Bamboo Train, hilltop view

Check out this bamboo train! It was started by locals in the 1970's, and had its heyday in the 80's, used to transport people and goods on a one-way bit of track, before there were decent roads. In the frequent event that a big train would come, or when two bamboo trains meet, two drivers simmply lift the platform with the engine off the wheels, move the wheels off the track, let the other guy pass by, and put the kit back together again. In the next few years, the government of Cambodia is planning to rebuild the track for a modern train, which will put the bamboo train, and the little villages that depend on its tourism revenue, into extinction.

I also visited a hilltop buddhist temple thing which had a cave, and a nice view.

Battambang, Cambodia

I walked the 5 blocks to one the many tour shops in Siem Reap this morning, where I had purchased a bus ticket the day before ($5). I got picked up by a van full of White tourists to go to the bus station, to catch the 8:30 bus to Battambang. After moving several suitcases to make room for me and my pack, we drove 10 feet to a waiting bus around the corner. 2 Irish girls and I all laughed at the short distance. We waited for 30 minutes, another passenger had the same seat number as me, hand-written on the ticket, which she found very annoying. We depart and head east, when Batambang is southwest of Siem Reap. After 15 minutes, we arrive at a rural bus station and all must unload. We board different buses bound for Phnom Penh, Battambang, or elsewhere. My bus proceeds to drive west, looping back through Siem Reap and the same street corner where we had started 30 minutes prior.

Nearing 1pm, we arrive in Battambang. While the bus was still rolling down the last street, several Cambodian men were running next to the bus, waving their arms, tapping the bus and yelling. Once parked, the bus door and luggage containers were swarming with tuktuk and moto drivers all yelling, and holding up laminated signs for hotels, some with the prices displayed (in dollars). I walked past 40 yelling men to get my bag, and 4 of them hovered around me while I got my pack on. I asked 3 young travelers who were also going to the same, $1/night hostel I had seen in the guidebook, if I could share the tuktuk with them. They said no. I walk away from the tuktuks and yelling men, to the nearest intertsection to get my bearings, and quickly realised where I was and that I could simply walk the 6 blocks to the hostel.

Once there, the innkeeper tells me that the dorm bunks are all taken, which seems unlikely, but I can have my own little room and bathroom for $5/night. It's time to get some laundry washed, and my small dirty clothes bag, 1 kilo ($1), will probably be clean and folded by tomorrow morning.

Battambang is dirty but pretty with yellow and blue French buildings and schools, situated along the river. It's a relaxed place, and unlike Siem Reap, it's full of local people. I'm looking forward to riding the bamboo train in nearby O'Dambang tomorrow, and possibly finding a cave. I'm exhausted from not enough sleep this past week, menstruals, and diarrhea. Drinking tons of water with vitamine/electrolite salts, and doing a course of anti-biotics. Early bedtime tonight.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - travel notes

Siem Riep has a nice city frame, a historic center and an excellent open restaurant alley, but Pub Street, souvenir stalls and offers for a tuktuk dominate. New construction has no architectural regulations: tacky steel and glass sprawling strips are on the rise.

Siem Reap has been an unfavorable place for several reasons, many steming from what I call "the one person problem", whereby hotel rooms and taxis are made for multiple people and that is reflected in the cost, which a solo traveler can't split up or pay for on an individual basis. This makes youth hostels with bunk beds a good option, and makes me nab other travelers at arrival places to share cab fare.

The bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (6 hours, $5) dropped us off on the outskirts of town uneccessarily. When it pulled in, they blocked the door, trapping us inside for a few minutes so the tuktuk drivers had time to grab our luggage from the under-bus storage. We had no choice but to take a tuktuk to town. This reminds me of the taxi lobby in the Bay Area which blocked BART from being extensed to the SF airport until the Naughties, and why the light rail in San Jose runs 5 blocks parallel to the SJ airport, farther than most people would want to drag a suitcase.

I was able to share a tuktuk with a German couple, and it was only $1 each, but it is still shitty to feel trapped, and the bus could have stopped in town, where everyone wants to be. I happened to mention to the German couple that I paid $5 for my bus ticket, which is commonly booked through your hotel. The German's stayed in a more expensive hotel in Phnom Penh which over-charged them for their bus tickets, $12 each.

The first youth hostel I tried was full. I found another one next door which was nearly empty, except for 3 Chinese girls who didn't even say hello, and had loud construction noise next door ($6/night). The innkeeper said he expected to be full on Saturday so I would have to seek lodging elsewhere on subsequent nights.

