I'm heading for vietnam tomorrow morning - fingers crossed it all goes smoothely. Apparently it's only an 8 hour bus ride, sounds piss easy.

At any rate, had a swell time in Cambodia the last few days - been relaxing, watching movies (Saw Kung Fu Hustle on DVD... not bad for a chinese comedy martial arts flick, though it aint not "Hero" either)...

...And... I'm getting used to the place (Cambodia), just as I'm about to leave... heh, cest la vie!

At any rate.. I went to the russian markets for some clothes. They have everything there... including a delightful semi-sweat shop setup in the middle of the clothes department (watch the nock off nike apparel appear before your very eyes!)... a cool engineering section with a surprisingly wide selection of precision tools - loads of acessories for lathes and milling machines... and of course parts for every 100cc motorbike ever built by asian hands.

All in all it's good fun - loads of weird smells and a lot of people manufacturing goods on site which kept me entertained (I get pretty bored wandering markets look at tat, being a lad 'n all)... so I got to watch jewelers working on custom pieces, a guy doing a valve grind, woman making clothes and carving/varnishing wood items - a smidgen of open air butchery... all the good stuff.

After that I wandered my way back, skirting past a load of engineering firms for a bit of a butchers hook (it's funny how the smell of dust and oil reminds me of my childhood) and generally letting my mind wander, eventually turning onto Molivong boulevard... which pretty much runs from one end of Phnom Penh to the other... half way along I stopped in an optometrist to get my glasses fixed (I broke them back in Pakse a few weeks ago) which was free, a pleasant surprise!

After a bit more walking I decided I best get a haircut (been putting it off for weeks) - so I popped into a local barbers for a $2 cambodian special... I haven't got a mirror in my current room so I don't really remember what it looked like - nor did I care - I'm on holiday - all I know is it's now less hot.

Had to get some more reading material, decided for some fantasy to counter the rather depressing (and relevant) no-logo as I work my way through prime sweat shop country... but after searching one store only to discover they only had an almost complete set of L.Ron Hubbard books including his mission to earth bollix.. which though strictly you could call it "fantasy".. I wasn't really prepared to waste any more of my time (then I already have in the past ;o) plumbing the depths of scientological scat.  Long story short It took me a couple of stores till I bought a  Terry Goodkind book, "Wizards First Rule" - I'm sure Ben or Lyle will fill me on wether it's a series, and of course if it's shite or not, at some point in the future... for the first 300 pages it seems like a pleasant enough read.

The one advantage of a toilet/shower combination is that you can keep cool while on the can.

Angkor Temples, round 2

On the 16th I had my second go at Angkor wat, with much greater sucess as my antibiotics seemed to be doing the trick.. so I went and saw the remaining temples I had missed the first time ... mostly similar to what I'd seen already, I like east Mabon - had nice elephants - and Tah Prohm is a gorgeous temple that the surrounding jungle has overwhelmed.. they've (who ever "they" are... probably the "man") even filmed a scene in tomb raider there... but don't let that put you off.

I had fun with my driver who seemed to be obsessed with me eating "at the temple" - in particular where we ate on my first day - no doubt there's some kind of kick back in it for him - and he seemed annoyed when I denied him the pleasure, but by then I was kind of annoyed with him - too cocky and in your face, he tried to stop me even visiting one of the temples because it was "same same"... and it wasn't.

But I digress, so the temples were good... my visiting was rounded off by about 1pm, and then I headed back to Angkor wat after an extended lunch to catch sun down on the big one again - which afforded some nice people watching time - and a few conversations with the locals who seemed to find me curious - apparently Angkor wat has more stone in it then the great pyramids - I said "all of them?" - and they said "yes!" with chests that almost seemed puffed out. 

I haven't got a clue if it's true though ;o)

The unamed girl at Ta Keo

Though of course I couldn't visit Angkor without having a run in with the local street kids.. in this case a girl who I'd estimate at about 7 or 8 years old, with empeccable english considering she obviously wasn't attending school (though submersed in this archealogical pseudo amusement park for most of her life she was probably going to have a hard time not becoming multilingual). 

At any rate.. as I was skirting around Ta Keo the little girl approached almost on the verge of tears and asked for some food - I didn't have any food and she looked about to cry after I said as much, so I started chatting to her, as much to distract her as anything else. We headed around the base of the temple and suddenly her whole attitude changed and she ducked out of site from 3 children above, and signaled me to be quiet... I wandered up beside her and she said "bullies" - and wouldn't budge any further, and started sniffling - so I suggested to her that perhaps we could walk round the other side - her little face lit up and so we turned round.  On the way she played tour guide, as older boys in the area normally do to try and ensure you'll be guilted into giving them some money - but by this point I wasn't really sure of the little girls motivations... 

"This is limestone" she proclaimed, followed by "this is sandstone, it's better against rain" - she pointed to collapsed statues of nagas and snakes, she was pretty damn good actually. After a while we talked about her parents, mother dead (of course) and her father is a cripple from a mine accident and plays music at one of the other temples (mine victims play music for donations all around the angkor temples) - all a bit grim for a kid that should by all rights have been in school.

