Blissed Out in Cambodia

Evening ladies and gents, tonight I'm writing from my guest house in Siem Reap in the northern part of Cambodia, the gateway-city to Angkor Wat!

After our rest day in Sihanoukville, we decided to head to Krong Koh Kong, a city on the far west end of Cambodia, near the boarder with Thailand. We woke up at about 7am, got breakfast at our favorite noodle soup lady, and rode a tuk-tuk to the bus station. Unfortunatly, we had missed the early bus, and had to wait a few hours for the next one. We were a bit annoyed about this, but we ended up just going back to the beach, laying in the sun, eating fruit and fried shrimp, and swimming. There are worse ways to wait for the bus. Anyways, in the afternoon we caught the bus from Sihanoukville to Krong Koh Kong, a 5 hour ride I think? Koh Krong is a pretty small little town without a whole lot to do, other being a gateway to the Cardamom Mountains, 'the second largest virgin rainforest on mainland southeast Asia' and home to threatened species such as Asian elephants, tigers, bears, but more on that later.

This van is in Koh Kong, and is not an uncommon sight anywhere in southeast Asia. Rather hilariously, despite totally uncontrolled intersections, getting to drive on the wrong side of the road, cutting through gas stations at corners, and so on, I've seen a rather large number of driving schools! It would seem one of the first rules to driving in southeast Asia, weather you are on a bike, moto, tuk-tuk, car, truck, or van, rule number one is to shove it so full of stuff the frame is nearly dragging on the road and the whole thing is tied together with twine and granny knots, haha.

In the morning the first thing we did was woke up and moved to a different guest house because we didn't really like the guy running it and it simply wasn't very nice. We did however have an interesting evening talking to (or rather being talked at) him and another ex-pat woman who ran a tour business in the town, and all their complaints...

After that, we walked to the dock and hired a local guy to take us on a little boat tour through the mangrove forests that are just outside town. We climbed onto a rather small dinghy with a 15hp engine, Nick got a laugh when he asked about life jackets, and we sped off. Beginning on the main waterway out to sea, we passed fishing villages built on stilts, and rows upon rows of identical fishing boats that look 100 years old. After the villages we went through the mangroves and out into where the mouth of the river met the sea.

In this brackish water, lived dolphins, and we sat and watched the dolphins for 20 minutes or so. We didn't see any jumping out of the water, or anything spectacular like that, but we saw plenty of them, and many fins and tails as them would come to the surface.

After watching the dolphins, the driver took us to this little beach island. He really didn't speak English, so we got there and didn't really know what we were supposed to do. All that was on this island was a rundown cabana with even more rundown toilets, a stack of tires, and for some reason, some tire swings. He pointed to the stacks of tires, which turned out to be attached to each other, and pointed out to the water. Totally confused, we pushed the tire things to the water, knowing they wouldn't float or anything like that. I pushed mine into the water and sat on it, causing our guide to laugh at us I guess. This particular beach was really lousy honestly. The water smelled pretty bad, it had lots of biting sand fleas, washed up dead squid and the weird thing with the tires... we left shortly afterwords. It was pretty funny though.

Our next stop was the boardwalk through the mangroves. It cost about a dollar I think, but was quite nice. From the boardwalk you could stop at lots of little huts, see fish, frogs and snails in the water, and of course climb onto the trees. Having never seen trees like this, I of course had to get onto them and climb around. Sure, flip flops aren't ideal, and I dropped one, but the trees are amazing things, woven into some hugely tangled structure of roots.

Farther down the boardwalk, in addition to rooms you can stay at, is a restaurant. I think we all ordered the seafood fried rice (or maybe that is what the girl told us she had, I forget how it went actually) and we got to eat lunch on a bamboo mat in the mangrove forest for $1.25 I think it was. It was a lovely place to sit and relax, and we could have spent all day laying out in the trees. Personally I've taken a liking to squid while out here, tentacles and all!

The next morning, the three of us hopped on motos for what was a rather long ride, and headed out for a bit of a jungle trek and overnight. We had three 'guides', who took us out of the town and into the 'conservation area' where we would hike around.

