Day 82 Kampot

Just relaxed ate and drunk till late afternoon today when we boarded a sunset cruise up the river.
The boat took us an hour up the river and back. Other than the engine ticking over it was quite peaceful.
About half way up a fleet of fishing boats comes around a bend, all the same colour green bar one red one we saw later, looked great though roughly 20 of them head out the same time every evening.
After the cruise we checked out a place famous for its huge plate of ribs, we had heard this from a few people the first being a couple on the Ha Long bay cruise. Needless to say I got the ribs with a big pile of mash, they were pretty tasty I could have that again before we leave Kampot. A bit of western food is great in between the rice and noodles every so often, oh and my beer was served in a Guinness glass in this place, couldn't see any of the black stuff though!

Day 81 Bus to Kampot

We had a late check out grabbed breakfast, finalized accommodation for Borneo's national parks(Rachel's hard work was rewarded with final confirmation - we are in with a spot!) then on to a bus for the trip to Kampot which took about 6hours(2more than indicated). In Kampot we were greated by the usual horde of tuk tuk/moto drivers and hostel owners before we wondered to find a guest house round the corner called Pepper for US$7 per night. Its a little cooler than Phnom Penh with a temp at 9pm of 30deg as we sit in the grass roof bar having a beer and a frog hops by(on the 2nd floor).

Day 80 The Killing Fields

A heavy day today firstly a tuk tuk out to the killing fields. The audio tour was good and required since what buildings were there were destroyed. On the site now is a memorial full of skulls recovered from the hundreds of mass graves dotted around.

Unlike their national treasure Angkor Wat, where it was great to be allowed to climb all over the temples, this didn't feel right walking over areas where you can clearly see clothes and bones starting to appear in the dirt path. Caretakers continuously collect clothes and bones as they become visible particularly in the rainy season. This site was only one of hundreds country wide that have been located so far. If you look closely in the picture of the ground you will see bones and clothes that are just now surfacing.

From the killing fields we went back in to town to visit S-21 the school converted in to a torture prison which housed the people before they were sent to the killing fields. In one building of the school the classrooms were divided in to cells with bricks(see pic). Much of the school was empty classrooms with a small steel frame bed(no mattress) & shackles, a photo on the wall showed what/who was found in each room. There were 7 survivors of this prison, one who recently passed away painted several memories he had of the place and these are on show along with photos of inmates and testimonies prisoners were forced to sign saying they committed crimes against the Pol Pot regime.  

Day 79 Phnom Penh

Up and out this morning at sociable 9am walking across town to see the Palace & Silver Pagoda first.
The palace was closed it looked like renovations were going on but being part of the same complex as the Pagoda we could see bits, its a large brightly coloured impressive looking building.
The Silver Pagoda was in the middle of a walled area, the walls covered with detailed paintings.
The show piece inside the pagoda, a floor of 5000 silver tiles(all 1kg each) was mostly covered by mats for protection so it didn't have a wow effect but still nice to see along with some big gold,silver and jade Buddha's. The few trees and nice shrubs in the complex are home to a load of monkeys they were everywhere.
Got a tuk tuk next to the Russian market unlike what we saw in Haerbin northern China there is nothing Russian about this place they just apparently shopped here in the 80's. Mostly a clothes market housing all the big brands we know at home which are made here and theoretically sold here cheaper but it was hit & miss some stuff was no cheaper than home. We picked up a couple of items to help cover up under the sun when needs be and a dvd of the movie 'The Killing Fields' which we will see first hand tomorrow. 

Day 78 Bus to Phnom Penh

Back to the city today. We caught the big bus assuming its a bit safer than the mini-bus. We did know the big bus took a longer route but weren't told twice as long, so it took 8 hours instead of 4 and we left late too. In Phnom Penh we checked in to the same hotel as before right above the bus/tour company with US$10 a/c rooms.

Day 77 Irrawaddy Dolphins

It was a 45minute tuk tuk ride up the river to see the Irrawaddy dolphins we did it early while it was calm and cool. The 100mtr row out in the boat is a bit steep at $9 each but the money goes to the right places the dolphins are endangered so they've banned commercial shipping and fishing in the area.
They are a bit harder to photograph since there's no wake or waves for them to play and jump from like dolphins in the sea would but we still got a couple. They are shaped a bit different too with no beak and only a very small fin.
Just relaxed for the afternoon, there's very little to do in Kratie so we had pineapple and mangoes. I carved up the pineapple like the locals do, it took me ages but for a pocket knife it came out ok.
Street stalls line almost every street in Kratie but soon the new market building will open to house a few which will make walking the streets easier!

