First Day in Cambodia

The guesthouse is a really strange, but cool place. The people that run it are friendly, and the lonely planet even makes mention of this fact in its review of the place. The bill is done on the honor system. Each room has a book, and in that book you are responsible for keeping track of your charges. You can walk right up and grab your own beer. If you order food it is your responsibility to write it down and how much. Then when you check out you pay for everything. Water and coffee are free, which is a big change from Thailand. I loved Thailand, but sometimes the Thai proprietors can be a little stingy and will charge you for every little thing they can.

One thing that is interesting in traveling is observing the differences between countries. Since this is my first border crossing of this trip, it is my first time to observe the differences. Thailand obviously wins when it comes to roads, but Cambodia surprisingly beats the Thais in my opinion in a matter that means a lot to me. Angkor beer is one of the better beers I have had. It is not as good as Czech beer, but it is close in taste to Polish beer. I love Polish beer, so this says a lot. I used to really like Singha, which is a Thai beer but after drinking a lot of it on this trip the more of it I had the less I liked it. It has too much of a bitter aftertaste. Chang beer in Thailand is quite the same. Leo and Tiger beer from Thailand are a little smoother, but not very interesting. They are kind of like an American domestic beer. Angkor from Cambodia is both smooth and has a very fresh hoppy taste.

People from America make the mistake all the time of thinking that Asia is just one country and a kind of mono-culture exists throughout the whole continent. This is far from the truth and the differences between the countries in Asia are much more extreme than the differences in American culture from one region to the next. In Asia, each country, although some of them are quite small, have their own language, culture, and history. Although they are similar in many respects they are also quite different. I noticed this the minute I crossed the Cambodian border. Although Cambodia was an Asian nation like Thailand and a neighbor, I felt like I was in another planet once I crossed the border. One big difference is in the appearance. The majority ethnic group in Cambodia is the Khmers. They are short and very dark skinned with a small nose and dark hair. In Thailand, there seemed to be two major ethnic groups. The Siamese were darker skinned and those that had a mixture of Chinese were a lighter skin. They also had black hair, but were a little taller than the Khmers on average. I admit to not knowing much about the ethnic groups in either country, so this is kind of a generalization, but one based on observation.

It can be difficult to adapt to these differences in the countries while traveling because it is a lot of work to try and acclimate to the culture you find yourself in and then by simply crossing the border, many things have changed. I spent a month in Thailand and was on the verge of becoming comfortable even in places off the beaten track where not much English was spoken. With my limited Thai I could get my point across. For instance while eating lunch the day I left the country I asked the waitress for chilies to make the food spicier. She did not know what I mean. I recalled that “phet” meant spicy from my classes. I said that and she repeated it, turned around, and retrieved the chilies for me.

Also, you have to get used to a new currency. Cambodia makes this pretty easy as they love American dollars. Just about everywhere posts their menus with American dollars so you can use either American money or the local currency. What is kind of odd is that they do not use American change, only dollars. I was standing behind a guy in the gas station and he paid for two waters that were 75 cents each. He gave the clerk two American dollars and the clerk handed him back 2000 riels. I was given advance knowledge of this and brought plenty of American 1$ and 5$ bills, which helped a lot. Once in Siem Reap I learned that the exchange rate was 4000 riels for an American dollar. This meant that they totally ripped us off on the bus at the border as they told us we would get 2000 riels in Siem Reap and offered 2300. Fortunately, I only converted twenty American dollars here, which was a loss of about eight dollars, but it is pretty annoying anyways. I felt sorry for people that converted more.

After waking up and feeling a bit exhausted from the night before I kind of lounged around the guesthouse and had some coffee and tried to figure out what to do. There were some people at the guesthouse that were trying to pressure me into hiring them for a guide, but I wanted to tour the temples by bike as that was suggested in the Lonely Planet, and I did not want to go down there right away anyway. I decided to walk into town and found an internet café. I had to dodge many moto-bike drivers along the way that wanted me to hire them for rides.