After a while we came to some steps, and she motioned up - "theres a buddah at the top, if you want to go have a look" - at which point she mumbled "money?" - and I replied "of course, when I come back down ok?"  (I find this is a good way to pick the greedy kids, as they wont trust you) and she smiled and seemed pretty happy at the thought and waved me goodbye.  So I clambered up and came back down 10 minutes later, she was hiding around another corner this time because the bullies had relocated.  I followed her along then she disappeared completely, so I fished my wallet out and starting grabbing all my low-order cambodian riel, till I had a fistfull, probably about $1 US - more then enough for some food and water - later on I caught site of her again and she walked up looking sheepish and whispered me to be quiet again, so I stood there and then casually tried to hand her the money I'd got out... and a wave of panic and anger flashed across her face, like I'd do her a mortal wound and she started weeping and pleading that riel was worth so little and that all she wanted was US dollars. 

At this point my charitable spirit left me and my critical re-evaluation of the situation kicked in, "are you sure you dont want it? I have no US dollars", she shook her head, so I started walking away.. after I had all but left the temple grounds I heard a whimpered "okay mister" from an alcove as she crouched out of site.. so I gave her the cash and tried to see what kind of facial expression she adopted - but it was just blank, like I no longer existed... as I got back on the tuk tuk I'm pretty sure I saw her chatting to all the "bullies".

And..

And this is why I like watching people from a distance - up close it's hard to get any kind of focus, and it's also why my time spent exploring these temples isn't how I'd imagined it to be in my head before coming here.

Back to Phnom Penh

And so today I jumped the bus back to Phnom Penh.. it wasn't bad, I was greatful for my faltering sense of smell and fully charged I-Pod as I was seated next to a mum with bub of about 6 months and another girl of probably about 3 years of age.. The problem with alot of asia is that nappies are non existent - so when a baby shits, it's potentially rather... exposed.. as it was today, thankfully I managed to dodge it :) and drowned out the hurrendous Hang Meas Karaoke VCD volume 59 (I mean 59, I can't believe there are at least 58 more of these... ugh!) which was playing on the T.V up front. 

When the bus stopped briefly at some unknown village I got to watch one of the local kids wander round with an empty Tora air pellets box over his head.. he even bumped into things... umm... random?

And this afternoon I plowed through another 100 pages of "No Logo".. which is a good read, until finally retiring to my room for a quick freshen up before dinner only to get a call on my cellphone from Mum & Dad.. which has been only the second call I've got since leaving NZ (the first being from Mark Skinner while in the Beijing airport) - must say I was quite surprised!

I'd almost forgotten how it works (the phone that is) - in fact the only reason I keep it charged now is because it acts as my alarm clock.

At any rate, I'm kicking it for a few days here and then will make my 3rd and final border crossing in south east asia...into vietnam no less.. first stop, Saigon! 

Phnom Penh

Well, lets see... where did I leave off.. ahh yes, having lunch in Phnom Penh on the 12th.. right so, after lunch I bought some books - namely "No Logo", which I've been meaning to read since I read the "fences and windows" also by Naomi Klein, "Ancestral Vices" by Tom Sharpe and finally the "Curious incident of the dog in the night time" by Mark Haddon.

So I headed back to my guesthouse and layed around reading the "Curious incident of the dog in the night time" - which is a very quick read, depressingly so, as I finished it later that same afternoon.. but I really liked the book - most good, and made for a nice break away from the reality of Cambodian street life that gets me down after a couple of hours.

At any rate, I was feeling antisocial that evening and decided to go find some dinner for myself at the quietest restuarant I could locate... found an indian joint that looked well abandoned and decided it was the ticket.. but after sitting down, ordering my meal and reading my book while consuming an Angkor beer (which is shite, in fact I dont like any of the beers in south east asia.. god I miss dark beer!) a mad kenyan woman sat at my table and just started talking to me... other then her name being Anna I really didn't understand much of what she was saying.. apparently she was married, but was seeing a friend of a friend who she'd told everything yet never met and that africans open there hearts to other africans yet white people are always suspicious (at this point I mumbled "and with good reason you mad wench" but she continued merrily on with her monologue) and evntually movied onto talking about someone named Lee Vuthy who she thought worked for the Cambodian daily.  It was all complete nonsense and once my meal was finished I escaped.

Incidentally the Cambodian daily seems to be the only english language paper here... and it has a great couple of pages called the 'police blotter' which lists all the major crimes for the last few days... talk about depressing, but I digress.

Off to Siem Reap

The next day I checked out and grabbed the bus up to Siem Reap... this was a thrilling trip, especially the stop in a town I think was called Stung sen, where there were so many street kids begging for food ... it really does your head in when your eating a packet of chips and kids are pulling at your shirt to have some, I cant even equate this to the greed exuded by most of the older street kids here (who only ever want cash) - it really does suck, and the local Cambodian adults are largely desensitized to it - in fact I guess they would have to be - but it does my head in.