We headed off in some random little trail, that was really not established at all, and our guides walked around with us for a while in what I assume was a search for wildlife. Only one of the guys spoke English, and it was not excellent (not that it was really a problem, and he was really funny) so we mostly just walked around with them leading us off on random little explorations to look for... I'm not sure. I did see a big black and white bird, and lots of insects, but nothing else on that little walk. It wasn't exciting, but it was fun to just see what it all looks like

Let me just make mention of the Cambodian dry-land leach (no idea what it's real name is). They are a little terror! We were told to expect leaches, and neither Nick or I had shoes nor were we willing to buy any. Honestly it wouldn't have made much of a difference. These things can be as small as a 1/4” long piece of spaghetti, up to the size of a large inch-worm. They stand on their back and look up and around like a periscope, in search of blood. I teased one with my foot actually, and they track with incredible speed and accuracy. They attach and you don't even feel it, and even Ellen who was wearing hiking boots, had leaches get inside of the boots and attach to the top of her feet. One guide was wearing tall rubber boots, and he got them, and of course Nick and I got them as well. When we stopped, we pulled off our socks, and found a bloody mess!

Around lunch time, we walked through the jungle and along a river, where we saw a bright green snake, and had lunch on the rocks. After lunch, we went swimming in the stream, and it felt really nice to be in cool, fresh-water instead of the warm ocean for a change! (but I still love the beach) After a lunch of rice, beer, and fried fish, the guides did the classic 'burn all the Styrofoam garbage maneuver' which we got a kick out of. Oh well, I guess it's better than just littering, like everywhere else in the country, haha. We saw one other interesting bit of wildlife here, a fresh-water river crab with bright blue stripes on it's underside.

This is a sign that unfortunately is all to real in the nation of Cambodia, as huge numbers of landmines have been buried in the nation during various wars, and the victims of landmines can be seen on the streets of Cambodia nearly every day. These signs however, were not real. Our guides told us a Cambodian guy put them up to scare the Chinese who are working in the area, so they would pay him to 'clean up the mines' and make it safe for them to work, hahaha!

Just beyond the fake minefield, we set up camp. It was mostly setup when we arrived, but the guides did go chop down a small tree, and then literally use a vine to tie it to another tree to set up our hammocks on. Authentic!

The food (meat and veggies in a baguette roll (a very popular type of bread in Cambodia, a result of the french occupation of the nation) and was cooked on a rack made of sticks over a fire. The food was simple, but the taste was fantastic. I had three. That night we hung around the fire, talked to Mooney (in white, the one who spoke English) and tried to talk with the others, mostly just laughing. The evening was a ton of fun.

Sleep was another story. All three of us got a bit cold, and none of us found the hammocks comfortable. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep? The funny thing is, it really wasn't that bad. Sure I was cold and uncomfortable, and didn't sleep, but in the morning I felt amazingly ok with it, and it really didn't sour the experience at all.

In the morning after a breakfast of instant noodles and coffee, we played a game with the guides, and had a blast. I can't remember what they called it, and I've seen it in other nations, but it's the hackey-sack like game with the disks on the feathers. I ended up buying one in the market later on for $1, because I' want to play more of it! Since playing with the guides, I've noticed Khamer people playing it every day.

On the way back to town, we stopped on the side of the road to check out this view. That sign indicates something like beyond it is a protected wilderness area where you can't cut trees. The Cardamom Mountains, however are anything but protected. Every single person we talked to, from the guides, to the guest house/restaurant/tour people, as well as locals and other tourists talked about how the Chinese have sent 3000 workers into the jungle, are building a large hydroelectric damn, are killing the local wildlife, either to eat themselves or to send back to China. On top of this, sand is being dredged from the rivers and sent to Singapore, and in recent years illegal logging has increased drastically. People talk about how the politicians and generals own the companies stripping the jungle, that fish stocks are being completely ruined, and no one seems very hopeful. A sad sight to see.

