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Angkor WHAT!
So The Ron and I hit the road a few days ago for Seim Reip, which is home to Angkor watt, the largest religious ruins in the world.
We woke up early, or early enough to pack the bags that we should've done the night prior; Partly, due to the alcohol from the previous night's festivities.
The bus ride was scenic, but its 7 hours weren’t a huge highlight of the day. It’s nice to see the country side, the rice fields, the little towns, and the people living outside of PP. We had few stops along the way, basically for bathroom trips and snacks from locals. Our English friend, James told us about the fried Tarantula like spiders for sale. He was offered one, so he felt obligated to except. Something about this intrigued the Ron, I could see. On the first bus stop I see him walking back from one of the food stalls, holding this black thing. He didn’t make it past two of the legs. This is a guy that at one point would refuse to eat veggies, but had no problem buying a dead fried spider at some dodgy Cambodian rest stop - When in Rome I guess.
When we finally got into Seim Reip, we had a great tuk tuk driver waiting for us with a sign “Mr. Dylan Quirt,” which the hotel in PP had arranged. We talked about hotels with in our budget and he took us around until we found something that was available, while meeting our standards.
We liked the Tuk Tuk driver so much, we made arrangements for the following day at Angkor Watt - 8 am sharp!
Later on that evening I went into town to talk to a travel agency about my options for my next leg. This isn’t very exciting, but basically I had screwed myself, by not getting my Visa for Nam in PP. I just figured that like PP, it could be processed in Seim Reip, then I could fly direct from Seim Reip to Saigon. I also, as I usually do, lost track of what day it was - it was Friday night, which meant that government offices would be closed till Monday. I also found out that they had to send my passport to PP to be processed, so I was looking a LONG wait, if I was going to go from Seim Reip to Nam. At this point I really had no idea what I was going to do. Not that I was worried, worst case scenario, I’d go back to PP with Ron and have it processed there, and have to wait, or make a day trip some where, if I wanted a break from evils of PP. ok, so my biggest problem really was where do I go and hang out. I know, it’s a tough world, but what can you do.
The next morning, bright and early we hit the road; Me, The Ron, and Sun, or trusty Tuk Tuk driver. The admission fee for the Angkor is pretty expensive, by Cambodian standards. Since the Ron was on limited time, we thought we’d just try to cram as much in during that day was we could. I was leaning more and more towards getting seim reip out of the way, as the rainy season wasn’t providing for much outdoor time, and thought maybe back to PP with the Ron, and maybe a beach for a day or two, while the visa goes through. Whatever.
So we arrived at Angkor Watt - WOW. This place is huge!!!! Truly, it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. The detail in the carvings, the size and shear power of this place is mind blowing. Much like the Killing Fields, my words wont due it justice. One thing that I was surprised with was that there was little supervision. It’s a very interactive site. You can touch things, climb rocks, and go through stone windows frames. You don’t have a bunch or people say do this or don’t do this; you pay your $20, and you go where every you want. If you want to climb up stairs that are crumbling, feel free, just mind the sign that says “climb at own risk.” Flip flops and wet stones, what a great combo.
We milled around the place for awhile, snapping away, trying to avoid the bus loads of Koreans or Germans that would occasionally walk thru our frame lines.
From there we headed to yet another impressive, but not as massive site. We continued to snap, and climb, and sweat. The humidity was high, which was a good sign of rain to come. All of a sudden we see Sun, our driver come running out, with an umbrella, and what looks like the Ron’s rain jacket. Then it was as if God decided to take a piss, and the rain drops which are enormous hailed down faster then I have ever seen. The amount that came down in the 30 minutes was amazing.. We were soaked, but continued to push along. Sun’s efforts to bring the umbrella and jacket earned him a $5 tip at the end of the day.
We visited the third site, which may look familiar if you’ve seen Tomb Raider (how sad, that TOMB RAIDER is how we can identify this site). With the trees and roots growing in and out, and through the stones, and walls it was impressive; a true sign that nature will always beat man.
More Rain, even worse then before. The God’s must have been drinking beer or something, because it was relentless. It didn’t stop, and the drops seem to be larger and larger. We took shelter under a tree then a rock, but it was useless…..we were completely soaked, and just said fuck it, lets go for it. We saw the final site of the day, which was impressive, to say the least. The mix of nature and man made structures was a true highlight.
At this point, completely soaked, and exhausted, we headed back to the hotel to shower, and freshen up a bit. I’d been craving Indian food, and had seen a pretty fancy place in town the previous night, so we went out big. What sealed the deal for the place was that it had REAL INDIANS eating in it! Korma, Chicken Tikka, garlic nan, fried chicken bits, Riata (Ron didn’t forget the Riata), samosa’s….we had it all, and it was hands
Down one of the best meals I have had on this trip. Who thought that Cambodia would have some of the best Indian dishes on the planet.
From there we headed to a bar for a few drinks for our last night in town. I had decided that at this point I was going back to PP with the Ron, for the visas, and may head to a beach while that was being taken care of.
