open mind, empty stomach

Coming from Kampot, I was expecting a similar experience in Kep. Kep is an even smaller, seaside town less than 30 minutes from the Vietnam border. I stayed at the Boat House Guesthouse, which was a really beautiful place and a splurge at $12/night. Kep is known for its crabs and the signature dish there is pepper crab. Fellow travelers had recommended a place called Kimly and it was also recommended by the guesthouse. I went there and had the pepper crab, it was really good. They literally go out to the sea to get your crab, then cook it to order. I also checked out the crab market. It was smaller than I had expected, but Kep is a very small town. I got to see locals selecting their crabs and haggling over price. It looked like a lot of fun. I headed back to my guesthouse and things stopped being so fun. The sign at the Boat House restaurant says the kitchen is open until 10 pm. I went to eat dinner a little before 7 and it was a ghost town. The only employee who speaks English had gone for the day and the other 2 workers totally ignored me. I could see the kitchen from the restaurant and it was probably for the better that I didn’t eat there. I ate nearly a kilogram of mangosteens I had bought at the market in Kampot (for just $1.25!) and went to bed. I purchased transportation to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) for $10 through the guesthouse. Rabbit Island is about a 30 minute boat ride from Kep and features beach bungalows and very few people. I would spend the day and the night on Rabbit Island, then head to Vietnam the following afternoon. I shared a boat with 3 very cool people that I spent my time on RI with. They paid $8.50 each for their transportation. We stayed at Yeay Orm koh Tunsay Guest House and it was $7 for a private bungalow with a hammock overlooking the beach. Food prices were cheaper than Kep, which was the most expensive place I went in Cambodia. We had lunch, then hiked around the island. It was pretty and scenic despite the overcast weather. I got a Khmer massage on the beach for $5 and had a very nice day on RI. My boat back to Kep was supposed to leave at 8 am and I called the travel agent to confirm. He questioned why I didn’t stay at the guesthouse he recommended and let me know that the boat driver would meet me at my guesthouse. After waiting more than an hour, I went to the boat landing area at 8:30. Two French girls were waiting for any boat back to Kep and we were able to get a ride from a fisherman that was taking some rich Khmer kids back to the mainland. It cost $5 for the 3 of us! I paid triple the price through my guesthouse and their travel agency and didn’t even get picked up from the island. When we reached Kep, the tuktuk driver from the travel agency was at the pier. I had him take me to the agency so I could talk with the manager. I explained the situation and told him that I would like $5 back since they only fulfilled half of their obligation. He gave me $1.50 to cover most of what I had to pay to get back from RI after his guy didn’t show up. Things got a little ugly and we had a brief, one sided discussion about business ethics… After I had thrown the money back in his face, taken pictures of him and his business, and promised to blast him on my blog, lonely planet and trip advisor, the driver refused to take me back to the guesthouse to pick up my backpack. I guess I should have waited until I was about to get on the bus out of Kep to have that conversation… It was only about a half mile walk each way and I had more than enough energy to make the trip several times over. While I was waiting at the bus stop, which happened to be directly across the street from the travel agent, it started raining. A lady working at the bus stop restaurant was having difficulty moving an umbrella with a concrete base into place. I moved it for her and she invited me to come sit down in the restaurant so I didn’t get wet. She was sweet, kind, and nice. This was my last experience in Cambodia and summed up the country perfectly. There are people like the travel agent and people like the lady at the restaurant. The place itself is wonderful and you can’t let the scum pollute that. There is way too much scum for my liking in Kep and I do not see myself going back there.

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Bokor Hill Station was a French resort located on top of a mountain just outside of Kompot, Cambodia. It, like seemingly everything else in Cambodia, was used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge. I purchased a one day tour from my guesthouse and was joined by 8 other travelers. During high season, they typically have more than 100 people going up the mountain each day. Bokor Hill is located on a national park that was sold to a Chinese firm a few years ago. The new road to the top is still under construction and there are two halves with an unpaved gap in the middle. A Frenchman on a motorbike injured himself on the unpaved portion of the road and tourists are no longer allowed to drive (or be driven in the ranger’s truck) on the gap. Instead, we got to dismount and do a trek that took about 90 minutes at a painfully slow pace. The trek was scenic and jungly. Elephants, tigers, monkeys, and all sorts of other creatures inhabit the forest there, but not in the area we went through. We got back on the ranger’s 4×4 and continued the journey up the mountain. Just before we reached BHS, we passed by the resort being built by the Chinese firm. The laborers were Chinese and it was very manual labor. The temperature at the top of the mountain had to be 15 degrees (F) cooler than at the base. It was very pleasant after weeks of heat and humidity. The old hotel/casino was the main building of the BHS compound and offered beautiful views of the ocean and countryside. There were also smaller buildings, a watchtower, and a Catholic church. It was cool, yet eerie walking around the compound. Our guide gave us the history of Cambodia from the beginning of time up to the present day and spent considerable time talking about all of the bombs that Nixon dropped on Cambodia. I made sure to let him know I was from Canada, eh. The insurance liability apparently only applies on the way up the mountain as we were allowed to be driven all of the way back down to the base. It was sad to see more short term thinking by the Cambodian government. They granted a 99 year lease on the national park to the same Chinese company that has a similar lease on the Angkor ruins. When you look at the mountain from Kampot, you can see a giant brown scar resulting from deforestation used to construct the new road and resort complex. Despite this very recent development, Bokor Hill Station was still incredible and is definitely worth checking out.

