Stilts, Caves, and the Cambodian Easy-Rider

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Whew...all that sightseeing at the temples...time for a break. That probably would have been a decent idea, but there was still more Cambodia to be seen before I had to make my way back to Thailand a few days later. So...off I went again.

The first stop wasn't far from Siem Reap...a flooded forest and stilt village on Tonle Sap Lake called Kompong Phhluk. There's another village on the lake that's easier to get to, but is apparently overrun with tourists. And after the temple experience, I was ready to get to somewhere a bit more remote.

It turned out that the only other people eating breakfast at the same time at the guesthouse that morning were also heading to the same place. So we hopped in a tuk-tuk and began the journey.

The fun began when the rain started and we all had to put on our ponchos...but still no big deal at this stage. Then we turned off the main road and began heading down an unpaved road through a series of small villages. The rain picked up the pace. The going got slower and slower as the road quality got worse and worse...eventually our driver pulled off to the side and said we couldn't go any further in the tuk-tuk. He detached the trailer from his moto and recruited a couple other locals with their motos. We each hopped on one and took off again down the bumpy & muddy road toward the lake happily splashing through puddle after puddle.

After several kilometers (averaging 5-10km/hr max) of successfully not falling into the rivers on either side of the road, we came to the end of the moto portion of our journey. Now we had the joy of negotiating a minimally extortive (is that a word?) rate with a boat driver to take us the rest of the way. I think we only mildly succeeded in this effort and believe that we set the rate for those that followed the rest of the day.

In any case, we took off down a narrow passage through the trees and eventually made our way to the stilt village. The reason this place is on stilts is that Tonle Sap Lake does something like triple in size during the rainy season and the village becomes flooded. I think the photos do the best job of describing what the place looked like. Basically we wandered down a really muddy street while all the locals looked at us. Only saw 4 or so other tourists there that day...which was nice after the 3 days of Angkor Wat tourist overload.

The following day I boarded a couple more honk-happy busses and made my way back to Phnom Penh and then to Kampot (near the coast) the day after. The joy of the bus to Kampot was that a 4 year old kid hurled on my foot and then spent the remaining 4 hours hurling and peeing into a plastic bag that his grandfather held out for him. I could have done without...but really it's just humorous to me thinking back on it.

The goal of Kampot was to visit some caves in the limestone landscape that surrounds the town. I arrived at noon, headed to a place to rent a moto and hit the road. Similar to the Mazda in New Zealand, it was great to have the freedom to go where I wanted for an afternoon. Cruising down the road along the coast with the sun shining, my cameras strapped to me and "Born to be Wild" (yeah...I'm a dork, I know) running through my head...I was happy as could be.

First up was Phnom Chhnork - a cave containing a 7th century brick temple. I turned off the main road and started the adventure of trying to figure out where the heck I was supposed to stop. Basically the plan is to find a local kid to be a guide to the caves...I managed to stop 5km too soon, but there were about 10 kids who surrounded me each touting their guide skills. I struck a deal with one and he hopped on the bike and we cruised another 5 mins or so until he told me to stop.

Here another swarm of kids tried to get in on the deal and a few followed as we headed out into the rice fields towards a hill containing the cave. I had also agreed to pay one kid 1000riel ($0.25) to keep an eye on the bike...I figured this was useless, but would at least perhaps keep them from messing with it.

We got to the caves and I naturally spent way more time than most would due to my shutter-happy habit. The little temple was indeed in great condition for a 1300 year old structure and the natural cave formations were fairly entertaining as well. But the real fun for me was wandering around with these kids through the rice fields far away from anything that resembled a tourist area.

We made it back to the bike and I paid the security guard kid his 1000r...only to realize that the starter button was partially busted off. I tried to yell at him, but he just smiled and tried to explain in broken English that he had no idea what I was talking about. Not really having anything I could do about it, I picked up the broken piece and headed off. About 2 mins down the road I saw some rice farmers that I wanted a photo of, so I stopped the bike. When I finished my photos 2 minutes later, the bike wouldn't start. After trying to kick-start, push-start, curse-start, etc...I figured I'd look to see if anything else was missing. It turned out that the gas valve was turned off. The little punk not only busted my starter button, but he also turned off the fuel line. It ticked me off, but since no real harm was done it also amused me a bit.

The next cave was called Phnom Sorsia and was somewhat less interesting. There was a stalactite formation that is said to look like a white elephant head...yeah...sorta. There was also a formation that was said to look like 100 rice fields...yeah...sorta. There was supposed to be something else to see, but my kid-guide claimed we were done & I figured that based on what I had seen already at this one, there wouldn't be much else to be seen anyway.

I had been told to not expect too much from the caves...and that was fairly accurate, but it still made for a great afternoon that differed greatly from what I'd been doing recently. Despite the day involving a kid hurling and peeing...a couple of the worst meals I've had in a while...and frantically trying to transfer money between accounts to cover my mortgage payment the next day...it was one of the best days I've had in a long time.

This day marked the end of my Cambodian experience as in the morning I needed to head back to Thailand for the 2nd leg of my Thai experience. A few final Cambodian comments:

- They all answer the phone with "hello" here. This amuses me.

- I've seen more French here than previous places I've been. To some extent this makes sense because it used to be a French colony. But on the other hand...because it was a French colony, the Khmers don't really like the French much...yet they still come here.

- This country spent so much time being torn by war, that even now after over 10 years of no open fighting, there is still an element of fear that war will return. Considering the shady government and the fact that most people have lived their entire lives with war, I think this is an understandable fear...yet one that I (thankfully) can't relate to.

- As I think I've mentioned before, these people are impressive with their use of the motorbike. The best I saw was a family of 5 (including 2 under the age of 2) on one bike. When it's all you've got...you do what you can.

Well...it was only 10 days, but I've truly loved my time in Cambodia. It's loud, dirty, poor, only recently semi-stable, depressing at times, and generally chaotic...but somehow ended up being a great place to be. I'm not sure if it was the people, the different types of sites, or the less-developed tourist industry...in any case it was good. Though I hope the increased tourism helps out the Khmers, I hope it doesn't spoil the feel of the place.

If you're considering a trip to South East Asia...Thailand is typically the default location, but I suggest that you at least consider some time in Cambodia...and take some time to get a bit off the beaten path as I managed to in the last few days.

Now I'm off again on my way back to Thailand for a week with my parents in Phuket. More to come...

Marc

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Photos

Boat Ride to Stilt Village
Hmm...oncoming traffic on a one-lane street.

Stranded Boat on Main St.
This is one of those photos I wish I could go back and redo with more depth of field. Oh well...

HelloMoto
Get your motor running...head out on the highway...

Cave
This brick pagoda thingy is over 1000 years old, but is well preserved because it's in a cave.

Stilt Lady
I couldn't really tell if she was ticked at me for taking a photo...

At Least They Have TV...
What any normal family would be doing on a rainy day, right?

The Navy
well...not really.

Comments

[Andrea]

Something about this entry
Seeing the photos of the hanging gardens among the stilts is rather peaceful for some reason. After the jam-packed temple entry, this one was palpably more leisurely!