(11pm The Dungeon. Saigon Vietnam)
I set my alarm for 4:15 and went to bed at around 2am. The girls were suppose to be up at 4am as our Tuk Tuk was picking us up at 430am. When my alarm went off the girls were still asleep but quickly woke up and took over the bathroom. At 4:29am they told me to get out of bed as they rushed from the bathroom right out the door. Nih our Tuk Tuk driver showed up at 4:35 am and informed us that we would have to go with his brother since his Tuk Tuk had broken down the night before. His brother hardly spoke English so we stopped him a mile down the road and made sure we were all on the same page as far as where he would be taking us, for how long and how much it would cost us. We were the second vehicle thru the payment office and soon arrived to Angkor Wat under the pitch black night sky. The cars poured in. We thought by going this early we would be able to get some alone time and good pics with the temples, but we were dead wrong. The girls rushed into the temple as I set up my camera to take some photos while the sun rose. People hurried by me in the hundreds. The girls yelled for to come and I hollered back “we’ll just meet up later”. After taking a series of photos I wondered inside what I thought was the temple, it turned out I had only been shooting the temple gate and outer walls! Now inside the walls I hurried into the temple. The first thing I noticed was that all the statues of Buddha had been either decapitated or their faces had been removed? I continued around taking pics and I came across a lil old lady sitting by the active temple of active wat selling incense. I pointed at my camera asking if I could take a picture of her and she replied “one daaaaalllllar”, I hardly understood her and I again motioned with my camera. After repeating herself I realized she was asking for money. I gave her a dollar and took several stunning photos of her. On my way out of Angkor Wat I began looking for the girls and soon saw them about 150 yards away, quickly approaching the out wall. I sprinted after them yeller “Heeeela”! Finally she heard me and stopped. I honestly didn’t think I was gonna be able to find them in the hoards of people.
The girls and I were clearly on different agenda’s as far as the temples went. They hurried thru temple after temple as I stopped and took several pictures before even making it through the front entrance. After each temple we would meet up again over by the tuk tuk’s. I asked a tour guide why none of the faces remained and he informed me that most of them had been stolen while the country was in turmoil. He also told me that the temples were built in about 1000a.d. At one of the temples I stumbled across four young student monks. I asked if I could take a few photographs and one of them agreed. His name was Skyli. He was a former tuk tuk driver that was going to school to become a monk. His parents could afford to send him to school so this was his only other choice. He said he wanted to join the army to support his country but I couldn’t help wonder if it was just once again it was his only option?
On the way into and out of most temples there were groups of children trying to sell all sorts of things: clothes, souvenirs, food, drinks, etc. Except rather they were fierce sales people. “mister, mister. You buy! You buy!” or “cold drink, you buy, cold drink?”, I would quickly reply “ak tay a khun” which means no thank you in Khmer (Cambodian) and they would say “ok but if you buy, you buy from me, OK?” I did end up buying quit a few things from them: bottles of water, music instruments, pants, and shirt. I’m a sucker, the Israeli girls said. But they were the ones telling them to go ask Tim. It made saying “No” that much harder when they know your name. “mister Teem, mister teem” as the pulled on my arm. I did make the mistake of buying from the wrong girl one time and will never make that mistake again. Apparently which ever kid talks to you first has dibs on you. Well one girl asked me on the way into a temple to buy pants and I said no, but on the way out I bought some from another lil girl. The first girl got very upset and followed me. “why you don’t buy from me?”…”I saw you first”…”buy from me too”…”you’re not a nice man”. So lesson learned.
It was now about 12:30 and we had visited 4 temples and only had one remaining, which we were supposed to take in sunset from. One of the girls wanted to take a nap for 5 hours and then watch the sunset, but I was definitely not sitting out there for 5 more hours. It was completely grey sky and even raining off and on. There hadn’t been a sunrise and there definitely wasn’t going to be a sunset. Also by this time I had grow irritated by the speed that the girls mad their way through the temples and remember exactly why it is that I travel by myself: I don’t have to worry about what anyone else wants to do or how. I just do what I want. So we walked up the hill and we were we arrived at ________ we were the only people there. We climbed the top of the temple and views were spectacular!!!!! You could see 360 degrees, lakes to one side, the city to another and Angkor Wat poking out of the forest. We sat up top for about 20 minutes, taking in the views and cooling off in the wind. The girls yelled to me from the bottom as they made their way out the gate. I climbed down, took some pictures and then jogged down the hill after them.