At any rate, I met a girl named "sky" from the states who suggested a guesthouse to stay at (the garden village) - which is reasonably central and stocked with loads of boys, like every other guesthouse, who just wander around like they're A.D.D - fiddling and fidgeting, because other then the little bit of driving work they do, they have absoloutely zero stimulus.  Personally though I find most of the boys to be generally dishonest, full of shit (sob stories that don't line up with everyone elses sob stories) and greedy (average income is $20 US a month here, yet I would estimate that most of these boys earn that in a week or so) ... some people discribe tourism in Cambodia as a gold rush, and I think that's quite accurate - things will no doubt change over time, but at the moment it definitely seems a bit cheeky and ruthless.

So I grabbed one of the boys, "we", as a drive for Angkor wat. and headed out to catch sun down from the hill... which was good, met a couple up there I'd hung out with in Savanaket in Laos, so that was amusing.. exchanged stories etc.  That night I had dinner at the Dead fish tower, which did a really nice thai meal (the restuarant has free live music and crocodiles.. *shrug*).. very tastey - and then headed to bed because I had to get up early (5am!) to catch the sun rise at Angkor wat.

Throwing up on Angkor temples

So I got up that morning (the 14th) and was feeling a bit dodgy... nothing out of the ordinary... and then headed out to Angkor Wat, got some nice pictures... felt a bit more dodgy... had some breakfast... complete loss of appetite... felt even more dodgy... had some water... and then had waves of Nausea and eventually threw up in the middle of the Bayon temples... thankfully nobody saw me do it, as it really does seem a little disrespectful.. not to mention gross... And after that it was all down hill, I started overheating, couldn't keep water down and so around mid day I decided it was a bust and got my driver to head back to the guest house...

On the way back I stopped off at the chemist and got some electrolytes to help with dehydration, and some antibitoics (Ciprofloxacin, well Neocip-500 which appears to be the same thing) which seems to be doing the trick as I feel a lot better today... hopefully tomorrow everything will be back on form and I can continue my exploration of the Angkor wat temples.. on the down side, it means buying another $20 US ticket :(

Right, time for some lunch - hopefully I can keep it down!

Well seeing as I'm taking it "easy" today after my abortionary visit to the Angkor temples yesterday (read about it in my next post) and waiting for my Antibiotics to kick in I thought it was about time to post some more pictures.. so here goes:

The plain of Jars near Phonsavan, Laos - all I can say is It's more impressive in person ;o)

While leaning out the bus window we get to see one of the bus staff attending to a flat tire in Laos, obviously a gun is an important tool in this process...

The "arsenal" on display in a restaurant in Phonsavan, just about every establishment had a similar display... much like a New Zealand beach bach has 70's decor.

The faux Arche de triumphe made with misappropriated concrete for a new airport in Vientiane.  Compare it to the original structure here http://www.caingram.info/Worldwide/Pic_htm/paris_1.htm if you feel so inclined)

Looking down on the lower levels of Wat Phu Champasak, near Champasak/Pakse in Laos.  These structures are known to be older then Angkor Wat.

More Wat Phu Champasak goodness...

The vehicle ferrys in Laos - basically a narrow boat with two "outriggers" and vehicles moving on/off it side-on.

Though hard to see, the wheel just has rope wraped round it a couple of times that then travels inside the hull to the back rudder... rough as guts ;o)

One of the nicer examples of decaying colonial architecture in Phnom Penh.

Mmmm... what can you say? A sign at the killing fields.

Urns of bones, At the killing fields.

Some of the 'mug shots' of people brought to S-21 - there are walls and walls of these, a number of the people had minor birth defects or medical conditions which were evident in the pictures. People with spectacles were prime targets.. as was anyone of a high level of education.

More of the same, this time as profile shots.

The stupa holding the skulls of people killed and burried in the mass graves of the killing fields - they leave the bottom level open so people can touch them, personally I thought that was a tad disrespectful... and I saw one Khmer man standing by looking quite upset while a tourist tapped on one of the skulls.

The Stupa, as seen from the outside - it's quite big.

I shot of building 'C' at S-21, the entire building is shrowded in barbed wire and full of small bricked up cells created inside the original class rooms.

The monkeys at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

My first glimpse of Angkor Wat, as seen from a near by hill.

Sunsets over ancient structures, always makes for a nice picture.

Well, I'm now in Siam Reap, home of Angkor Wat, testament of the Cambodian peoples former glory... the town is disturbingly clean in places, and really doesn't seem to fit the rest of Cambodia's "image".  However this entry is about Phnom Penh and what I did over the last 2 days there.

Killing Fields

So lets see.. right, it was a drizzly day on the 11th when I got up at 9:30am to head out to see the killing fields, which is about 14km's out of town.  You pay $2 US to get in, and effectively what you get is to see a number of exhumed mass graves where the Khmer Rouge dumped the bodies of people after they were either shot, or more often, bludgeoned to death - often these were people who had been undergoing torture at the S-21 facility - but more about that later.

At any rate... Around the various pits are descriptions, such as the delightful sign stating that "this was the tree children were beaten against" and there are small urns of human bones.  Aside from that there is a large Stupa (which basically looks like an Obelisk) which is split into multple layers, each layer containing many skulls - sorted by age and gender, in total there are almost 9,000 skulls on display - most showing the evident head trauma that brought there lives to a fairly brutal and now doubt traumatic end.

