After leaving India, my original plan was to fly to Bangkok, then travel overland from there to Cambodia and Laos. However, since Bangkok was inconsiderate enough to get flooded right when I was supposed to be arriving, I booked an onward flight to Phnom Penh to avoid the supposed travel nightmare. However, this left me with a long layover in Bangkok, so I decided to put backpack in left luggage at the airport and take the quick train trip into the city. The downtown area was not flooded, but the water was still rising and they were preparing for the worst. Everywhere I went looked like this:
I spent a few hours in the city, took a shitty tour in a tuk-tuk that involved stopping at every tourist trap in the city, but finally convinced the driver to take me to a streetside foodstand for lunch (by offering to pay for his meal). I had awesome BBQ chicken, along with some BBQ mystery meat, rice, and a bowl of mixed greens. Total price for my lunch and his: 50 baht (about $1.65). Now that's what I was looking for! Headed back to the airport and caught my evening flight to Phnom Penh. While going through customs I met a german guy named Dennis, who agreed to share a tuk-tuk with me into the city. Since he'd pre-booked a guest house (and I, of course, hadn't) I decided to see if they had a room for me as well. Dennis and I got on well, and neither of us had any specific travel plans, so we decided to travel together around Cambodia. We spent a day in PP, which is a very laid-back mellow city, then headed for Siem Reap (the town closest to Angkor Wat). We booked a "VIP bus", which was not only a misnomer, but also managed to break down and strand us on the roadside for four hours. Awesome.
I had very mixed feelings about Angkor (Angkor Wat is one specific temple, the entire complex of ruins, covering thousands of square kilometers, is referred to as Angkor, meaning "city" in Khmer). It was absolutely crawling with tourists, and the requisite touts, food stalls, and nicknack shops to go with them; but the ruins were absolutely stunning. And once you got away from the more popular ruins, you could find some space to yourself. I would say the hassles are worthwhile, and highly recommend anyone to visit this place. We rented bicycles from town and spent three days riding around the area. I didn't bring my good camera on this trip, but here's a few shots to give an idea of what we saw:
After three full days of ruins, we were ready for a change. We hopped on a bus to Battambang, which is Cambodia's second largest city...with a population of 80,000 people. On the way, the bus stopped in a village with this charming dish on offer:
There's not a whole lot going on in Battambang. We hung out by the river in our hammocks and generally fell into the laid-back lifestyle. One of the main tourist attractions is the "Bamboo Train" which started out as a local form of transportation. Basically, they put a bamboo platform on two axles, hook up a six hp motor, and take off down the train tracks. Everything can be picked up and taken off the tracks in seconds to let oncoming traffic pass. The "train" with the most passengers has the right of way. Supposedly actual train service is supposed to resume sometime in the next couple years, and the bamboo trains will be banned.
After Battambang, we headed down to the coast to spend some time on the beach. We went to Sihanoukville, which turned out to be quite a shithole, but we still had a good time and found a nice beach. After a few days there, Dennis headed for Thailand, and I headed for one last town in Cambodia: Kampot, which is a couple hours to the southeast. I decided to rent a motorcycle for a few days, so I could explore some stuff off the beaten tourist track. Best idea ever! I had three days of awesome riding, including some riding in Bokor National Park where I think no westerners have been in quite awhile. I did 400km in total, including over 50km of rugged off-road in the middle of nowhere. Riding through the jungle on the first day:
I stayed at a place called "Utopia", which might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but was still quite enjoyable. It was built out over the river, so you could swim right from the deck, and there was a great rope-swing on the other side of the river.
The second and third days I rode up to Bokor National Park, which sits on a thousand meter high plateau overlooking the ocean. A spectacular setting with some very cool geology and no tourists outside of the well-trafficked main attractions. This is where I got to do some exploring off-road (well, actually on a very old road).
I thoroughly enjoyed my riding, and was thoroughly exhausted when it was done. If you haven't ridden a dirt-bike, you have no idea how much strength and energy it requires to ride through rough terrain. The evening of the third day I rode out through the rice paddies. My last evening in Cambodia:
From Cambodia, I wanted to go to Laos, but since I wanted to go to northern Laos I decided to go via the modern transportation available in Thailand instead of the very slow and very old buses available in Laos. I stopped for a few days in Koh Chang, an island just off the Thai coast, just across the border from Cambodia. I caught up with Dennis there and just relaxed on the beach for a bit. A tough life. Here's the sunset from the ferry heading to the island:
My $5/day accommodations:
The beach:
I managed to catch a nasty cold on the way to Laos. One day after I recovered from that I got food poisoning. Out of ten days in Laos I was sick for nine. I saw some beautiful scenery, and rented another motorcycle and had another good ride, but I wasn't really in the mood to take pictures. Here's one of the three that I managed to get.
The mountains there really were incredible. I really want to go back in good health and on a motorcycle. Taking buses through those mountains is NOT fun. So, new goal, purchase a motorcycle somewhere in SE Asia. I'll get on that...
