Jodi Leaving Cambodia 

Leaving Cambodia 

Beach in Sihanoukville 

Wat in PP 

Hmm I wonder what is so special about the pizza? 

Where is my weed wacker 

Anyone seen Ms. Croft (aka Tomb Raider) 

More Ta Prohm 

Ta Prohm 

The many bricks of Baphuon awaiting placement 

Baphuon 

Jayavarman VII
 

Look for the many faces of Jayavarman VII  

More Bayon 

Bayon 

More Angkor Thom 

Entry to Angkor Thom 

Angkor reliefs 

More Angkor Wat 

Inner Angkor Wat 

Inner Angkor Temple 

Jodi on the outer causeway to Angkor Wat 

Approaching Angkor Wat 

March 17, 2006

March 17, 2006

We checked out and rode 60km to Trat. It is our last ride of the trip. 4700km in all and we are both tired and ready to spend some time off our bikes. The ride was beautiful, lush and green with hills on one side of the road and coastline on the other almost the whole way. It is one that I will gladly accept as my last. In Trat we checked into the only accommodation with air conditioning, a crappy hotel, but I can take anything for one night as long as it is cool. We found a great day market where we had some great iced coffee and some Phad Thai. It is so nice to be in Thailand again!

March 15, 2006

March 15, 2006

Jodi and I hung out in our favorite restaurant until 11:00 AM enjoying a lovely breakfast. I am a bit concerned that the begging doesn’t bother me anymore and I just go about my lazy business. This morning two monks stopped by trying to extract money from us but I just couldn’t be bothered to give a damn.

Buying ferry tickets was quite frustrating. They all wanted $20 USD for a single ticket on the ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Khong when it was still posted around town at $15 USD. Apparently the price went up just three weeks prior which seemed expensive as well! Nobody I talked to on the ferry that morning was very happy about the rate they were charged. The boat was dingy and wasn’t sea worthy because it was made for rivers. While making our way down the pier we encountered a couple of kids who worked for the ferry company that wanted money for helping to load our bikes on the boat. At this point I had it with the calls for extra cash and just walked on the boat with my bike and loaded it my damn self. Later a guy came asking for more money for the bikes and I said, "The tour company that sold me the ticket said that I would not have to pay for the bikes and furthermore $20USD is more than enough for this service." A German who overheard the exchange came up to me and gave me the "way to go" slap on the back. He went onto tell me a story about how the cops in PP had extorted money from him and his brother the night before. His brother works for the German Government is now using the incident to extort money from the Cambodian Police by not reporting the whole scandal (during the boat ride he received a text message on his phone indicating the police had paid up). I felt a little remorseful about the whole thing but as I said earlier I had enough of being the rich American in the eyes of the Cambodians.

We left the port and as I suspected the midday swells were large and I was pretty nervous watching the freeboard disappear and reappear on the sides of the boat. I rode on the roof of the boat to make sure nothing "fell overboard" and make sure I could swim to safety if the boat swamped and sank. Jodi on the other hand sat in the comfort of shade and air conditioning below next to the emergency exit.

About halfway through the trip I met a Pomme who was in the midst of a visa run in Cambodia. He lives in Thailand and has to leave the country every thirty days to renew his visa. We talked about life in Thailand and his dream of opening a guesthouse there. He informed me that the Thais are building a new highway to Sihanoukville to the Thai border and when it opens it is going to open many new stretches of beach (I suspect this is also why the ferry owner raised his prices because he knows the new highway will allow buses to take people to the border for a mere $4). He is of course thinking about opening his guesthouse along that stretch. I had a good time talking to him.

In Koh Khong I had another ugly American incident. I was unloading our bikes and we were leaving the pier when we were approached about our accommodations. I already knew where I wanted to stay and could see it from where I was standing but this guy would not take "no" for an answer. Jodi and I tried repeatedly to be polite and after 5 minutes of this I finally asked "What part of NO do you not understand?" I have to admit that I got some pleasure watching his face contort as he became angry, then cool once more and back to his sales pitch. I asked again, "What part of NO do you not understand? I appreciate that you are trying to make a living but there isn’t any money to be made here with me right now. I can see the place I want to stay and nothing is going to make me change my mind." He gave up and was noticeably pissed and I was pleased that I finally got the best of a Buddhist. A Buddhist is supposed to never loose face, he must never loose his cool and some of them are quite good at it and they take pleasure in pushing others peoples buttons. As my friends know I have a giant big red button on the center of my chest that says "PUSH". For once my button was unscathed. We rode to the hotel, checked in and had a lovely dinner watching the sun set over the ocean.

