly afraid that what i eat may taste like it. tomorrow is another day.

by the way, that is a picture of fried insects. roaches in the center and spiders on the left. mmmm. mmmm. the lady offered to pay for my meal, what a sweetheart.

Cambodia four

just as hitler lead the communist regime in germany, the tyrannical pol pot had a similar if not more potent reign in cambodia. he lead the khmer rouge in killing over 2 million cambodians in the late 1970's. today i visited the choeung ek memorial aka "the killing fields." it is a site where mass graves ans collections of skelatons are kept as a reminder of the countries turbulent past. i also went to the museum of the genocide, a school that was turned into a concentration camp for women and children. though it was not exactly what i would classify as an upbeat day it was one that made all my worries seem silly and reminded me once again that we only have one life to live. looking at the faces of all those children that were brutally murdered and then going back out into the streets and being greeted by their endless smiles is something that puts a lump in your stomach.

to liven my day, i spent a few hours in the russian market watching tourists and locals battle for pennies and people cutting the heads off of various livestock. i have never been offered so much opium paraphernalia in the span of one hour. maybe it was my savage mustache that made them convinced i was an addict. in cambodia you can fire off a rocket launcher for $200, an ak-47 for $40, and throw a grenade for $30. just in case you were wondering.

i have also noticed a rivalry pattern that is existant in our great world between neighboring nations. canadians have declared a certain war against the americans when it comes to international recognition. just as the kiwis (new zealand) have against the aussies and the scots have against people from england. it is quite hilarious and i have been making it a point to ask canadians if i know that they definitely canadians if they are from detroit. their faces turn a sort of grey blue color and their fanny packs begin to shake. it is absolutely classic.

Cambodia three

left kampot, awesome little town. still very underdeveloped and not very touristy at all. been in sihanoukville for the last three days. it is cambodia's busiest port/beach town that apparently i missed by about five years because it is now almost completely western run. we have trained the locals to see us as walking dollar signs. i couldn't get one step out of my hostel without five guys rushing me to offer a ride. it really was annoying and for a day or two it really left a stained impression of cambodia in my mind. but yesterday changed my perception entirely. it was thus far the best day of my travels. i joined up with two british guys in kampot and have been traveling with them for about a week. makes things a lot cheaper and at times very entertaining. we met a tuk-tuk driver that said he would take us to play soccer so we rode with him into this shady part of town. we had no idea what to expect. they say that 2km in any direction outside of the tourist driven serendipity beach (named by an american named carl who is now trying to sue establishments for using the name.... way to go america) and you are back in cambodia. so we enter these campus gates and are in the middle of this enormous k-12 university which is just being let out for the day. it was insane, within minutes as we waited on the field for the game to begin there were hundreds of little kids rushing us from every direction. we were literally in the middle of a sea of little people all saying "hello" "hello." it is impossible to describe the feeling. when the older kids got out the game began. with hundreds of kids lining the field we played 8 on 8 for about an hour in the sweltering cambodian sun. all of the older kids were cheering for the other team but the little ones gave us their full support. cheers, songs, chants... it was incredible. we ended up winning 8-6. the whole experience was of my favorite moments in my 27 years. literally got goose bumps as we were leaving the campus, followed by hundreds of kids. im in pnom phen now, got here today. cambodia's capital, a real booming metropolis where even the toilets flush. i have also never seen such high road curbs in my life, they are atleast 20 inches.

Cambodia two

the social circumstances of cambodia are quite similar to those of vietnam. the leash law is definitely not being enforced with any type of animal including the water buffalo that i nearly walked right into as i was leaving the bar last night. the one fascination that i find hilarious is the east's undying love for wwf wrestling. like germany's bizarre love for david hasselhoff's music, cambodian's cannot get enough of the "macho man" randy savage. weird world we live in. my love of mosquito nets is also becoming stronger and stronger. i don't know if i will ever be able to sleep without one. it's like sleeping over at your friends house with the cool bed tent when you were little. cambodian males also have a tradition of growing one hair on their chin very very long. this is something that i plan to look into, i don't know if everyone in this town is staring at me because i look different or because i lack the single long hair? this is definitely my favorite hostel yet. $3 a night and the entire family lives on the grounds so there are kids and animals everywhere. nothing builds ones confidence more than absolutely crushing a bunch of eleven year olds in soccer tennis.

"this is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and the crazy. devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning god, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or in church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of youeyes and in every motion and joint of your body"
-walt whitman

Cambodia one

m




when in asia please be advised that most ceilings are lower than what we are accustomed to. i learned this lesson as i boarded my fishing/transport boat off of phu quoc island yesterday. so not only did all forty pairs of eyes get to stare at my crazy hair and weird wide eyes but also at the blood dripping down my face following the loud thump that turned their heads in the first place. after the initial misfortune, the three hour ride was actually quite pleasant. i would say quiet but for the majority of the voyage i was involved in a fierce hand gun war with a six year old boy. from there a quit moto-bike ride to the border in the pouring rain. the adrenaline rush of riding through a thunderstorm on the back of a moto-bike headed for the cambodian border is one that i would highly recommend. nothing could wipe the smile from my face, not even the denial of my visa at the border. because this was an infrequently used border crossing they didn't see any reason to install internet capabilities (can you imagine life without this blog) therefore they were unable to verify the validity of my e-visa. after a meeting with the military colonel in his office with his two henchmen on either side of him armed with very large sub machine guns and a lot of glaring me up and down and jabbering in cambodian they decided that i would have to reapply. i guess i wasn't dressed well enough for the interview. no big deal, twenty minutes later i am through. i jump on the back of another moto-bike and head to a town called kampot, about 75km away. riding the distance between washington, dc and baltimore on the back of a moto-bike for about three hours can be a painful experience. defication may be delayed for a day or two. the open air ride through the country side of southern cambodia was amazing. farmlands with small villages as far as the eye can see. kampot turns out to be a cool little town on the river and i think that i will stay for a couple days, very quiet and hardly any tourists. my relationship with with mr. long, the hostel's owner got off to a little bit of a rough start after i broke my key off in the lock. no locksmith until tomorrow so i slept in the lobby with his three grandsons who treated the matter as a sleepover party. i feel like i'm eleven years old again. cows wander the streets at night.

