December 22nd to January 6th - Southern Cambodia

Modes of transportation: taxi, boat, moto, tuk-tuk and of course bicycle!
Places visited: Takeo, Kep, Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), Kampot, Sihanoukville, Kampot (take 2), Kep (once again).
Costs of things: Beer (75 cents), Meals ($3 to $8), 1/2 hour boat ride ($5), 2 hour taxi ride ($25).

Leaving Phnom Penh was basically uneventful (sorry, I know you've been waiting too long for an update to hear that). The roads were typical of Cambodia - SHITE!!! We rode to Takeo, a town halfway between Phnom Penh and our ultimate destination, Kep. Takeo is a nice town by a lake, which happens to surround the former island home a Khmer Rouge bigwig named Ta Mok. He was so paranoid of being discovered and killed there, that he would have the construction workers executed after they completed each floor, so that no one would know where the secret doors and passages were located. Unfortunately, it is now being used by the oh so corrupt police department, so there are no visitors allowed. Also of note during our visit to Takeo were the massive amounts of grasshoppers of various shapes and sizes populating our guesthouse (and our room, of course).

The next day can be best described as the day of hell (although it makes for quite the tale, as you shall soon see). We took the wrong road, found the wrong shortcut and rode 50km on dirt roads, through a rice paddy, around a mountain chain, and through another rice paddy until we made it out to the correct highway. Of the many people we asked for directions (about 99% of whom were shocked to see white people on bicycles), one stands out in our minds. A young guy, about 25 or so, who spoke fluent English, was taking a break from working the fields in the hot sun. We spoke about his university education in Phnom Penh , but with so few opportunities out there, he had no choice but to go back home and work on the rice paddy. Seeing the dismay and hopelessness in his eyes imprinted on us the importance of companies like DDD (see previous blog entry) to the youth of Cambodia.

As we rolled into Kep in the dark (135km later, as opposed to the 80 it should have been), we were greeted by a "friendly local," who informed us that every guest house in town was full, but he could bring us somewhere that had a room. Yes, we stayed in a house of ill-repute for the night. Of course, the next day we found out that there were plenty of nice rooms available at proper establishments. After a day of relaxation and feasting on huge loads of fresh crab and prawns, literally just pulled from the sea, we decided to spend a couple of nights on a neighboring island, Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), which can best be described as paradise.

Taking the boat the next morning we hit the island and went searching for a bungalow. One woman was nice enough to show us one that was in a secluded spot up a little hill and back in the jungle just a bit. Christmas day was spent lounging on the beach, celebrating a Cambodian wedding (complete with a large cow roasting on a spit all day) and drinking and playing cards with friends. When we returned to our cabin for the night, it quickly became evident that we were not alone. Beady little eyes appeared in the light of our headlamps from all directions. Turns out we were staying in the spider-hut, but we were unwelcomed guests. Quickly gathering some supplies we made a bee-line for the beach (what would you do?!?!? They were the size of my head!) We found a nice wooden platform under a tree on the beach and made a cosy spot for the night. Ever have a dream that you're swimming? How about waking up to see water surrounding you? Yeah, that happened to us....hooray for the tide. If you happen to find a couple of black flip-flops on the beach soon, please let us know.

One more day on the island in a proper bungalow and then we made our way back to civilization and a town called Kampot. Kampot is a small town on a river and is quite touristy, however there are some cool sights in the vicinity including huge cave formations and an old abandoned French resort town on the top of Bokor Mountain. We had a great time climbing through to caves, being lead by our young guides, who claimed to be about 17 years old, but there's no way they were over 12 (kids lie about their ages in Cambodia all the time to get around child-labour laws). The icing on the cake for our visit to this area was definitely going up Bokor. We rented mopeds and were told it would take us about 2.5 hours. Wrong. Try four hours up the worst 30km of road imaginable. Think of the worst road you have ever seen, then imagine that it gets eaten by a dinosaur and vomited back to where it originally lay. There you have it. Once we finally made it to the top, having "gently" laid our mopeds down a time or two, we were rewarded with an amazing trip through a ghost town, including a huge hotel that was obviously grand in its day.

Sihanoukville. Ahhh, what can I say about this place. Maybe....Florida Part Deux? Tourist beach city, where everything is way more expensive and of much lower quality than anywhere else in the country. The only charm of the beach are the laid back, hippy hangouts and local huts, serving cold drinks. Unfortunately, plans are in the works to remove all of those and put up numerous large luxury resorts. Too bad for the locals, hooray for the government; corruption at its finest. The only reason we went there was to have a big blowout party for new year's eve, but that turned out to be the only day on the trip thus far (including up until the day of this writing) that Adam was really sick and Michelle had a crazy strong Long Island Iced Tea around 8:00pm and was passed out by 11:00pm on a bean bag in the movie room of our guest house. So much for that grand plan.

After a couple of recovery days on the beach, we began our trek back eastwards, stopping off again in Kampot, where we had stored our bikes (we took a taxi to Sihanoukville). We stayed in a cool place called the Bodhi Villa, which was on the other side of the river from the main town. We headed back to Kep the following day for another feast or two of fresh crab (oh yeah, and the best fresh pepper in the world!). Our final day before heading out to Vietnam was spent spelunking once again at a different cave site. This time our guides brought to a great swimming spot in an underground river. Very cool.

On January the 6th, we left Kep and headed east for the Vietnamese border town of Ha Tien. We were very sad that our time in Cambodia had come to an end, as the Khmer people had so endeared themselves to us. They all seem so happy on the outside, but through our travels, we learned of the pain they hide with their wide smiles and hearty greetings of "Hello! Where do you go?" Cambodia is a country that is rebuilding itself after years of strife and oppression from its neighbors as well as its own leaders. Even with this push for a new dawn, the young people here still have trouble seeing the forest for the trees. There are far too many instances that we witnessed first hand of kids being educated in Universities, only to be absolutely unable to find gainful employment and then being forced to go back to work on their family's farm, or in the family restaurant. They want more, but they don't feel that it's possible. The most difficult question we have ever been posed in our lives came to us on the beach one night on rabbit island as we spoke to a group of locals celebrating a friend's wedding: "How do we fix this?"