Long way home: November 2009

Rabbit Island

Just before heading off to Vietnam we popped of to a very ‘rustic’ island weirdly named Rabbit Island (no rabbits and you must be dreaming if you thought the island looked like one). Here we stayed in ‘rustic’ shacks and practically did nothing for two days. Nice.

Joel breaking into his shack

Relaxing in the sun …maybe not all of us.

Our bags on the boat

Sihanoukville

After all our traveling around …all of the busses, trains, boats and planes we felt we were ready for a break. So when we stumbled across this beautiful calm golden sand beach we decided to stay for 9 days. We made friends with one local restaurant owner – Dhara, who was hilarious and naturally we visited frequently.
It was a lovely lovely spot and with accommodation for 2USD a night each why not!

Logan Joel and Sam still lounging around at sunset

For a change from our beach we explored via scooters

Clear warm oceans …mmmmm…

Our local construction site

A romantic sunset stroll

We embarked on an Island boat tour to one of the many local islands, great day out.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia was quite a cool city, elaborate palace and such a history here is a snippet …In the rule of the Khmer Rouge (a horrible regime) within the first three days all of the cities were completely emptied to fill the lands with workers and was not inhabited for another 3 or so years. It was amazing what Batttambang and even more Phnom Penh had already become.
Mainly we just wandered around town soaking it all up, one day venturing out to one of the killing fields.

A random massive Elephant walking down one of the cities man roads.

So a little note about the Cambodians, they will eat anything and everything. In this picture you can see: Snakes, whole birds, crickets, grubs, weird eggs, duck embryos and what ever else.

Remnants of the killing fields where thousands upon thousands were brutally killed.

Beautiful, yet they are currently in the process of filling in another lake for prime real estate. Cambodia is one corrupt country.

Battambang

Battambang is less frequented as a city by the tourist hoards, making it feel a little more ours for the time we were there. It was one of the biggest cities, yet not large in the scale of things (see the Khmer Rouge bit in the Phnom Penh entry).
Our new friend ‘Kim’ (who was the loveliest, friendliest guy ever) drove us around the countryside in his Tuk Tuk, teaching us about all of the history, horticulture, bats, temples and introducing us to the famed ‘bamboo train’.

Kim our trusted tour guide for the day …possibly our favorite part of the trip was hearing his amazing yet scary history tied up with all of Cambodia’s hardships.

Chilies drying in the sun

Peanuts drying in the sun

Some of the very very friendly local kids

Us at the temple of the tour, neglected under the Khmer Rouge

So this is the infamous Bamboo train …they have taken the track wheels from old tanks and put a flat bamboo tray on top it, then they stick a motor on it, a couple of ten year old kids for drivers and hay presto a new form of transport.

Ok, we did not mention brakes and other trains above… there are no brakes and generally there are only other bamboo trains in the way. You come to a gradual rolling stop where you argue with the other train, generally the one with the greatest load gets to stay while the other train is disassembled and put aside. This is us recreating our train.

Cambodia, Siem Reap

With a quick dip into Thailand we shot off to the wonderful friendly Cambodia …a mission across the border, and on to Siem Reap. Siem Reap contains a large area called Angkor Wat, and it for sure should be one of the 7 wonders of the world. It is an expanse of temples and palaces with a cross between Hindu and Buddhism, amazing sights for an amazing couple of days. Sorry there are no really good pics of the main Angkor Wat Temple.