Battambang

Got up at 6am and caught a bus from Siem Reap to Battambang... got here about 2pm.

A TukTuk driver picked me up from the bus and took me to a guesthouse which I have heard about... Pretty good rooms, with cable TV. I sat up last night and watched movies for hours... first time I have done that for quite a while.

The TukTuk drivers here wait out the front of the Guesthouse and try and take you to a tourist location everytime you walk out. I keep telling them I don't want to see touristy stuff... I don't think they understand.

This is a couple of fellows taking their cattle across the river here in Battambang...

And a picture from the other side of the river looking into town...

Siem Reap 3

Siem Reap 3 .. hmmm... maybe I have been here too long!!!

I hired a grandma bike (with Basket, carrier and dynamo on the wheel) and went for a bike ride ... ended up covering around 80kms.
I went to see more temples about 18kms to the east.
Took a couple of pictures on the way.
A farmer...A girl playing in the park...Some kids playing on the river bank...I finally got to the temples.
This is part of the Ro Lous group of temples...
I had a hassle with the guy at the front checking day passes. Mine was expired.
He told me I couldn't go in, so I said OK and walked out. I was taking pictures out the front and the fellow came and told me I couldn't take pictures either.. I told him I could take pictures and I will. I walked out to the street and took more pictures and he came out very upset. He called on his radio to the people at the next temple and they were ready for me there. When I got there a guy came up and stood in front of me and the temple to block my view.. not that I worried.. I had already taken some pictures around the corner out of their sight.
They were not that spectacular anyway, they had scaffolding all around them for renovation..
I then rode the bike south for a bit and the further east and then to the north. A lot of the people in this back area were really nice, nearly all of them were waving and saying hello as I rode my bike past.. they would not see a lot of tourists through this region.. was really nice. I got back to the main highway and the started my way back to town having lunch on the way.
While eating my fried rice and veggies for lunch I had to take a photo of this guy driving his car around the corner...
He mustn't have had enough room in his boot for his spare tyre.

As I was heading back to my guest house for a rest I saw an English couple who were just hiring their bikes. They asked me to join them on a ride south to the lake, I said OK silly me after I have just ridden 50k's. Got to the lake and there were people in all sorts of housing there.
Boats...

Floating houses...
Interesting area.
we rode back to the guest house late in the afternoon and I had a couple of beers and relaxed a bit.

Went out to a place where they had some Khmer dancers...The carvings in the temples show the dancers really twist their feet and toes and fingers a lot and also they do not cover their belly. These girls had their belly's covered... how disappointing!!!

Siem Reap 2

I met a Cambodian fellow down by the river... he could speak French and couldn't speak English.. My French vocabulary is very limited but we sort of spoke for about 1 hour. He said he was 75 years old and told me how he was dragged out onto the streets and beaten during the Khmer Rouge times. He showed me marks on his hands which he said were from being dragged by his feet. He was very proud to be still wearing his glasses. I wish I had taken some photos of him.. he had only a few teeth and a lot of wrinkles on his face.

I met another fellow who asked me to sit and speak with him. I said yeah OK. We chatted for quite a while. He said he was 19 and that he was from the mountainous region north of here and he is in town studying. He wants to be a doctor to help his home town and that he needed to improve his English for going into further studies. He said the doctor they have where he comes from does a sort of ritualistic dance or something to make the people feel better. He said he doesn't believe that that method works and wants to bring more help to his town. We are now communicating via email so it would be nice to hear how he goes in the future.

I bought a loaf of bread today (like a football shape) which was very dark and crunchy... was very nice. As I walked through some old markets the ladies were pointing and wanted to know what it was. I showed them and offered them some. they said no no no.
Then one of them offered me some jelly stuff which looked like it had a type of bean in between.. then she sprinkled coconut on top and gave a piece to me. It was nice. I broke off a piece of my bread and gave it to the lady. Another lady came over to try it too. Then as I walked through the markets some other lady poked it with her finger to see what it was. None of them could speak English and I can't speak Cambodian. It is a lot of fun doing these types of things with people.

Walking a looking around town for a few days...Some local housing by the river...I have never seen one of these for rent before...
Some lights in front of a hotel...This is a gecko I saw on the wall, but it has red spots all over it and it is about 3 times bigger then the little geckos we have in Australia...
A bit of traffic chaos...
Thailand has a new law which means that the driver of a motorcycle has to wear a helmet.
So you see a lot of bikes like this ...with only the driver wearing a helmet.
In Cambodia they do not have to wear a helmet at all. (as you can see from the picture).

These are some sings out the front of some pizza shops...I found out that if you ask for extra toppings... you will get them.

There are quite a few people walking around town with these wagons...
They are selling mussels... they must get them from the lake near by.

This is a working team putting in a water pipe...I walked past and they had started digging and a couple of hours later they had finished and it was all filled in again. They are fairly efficient.

This is a lady riding her bike down the road with a chicken on a nest on the back of the bike...The chicken lifts it backside up and down as they were going over the bumps on the road.

