wow, okay, it's been a bit. i feel like a lot has happened since i last wrote, i guess, that was when i got back from halong bay. the day i got back from there we were scheduled to fly from hanoi to saigon and then bus to phnom penh. we made the flight but decided to skip the bus ride. instead, we bought motorbikes to drive there. no big deal. hahahahahah, a bit about the driving in saigon and now in cambodia. there's usually two lanes, one for on-coming and the other to go with, same same. now, there are usually shoulders as well; sometimes this shoulder is a 6 inch drop off into kind of a loose gravel shoulder, sometimes it's paved decently. the shoulders are used a multitute of ways, usually bicycling and/or walking, motorbikes ride in them as well while getting passed by other vehicles or for going slower (say you've got six live pigs on the back, you might go a little slower). now the shoulder can also be used as a start off for on-coming traffic if you can't cross the road right away to get to the right side. this is a bit fucked up. there are also, cows, pull carts, water buffalo drawn carts, people walking cows, fucking anything you can think of is pretty much using the shoulder for travel. so it's a bit dicey. i don't know, it's hard to explain, how crazily the shoulders are used. pretty much some people follow the laws of traffic, but a lot don't; so you'll be crossing a major road in town and the cross traffic will just kinda blow through, it's sounds super sketch, but they do it pretty well. turning left is sketch too, you just kind of go, red light, there's a race (the lights count down so you pretty much start into the intersection with about 5-3 seconds left before it turns green, also, sketch cuz people blow a lot the yellow/red lights. cars will take up your lane if they are passing another car/truck/motorbike/tuk tuk/etc. the cars in your lane expect you to get the fuck out of the way. no joke, you're in my lane and they'll just honk and flash their lights at you like it ain't no thang. i'll get back to the 6 inch drop off onto fucking red dusty gravel in a minute. so imagine this chaos, it's not really chaos but it's pretty crazy. and then imagine that you've never driven a motorbike. and then imagine that you decide to buy one and drive it around SEA, learning to drive it in saigon. pretty much either the dumbest or best ideal that we've ever made. so, we bought two bikes to make the drive to phnom penh. they ain't much, but they do work. two honda win's, 110cc (massive). i could barely test drive it around the block in saigon, no big deal. this dude leads us out to the highway, all we have to do is take one road to phnom penh. i've never been so tense, so clutching onto myself, head on a swivel, stalling in the middle of intersections, seeing people do all sorts of crazy shit and coming at me from every direction. it was mad. let's just say you're learning curve is pretty fucking steep there for a minute.
we made it to the cambodian boarder well. made it through customs okay. the other side of the boarder is like the vegas strip, okay, i'm exaggerating a bit, but there were hella casinos. i was blown away, i had no clue. i'll get back to the gambling in a minute. the suns going down, let's get dinner. okay. our trend of eating weird shit continues. we pull over at this place, nothing special, just a kind of outdoor resturant. these vietnamese people practically yell at us to join them. right on. we sit down, they get us beers and urge us to start eating. it's this stew with some kind of greens in it, some whole fish (neither of us had eaten a whole fish, head, eyes, bones, organs, all of it, before). it was pretty weird, not bad, not great, weird. the other parts of the soup were good. and there was some satueed squid and veggies that we dipped into hot pepper like oil that was really good. they kept giving us beers and cheersing (i think both the vietnamese and the cambodian people just cheers all the time. i don't think they even take sips without saying cheers). then they bring out the chicken feet, asking if we've ever tried. no... no we haven't. you must. um, okay. now the chicken feet are the first thing i didn't not like. maybe it wasn't so much the taste as it was EXACTLY LIKE EATING A FUCKING HAND! i mean exactly, knuckles and shit, tendons, whatever. these people were just ripping fingers off and getting after it. putting the whole finger into their mouths and then sliding it out along the teeth. i mean i've eaten chicken wings and you do the same thing. but they got meat and don't look like hands. this was basically just skin off a chicken's foot. maybe you'll like, maybe you won't; i just got grossed out.
so, it's dark; let's keep driving. we were supposed to drive all the way to phnom penh that first day, 6 hours or so. riding is fucking tiring though, and we stopped like every hour from general aches and pains and whatnot. our lights work great. we can see like 5 feet in front of us and like nothing else. plus, now the bugs are out in full force. just battering your body and face all over the place, i'm blinking like every second trying to get bugs out of my eyes. plus, we're not wearing sunglasses anymore and it's dusty as shit, so every time a car passes you going like 80 km/h you get sand blasted. the whole time i'm like: this is nuts, this is the craziest shit i've ever done; and we weren't even going that fast at that point. finally, we pull over and both of us are like, this is mad, we should get a room for the night and then continue in the morning. done. got a room somewhere on the map, who knows, no ones speaks english, we just got here so we speak no khmer.