After two hours in the internet café writing up my crazy day of travel from the day before I had lunch. The lunch place had several town bikes advertised for 1$ per day. I decided to take them up on that and rented a bike. I really had no idea where the temples were, but there were some signs that pointed me in the right direction. About a mile from the bike place my bike all of a sudden lost all power to move forward. After closer inspection, I realized the chain had completely snapped. I had to walk the bike back to the place. This was really a pain because it was really hot, and I was hung-over, so extra effort like this was definitely not welcomed on this day. I returned to the bike place and they gave me a new bike and it was take 2 for my departure for the Temples.

I found the road to the Temples with no problem and cruised up to the entrance and an official looking policemen pointed me into the park entrance where I paid 40 US dollars for a three day pass. Now the Temples were amazing and more than worth it, but what was strange was that this price was way out of whack with the local economy. I guess they put a Seven Wonders of the World luxury tax on the tourists. This is even more expensive than any Western attraction of the same type. I would not have a problem paying this fee, but it was doubtful it was going to the ones that needed the money from these funds, which is the country and the people of Cambodia. There was a rumor that some Australian company had bought the rights from the country and all the money was going to this company. If this is true it is absolutely heinous. From first hand observation I could say that the country could really use the proceeds from this source to fund a better highway from Thailand to Siem Reap.

I pedaled on to the main temple which was the first stop. I parked my bike and I was surrounded by young kids hocking postcards and guides. There was like 10 of them all yelling at the top of their voice, “mistuh, you buy my postcahd.” Thinking that if I bought something they might leave me alone I bought a group of postcards from one young kid. This strategy backfired as the rest of them just tried that much harder thinking they found a free spending sucker and they followed me with a fever pitch of voices and cries. The funny thing was they were selling postcards just like the ones I bought. I tried to reason with them and say I just bought ten postcards, why would I want to buy more? Ours are same, but different they replied and laughed. Unfortunately, this was the one of the annoyances of Angkor. At each stop you were attacked by these kids and also people selling drinks. It was great that you could buy cold drinks while driving your bike in the heat. It was not so great that there were 8 drink vendors yelling “mistuh, you want cold drink,” at me at the same time. It was also very sad because they were desperate for money and they were just so adorable. You wanted to buy something from each one, but that was just impossible.

This first stop was actually the main temple of the whole group and it was called Angkor Vat, and the rest of the area was named after this temple. I could see a ruined temple in the distance as I walked away escaping the vendors, and some spirals even farther in the distance. I was impressed with the first part, and took some pictures of the ruins. I then walked through and then there was a long walkway that led to the next set of temples. My breath escaped me as I walked through the back of the entryway and could see the Temple in all of its beauty set in front of a clear blue beautiful sky with several coconut trees on each side. I was speechless while looking at this beauty, which was natural since I was by myself, but even if I was with someone talking I would have stopped talking once I caught sight of this wonder. I will always remember that first glance of this temple.

The whole mystique of this place is just indescribable. You have these amazing ruins that just rise out of the jungle. Thankfully, Siem Reap is much prettier than the dried brown landscape we passed through on the bus to get here. Half of the park is covered by a blanket of many trees with an abundance of birds and monkeys. The spires have jungle plants growing out of them and there are birds, who probably live in the temple that are constantly flying around them. It is hard to capture in words how amazing these ruins are. The ruins date from around the 10th and 11th century I believe. At this point Europe was pretty much in the dark ages. I was thinking this would be a good lesson to teach students. It would show that Asian people were doing incredible things while Europe was just getting started with their civilization, which would discredit many stereotypes that Western Culture is far superior to the rest of the world.

After walking around for awhile, I hit the next temple. There are over 137 temples in the area. The most spectacular are found in the general area around the main Angkor temple. After a 1 km bike ride, I arrived at the next temple and stiff-armed a few more postcard peddlers and made my get away. This one was on a large hilltop, and I was huffing and puffing as I got to the top. This temple was called Pnom Bahkeng and was a series of terraces that culminated in a little square pagoda at the top. I had to climb these stairs, which were pretty steep, but eventually got to the top. Siem Reap is for the most part pretty flat, so this temple on this hill looked over everything, and it was an amazing view. There was jungle as far as the eye could see to the north, the temple I just visited to the south, a lake to the west, and farm land to the east. Swallows were flying all over the place and they made this surreal noise as they buzzed past your head. It was pretty windy and as they buzzed past your head it made this strange swishing sound, and there many birds up there, so this cool noise was almost constant. I also saw two beautiful bright green parakeets fly over in the jungle area to the north.