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Ah, Kampot 🙂 Kampot is a town in southeastern Cambodia and one of my favorite places in the Kingdom of Wonder. Kampot is no Sihanoukville, but there is a growing tourism footprint. A local let me know of a new phenomenon he has observed in recent years: older western men marry Khmer girls and open businesses. Somehow, I managed to keep a straight face and acted as if it was the first time I heard such an odd concept. That is where Kampot is right now; on the verge of becoming another Disney Cambodia, but still a real place with genuine people. The tourist ‘strip’ is very small and most of the town is full of Khmer people going about their daily life. For the first two days, all of my meals came from the tourist area and they were all excellent. I had the saraman curry at Rikitikitavi, ribs at the Rusty Keyhole, and banana pancakes at Epic Arts Cafe. The food was all really good (and Epic Arts is a great cause), but I decided to go local for my last night in Kampot. I walked a couple km from the main drag, down unlit, unpaved roads and arrived at a place full of Cambodians having dinner. Most of them were having friend pork and pickles, so I joined in on the fun. This is where I met the man who let me know about the recent influx of westerners. He let me know that the traditional dish of Kampot is squid with Kampot pepper. He went on to let me know where THE place was to go for it and I quickly left for round two of dinner. Shops and restaurants close soon after dark and I was the last customer in the family operated dining establishment. The family had their evening meal while I was eating. The food was delicious and it was a fraction of the price I had been paying in town. While in Kampot, I tried to stay at the highly recommended Magic Sponge (which has amazing samosas), but they were booked and I ended up at the neighboring Orchid Guesthouse. It was decent, cheap and wifi worked in the room. I also did a day trip to Bokor Hill Station, a sunset cruise on the river, and visited the market while in Kampot. If you are planning on visiting Cambodia, I highly recommend checking out Kampot, just don’t tell anyone!

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There are many popular tourist destinations in Cambodia, and Sihanoukville ranks among them. It is not famous for its rich culture or history (the place was only created about 60 years ago), instead it is known for its beaches, close-by islands, and heavy party scene. Coming from a tropical island, a place like this is not exactly what I’m looking for on vacation. I had planned on avoiding Sihanoukville altogether, but the Vietnam consulate is located there and it is the fastest way to get a visa. After a 5 hour bus ride from PP, I arrived at the Sihanoukville bus terminal. As usual, legions of tuktuk and motorbike drivers converged on us as we got off the bus. They were especially aggressive and I decided to walk the 8k to the beach with my backpack on rather than reinforce their behavior. The walk wasn’t too bad and was reminiscent of my rukking days in the Army. The Vietnamese consulate was on the way to town and it literally took 2 minutes to get my visa. An expedited visa in PP costs an extra $10 and takes an entire day. While I was walking I bumped into 2 friends I met in PP, it’s a small country! I eventually made it to the beach and checked in at a guesthouse located on the waterfront. It was $7 a night for a rundown room, but I have stayed at worse for more money. I ate at the only place in Sihanoukville that had a hint of Cambodian culture: the market. The food was good and cheap and I ran into a couple I has spent several days with in Siem Reap, Al and Haze. They are awesome and I was very happy to cross paths with them again! We shared a meal and went for drinks after. The PP friends joined us and we all had a great time together. I had a pleasant time in Sihanoukville because of the familiar faces, not the place itself. It is packed with aggressive tuktuk/moto drivers, loud and obnoxious western adolescents and totally void of anything that makes a place special. I met people that stayed on the islands and they said they are really nice and nothing like the town. I would only recommend going to Sihanoukville as a launching point for a few days on the islands, it’s not even worth spending a night there. I checked out the following morning and headed to Kampot for some much needed R&R.

