Enroute to Sihanoukville

I'm on a bus to Sihanoukville right now. We just watched "The Expendables", funny to see Stallone speaking Khmer. I still get aggravated a little when the bus honks. The driver seriously honks 30 times per minute, no joke. He honks at oncoming traffic, motos and bikes he is about it pass...it's a headache. And on a 5 hour ride...ahhhhhh!! That would not go well in the US.

Almost one week in Phnom Penh..

..and it was way too much time here -- 6 nights! I originally wanted to stay for only 2 nights, but things kept happening. I got in a day after the Water Festival bridge incident, so the city was in mourning, and several tourist sites were closed. It was enough reason for me to extend my stay. Then I found out Rachel and Marin (travelers I met in Laos) were coming in, and Simon was about to arrive; I had even more reason to stay.

There really is not much to do in Phnom Penh, though. The important sites (in my opinion) are the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. I read a little bit about the Khmer Rouge before arriving in Cambodia, but going to these sites gives you a better understanding of what happened and what Cambodians (currently around the ages of at least 40 years old) had experienced, and the horror of genocide. What's really crazy was this all happened in the mid to late 1970s. Really not long ago at all.

The Genocide Museum(S.21) located in the city of Phnom Penh. It used to be a high school, but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a holding pen for prisoners, until they were taken to the Killing Fields, about 40 min from the city. I was definitely feeling somber during the visits to both places. There were a lot of graphic pictures showing types of torture methods and tools used. The Killing Fields are nice and peaceful now, but imagining bodies in the pits was quite disturbing. I felt like I wanted to cry several times. And I had the eeriest feelings while walking through the holding pens in S.21. And all this was on my first day in Phnom Penh.


S.21

Killing Fields

The next several days were really chill, since I took my time. Let's see, I...

- went to check out some markets. The Orussey Market was selling these bad boys.



- walked around the waterfront. It's a nice area, and locals do hang out there, but it's very touristy.



- went to a CouchSurfing Meet Up. That was cool to meet some other travelers and locals in the area. We ended up bar hopping and then dancing to hip hop at the end of the night.



- ate an expensive dessert at the Foreigner's Correspondence Club (FCC). Twice.


Rich Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Figs Tart. You devil, you.

- got my bangs trimmed at a salon. That was fun, since the hair stylist couldn't speak English. They had a look book though, so that made it easier. Telling them to thin the bangs out was a little tough, but they got it right.

- went to tourist sites: Royal Palace, National Museum, and Wat Phnom.


Royal Palace


National Museum


Wat Phnom

- went to Sorya Mall. This place was a trip because there was a rollerblading rink upstairs, some sort of chicken restaurant on every floor (fried, grilled, baked....), a cinema, and a Swensens's Ice Cream shop (not sure why but these are premium ice cream shops in SE Asia. I didn't know of any other shops except in San Francisco).




at one of the chicken restaurants


rollerblades!

- fell in love with mangosteen. Even though it was expensive.



- had some good Cambodian desserts.


herbal jelly, coconut milk, simple syrup, and some sort of fruit.

And that is all about I can remember... It was nice to take my time though. Probably the more relaxing part of my trip. Sometimes you do need a vacation from vacation.

Thanksgiving in Phnom Penh

I am supposed to be in Hong Kong today. Ideally spending Thanksgiving with my Step-Mom; not like Hong Kong celebrates Thanksgiving though. But nope, I decided to extend my stay, and I was by myself in Phnom Penh (PP). PP actually has a wide range of restaurants, from Indian, Malaysian, Italian, French, American, etc. I tried to find an American restaurant that was serving a Turkey dinner, that night, and walked into a place called Freebird (really). With the amount of ex-pats in PP, there were bound to be some Americans celebrating here. Yes, there were some Americans, but nope, no turkey.

So what did I decide to order? Eggs Benedict. It sounded good on the menu, and I love it (usually). But what's the one thing that can really mess up eggs Benedict? The Hollandaise sauce. This is tricky enough to get right in the US, so I don't know why I risked it in PP. It was pretty terrible. The sauce had too much lemon in it...I had to scrape it off the muffin. They kept the poached eggs separate from the Hollandaise sauce and the muffins, but the eggs were too undercooked, so the meal was just one big slimy plate. Excellent bacon though. That was the only saving grace.

Disappointed with my meal, and also not being able to chat it up with anyone at the Freebird, I went to the Foreginer's Correspondance Club (FCC), this western resturant that had great food (sandwiches, salads, pizza), but US prices (sandwich = $7). I had gone there for lunch the day before, and spotted a dessert I really wanted to try-- a rich chocolate tart made of hazelnuts, figs, and chocolate chips, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and candied oranges. After such a bad Thanksgiving meal, I deserved it. Plus, I wasn't ready to go home yet.

