Well, there was always too many things going on in the last week and a half to be able to sit down and write a good post, so I guess I'll attempt to do that now. Hopefully I don't forget too many things.
Well we left off in Kampong Cham where we decided to stay an extra day because we were quite ahead of schedule and we were exhausted from the long days on the motos. So after a day of doing basically nothing in Kampong Cham, we headed out again on the way to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor.
We arrived once again, with no fan fare. Well there was the incident where we had to weave our way through a herd of ox crossing the highway. Luckily there was no issue. We got into town and for some reason we had trouble finding a guest house. In the middle of the search we managed to go the wrong way down a one way street and got stopped by a cop. He said to me:
"You are wrong, I will fine you."
"What did I do wrong?"
"This is a one way street, so you get fine."
"I didn't see a sign, I didn't know."
"It's right there." And he pointed to the end of the street which was a market, where I'm sure there was a sign, but I couldn't see it.
"I don't see it." (Probably said too matter of factly, but he didn't seem to notice).
"Fine, go."
After the quick turn around, we made our way down a small street and saw the first guesthouse, and decided to stay there. It was reasonably priced, new and the owner was an old British guy so it seemed a good enough fit.
The first day in Siem Reap we took it easy, much like our whole time there. There might have been a day in between our first day and the day at the temples, but I don't really remember. One day we got up at about 4:30 in the morning so we could get to the temples for sunrise. We got there with plenty of time to spare, and as the sun peaked its way above the temples around 6:30 or 7, everyone was snapping their pictures of the temples and the reflection pool. Even though I have my own, I couldn't help but mock some of the more over the top looking tourists. I'm not too sure, but I don't think there is a way to really describe the temples. They are too overpowering. Angkor Wat is beyond massive, it is the largest religious structure in the world. It has a massive surrounding wall with a massive entrance way, and then another quarter mile walk to the actual temple. It was made up of layer upon layer of walls, and of course the infamous towers that stretch high into the sky. The amount of detail is amazing, from the carvings in the walls, to the curved lines and intricate designs of the towers. They are truly incredible. On a side note, wherever I go in the world and see a famous structure its always got scaffolding on it. I know this sounds petty and a bit like gloating, but it always happens: the Colosseum, Washington monument, Angkor Wat, St. Peters Basilica, Big Ben... the list goes on.
Anyway, we spent the rest of the day looking at a number of temples. It would have been nice to have a guide with us relaying the history of the temples, but that on top of the heat would have made the day pretty difficult to deal with. We went through on our own, and at our own pace. I'd have to say that my favorite temple was the second we went to, the Bayon. It was pretty large even compared to Angkor, and the towers were finished off with four different faces of Buddha. As well as all the towers having the faces of Buddha, there were tons more around the whole temple.
Each one of the temples we saw had something all its own to offer and look at, and of course there is the "Hollywood" temple, whose real name is Ta Prohm. The reason it is nicknamed so, is because the first Tomb Raider movie was filmed there. More spectacular than that is the temple itself. The roots of trees forcing their way through rubble in search of the light. They weren't just small trees. They were massive roots of trees that would reach higher than the trees of the surrounding jungle.
Our day at the temples concluded at about 1:30. Because of the intense heat, all we could manage to do after that was eat some food and stay in the hotel. The next day we slept in a little bit (until 8 or so) and we arranged a trip to the village of Kampong Phluk. The reason this is well known is because the village is essentially one made up of bamboo skyscrapers. The village is right on the Tonle Sap lake, so in the dry season there are houses held up by bamboo that tower overhead. Compared to houses in the States, they would be around a three to four story home... on bamboo stilts. And of course this doesn't seem strange to the residents, they are used to climbing three stories in the dry season to get into their house. The amazing part, is that the water in the wet season comes up to the floor of the houses. The change in the water level is incomprehensible. We went by a forrest, and we were asked if we wanted to see the inside, but we skipped. I later read in my book that during the wet season, that entire forest is underwater... I still can't really grasp that idea.
We got back and had another quiet afternoon, and then we decided we would go out for the night to party since Siem Reap is known for its temples and its bars. The night flew by of course, and we ended up spending the next day sleeping/reading/watching some TV/nursing hangovers. We decided that the days were going good and easy there, so we decided to take one more day in Siem Reap.
The next day we slept in again, and arranged another long tuk tuk ride out of town to the Land mine Museum. It was a pretty small place, but it was still really interesting. The man that runs it was originally employed by the Khmer Rouge in the 70s and was given a gun to start fighting at age 10 or so. He was later trained in the intricate field of mines. He later defected to the Vietnamese army where he fought the Khmer Rouge (at the young age of 10 he had no choice but to join the Khmer Rouge or else suffer the consequences, i.e. get killed). Then, once the Khmer Rouge was finally disbanded in the early 90s, he started working with some NGOs to dismantle the mines, and make areas safe. He has accomplished quite a lot, but there is still a rule of thumb in certain parts of the country: never leave the well traveled paths.