the next day, we tried to get up decently early. we are supposed to either meet michelle at the airport or at The Spring Guesthouse. we were bothing thinking how bad ass it would be just to show up at the airport on motorbikes like a boss. driving the next day we see more weird shit on the roads, charlie almost got taken out by a water buffalo, shit is like 12 feet tall, i thought that was a wrap. we crossed a ferry, i was next to this dude hauling live pigs, fucking squealing, shitting, moving, just jarring the shit out of me in general. the dude driving them, charlie notes, has six toes and then a nub; he's transfixed by that. and the whole time i'm looking at these pigs, squealing, shitting, they're probably in fear for the their lives, and i'm like: that looks exactly like human skin. EXACTLY LIKE IT. i'm never eating pork again. yeah, that lasted like a day. so, we make it to phnom penh, probably in time to pick michelle up, but thought better of it as we needed to get a rack on one of the bikes to hold all of our shit.
so, we get to The Spring Guesthouse, meet up with michelle; and meet savin. savin is the coolest tuk tuk driver in cambodia. tuk tuk's are like covered karts pulled by motorbike. savin is just the nicest, funniest dudes ever. if you make it to phnom penh, we can hook you up with him to show you around. i end up going on a walk by myself for a while and meet this dude, tek. tek tells me he has a niece moving to san jose soon to be a nurse and askes if i would talk to her. i'm a little sketched out but want to trust the people and help out if i can, so i say sure. i'm supposed to meet up with them the next day. i go back to the guesthouse and meet up with michelle and charlie and we get a ride to the riverfront to see the festivities of the water festival. the water festival is the biggest holiday in cambodia, and people travel from all over to phnom penh for it. basically doubles the population. when we get dropped off at the riverfront we decide to get dinner first at this little indian place. as we're waiting for dinner a light above michelle explodes and the fucking thing falls on michelle's head cutting right next to her eye. she's okay though, and they comped us 3 beers, so that makes up for it... whatever, welcome to south east asia michelle. the festivities are crazy, we see live music, all sorts of lights, millions of people, a play, food vendors, and i don't know what else. it's a madhouse everywhere.
the next day, i wake up early and go on a run at the olympic stadium before meeting up with this niece. it's a cool stadium, i don't know what they mean by olympic, but there are some people rehabbing with missing legs there, so that's pretty cool. i go back to meet up with the people and we are supposed to go back to their house and eat and talk. i'm still a little tepidatious; but i can't hold back. we get there, sit and talk to two of the sisters and have coffee while we for food and the nurse/niece to get off work. then an uncle comes and i speak with him while waiting for the girl. this is a long time, and i'm like we could have met up later, but i don't say anything. but i'm pretty okay with it now, they seem like good people. the uncle tells me he works at the casino and that he'll teach me to play cambodian blackjack. cool, it's a little different but not much. and we play for a bit and he's calling the cards as he's dealing them. i'm fairly impressed with this and then he gets to talking about how if i want i can go into the casino and we'll take the house in like 5-8 deals and walk with 200 grand. i'm like whatever. there's a test though, of course and this dude from dubai will be at the house in a minute and he might want to play me. homeboy, the uncle, will give me money and we'll take the dubai guy. it's all snowballing at this point the dubai guy is there now. by now i know that there's no niece and that it was all a ruse for this gambling shit. i'm scared to death and don't feel like i can leave now, so i play this dude from dubai. i win a lot of money, going off the hands that the uncle taught me earlier. then in some shit the dude from dubai pulls out like 50 grand starts playing that. i almost got up to leave, should have, but at this point i'm a little scared for my life. whatver, we get to the final hand, as we practiced, i have 21 on a three card deal and the dude from dubai a 20 off the deal. what a trip! we're playing for like 60 grand at this point, me on like 38,000 credit. i'm worried. fucking worried doesn't begin to explain it. but the dude from dubai now wants to see the money, he doesn't believe my credits good. it's definitely not! we package up the cards in envelopes, seal them with the cards facing each so you can't see through, and then sign them. we'll meet back up once i've got the money to cover my end. fucking crazy. the uncle tells me he'll get the money to cover it, we know i've got the winning cards, just tells me to get as much as i can. i get dropped off at the guesthouse, i'm supposed to meetup with michelle and charlie. they aren't there cuz i told them by email earlier on this dudes phone that i'm okay and having fun. that was still when i got over there and thought they were this nice cambodian family. the people are waiting outside for me. savin tells me to be careful; but i'm this smart savvy traveller by now. i get some money, not a lot, not a little; go back and win. then, the dubai guy askes to play 4 games, me dealing. i'm fucked here. i deal and win two hands, lose the third, there was all my money on the table. the fourth deal i'm given more credit to win back the uncle's money. wow, this is absolutely bananas. the pot is now like a 100 grand on this fourth deal, i have a 20 and the dubai guy has a 19, the uncle can see his cards and has been hand signalling me all four of the last deals, so we know what he's got. the dubai guy wants to see the money again. okay, tomorrow. we seal the cards do the signing and leave. the uncle says he can get the money from his work and they drop me off at the guesthouse saying they'll pick me up at eight in the moring. they never show. so, suffice it to say, i learned a lesson, didn't die, and got made in cambodia. it was a trip. i didn't lose a lot of money, but i did get knocked down a few pegs, learn a lesson, but i'm alive.