Despite the beauty of the scene, the author was feeling like hell. I was feeling the effects from the night before with Ollie and Harry. Also, it was extremely hot and the pedaling in the heat was also taking its toll on me. I sat in the shade and drank some water, and read a little. Despite the fact that this was one of the major temples, there were few people here now and it was very quiet. Soon I was fast asleep. The reason that this temple was quiet was because everyone herded to this temple to watch the sunset. Near sunset a horde led by Japanese photo tourists of concert going proportions flocked to this temple, but at other times of the day the temple was nice and peaceful. I woke up and felt a little better. I hoped that sleeping at a temple is not some bad luck or an offense. I saw a few Buddhist monks when I awoke, but they did not seem to mind that I was sleeping off a hangover at a holy place. I thought to myself that it would be cool to do a drunken hung-over tour of all the Seven Wonders. That would be great to say that you took a nap due to a hang-over at all Seven Wonders. I am not sure that it is possible though because I think that some of the Seven Wonders do not exist anymore. It would be difficult and probably impossible to get hammered and then the next day take a nap in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

It made me curious what the criteria is for a wonder being a Wonder. I wonder about a lot of things, but most are not true Wonders of the world or even anything that anyone but me would care about. For instance, at the moment on the temple I was wondering why I felt so bad after having such a good time the night before, or for that matter why so many fun things in general are deemed wrong. This train of thinking got me curious to what the ACTUAL Seven Wonders are. I wonder also if there was an ancient Seven Wonders committee that voted on this.

After writing this I soon discovered that there are different categories for the seven wonders. For instance there are the seven wonders of the ancient world and seven wonders of the modern world. There are even a seven wonders of the medieval mind whatever that means. In fact everyone is trying to get into the seven wonders thing. I even found a USA today seven wonders list. There is also a new seven wonders campaign that had a vote over the internet. Check the site below for the winners. Ankgor, unfortunately, was a finalist, but did not win. After my visit here I am inclined to think they got robbed. I am thinking of making a new list. The Seven got screwed wonders of the world.

New7Wonders.com

After waking I descended the steps and returned to my bike. I bought some drinks from one of the vendors while the other seven vendors seethed in jealousy and tried to sell me what I had already just bought. I said no thanks, and then they said “next time mistuh?” I told them sure, which was a mistake because I learned that they have long memories. Each temple was beautiful and amazing in its own right. What was really great was that each one was a little different than the one before it. I guess that each of these temples was made by the Kings of Angkor, and each one tried to out do the other. I saw many temples over the next three days and I did not get tired of seeing ancient temples.

The next temple was called Bayon and the highlight of this temple was that it had these faces of Buddha chiseled on these stone monuments, and the faces were chiseled identically on all four sides of these square pillars. The symmetry on all of the temple designs was really incredible. A lot of the temples were square and had stairs on all four sides and each side was identical to the next one. The precision to accomplish this was truly a great architectural feat and that they had the knowledge to carry this out during the ancient world is truly a phenomenon right up there with the Pyramids.

It was getting dark, so I drove a little farther to one more temple, which I believe was a wall devoted to a leper king. I was approached by some scary looking Cambodian teenagers who got me to take a picture in front of the wall and then gave me a little background. I normally would have been grateful for this service, but I did not ask for it and I knew it was going to cost me. I was a little afraid that they may take my camera and run while as I was in this pit in front of a stone mural. This was the one time I felt a little fear from another person on this trip. It was getting dark and the crowds were all gathering at the hilltop temple, so I was somewhat alone. I gave them some money and they tried to get more from me, but I swiftly walked away back to my bike and pedaled all the way back to the guesthouse. When I arrived back to the guesthouse Dave the Australian who hung out with Ollie, Harry, and I a little the night before was going to dinner. I told him I was going to take a cold shower and if he did not mind waiting I would join him in a minute. Dave was traveling around the world for a year. I thought that my three month trip was epic, but I am meeting quite a few people like him that are traveling around the world for a year.