Day 76 Kratie

Got out and crossed the river on the local ferry to Koh Trong island. The locals on the boat had a great laugh about our skin colour and to aid their amusement I put my arm out beside the woman's sitting next to me for best effect!
We hired bikes there for a dollar each and set off for a lap of the island. It was a nice ride all the locals were very friendly it was unusual for any passer by to not give a wave or a hello before you could.
The island is pretty much a very overgrown sand bank in the middle of the Mekong river, it was a nice easy ride about 10km.
I saw my first snake of the trip, it was dead though, there's probably more to come...

Day 75 Sen Monorom bus to Kratie

A big normal bus would have cost only a couple of dollars more but taken ages because it wasn't direct. In hindsight it would have been much safer. We sat in the back of a 14seater merc van with 23 people in it and one sitting on the luggage tray out the back. You might wonder how to fit 9 extras in the van, well simple squeeze 4 rather than 3 across, add an extra row before the front and have TWO people in the drivers seat!
The road is decent even by international standards(its brand new) but the assortment of vehicles doesn't make it much safer and he drove fast. It was not long till we past an accident, a large truck carrying a big digger had rolled down a gully, on the plus side it did look like the driver was sitting on the roadside with a couple of bags looking ok. Our guide had told us yesterday that insurance here is new and most people don't have it and people do not stop at accidents to help unless others are there to confirm to the person involved that they did't cause it. Causing an accident here will incur costs to repair/replace 3rd party vehicle, compensation to the victim/s, paying off the police if they come and paying the judge if it goes to court.
In Kratie on the mighty Mekong river very glad to be here safe, we relaxed and ate in the hotel for the afternoon. Our room has internet and air conditioning but the power is so irregular the condenser for the a/c isn't getting enough power to run, the net resets and the fan slows to a visible spin on a regular basis.
Power we are told is diesel generated making it expensive and roughly 14 times what we pay at home.
Picture today is from our hotel balcony looking out to the Mekong river.

Day 74 tour of greater Sen Monorom

Today was good our guide held my interest till we left his bar at 9pm last night.
The owner of the Green bar was our guide we had him & a car for US$60 for the day. He was something of a gem in Sen Monorom,tourists flock to his bar for info & local tours.
First up was a waterfall, I got in behind it he afterwards said he wouldn't there's snakes there. Full of local knowledge we quizzed him on weird fruit, burnt holes in trees which is used to gather resin & why there are areas of deforestation which lead to a stop at a rubber plantation for the answer.
The next stop was a small village of the Penang people who have their own language, live off the land and use no modern innovations. We sat in their 10x5mtr grass roof home shared by 12people, chatting while on a smokey fire in the middle a pot of jungle veges was cooking for their pigs. Our guide acted as translator as we traded similarities with countries and issues the Maori people had been through, till I mentioned about my disbelief that they were cooking for their pigs. Then the talk went to swine flu & bird flu because 2 pigs died unexpectedly yesterday(Rachel & I did glance at each other at this point obviously both thinking the worst.) he was very unhappy they were worth a lot of money to him. In latter discussion with our guide he explained it has happened before at this time of year just after the first rains so he was asking for our help to stop them dying.
We then had a traditional lunch of a type of pancake filled with sprouts and meat then this was wrapped with some leaves and dipped in a sauce while sitting in a coffee plantation.
After lunch we relaxed in the hammocks sipping ice coffee discussing with the guide the corruption of Cambodia & the positives and negatives of having all the NGO's.
Finishing up the tour was a bit of nature a view over a forest better viewed during wet season and a walk to some massive trees!

Day 73 Sen Monorom

Just used today to do some planning & relaxing. We started looking at booking things for Borneo. We booked a tour here tomorrow to a waterfall and we have at least 6 maybe a 7th night booked in a treehouse on the beachfront of Koh Rong Island. Follow the link to stir jealousy http://www.treehouse-island.com/photos.html
The pictures; one is the bar/wooden shed we sit in for Internet connection so. The other is of where we are currently staying.