Siem Reap

Back into town later and they are having a water festival with long boat racing up the river...Some locals jumping from the tree into the river and watching the events...Later on there were fireworks and river lights...
Found a couple of really wonderful food places with Khmer Style foods...
amazing tastes this is really nice food. Honestly makes my taste buds dance in my mouth.. absolutely incredible...A few of us out for dinner...The local people here are fantastic.
There are blind people who do massages.
There are the land mine victims (missing limbs) who play in bands on the side of the streets.
Here is a local giving me a wave while on top of a pile of timber being towed up the road by a motor bike...
Here are some local men building the TukTuks...
Some of the funniest stuff is written on the signs (Actually I think I also saw this department in the Philippine)...and menus..
I have seen Mago Salad.. not sure if it is magot or mango
Steack (Steak) ... Durk (Duck)
Special Breast.. not sure what this meant as they had anything from chicken to frog under the heading.
Crap salad or fried Crap. (Crab)
When you point it out to the hosts they have a good laugh too.

This is my room $US3 per day...
I am on level 3 so looking out over the houses and trees is very nice.

Ankor Wat

Siem Reap is where Angkor Wat is.. didn't realize this until I got here... so had to check it out.

A Kiwi girl (Melissa) and the American fellow (Erik) and I got a guide and TukTuk driver for the day to go and have a look.These are a little different style of TukTuk...Up at 4:45am to get a sunrise and a full day in...They are temples built as far back as about 800AC with wall carvings.... Telling stories of the battles of the kingdom...
Also the way people lived...
Some of these temples are where Hollywood came and did tomb raider footage.
Amazing stories... very interesting... the first real touristy thing I have done, but totally enjoyable.

I took a lot of photos of this area.. I have to go through them and sort some out.
This is a chamber and as you pass through you put your back to the wall and beat your chest... the whole room resonates at a nice vibration and echos through you and the room.. very nice....While we were driving around on the TukTuk we were pulled over by the police... they were checking licenses and registration of the vehicles.... I thought all was OK until he came over to me and said "Excise me sir I have to check the plate!!"
I said.. "Do you want me to get out of the vehicle?"
He said "no no it is OK"
I didn't realize he was asking for a bribe
The Guide gave him some cash and we were right to continue.

We stopped for lunch and a heap of little children came to try and sell us bangles, flutes, t-shirts, books and a heap of other stuff.
** Photo from Erik **
They say "Where are you from"
and after you tell them they say "If I tell you the population, your PM, all the states and territories and how many governors you have had, will you buy this from me for $5?"
They were very clever kids... we tested them on a lot of countries and they knew 95% of the countries we asked them... very clever.

Thai Cambodia Border

The Thai/Cambodia border crossing very interesting... there were military clashes on this border about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I am not sure if it was near this border crossing or another one bur a few people were killed.

Got into Aranyaprathet just after dark on the train. Their were 2 French and 1 American on the train so we all decided to hit the border together... a TukTuk driver came onto the train looking for a fare and he told us 30 Baht (sounded good) to take us through to the Visa process and to the border.

We got two TukTuks for the 4 of us and headed to the Kingdom of Cambodia visa processing center... they tried to hit us with 1200 Baht for the visa and we all thought $20US was the price. Had to argued a fair bit even to drop them down to 1100 Baht.

Next was the border crossing.. through the gates photos and stamps etc.. all done..
Now we had to get out of the border town (Piopet).. this one is a bit of a western, cowboy sort of town (Casino on the border, rough roads, horse drawn wagons, beggers etc etc)... we all decided to get a taxi to Sisophon. We paid 1000 Baht for the 4 of us to take a taxi (maybe a bit expensive). The taxi driver turned on the television and started to play loud Cambodian dancing/singing girls.. was fairly pleasant.. just a bit loud. Then he stopped part of the way and started to load up coconuts in the boot of the car... what ever.

Almost hit a dog on the way... didn't hear the thump, but it was very close.

A little later the driver tried to change over a DVD to play on his TV while he is going really slow (maybe 30k's an hour) and we are all sitting there thinking gee... we have been traveling all day.. would be nice to go and get feed and sleep. Anyway, he pulled over again to have a chat on his phone and take a pee... I got out of the car and told him to get back in and drive.. he couldn't speak English at all but said OK and got in and we proceeded again at a very slow speed.

A little bit later he pulls over again and starts unloading coconuts at some house... hmmm ... starting to get a bit frustrated.. I wound down the window and told him to get back in and drive us to a Guest House... He handed me the phone to his boss and I tell him the same thing, saying we have payed good money and take us now!!! The boss asked if we wanted to find our own way to the guest house and I said yeah sure we will, but we will be taking the car. He asked to speak to his driver and so the driver got back in the car again.

We tried to tell him where we wanted to go but with him not speaking English made it a bit hard... He drove us around the town a bit until we pulled out a map and showed him where we wanted to go.. for some reason he stopped at the bus stop. Ended up being OK because some TukTuk divers come up asked where we were going and explained to the driver where the Guest house was that we wanted to go to.. finally.. getting some where.. we drove back the direction we came from and stopped at a guest house which ended up being pretty good. Had a feed and a sleep.
Woke up in the morning and a quick look around town...
OK.. we really are in a different country now!!!
Exchanged some US$ for Cambodian Riel got some nice local food at a street stall and then got a bus to Siam Reip. The bus was full so they gave me a little plastic chair to sit in the isle (between the seats) on the bus. The bus was full of locals and they were very happy, all smiling.. it was a pleasant journey... bit uncomfortable after a while, but still pleasant. This was a highway stop where the bus let us off for a feed or drink or toilet break...
Yes... it is the main highway!!!