We had a great dinner. We talked the whole dinner about traveling and shared experiences that we have encountered so far. Dave had the luxury of taking his time since he will be out for a year. He was going to stay in Siem Reap for at least a week and was not even going to get his three day pass for a couple of days. Like many of my friends that envied my three month trip, I was envying his year trip. After our dinner complete with a few Angkors we returned to the guesthouse. I soon went to bed because I wanted to wake up the next morning at 4:15am. The sunrise emerges right over the Angkor temples, and I have heard that the sunrise at the temples is not to be missed. One thing that is nice about South East Asian weather is that it is very predictable. In Chicago if you are a tourist and are counting on the weather it can be pretty iffy many times. In Cambodia during the dry season one can count that the sun will rise at 6am with no clouds and it will soon then be hot as hell.

Journey to Cambodia

The bus was leaving for Cambodia in front of the travel agent where I bought the ticket. I arrived in front of the travel agency around 7am and there was no one around. Finally another backpacker arrived and I asked where they were heading. They said the floating markets. Another tourist arrived and she confirmed that she was going to Cambodia as well. There were no Thai people around at all or any buses for that matter, so we were all a bit apprehensive. These round ups for departing are never very well organized, but somehow everything works out. Sure enough, a smiling Thai person arrives, and I show him my receipt and he gives me a bus ticket and tells me to go around the corner to find the bus. Around the corner was the bus, which was of the large, comfortable, air-conditioned variety. I had two seats to myself in the back, which is rare on these tourist buses, as they try to pack you in to maximize their profits. I laid back and stretched out and listened to my music and thought this trip was going to be a breeze.

When I was out in Patpong with the American friends I had met watching the Super Bowl, I was warned that this bus trip was rather hellish, by their friend Christian. Christian was teaching in Chiang Mai. He had never made the trip himself, but he had heard horror stories. I laughed and thought this was one of those rumors where the experience got worse and worse as the rumor mill turned, but yet the actual experience was not half as bad. I kind of knew in the back of my mind that things might be different once we reached Cambodia. As I watched the Thai countryside go by, I was sad to be leaving Thailand, but I was trying to figure out a way to get back here for a week or so before I left for the Philippines. There were still a few places that I had not seen that I really wanted to see. I had not had time to visit Kho Yai National Park, which is supposed to be a wildlife paradise, so I wanted to come back and see that if I could manage it.

The bus trip from Bangkok to the border was restful, peaceful, and easy. It took us about 3 to 4 hours to go the almost 200 miles to get to the border town of Aranyaprathet. Once we hit the border was when things took a turn for the worse. It happened to be Chinese New Year, and apparently many Thai people visit the temples of Ankgor, so the crossing into Cambodia was really crowded.

The guides said we had to take everything off the bus as the bus was going back to Bangkok. We all grabbed our things and headed for the border crossing. The line was incredibly slow, and we baked in the 90+ sun while waiting. There were two lines, one for Thai people and one for foreigners. They only had one person on each line. The Thai line moved briskly as they only did a cursory look at their passport. The foreigner line was painstakingly slow. At first this line spilled outside the customs building and around the corner. We all had our bags on and were dripping with sweat as we roasted in the Thai almost Cambodia sun. All around us were dirty beggar children pulling at our hands. The guidebook warned about these kids at the crossing and wrote that one needed to safeguard valuables from them. While baking in the sun we were all hoping to reach the building to get out of the sun. Once inside the room there was over 200 people in line with nary a fan to be seen, so it was just as bad. Inside we baked in the heat instead of roasting outside.

I finally made it through and was in Cambodia. It was hot and bothersome, but at least it was done with. We then started to advance towards the bus. We then realized we were not done yet. We then had to go through the Cambodian side. All we did in the first line was exit Thailand and now we had to enter Cambodia. We were currently in no-man’s land. Surprisingly the Cambodian side was much more efficient and we passed through this line in about a half-hour.

The first thing I noticed on the Cambodian side is two huge extravagant buildings on either side of the road and then the desolate, ugly, dirty city of Poipet beyond these two buildings. It turned out these two nice buildings were casinos where high spending rich Thais come to gamble as there are laws against gambling in Thailand. There were all these moto-bikes waiting in this queue and they all had these scarves over their mouths to protect from the blowing sand. None of the streets of Poipet were paved. I had no idea where everyone went to, but a Cambodian fellow saw me and waived me over to the waiting bus. I was the last one on. The new bus was a little dingier and older than the Thai bus, but it was comfortable, and I had my own seat, so I was happy.

