Out with a Battambang!

Always the best roundabouts!

After an excruciating long and hot bus ride (like the kind where you stand up and realize Andy sweat through your pants, eww...I know) we arrived in Battambang.  It's such a cool little town and much less touristy than most.  Since we sold our motorbikes, we have become fond of renting bicycles to get around town.  In Battambang we toured the old French colonial town via bike and ventured out to the old abandoned Pespi factory built in the 60's and 70's.  It's basically a decrepit building with a bunch of old Pepsi bottles inside.  

Trash heap behind, I dunno, everything? These are everywhere.

Ol' bottles just waiting for someone to want to drink a Pepsi again.

Kelly breaking the caffeine habit.

 Just around the corner, we noticed a small sign that said 'Crocodile Farm' and decided to check it out.  We pulled up to the sliding gate and an old man waved us in.  He ended up being our 'guide' and when we finished at the baby croc hatchery he kept saying,"tum, tum" and pointing down the road so we all got on our bikes and peddled to the next  this place where the tum tum, or big big, crocs resided.   Yes, thousands of large crocs!  It was disturbing to see all of them crammed into a small space in addition to the fact that we were walking on a catwalk about 7 feet above without any safety rails.  When we asked what they are used for no one could communicate the answer but judging from some of the stores and restaurants around Cambodia, they are raised for expensive cuisine and the latest style hand bag.  

Baby crocs

Catch a crockett by its toe.

Guard rails? We don't need no stinkin guard rails!

How's our breath?

This is a tree of fruit bats that is pretty much the only place they can stay because of the Temple next door. The monks say no killing the bats from these trees so the people listen. Otherwise this is a LOT of dinner.

The market was close by our hotel so every morning we went for a noodle soup, Cambodian coffee, and dragon fruit fix ($1.50). I've come to really enjoy markets, except for the raw meat sections.  They give you a lot of insight into the local culture and there always something interesting going on. 

Market

Sales meeting

Chicken table.

We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around to the sites outside the city. We had heard from friends and other travelers that a cave just outside of town is home to millions of bats and everyday promptly at 6pm a river of black flows out of the cave into the sunset.  Beware: when in close proximity to the cave, that is not rain that you feel.......mmmmm guano! In addition to the aerial acroBATics performed, we visited some other temples, rode on a bamboo train, tasted wine and brandy at the only vineyard in Cambodia, and ended the day at the circus that is set up to support disadvantaged children.  Lucky for us there was a guest performance by Bloco Malagasy (a girls drum corps from Madagascar).  What a day!

On a bamboo train. It is about 10ftx6ft and made almost completely of bamboo. The guy on the back has a motor and a brake.

Inside a brick kiln.

Looking to the roof of the kiln.

Fruit bat tree.

Kelly and our flight at the one winery in Cambodia.

Red wine

Brandy

Currant liquer

dsgafvf....

Phnom Banan 11th century Wat.

Top of the hill wat. Phnom Sampeau.

Phnom Sampeau

Buddah, buddah, buddah, buddah, buddah everywhere!

This is an impressive river of bats they got here. The relentless stream goes on for about 25 minuets every day.

In the evenings we hung out on a quiet street (they all are pretty quiet here) with old French colonial architecture sipping on draft brews at an art cafe.  So hipster! The street was dimly lit with a few cafes and the rest closed store fronts and that double as houses.  Across the street there was a little kid dressed in his PJs, fist pumping, watching WWF in his living room/travel agency.   We heard about the art gallery from a local, Untac, who we met at a coffee shop. I pulled the creepy card out when we were talking with him...I said, "oh your the guy that won the competition in Phnom Penh!"  Earlier in the day I read that one of their employees recently won a barista competition in Phnom Penh. He seemed to be flattered especially when I asked if he could make us a latte with the silhouette of Angkor Wat.   We saw him later that night at the art cafe and chatted for a while. We even taught him how to play cribbage but was reluctant when he found out the game is most popular amongst elderly women.

Battambang was such a nice place to be for a few days, now off to the grand finally....ANGKOR WAT!

Beginning Cambodian

Our tour of Vietnam now complete we hopped the bus to the Capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh to meet up with our Spanish friends Lucas and Silvia.  We first met these two in Bolivia when touring the Uyuni Salt Flat. You may also recognize Lucas from our Lima post. He was the gracious host with the incredible mustache.

The first night in the country we reunited with our friends and checked out the night market for some delicious Khmer food and draft Angkor beer.

In the capital city we planned on seeing some of the royal residences and temples. One of the most impressive things in Phnom Penh was the architecture. As we left our hostel and walked down the street, the near skyline was dotted with golden spires growing from temples, government buildings, museums, and shrines. It is all very ornate and grand. The king recently died as well so his picture was everywhere.

The recently passed King Sihanouke

National Museum

One of several impressive buildings at the royal palace.

The ultimate white elephant gift.

In addition to many beautiful historic sites in the area also lie the scars of a very recent massive genocide. The more recent historical sites reflect the period of time when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge took control of the country to restore an agrarian based, rice producing society and rid it of urbanization and western influence.  When the Khmer Rouge took power the streets of Phnom Penh were emptied within days as his forces re-located everyone from every city to the countryside and labor camps to farm rice.  From April 1975 to 1979, over 2 million people (25% of the population) were tortured and murdered (mostly well educated people from the cities), died of disease or died from starvation.  One of the famous historical sites near Phnom Penh is called the Killing Field (Choeung Ek). This is just one of many that have been discovered around the country and is basically just what it sounds like. An area walled off where prisoners of the regime were taken and killed in horrific fashion, then buried in mass graves. This particular site was very well preserved and an extremely powerful personal audio tour was available to us as we walked from site to site. Mass grave sites dot the landscape and even now during the rainy season bone fragments and pieces of clothing come up through the soil. Some are collected and housed in a massive memorial in the center of the site but other pieces are left where they lie to really drive home how recent and horrible the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge were. The most amazing thing is that most of the leaders have still not even been charged with anything and await trials. There were factions of the party still active up until the late 1990's planting land mines and attempting to usurp power. Pol Pot died free in 1998. The majority of the army that he used was uneducated young men from rural parts of the country who had no jobs or political ideology. He brainwashed thousands to do his bidding. The thing is, that everyone over 35 was a part of what happened. So as we walk around and see older people you can't help but speculate what part they had. Were they tortured? Did they torture? Who knows? How many members of their family did they lose?