While standing in the rain I ended up talking to a Khmer man who was there... most of the coversation centred around his family (almost every Khmer person has a tragic story about this period that directly involved there family) - and he introduced me to his rather practical viewpoint, in that he felt it was a very dangerous time.. but he didn't seem to persue the psychological issues, I say practical in that it seems like one of the only ways you could "get on with business" after a genocide that didn't even end before some of my generation were born.

S-21, Genocide Museum

After that I got back on "Pauls" bike - the driver from the guesthouse - and he took me to S-21, which was originally a school until converted to a detenion and interogation centre to be used by the Khmer Rouge - first off I will say that this is a wonderful "museum" - I found in really interesting wandering through the compound which is split into four buildings, the first and the third are basically just displaying the rather depressing compound where people were held - with disturbing fuzzy black and white plates of the last victims of S-21 displayed on the walls of each room/cell (there were 14 people found dead in S-21 after the K.R were overthrown, who are now buried in the middle of the compound).  The other two rooms are dedicated to displays of the thousands of potraits taken over that period of people brought here to confess there crimes - generally under torture, and often measuring into the hundreds of pages (there confessions that is), as well as a number of photo studies with accompanying stories prepared by the dccam (documentation centre of cambodia) http://www.dccam.org/. All very interesting.

As for how it all made me feel... to be honest I wasn't disturbed or peturbed, genocide though unpleasant is a subject I've always found interesting..  but I did become quite curious to know how other people reacted to the sights and generally unusual atmosphere this place exudes (some of the rooms have permanent blood stains on the tiles) - and thankfully that's no too hard as each room has a journal where people can share there thoughts... some less thoughtful people even shared their thoughts on some of the walls of the other prison buildings, which is pretty disrespectful, but meh.. what can you do?

So, I spent about 3 hours all up in the museum - flicking through journals, staring at black and white photos and reading stories from the era, and formulated a categorisation for peoples reactions:

1. Angry (30%)
1. With comments such as "we will never learn!"
2. "Polpot was a murdering fuckhead"
3. The germans haven't learnt
2. Appologetic (20%)
1. I'm sorry
2. We let this happen, why?"
3. Supportive (20%)
1. Cambodian People are amazing to get through this.
4. Dismal (20%)
1. We will NEVER learn :(
2. The germans haven't learn't (this was a popular comment from a number of german tourists...??)
5. Philosophical (10%)
1. "We are all the same people"
6. Practical - only the locals.. percentage wise I dont think it has much mileage
1. Such as the cambodian man, ie. it was dangerous, now it is not dangerous.

Now, out of all the quotes presented from various people only one seemed worth quoting here, which was from the Goralcyzk family in Poland, and it simply said:

I am from poland, the land of Auschwitz - The famous polish poet gave a motto: "It was people who gave other people this fate."

Which to my mind pretty much encapsulates exactly how I felt about the whole thing.

Wat Phnom

I did some other stuff that night, but it's all fairly boring (dinner in town, watching sex tourists doing sex tourist things etc.) - and awoke the next day early and went for a walk to Wat Phnom, a temple on what is known to be the highest *snigger* point in the city of Phnom Penh, at a whopping 27 metres... Walking around this monument you get set on by limbless beggars and small street kids wanting money, but if you make it around to the other side you can sit in the park and feed the monkeys that live in the trees above, or as I like to call them, rabies at arms reach. 

Monkeys are incredibly cute, but they seem pretty bloody dangerous to me - easily angered, persistent, sneaky and very quick - I got to watch while a couple of taiwanese tourists who were attacked by one of the monkeys there - I did nothing - and was glad they didn't have their gizzards spilt out, as it would've have ruined my photos, and I'd feel somehow responsible due to my inaction.

National Museum

After that I visited the National Museum.. pretty cool, a very well presented collection of artifacts housed in a lovely old building that has a centre courtyard with a pond and chairs to sit in - really nice - though you can't take pictures, which is a shame.

After that I had lunch, bought a copy of the Bangkok post from a street kid and drank copious cold lemon drinks (the only thing that seems to quench my thirst) - the kids are depressing, and I find them far more disturbing then the genocide because the problem seems resolvable... orphanages and schools, both which already exist in Cambodia.  But the devils in the detail I guess...

At any rate, after explaining for the 20th time that I wasn't going to give the news paper back after 10 minutes so he could sell it again (they must be fast readers here :?) I got to finish my lunch in relative peace... though the profit made on one newspaper being sold could probably feed him for a day, so I'm left to wonder just what they're up to.

There's more to the story.. but I'm really hungry, so I'll post this and post some more stuff tomorrow or the day after about events after the fact (heading to see the Angkor temples tomorrow, which should be good, albeit hot work, and I'm even going to attempt to see the sun rise... up before 5am.. blurry hell).

