We board our first boat on the Mekong river toward Cambodia. We enjoy the slow pace of the boat, watching the small huts and riverside.
Time to catch up on our Cambodian history, Pol Pot and his sorry ass Khmer rouge.
The country seems to slowly recover from the slaughter .
We switch boats at the border and visit the border town, rice fields and smiley people.
Phnom Penh looks like a busy city, here you can buy Alain Delon cigarettes and Whisky to make you stronger.
Unfortunately I won’t see much of it, I’ve made the bad decision to try the “happy shake” offered in a booth next to us. Green color with black specks… Hum…
I’ll feel like a brain dead hanged over zombie for the next two days.
Won’t try that again.
We wanted to rent a dirt bike but I’m in no condition to ride anything so we take the boat.
We reach Siem Reap the city of Angkor temples.
Marathon visit of 7 temples on the first day, Stephanie is in great shape wake up 4.30 am ‘to see the sun rise’ I hate her, when she’s like this…
In the afternoon after I begged for lunch we go visit Wat Phra Tom by bikes, the best one so far.
A temple lost in the jungle, trees are growing on the temples, birds making a riot, Indy feeling.
I’m taking control of today, waking up at 7, breakfast and no insane visiting of temples.
Big improvement! We keep the bikes, they’re great to go from temples to temples.
We start with Angkor wat. Not so great, destroyed by the Khmer rouge and similar to Taj, great from far but far from great.
The next temple, Bayon is a big hit, we loved staying surrounded by all the giant heads, lots of charm and great for pix as we have room to take the shots.
We spend some time with a young monk who called Steph beautiful lady.
Smart bloke, Steph is very happy so we help him finance his studies.
Knowing how to talk to women is always a great help.
At last we found some snake for dinner, not bad but sort of chewy.
Another day and another temple. This time, we take a 2 hours ride in the jungle to go visit a temple far away from the tourist path. We have to climb giant blocks to the top of the temples and into caves. Great visit!
We spend the rest of the day at the Meridien swimming pool. Martinis and soaking in the sun.
A quick bus ride takes us to Kangpong Cham a not so fresh city off the beaten path. Spend the rest of the day bicycling in the country, small villages and kids smiling at us.
As we didn’t rent in Phnom Penh, our only choice for motorcycle is a 100cc moped to go on jungle trails up to Mondulkiri, 10 hour ride on broken off road tracks. Great scenery, it’s not difficult to imagine a Tiger or a giant snake waiting for us in the middle of the road.
Our skin and clothes turns quickly as red as the dirt trail, our butt is sore from the bumps but it’s well worth the ride. The last city on the trail is very relaxing, pine trees and big hills, a dramatic change of scenery.
I wasn’t hot about camping in Cambodia a country with 6 millions land mines and lot of people on one leg but I’ve been pushing back camping for the past ten days and it’s difficult to always say no to Stephanie.
Oh well… We plant our tent in a freshly planted pine field, thinking that if someone planted trees here he might have removed a few mines before.
I don’t sleep that well, I have the strange felling we’re goofing up.
Doesn’t miss, we’re awaken the next day by guys with blast vest who have come here to remove unexploded bombs. At least we found the right spot, we planted our tent where the guys park their truck…
According to the guys, bombs present little risk as long as you don’t touch them. I’ll come back next year for extended camping then!
Anyway, time to go back to Kangpong Cham and return to Phnom Penh where we’ll take a plane to Vientiane Laos.
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Photos Cambodge
Carnets de voyage Cambodge
Vidéos Cambodge
Carte Cambodge
Guide de voyage Cambodge
Santé Cambodge
Billets d'avion Cambodge
