myrainasia

This is still the shorthand version and, believe me, you all missed a lot!

Went from Siem Reap to Battambang where I took my first all day motorbike tour with a really nice guide who told me bits and pieces of his life story throughout the day.  I have to assume he was an ax murderer in a prior life because he has had the worst luck in this life- either that or he was feeding me a line to get a better tip.  But I think he was being truthful.  Got to see my first “killing field” since Battambang, along with most of the larger cities in Cambodia, was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge.  What can one say about the memorials containing hundreds, thousands, of unidentified skeletons?  Disturbing, to say the least.

But not much to see in Battambang, so the next day I took a bus to Kampong Chhnang.  Interesting bus ride inasmuch as the bus broke down midway there and we spent an hour or two trying to find shade under the out-of-season fruit trees lining the road (out-of-season means not much shade) while the driver and helpers crawled around under the bus trying to fix, unsuccessfully,  some undetermined problem.  They finally gave up and I ultimately came to understand- with very little English and some complicated hand signals- that another bus would pick us up.  Here’s where it gets really interesting- the first bus had only a few seats, but I figured that, as the foreigner, people would let me get on.  So I stepped onto the bus, put down my extra tote (where I carry my books, makeup, necessary toiletries, etc.) and mimed to the driver that I was going to get my suitcase.  As I was wheeling my suitcase from the broken bus to the new bus, the new bus took off.  This was not a happy moment for me, especially since the driver of the now-departed bus, along with all of the passengers, had seen me put a bag down.  I was screaming and cursing (hell, no one understood me anyhow) and yelling at driver #1 that my stuff was on the bus that had just left.  He seemed to think this was a regrettable, but unsolvable problem, but I kept yelling and pointing at his cell phone until he started making some calls.  Ultimately another bus came and picked us all up for the continued trip and I was given to understand that the bus which had my bag would be waiting for us.  I had some serious doubts about this, but miracle of miracles, half an hour later, there was the bus and there was my bag, so happy ending for me.

The only thing worth seeing in Kampong Chhnang is the floating village.  But that was incredibly worth seeing.  It was all so picturesque.  And I happened to be there in the afternoon so the light was perfect and even the clouds cooperated.  Photos can be viewed at flickr.com/photos/myranee for those who have forgotten.

Then on to Phnom Penh.  Once again it was one of those places that I loved, but not everybody does.  Big city, lots of traffic, no traffic rules or regulations (at least none that anybody follow).  Did some hotel hopping which I never do, but couldn’t manage to find a place that I liked for the right price.  So I sampled different neighborhoods and that was interesting.  Went to Tuol Sleng Museum(this was a high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a famous/infamous prison which, I believe, only 7 people survived) and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (where they took the dead from Tuol Sleng to dispose of, and executed the ones who were still alive).  At the end of the day somebody asked me if I had had a nice day.  “Nice” was not exactly the operative word.  Can you go to Cambodia and skip witnessing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge?  I don’t think so.  I think we must all bear witness.  Bigger question- will we ever learn from these atrocities?  Doesn’t seem that way.

The most amazing part of it is that so many of the Cambodians today (at least anyone born before 1979) have memories of the Khmer Rouge.  And yet the Cambodians are some of the loveliest, friendliest people I have met.  I took to calling it “The Land of Hello”  because everywhere I went people said hello to me.  Even when they weren’t trying to sell me something or ask for money.  They were just being friendly.  (In a lot of my pictures it looks like people are holding a hand in front of their faces- this is what it looks like when you try to photograph people who are constantly waving hello.)

Also have to talk about my friend Long.  I met Long in Pakse, Laos.  He is Cambodian and went to Laos on vacation.  He was staying in the same hotel as me and we met in the hotel roof top restaurant.  He speaks excellent English for a Cambodian and gamely joined in the dinner table conversation with 3 Americans and an Israeli.  Long has a veterinary degree from a university in Cambodia and is studying for his masters here while working for a company that sells a Thai-manufactured pig feed.  He is also supporting his mother and 3 younger siblings who are all in school.  Long is trying to improve his English and would like to pursue a higher degree in public health.  His interest/goal(?) is to improve public health in Laos by helping to put into place some governmental standards for animal feed and the livestock industry in general.  From what I gathered from Long, there are none at present.  To make a long story short, Long needs help finding a scholarship for a foreign university so that he can pursue his studies and also support his family.  I have no connections in academia, but I am putting this out there to solicit ideas/help.  He’s a smart, motivated guy who will make his own way no matter what, but it would be great to help him.

So, to finish up Cambodia, I went from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, which is a beach town.  I had now hit the rainy season (and probably was getting the leftovers from the weather system that devastated Myanmar) and did not feel there was much point in staying in Sihanoukville in the rain.

Off to Kampot, a charming little town on the river.  Most interesting was the day trip which started off in Bokor National Park.  The most interesting aspect of Bokor is the ruins of the French elite who used to live there.  This included the casino which is intact on the outside and a lot of fun to wander through.  Our guide for the day told us about how he had seen his parents killed by the Khmer Rouge at the age of 19, following which he managed to escape into the jungle where he lived, without contact with any other humans, for a year until he was able to discover that the Khmer Rouge had been ousted.  (Just another day in Cambodia when it came to war stories.)

From Kampot to Kep, a pretty town on the beach- although hardly a developed “beach town” like Sihanoukville.  Unfortunately, this being off season, Kep was pretty deserted so it was time to move onto Vietnam.  Next time.

After a month long hiatus (from blogging, not traveling) I think I am ready to start again. This is basically for the 10 faithful followers who have asked me to keep writing.

I write now from Dalat in the Vietnamese interior. At the moment I am obsessing on visa issues. I bought the expensive 3-month multiple entry visa in New Zealand. It is good from March 1 through June 1. Unfortunately, when I got to Thailand I decided to head north instead of east and then continued on a slow tour through Laos and Cambodia. Thus, I didn’t enter Vietnam until May 10. This left me 3 weeks in Vietnam of which I have now used up almost 2 and have not even made it to the center of Vietnam. Supposedly it was easy to get a one month visa extension, but I have discovered that that applies only to the 30-day tourist visa. So now I am working at getting a 2-week extension to my visa. Oops. Either I will have my extension in a few days, or I will be scooting out of Vietnam faster than hoped.

During my “writer’s strike” I spent about three weeks in Cambodia which I loved. Here’s the quick update:

Siem Reap- home of Angkor Wat. Spent 4 days there, 3 at the temples. Take a thesaurus, look up magnificent or unbelievable, and then just apply all of the words and you will have a semi-apt description of Angkor Wat. Also got my first intro to Cambodian traffic which makes being a pedestrian challenging to say the least. Siem Reap is mostly a tourist town which is a bit sad. The temples are managed by the Vietnamese (under a 99-year lease) and I am not sure how much of the money filters down to the Cambodians. There are about a zillion hotels in town, with another million under construction. It is hard to imagine how all of these hotels make money. I am told there are a lot of package tours from Asia. This is even sadder since it means that the tourists fly in on a foreign airline, pay for a foreign-owned hotel, take a tour package to view the ruins and then leave. Cambodia is worth more than a pit stop.

Gotta run- my Easy Rider will be here soon. Will pick this up.