Returning to the guest house, I began downloading the 400 pictures I had taken and jumped in the shower. When I got out, they asked me if I were going to go down stairs to use the lobby internet. “no” I replied. They informed me that they had wanted to take showers and I told them to go ahead. “Well can you just leave for about 30 minutes, we want to be able to get dressed and stuff”. Now I had just got back from walking and sweating for about 8 hours, had taken a hot shower, and was lying in bed in my air conditioned room. The last thing I wanted to do was go down to a hot, dusty lobby! I told them to take showers and get dressed in the bathroom like normal people; I just did it without any problems. As I began to brush my teeth. They walked out the door as they said that they would me alone for two hours but wanted about 30 minutes in the room when they got back. I downloaded my pics, updated the blog, added the ads to the blog and checked emails. Megan, one of the California girls I met in Chiang Mai and watch the Thai boxing with, wrote me a message telling me they were in Siem Reap and invited me to dinner at their guest house. I got dressed and took a cab over there. When I arrived, Vanessa was gone and Megan was in the shower so I found two cute girls from Portugal in the downstairs restaurant to sit and chat with. The girls came down later and at dinner together with our new friends. After dinner we went to the night market and I educated the girls on how to get the best bargain their. The idea was to walk completely thru one time without buying ANYTHING, just check prices of the items you like. Ask again and again for the price of the same item and then make your way back thru a second time and make your purchases. Most of the vendors had the same products. Megan didn’t make it past the first booth before buying a headband and not only that, but convincing me to buy one as well!!! As we walked away I told her she wasn’t doing so well on the “don’t buy anything yet” program. After shopping and drinks at the Island bar I headed back to the guest house around 11pm. Next morning we woke up at 6 am were picked up by the bus, we said our brief goodbyes and took off on separate buses. Me for Phnom Penh while they headed Vietnam.
For the first leg of the bus ride I slept but at the lunch stop I met cute young women from Australia. Returning to the bus I asked the Khmer guys sitting next to her if he would switch seats with, he did. We spent the next few hours chatting it up. She was taking the bus all the way thru to Ho Chi Minh. Turns out she was on CS as well and was staying with Tim, a CS’er in the city. We exchanged info and made plans to meet in the city when I arrived a few days later. When I arrived in Phnom Penh 6 hours later Sonja, a CS’er picked me up at the bus station and we went for lunch. We ate at Green Vespa, a Irish Pub right by the river. When I went inside to use the toilet a monkey climbd down from the roof and stole the remainder of my breakfast. She told me the main things to do in Siem Reap were the S-21 Museum, The Killing Fields and some Wat (temple). I decided I would go to the museum that day and the killing fields the following day before catching a bus to Vietnam. Sonja took me to a guest house in the backpacker’s district and dropped me off. 3$ a night with common bathroom or 5$ us with a bathroom, I opted for the 3$ room. My visit at the S-21 museum started with an hour film about the Khmer Rouge and what exactly had taken place at S-21, Killing Fields, Phnom Penh and Cambodia during the 70’s. S-21, former school turned military prison, housed those who were thought to be conspirators against Khmer Rouge. They tortured, and forced to give false confessions. There was no medical facility and the conditions were atrocious. Many starved to death and the remainder later met their death at the Killing Fields. To learn more: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum
It was a chilling experience and I had never even heard of the Cambodia Genocides prior to my visit.
