Backpacking Southeast Asia

Not a lot has happened since I last wrote, but I've got nothing but time so I thought I'd write another.

I spent five days in Phnom Penh, which was far too much, but my Vietnamese visa was delayed so I had to wait. Not a big deal, although I did have trouble meeting people there. I find the big cities are the hardest to meet people, whereas in a little town there's almost always a few other people searching for a fresh face to talk to. The absolute best place I've found to meet people is on the bus. It's near impossible not to talk to someone on a bumpy ten hour bus ride, and by the time you get off everyone just wants to find a room, so they stick together and end up going for dinner and drinks later. Anyways, I stayed at Smile Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, which looks out onto Boeng Kak Lake (I think that's right):

The view from the guesthouse patio at night.

With five days, I had a lot of time in Phnom Penh to see the sights. I went to the Tuol Sleng prison, which was the school that was turned into a torture center called S-21 during the Khmer Rouge genocide in the late 70's. It was very interesting and very gruesome. In one of the buildings, each room had a single wire bed, where victims were interrogated and eventually starved and murdered. A large black and white photo hangs on the wall of each room showing the corpse that was found on the bed. Pretty disturbing stuff. Other buildings had been divided into tiny cells where prisoners were kept, complete with barbed wire on the outside to prevent prisoners from escaping. The Khmer Rouge had taken mugshots of the prisoners (men, women, children and even infants), which were all displayed in another building. Over 13 000 people were killed here. I also went to the Killing Fields, which was essentially where they took other prisoners to be exterminated. Mass graves have been unearthed containing over 8 000 bodies, and some graves have been left untouched. There is a large memorial stupa that houses all the skulls and clothing of the executed; a not-so-subtle reminder of something that happened only 30 years ago. Almost two million Cambodians were killed.

So after the heavy sites in Phnom Penh, I was glad to be heading to a beach to relax. Sihanoukville is on the south coast of Cambodia, and is home to about five beaches and a thriving tourist scene. Almost too thriving, really, it's packed. I happened to arrive on the same weekend as the Khmer Water Festival, one of the few Cambodian holidays, so there were almost no rooms available and the rooms that were available were double in price. I was lucky to find a little bungalow for $4, although it has a thatched roof (unsealed, hope it doesn't rain) and no proper sink, just a tap and a drain. But hey, I won't be spending much time in there anyway, so it's no big deal.

Last night I took a stroll down Serendipity Beach, the main backpacker's hangout. It's lined with bars spilling right out onto the beach, and it's very relaxing. There are fire jugglers every few hundred metres, and one of them started up right in front of me. Here's a pic:

Today I took a moto taxi to Otres Beach, about 5km southeast of Serendipity Beach. It's still quite busy, but much more peaceful. I did well to start getting rid of my tshirt tan, but it'll take a few more days. Tough life. Here's the sunset:

I know I post a lot of sunset pictures, but I can't help it.

And for all you whiners who keep badgering me to post a picture of myself, here you go:

My hair is long.

I am officially halfway through my trip! Time is going by incredibly fast and I don't want it to end, although I miss Vancouver terribly. Too bad about the Lions, but it's nice to see the Canucks kicking some ass in the division. Until next time ..

It seems the time between my entries is slowly getting longer and longer. I think it's because I no longer feel homesick anymore. When I first got to Asia, I would get to an internet cafe just so I could look at familiar things (ie hockey), but everything is starting to feel pretty normal now.

After Vientiane, I took a bus down to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands) in Southern Laos. I spent six nights on a little island called Don Det, which has so far remained very cheap, unlike the rest of Laos, which has exploded with tourism. It's not a bad thing, but the cost of Laos is no longer a bargain compared to the rest of Southeast Asia. Of course, it's all a bargain in the grand scheme of things. I spent $10 a day on Don Det, and still managed to have a bungalow right on the Mekong and ate like a king.

The sunset view from my bungalow on Don Det.

From Don Det, I took a bus over two days to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Siem Reap is the home of Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world and a man made wonder. I can hardly begin to describe how amazing this place is. I met two Dutch girls on the bus ride over, and we rented bicycles on the first two days, going from temple to temple. I was literally drenched in sweat the entire time. It's a lot hotter in Cambodia than it is in Laos. I shaved my beard off after the first day, partly because of the heat and partly because I knew I'd be getting a pretty funny tanline if I kept it. Although, it would probably fit right in with awesome tshirt and sandal tan I've already got. We took a tuk tuk on the third day and we caught the sunrise behind Angkor Wat. Quite an amazing sight.

To be honest, the first time I saw Angkor Wat, I was a bit underwhelmed. I think I had read so much about it that I had built it up to be something impossibly huge, but the more I saw it on the second and third day, it's striking how difficult it must have been to construct. Angkor Wat itself is massive, but there are probably 30 other temples and structures in the surrounding area that make Angkor the crumbled empire it is. The earliest temples were built in the 9th century, culminating with Angkor Wat in the 13th century. When London was a town of 50 000, Angkor was a metropolis of over one million people. Some pics:

This is a temple called Ta Prohm. Over the years, it has been overrun with jungle, but they have done a nice job restoring what they can.

Ta Som has also been taken over by jungle life. There are tree roots invading the entire temple.

A small section of carvings at Banteay Srei, about 30km north of Angkor Wat. There are walls and walls of these very intricate carvings and they must have taken ages to create.

I have found the Cambodian people to be the friendliest of all the locals I've met in Southeast Asia. The kids are always so happy to see you, they wave and yell out any English words they know when you pass by. The poverty is definitely a bit more apparent; the beggars and hawkers are out in full force, and if you so much as make eye contact for a split second, they will be badgering you to buy whatever they've got for a good five minutes. A lot of them are children, as they've realized a 12 year old girl is much harder to turn down than a grown man. They all speak good English too. They're also very good at guilt tripping you. I was eating lunch at one of the roadside markets at Angkor when a young girl came up to me with a basket of bracelets and postcards, as had already happened many times that day.

"Mister, you want to buy?"

"No, thank you."

"Where you from, mister?"

"Canada."

"Canada. Capital city Ottawa. You have a looney and a toonie. You have two languages, French and English. Prime Minister, Stephen Harper."

She proceeded to ask the Dutch girls where they were from, and rattled off Holland's entire royal family without hesitation, IN DUTCH. I didn't even know they had a royal family. I was impressed. I mean, she had clearly done this many, many times before, but it was impressive. She then asked me again if I wanted to buy some postcards. In French. I bought ten for a dollar.

I've got a couple hundred more pics of Angkor, but you'll have to wait until I get home because it's taking ages to upload.

From Phnom Penh, I'll arrange my visa for Vietnam before heading south to Sihanoukville to lie on a beach for a few days. Then it's off to Vietnam.

Keep the emails/comments coming, I like hearing from home!