The bus then drove to a currency exchange and I exchanged some American money for Cambodian real. I forgot to check the exchange rate in Cambodia. The guide on the bus said that they would give a rate of 2300 real per 1 US dollar, which is better than in Siem Reap. He said in Siem Reap the banks will only give 2000 per US dollar. He looked friendly, so we believed him and cashed in some money. I was going to exchange 50 usd, but I decided 20 would be enough for now. This was a good thing as we found out when we got to our destination that this was a major scam. All of a sudden some other Cambodians came on and said to get on another bus. We all thought it was just some scam to get us to pay extra for a VIP bus or something because these people were different from our driver, but it was not the case and we were moved. They told us a larger group needed to use this big bus. A much smaller bus not much bigger than a mini van came up around the corner and we were told this was our bus. I could not imagine how all us would fit as there were over twenty of us. I was one of the last in. I looked inside and all the seats were taken. They had these little mini seats that opened in the aisle that were low to the ground, which I had to take. There was a great ruckus from two German ladies who would not get on. They yelled at the Cambodians that this bus was unsafe, but they were eventually coaxed in and I got on my seat and we took off.

We drove through the town of Poipet and this had to be the ugliest town I had ever seen. As I mentioned before none of the roads were paved and were sand covered instead. Every bike, car, and bus kicked up big clouds of dust obscuring the view of the city as we drove through. This was not such a bad thing as this town looked like how I would imagine Fallujah or some other war torn small Iraqi town. There was garbage everywhere and the buildings in the town all looked like they had been bombed. If they had not been bombed, a well place bomb would have been an improvement.

As we left the town the view in the countryside was not much better. Since it was the dry season everything was completely brown. There were not many trees and the trees that could be found were pretty sad looking sights. The condition of the road was absolutely horrible. Now I know what Christian was saying was no lie. There were small sections where the road was paved, but then they would give way to dirt and gravel and huge potholes. When our over capacity bus hit these potholes, the driver had to slow down to an almost stop. When going through the potholes the whole bus lurched and bounced us around. Since it was so hot, the windows had to stay open and dust kicked up from vehicles in front of us poured through the open windows.

After two hours of this we stopped for dinner. Everyone came out of the bus and walked right in and sat down. No one even said hello to our Cambodian hosts at the restaurant. I said hello and our waitress looked shocked for a second and then said hello. The guy I was sitting with made some joke about the food being fried cockroaches. This kind of annoyed me. Everyone was in a horrible mood because of the strain of the day, but it was not the people’s fault at the restaurant. They still deserved to be treated with respect. As we were leaving the Cambodians said nothing except when I passed the waitress and she said “see you mistuh,” and smiled. I think she singled me out because I was the only one with the courtesy to say hello to her as we arrived.

We got back on the bus, and somehow I got in a worse position than before. One of my legs was wedged against someone’s luggage and the other was penned in by the seat beside me. This meant I could not shift my legs at all. I tried to shift my whole body back a bit and struck the person behind me in the face with my seat. I apologized and realized now I could not shift my back either. I basically could hardly move. To make matters worse, being in the mini seat in aisle I was lower than everyone else and my legs had less room in front of me because of this. I was also not near any open window, so I could not catch the breeze coming in. I am not sure being near an open window would have been any better as I would have been all dusty. It was either hot and stuffy or breezy and dusty. Everyone on the bus was uncomfortable, so I do not think it really mattered much where one was sitting, but I think I had the worst of the worst. Everyone else was probably thinking the same thing. Comfort was non existent on our bus.

Then an amazing thing happened. The horrible road got worse. The potholes became more frequent and we also moved more slowly because we encountered many bridges and each bridge was only one way. There were also these huge inexplicable piles of dirt in the middle of the road for who knows what reason that our driver had to avoid. I have thought long and hard why these were there because they were piled high and in a way that could only have been done by man, so they had to have some sort of purpose. One guess is may be a road crew dumped them there and then someone else was supposed to spread this sand over the road. Another guess was maybe they were there over big potholes that could not be driven on and by putting the dirt there the driver had to avert these dangerous potholes. Whatever their purpose, they slowed us down even more and made this strange trip even more bizarre as we veered back and forth through these piles of dirt. I think it is about a seventy mile trip from the border to Siem Reap. It took us over five hours to make the trip.