I returned home my guest house and Sonja picked me up for the night market and dinner. On our way out there was fight between a Khmer (Cambodian) and a Nigerian guy. The Nigerian was lying on the ground, beaten pretty badly. The Khmer had broken a guitar over him and was still wildly swinging the handle. I asked Sonja to hold my camera as I walked back to try to bring peace to the situation. Someone beat me to it and it looked as if everything was going to be ok. Sonja told the Nigerian deserved, apparently he’s always high/drunk and groping women and starting trouble. The night market was a completely local event and we were the only westerners there. We quickly made or way thru the small market of clothes and carnival games and then headed back to the back packing district. On our way back in to the guest house we came we were stopped a large crowd blocking the road. The same Khmer was standing along the side of the road bleeding really badly and there were large puddles of blood everywhere. During our walk at the market I found out that Cambodia is a very unstable country and most people carry knifes and guns. I couldn’t help but think, that might have been good info for Sonja to tell me before she almost let me break up a fight! We later found out that the Khmer got into a fight with some French guys and was cut by the bottles he was attempting to use as a weapon. We went to a guest house to meet some German girls I had acquainted myself with earlier. There were four English kids, and two other Americans, Sonja and the two German girls. We talked about CS.com, religion and politics late into the night. I even got an opportunity to finally eat some bugs! I ate a beatle, and it was DISCUSTING! Leaving some blanks in the story, I’ll just say that I went to bed at 4 am.
Next morning I woke up at 6:30 am and told my motorbike driver that we should sleep in and go to the killing fields at 8am. He agreed. A half hour motorbike ride got me to the Killing Fields, and I walked around for 15 minutes and returned to the guest house. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more to be seen. It literally consisted of a few acres of land that were once, and partially still are mass graves from the genocide. Large pits only remain and there is a large monument in the middle to those who perished. The monument is a pillar of skulls in glass case stretching upwards into the sky.
It was 10:30 when we made it back to the guest house and I bought an 11:30 bus ticket for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I slept for the entire way with the exception of having to get off at the border. At the border I met a Canadian who was living in China and suggested I go to China after Hanoi and fly out of Hong Kong instead of Hanoi back to Bangkok. He said it would be much cheaper even with the extra travel expense to China. Its food for thought! I had two couches lined up in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh): Tim, a traveling journalist’s house and Natasha, the Vietnam CS ambassador’s house. Tim had several other CS’ers staying but there was room on the floor and he lived right in the city. Natasha had a bed for me however she lived about 20 min out of the city. I opted for Tim’s house and called him from the bus station. I took a motorbike for 2$ to his house and the driver tried to only give me back half my change from a USD 10 bill in Dong (Vietnam Currency) Bill, one of the people staying at Tim’s house told me I was being robbed and I got more money back.. When I walked inside I met Tim, Simon and Pascal from Quebec, Erika and David who also lived there and Inbal a friend of Tim’s who was visiting. I hung out and check emails then we went to meet Jamie, the Australian I met on the bus, for dinner. She was also Couch surfing at Tim’s. At dinner I met Travis a Couch surfer from Texas who was staying at Natasha’s.
Simon, Jamie and myself slept on a full size mat on the floor, as the other couches and beds were already spoken for. The next morning we woke up at 6am and went for breakfast. Simon and Pascal caught their bus to their next destination while Jamie took a ½ tour of the tunnels. This left me and Travis, who was waiting for his bus to the Mekong. He got on the bus and two minutes later he got back off! He said he couldn’t handle all the tourist. He told me about the Easy Riders motorcycle tours in Vietnam and we decide to go riding together. We sat and went over possible itineraries and ended up buying “open bus tickets”. They allow us to go from Saigon to Hanoi with 8 stops along the way for about 53$ USD! Tim completely changed my travel plans by showing me an article about surfing in Vietnam. I decided I wanted to check out some of the surf breaks up the coast. I had couches lined up for 3 places already but put in request for two more along the way. Travis and I did some shopping and then went to get pedi’s and mani’s. Ok I did while he got a massage. I was actually really disappointed with them; I was expecting a hand and foot massage as well but ended up just getting my nails done. They didn’t even exfoliate my hands or feet!! At 2pm we met Jamie and went to the Market on our way to a Museum, which ended up being closed. I did a lil more shopping before catching motorbike back to Tim’s while Travis and Jamie walked back. We all went for dinner and I met Janina, a new couch surfer to the house. Dinner was hilarious at the non English speaking vietmanese restaurant. They kept bring out food we didn’t order, that didn’t taste good and we kept eating it! We paid the bill, half of which we didn’t order, nor eat. After dinner Janina and I walked for dessert but got distracted by a school where they were doing waltz lessons on an outside balcony. We tried to get in but the language barrier prevented us. After ice cream walked home and watched a movie with everyone and now are about to go to sleep. I have no idea where everyone is sleeping tonight but I’m about to claim stake and grab the mat on the ground!! A Hui Ho!