The same day we returned from our little jungle adventure, we hopped an afternoon bus to head off to Siem Reap. The ride began with a 6-ish hour ride from Ko Kong to Phnom Penh, where we had to transfer buses with much confusion as to if we were being ripped off or not. We got some noodle soup for dinner, and hopped the second bus to Siem Reap, which arrived in town at something like 1:40am, hardly an ideal time to arrive in a new city. The fact is, we were hoping to get an overnight bus that we could sleep on and not have to buy a room for the night, but naturally it did not go exactly as planned, but however, worked out just fine.

This photo is from the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where the textile factories are located. From our bus, we saw dozens upon dozens of trucks drive by, all filled with women I presume were all going to work (or coming from work, it was around 5pm. Shift switch?) in the clothing factories. We passed buildings with names on them such as Tairong (Cambodian) Knitting Co Ldt, (Chinese), New Orchard Garment Factory Limited (signs also in Chinese), and many others I didn't catch. I have no idea the conditions of these factories (though I'm curious to know) are what we would describe as 'sweat shops' but from the outside at least, they did not look like pleasant places to work.

Because we had a long quasi-night bus ride into Siem Reap, we were naturally exhausted. This being southeast Asia however, the city gave us no breaks! At 8am, a wedding party on the street below began blasting music which came in quite clearly through our open window. We however persevered, me putting in my ear plugs, and going back to sleep until 11am. Upon waking, we found a place where we got our usual noodle/rice/soup meals for $1.25, and explored the town a bit. At the local market, Nick looked at some crocodile skin wallets, Ellen bought some Cambodian silk scars, and I acquired some new flip flops.

Now this is a tip the Lonely Planet wont share with you. Cambodia in particular, is chock full of counterfeit copies of books, and the Lonely Planet guides are perennial favorites. Even the National Museum sold counterfeit copies in the gift shop! This picture comes from one of the used book stores, where you can buy a pirated copy of the Laos guide for $2, and a real copy for $5. I needed a copy of the Thailand book for my time in Thailand, and ended up buying one from one of the many kids on the street selling books. The kid I purchased my pirated copy from, according to his sign at least, goes to school every day, had his leg amputated (this part I can attest to) at age 9, and uses the money to pay for school. The book was $5, and was the latest edition, only two months old! Maybe I should buy the India book while I'm here...

In the afternoon, we decided to treat ourselves to a massage. We walked around and looked a our options, and ended up with the three of us getting an hour long full body massage for just $5 each! We walked in to a pretty nice looking place, they washed our feet (I felt pretty guilty because I hadn't showered for 2 or 3 days....) and took the three of us to a room where we were all treated to a sort of synchronized massage. It was my first ever massage, and it was a pretty funny experience. I had a very hard time trying not to laugh, despite the fact it felt wonderful, and I ended up with the most feisty and talkative of our three masseuses. Among the things she said, was that I'd look like an Arab if I grew a beard, she wanted to see me cry (from laughing) and and that I had to promise I'd clip my fingernails! After the massage the three of us were all amazingly blissed out, and wondered aloud why we had waited so long to do this. From there, we had an amazing $1.25 dinner and equally amazing $.75 fruit shakes, going to bed fat and happy. One of the highlights of the trip for sure!

This picture is a day out of chronological order, but I NEED to post it.

I was having trouble getting this blog uploaded at dinner, so Nick and I headed out to Pub Street to get online and grab another beer. We walked into a restaurant purely at random, and as I walked past a table I saw a familiar face. It took both of us about three seconds to realize what was going on, but somehow, at about 9:50pm, with no prior knowledge, I walked into the same restaurant, on the same street, in the same city in Cambodia as Aunt Kathrine, Uncle Steve and my cousin Erik! I knew they would be in Cambodia around Christmas but I expected to be in Thailand around then, and had no knowledge of their travel itinerary. To see them on the other side of the world was an amazing and unexpected surprise!

Next on the to-do list, is visiting Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, so stay tuned!