Hello Phnom Penh

Well I'm in Phnom Penh now.. the capital of Cambodia.  I did get on a bus headed for Komphong Cham, in fact we stopped there, and I opted to pay an extra $2 US to take me to the capital instead... I'm not sure why I changed plains... but I just didn't feel like staying there - call it a vibe? But I just wasn't keen, so I headed for the capital.

The bus trip took about 9 to 10 hours including stops, I sorta phased out near the end, and dropped me in the middle of town (or should I say city, apparently the population here is about 1 million?) - and after that I grabbed a tuk tuk to the Boeng Kak Lakeside district, AKA backpacker hell (and of course I've already been offered fiky-fik/boom-boom/brown (heroin?),marijuana, opimun and coke. 

At any rate I had a squiz at the "green lake guesthouse" - seemed ok - so I've grabbed a $3/night room there, hopefully It's not too hot (Cambodia is definitely hotter then Laos, but the rain seems to be counteracting that somewhat.. go the rainy season!)

The "hilight" of the bus trip would have to be the trip from Strung Treng to Kratie, which is on roads which I imagine were adequate back in the day (they appear to have been sealed once) - but now they've decayed to an endless string of pot holes which the bus I was riding navigated at what I estimate to be about 30 km/hr - fun fun fun, The major problem here is that Cambodia is very very flat... and the roads appear to be uncrowned and the same height as the very very flat plain... ipso factso it's a disaster.. however I think my years of dealing with Northland metal roads on my parents "ticki tours" in New Zealand as a kid had prepared me well ;o)

The things that strike me in Cambodia as different to everywhere else I've been (so far) is.. horses.. they seem to be quite common in Cambodia, and used for all sorts of meanial labour that would fall upon the water buffalo or "japanese buffalo" (tractor/hoe contraption) back in Laos.  The horses however are very small, and seem to look kinda like their going to drop dead from Exhaustion..

After I sat down and watched the sun set I chilled out a little from my trip.. talked to a Cambodian student named "paul" (or something that sounds like paul) for an hour or two then meandered off to find food, eventually settling on the "Lazy Gecko" which is just up the road - they charge loads ($4 US!) - but did serve me pork chops, nice gravey and mashed potatoes with a tastey mixed fruit shake... I would never have thought I could actually miss mashed potatoes, but I did!

While talking to "Paul" we discussed various things such as the apparent corruption in government ..."Mr Private" kept cropping up, apparently he's done wonderful things for the country such as selling the tourism rights to Angkor Wat to the vietnamese, deforestation of Phnom Penh (which they now blame for the droughts here) and Taking bribes from Thailand to not enlarge the airport allowing for international air traffic - wether the lad was exagerating, who knows.. but he seemed pretty upset)

Poverty is definitely more "in your face" here - the contrast of wealth and poverty is massive.. people drive $100K plus cars past you in the street while just steps from this internet cafe people are crammed into a single room like sardines, grandparents, parents and children. 

From what I've read (and talking to Paul) - the ratio's run something like 5 million employed, 3 million self employed and 4 million unemployed in Cambodia - with the self employed all on or below the poverty line.. They had a riot earlier this year and with over half the population under the age of 16 I wouldn't be surprised if more occur in the future as the majority of the population get to the age of voting (or realising there vote doesn't count for much in a reasonably corrupt system).

While we're talking numbers, apparently the infant mortality rate here is around 9% at birth...  Joy!

Oh and I'm going to the killing fields tomorrow... so I'll appologise in advance for any emotive trite I end up posting around that trip, as who can say what effects seeing 8 or 9 thousand humans skulls will have on me... probably apathy, but I'd like to think I may be touched on a more then statistical level.

My mouse appears to be full of fluid and contains a small rubber duck..?

Don Khong

Right well I made it to Don Khong - nice spot, very laid back.. in fact maybe a little too laid back, as I wasn't able to enjoy it completely because I knew in the back of my mind that I would have to move on to Cambodia soon and didn't really have the right frame of mind to "take it slow"... basically because I'm starting to run short of time (I need to be in Vietnam by the 22nd of this month to start my tour that I booked before leaving N.Z) - It was very picturesque and after arriving there at about 2pm I ended up just sitting back and having a few beers with a brittish couple I met in my guesthouse, chilling out and discussing the scary phenomenon of "Dance Troupe" in the U.K.

The guesthouse was called Villa Khone Khong I think... I really liked it, and the guy who ran it was very nice - though he spoke very little english - the rooms were big, teak with shuttered windows and a dodgy looking bathroom - I think the setting was probably romantic, though It would seem strange to muse about such things while I sat back reading a copy of catch 22 I'd swapped for another book with some other Traveler and drinking beer Laos. 

Don Khong is quite a big Island (did I mention it was an Island on the Mekong) - about 18km's one way and a bit less the other way... After a big storm that night I awoke in the morning and decided that I would rent a scooter and have a look round, as there really didn't seem much else to do (unless you count spotting the elusive freshwater dolphins in the area) - It's the first time I've ridden a scooter, as opposed to a motorbike, it was a mighty 100cc Honda Wave.. with no clutch and and downward gear pattern.. confused the hell out of me as I grappled for an imaginary clutch lever and dropped the bike into fourth to take off ;o)

Still I think I could've used just 4th gear as it would cruise at 40km's an hour, or, at full tit...an amazing top speed of 66km's - which really isn't a good idea as the tires seemed to be going a bit.. umm... squishy at that speed.