My first night, I tried to book a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat for the day after, planning 1 rest day inbetween. The past 4 nights I've had insomnia or wild dreams (a side effect of my malaria pills), and a typical 5 hours of sleep at most. I never make plans ahead of time, but it sounded like a good idea if youth hostels are full and I want to take a tour on a Saturday. I booked an all day tour for $15, haggling the tour office down from $20. They described a bus with 20 people that would visit 6 sights over the whole day. Awesome, I need to meet new friends. They got the date wrong and the hostel Innkeeper woke me up 7 hours later, at 5:30am, with a tour guide and driver waiting for me. I was startled and yelled "Fuck!" when I saw the Inkeeper next to my bed, likely disturbing the 3 sleeping, mute girls from China.
After some discussion downstairs with the tour guide, I rolled with it, got dressed and walked out to the bus. It turned out to be a car with a driver and I was the only passenger. The guide said I needed to pay another $20 for the entry ticket. Only 2 blocks away, my gut decided to say no to the whole thing, and we drove back. I would discuss it with the tour office when they opened at 8am. I tried to go back sleep, but no luck. Next, the same tour guide came back to the hostel at 8 am, the Innkeeper waking up the Chinese girls again, wanting to take me for a similar tour in a minivan. In lieu of getting in the van, I chose to ask for my money back in the office, which they refused to do until I made a scene. The owner guy (Korean) got testy and rude, saying "you so stingey, why you travel? $15 is not a lot of money." I replied that they should really disclose the total cost for the day and not surprise tourists with another $20 charge they don't understand at 5 o'clock in the morning, and if $15 isn't a lot of money, it shouldn't cause hardship to return it to me. There was yelling to further get my point across, and at one moment I tried to use their phone to call the tourist police and they yanked the receiver out of my hand. I got my money back, but it was not pretty. I realise that my tired, bad attitude turned a weird situation into a very nasty, negative one, and makes me cranky Bill Murray and everyone I meet annoying insurance salesman Ned Ryerson from the movie Groundhog Day.

Elsewhere, up to 6 people can share a tuktuk for $15 for the whole day (all drivers speak some English), and bicycle rental is around $2 all day.

I moved to another hostel by noon ($4/night). It was on a dirt road with a hodge podge of restaurants and odd-shaped buildings. Only the tourist strip is properly paved. The hostel looked popular with travelers. I rented a bike for $1/day and headed the 6 miles north to Angkor Wat, the main temple (the gnome in the movie Amelie gets his picture taken in front of it)!

I arrived at a ticket checkpoint that did not sell tickets. A little mad and disappointed, I listen as the woman guard tells me to go 2 miles back down the road I had just taken, over, and up a parallel road, where I would find the one and only ticket booth for the whole temple complex. I went there, and a 1 day ticket is indeed $20. I'm an asshole and the Lonely Planet needs to update the Angkor Wat section about the ticketbooth! A 2-day and 3-day ticket is the same, $40. The gal there was friendly and suggested I come back at 4:45pm to buy a $20 one-day ticket I can use at sunset that day, and all the next day. I went back to the hostel to kill 2 hours and noticed the room had filled with mosquitos. I checked out, having never sleped or opened by bag there, when they had no other rooms, and no mosquito nets. I moved to a 3rd hostel that happened to have a swimming pool ($5/night) with my backpack and the bicycle, and headed back the 6 miles to the temple just in time for sunset! I met a Khmer girl while visiting the site who immigrated to Switzerland as a child owing to the war. We had a nice conversation in French, and she told me that Khmer people don't pay to visit the temple, only tourists do. They just look at your face/skin tone and talk to you to decide if they'll make you buy a ticket or not.

I visited the temples all day and to my heart's content, skipping several. I've had it with beggars who touch and grab you in the street, or come up to the table in open air restaurants. Tomorrow is rest and immodium day, possibly including a dry-skin-eating-sucker-fish-foot-massage and fizzy drink combo ($1). Next I'll head to Battambang briefly and on to Thailand. Siem Reap would be a whole nother story if I were here with a group or boyfriend, or well rested and fully patient. I thought it would be the highlight of Cambodia, but it wasn't (the phosphorescent algae were it!), however, the temples outshone the town's crappy logistics.

At the same checkpoint this morning, I explained to a ticketless, sweaty couple on rented bikes where to find the ticketbooth.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

I rode a bicycle and hiked around the temples today. They're amazing and great. I saw elephants, monkeys, and talked to some interesting people, including a solar power engineer with his wife and grown daughter, from Denver, who are going from Thailand to Vietnam by bike! It was an inspirational day!

Phnom Penh

At first glance, Phnom Penh is another sprawling, dirty, Asian big city with repetitive concrete buildings, but when you dive into the market, the temples, the Wats, and the huge Palace campus, monks in orange walking barefoot through the city, river promenade, tuktuks, it's amazing!