The next day we got up and took our time getting ready since our trip to Battambang was only a 120 kilometers, or about a three hour trip. Once again, we made the trip with no major issues. Battambang didn't have a whole lot to offer, but we spent one full day there, and we rode the bamboo train. This is a platform made of bamboo that looks more like Tom Hanks raft from Castaway than a train. Its powered by a small honda engine, and every time there is a mistake on the rails, you feel it. It is not very comfortable. The rails themselves look like a few guys decided to drink some beers and had the ingenious idea to build a railroad. Then there is the issue of what happens when you meet another bamboo train coming at you head on. Simple: dismantle the train with the lightest load, let them pass and reassemble. Its easy really, you take the bamboo platform off of the two axles, which it only sits on, with no restraints or safety precautions. Then you take the two axles off the rail, let the other train pass and reassemble and you are on your way. After that, we realized there wasn't much left to do in Battambang, so we called that part of the trip short and decided to leave the next morning.
We didn't want to sit around all night so we found a circus to go to... It is run by a French group who educates children in the arts. They raise money to send students to Canada and the UK, so its a worthy cause and entertaining at that. The first half hour of the performance was a band playing songs that were made up of traditional Khmer instruments as well as western instruments. The group was made up of professional musicians as well as students from the school, and all were really good at their instruments. Then came the circus performance. It had everything from acrobats, to juggling, and fire jump-roping among others. The most stressful part was the student who joined on the acrobats. The professionals would toss this kid into the air, who couldn't have been older than 12. With a few exceptions, he managed to land all the stunts, but that didn't stop the audience from holding their breath and gasping the whole time. The performance was really great, and they did mess up a few times, but it was almost refreshing to see that especially when they would just play into it with the whole act.
Then came the next day where we would head to Pursat, a halfway point between Battambang and Phnom Penh. The plan was to stay one night in Phnom Penh and then head down the the beach for two weeks to get some rest. We got to Pursat with no problem. The town was incredibly small. There was a big island in the middle of the river which was intended to look like a barge run aground, unfortunately I didn't take pictures of it. On top of the "barge" though was a pagoda, which seemed quite nice, but we were focused on finding a place to stay. We finally stumbled on a guest house that had parking, which is what we look for so we don't have to worry about the bikes at night. We quickly realized that no one spoke a word of English, but we managed to get a room for the night for $6. There was a storm in the afternoon so we had no choice but to stay in since we had learned our lesson about riding in the rain. We realized at one point that it was a very good possibility that we stayed in a brothel, but we'll ignore that for now.
We got up quickly the next morning eager to leave the guest house and get back to Phnom Penh. The day went without issue... until the last 8 kilometers or so. I suddenly felt my bike, which was making more noise than normal, stop accelerating. I heard a bit of puttering, so I prayed that i just ran out of gas. After pushing my bike in the sweltering heat for about a kilometer I found a roadside stand selling petrol out of a pepsi bottle. I put the petrol in... nothing. I checked the battery, the headlight was bright, and the horn nice and loud. Not the battery. The next step, the spark plug. Its an old engine and it wears down the spark plugs quickly. I changed it with a new one I had in my bag for such an occasion. No change. I attempted to ask a restaurant owner if he knew where to find a mechanic, but again, no English. I called Sorya so she could talk to someone in Khmer and ask where to find one. I dialed her number and prepared her for the conversation, I asked the restaurant owner by pointing at my phone and putting it towards him. He ran off. Unsure why, I slowly followed him into the back of his restaurant which became his house. I asked his daughter by doing the same thing. I put the phone towards her and pointed at it. She also ran away. I was incredibly confused and asked Sorya to wait one more minute. Then the old man came back with a phone charger. "Otey" I said. No that is not what I want. However he kept running around looking for an outlet. Frustrated, I put the phone next to his daughter's ear and said "Hello!" She finally caught on.
After that big of a fiasco, I managed to find one about a half a kilometer away. Again I pushed my bike there in the heat and traffic. The man was fixing a cops flat tire, so it took about 15 minutes before he even looked at my bike. He tried a few troubleshooting things and ultimately came up with: can't fix. At a complete loss, I again called Sorya for advice. She talked to him and found out that the problem was inside the engine, so not a simple fix. Shit. After a conversation between Sorya and the mechanic, it was determined there was only one option: get another moto to push me the last 6 kilometers into town and then have my usual mechanic look at it. The moto I hired was uncomfortable pushing me, so he tied a rope to the front of my bike and the back of his. There was only a space of about three feet between my front tire and his back tire. There was little room for error if he braked quickly. I can say it was the longest 6 kilometers of my life. It went by ok, but I was incredibly tense and stressful trying not to hit him when he would slow down.
We got back to the volunteer house fine, and that is where the bike is now. I am off this afternoon to get pushed to the mechanic in the north of town. I have no idea what is going to happen with all this. The worst case scenario, rip the old engine out, weld in a nice new Honda engine. Hopefully it won't resort to that, but we are in Phnom Penh for an undetermined amount of time, but I hope not too long.
On the bright side, we got to meet the new volunteers and we get to see some of the staff today, so that will be exciting. We also went to pub quiz last night and won a free pitcher of beer for a caption contest. Tonight we are going to the pub quiz we usually went to, and hopefully we can do Quizzie Rascals/Lets Get Quizzical proud. For now, I am still quite stressed about the bike, but it came with the territory so I am somewhat mentally prepared. As soon as the bike is sorted out however, we are back on the road to the beach.
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