At any rate, the rainy season has really kicked in - so my bike riding was interrupted by rain.. in fact it's raining in Cambodia as I post this..but I digress.. so at any rate I woke up this morning and decided it was time to leave Laos before I didn't have any time at all to see Cambodia.

Leaving Laos

To enter Cambodia from Laos normally requires a trip to Voen Kahm, where you get stamped out, pay a small bribe, get in a boat and cross to the other side and get stamped in... My crossing was umm.. a little less orthodox, as I got a lift with a Soldier (with the obligatory Kalashnikov pressed between myself and him) on his motorscooter, then got a lift with a Cambodian family that he introduced me too who were driving a truck to Cambodia along a "road" that appears to be under heavy construction by the Chinese (???) where the two border posts are only 100 metres from each other in thick trees... the road isn't sealed and was bollix, but it certainly was a bit of an adventure - albeit weird, I did feel a little anxious as other then a little bit I read on the internet after arriving in Cambodia it really does seem like this route is sorta "non-existent" and definitely not used by many if any tourists because it's by luck that you'll get a ride this way, in all I think I would not have saved more then a couple of dollars doing this vs. coming down on a speed boat, though it's probably safer then a speed boat.

I think also what raised my alarm bells was the fact that the teenage kid who sat on the rear of truck with me took his shirt off.. and had lashes and ragged scars all over his back like he'd been whipped - I do not know what the hell that was all about :( but it wasn't cool... at any rate, I dont think at any point it was a dangerous crossing - the cambodian family seemed quite friendly - just confusing as I didn't really understand alot of what was going on. *shrug*

Arriving in Cambodia

So after riding with the Cambodian family for about 2 hours I arrived in a little village on the opposite side of the Mekong to a place called Stung Treng (which is quite a big town, by NZ standards) - which is where I'm typing up this post on a dodgy dialup connection (they had to start a generator just so I could turn the computer on!). 

So far I haven't seen any westerners, but I'm sure they come here - as even if you take the alternative route - which involves a getting a speed boat- you still end up in Stung Treng - maybe it's just because it's low season?

Stung Treng is at least briefly mentioned in the Lonely planet books (though it basically only points out that it's kinda pants) and I've booked a bus ride to another city tomorrow at 7am, Kompong Cham, which is no doubt a rip off at $13 US - but I really didn't feel like trying to find the bus station and sorting it out myself as I seem to have picked up some more dodgy food in the last couple of days... weee .. fun fun fun - I can't imagine travelling without Imodium now - the alternative would be too repulsive to consider... At any rate, at the new city where I can eventually catch a bus or taxi to get myself up to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat - so all seems wellish, basically after this initial bit of my travels I'll be hanging out in the bigger cities, surrounded by electrickery, good food and technologah.

Savanaket

I arrived in Savanaket on 4th, After an 8 hour bus ride - It's a funny little town (well not that little) with a rather more grand "mirror image" across the other side of the Mekong, where it's sister town in Thailand resides, Mukdahan.

After grabbing a room at the Nong Soda I went for a bit of a walk before the sun went down - which was pretty cool, as the crumbling french colonial architecture is best viewed with a soft and slightly more forgiving light ;o) Basically Savanaket seems to be personified by red dust, tables by the mekong serving beer and meat on a stick to locals with their Honda "wave" scooters parked near by, small children letting off home made bamboo fireworks on the riverside and lines of trucks parked by the wharf, waiting to get the barge across to Thailand (as of yet the Bridge is still not finished between the two sides of the Mekong, though it only looks to be a year or two off completion)

That night we went in hunt of the "Cafe de Paris" - apparently it's the best food in town - apparently it also doesn't seem to be open any longer - so we settled for the slightly less cool, "Cafe Paris", or something to that effect - which served fairly blah food - but what can you expect with the "de" - the hilight of my meal was when I got a pottle of icecream from their freezer for desert, peeled back the paper lid and discovered it had already been half eaten - thankfully the lady running the joint replaced it ;o)

In the morning I took in the amazing sights of the Dinoasur Museum (It's worth a look because umm.. well... it's small and convenient placed?) and then went for a long meandering walk, eventually stopping by the Mekong-side and having a baked fish with sticky rice for breakfast - shortly after I started on my meal I was accosted by a couple of Laos guys who were studying english, and who desperately wanted to practice on me - I think I ended up talking for almost 2 hours before finally making a polite exit (though it was quite interesting, they were shocked at my age.. 25 and not married ... for shame!)

Pakse

That afternoon I jumped a bus to Pakse, about 6 hours - and then got an ok'ish single room for $4 - though the fan seems pretty ineffective against the night time heat here... slept maybe 4 hours total last night? Though it could be because of the 3 bottles of M-150 I drank that day.. which kinda tastes a bit like "Top secret" (do they still even make that stuff?... Then went out to dinner at "Delta Coffee" - where I got a nice chicken and green pepper fettucine and garlic bread... western food, tsk tsk.. It was good though.