The Beach Life is the Good Life

Hey everyone, thanks for checking back! Today I am writing from the Monkey Republic guest house in

Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It is an awesome place, and one I'd recommend to anyone under 40, haha.

After a laid back evening of dinner and playing cards in Kep, come morning we rode a tuk-tuk to the dock, and boarded a boat for Rabbit Island, a 15 minute ride.

Rabbit island is a fairly popular tourist destination in the area, as in all honesty there isn't much in Kep itself, and the beach had a good number of people swimming and relaxing when we arrived around 10am. The island is pretty rustic, with generator-provided electricity from about 6-11pm, maybe 8 small shacks with bars/restaurants (all about the same), and many little bungalows (also all about the same). We got a room that cost $5 for the three of us (which turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as the bed was too small for Nick and Ellen to share and they didn't have a very good night of sleep), went swimming, laid out in the sun, and then took a little trek around the island which took about 2 hours. Upon returning, most of the tourists had gone home, as it was just a day trip for them, and it became a pretty quiet and peaceful little beach.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon relaxing in a little cabana on the beach and just enjoying the mellow nature of it all. Dinner was a pretty good beef dish and an excellent squid dish over rice, and the rest of the night was spent drinking Angkor beer, playing cards and laying about in the cabana before finally heading off to bed.

In the morning we got breakfast and took the boat back to the mainland. While the island was nice and peaceful, other than just laying about the beach there was really nothing to do, and we decided to head to another area that had been recommended to us. Back on the mainland we rode in a 'mini-bus' (aka a crowded van) further west, to the town of Sihanoukville.

Upon arriving, we found a room at a place called Monkey Republic, a backpackers bar/restaurant/guest house started by four British guys, and got a pretty nice room for $9 a night. It is a very western place without a doubt, the clientele is entirely white from what I can see, and guests are from around the world, a pretty cool scene actually.

Once we had gotten situated in our room, we wandered off to the closest beach, called Serendipity Beach. I guess the guide didn't make it out as clear as I would have expected, but this is a massive tourist beach. Immediately after I saw the beach, I said “Well, I think we just found every white 20-something in Cambodia!” The whole place is lined with probably 3km of white people in bikinis and board shorts, bars and beach umbrellas. That said, I don't mean it in a bad way, the place is pretty dang cool actually. The water is wonderful, the beach sand is nearly perfect, the sun is just the right intensity and the food and drinks are pretty cheap. I guess it just came as a surprise to me, I haven't been anywhere nearly this tourist-centric yet, but it is a ton of fun.

That said, all of us were fairly tired and not up for going out and hitting the beach parties tonight. Instead, we got our place in Bangkok booked, had dinner and went to bed early. Before I went to bed, I decided to do some wandering on my own and check out the beach scene. It turned out to be amazingly empty, except for one bar, but it could be that everyone was saving themselves for the big island party the next night.

In the morning, we went to a little local food stall and had noodle soup for breakfast ($1-$1.25) and went off to the market. A little side note here, very strangely, most everything is done in American dollars, and the ATMs only give American dollars. The only time I see riel, is when I buy something with dollars (when using dollars, they do it as 4000 per dollar, the 'exact' exchange is 4100, but the difference is only 2.5 cents, so it's not really worth trying to use riel), and get riel in change instead of quarters.

After breakfast we headed to the local market, where I looked for some new sandals (but didn't find any) and Ellen bought a hat for $1.50. This photo is something we saw walking home, a big pile of garbage (common sight), but it was full of prosthetic limbs! (not such a common sight).

After our journey to the market, we headed back to the beach, where we drank fruit shakes and rum, while shooing away the sunglasses/bracelets/fruit/food/massage/manicure/beggars peddlers who wander the beach and often aggressively pushed their products. The one exception was the spring-roll lady, who we loved.

