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Published: April 6th 2008
Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)
Miniture rock formations within the templeSo I have to dedicate part of this blog entry to Zak (the 34 year old from Manchester that I was swearing at in my head for being the cause of my wicked hang over on my journey to Cambodia)...but lets rewind a wee little bit.
After my last blog entry I met Zak (once an IT consultant turned bartender in the UK that now owns 3 properties in the UK...doing much better as a bartender) at one of the local restaurants in Bangkok and he was a pretty cool guy so we made plans to meet up and hit the town at night. He went off to get dental work done since the prices back in the UK are ridiculous for any kind of dental work compared to how much it is in Thailand, and I went off looking for a real gym to workout for the first time in almost a month (I know, I know I'm on vacation but its been detrimental watching my body waste away without the constant adrenaline rush coursing through my veins...sorry C had to mention it).
Anyways, I ventured off to an area of Bangkok that was only locals, no farangs
since the biggest gym in Bangkok was there and I wanted to get off the beaten track a bit. I have to tell you, this gym was massive, it had 5 huge floors of weights and I spent almost 4 hours there, I'm starting to think they do everything in Bangkok bigger and better. Right next door to the gym was yet another huge mall so I ventured in to get a hair cut which was probably one of the best I've ever gotten and cost me $6 after tip. I now understand why all the girls I've met have all at one point made appointments at salons in Bangkok to get everything done (what everything is, I don't know, and not sure I want to...these are things we guys shouldn't have to concern ourselves with 😉
So night comes, I meet up with Zak and the drinking begins. We went through numerous rum and cokes, 2 buckets of booze which were filled with rum, coke, and the Thai version of red bull which is just deadly, and to make matters worse we end up meeting 5 Slovenian girls who are bigger drinkers than us. Long story short the
night was filled with bars and random tuk tuks taking us to whatever bars were still open and ending up with the Slovanian girls giving us home cooked Slovenian food they brought with them on the trip (don't ask me how they got it on the plane). Time check when I get home 6am...time of departure for my bus to Cambodia 7am (not good!)...so needless to say I wasn't in the best shape for the 5 hour bus ride to the Cambodian border, the 1 hour line up through customs (which by the way you can actually bribe the customs agents to get through early by slipping them 300 bhat -> $10), then almost 4 of the worst hours of my life being squeezed in a taxi with 4 other people on the worst pot holed road from the Cambodian border into Siem Reap the home of the 8th wonder of the world, Angkor Wat.
By the way we found out that Thai Airlines has been bribing the Cambodian leader to not pave this treaturous road so that people will be forced to continue to fly (and pay whatever price the airlines choose) to avoid the road that everyone
has to endure by bus or taxi. Now after about 24 hours without sleep, mixed between not yet sober and hung over, I crashed and had a pretty rough night, leaving my first day in Cambodia with one mighty hang over (learning that hang overs don't truly kick in until after sleeping, no matter how long you wait) but still having an awesome time seeing the sights of magnificent Angkor Wat.
The 3 days I spent in Angkor Wat were simply amazing. There were about 7 of us that survived that journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap and we all hung out over the few days exploring the city. I have to say that though Thailand was great, the people in Cambodia are way better. They have so little but are just so content and happy. They still try to sell you anything and everything like in Thailand but they are nice about it, they smile, make jokes, and are unbelievable friendly. The weird thing about Siem Reap is that there is so much poverty (all dirt roads, kids everywhere selling you things, stray dogs), yet they are building massive luxurious hotels all over the place. The place that
I've been staying at was amazing clean, cable tv, hot water, and cost me $10 a night (and thats actually over paying here).
During the second day of the tour they took us to the land mine museum where we learned that there are still 5 million (no exaggeration) active mines still within Cambodia and the gov't expects to remove them all by 2015, but the locals think it'll really happen in 50 years from now. But the most amazing part is that 1 person has single handedly removed over 50,000 mines with his bare hands and his knife. He has become one of the local heroes, but here's the twist. At age 5 he started laying the mines that he has dedicated his life to remove. The guerrillas taught him how to plant them as a child and now as penance he is removing as many as possible. After the land mine museum we went to a gun range where we shot AK47s, which were incredible! They gave us headsets that once we put them on we couldn't hear anything, except when we started shooting, those guns have to make you go deaf without them on, plus the
recoil sends vibrations through your entire body. Now the guns we used must have been from the actual war since they looked pretty old, and jammed several times, plus you learn very quickly where to place your hand since the wrong position and the blistering hot empty shells that come blazing out of the gun easily graze your hand and fore-arm if it's not right under the gun. After a long day one of the 7 bought a burnt copy of the latest Rambo and we watched it on the outdoor tv of our restaurant...not a bad way to end a good day.
The last day was by far the highlight of my trip in Siem Reap...exploring the temples of Angkor Wat on horse back! If any of you go to Angkor you have to do this, don't worry they'll give you nice slow tame horses if you don't know how to ride but it's just you and your guide going to remote temples that are completely empty except for you exploring them. Since its been a while since I rode a horse I asked for a challenging horse...what better way to get back into the saddle 😉 They
gave me this mixed Arabian ex-race horse that had a lot of energy and liked to try to buck their riders but after a couple of attempted buckings and few minutes of riding I had him under control and on the bit (on the bit is when their head is perfectly perpendicular to the ground and neck is rounded ready to go where ever you take them). Its been far too long since I've been on a horse and absolutely nothing is more exhilarating then letting an ex-race horse go into a full out gallop while green lush rice fields and nearby rivers filled with water buffalo swimming in them rush by you. I had to slow down after awhile since my guide's horse couldn't keep up. On the trek we went through so many remote villages that were filled with children that kept running after us laughing and yelling "helllloooooooo". That was 2 hours of my life that I wouldn't trade for the world.
The next day I was off to Phnom Phen the bolstering hub and capital of Cambodia via a 5 hour bus ride and spent today seeing the killing fields where they have a monument
that has over 8000 skulls in it. But the most disturbing site was going to S-21 which was a high school turned prison where they tortured doctors, high ranking officials, women, and children before sending them to the killing fields to be executed if they actually survived the tortures. After the tour I was pretty close to be physically sick since they take you through the prison and original cells that still have the blood on the floors, beds, and tools they used as well as over 4000 pictures of the victims, most of them children and women. And the most disturbing was seeing the pictures of the guards who were children themselves from age 14 and up.
1 day in a major city hub has been enough for me...I can't wait to get off the beaten track again in Vietnam. Tomorrow, I'm crossing the border into Vietnam to meet up with Abi and Bianca again in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) and then I'm going to follow the advice of some Vietnamese couples I met at dinner about where to check out in their country.
I'm hoping I'll be able to find a better internet place
there to upload the videos and pictures I've taken.
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Jen
non-member comment
amazing
Dave - this was the most amazing entry yet. We all really miss you! Come home soon.