Regulations for prisoners at S-21. A notorious prison during the Khmer Rouge rule.

Now, as horrific their past, it is incredible how upbeat and cheerful the Cambodian people are. So quick with a smile and always joking around with one another, the Khmer people are the main attraction to the place.

This is all over the place. Its pizza with an "herbal" addition.

From Phnom Penh we headed toward the coast and a little town called Kep to enjoy a crab feed and some island time. This place is famous for its peppered crab. We simply walked to the seaside market and asked for a kilo of the creepy crawlers and the women would fetch their crab traps from the water and toss a kilo of live crabs into a bag for about 4 bucks. Then for another 50 cents or so they will boil the whole batch up for you and enjoy. We had a beautiful sunset over a heaping pile of tiny little crab.

Welcome to Kep

These ladies have crabs.

Basket of dinner.

Just point and pay a pittance.

Island Paradise at Rabbit Island.

Mangrove growing directly out of the ocean. Very cool.

From Kep we moved 25km down the road to a town called Kampot. This place is renowned world wide for the quality of the pepper grown here. Earlier last century the French thought so highly of the condiment that every restaurant in France worth its salt (or in this case pepper) would have it on the table. I have to admit, the product is really quite good.

Monument to durian in the center of a roundabout.

Free put-put golfing.

After Kampot we traveled to the town of Sihanoukville. This is the beach party town of Cambodia and was a good place to hang out and catch some rays for a couple days. From Sihanoukville we were headed to Siem Reap and the crown jewel of Cambodia, Angkor Wat with a side trip to Battambang....

HCMC

This is the traffic during "slow" part of the day

 I had been nervous to motorbike into Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) after hearing crazy stories about the chaos of  millions of scooters but we seemed to dodge the bullet by arriving at mid day.  It was such an amazing feeling but bittersweet since we were missing two members of our gang. We became very attached to our bikes and it was hard to see them go.  We made ourselves comfortable in a decent guesthouse and waited for our bikes to sell.   HCMC has a great area to hang out and enjoy a CHEAP draft beer and some good street food! On any given street you are bound to find at least one stall selling tropical fruit, one selling delicious Vietnamese style iced coffee, and a pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) stand all sold for $1 or less.  Vietnam, I'm going to miss you!   It's a social place and from the early evenings and into the night, beer alley is bustling with foreigners and locals alike.  People on tiny stools pour into the street while vendors peddle freshly cut mangoes, peanuts to munch on, and squid jerky.  You are crammed into any available space and make new friends as a result.  We met a couple of guys John and Johnny that work for a graphic design firm based in HCMC.   John is a cool guy from Kansas and Khang, or Johnny as he is known by his English speaking friends, is a fun and spunky local who was eager to tell us his likes and dislikes of his country.  He showed us around town and suggested some great places to eat and visit.  We met up with some of his friends for some dancing at bar with one of the better Adele and Lady Ga Ga covers I've  heard in a while.

New friends!

This cutie posed for us while we enjoyed our roadside coffee

Night Life

cribbage, beer, and a mango :)

We spent some time visiting some of the war memorial sites in Ho Chi Minh City.   The two most popular sites are the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels.  Both are generally uncomfortable to be at as an American.  At the war museum, the atrocities of war (the brutal murders and the effects of agent orange) are graphically portrayed in a very nationalistic way. The Cu Chi  tunnels are maze of tunnels that hid Vietcong forces near the capital and proved very hazardous to those unfortunate GI's who served in this area.  You're guided through the tiny tunnels and stop at the booby trap exhibit, all of which are a variations of bamboo spears setup underneath a  camoflouge trap, and the guides crack jokes at every site.  Tourist laugh uneasily at the banter whether American or otherwise. It seems in a modern Vietnam where a relationship with the US is very apparent, such overtly one sided commentary about an always unfortunate subject could be altered. 

booby traps

drying rice paper

After the guide's torture "comedy" routine, you're corralled to a place where you can buy bullets and shoot guns for $1 per bullet.  Another money maker and popular with the young men.  There were a few guys in our group that said this is the only reason they came. These places are definitely worth a visit to better understand the environment of wartime but it's frustrating when it feels more like an amusement park and less like a war site.

Reunification Palace

Pictures of Ho Chi Minh (Uncle Ho) are all throughout the country.  This one is front and center in the HCMC post office.

Notre Dame

Since riding the bikes, we have been on hiatus from using our two feet as a mode of transport.  We became fond of evening running sessions at the park around the corner.  At 5:30pm, the weather becomes bearable and the locals flock to the park for exercise of their choice.  There are groups aerobisizing to the latest hits, couples swinging at shuttlecocks, an old man practicing Thai Chi, an older woman practicing sword dance fighting, barefoot boys playing a soccer match on the concrete, a group artistically showing off their skills in da cau or "feather ball" (a weighted shuttlecock that is used to play a game similar to hackie sack) and always a guy peeing on the wall.  This became my favorite part of the day.

A group playing featherball in the park

the featherball

HCMC was a nice place to regroup after the long journey south.  Vietnam, thanks for such an amazing ride, literally. 

Andy's tearful goodbye