The Week in Review

This may be a short post because I'm not sure how much longer my butt, etc... can tolerate the seated position. We're in Siem Reap, Cambodia and have spent the past couple days riding bikes around the area to see the old temples of Angkor Wat. Most of the temples are within a ten mile radius of the town, and it's flat as can be, so riding bikes is a good, inexpensive way to get around to the different temples. In town, there are normal ($1) and mountain ($7) bikes available for rent. Mopeds are only a couple bucks more than the mountain bikes. We weren't about to drop seven on a bike with mopeds right there for nine, but we were wanting to burn a few calories so we went with the normals. The bikes are similar to old lady bikes, with wide handle bars and a little basket on the front, you know what I'm talking about? Ones you'd see in a movie when a couple is taking a leisurely ride by the beach or something. They weren't that bad really, but the seats could have been better. They were way too short, first off, even adjusted to their maximum height (my entire seat actually came off as we were riding through a busy intersection, which was funny for everyone else, thankfully I caught myself before my beehind crashed down onto the frame. Anyone with experience at adjusting bicycle seats to their maximum heights can understand how that happened). My seat was also tilted up at about a thirty degree angle. I tried to rubberband towels and folded t-shirts around the seat to make it less uncomfortable, but wasn't very successful.

We've ridden forty to fifty miles over the past two days on these things, and our legs and butts are so sore, there was no way we were climbing aboard again today. It's a bummer because you have to buy a three day pass for $40 (which made me want to throw up), and the temples are really neat, but no. The tilted seat did a number on my etc... too, which are still in pain. Pictures from Angkor Wat....

Look closely

I just found a pillow to put on my chair so I guess I'll keep going for a little while. I'll work my way backwards from here and try to cover everything we've done in the past week. Before we arrived here in Siem Reap we spend a couple nights in Battambang, about seven hours away by boat. There were no bikes available there so we rented mopeds and cruised around the countryside, stopping off at a few small temples along the way. I feel like we got a good taste of what rural Cambodian life is like: dirt roads, cows going about their business in the rice paddies, a few boys kicking a flat soccer ball along the road, people and animals hauling carts of rice and other produce into town to sell, kids waiving and shouting 'hello' from their homes along the road, and lots of rain. Almost everyday it will downpour for 20-30 minutes every few hours, then the sun will come out again. Battambang also had the best chicken we've had since we left home. Cambodia in general has had the best food so far, with the prize being the french baguette, and everything you can think of to put in the french baguette. Cambodia was a French colony until the 1950's, and thankfully they left behind their baguette. The only good thing the French ever did. Here's a few pictures from our ride around Battambang:

This guard wanted his picture taken to prove he was working. He also took some of him actively pointing us in the right direction. I wish we'd gotten one of those.

These kids fanned us all the way up the 386 steep steps to this temple. We went as fast as we could to see if they could hang. All four of us were sucking major wind when we got to the top. We talked to them for a while and they were both pretty funny. It's usually annoying when people force their services on you and then expect payment, but these kids earned it.



Here come the masked white boy!

We came to Battambang directly from Bangkok. My fondest memory from there is definitely the constant scamming action, which Kyle covered pretty well, so not much to say about that. The people of Scamland have some major work to do to earn my trust back. Even at the border, Thai scammers were trying to get us to fill out bogus paperwork for a Cambodian visa. We haven't run into any scams since we crossed the border. Hawkers still hawk their products at you like everywhere, but there have been no efforts to deceive us that we know of. We did come across a good selection of grilled calamari at one guy's grill stand in Bangkok. I love calamari so that was a good find....

On the way to Bangkok, we stopped off for a couple nights at a small island on the southwestern coast of Scamland called Ko Kradan. This place was truly marvelous. Our guidebook said this was the most beautiful island in the area, but didn't give any information on it! So we didn't know what to expect when we got there. When our boat dropped us off the island looked completely deserted. There were abandoned shacks and bungalows along along the beach, but no one to be found. We poked around some of the bungalows and figured they'd be a nice place to crash if worst came to worst, but finally found someone about a half mile up the beach, who pointed us down a path into the woods.

The trail led to 'Paradise Lost' a hotel run by an American from Hawaii named Wally. He explained that it was the low season and he was the only place open on the island. It worked out well because he had some nice shacks and a good restaurant and he spoke perfect English. We spent two days on Ko Kradan hanging out, getting stung by jellyfish, and being dumbstruck at the scenery. Easily the most beautiful beach I've ever seen, which would mean it's also the most beautiful beach Kyle's ever seen. On the way back to the mainland, our boat stopped at another island, where we jumped out and swam about ten minutes through a dark cave until we popped out into the light on the other side. It was like a huge cylinder had been cut into the rocky island. Limestone rock faces all around in almost a perfect circle, about thirty yards across, with half of the ground being jungle and the other half sand leading back into the water and the cave. It was pretty remarkable. When the tide comes in water fills the cave and there's no way out.

Even more remarkable though, was the amount of jellyfish that were in the water that day. We saw a few before we stopped off at the cave, but if I'd seen the full extent of it there would be absolutely no way I would have gotten in the water. We easily saw over a thousand basketball-sized jellyfish in the five minutes after we left the cave. It was unbelievable.

Wally and the cook from Paradise Lost. I don't do drugs, I promise.


From the outside


From the inside








We took an overnight train to Bangkok


I was forced to take a few shots of Johnny Walker with these guys on the train. Each time the security guard came by they got quiet and handed him a double shot. You gotta love corruption. You also gotta love the middle guy's style.

Unfortunately, while we were in Bangkok, we got some crappy news from back home that I'm still thinking about today and probably will be on my mind for a while. One of my best friend's dog passed away unexpectedly. I spent alot of time with Moses since she got him as a puppy about a year ago. I loved him and have some great memories with him, so the news was pretty tough to take. He was a fun, happy, awesome dog and I'm going to miss him big time. That's all I have to say about that.

Tomorrow we are heading to Phnom Penh, the capital and largest city in Cambodia, then on to Ban Lung, a small town in the northeastern mountains.



-Ryan