Once we had our fill of relaxing in the sun, we opted for another luxury: the “Dr Fish Massage” where for $3 you get a beer and 20 minutes with your feet in a large vat of fish, who nibble at your feet the entire time. As I expected, my feet were the nastiest (wearing boots all day at work and whatnot) and the fish loved me. The first few minutes are just ticklish beyond belief, and the pool is essentially just non-stop giggling, but after a few minutes you learn to zen out and just let the fish do their thing. I honestly didn't expect much other than a laugh out of it, which we all certainly got, but to be honest my feet felt amazingly clean afterwords! Totally worth it.

While sitting on the beach, just like the people who try and get you to buy things, people are constantly passing out little fliers for the different bars and parties in the area. Naturally we were quite skeptical, and when we were repeatedly told about the 'island party' we had initially decided not to go. That all changed while we were sitting in the fish massage and started talking to other people.

Around 8pm, we boarded a boat for an hour plus ride, along with supposedly 300 other people and headed out. The ride was pretty fun, I met more South Africans, the stars were out, and the bow wake was stirring up some awesome blue bio-luminesent bacteria in the water.

While it was dark and hard to really see much, the beach itself was very nice. On the beach of course was the bonfire, right above that was a volleyball net the fire dancers were throwing their sticks over to each other, the bar, the sound system and dance area, and so on.

People getting their dance on, UV paint and all.

This was an all-night party, so at some point exhaustion and craziness take over! Here of course are the three of us with crunk in full effect. We ended up taking a boat back to the mainland a bit after 4am, arriving a bit after 5:15am, getting some food at a 24 hour shop, and walking the rest of the way home at sunrise.

Today has been a relax and recovery day. Partying until sunrise isn't a normal activity for me, so it was a bit of an adventure, and one which requires much rest afterwords. We slept until around 10:30am, got up, headed to our new favorite food lady, and had breakfast of noodle soup ($1.25) and a fruit shake (75c), and have been sitting at our guest house lounge upstairs ever since. All three of us have used as time to catch up on internet things, such as uploading photos, buying plane tickets, and chatting with friends. Originally we were headed out to the beach, but these couches and wifi are just so nice today, and plus it's cloudy out. Still quite warm, but cloudy. In a while, we will head out to our little food shack for dinner, and probably go to bed early, haha.

As for tomorrow, we are still not decided. We may head west into the jungle, and in a few days head to Ankor Wat, then into Bangkok, Thailand around the 22^nd.

Genocide, Rocket Lanunchers and Buddha: Just Another Day in Cambodia

Howdy, ladies and gents! Today I am writing this latest post from a bus headed from Phnom Penh to Kep. We have had our fun in the capital city, and it's time to get out and see some more of the country. (part has also been written in Kep now)

After breakfast at our usual spot, the Dragon Guest House a few doors down from where we were staying, Happy Guest House, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us around to see some of the sites around the city.  Now to those unfamiliar, tuk-tuks are a type of motorcycle taxi.  Unlike what I've been using in the Philippines where you have a motorcycle with a sidecar, these use a motorcycle with a tow-hitch to pull a rather large trailer with two opposing seats. Earlier today I saw one loaded with twelve people! Because of the increased load this puts on the air-cooled engine, they rig up a gravity fed system where a jug of water drips onto the engine to aid in cooling. That said, there is nothing added to increase the braking abilities with the added weight, so it's a good thing they never get above about 15 or 20mph! The drivers are also everywhere, and it's common to have at least three drivers come up to you and ask you “Tuk tuk??” even if you are riding bikes, haha.

Our first stop for the day was about 15km out of the city, the Choeung Ek Genocide Center, or as it is more popularly known, The Killing Fields.  This is where the Pol Pot regime murdered around 17,000 prisoners, generally innocent men women and children accused of being enemies of the state, and dumped them in mass graves.  This is a dark and bloody history, but very recent history. These killings took place from 1975-1979, if I remember my dates correctly.  Estimates for the total number of Cambodian citizens killed in the revolution range from 1-3 million, in a country that had a population of maybe 8-9 million at the time.

The monument itself is full of bones exhumed from the killing field.  About 9,000 bodies have been removed from the mass graves, and they are organized in this tower by bone type, age and gender.  To save on ammunition, prisoners were bound, blindfolded, and killed with axes and other tools, or beat to death with pieces of bamboo.

