Blogs from Siem Reap, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 194

Squealing pigs flash by... on the back of a Honda! Dang! That's good! Live pigs! Not easy to get them up there I bet. Side by side... How do they do it??? Train them from when they are wee little porkers? Sure, that's it... pig training school....teach them to jump up on the board spanning the back seat, lie down, roll on their backs, extend fore legs and distend rear legs, then you just tie them down... No problem, pigs are smart, the right motivation I suppose they learn fast. Or, you could just feed them a bunch of marijuana the evening before... at least that is what one inquisitive traveler told me. Makes sense, I'd have tried valium but then the weed would be just that, here a-bouts. In Siem Reap everything gets packed on ... read more

At last! Jeff and I had reached the apex of our journey, Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat. Among all the places to go in Southeast Asia, visiting Angkor Wat was at the top of my to-see list. Angkor Wat lived up to all my expectations with its beauty and grandeur. Others may disagree with my opinion, in fact I am sure many do, due to the influx of tourists and expectations too high. I guess Jeff and I timed it right, meeting little crowds and felt as if we were the few lucky people to wander in and around these temples. Angkor Wat was spectacular. Definitely ranks up there, if not surpassing the temples of Ayutthaya, the Vatican, and the temples of Kyoto. Our journey began early on New Year’s day. We zipped ... read more

Phnom Penh Maybe I should explain the bizarre and wayward travel plan thus far. The reason I headed down south straight away was ‘cos I met the lads, and frankly I needed some social interaction! Once up in Chiang Mai I could have traveled over to Laos much simpler, but my ticket to Cambodia was prebooked and I didn’t want to waste my cash! Anyway, I arrived into Phnom Penh, (Cambodia’s capital) on 28th December. At the airport taxi rank I met an old Swedish chap who seemed to know what was going on, and I bundled into a taxi with him. Grabbing a pair of rooms at the OK Guesthouse, I had a nap and wandered round the city. Phnom Penh is by far the poorest place I’ve been so far, so much begging. Generally, ... read more

Cambodia has been a whirlwind tour for me. I’m hopping to cram in Myanmar before I head home in a few weeks so Cambodia had to be fast tracked. I’m leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, which means that I’ve been in this crazy country for about 9 days, including Christmas! The people here have been wonderful to me and I’ve learned about 4 Khmer words while I’ve been here (hello, good-bye, thank you and good luck), yet locales are entirely too impressed. This says a lot about foreigners who come here and don’t bother trying to learn even a tiny bit of the language. I remember hanging out with 2 Dutch girls in Laos who actually got angry because our waitress didn’t speak English fluently. Well, her English was much better than the girl’s Laos. ... read more

George's friend Marie lives in Siem Reap and works for Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC). She does the marketing and fund raisers for the hospital. She took us on a tour through the Angkor Hospital for Children and then to a local orphanage. This was a much different day then being a tourist at the temples. Since 1999, the Angkor Hospital for Children has been serving the medical needs of the children of Siem Reap Province and providing training to Cambodian doctors and nurses. The hospital has outpatient and inpatient services, basic surgery, 24-hour emergency service, dental care, and pediatric medical training. Under the ruling of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, health facilities were destroyed and many of Cambodia's medical professionals were killed among the estimated two million murdered, others escaped to the West, never to ... read more