The capital of Cambodia didn’t really seem like a capital city. It’s big, but short and sprawly rather than tall and imposing. Most of the buildings are just a couple stories or less and there are even rice paddies and dirt roads on the outskirts of town. PP is home to the National Museum and several palaces/temples. I didn’t go to any of them. For me, the (extremely tragic) history of the past few decades overshadows the more ancient sites and stories. My first full day in PP was “Genocide Thursday.” I toured S21 and the Killing Field and blogged about the experience. Seeing what had taken place here just 30 years ago gave an excellent perspective of why Cambodia is in the state it is in today. It helped me to be a lot more patient with the constant onslaught of tuktuk and motorbike drivers soliciting tourists. Fortunately for me, my friend Greg hooked me up with an incredible tuktuk driver named Mr. Polo and he took great care of me for my stay in PP. Greg has made two films in Cambodia, about Cambodia and provided me with suggestions and recommendations for making the most of my trip. I also got to visit an orphanage that my friend Kyle worked at for a year. I blogged about that visit as well. I had planned on going to Oudong, the capital of Cambodia before it moved to PP, and to take an all day Khmer cooking class, but I went out for drinks the night before each… On one of those nights, I went to some clubs with 3 guys that were staying at the same hostel. The clubs are very interesting to say the least. First, there are the straight up hostess bars. They are full of prostitutes/semi-prostitutes and some very sleazy, old foreign dudes. The other clubs are full of very attractive Cambodian prostitutes, sleazy, old foreign dudes and gay guys with some backpackers mixed in. Despite the seedy underbelly, PP does have character and charm. I had lots of really good food, met some quality people and don’t regret spending 5 nights there.

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My friend Kyle worked at the Future Light Orphanage, which is just outside of Phnom Penh, and arranged a visit for me while I was in town. Upon arrival, I received a tour of the grounds by one of the project coordinators. I forgot his name, but he is responsible for helping the kids get into university, vocational training programs, and find jobs after graduating high school. The story behind FLO is a great one. They have been operating for 16 years and currently have over 200 children living there and provide English and computer classes for another 100 from the local community. The residents come from all across the country and there is a very strict vetting process for admitting them. They typically go to FLO at age 6 and leave at 18-20. The children are either orphans or come from extreme poverty. While at FLO, I got to help with lunch service. They serve rice and one soup/curry for each meal. All of the children sit at a series of large tables under a pagoda. Cooking, cleaning and serving is done by the kids and a rotational system is in place. If a kid wants more rice, they raise one finger in the air and if they want the soup/curry they raise two. I got to be the ricer. I’m thinking the kids had more rice because a foreigner was serving. They were really cute and nice. After serving, I had lunch with the staff. They get their food from the town just outside of the orphanage and eat family style. It was really good, authentic Khmer food. After lunch, I got to help teach a remedial English class for an hour. The kids were between 6 and 15. We covered numbers, capital and lowercase letters, and played some games. It was really fun! Because it was a Saturday, there wasn’t much going on after class got out. The only kids that were around were the troublemakers who were doing manual labor as punishment. There are a lot of disciplinary issues at FLO, but they rarely have to expel any children. The little troublemakers reminded me of myself. I walked around and took some photos, then headed back to PP. It was a great experience and I’m very glad I was able to have done it.

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Visiting places that were home to horrific events is not something I like to include in my itinerary, however, the Killing Field and S21 are “must dos” when in Phnom Penh. Our first stop on Genocide Thursday was the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. It is a half hour tuktuk drive from the center of PP and, as the name suggests, is where a lot of killing went on. There is a Genocide Museum, a monument full of skulls, excavated mass graves, and bones and clothing from victims can be seen sticking out of the ground. Men, women, and children were executed and buried in mass here. There is a tree that still had blood stains from children’s heads. Soldiers would hold them by their feet and bash their skulls into the tree before tossing them into holes in the ground. This was really heavy stuff. After a very somber stroll through this eerie place, we went to S21. S21 was the detention center where 20,000 men, women, and children were detained and interrogated before being finished off at places like Choeung Ek. Only 7 of the 20,000 survived. The compound itself is a school in the center of the city that was converted into a place of terror by the Khmer Rouge. There was still blood on the floors, walls, and ceilings. Pictures of the victims were displayed as well as photos of pre, during, and post torture. We got to walk through the holding cells and interrogation rooms. The Khmer Rouge was primarily a bunch of teachers and academics that were well educated. Their stated intention was to create a self-sufficient agricultural utopia devoid of social classes and money. Somehow this resulted in S21 and the Killing Fields. The truly disturbing thing is that all of this happened recently. It was just in the late 1970s that all of this took place. Touring these places is something I am glad that I did, but would not want to do again.