I plopped down on a bar stool along the edge of the balcony, overlooking the riverside. That's the good thing about FCC, it's in a great location with a nice, relaxing atmosphere. There were two guys sitting a couple chairs away and they noticed the dessert I ordered. We started to chat and it turned out they were from the US too, one from Boston and one from Carson City. They didin't realize what day it was until I said Happy Thanksgiving. We spent most of the night talking about SE Asia travels (they had been to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and just the sheer awesomeness of taking a long break to travel. It made me feel good about extending my trip :) They were good company. Glad I didn't have to spend my entire Thanksgiving meal alone.

Battambang: Part 2

Determined to make the most of my 24hr stay, I got up early and went to a few sights outside of Battambang. I hired a tuktuk driver to take me out to the Banan Temple and Phnom Sampov, two temple sites with great views of the Battambang area. The rides themselves to the sites were lovely and scenic, with a nice glimpse of rural life.




The Banan Temple was a tough one. 358 steps to get to the top! But there was a nice view once you got up, and the ruins were simple - large blocks stacked up - but interesting to see how well the temples were still preserved.




The Phom Sampov/Killing Caves are located high on a hill, so my driver suggested I hire a local to lead me so I won't get lost. He connected me with Siephon (not sure how to correctly spell his name), who the tuktuk driver said "he's a man, but don't worry, he's a lady boy". Throughout my tour, the town people would see him and would laugh and tease him in a playful way. He didn't seem too annoyed by it; he was playing along with it. It was pretty entertaining to hang out with him. Our communication was so limited because he didn't speak that much English, only enough to tell me what sight was what and some directions on where to go. But he would bust out singing Khmer pop songs as we walked.





He definitely made my trip up to Phom Sampov brighter! Especially considering we were looking at the Killing Caves too. I wasn't sure if I was ready to come face to face with it, but I figured going to the Killing Caves would prepare me later for Phnom Penh's Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields from the Khmer Rouge period.

I wanted to go to the Pepsi Factory that was abandoned in the 70s, but the tuk tuk driver said they had closed the doors to the public. It would have been cool to take some pictures there, because I read that it has been left untouched; there are still full bottles of Pepsi left inside. Ah well. Would have been neat to see. But I'm glad I got to do and see more of Battambang, besides the Bamboo Train. Would've been a shame if that was my only impression of the area.

Bamboo (Battam)banger

I stopped in Battambang on my way to Phnom Penh, for less than 24 hours, mainly for the Bamboo Train. This "train" is a raft made of bamboo with 2 axles/wheels and is powered by a motorcycle engine. There is only one railroad track for 2-way traffic, so whenever there is a jam, the lighter train would disassemble and move around the other train. Pretty ingenious.


When I got into town, I rented a bike and tried to find the Bamboo Train Station, but it took me forever. All I had was this to follow by:


Not quite the most descriptive map, but I could see why after riding around. The landmarks were obvious, but none of the roads were named! But after 45 minutes on the bike, and asking people if I was going in the right direction, I finally arrived at the station. It's run by the Tourist Police, so an officer greeted me and said the train would take me to a small village about 14km away, where I can walk around and get a refreshment. Sounded like a good time to me.

The ride itself was really fun. The train runs pretty fast with the motorcycle engine. It shakes so much and makes loud rickety noises as you are flying by the rice fields. There were the occasional oxen eating greens by the side, or sometimes locals would pop up from their walk through the rice fields. I probably stopped about 3 times to do a change/disassemble.

Bamboo Train Ride


Assembling the Bamboo Train


So...the "village" was really a few refreshment stands, where foreigners could by a pop or have a snack. And of course, right when you got in, they would call you over and try to buy from their stand. There were some tourists sitting around and hanging out, so I guess that was all you could do. I didn't see a path for you to walk around on, beyond the stalls. Kids were playing soccer a little further down, and that was about it. I talked to a nice Dutch couple and a lady from Australia.

The "Village"


Maybe about a half hour later, I could see that my train driver was ready to go.
On the way back, a couple locals had huge bags of hay to bring back into town. I was lucky enough that our train was stopping to pick them up...it turned out to be an even better ride back! We arrived at their stop, a crew of kids jumped on for the last stop of the ride. Sounds like a silly attraction, but it was a memorable experience.

Angkor Watted...

Cambodia: Siem Reap with Meang

I officially started solo travel entering Cambodia, since Simon and the Spicy Laos gang continued to travel through southern Laos. It was nice to just spend my time leisurely, without having to keep up with people or try to follow an agenda. I planned to stay in Siem Reap for a couple of days, but it turned out to be 5. Although Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat, there is not a whole lot to do in the city itself.

What was nice was meeting Meang, a manager at Prom Roth Guesthouse. Simon recommended this guesthouse, but after a couple email exchanges, the booking confirmation for my room slipped into my spam mail, so I didn't spend my first night there. On my second day, I checked out of my expensive hostel and wandered over to Prom Roth to see if there were any rooms available. Unfortunately, there weren't. Meang explained he was waiting for me to show up last night, but since I didn't, he booked the room for someone else. He felt so bad that he offered to help me find a guesthouse. And I don't mean just calling around to see what's open, but he took me on his motorbike and we looked at 3-4 hostels/guesthouses, before I settled at his friend's guesthouse. How nice is he?

