Day 256: Ream National Park

The majority of us went on a tour of Ream National Park for our second day in Sihanoukville. Despite the van we were travelling in already been quite full, we still found room to fit Roger in for the ride with us (Roger, you'll remember, is a large inflatable dinosaur). We drove to the river at the edge of the park then took a boat along the river, surrounded by mangrove forests.

The boat stopped in a small village, and we walked through a few farms and outlying buildings as we headed towards the woods. Near the edge of the woods was a small Christian school, and the park guide's reaction to it gives a little insight into religion in Cambodia. He described it as follows. "This is the school by the Christians to advertise the Jesus god. You know the Jesus god?" Now, there's a few things going on here. Using the word advertising to describe missionary work is amusing, but probably pretty accurate. The more interesting part is calling Jesus a god (also, true, by Christian beliefs, but not as I'm sure our guide meant it) and especially just treating him as just one more god among many that the Christians happen to worship. Cambodia is almost entirely Buddhist, at least on paper, but we got a bit deeper insight on how they treat religion back when we were in Siem Reap. Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple, and despite it later being converted, there are still a lot of Hindu statues in it. What's more, all the local Buddhist villagers will go to pray at the Hindu statues. They go to pray for good luck, good crops, healthy children, and for them it's just the process of praying and giving an offering that matters, and the actual god it's directed at isn't all that important. On our travels we saw a mix of Buddhism, Hinduism, Animism and, apparently the Jesus god, all, for the most part, practiced by the same people claiming the same religion.

We walked for maybe half an hour through the woods with our local guide pointing out different plants and animals. The beach itself, when we got to it, was beautiful. We were practically the only people there, and a few hours of swimming, walking along the beach and lying in the sun was a nice way to spend the afternoon. The guys running our tour also brought a picnic-style lunch that was delicious as well.

The final two stops were brief. First we went out to a waterfall in the area, but we didn't stay long enough to really do anything there. Last, we stopped by the road to give our picnic leftovers to some local monkeys. I don't know where the monkey got a hold of the red bull from - it wasn't from us - but I wasn't above taking pictures of it!

Day 255: By the Seashore

Our final destination in Cambodia was the beach town of Sihanoukville. After all the long bus rides and busy days it was a nice way to end things with a few days relaxing by the sea. Since Sihanoukville was only a few hours from Kampot, we had the entire afternoon to ourselves. After a short rest and some lunch at the hotel a group of decided to head to the beach. Our hotel was near the stretch called Serendipity Beach, which wasn't really all the pleasant. The beach was narrow and covered with bars and lounge chairs, and was really just too crowded for my tastes. We went on a lengthy walk along the beach looking for a better place to relax, and eventually came to Otres Beach. Here there was more sand, less people, and overall it was a much nicer area. We spent a little time swimming but mostly just sat around drinking and talking and enjoying the day.

We had dinner at one of the many restaurant/bars along the beach. I had the barbecue seafood special which consisted of barracuda, tiger prawns, calamari, a baked potato and some coleslaw for a whole $4. I washed that down with a bucket (literally) of rum and coke - also $4. Since we were going on another tour the following morning I decided to take it easy and head back to the hotel before it got too late, but some of the group were more adventurous. From the bits and pieces I later heard / saw, their night included lots of neon paint, a tuk-tuk driver that got terribly lost, and an inflatable dinosaur named Roger.

Day 254: Kampot

From the capital we headed south towards the coast, stopping at the town of Kampot. Kampot is most famous for its pepper and salt, both of which you have to leave town to see. To accomplish this, we hired a local company to give us a tour through the countryside to see some of the interesting spots of the area. Overall, the tour was probably my least favourite of the trip. The bus wasn't very comfortable, or air conditioned, and the distances between the stops compared to how long we spent at most of them really didn't make it feel worthwhile. That being said, there were still some points of interest along the way.