Border Crossing: From Phu Quoc Island to Kampot, Cambodia

We woke up early in Long Beach on Phu Quoc. Had tea and coffee with the only open place to get food. I had 2 eggs fried in too much oil on a baguette with cucumber and carrot for breakfast. We got a taxi to the East side of the island, leaving from the port in Ham Ninh at 8:30. Many roads are primitive dirt, even major routes with heavy traffic. Our young driver seemed totally unfamiliar with the taxi's manual transmission, attempting to put the car in reverse on more than one occasion at 40 km/hr. I gave him shifting tips from the passenger's seat, which was very funny.
The rickety, narrow, concrete peer in Ham Ninh was long, and it we walked leaning forward into the strong wind and breaking waves. The ferry departed on time with a forceful rev of the engine, but the dock crew forgot to untie two lines, which went completely taught and began to fray in the middle. They yelled back and forth for several minites, the captain ultimately cutting the lines at the boat. The sea was choppy and the the boat rolled in large waves, making many people seasick. I took a dramamine and passed out with headphones in. We arrived in Ha Tien (still in Vietnam) at 10:30. All but 2 of the other passengers were on a packaged tour with taxis waiting for them. We hired 3 motorbikes with drivers to take us to the boarder, negociating down to 200,000 dong ($10). The 15 minute ride from the port to the boarder, Prek Chak, was green with rice patties, and nice scenery, a good way to say goodbye to a pretty country we had spent a month enjoying. The moto drivers have free access through the crossing and into Cambodia, whereas we had to pass through the Vietnam exit and Cambodia entry check points: one guard outside a booth at the entrance gate, one guard inside the building with the passport scanner, a 3rd guard outside at the leaving gate. Then for Cambodia: a guard in a booth where we filled out a first form requiring a passport photo affixed. I lost my envelope of extra passport photos with my journal in Saigon, so the guard said "smile!" and took my photo with a smart phone. He put the visa sticker in my pasport. Then on to another booth made of wood and tin like a saloon in a spaghetti western, with two policemen and an arrival/departure card to fill out. They stamped the passport and the cards 3 times each and stapled the departure card in my passport. Then on to a 3rd booth where we filled out a 3rd very similar form, and a man in a 3rd uniform checked our health. The exam consisted of taking our temperature with a modern electronic thermometer with a blue light that shines on the forehead like the Men In Black memory eraser. Laura and Sam had temps close to 37°c, but mine was 37.6 which is apparently feverish, in the sun at noon on a hot day during a nervous international boarder crossing by motorbike, carrying all my stuff. So he gave me a blue mask to wear and sent me on my way. Since there was dust everywhere and no pavememt, Sam and Laura each grabbed a mask, too.
Our motorbike drivers from Vietnam wanted to take us all the way to Kep, but for more money than a waiting Cambodian guy with an air conditioned toyota camry, so we took the car, and arrived by more dusty, dirt roads to lovely Kep in time for lunch.
After lunch, we hired a tuktuk and set off to visit a cave, and arrived in Kampot by sunset, a lively little ciry with roundabouts and French buildings.
Cambodia is quite different, in a good way. Despite the dust, I like it very much. The writing looks like Thai, very unique and unusual. The local money is Riel, but the ATM gives US dollars. Stores give change in US dollars, with Riels in the place of coins. January must be wedding month, we saw many wedding tents in different areas, with bright pink and yellow ribbons and bunting. The houses are boxy, wooden, 1-story on stilts, unlike the tall and narrow multi-story common floor plan in Vietnam. The people smile and wave. Dinner and drinks was $4, the hostel bunk is $3. I like it.

Adventures on Phu Quoc!

We had an excellent time on Phu Quoc island, leaving early tomorrow for Cambodia! We took an all day boat tour and had a lot of time to snorkel, swim to two tiny islands, and a gorgeous beach. Lots of blue and turquoise waters, and a night market full of exotic, fresh seafood. Today, we rented motorbikes and went to the northern tip of the island and around. Shared some watermellon with 4 middle-aged guys from California, and back to town. Driving the scooter all afternoon was easier than I thought, even on dirt and gravel. What a fun adventure!!

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

2 words: Gorgeous beach!

Mekong Delta

After Saigon, and after losing my wallet in the cinema when we went to see The Hobbit, and forgetting my new journal in the hostel locker, we headed southwest on a rugged bus filled with locals, a dog, 2 rabbits in large handbaskets, large sacs of farm goods or foodstuffs, heading for Ben Tre. Then on to tour the delta from Vinh Long. Fun Sam and Laura from England and I are travel pals, and stayed in a homestay on An Binh island, with hammocks on the porch and a lovely fish dinner. We rode bikes all around, and visited the floating market early this morning. Neat!

Saigon

Ready to move on after 3 days in Saigon. It's a lovely, interesting city, but it's sprawling, loud, and full of tourists. The War Remnants museum had a powerful photography section that was difficult to complete. Looking forward to the Mekong delta and Cambodia, which sound like more unique, special places. Glad I met up with Sam and Laura again, british pals I met in Cat Ba, then again without trying in Hue. They're hillarious.

Dalat, Vietnam

I took a scenic 4 hour bus ride up into the highlands from ugly Nha Trang. It was lovely, and Dalat was delightful. A sizeable, meandering hilly city, Dalat feels like a small European town, like somewhere in Switzerland. Colorful houses with pitched roofs, fresh milk, pine trees that sent the air. I had fun taking a motorbike tour around the area, visiting 2 different waterfalls, one of them had a bobsled I rode down the hill through the woods, which was a hoot!

Hue

Hoi An

I spent 2 lovely days in Hoi An. I teamed up with a friendly Canadian I met in Hue, rode bikes around, spent a few lazy hours on the beach, enjoyed the laterns and market at night. Although I did not go to the many tailors to have clothing made, there was plenty to see and enjoy in Hoi An, a beautiful city!