We found a nice bar, that didn’t seem to be over run by “bar girls.” As usual we found ourselves at the pool table with a few drinks in hand. It only takes a few minutes to be approached by some “bar girls and a trannie. The two girls, and a trannie wanted to play pool with us, so we obliged, and hit some balls around (no pun intended). I have never seen such pool hustling skills as I have with the 17 year old bar girls of Cambodia. I feel like I should fly them to Vegas, and just have them hustle with pool cues rather then their bodies, which I am sure would pay much better. The Ron went to the bar at one point to get a drink. I didn’t see him for awhile, until finally I saw him chatting up some western girl - GO THE RON! I continued to play pool, hoping that Ron’s power move would come through. I also had to step out to make yet another phone call to the unemployment department - this is getting really old. So I come back to the bar, to the same table I’d been at, and talk to the hustling girl real briefly. It was at this point that this douche bag piece of shit English fuck (who is big, drunk, bald, and around 40) comes up to me and says “she’s fuckin mine, you get the fuck out of here.” I explain that I am just shooting pool, with light conversation, and make my way to the back end of the bar. In typical Dylan fashion, I wanted to say, “he fuck head, I am not here to pay for sex, like you, you bald piece of shit,” but I felt that this would’ve been an invitation for a serious beat down. This guy was Wasted drunk, and was looking for a fight. I explained to the girl what had happened and told her I don’t want any trouble. She continued to talk to me, which of course brought my intoxicated English friend over to my face, about 4 inches from it exactly. “I thought I fuckin told you!!!!”
At this point I’m not willing to get my ass kicked for ego or a bar girl. I see Ron still talking to the girl, so I don’t want to ruin his potential power move of the evening, I tell him, "I need to go right now, I will explain in the AM - good luck."
Who says I am a vindictive little prick. On the way out of the bar I tell the security guard that there is a man in there who was threatening me, and I believe he has a gun or knife (which was a bit of fiction, or loose speculation, if you will). I pointed him out to the guard. I didn’t expect him to go to jail or anything, but maybe karma (or my vindictive ways) would be a hassle for him later that evening.
On the way back to the hotel I told the tuk tuk driver about it, and he said to me “do you want to kill him?” I had read that the going rate for a hit in Cambodia 10 years ago was $200. needless to say I said no, I don’t - I just want to make sure that he doesn’t hurt people, and gave him an extra buck to make sure that the guard would see to it. The way he asked me about a potential hit was very serious, yet casual in way, like it was something of the norm.
The next day we were going back and forth on weather to take the early or later bus, or a taxi for a bit more. I wanted to get back to PP, to deal with the visa, and The Ron had some last minute shopping before his early morning flight the next morning. We decided that we’d take a taxi, which was more money ($25 more) and very scenic, especially riding shotgun. I was even able to plug in my ipod, and highjack the stereo for the next 4 hours. The thought of 4 hours of Cambodian pop music is enough to drive one mad.
Back in PP, I was racing around trying to get passport photos and visa stuff together, while The Ron strolled through the markets. My plan at this point was to head south to the beach for 2 days, while the visa went through, but heard that the beach had been getting A LOT of rain. So, once again things were up in the air, and decided to leave the decision until the next morning, flying by the seat of my pants.
We went out that night, had a few good bye to The Ron drinks, and made our way back. I woke up feeling like shit (not hung over but just run down) and decided with the lack of energy and potential rain, I’d spend the next two day resting in PP.
The Ron flew back to Thailand. I got this email from him yesterday.
“Hey, so I glad that we took a taxi to PP. I met two Aussies on my plane to CM. They were riding the bus from SR, like we were going to. About an hour outside PP they had an accident. A truck coming in the opposite direction was carrying a bulldozer. And part of the bulldozer was hanging over the edge of the truck. That part slashed through the side of the bus. Injuring 6 people. Two of them died. The Aussie said an old grandma Cambodia, her flesh was gone from her arm and all you could see was her bone. She was in shock trying to use her cell phone to call for help. A grandpa with his grandson had his stomach slashed open and his guts were hanging out. He died twenty minutes later. A man had his leg chopped off at the knee. It was stuck in the bus. They don’t know what happened to him. And there were some other injuries. They waited there for about an hour, No ambulance came at all. They had to have a flatbed truck take the injured people to PP, they don’t know if they died enroute or not. He just saw two people die in front of him. He said the police showed up 45 minutes after the accident.”
Wow, is all I can say - the $25 extra for the cab paid off. It wasn’t meant to be, us on that bus. I am going to leave it at that.
Rested and feeling better, should have my Nam visa today, book a flight for tomorrow and off to Saigon.
I have posted more pics in the gallery, feel free to check them. Look for the GALLERY icon, some people said they had problems finding it, but then again, that’s just marc hammer, and he makes less money then I do because he can’t 8 perf splice.
-d.
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Dad
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Being a Dad
That's it Dylan Quirt your grounded! The world is too dangerous to be out in it. Report to your closet where you'll be safely locked away. Love Dad