The first stop was at the salt flats where they harvest salt. Nobody was around working when we were there, so it was mostly just stopping by some sheds where they stored salt, and, at least for me, not terribly interesting. Next was a visit to some hills with caves, and this caught my attention somewhat since I always enjoy a good cave. The parking spot was a good distance away, and as we pulled in we were joined by a talkative group of young kids who came along for the company. Since I haven't explicitly mentioned it yet, the children in Cambodia are the most wonderful of any country I've been. In some of the touristy areas they can be a bit of a pain pestering you and trying to guilt you into buying things, but for the most part they are all very friendly and just seem full of happiness. On our bicycle and motorbike trips through the countryside you get a constant stream of children droppng whatever they are doing and rushing out towards you waving madly and yelling "Hello! Hello!" (including, in at least one case, jumping out of a bath and running down the laneway way dressed only in soap bubbles). The ones we met in Kampot were among the best. Some spoke very good english, and all were friendly and helpful, wanting to point out things and trying to take over the tour guide's role. Best of all - they never once asked for or expected anything, which is refreshing after being badgered most of the way through Asia. The caves were part way up the hill, so we had to climb some steps which gave us a good view of the surrounding farmland.

The part of the cave we had easy access to wasn't all that deep, but it had a nice atmosphere as the light shone in from the entrance and the children were eager to point out all the animal shapes hidden in rock formations.

Our next stop was a very brief one at a small fishing village on the river. This was followed by another long drive to get to the pepper farm. The guide gave us a bit of an explanation at each place, but none of it was anything I couldn't easily just look up on my own, and it would have been nice to have a bit more of a walkthrough by the people who actually worked at each place, or at least a bit more interesting information.

The restaurant the group was going to for dinner was another solid drive away, and after spending all afternoon uncomfortable in the van I just didn't feel like more time travelling so I just stayed in town for the evening.

Day 253: The Killing Fields

Our group was in pretty rough shape in the morning. Quite a few people had been ill for much of the entire trip, either because of food, or travel, or malaria medication. On top of that, those of us who had spent the previous night out drinking were all still somewhat drunk, or very hung over in the morning. All combined, not really the ideal condition to spend a day out in the heat hearing about the years of torture and murder by the Khmer Rouge.

We all felt that it was an important part of Cambodia's history and that the subject deserved our respect attention, so we all trooped out to Tuol Seng Prison (aka Security Prison 21). I was in much better shape than many of the group, but all the stories and imagery of the abuse, torture and murder that went on was still pretty overwhelming. In many ways it was a more vivid reminder than going to Auschwitz was, since it's much more recent and the site was preserved almost exactly as it was abandoned when the Vietnamese invaded to halt the genocide. Two of our group had to return back to the hotel before we finished the tour of the prison, and the rest of us were in a pretty quiet mood.

I'm not really sure how much to see about the Cambodian Genocide. The Khmer Rouge Communist Party came into power in Cambodia in 1975. They forced everybody out of all urban areas, tortured and killed anybody they thought might be educated or part of any resistance, and forced the rest to work in labour camps. Over the 3 years, 8 months, 20 days that the Khmer Rouge were in power, over 2 million people died (half by execution, half by starvation and disease in the camps), and the country's population had been cut nearly in half. Losing half the population of a country in less than 4 years is just insane, and the impact is still being felt now, as 50% of Cambodia's population now is 20 years old or younger. It's easy to forget what they went through when you wander around the country, but it's sobering to realize that virtually every adult you see lost a parent or sibling during this period.

Next we went out of town to one of the many killing fields spread throughout Cambodia. These were the sites where people were brought in truckloads for execution. Now the area is something of a memorial and quite peaceful. Most of the mass graves have been excavated, but each rainy season more bones and pieces of clothing get revealed in the mud.

We had the afternoon free, but most of us didn't venture anywhere too far off. I walked around the surrounding area for awhile and spent some time at the big central market, but spent the majority of the evening in the hotel resting.

Day 252: Phnom Penh Night Out

Our morning bus journey wasn't quite so long this time, and we got into the capital city, Phnom Penh early afternoon. After being to so many small towns being in an actual real city felt a little strange. We got a cyclo-tour (similar to a bicycle rickshaw) around some of the main sights of the city, including the temple Wat Phnom, the Independence Monument and the Royal Palace.

