So I make it back to Thailand. And except for the long wait on the Thai side of the border, a fairly smooth trip. What I really notice coming into Bangkok, it that it could be any western city in the world. From the freeway, you can’t tell it’s Thailand, and it being night you just see the lit up stuff. Well, I think this was the biggest culture shock I had ever received. I think it was just because I wasn’t expecting to see such a modern city, even though I had been here before, it was kind of a shock, I wasn’t expecting to have that. Well, anyway, after a long day of traveling, it’s a early quite night. The next day I do the one tourist thing I want to do in Bangkok, I go see the royal palace, and emerald Buda. It’s quite a spectacular place, especially the weapons room, with hundreds of years of weapons. Too bad you can’t see very much of the palace, at it is still a palace. Then just some wondering, where I get myself quite lost, wow I didn’t think I could get that lost in an area I was slightly familiar with. That night me and a South African friend head to the night market. One of my favorite crazy places in Bangkok. Mostly just the same things you find everywhere in the city, but with a better selection, though not the best place to bargain, at least on some things. But the best part is the food court. I mile of food on one side, and a mile of beer on the other, with a stage at one end with free entertainment, and both times I had been there, there was a Thai cover band, doing top 40 with amateur choreographed dancers, absolutely hilarious. I do like Bangkok. But next on the list was Kanchanaburi, a town on the western part of Thailand, close the Burma. I really didn’t know what to expect here, but what I found was a lovely town, one of my favorite in Thailand. I had a good group of people here, and there were some cool things to do as well. The first thing I did was go to the Tiger Monastery. A place where the monks take in injured and misplaced tigers. It was really neat as we could actually go sit by the tigers, and touch them. That was cool. So then I signed up for a day tour the next day, to see a 7 tiered waterfall, and death railway museum, and ride the train. The waterfall was amazing, and we only made it to the fifth tier, as we ran out of time, and the path got a kinda bad. Next was the museum at hells pass. Now for anybody who doesn’t know what the death railway was it was a project by the Japanese during WWII, to create a link between Burma and Bangkok. And it was made with indigenous slave labor and WWII POW’s. And Hells Pass was the hardest part, where the most people died. And this new museum was very nice. Then we went a little further on, and rode part of the railway that was still in use, there was a nice part at the beginning that was along a cliff, but most of the ride was boring, and kids used the railway to go to school, so It was filled with then coming home. Then at the very end, we stopped at the bridge; the most famous landmark of Kanchanaburi, the Bridge over the River Kwai. For such a famous bridge it was kinda boring. I had a couple nice nights in the town, one night we got invited to go to a birthday party on a barge, with dance music, and BYOB. Also spent a night on the town, the little of it there was, and had a blast. That was the last night in K’buri, and the start of long stretch of my not sleeping. As that was Friday night, most of us were meeting back up in Bangkok on Saturday night, and though a lot of us where going to have quite one, we ended up being out until 4am, and I had stuff to do the next day. Then it was Sunday, I left Tues. morn (or mon. night depending on how you looked at it.) So Sunday was shopping day. And I went to the Weekend market. WOW. This is the largest open-air market in the World, and it’s a little boggling at the size of it. So I found most of what I wanted, except for some shirts, which I found early in the day, but when I tried to find them again, no idea where it was, very frustrating. So I left the shirts till the next day, as I could get them close to where I was staying, and called it a day. Didn’t see my friends that evening, and was going to call it a early night, till I stopped by for a beer on the way home, and then ended up talking to some random guy for hours, and had to move to the illegal bars in the streets. Well shit, I wanted to get some sleep, and I just wasn’t happening, and this was my last night in Bangkok with a room, as I was just going to go to the airport at midnight, since I had to check in at 2am anyway. My last day I didn’t do too much, just bought the last of my shirts, sent some stuff home, and got ready to leave Asia. Crazy, I couldn’t believe that all that time had passed, and I was going to be leaving the continent. It seemed like I had been there forever, but also that I had got there yesterday. Well I guess that’s the sign of a good place. I said goodbye to my friends, as we were all leaving about the same time, within a day of each other, and then I left Asia. Till next time, I’ll miss you.