Usually when I am making a road trip music or reading is what saves me. I could not read since it was completely dark on the bus. I had a flashlight in my bag, but I could not move, so that was a problem. I did have access to my music though. I listened to one CD for a bit and then just turned it off. It was doing nothing for me in my misery. I was hoping the music would take my mind off of my current unpleasantness, but I was too uncomfortable to enjoy the music. Also, I was afraid that whatever music I listened to might in my mind be linked to this trip and I may forever not be able to enjoy it. I may listen to that CD again in the future and my mind would think of cramped legs, stuffy breathing, heat, and dust instead of the music and it may forever tarnish the songs. I turned off my CD and just sat in a trance trying to meditate myself into numbness. This was not working either. I had had it with this trip. I was hot, I was dusty, I was tired, I was pissed, and my whole body was aching and uncomfortable. I was just about to scream out loud in anger, frustration, fatigue, and any other word that evokes misery and discomfort when the bus started all of a sudden picking up speed. We amazingly hit a patch of pavement that was not broken by a pothole, or a one-lane rickety bridge, or a pile of dirt in the middle of the road. I did not want to begin to hope as I did not want to be cruelly disappointed when we hit the pot holes again. We kept going though picking up more speed. Soon there were buildings, lights, and road signs indicating we were entering town. Then we passed these huge hotels that could only be for foreigners visiting the Temples of Angkor. We all exhaled in relief. The bus then dropped us off at the guesthouse where a new adventure ensued. Our troubles were not yet over.

We were dropped off by the bus at the Sidewalk Guesthouse, which was the first guesthouse as we arrived in town. I was so thankful to get off the bus. I grabbed my things and dropped them off in a corner and smoked a cigarette and just stared off into space. I could hear people talking around me making plans on where to stay. I heard people say there were no vacancies here, and I also heard panicked talk of absolutely no rooms available in the whole town due to Chinese New Year. I did not care. All I cared about was that I was off of the fucking hell bus. I was happy as could be at that point. I would worry about a place to stay soon enough.

A small man then approached me and asked if I needed a room. I feared some scam as I thought I heard that there were no rooms in Siem Reap. I said I did, and he said he had an available room for 2$. He said to follow me. I was really confused at this point because a lot of people from the bus had already left in search of rooms as they were told no vacancies. I followed him into a fairly comfortable room for 2$. I could not believe my luck. I did not know why they refused many others who asked for a room, but approached me and asked if I needed a room when I was simply and quietly minding my own business at the moment. I was not going to ask questions, so I threw my stuff in the room and then headed back outside for a beer. After that trip I needed a drink more than I had ever needed one in my life.

They had this beautiful little table under a thatched roof right outside and a few people were out there having a drink enjoying the beautiful night. I took a seat and ordered an Angkor beer. Another surprise from Cambodia was that this beer was very tasty and much better than any beer found in Thailand in my opinion. I started talking to some of the survivors from the bus trip. The German couple with their mom who had made the big ruckus when we were moved to the smaller bus was there under the roof. There were also two German guys named Ollie and Harry that had arrived earlier in the day. They had had a long trip too and we all shared horror stories.

More people kept arriving and some were put into room and some were allowed to sleep outside. The workers at the guesthouse were doing all they could to accommodate these late arrivals. One gal slept right behind us in a hammock while we bantered away over beer after beer. I kept turning around, but apparently we were not bothering her as she was fast asleep. We did our best to talk lightly. Then the workers from the guesthouse began questioning us about our rooms. I was hoping to have a room by myself, but when they found I did they asked me if for half the price if I would share. I reluctantly agreed. Then more people kept coming and they continued to try and accommodate. I saw them talking to some Germans that just arrived. I could tell the Germans were in distress. I saw a patch of sand right next to the guesthouse and I had an idea. I told the man in charge at the guesthouse that I had a tent and asked if he did not mind I could pitch it in the patch of sand. I then told him if I did that then he could give my bed to someone else. He was very grateful and told me that would be great and there would be no charge for staying in my tent. As it turned out the bed I gave away was to an older German fellow traveling with his son Jorge. Jorge was very appreciative of this gesture and bought me a beer. I told him I was doing my part for improving German-American relations, and we had a toast to this. This was great for me. A free nights stay, a free room, a free beer, and I get to finally use my tent. I brought my tent thinking I would need it for camping, but in my month in Thailand I camped 0 days.

