Cambodia

Where have I been? Just traveling slow. From the hills in the north where I left you I caught the train into Bangkok and hooked up with a guy I had meet briefly in Darwin he’s on his way around the world by bicycle and we arranged to do Cambodia and Laos together. It’s been good the roads in this part of the world are never lonely but its good to have someone to talk to.
Taking the scenic route down the Golf of Thailand our first stop was Patyaya a pumped up tourist haven akin to the Gold Coast but the Gold Coast has morality compared to this place, two square kilometers of clubs, pubs and go-go bars, the girls in this place are of tap. And although Prostitution is illegal in Thailand this place remains the center for the sex tourism industry and a fitting insight into the hypocrisy that works so well in this part of the world. Its an eye opener but way to much and the three days ride to the boarder are coastal roads a bit more kicked back with some nice spots beach towns and fishing villages.

I had been looking forward to Cambodia all along and the first impressions did not disappoint. You feel it straight away and although boarder towns are always a bit rough the total lack of infrastructure that is Cambodia gives it a frontier feel. No street lights, curbs or drainage of any kind for that matter, in Phnom Pen a half hour of monsoon afternoon rain fills the streets to waist deep at the mid town intersection, the filth of the street floats to the surface and you wade through it to get back to the hotel. Traffic makes do and no one complains the market venders just shift everything above the high water mark and the business continues. This happens every afternoon and I assume it only gets worse as the monsoon season is only just beginning.
The road into Phnom Pen was one of my favorites to date, we were told it was impassable but you have to give these things a go and although still under construction it was still a good dirt road. Quiet countryside, rice paddies and simple people, a heap of shunt river crossings and some really nice days riding. The Khmer people are so lovely with big smiles and warm hearts and although they have so little they always bring a smile and a hello for the crazy pherang on a bicyclical. The county is really quite impoverished and many people struggle for the necessities such as clean water and enough to eat, they are mostly farmers and their wooden wagon wheels driven by water buffalo denotes to the timelessness of their methods. Their homes are traditionally stilt huts and thatched roof simple places crammed full of naked kids that sound the chorus of hellos from every house as I ride by. The older kids you pass on the road on their way to school at all times of day the girls in clean white blouse and long blue skirt a crocheted sun hat and a cheep Chinese bicycle. The education system seems one of the few working elements it seems to be a grass roots ground up restructuring for the Khmer have had a hard run in recent history, years of war in the 70’s left them with Pol Pot’s tyrannical régime of crazy social reform where every city was cleared of all inhabitance and everyone sent into the fields as peasant farmers, the intelligencer were murdered some 1.7 million died in a mass genocide that totally crippled the country in the late 70’s. And although there are many sad sights of abject poverty, land mine victims and child prostitution you can only hope that this time of peace is prosperous of Cambodia.
It’s often a hard place to witness but this week I am spending some time at one of Cambodians proudest sites, Angkor Wat the site of epic temples of 12th century construction that testify to a time in history when the Khmer civilization was one of the strongest in Asia. An amazing place of grand stone monuments and walled cities, sculptor and carvings to Hindu and Buddhist gods. On of the eight wonders of the world and an epic peace of history.

Push on tomorrow and head out of Sam Reap and some time next week cross into Laos to follow the Mekong River, north enjoying the adventure and loving the ride.