So the boarder is not in any town, and I have to get a moto to next one. I was supposed to catch a minibus to Phnom Phen, and I was there at just the time to get the last one. When I got to the town, they said they had all left, and the only way for me to get there was to take a taxi. I didn’t really believe them, but I didn’t really have anyway of finding out. They wanted to charge me $50 but lucky for me all he money I had was $20. So they guy agreed and I got my own taxi all the way, about hour and a half or so. The thing I noticed when I crossed over from Vietnam was the lack of infrastructure. Bad roads, towns in shambles, this really was the third world. Loa had this as well, but then had it in a more romantic since, it just seemed to fit. Here it was more run down, dilapidated, and sadder. So I arrived in PP, and I know there were two major areas with cheap guest houses, some but the river, in what could be called down town, and a newer dirtier area by the lake, which is where I wanted to go. I pulled in and was going to go to one a friend had said was ok, but as soon as I got out of my taxi, someone rushed me into the nearest guest house. So I looked at it. It was very simple, and didn’t have a bathroom in the room, but it was $3, and that was my price range. The place itself was alright, and had a tv lounge, pool table, guitar, and nice deck overlooking the lake. Acceptable. So I wondered around and tried to find an ATM. As I had $2 to my name, it was important to get some finding. So I walked. I got to see a lot of the town, and made my was to the riverside. I then found a ATM, I was saved, and my card worked. I wondered my way back, and thought about my lagistic plan, and to have an early night, as I had gotten up at 6. I wasthinking I would stay one more night in PP, then head up to Seim Reap, and Angkor Wat. I would spend a couple of days there, one full day at the temples. Then I would go over to Batombong, for a day or two, and then back to Phnom Phen. I would then spend a few days there, going to the places I didn’t see while I was there this time. Then go down to kompot, along the way to Sinoukville, and a good long time on the beach. Then head along the bottom of Cambodia to Thailand, and some islands. Good, that seemed like a good plan, and it should allow me plenty of time on the beach at the end of Asia, for I knew I would need the relaxation before going to Europe and school. So the next day, I got paul, the friendly local guy who hung around my guest house to take me to the killing fields and S21 torture museum. WOW. Powerful stuff, especially S21, and I can’t really describe it you kind of have to be there. I thought that that was enough for the day, so I headed back to the guest house, had some lunch, and watched some tv. The next morning I was off to Seim Reap, nice and early. It was an uneventful trip, and I had booked from my guest house a partner guest house, so I had someone to pick me up from the bus. And that was chaos. I had had these experiences already, but not in Cambodia. As soon as you get off the bus, they swarm you, the touts, and if your not prepared, it can be overwhelming. So I arrive, and immediately I’m asked about my driver for Angkor. I say I’m not sure when yet, but I’ll talk to them. I then go wonder the town a little, my god, there are so many moto’s, tuktuk’s, and taxi’s in this town it’s insane. During the day they almost need that many, but at night, it’s just nuts. The town isn’t very big, and you can walk fro one side to the other in 30 mins, and explore every street in a couple of hours, so there’s really no need to get a moto at all, yet there are hundreds everywhere, constantly asking you. I decide that I’m not going to go to Angkor the next day, and take it easy, sleep in, and read a little. That night I have Amok for the first time. This is really the only purely Cambodian food that I encounter. Everything else is kind of Thai, or Vietnamese. It’s a coconut fish curry, and I end up having it as often as I can, but this first one was still the best, it was serves inside a coconut, and was amazingly delicious. So I take it easy the following day, and get my self a mote driver to do Angkor the next day, as well as that evening. You can visit Angkor at sunset, for free the night before you go in, so It helps with time. And how magnificent. After you go through the gate, you meander along a nice wooded path, and then when it’s coming to an end, boom, there’s Angkor wat, magnificent before you. It was great. I can’t really describe it; it was just an amazing place. One of only two places I’ve ever been that have truly captured my awe (the other being the Alhambra in Spain.) But looking at temples all day is tiring, and when you start at sunrise, but the end of the day, you are pooped. I then had to decide where to go next. I was loosing enthusiasm for Batombong, and kind of just wanted to get dwon to the beaches, so I went back to PP. When I got back, I was going to change guest houses, as I had gone to look at all the other guest houses by the lake, and had found a nice one that I wanted to go to. But when I returned, there were guys from my guest house there, and they convenced me to come back, and I got a room with bath, for $3, and that was OK. But it wasn’t, first the bed sucked, and then the next morning there was construction outside my window at six. So I moved, and that was the best thing I could do. The new guest house was great, better room, and cool people. I did go hang out at my old one a bit, cause I like the guys who worked there, and had gotten to know them a little. So this time in PP, I rented a bicycle and rode around town, going to markets, and seeing PP. This is a great town to ride in, as there are no hills, you just have to get used to the traffic, which is kinda crazy. Also when I moved to the new place, I met a cool Australian girl. She had been living what I imagined to be my life for the past seven years. She left Oz at 27, and then traveled and worked, and traveled and worked, just kind of what I was planning, or doing. So hearing her stories were great, and we became good friends. SO I hung out with here in PP, for the next couple of days, and then we both went down to sinoukville. Neither of us knew much about it, just that it was a beach place, and there were different beaches, but we didn’t know where to stay. We ended up going to weather station hill, the oldest established beach area. Once we arrived, we ended up staying at the bar till late that night, saving exploring till the following day. So I explore the area, Really not a big area, one main street, and two little side streets. I then go to the beach, and enter from the far end and walk down. It’s kind of a small beach, and not that meny people on it, which is ok. A couple of beach shacks, not much. another mellow