• Happy Christmas yer arse!

    Happy Christmas yer arse!

    As usual I have loads to catch up on. Tis Christmas Day today and I'm in Sihanoukville in south western Cambodia. This is the first beach destination of my trip and it's ok. I had expected to find a little party scene down here but it's just bars and alcoholics.

    It took two days to get to Siem Reap from Bangkok. There are quicker ways, the direct tourist bus for instance but these are notorious for scams of all kinds. I took a four hour or so public bus to the border crossing into Cambodia's Poipet. Poipet is not a place you would want to linger. Gambling is illegal in Thailand but not in Cambodia this means that the border towns on the Cambodian side have huge casino's (mainly Korean and Australian owned apparently). This is a very odd first look at Cambodia. Poipet is filthy, there are many beggars and the road is just a dirt track but lined with big, grand, fulla money casino complexes, the contrast is staggering.

    Once inside Cambodia travel options are limited. I had expected to be able to get a pick up truck type taxi where the cost is split between many passengers. This wasn't possible, I think it was a little late in the day. I ended up sharing a 3 hour car taxi ride to Batdambang with a German couple which cost $30 split three ways. On arrival I got a room for $5 (more than the guide books lead you to believe, it seems they've cottoned on to something in Cambodia as like Thailand and Laos, everything is more expensive than the guide book says it's going to be). The next morning I got up early and necked breakfast before boarding the boat to Siem Reap. The journey can apparently take anything between 5 and 8 hours. On that day, due to low water levels and a boat that wouldn't stay completely operational for more than an hour or so, it took 9. I managed to get a room at the guest house that I'd spotted in the guide book and hooked up with a moto driver who would give me a 3 day tour around the temples of Angkor.

    Siem Reap is just a big tourist town and isn't that interesting so it was good to be spending most of my days away from there. The three days I spent touring the temples were possibly the best 3 days of my trip so far. The temples were lost to the jungle for a very long time and it's hard to see how that could have happened to these huge constructions. It just goes to show how powerful nature can be. One of the temples in particular, Ta Phrom, is still somewhat covered by jungle. This one was my favourite. Angkor Wat, which is the biggest and highest of all the temples is a sight to behold. On the last of my three days I got up at 4:30 ish to have the chance to witness the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately it was cloudy. It was well worth the early start though because though hundreds of people were milling about waiting for the same thing as me, when I went into the temple after the sun had come up there was almost know one else there and there was wonderful silence. I took lots and lots of pictures and next time I have picture resizing facilities I'll try to get some uploaded. There's loads more I could say about this bit of the journey like what it was like to hang out with a Cambodian for 3 days (his name was Tann and though he looked like a Siem Reap wide boy he was actually the son of a poor rice farmer (almost everyone seems to be a rice farmer) who spoke excellent English and was studying the history of Angkor so he could become a fully fledged tour guide, which will cost him $800 for some reason) or the number of beggars in Cambodia, or tonnes and tonnes more about the temples.

    Because of my intent to be in Sihanouk Ville for Christmas there was no time to spare so I boarded the next bus to Phnom Pehn. I met up with an Irish guy and 2 Canadians so the 6 hour journey was quite pleasant what with having someone to talk to n all. I was out of Phnom Pehn in less than 24 hours. I just had time to see the Tuol Sleng museum (formerly known as S21, Khmer Rouge death and torture camp which was a school before it was commandeered by Pol Pot) and the killing fields of choeung ek (Khmer rouge execution site about 15 km from the capitol, around 12,000 people died there 2000 of which were children, often new born babies). I had a really quite horrific 24 hours or so in Phnom Pehn. I didn't take any photographs in these places, it isn't something I would wish to remember in that way. Visiting these places is just depressing, there is no way of getting away from it. There is much I would like to know about the Khmer rouge era of Cambodian history but I don't feel able to discuss it with Khmers. The burning question for me is what happened to all the Khmer Rouge foot soldiers, all those people that were probably 'just doing their job'. It didn't happen that long ago and many of the hands on people in the Khmer Rouge were apparently children making them somewhere in their thirties now. There are many books on the subject and at some point I will read one or two of them.

    So that kinda brings us up to date. I've been in Sihanouk Ville for 3 days or so and I'm leaving tomorrow. The next plan is to get to Krabi province in Thailand to see if this 3 day new years party is gonna happen (this might take 3 days, one day to get back to Thailand mainly by boat, another to get to Bangkok and then another to get to Krabi). I'm a little apprehensive because I may struggle to get a room when I get there. When last in Bangkok I met a Canadian called Sheldon (Canadians travel!!! I have met sooooo many Canadians on my trip). He is somewhere in Krabi now and I'm hoping he'll be able to help me out if I'm stuck. I have his current address and he said he'd be happy for me to come a knockin on his door. So in conclusion I really like Cambodia and the Khmer people. Having visited Laos (though i didn't spend anything like long enough there to get to know the place at all really) and Cambodia I can now see how tacky and over developed Thailand is. I would go as far as to say that apart from the southern area (because I haven't been there yet), I don't really like Thailand that much. It's a bit of a relief to have realised that in many ways because I was getting worried that I just didn't have the right attitude or something. I did have many good times in Thailand but on the whole, for me, it's not a hugely interesting place to travel in alone.