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The thing I wanted to to more than anything else in se Asia was to ride an elephant through the jungle. I’m not sure why, but I REALLY wanted this to happen. I did my homework and discovered that Mondulkiri, a remote province in eastern Cambodia near the Vietnam border, is among the best places in the world for elephant trekking. The trip from Siem Reap to Mondulkiri took 12 hours, 4 of which were spent in a 14 passenger van that had 17 people plus baggage. As I was getting off the bus in Mondulkiri, I met 4 other travelers who were also headed to the place I would be staying, The Nature Lodge. Rathana, the owner’s nephew and a really cool guy, picked us up at the bus stop and took us to the lodge. Lonely Planet recommended staying there and with good reason; the place was perfect. It was rustic, green in every sense of the word, family run and fantastic. On our second full day there, three of us went on a 2 day/1 night elephant trek. My expectations could not have been higher and to say they were exceeded would be an understatement. The elephants were amazing and they were not even the best part of the trek. Our mahouts (elephant jockeys) were Phnong, an ethnic minority group in Mondulkiri. There was a woman in her 40s, a guy about my age, a girl that was between 15 and 25, and a boy that was 10 or 12.  They spoke no English, but did not need to. Our English speaking guide, Dol, spoke very little English and was quite a character. Dol prepared all of our food from scratch and it was delicious. We even got to eat wild mushrooms that the mahouts harvested along the trek. Our camp site was by a river and small waterfall. We slept in hammocks covered with mosquito nets. Tarps were hung over the hammocks, but no rain fell despite it being rainy season. On the second day, we went to a larger waterfall and had lunch in a Phnong village. The people there were so happy to host us and really enjoyed having their pictures taken. There was not a single letdown during the trek; everything was perfect. In total, I spent 4 days and 4 nights in Mondulkiri. I count them among the best of my life.

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Siem Reap was a breath of fresh air after Bangkok. The journey there, the border crossing in particular, is supposed to be a little challenging; it was. My research indicated that getting to the Cambodian side of the border was the difficult part, then you’re home free. For me, it was the opposite. Once I passed through customs, an official government guide showed me to the free shuttle bus that takes people to the bus terminal. The terminal had no ATM, a vicious exchange rate, no change for dollars, and was a good introduction to how the Cambodian government conducts business. There were 3 options for getting to Siem Reap: the bus, a taxi, and a minivan. I was trying to take the minivan, but it left while I was in line to buy a ticket. I was told that there were no more taxis or minivans, but the bus was leaving “right now.” I bought my ticket and hurried to the bus. The bus left over an hour after I boarded… It takes 3 hours to get to Siem Reap from the border, this includes a “mandatory” 30 minute stop at a restaurant. The restaurant had an English menu with french fries that cost $4.50 on the cover. Despite being extremely hungry, I did not order any food. I met a couple that had also refused to participate in this debacle. They were really cool and I spent a lot of time with them while in Siem Reap. Eventually, we made it to Siem Reap and were freed from government operated exploitation. We stayed at the Popular Guesthouse, which there friend and my official guide had recommended. It was $12 for an ac room and $7 for a fan room; wifi didn’t work in the rooms. Siem Reap was really small and had a nice vibe to it, especially compared to Bangkok. It was extremely walkable and most everything was in a centralized area. My official government guide was also a tuktuk driver and he spotted me at the guesthouse and would be my tuktuk driver for the Angkor ruins. If you purchase your 1 day pass after 5 pm, you can go to Angkor and watch the sunset, then have your pass start the next day. I did this, but the sunset wasn’t very good at all. The following day I did the short loop and the long loop around Angkor. The temples were amazing. I went to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, but it was not colorful at all. I really liked the temples that had trees growing in and through them. I wore my vibram five fingers trek sports and all of the tuktuk drivers were in awe. They looked at me like I was a God with individual toe compartments on my shoes. It ended up being $25 for the short and long loop, which took me less than 6 hours to do. Later I would find out that this was a huge ripoff. The driver didn’t have change either, neither did the guesthouse… They tried to tell me the exchange rate for Thai baht was waaaay worse that it was. I had enough of getting taken advantage of and checked out of the guesthouse. I went to a crappy place a few doors down that was only $3 a night. The tuktuk driver and first guesthouse were the only bad things about Siem Reap. The rest of the experience was terrific. Food and drink was relatively cheap. They had 50 cent beers at many restaurants and food was $2-8 for a meal. They had “happy” pizza all over the place as well. For $2 you could have tiny fish eat dead skin off of your feet for 20 minutes and get a free beer. After a liquid lunch, I tried this with the couple I was with and it was really funny. I’m extremely ticklish and apparently so were Haze and Al. It was a 20 minute giggle fest. I could have stayed in Siem Reap much longer, but moved on after 4 days. I really enjoyed my time there.

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