night, just hanging out at our guesthouse bar, talking to the eccentric bar man. At this point I start thinking about going off to Kompot, a town two hours away, that is supposed to have a nice national park in the hills, and old French hill station. I want to rent a moto, and drive there, and then I can explore the park on my own, but after talking to my guest house people, who rent the bikes, I’m told that the roads aren’t very good, and I really should take a taxi. I put off leaving for a day, and the next day we decide to explore the town by moto, and check out the other beach. The town is a little odd. It has lots of little areas that are not really connected. It’s like a bunch of small villages calling themselves a town. Downtown is really nothing, a main couple of streets, the bus station, some hotels, but I couldn’t see why anyone would stay there, as it’s a little while from the beach. But then we make it down to serendipity beach. Now this is a much nicer beach. We go up the beach in the direction of the guest houses, and start looking at rooms, to see what it would be like to move down here. We find couple of nice places, and think that this would be a good place to move. As where walking along the beach we run into a friends of my aussie friend. And this guy has now moved here, and is working at a bar at the other end of the beach, a ways down. Then he tells us a very important piece of information, that there are a lot of small restaurants down the beach that have few rooms out back, and if you eat a meal a day there, you can stay for free. WOW. What the hell is that. So we wonder down. The first place we look at is a shit hole, and they want $2 a night, up in the crawl space. Then we start to find some better places. We end up finding one that usually charges for the rooms, but because it is so slow at the moment, they will do the room for free. And these have a bathroom inside. We look at a couple more, none of them care as nice as that one, another in a crawl space, and one with a precarious little girl, who says we must stay there. Well we now have all sorts of info, and make it down to our friends bar, have an afternoon drink. And learn about the free BBQ tonight, at this bar. A good time to come back, and see what the place is like a night, and we have the moto still, so why not. So after watching an amazing sunset at our beach, we come down for the BBQ, and party. We find out that they do this every Tue. Thr. And Sat. and then people show up, something we haven’t seen in the town yet, so we know that coming down here will be a good idea. But first I go to Kampot. I leave the next morning, and take a share taxi there, which is an interesting experience, as they fit as many people into a Toyota as possible, in my case there were seven, nice and cozy. So kampot was nice enough, a very quite town. I got a place the water, as there were only two cheap guest houses in town, and the other I didn’t really like. I wondered the town, but really very little here. I spent two night here, as I had to because the tour to the park came back to late to return to Sinoukville the same day. But it was nice and calm. So the reason I came was the hill station, and national park. I really wanted to do it by moto, but I was told the road was too bad to do, only if I got a proper big bike, which was expensive. I was kind of skeptical, as that’s what I was told about the road there, and I could have easily done that, but I decided to error on caution, as I would be doing it alone. And a good thing too. This was the worst road I have ever seen. I mean bad, put holes you could loose small villages in. It looked like it had been through a war (which it had), and it’s amazing that out vehicle made it. It was a nice day, cool up in the hills, nice old colonial buildings, but the hike was a little short. It was nice though, even if we saw no wildlife. Worth the trip, I think. So I returned to the beach. When I came back I went down to where the free accommodation was, and trying to find the one with a bathroom, where my friend was going to be staying, the precarious girl saw my, and made me stay there, and as it was a fine room for free, I said ok. I found my friend shortly after, and then kind of set my routine. I would spend the day sitting around my restaurant, laying in hammocks, on beach chairs, and swimming in the ocean. All the while doing my pre course task, for my upcoming TEFL course. Then around 6, I would meet up with the small group of people who I knew there, and we would drink at the 25c sunset happy hour, before finding dinner, and doing not much for the rest of the night. I did almost this same routine for about a week. It was nice to do nothing at the beach, plus I was starting to think about money a little, and this was a really cheap place to be, as I was spending about $5-7 a day. But I finished my work, and was getting a little restless. I was looking into going back to Thailand, but the direct route, which would then take me to Koh Chang, was kind of ridiculously expensive. So I decided that I could go back through PP, then stop in Batombong, before returning to Bangkok. Set. ON returning to PP, I did almost nothing, and I only stayed two days because I wanted to get my clothes washed. I did manage to play in a trivia contest, and win, and make Drink Club intercontinental trivia champions, and win $10 for myself, nice. So off to Batombong, the second biggest town in Cambodia. Hard to believe, as there really wasn’t much to it. The main thing to do here was to tour around to a couple of hill monasteries, see some war atrocities, and see (and ride if you want) the bamboo railway. So I booked my moto driver, and set out to wonder the town. Really, not much here. This was the area the KR had their biggest presence, and they still did, especially west of town to the border. Along the highway there were a few big hotels, mostly as a halfway between Thailand and PP. And almost everything in the town, especially anything new or profitable, was owned by the Chinese. They were coming in and buying everything, the town was a strange place. Anyway the tour was ok. The most interesting part was some of the lesser known KR killing places, like a large cave, where they would through live bodies off, and let them get mangled and die. It was pretty intense, and there were bones and skulls all over the place. Also there was the bamboo railway, which was nothing like I pictured. It was just a set wheels on the tracks, with a little cart put on top, and a small outboard motor. And it was used almost exclusively to run illegal timber around, which I saw a shit load of. There were just cutting everything they could, and soon, this will be one of the most decimated places in the world. Kind of depressing. So that’s was it for Cambodia, Time to get back to Thailand.