I spent the night talking to Germans, Australians, French, and English people. The Germans from the bus trip were named Ullie and Kerstin. It so happened that Ollie and Kerstin were from the same small town in Germany. I was the only American there. Kerstin worked for the BBC as a free lance producer and was in Sri Lanka one day after the tsunami hit and covered the story from there. We had to keep it down as there were people sleeping all around us. One man sat and read the whole night never once looking away from his book. He never once looked in our direction. A gecko made its shrill sound from under the rafters. I now know why it is called a gecko as it chirps out its namesake in a hoarse voice. G-E-C-K-O it kept repeating as we all laughed. We then heard someone throwing up in the bathroom. Someone made a joke and said it must have been a drunken gecko. We all laughed at this. The vomiting person sensed we were laughing at his misery and began to curse at us in a Russian accent out the window that he would come out there and kick the crap out of us. This made us laugh even harder.

I ended up drinking awful rice wine, smoking opium, and drinking Angkors with Ollie and Harry until 4am the next morning. I could not believe I was still awake after such a calamitous day. I must have been wired after all that had happened to me during the day. I had drunk this awful concoction known as rice whisky in Chiang Mai, and I could hardly stomach it. In Chiang Mai I usually took sips of this devilish potion every time it was passed to me, but Ollie and Harry were taking shots and pouring shots for me. I took a couple and every time I finished one my whole body shook in horror as it tried to cope with this awful liquid I was allowing to enter my body. It reminded me of a billboard for Jagermeister. The billboard has a picture of a man just finishing a shot and he has this awful look on his face and is half spitting out the drink. The caption on the top of the billboard reads “so smooth.” Jagermeister is like a kiddy cocktail compared to this rice whiskey.

As if there were not enough strange things to happen to me during this day, the strangest thing then happened around 2am. Out of nowhere during the middle of our drunken revelry under the thatch roof enters a young Cambodian with his mom and another gentleman. The young Cambodian has no shirt on and he approaches us and introduces himself to us. He tells me that he saw me in the bathroom and he heard me pissing. He then makes this fake pissing sound. I found that many times when I have met Asian people here that they like to inform you that they noticed you before you introduced yourself and then informed you what they noticed you doing even if it was the most mundane thing possible. In this case I was peeing and this person wanted to let me know that before we met he heard me peeing. That is great, I told him, not knowing what to say. If I noticed him noticing me peeing I could have told him that, but I was unaware that he was hearing me pissing, so I just said that is great and smiled.

It turns out that he is a martial arts student and the other guy was his teacher. When Ollie finds out about this he goes crazy because he is into martial arts too, so he challenges him to a fight. They agree to fight with no contact and Ollie takes off his shirt and they move away from the table in order to not wake the sleeping people around us. Harry and I follow with our cameras giggling as they start jumping at each other and doing these crazy pirouettes in the air. After they are done they give the Cambodian guy some rice whiskey. I am glad because the more people to help drink that awful concoction the better. Usually, when it comes to alcohol I prefer to have more, but this is not the case with rice whiskey. After a couple of shots, they offer him another, but his mom says no. His teacher and mom take him away stumbling, and he is bowing to us as he is being led back to wherever it was he came from.

We then retired to Ollie and Harry’s room for some more opium smoking. Thankfully the rice whiskey was finished. We listened to Kill Bill volume 2 soundtrack as the opium pipe was passed around. I finally got in my tent around 4am and slept for about four hours as the hot Cambodian sun plus all the activity at the guesthouse awoke me around 7:45. I had a splitting headache from the previous night’s activity, but it was quite a day. Today was time to see the wonders of Angkor, but I first needed to get rid of the not so wonders of my hangover.