i'm pretty despondent the next day and pissed and want to go to the embassy or their house; but what can i do at either of those places. my mistake my scar. charlie and michelle are real nice about it all and console me the next day, even though i put them through some shit. we take savin's tuk tuk out to the killing fields. their a lot of killing fields in cambodia (pol pot's regime, the khmer rouge, killed millions of cambodians in the late 70's; basically crushed the soul of the country and set them back years as he had everyone but the peasants murder). on the way there we see the aftermath of a motorbike accident. just this dude laying in the middle of the road bleeding from his mouth no helmet; and all i want to do is hold his hand while he's dying. everyone is just driving by. so that pretty much sobered me up out of my funk. it could be a lot worse. the killing fields are super depressing but interesting as it's made such a mark on this country. the monument is a building, shaped a bit like the washington monument but not too tall, with glass walls and just like 4 floors of skulls and bones. you walk around the fields and there's still clothes, teeth, and bones still surfacing. it's fucked up. we ride back to the guesthouse, no one really says anything. we make plans with savin to get some food later and go to some cambodian boxing matches.
the boxing matches are cool. after michelle and i talk about how we've never seen any live fights. we get pretty much front row sets and call out who we think will be the winner every fight, there were about 4 or 5 that we watched. it was pretty incredible. they play music at the begining and the fighters kind of do a dance around warm up, that's pretty much badass, practing kneeing, and kicking and punching all slowly to this cambodian music. it was cool. afterwards, we go get dinner and drinks and play pool and foosball with savin. the next day we are driving to sihnoukville, taking the 4 if you want to look it up.
the four is the road with the 6 inch drop into gravel, it's one of the main highways in cambodia; so why there isn't really much of a shoulder is beyond me. by now, we've had a rack made, and my bike is loaded with mine and charlie's packs and charlie's bike with him, michelle, and her pack. my bike is heavy in the back, it's got a lot more travel after a bumps. whatever, i'll learn to ride it, just like before. here's where the shoulder comes into play though. the on-coming traffic, i told you, EXPECTS you to move and WILL take up the whole lane if they are passing a big truck or something. it's fucked up. but like i said all the time paying attention, usually you can slow down and not have to bale off the road into this gravel shoulder, but sometimes it's that or die. so here i am with this bike loaded down and everytime i hit a bump this thing is all over the place and then having to careen off the road into gravel where i'm scared to death my tire's going to hit and slide all over, it does, but you deal with it. i mean, there really isn't much else you can do. you get pissed a little, and want it to be like driving in the states; but you're not in the states and you can't do shit about it. the four is scary, trucks pass you going hella fast, fucking cows and water buffalo's all over, shit's just crazy, good winds, on coming traffic. charlie and i talking at rest stops about how tense and scary and how you've got to be on point the whole time, but then both of us saying and thinking that this is one of the coolest things we'll will ever have the chance to do and reminding ourselves to enjoy it and that we are seriously motoring cambodia and the scenery is beautiful, all rice fields, and palm trees and mountians in the distance and rest stops where no one speaks english and haven't probably seen a ton of white people and they are so happy to see you and thrilled when you get food and watch while you eat it and bring their kids to say hi and how proud they are that their kids can say hi english and just all the things we would never ever get to see on buses. all of us agree that it's hard work, but that it's rewarding and amazing, and are thankful for the opportunity to just be able to see and do this. today, i was like, i'll be home at some point and whatever i'll be doing will be cool and great sometimes and then just life at others; but i'll be able to look back and think of the year i turned thrity and how fucking cool and amazing it was that i motorbiked through SEA with two of my best friends and just be blown away by remember the experience. fuck, i can feel it now, and i'm just writing about it.