Many of the mass graves have been left untouched and remain for visitors to see.  Just like visiting the Nazi concentration camps, it is a very emotional and sobering place, but being Cambodia is much more raw. On the ground are literally shreds of clothing, teeth and bone fragments of the murdered, and the paths you walk wind between the dozens and dozens of holes where the bodies had been dug up from mass graves just thirty years ago.  So recent is this history, that the only person tried and convicted of crimes at the site was sentenced in July of this year.

After that, Nick and I decided on something a little more fun, and headed off to the shooting range.  What you may have heard is true: in Cambodia, you can pay to shoot machine guns, throw a grenade or fire a rocket launcher.  I don't know the legality of this or who runs it, but they wouldn't let me take pictures. The site however, is right around the corner from a military base (what this is a photo of) and not far out of town.

I suppose it is mostly aimed (no pun intended) at tourists who have no access to firearms, unlike us crazy Americans. Some prices were totally insane, such as $30 for 10-rounds of .22 through a Ruger 10/22 rifle, or $30 for 5-rounds through a 12-gauge shotgun. For $50 you can fire 30 rounds through M-16s and AK-47s, full auto, and for $80 you can put 30-50 rounds through a high caliber machine gun.  On the explosives side, you can throw a grenade or fire a grenade launcher for $50, or for a whopping $350 you can fire a rocket launcher.  The best part of it all, is that when you arrive, they pass out a 'menu' with pictures and prices, haha. Well, it seemed like fun, but given the prices both Nick and I opted out and didn't shoot anything, but maybe there are cheaper ranges further out in the country, who knows.

Given that we had run out of time to see the National Museum like we were planning, we walked around the city and ended up in a mall to get some food.  At the top level of the mall was a rollerblading rink, which predictably was just as chaotic as the roads here in Cambodia.  There were however a few guys who were really good, doing 540s and flips over 3-4 of their friends.  The top of the mall also had a nice view of the city, they yellow domed building here being the central market.

In the evening, we headed out on our usual late-night food search, leaving behind the normal tourist places on the riverfront and finding a wonderful local place, where we had our usual feast for around $9 or $10 for all three of us. The baby cow was particularly tasty!

The next day, we rented bikes again and made it out to the National Museum, which contains the largest collection of Khmer artifacts.  The building and grounds are quite nice, with a lush courtyard in the center with the artifacts circling it under cover.

The bulk of the artifacts were statues, and rather unsurprisingly, about half of the statues and images were of the Buddha.

From the museum, we returned to the Thai embassy to pick up our visas.  Our slip said to come at 3pm, as the time they hand visas out was supposed to be 3-4:30pm.  We showed up early, around 2:30 with high hopes of getting it early and going on with our day. We probably should have known better, and waited around for hours, since nothing seemed ready.  The place filled up, and everyone was waiting around impatiently for something to happen, but often during the supposed 'visa passing out period' there wasn't even anyone in the office. Around 4:45pm they finally came back in with a big stack of passports and paperwork, and Nick rushed to the window, sort of pushing in (as there was simply no line), handed them our slip and they returned out passports with our two month visas! The whole process took maybe 30 seconds. It was good to know our 'bribe' paid off, because we were not to keen on hanging out in the city another 4 days. Visas in hand, we headed out to a local restaurant to celebrate.

The passports of travelers, oh the places we've been, and the places yet to go. Exciting stuff. (though it is annoying when a country takes up a whole page for their visa...)

The next morning we caught a bus to Kep, which was a roughly 4 hour ride on a mix of pavement and dirt roads. Just getting out of town took 30 or 45 minutes and would have probably been faster on a bike, and certainly faster on a motorcycle. But, the bus ride was not bad at all, and towards the end we started getting into some hills, which I was excited to see since Phnom Penh is very very flat.

Once arriving in Kep, we realized it was a pretty small place without much to do. They had trucked some sand to create a beach, and Nick and Ellen got their first taste of ocean on their whole trip, since they'd bee inland this whole time until today. 

