| Cambodia is just now
starting to grow on me. This is normal for me that when I start
out a trip I am not fully ready to be immersed into the region, or
often my head is still in the last trip I had. In the first week
I spent a bit of time being lonely, unfavorably comparing Cambodia to
other countries (see below), and occasionally wondering what the hell I
am doing in this sh**hole. However, like all of my previous
trips, I Arrive-Survive-Thrive,
meaning first I arrive in a new place, but for a while I only
survive. Only once I have figured some things out can I really
thrive. Finally in the last four or five days did I start to
thrive. But first, here is some music from a popular Cambodian band. I played this music for some young Cambodians and, indeed, they recognized the songs and even sang along. These are all from one band named Dengue Fever. (click on music symbols to listen)
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 Woman in field near Kampot click to enlarge |
| About comparing Cambodia to
other countries ... the most amazing traveler I have ever met (sorry
Don it is not you) once told me to never compare countries. This
is good avise when traveling, but it is utterly impossible for me to
follow. Upon pondering this strange Cambodian society I mostly
concluded that it is a very "unnatural" culture. In Kampuchea
(and South-East Asia in general) people live their lives by an
extensive set of societal norms that are, in my opinion, quite
excessive at times. There are many rules about what is
appropriate attire in public, rules agains women drinking alcohol or
being alone at night, rules forbidding man and woman from ever touching
in any way in public (even though two men or two women are free to hang
all over each other in public), rules about how you are supposed to eat
(you never touch food with your left hand, never put a fork in your
mouth - only the spoon), rules about always acting and communicating in
a conservative way (no back slapping or arm waving), rules, rules, and
many more rules. This all seems very unnatural to me, particularly in comparison to my last trip in Brazil. There, people act as naturally as you could ever imagine. They wear whatever clothes they want, speak however they want, make out in public if they want, have sex on the first date if they want ... do anything they want, which, again, for me seems quite natural. Cambodia is exactly the opposite. Then out of curiosity, I did a bit of research and figured out what is EXACTLY on the other side of the earth from Cambodia. I figured out latitudes and longitudes, transposed them across the earth, and ... viola ... exactly on the other side of the earth from Cambodia is ... you guessed it ... Brazil (and part would fall in Peru also). Now it all makes sense. Of course comparing countries is good when the country you are in fares well by comparison. For food Cambodia is as good as it gets. In addition to a variety of tropical fruits, with two of my favorite being the rambutan (click for photo of rambutan) and the longin (click for photo of longin), Cambodia has a very complex, varied, flavorful world of food. Yesterday I had a particularly fabulous food day:
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 click on photo to enlarge |
After Battambang I headed to
Phnom Penh and was lucky to catch the last day of the "Receeding of the
Water" festival, which occurs when the rainy season ends and the flow
in the Tonle Sap river (in the photos left and right) supposedly
reverses directions (but I haven't figured out how). The
highlight of the festival were the boat races, so I grabbed a seat and
watched (click for photo).
Teams were all dressed in their colors
and raced their colorful boats at incredible speeds. There is
someone in the back steering and also someone in the front for
inspiraton, at times very festively dressed (click for photo). After watching the races the afternoon heat of Phnom Penh really got to me and I retreated inside my four dollar single room, only to emerge again to a pleasently cooler, hectic holiday night in the city. It seemed as if the whole city was one night food market! |
 click on photo to enlarge |
| After the craziness of the
border crossing, Battambang, and Phnom Penh I knew the remedy ...
Sihanoukville. So I took a four hour bus ride ... SHIT fifteen
minutes into this bus ride I realized I had left my wallet, passport,
500 bucks in cash, plane tickets, credit cards, everything in my pillow
in the room in Phnom Penh! So I jumped out of bus, frantically
waved down a moto driver, went back to the hotel, where, fortunately,
they hadn't yet cleaned the room, and my wallet was still there.
Amazingly I was even able to get the next bus only an hour and a
half later. So I only lost 4 and a half bucks and two hours on
the whole fiasco. Not bad. On the next bus I was able to make is successfully to Sihanoukville, which named for the long time king of Kampuchea (Norodom Sihanouk) and is on the southern coast looking out into the South China Sea. The Lonely Planet guidebook described Sihanoukville as "soulless", with which I would have to agree. However, it was a great place to relax and was great for hedonism. Food, drinking (though I did very little), sun, sand, swimming and snorkeling abound in the various beaches surrounding the central city. I rented a motorbike and went to different beaches (click for photo) each day, and one day I took an 9 dollar day trip to visit three three islands which had some so-so snorkeling and a nice beach (click for photo). These four days in Sihanoukville I took a break from just about everything, including (unfortunately) photography. But finally I had to move on and now I am in Kampot, and have picked back up the camera. Kampot is a pleasent little town on a river, with good day and night markets, a relaxed atmosphere and everything is walkable. Having said that, though, I am the only one walking here as the town, like all in Kampuchea, is filled with bicyclists (click for photo), and especially motorbikes (click for photo). Today I also rented another motorbike and tagged along with a Belgian girl and her guide. We went on an all day visit through the countryside (click for photo) and found several things to photograph including people like the woman in the photo at the top of the page (click for color version) and other colorful characters (click for photo). We went to some caves (click for photo) inside of which were some religious shrines (click for photo), a fishing village (click for photo), and a beach where we went for a dip. On the way back we visited a monastary, which was the highlight of the day. We talked with the monks and they were very fun, happy to practice their English with us, and to be photographed by and with us. (Here is a photo of me with one of the monks). |
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| So, what else? My hotel
room in Kampot is very nice and is 5 dollars a night. The only
thing wrong are the mosquitos, and the dogs barking outside. I am
in fine health except for a slight sunburn, and a few mosquito
bites. Actually I do have some kind of mysterious bumps on my
leg, insect bites I think, and I half expect them to pop open and
spiders to start running out at some point. We'll see. |