We stopped for dinner by the riverside at a place that was rather western, both in food and in price, but was absolutely delicious. I had a hamburger, which I realize isn't terribly traditional, but you have to cheat every now and then. To the best of my memory it is the third best hamburger I've had since I left home. The evening also involved a good amount of drinking. At the restaurant I had a lychee martini and some coconut/banana mixed drink, then ended up downing a strawberry daquiri and almost an entire pitcher of mojito that some of the girls had bought and been unable to finish when we were leaving. After dinner a group of us visited a variety of bars, including one with some live music and a vinyl bar playing 70s music. At some point in the night while we were riding in some tuk-tuks we had a swarm of street kids jump on the back to chat with us and steal a ride. For grubby little street kids some of them were pretty educated. One little girl I was speaking to in english asked me where I was from. When I told her Canada, she asked me if I spoke french - in french. We then continued our brief discussion in french until we got to our bar and they all hopped off, laughing and running off. I stuck to beer for the rest of the night, but we were all pretty drunk by the time we got back to the hotel.

Day 251: Biking on the Bamboo Bridge

The hotel was equally impressive with their breakfast service. The menu was short and simple, but the staff kept bringing out things nobody ordered, and couldn't communicate at all when we tried to explain the problem. The plain egg omelette I ordered, when I finally did get it, was pretty good, it just took me almost an hour of discussing it with the staff and waiting to get it.

Once we'd all finally eaten, we were read to begin our bike tour. Since the trip so far had involved a lot of sitting in buses I was happy to have a chance to spend a few hours on a bicycle getting some exercise. Our tour was to cover a nearby island of farms, but to get there we first had to bike across a long bride made entirely of bamboo.

The ride over the bridge was bumpy, but certainly a unique crossing. On the island we had a variety of terrain as we went from biking on paved roads to stretches of sand to dirt roads full of huge pot holes and mud. On most of the island people were busy working in the fields, almost everything being done by hand or with ox ploughs.

After we got back it was time to get back on the road again to head to Kratie, around 4 hours away. After checking in at Kratie we got on another shuttle to drive us a good distance to the river where we got a sunset boat ride to watch for rare Irrawaddy dolphins. The dolphins were everywhere, but really tricky to photograph. They tended to only come up for a second or so - not long enough to find them with a camera and focus. I gave it a few solid attempts, but got nothing terribly clear.

Fortunately it was a clear day out this time, and the setting sun was a much more accomodating subject than the dolphins were.

Day 250: The Road to Kampong Cham

The drive to Kampong Cham was a long one. We had a few stops along the way, first at an old stone bridge and later at a silk weaver's for lunch.

The silk shop is run by a former American soldier who fought in Vietnam, then came to Cambodia afterwards to try to do something positive in the area. He ended up staying in the country and getting married, and after a few different jobs helping people disabled by bombs and landmines now runs a healthy silk weaving business employing local women. In addition to walking us through the process of the business we also had a rather delicious lunch prepared by his wife.

When we finally got to Kampong Cham, the hotel was a bit of a disaster. My room was run down and had some water dripping in the washroom, but was otherwise fine. Other people weren't so fortunate and there was a range of issues from rats to broken air conditioning to flooding. There was an optional bicycle/motorbike tour we all wanted to do, but after discussing it decided to leave it for the morning since most of us were hot and tired. In the evening we went to the home of the man who would be guiding us for the bike tour for dinner. The food was good, but the highlight of the evening was the hyperactive young son of the household. His antics included such things as running around us in circles then suddenly stoppng, pulling off all of his clothing and leaving it in a pile in the middle of the room, then marching proudly out. The night also provided one of the stranger drinks I've managed so far. Our host brought out a jug of special alchohol that consisted of Cambodian wine with dead tarantulas fermenting in the bottom. It tastes about as one would expect (like strong alchohol with a muskiness I can only assume is decomposing tarantula), which makes me question why they drink it at all. Our young star made a splash here as well. His party trick is apparently to scoop out the dead spiders from the bottom of the jar and hold them in his mouth.

Delicious looking, isn't it?