The Lonely Planet describes Kep as “famed for its spectacular sunsets and splendid seafood.” On day one at least, we have found this far from the truth.  We headed to the 'crab market' where we were greeted by absurdly overpriced restaurants selling meals for $5+, a huge change from what we have been paying and are willing to pay.  Nick did buy a fish on a stick at one of the cheap stalls, but it was boney, oily and not very tasty. We ended up giving it to some stray dogs.  The sunset was also pretty weak, but hey, it's the first day.

Tomorrow, we are headed to Rabbit Island, were we may spend a few days on the beach in some rustic huts. Looking forward to it!

(oh, and since people have asked, my stomach problems are pretty much solved)

It's A Holiday In Cambodia

Welcome back everyone! As I write today, I am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with Nick and Ellen!

The last time I wrote, Chris and I were deciding our plan of action for the Chocolate Hills, and since we quickly realized there was absolutely no reason to stick around Tagbilaran because it was a boring little town, we decided to spend the night by Carmen and the Chocolate Hills. In the morning, we hopped a bus (for only 50 pesos) and rode what was maybe 100km to Carmen. Getting out of the towns and going through the wooded areas was a wonderful change of pace and scenery. I enjoyed the ride quite a bit.

This is just one of the many old churches we passed on our way to Carmen. We also passed through a lot of rice fields, but not much else. Not about to change our method of zero-planning and research, I had expected Carmen to be a more substantial town that it was, seeing as it was the biggest town on the map around the Hills, which are supposed to be such a big tourist draw. Instead, it consisted of a decent size public market, a ring of shops around that market, and nothing else really. We walked about 3km back the way we had come via the bus, and found a place called the Banlasan Lodge, which was a funky place with giant concrete mushrooms, two pools, water falls into the pools and a garden and pond. It was however, totally empty besides us, nothing was up and running, and we wondered how it stayed open in times like this. It may have been nice, and full of customers, but it was probably 30+ years ago judging by the looks of things. Oh well, it was kind of fun anyways.

That afternoon we went to the Chocolate Hills. They were formed millions of years by coral deposits, then the surrounding land eroded away. The name comes from the season when the grass that covers the hills turns brown, and they are supposed to look like chocolate drops among the green that surrounds them. While not exactly thrilling like caves or waterfalls, they were quite nice to look at and I am glad we took the trip to see them.

So our plan was to come up and hang out for the afternoon, watch the sunset from the top of this tallest hill that had the hotel and restaurant on it, have dinner and hopeful meet some other travelers to hang out with. Instead, like our hotel the place was totally empty and a fair bit run down. There were a decent number of Filipino tourists when we first arrived, but no one stuck around for the sunset (which turned out to be pretty underwhelming as far as the sky was concerned, but the light on the hills was nice) and by 5:30 or 6, we were the only people around, so we ate dinner by ourselves and walked back to our hotel.

In the morning, we went into Carmen, wandered the market, ate some breakfast and hopped a bus back to Tagbilaran. This time instead of riding inside of the bus, we decided to ride on the roof. This turned out to be a huge improvement. Other than the occasional low wire or tree branch to watch for, we just laid back on some big sacks of rice, closed our eyes, enjoyed the fresh air and both of us even almost fell asleep! I'll probably be doing more of this in the future.

Back in Tagbilaran, Chris and I mostly just had time to kill. It was early afternoon, and the next day Chris was taking a boat back to Cebu to do a month j-jutsu training with a local club, and I was headed to the airport to fly to Manila. To kill time and to actually get some work done as well, I headed off to Jollibee to get a taste of how the Filipinos do American-style burgers and fries (not bad actually) and to use their free wifi. As my regular blog posts indicated, internet access has not been a problem at any stage of my trip, at least not in the Philippines. Internet cafes are literally everywhere, sometimes just 200 feet from each other, and many hotels and fast food places have free wifi.