March 14, 2006

March 14, 2006.

Still in Sihanoukville and we just can’t seem to go any further than our favorite restaurant. Jodi asks, "Where do you want to go?" and for a quick moment we do the "I don’t know dance" and we end up sitting back in our favorite seats listening to the great selection of western music. We did make it to the beach for walk in the morning, to the ferry terminal to check on ferry pricing and to the ocean for a late afternoon swim but the hours in between were used to seek the lowest energy state possible.

March 13, 2006

March 13, 2006

In the morning we loaded up and rode to the bus station where we boarded another bus. This time it was with a different company and unlike the Rith Mony Company the bus driver did not drive like he had just smoked crack. It was an enjoyable safe ride to Sihanoukville. They dropped us at the bus station where the taxi drivers were less aggressive and we made our way to Serendipity Beach. We checked into a nice guesthouse and found a nearby restaurant that had great food, music and comfortable seating. We must have sat there three hours that night just enjoying the laid back nature of things.

March 12, 2006

March 12, 2006

That morning I tried to find something outside the tourist ghetto, ie away from the beggars but Jodi became impatient due to her hunger. It didn’t seem as easy here as it has been in small towns to find a little cart in a market to purchase cheap and delicious meals. This is a big city! So in our discouraged state we walked back to our hotel and ate at their restaurant under the awning. During breakfast a cat sized rat sauntered past paying neither me or Jodi any mind while we climbed on top of the furniture trying to avoid him. The hotel manager observed the whole scene and was embarrassed but unable to do a thing. Rats are just part of life here.
Later on we did the walking tour of Phnom Penh from the safety of our bicycles (the taxi drivers, panhandlers and street vendors ignore us when we are on bikes) and found our way to the Russian Market. I bought a pair of Levi Silver Tab jeans for $4.00 USD and Jodi picked up a pair of silk pants for $4 dollars. It seems many clothing manufacturers have facilities here and the employees skim the extras and sell them at the markets. Now I have something to wear in London in two weeks. That night we bought bus tickets to Sihanoukville because we both decided we had enough of PP.

March 11, 2006

March 11, 2006

Hello from Penhom Pen. This morning Jodi and I left Siem Reap (aka Siamese Defeat) for the Capital City, Phnom Penh and were surprised that we were assigned the front seats. I sat white knuckled for 6 hours watching the world go bye rather quickly and without regard for the other vehicles on the road. The next time I ride my bike in Cambodia I will get off as far off the roadway as possible when I hear a bus horn seeing things from this angle.

In Phnom Penh we were dropped at the worst location to date. It was a small fenced in area complete with razor wire that contained tourists and taxi drivers. It kind of reminded me of the old saying "fish from a barrel" with the tourists being the fish. Jodi and I scrambled to get our things and placed them in the back corner of the pen (that smelled like piss) in the mean time the security guard thought things were getting out of hand and began beating the taxi drivers with his baton. Jodi looked at me and said "get us out of here fast." I hurriedly reassembled our bikes and we made haste for the nearest exit.

Outside I found the city to be nothing like what I was expecting. It was cleaner and unlike many of the other cities in Cambodia the roads had a kind of parkway feel. We made our way to the Mekong river front and checked into a hotel for a couple of days. After a shower and a change of clothes we re-emerged from our hotel and because we no longer were on bikes my sense of things changed drastically. Everywhere we went we heard calls "hey you, transport," "tuk tuk," "hello, give me money" even the monks chimed in with more calls for money. At first I could tolerate it but a person can only take so much and at dinner I reached my limit. It seemed every two or three minutes a child or adult would come to our table trying to sound as pathetic as possible all the time holding out his hands for money and some times they were kind enough to tell me exactly how much they wanted. It was too much for me to handle emotionally. Riddled with guilt and loathing for my fortunate life I went and hid in our hotel the remainder of the evening.

March 10, 2006

March 10, 2006
Jodi and I did not feel like we needed to leave Siem Reap just yet so we spent a lazy day drinking iced coffee and walking about town. We also checked into bus fares to Phnom Penh. We are running short of time and after riding 4500km we decided to change our original course. We wanted to avoid the harrowing 3 day ride into Poipet (the road is supposed to be awful!) and instead go down through the southern part of Cambodia and enjoy a few days back on a beach before crossing back into Thailand. This was a much longer route so a couple of bus rides would put us back on schedule again. We booked our tickets and strong armed them a bit to bring the bikes for free.

