Cambodia

Well it was great week on the beach. They had their weekly party at Sunset and it felt like my going away party. I know Seth is upset that he missed it. I felt like the mayor of Lonely Beach. People came up to me at the beach and complained about the roads and school system. Either way it was a late night.

I got onto the minibus at 7 AM. I had paid for the whole trip to Siem Reap, which is the nearest town to Angkor. They had said that the whole trip would take 11 hours and our bus in Cambodia would be modern and air-conditioned. For 650 baht ($18) it sounded okay. If I wasn’t so tired, I might have asked more questions. The ride from Koh Chang to the border was bumpy but uneventful.

When we neared Cambodia though, they stopped for “lunch” at a place that tried to sell us their visa service. Basically, they would speed up the visa process for 1400 b ($40). Well, we knew that it doesn’t take very long and the price is $20 payable in US currency. After a little pressure, the tout finally relents and I have some coffee. We finally get to the border and another guy tries to tell me that it might 3 hours to get the visa but he will get it done in 10 minutes and asks for 1200 b. You have to realize that these guys work for the bus company that we had already paid to get us all the way to the destination, so we can’t just walk away. Well, we start the process, leave Thailand, walk through the casino strewn no man’s land and go to the visa office. The visa office asks me for 1100 b ($31) and I just hand it to him without thinking because he is armed and looks official. I don’t notice that I overpaid until I already have my visa and move on. Actually, I don’t mind being ripped off by a pro.

It is now 3PM and the guy tells me that Siem Reap is another 7 hours. While sitting on the rickety old bus, with no air-conditioning and the all the windows open, I begin talking to the German guy next to me. We decide to split a taxi to Siem Reap and save ourselves 4 hours with the added benefit of not being covered in dust when we arrived.

So, George, his Thai “girlfriend” and I jump into an old Toyota Camry and take off. This ride is insane. The driver is literally driving fast in the middle of a two-lane road with his hand on the horn. The road is actually better than I expected for the first hour, then tapers off onto unpaved street and bridges that have detours next to them because they couldn’t handle the weight. We pass Khmers on all kinds of vehicles ranging from bicycles to scooter to cart pulled by lawn motor engines. All were overflowing with people and goods.

Our driver, whose name sounded like Too Cool, was weaving in and out of lanes and overtaking cattle. At one point he switched lanes onto the new road being built and kept passing those steam rollers that flatten the tar. Once, we were between a huge truck and the barriers of the road and he just squeezed by before we hit one. He was the best driver I have ever seen. Give him a better car and he could be Michael Schumacher. It was the best $14 I ever spent.

I rented a friend, Tong, for $8 a day to drive me to the major sights. At first, I thought he was gay because he would put his hand on my thigh while on the back of his scooter, but then at lunch he kept talking about all the girls. He likes skinny Korean girls and is just really affectionate.

Angkor is a truly remarkable old city. Sometimes, I felt like I was Indiana Jones coming upon some new ancient temple. Then, the voices of German tourists would snap me back to reality. It is pretty fun to walk around these gigantic ancient monuments and just imagine what it would have been like when they were the center of great cities. Of course, in my imagination, the women are all topless and monkeys are doing my work.

Tong took me out to some local spots that were weird, but really cheap. The food went from delicious to progressively gross. Still, between the 2 of us, and the two girls he had sit with us, we finished 10 pitchers of beer, tons of food and the bill was $15. The night ended at a bad club and Tong getting upset that I paid a hooker $5 to get away from me. I came back to the guesthouse and a dog started barking at me. I told it to calm down; I am a guest here. He is a dog.

Today, Tong is my best friend. He has a change of plans. Instead of going with him to see some more ruins, I should go hang out with him and his family. He is retarded and super affectionate. I have a 3-day pass for one of the wonders of the world that must be used consecutively. I send him away, telling him I really want to ride a bicycle today. Really, I just need a break from the touching.

I ride out 16km to a site I haven’t seen yet. Even though it’s the metric system, it’s still pretty far. After seeing old things, I decided to ride on some unpaved country road instead of the normal way back. The road leads through a poor farming community. Every time I pass little children, they yell out “Hello” at me. I “hello” back. After a while, I wonder if I made the right choice being in a country filled with landmines. When I see little children “Hello” me, I know I’m fine. They are hard to see sometimes because they are 4 years old and like working the fields. After maybe 15 minutes, I see the main road. Then, as if he was planted there, a child yells, “Bye”.

I could keep writing more and more of weird things that I have seen, but then this would not be a blog. It would be a novel, and no one reads novels anymore. So, maybe Brad should stop writing them. Just kidding, keep at it buddy.