Dude in Cambdia -I-

Hello PEEPS!

Hope you are well and life/love/husbands/wifes/boyfriends/girlfriends/neighbours/fathers/mothers are treating you well- I think thats all covered.

I'm good, enjoying it all so far and still having those occasions where I think "OH MY BUDDHA, am I really here doing this now or what???" So hope you enjoy my latest Dude in reports.

I have to say it is difficult to do this on Hotmail so I will try to set up a blog and use www.travelblog.org, very undudelike of me but what the hell... Next time you will have to follow the link to read the Dude's updates...


Phnom Penhh 22-26th Sep 07, Ponleu Laar Guesthouse No1, Street 258, $5 s.r-ensuite
So I get here from my grueling but fantastic trip on the Mekong Delta and land at the centre at about 4pm. Never have I had so many moto drivers circle me like this before, but being a seasoned handler of these deadly snakes (there are friendly actually, just joking) I smile and politely refuse them all before selecting one nice guy to take me hostel hunting. For $1 dollar I view 4 hostels before checking into Ponleu Laar and jumping into a well deserved cold shower!

So Phnom Penh sights over the next few days, The Killing Fields, National Museum, Tuol Sleng Museum, various Wats (temples) riverfront, Royal Palace: all very exciting stuff. The Tuol Sleng Museum - which was a school converted into a secret prison used by S-21 (SAntebal) to interrogate, torture and murder Cambodian during the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot and the Killing Fields just outside town used for killings and mass graves was hair raising. Next to the Killing Tree, you can see clothes and bones sticking out of the ground - which has been left untouched..

26th -28 September Sihanouk Ville, G.S.T. Guesthouse Bungalow, $4 sr-ensuite
I decide to start Operation Cambodia Forever by looping the southern towns on the coast and getting back to Phnom Penh. So I take the 8:45am Capitol Tours bus for $3.75 for the 4 hour ride to Sihanouk Ville, 230km. The road is smoother than a newly waxed pair of legs and we get there quicktime. Once again, I pick out one from the swarm of moto drivers and he brings me to fabulous G.S.T. Guesthouse Bungalow, about 50meters from the beach. Two days of chilling out, swimming, sun bathing and having dinner the beach restaurants follows :0) .. They cook a mean steak and chips for $3.50 and seafood BBQ for about the same price..

28th September Sihanouk Ville to Kampot, Kampot Guesthouse s.r-ensuite $5.
I take a $4 dollar bus to Kampot, west of Sihanouk Ville on a very picturesque road to Kampot, 105km, a nice little town on the Tonle Sap river. The next day I do the main sight in town, Bokor Hill National Park, which is an old village set on top of a 1000meter mini mountain, completely deserted for a long time, resembling a ghost house. The tour also provides lunch; on top of the hill we had curry and rice while there were gale force winds blowing our plates around. However, there is no road up the hill, just a mountain track. We are 8 people sitting on the back of a pick-up truck on benches on each side. Each time we hit a pot hole, I fly up about a meter and land back on the bench. There is nothing you can do, just bounce, land on your but, take the pain, and pray to Buddha for a smaller bounce the next time. It took my bum cheeks and my back two days to recover. I am not joking, it is not funny.

30th September Kampot back to Phnom Penh (P.P)
Being the capital, P.P is the centre and the focal point of my travels. I get back there with a 3.5 hour bus journey, 150km $5 old rickety bus. The road is good though - no sore bum cheeks at the end. I stay one night in the same guesthouse (Ponlue Laar, $5 double rm, ensuite) and on 1st October, I take a $4 bus for 3 hours to Kampong Chhnang. This is part of my eastern and north eastern loop of Cambodia ending back in P.P...

1st October, Kampong Chhnang, Sokha Guesthouse (built like a prison), nice $4 twin room.
I take the 8am bus, about 3 hours, 91km for $4 ticket which I but from a mobile ticket booth in town... I realise that I was ripped off as I later find out the tickets to be only $1.75 from some people I meet on the same bus. The girl that sold me the ticket looked SOO honest and sweet, an angel - moral of story: never trust sweet & honest people... Get here at about 12, check in to Sokha after 40 minutes of looking at some other terrible guesthouses and go for lunch and then head straight to the Tonle Sap river at 2pm. Haggle with one of the boat drivers for an hours tour on the river to see the floating villages and get a deal for 1hour $3. Nice, but nothing new to me as I saw all this in the Mekong Delta! So I decide to leave the next day. You keeping up with me so far?

2nd October, 10:30bus to Battambang, $4, 4hours bumpy road, 200km, slightly bruised cheeks.
Get to Battambang and immediately surrounded by 5 moto drivers plugging different hotels. One guy, Lim looks like a cool dude so I go to his hotel, Hotel Chhayana, $4 double room en suite as always, with TV as always so I can watch the ALL THE PREMIERSHIP GAMES HAA HAA HAA :) . Anyhoo, agree with Lim that he will take me to the main sights on his moto for $8 - The killing caves, the bamboo train (fantastic!!) and a temple or two.. The Bamboo Train: abandoned railway tracks, wheels from old trains and 2 meter by 5 meter bamboo platform on the wheels and a small moped motor attached, excellent. All done by kids no more than 12-13 years old. We do about 40km/h I reckon. Anyhoo, not much else to do in Battambong or bang, so after chilling for 1 day on the 4th, on the 5th October, I decide to take a bus $5 8hours, about 300km to Siem Reap, where Cambodia's main attraction is - Angkor Wat, the mother of ALL TEMPLES on earth. Writing to you now fro Siem Reap!!


Cambodia is my favourite place so far: best food so far, people speak very good English, very friendly best of all, very CHEAP. The country pangs of poverty. Having said that, you can see it developing and people are happy just to have their freedom after such a long and bloody history!

More on Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Cambodians and a new feature to the Dude Publications "Dude's Infomercials” to follow later!!


Fotos:
Phnom Penh:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54105&l=c49e5&id=672660622
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54095&l=51d2b&id=672660622

Sihanouk Ville & Kampot
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55219&l=5032b&id=672660622

Kampong Chhnang:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55905&l=aacf4&id=672660622

Battambang:
http://www.facebook.com/album.phpaid=56135&l=38f33&id=672660622

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