March 8, 2006 (later in the day)

March 8, 2006 (Later that day)

Overall our long ride went well but going that distance today had its price. We both felt like hell, but somehow managed to ride over to Angkor Wat to purchase our tickets for the next day. We were told that if we arrived by 4:45pm to purchase tickets for the following day we were allowed entry into the site that evening to watch the sunset. So we anxiously rode over to the main attraction, Angkor Wat, and even from a distance its magnificence provided for a "warm fuzzy bunny" feeling as the kiwis would say. We walked around the temple in the waning afternoon light wondering what the place looked like in its time. I also wondered if our "temples"(i.e. the National Mall in D.C.) will one day be in ruins and if so what might be the demise of our civilization. Unfortunately, they will never know why the sites here were abandoned because all the texts and living memory were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. I was sad that we lingered in other areas too long and did not make it to the temple center to climb the stairs because they closed the stairway just as we arrived. Instead we walked around the walls looking at the inscriptions and art. We both left thinking the ride over on our bikes was worth it. We then grabbed some dinner and went to bed.

At 5:00AM on March 9, 2006 we awoke early and tried to get an early start but were unable to start the day strong due to a flat tire on my bike. We finally did get out the door and stopped at some carts for a baguette with omelet on the way. We started viewing the ruins from our previous nights end and climbed the hill up to a temple that overlooked Angkor Wat. The sun had just risen and it cast a nice pinkish glow on Angkor but our camera is not the kind that could capture its true beauty. We then made our way down and viewed Angkor Thom. The entrance was a gate that depicted the Hindu story of the churning of the milk. On one side of the road stood demons and on the other were figures of the god king. They were having a tug of war with a serpent and in so doing were churning the milk of immortality. To me the gate was the most impressive thing we had seen so far but we soon found that more impressive things were yet to come. Next we stopped at a temple called Bayon and were blown away. The temple was a tribute to Jayavarman VII that also used the churning of milk as its theme. Each high point had four carvings of his face with each facing a principal direction. At any one time we would see many carvings of the kings face staring back at us but it didn’t feel creepy because the carvings expressions appeared to be kind and benevolent. We both left the temple feeling it was the best so far. The next temple Baphuon was undergoing some major restoration. The effort had start over 40 years ago but was interrupted by the take over of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, who killed all but two of the people working on the project and destroyed all the paper work. When Pol Pot was removed from power and Cambodia was "stable" the French resumed the effort. In the mean time the temple lain de-constructed on the grounds surrounding the site. When the French returned no-body understood how the stones went together, so they were forced to draw each stone and try to figure out how it went together. From the look of things they are progressing nicely. After Baphuon the temperature was smoking hot. The remaining temples we minor in comparison to the big two Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat so we did the quick tour. Each one we would stop take a quick look around and get back on the bikes. We returned to our guesthouse to hide from the heat.

That night I re-emerged from our room and rented a tuk-tuk ($5.00USD) to take me to Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat. Ta Prohm was notable for two reasons, the first is it had never been restored so it looks much the same way as many of the temples did when they were discovered in the jungle by the French and two it was used as the set for the first Tomb Raider movie. I then returned to Angkor Wat in hopes of getting to the inner most rooms but I was foiled again because I was too late.

When I returned to town I found Jodi sitting in a restaurant with Colette who had ridden in that day. When I approached I was kind of sorry that I had found her because she was getting some much needed girl time away from me. I sat anyway and had some dinner. Later Colette returned to hotel to fetch Artie and the four of us sat and had dinner in the heat of the late evening.

March 17, 2006

Back in Thailand. After being bombarded by the national mantra of Cambodia "give me money" for two weeks we became frustrated and B-lined it for Thailand. Today we are in Trat Thailand enjoying great food and friendly people who take "No" for an answer. Don't get me wrong, I loved Cambodias rural towns and people but the places touched by tourism were a bit to much for us. Jodi and I head to Bangkok tomorrow where I hope to provide a more in depth record of our travels. Thanks for following our adventures!
Cheers
Kirk

Ox Cart in front of gas station 

Tour de Cambodia