Being our last night traveling together, Chris and I went out for drinks and ended up at another club. Again, not my usual scene, but after a while I got into it, and danced the night away. At one point, a local dude 'called me out' and we had a dance-off at the base of the stage, twice! The night turned out to be a ton of fun, and I'm the kind of guy who almost never dances. (and I only had a few beers, by the way!)

The next morning, Chris and I parted ways, as all travel companions do at some point. There is a chance we may end up seeing each other in Thailand, but if not, our respective homes in Seattle and Cape Town are always open. Like Sandy and Kathryne, Chirs was a wonderful travel companion and I can't imagine having nearly as much fun without his company. Oh, and here is his blog since I'd forgotten to post it before: www.nomadmansnomansland.blogspot.com

Later that day, I took a short, 1:20, flight from the island of Bahol back to Manila. While I warmed up to Manila a little more as I was leaving it the last time, I still don't like the city. The only reason I headed back was for my flight to Cambodia. I ended up staying at the same Townhouse Hotel as when I first arrived in the Philippines, because it's cheap and close to the airport, but otherwise completely unremarkable and generally uninteresting. The evening was spent generally wasting time on the internet while sitting in the lobby hoping to meet someone to hang out with for the evening, but nothing came of it.

In the morning, I took a taxi to the airport, and flew to Singapore where I had a 4-hour layover. In Singapore, I was not told I needed to get my bag and go through immigration just to transfer flights, but I had enough time to do so. It was funny to have to get a visa for a 4-hour layover. Also, like the city, the airport is very strict. While I never even left the airport, I think my bag was x-rayed 4 different times, after already been done in the Philippines.

Upon arriving in Phenom Phen and paying $20 for my tourist visa, I was greeted by Nick on a scooter outside the airport! While we had discussed this, I was prepared for it to not work out for some reason, but it all went perfectly. On the way to the hotel we encountered some pretty heavy rain showers, but it all turned out OK. Upon arriving at the hotel, I got to see Ellen and we had a fun evening eating, drinking Angkor beer, looking at each others pictures and telling stories from our travels thus far. It was great to see some of my good friends from home half way around the world, and I certainly look forward to traveling with them.

In the morning after breakfast the three of us rented bikes for 5000 riel (~$1.25) and headed out for the day. One of the first things on our agenda was to go to the Thai embassy and get get visas to enter the country. You get a 2-week if you enter by land, 4-week if you enter by sea, but if you go ahead to the embassy you can get a 2-month for free, which allows for a lot more flexibility. Ours were not free however, because we ended up paying a $10 “fee” (aka a bribe I suppose) to have them rushed to us in two days.

Biking, like driving in most of southeast Asia is ridiculous. The roads are pretty much uncontrolled madness, but somehow it all works. Most all intersections are uncontrolled, so you just sort of push your way through in packs, hopefully using a bigger vehicle as a shield, you can ride/drive on the wrong side of the road if you feel like it, and generally, it's a blast!

Our next stop was the “Russian Market” which is a market of cheap clothing, tourist trinkets, counterfeit goods and food. They may actually be real, I'm not sure, but there are perfect looking and feeling fancy North Face backpacks for example that would normally cost $150+ for $8. We bought a few small items, and went about our way.

The next major stop for the day was the Royal Palace Complex, which cost a whopping $6.25 to enter, but I would say was worth it. Inside we were treated to countless amazing looking buildings of the wonderful Buddhist architecture that is everywhere in this city, and the country.

Only portions of the complex are open to the public, as it is the actual royal palace, but there was plenty to see, including these monks feeding the fish in the moat around a model of Angkor Wat.

From there, we continued on our bike adventure and got a very late lunch on the waterfront. After food, we headed to another religious site, Wat Phnom. This area is neat because it has a ton of monkeys running around that everyone feeds, and it was fun to watch them for a while.

We then went home, watched a Chuck Norris movie on TV (this is the first room I've had with a TV, it is quite amazing) and went out to dinner, which cost $8 between the three of us.

Tomorrow we will head to the National Museum and the Killing Fields, and once we get our visas for Thailand, will probably head out of the city here and see where that takes us. Should be fun!