And then this morning I got up and shared a Tuk Tuk with Charlotte to Wat Phu Champasak, which is about an hours trip from Pakse - the best part of the journey is getting the "car ferry" across the Mekong, as it's just 3 small boats (the centre one twice the size of the "outriggers") with a large wooden platform stuck across it - cars drive on to the structure from the sides, and at one end is a garden shed masquerading as an engine room, and at the other end you normally get a wheel "house" with accompanying pot plant.  I didn't get any good pictures of them, but at some point I'll post what I got.  They're pretty funny to look at ;o)

After crossing the river you end up in Champasak, and Wat Phu Champasak is about a 10 to 15 minute drive from their.

Wat Phu Champasak

So ... Wat Phu Champasak, what is it?  Well basically it's the archealogical site of a temple structure dating back to pre-Angkor times, built by the original Khmer people - It stretches in a reasonably straight line heading up a hill (with some quite tricksome stairs) and offers great views and some very precarious looking structures that will probably fall down if they have a bit of a shake.  It's overgrown with trees and a lot of it's collapsed but it really does look (and feel) great, or should I say old and grand - it's got quite an unusual atmopshere.  Interestingly it's a bit of a mix 'n match, with what appears to be animal worship, hinduism and eventually budhists all making use of and extending the sites.  Basically this will all sound like drivel till I post some pictures, but I thought it was pretty sweet.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to Don Khong (with a g, there's also Don Khon... which is apparently nicer, but doesn't have electrickery 24x7) to hang out for a while before crossing into Cambodia, I think there needs to be some coffee and beer drank while sitting in the sun.

Well I got up early today to visit the Cambodian embassy... two photographs, $30 US and 6 hours later I have a pretty new 30 day visa for Cambodia - all the information I'd read on the internet was a little out of date, and it appears that the border I wish to cross at is officially open, and that Vientiane does offer an express visa service of 1 day when you spend $30 US instead of $20... which is a relief, as I can now travel southwards once more towards my eventual border crossing into the land of killing fields and Angkor Wat.

After the Visa malarchy in the morning Charlotte and Myself got a tuk tuk to That Luang, basically a very large golden stupa - very picturesque - while here we also had a look at the hurrendously prolific Laos artist who had his work on display, I think I counted at least 100 works... mostly oils and acrylics, but there was also some water colours and mixed media to spice things up...

After that we headed back into the central city, killed a bit of a time, then had lunch at Joma (I think that's what it's called) - basically a Zarbo's equivalent - I got lasagne and a tastey salad.  Outside the restaurant was a lady with a cleft palate and a little baby girl of 7 months, who was very talkative, she even told me which direction I would have to walk if I needed to get to Bangkok... though it's a little far ;o)

In the afternoon I explored the Laos National Museum.. this museum starts off with a small section on dinosaurs, then the plain of jars and similar ancient sites, very briefly covers minority races in Laos and then jumps into the main attraction on the second floor (which dominates most of the building) - that being the french occupation, declaration of independence and rise / fall of communism (including the secret war obviously) in Laos - the english labels are patchy but you get a good feel, and the "artifacts" they've collected are great... it's not often you get to see a revolutionary leaders 1950's style spring "chest expander" - some of the pictures are fascinating, as you see Castro and Uncle Ho having a jolly old time with the Laos leaders.

The museum cements a view of the Laos as a progressive nation, with funny little displays of pharmaceuticals manufactured "right in Laos", as if the boxes of pills were required as proof that such a feat were possible.. and captions on pictures suggesting such wonderful things as "Disabled people are well cared for in Laos"... the "smell" of communist working class heroes and government saving face abounds, but I also could just be jaded - the people in Laos do generally seem to wish well of each other in general.

On the side.. at the guesthouse I'm staying (dragon lodge) a whole gaggle of IT students have arrived from Singapore, and are assisting the local hospital with improving their information systems and architecture over the next 2 weeks - which is interesting - I never really think that a skill set such as my own could be put to good work in an area like this... food for thought, and it does make me wonder why New Zealand IT institutions don't think of doing something like this... it would have to be great P.R, not to mention a lot of IT people would jump at the opportunity to combine study with a little travel.

Tomorrow I'll be jumping the bus to Savanaket - about 7 to 8 hours, so that will pretty much take me out for the whole day... I haven't done a lot of research on the southern destinations of my journey through Laos, guess I'll do that in transit, it's nice to have a bit of a surprise anyway.

Phonsavan

A mere 8 hour bus journey from Luang Prabang on some of the windiest roads I've encountered so far on my travels, and I arrived at the rather... umm.. Arid town of Phonsavan... Why had I come here?

Well... to see the plain of Jars of course!

At any rate, after the 8 hour bus ride and chilling to various sounds (I was feeling a little mute, so I cranked up some Neutral Milk Hotel and followed it up with some Jean Grae - I really seem to be growing fond of her hip hop while on holiday... mmmm) we arrived at the Phonsavan bus station, I quickly got friendly with 2 people.. A Lady Charlotte, Social worker from London (who I'm stilling hanging out with) and Pierce, a fun almost-uni-student from the UK as well.