After I got my stuff in, he asked what my plans were for my stay, and I told him I wanted to go to Angkor Wat at sunset that night. (You can enter the site from 5-6pm to catch sunset when you buy a pass for the next day.) He offered to take me that afternoon, since he was not busy. He said it's part of his job to show his guests around; not that I was even his guest though. I couldn't say no to such a super nice gesture.


Meang at Angkor Wat!

We went to Angkor Wat but didn't catch the sunset -- it was too cloudy. I figure I'll see nice colors the next day at sunrise. (I didn't. I'll talk about Angkor Wat in another post). Afterwards, we stopped by a local night "picnic" area. If Meang hadn't taken me there, there would have been no way I would have known about it. It was like a night market with a lot of food stalls. There was a section with "restuarants" -- bamboo mats lined along the road, where the cook would take your order, you sit on the mat, and they bring you your food when it's ready. I tried a banh cheu, a pancake/omlette with sprouts, eaten with a variety of herbs, and nohm banh jok, fresh rice noodles. It was a nice experience to see the local scene and eat local food on my second night there.


banh cheu

nohm banh jok


Over the course of my stay in Siem Reap, I would run into Meang on the street or over at his guesthouse when I was on my way to my guesthouse. It was neat to know a familiar face in a new city. And he treated me like I was a guest at his guesthouse, which next time I am ever in Siem Reap, I will stay at.

Laos Part 3: Luang Prabang

Oh Luang Prabang...this was such a strange but an almost magical place. So many random, but fun things that happened. I was there for about 4 days and these were the most memorable things (in no particular order):

1. My Arrival
Simon had taken the bus from Vang Vien to Luang Prabang, while I had gone down to Vientiane and then flew up to Luang Prabang. We were only in contact by email, so I wasn't sure when and where I would actually meet up with him in LP. All I knew was the name of his hostel, not even the location. I told him I would arrive around 12pm so he had some expected time frame.

Since there were extra seats on the earlier plane, I arrived around 10:00am instead. At the airport, they were asking for $5 for a taxi ride into town (which is a lot), so I waited around to see if anyone wanted to share a cab. Eventually, a French couple and their nephew let me share one with them. As we got into town, I see Simon and a couple other people walking up the street! I asked the driver to pull over and I popped out of the taxi, probably scaring the crap out of Simon! It was such unbelievably good timing. If I didn't wait around for anyone to share a cab, I probably would have spent my first day in Luang Prabang searching for the hostel and Simon.

2. Spicy Laos Hostel
Didn't like it the first night AT ALL. There was one guy in my 10-person dorm who came in drunk, turned on the lights at 2am, and started ranting about how someone was in his bed and spilled water on his laptop. I thought, I need to get out of this place! It's a complete zoo!

But he left after that night, so it wasn't so bad. After all, I was staying at a UNESCO World Heritage House. The accommodation itself was nothing to write home about; showers and toilets were hidden around the house, and some beds were pretty lumpy (I got a good one though). It was more about the atmosphere. The hostel was very social, full of characters who had been traveling from as long as 1 year to just a few weeks (even met a person from Sacramento!). I had some good times meeting new people and just hanging out with Beer Laos on the porch at night.



3. Day with the Elephants
I joined a tour that took us to an "elephant camp" where we rode elephants into the jungle/forest and into the lake. It was definitely and awesome experience. The elephants are so sweet. The best part was getting in the water with them. They were playful, and like in a rodeo fashion, they would try to throw you off their backs so they could bathe freely. It freaked me out a little bit (since I can't really swim well), but I held on tight. One fellow got thrown off and lost his glasses! Some local kids dove around and found them though. Pretty amazing. The elephants were so nice and gentle. The mahouts (trainers) were ok. They weren't super mean to the elephants, but you can tell this was not a super ethical outfit running the tour. If I were to do it again, I'd pay more for a more ethical tour.



4. Waterfalls/Scenic Drive
The pools were such a lovely ice blue. Very fitting, because the water was cold! Glad I got to see the countryside of rice fields too. Lots of rolling mountains, lush green fields, and bamboo huts popping in and out of the scenery.



5. Alms Giving Ceremony
Every morning, the monks begin the alms giving ceremony around 6am. It's a really beautiful ritual, because the monks receive donations from the locals (rice, food, candy, etc.) and in turn, the monks give donations (that they just received) and blessings to those who are in need. It was really interesting to watch. Although unfortunately, it's become a tourist attraction. Some tourists were so disrespectful; they would walk right up in front of the monks and take photos (sometimes with flash). It's so intrusive on such a special ceremony.



6. Riding a bike around
I rented a bike and rode out to Ock Pop Tok, a textile center a little bit outside from the center of town. It was a really nice facility for weaving, basket making, and fabric dying, which women from the local area came to work. Afterwards, I stopped by the Phousi Market, and then to the Luang Prabang Red Cross for a massage. It was nice riding outside of the touristy area. Compared to the main strip of restaurants and shops in French colonial buildings, there's a much poorer side of Luang Prabang that I don't think foreigners see. Aside from walking, biking is still my favorite way to see a city.