Day 72 Sen Monorom

What a great temperature this place has its about 800mts up so a little cooler than the rest of the country. It would be early 30's at the peak of the day and 20 odd overnight. No a/c required.
Neither Rachel or I enjoy riding on the back of scooters so its been avoided till today. Rachel was very nervous ahead of her first motorbike ride but other than some tense holding on all went well. It was a half hour ride some main road & some dirt road to a little village with elephants waiting.
To get on & off there was a platform and we walked over his head to sit in the most uncomfortable basket ever conceived! If we were 5yrs old & 4ft maybe but Rachel got on first and it looked tight. I got on and they all had a laugh with my knees up round my ears.
There was no hiding it the ride is uncomfortable as we went down a steep washed out track, the elephant was slow and careful with her steps we were both surprised she could do it.
At the river we got off and saying nothing our guide took off with the elephant, luckily Rachel had read about this tour and knew this may happen but a while latter others arrived and we swam, the elephants had a wash. After lunch we headed back on the track to the village about an hour.
I was struggling with a rough stomach which was bordering on serious so we asked about for a doctor to see tomorrow. The owner of a bar here was very helpful threw us on a bike & took us to the doctors house where he had a small clinic out back. It was 8:30pm he was watching tv but he was helpful I got a diagnosis of Dysentery and some drugs to sort it. Total cost $11US great! On the dramatic side a med-evac to Bangkok would have been fun!!
Just to even up the Jury I was forced to include this evenings excitement but in return I get to report on a previous incident going back nearly two months. On Rachel's first bicycle outing in what must be a very long time I was forbidden from writing about her falling off. It was luckily minor but I was able to take a picture of the blue stain line on the road her jeans left. The culprit....cows Rachel was busy watching cows. The poor farmer walking them didn't know what to do!  

Day 71 Bus to Sen Monoron

Front seats in the bus we got to see all the action. When it comes to the overtaking it's just better to be preoccupied with a book. We are travelling in a fairly modern bus and even though there are cars very few travel faster than the bus and some of the crazy machines we share the road with are all accidents waiting to happen, you know where this goes..... We past another accident today with only a brief look a heavily laden old truck was on its side in a ditch and a car had a smashed windscreen, loads of motorbikes had stopped to investigate but with many of the fully laden trucks carrying people on top of their goods the outcome isn't likely to be great when they crash.
I've included a pic of the road and you can see white either side, there was loads of this along the roads they are drying I think ginger but will need to check that.

We were greeted off the bus by Den who works for the hotel & is a 'tour guide'. The hotel is nice with little individual bungalows a steal at $8US per night.
We are here for a bit of nature and to see a hill tribe. Tomorrow we've booked a elephant walk so the lads are out catching them now because they roam free.
The other pic is of the houses lining the road.

Day 70 Bus back to Phnom Penh

No dramas today, we got the bus it wasn't as painful as the way there which we did straight after the bus from Vietnam.
Arriving in Phnom Penh we stayed in the hotel run by the same company capital tours in town.
Another bus tomorrow so we found that bus station & sorted tickets to head northeast to Sen Monorom.
In the central cafe/bar area on the pretty average looking river side we checked out the prices, wow we won't be heading there again most places had not Dublin prices but say cheaper side of English prices, roughly 2-4times what we were paying in Vietnam & Siem Reap so we found a side street place shame the food was crap! Only a token pic today of Phnom Penh I will get more when we head back there.

Day 69 The 3rd Temple Day

Up n out at 6am again today to see the more popular so it wasn't too long till other tourists arrived.
It's a bit tricky now to remember each temple they do start to melt into one, I think it was Takeo which was huge just a sprawling mess of impressive ruins with a small area under reconstruction.
Another notable one today was a long wide wall called the terrace of Elephants it had great carvings of elephants & monkeys.
Angkor Wat is a stunner, the edge was taken off it a bit for us since we'd seen so many over the last few days but it's big with the famous tall towers the shape of a lotus flower soaring high and a long wide path to cater for masses of people. It does make obvious the missing link between times of these intelligent people including the Egyptians, Mayans etc & us of the technology era still discovering things they had learnt thousands of years back.
Angkor Wat also had the front area under the covers of reconstruction so our photos do have a green tarp in them, still well worth the visit.

Day 68 The 2nd day of Angkor Temples

On the road to the temples at 6am today to get in what we could before it got too hot and it worked well. We completed today's tour also getting in Bayon a big one on tomorrow's schedule by 11am. Todays temples were a bit bigger and had some very steep climbs to the top, the view over the jungle is great though.

Because most early risers & all the tour buses visit Angkor Wat for sunrise we were alone walking through the first few and with not a soul about its a pretty erie feeling!

I had a coconut today brought it from the roadside they lopped of the top & gave a straw, I couldn't drink half the milk there was so much. A beer would have tasted better but ya gotta try these things every so often.
While I was taking a pic of a moat beside a temple something went through the tree above us and was gone by the time I looked up but left the tree top swaying. Forgot to mention yesterday we saw monkeys in roadside trees too.
A few areas had precarious stones held in place with wood, the stick above my head in the pic is a top example.
On the way home we got a glimpse of Angkor Wat, the biggie we will finish with tomorrow. We used the afternoon to relax in the a/c & have a siesta.