Vietnam six

bbc susie: michael, have you been injured yet on your trip?
michael: funny you should ask susie, today i found myself over top of my moto bike handles in a large puddle of red mud.

bbc susie: oh my heavens! are you okay? did you suffer any serious injuries?

michael: no luckily just some scrapes and bruises, it could have been a lot worse. the cut on my hand was the worst of it all and a few scrapes on my knees and elbows. the hardest part was finding the injuries because nearly my entire body was covered in red mud.

bbc susie: that is good, was the moto bike damaged at all?

michael: why yes it was, the rear view mirrors were both smashed and the foot rest was mashed upwards.

bbc susie: oh no! was it expensive to fix?

michael: absolutely not. the mirrors cost about a dollar each and i landed in front of a mechanics house who was happy to help with the foot rest for a small price.

bbc susie: did this mechanic by chance have three monkeys tied to a tree, a lazy eye, about nine crazy kids, and a dog also with a lazy eye?

michael: that is so funny that you should mention all of those characteristics because they are all in fact very true. the nine crazy kids washed both the bike and myself while taking turns on the ladder to rinse my head. while they weren't dumping water all over me they were imitating the way i flew through the air. laughing a lot.

bbc susie: should your mother be worried?

michael: absolutely not.

bbc susie: thank you so much michael, please be safe on your travels.

michael: i will, thank you bbc susie. by the way how did you know about the mechanic with the lazy eye and the monkeys?

bbc susie: i have had relations with that man.

i am headed into cambodia tommorrow so the blog may go absent for a day or so but i am sure that the material i gather will be classic. i will wear camoflauge and dark sunglasses on my journey.

Vietnam five

let us all pray that the germans and vietnamese do not go to war anytime soon. these are two very stubborn breeds. this entire island is a occupied by nothing but natives and german tourists who have a found a sort of price bickering olympics here. the battle at hand today was over moto-bike rates. the germans insisted on 70d per day while the natives would not budge on their rate of 80d. this went on for what seemed like hours and i eventually had to throw in my white flag and hand over the 80d. by the way, thiis duel was over 10d (about 65 cents). so i have been cruising around the island in my sleak cherry apple red kawasaki ninja. actually i think it is a kawasaki white belt but it is sufficently equipped for my moto skills. plus, i could not imagine going any faster than 50kph on these rocky red dust roads. why have we not switched over to the metric system? the whole world uses it and it is the second most popular subject for euros to make fun of americans about. right behind the gun laws in our cowboy country.

this place phu quoc island out here in the gulf of thailand is truly incredible, not a bad place to have to kill six or seven days. my routine here is as follows... cruise on my japanese steed to some secluded hard to find beach, read and swim for a few hours, eat a huge piece of fish for about two bucks, read and swim and doze off for a bit. cruise back to the hostel, have another huge piece of fish usually embedded with some exotic coconut milk or with chiles and lemongrass. then drink some rum with my german neighbors while i teach them a little english. pass out. repeat.

Vietnam four

i can understand why this island is so desolate and unpopulated with tourists, getting here was an absolute nightmare. it started with a nine hour "bus" ride through the night which included such amentities as two smelly vietnamese men asleep on both shoulders, a crazy ass driver who was hopped on some substance that far outweighed the effects of a double espresso, six chickens, and a man in the back who must have just purchased an electric shaver because he played with the on/off switch the entire time. bzzzzt bzzzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. when we stopped for toilets i expected him to have gone atleast a half inch into the skin. so here i am in the middle of the mekong delta at 130am at some shady bus stop (you thought chesapeake rest stop off route 95 was shady) and every single person is staring at me like i have snakes crawling out of my cranium. kids are sneaking up to me once again to touch my hair and old ladies are gathering in groups around me staring at me and discussing me at the same time, cursing me with terrible travel accomodations i would guess. why are these people awake? do they not sleep? can they support themselves solely on the ambition that they may be able to sell me a pair of sunglasses, a lighter, or some crazy lotto game that everyone plays here (each for about 11 cents US). everyone in vietnam loves drinking and gambling. the insanity of the scene once again cannot be justified in this blog. when we finally arive in rach gia (which i will be nominating as one of the worst cities in the world in parade magazines upcoming addition) i am once again approached by a parade of loonatics and sketch balls. it is 4am, i've slept maybe twenty minutes and my ferry doesn't leave until 8am. i finally find refuge in a road side cafe where the lady lets me lat down on a table with a baby, a chicken cage, and a basket full of god knows what probably snakes. i decide not to look. the uefa cup game between everton and fiorenza is on a television that 25 people are gathered around and i cannot sleep because everyone is convinced i am english so they are constantly yelling at me in vietnamese and slapping my shoulder when everton makes a play. keep in mind, it is now 445am. what in the hell are these people doing awake? everton loses 2-0 and people console me in their foreign tongues. get me out of this nightmare. finally the ferry arrives and i escape.... here on this stunning island now. this place is absolutely amazing, miles and miles of desolate beaches with clear blue water. my accomodations are a mere $6 a night and meals are about $2. i have walked nearly 9km on dusty red clay roads inhaling that very same dust through my mouth, nose, and eyes to bring you this blog. but they do have these cool symbols on the keyboard... §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

might only be providing blog support every other day or so, i apologize sincerely to all of you daily subscribers.