anyway, we made it to sihnoukville and spent a while looking for some bungalows to stay in but got so tired and grumpy looking for places that we eventually settle on a not bad guesthouse for like 6 bucks a night. we stayed there for two days, not really into it as the beaches (ocheteul sp?) were cool but crowded with white people and just busy. michelle and charlie found THE place that we were all looking for. in sihnoukville, go to otres beach. it's just a few bungalows resorts on the chillest most laid back beach ever. and that's where we all fell in love with the place. we didn't get a bungalow but you can. we stayed at Dany's. Dany's is run by the coolest nicest cambodian people alive. there's the old man, just this dude who knows how to do everything, work on the rest, fix shit, he helped us change the oil on our bikes one day and fix em up. then there are 8 kids, 5 girls and 3 boys. kim ang, just kim for short is the oldest and runs the place. kim is the coolest broad ever, she took us to the markets, talked to us about her daughter sunny, told us about cambodia, her dreams to buy the place, how she had one before but it was taken away by the government. just all around good people. da lin is the the youngest daughter, super cool, in school, wants to be a doctor, always had to stay up the latest taking care of guests. the youngest sons, chet and joia; chet always walking around with this half grin and a kinda swagger, playing cards and dice with us. he won cards one night and was beside himself, couldn't keep the grin off his face. joia was a bit shy but would talk to us and we would always fuck with him. nareen, who was preggers when we got there and had the baby (i went to the hospital one day and saw him and her). shmi and another who cooked and then one who would do the dishes. the food they made was amazing. every time they saw me and they were eating they would call me over and ask if i wanted to taste some khmer food, and of course i had to. it was always delicious, mostly seafood, but they love chicken too. one day kim took us to the market and we bought a shit ton of tiger prawns, and this aussie josh bought crabs and they cooked it up and we all sat down and had dinner together on straw mats on the ground. it was seriously fucking cool, and fun and the food was out of this world. it was then we decided we wanted to cook them Thanksgiving dinner.
so the day Thanksgiving rolled around, i went to the market with kim and picked up 2 ducks, and 3 chickens for them (the family doesn't eat duck), a whole bunch of potatoes and sweet potates (of course!). i picked out the chickens and the ducks still live and they killed em and cleaned em right there in the market, it was nuts. we ended up cooking dinner for 5 americans (inclucing us), a german, and like 18 cambodians. it was out of this world. kim and i cleaned the foul again and chopped em up, i bbq'd the duck, one brother the chicken, charlie and michelle made the potatoes and string bean dishes, one satueed and the other mixed with cream of mushroom soup (tastey deliciousness). kim and the family made crab and some other khmer food. we ended up spending like 75 dollars on all the food but had the other travellers pitch and it was just so awesome to be able to share and feed the family on Thanksgiving. we all sat around after and played chicken head. don't ask, just stick the cooked chicken head on a plate, cover it with a bowl, shake it and then lift the bowl up, whoever the chicken beak points at has to drink. what a trip. after a while this khmer dude was challenging charlie to feats of beer drinking, drink your whole beer! wild.
anyway, we chilled on the beach for two weeks, couldn't be bothered to do much. read, listen to music, take a swim, take a drive to the end of the beach where there's no one, the biggest and hardest decision of the day was what to eat for dinner. play cards after dinner. otres was just this chill beach. sihnoukville was half the greatest place on earth, the other half was the skeeziest place on earth.
as like this blackhole of travelling, most people get there and plan to spend a couple days there. then they stay for two weeks, a month, some people like a year. others have to leave but either move back or come back for months at a time. there were old expats who would rent khmer girls, a day, a week, maybe they would get married and keep other khmer girlfriends on the side. victory hill, is the skeezy part of town, hooker bars and places where girls would act like your date for the night. then there is the chicken shack area of town on the other side of the port, i was taken there by this kid that had a khmer newborn with a khmer girl. he got a hooker at the chicken shack for 5 dollars. later on that night, he passed out on the side of the road on me. i tried to wake him up for hours, but couldn't call for help as it was 3 in the morning and i was afraid i would get robbed or killed (we had heard about a white girl winning 100 grand at the casino found dead the next day in a ditch). finally, it was dawn and i hailed some people to help, we got a ambulance and he got taken to the hospital, still passed out. i was told by the cops to go get my passport so they could take a copy. i thought he was going to die and i was going to go to cambodian jail. the second scariest night of my life. he woke up though and made his police report. it was definitely some real shit.
anyway, i'm sure there's much more i need to add but wanted to get this up because i've made it out of the black hole, we are in phnom penh headed to siem reap to check out the temples, taking the 6 if you want to keep track. later i'll try to add some pictures but for now you can check out charlie's and michelle's on his google+. i've good mad photos of the family which i am excited to put up so you can have faces with their names. they love when you take a pic and show it to them.
out for now.
nick, charlie, and michelle
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