We all ended up heading to the Khong Kheo guesthouse (I Think that was it's name, near the old runway) - and then after securing some rooms we went out to explore the town... of which there wasn't much, eventually having some beers and shooting the breeze - after that we went in search of a Meal, originally we had decided to find the Lao Youth Centre Restaurant, or something along those lines.. which took a while, but we eventually discovered it, though it's now called the New Wave (opposite the Maly hotel) ... sat down, got menus, went to order and was told they only had sticky rice... hmm... so we went across the road to the Maly (best food in town it says on the door, which I think was actually accurate - which also has a nice display of weaponry on the wall, actually everywhere has a nice display of weaponry on the wall in Phonsavan..heh).

At any rate, the following day we were up at 9am to do a day of touring the plain of Jars (sites 1, 2 and 3) - our guide/trip wasn't cheap ($8 US each) - but I think in the end it was probably worth it because his interest in the sites and the Laos war was wonderful, and I learnt a great deal - the day started off with a visit to the quite large market in Phonsavan (well worth a look all on it's own) - followed by a visit to a derelict russian tank, then site 3, site 2 (with lunch) and site 1 - site 1 being the biggest.  In all there are 60 jar sites known to locals, and 50 documented so far by UNESCO.

The jars themselves are a bit of a mystery, but dating puts them at around 2,500 years old - far longer then the Laos people have been occupying Laos - and each one is cut from solid stone, some with lids, and weighing up to 2 tonnes - and dates back to the early stone age of the original south east asian people in this region.  I dont think you could describe it as an exciting place, but it's definitely quite surreal to think of just how old they are and to see them rising out of the ground like monaliths - a Laos stone henge.

The really interesting thing is that this is also a hot spot of the secret war in Laos (Laos being the most bombed country in the world, aproximately 3 million bombs dropped over a 10 year period AFAIK) - and in site 3 was the situation for a large revolutionary camp, where various Vietkong troops and supplies were smuggled from Vietnam.  Bomb craters are everywhere and UxO is a major problem, the MAG (Munitions/Mine Action Group) has done a lot of work (supported by nzaid no less..) to make safe paths to the various jars - and it's depressing to think of the damage done to this truely unique site during that conflict.

Vientiane

The following day I left Phonsavan, originally I had planned to go to Vang Vieng - but after to talking to some people I didn't really feel like it - for some odd reason I was in the mood for a city - so I skipped and got a bus straight to Vientiane.  The bus ride was quite comfy, I took VIP - which has more leg room and you get a free drink of water and biscuits, at the cost of another $1 US.  The ride was uneventful, accept for a flat tire and that one of the support crew for the bus driver carried a Kalashnikov with him everywhere he went, at one point the barrel was resting on the back of my seat (Though I didn't know).. which would've been OK till an Israeli guy pointed out that they've got a notoriously ineffective safety.. erk - while changing a tire he just left it lying on the ground outside where I could've just picked it up... Laos does have a bit of a banana republic feel at times - you just have to keep on smiling ;o)

Vientiane is pretty cool - the decaying french colonial architecture is eerily beautiful, combined with the dusty roads and really good french food.. I'm splurging while here on a very nice room, with Aircon and T.V! Which is costing a whopping $12 US a night, sometimes it's nice to remind myself that I'm not a "scratching to stay alive" backpacker ;o) but a lazy overpaid software developer after all.

The food here is great - and expensive for Laos - but still bloody cheap for home and of equivalent if not better quality - dinner with Charlotte last night was a big ice cream sundae (3 big scoops of Rum & Raisin).. a really nice Carbonara pasta and a couple of big bottles of beer.. for approximately $9 NZ... not too shabby.  I discovered that she's met Tom Waits in person, and seen him in concert - I'm rather jealous!

Probably the funiest thing today was heading to Patuxai, a large concrete monument that is very reminiscent of the Arc De Triomphe n Paris.. It was built in the 1960's with United states purchased cement that was supposed to have been used to construct a new airport..  I wonder what the states thought of that ;o)

Also interesting (and Just by the arch) are 2 rather large fountains, which are sychronised to funky Thai and Laos music that plays in the background - they're pretty cool, and donated by the Chinese government - In fact everything in this country that looks new appears to have been donated by some foreign government, even on the outskirts of town Japan is funding the construction of a weather radar station.

Yet just like China most people dont have clean water.

On the down side today I went to apply for my Cambodian visa, however it's bloody labour day here - and everything was closed... so I'll have to do it tomorrow, hopefully it can be processed quickly as it would be a shame to burn up too many days here, apparently it can take 3 days (ugh!) - though you may be able to convince them to do it on the spot.. so I might need to do some sweet talking or attempt my first bribe (I was silly not to get it done while in Chiang Mai, when I got my Laos Visa... only takes 1 day to do it in Thailand.. meh)

At any rate, I'll probably post some pictures next time I update with what I've been snapping lately and talk about my adventures with the Cambodian embassy.

Cheers...

 Alex