Blog 2 - Thailand to Cambodia
15.6.10
Cambodian Chaos
Rice fields as far as we can see, on this very flat land. Bill is leader now, and I must say, its great to have that pressure of us! We can sit back and enjoy the trip!! We see many buffalo, but mainly oxen working the ploughs. Driving is still chaotic, and we are horrified at the risks they take.
16.6.10 ANGKOR WAT
Hot as hell, and sweat just pours from us, but, Wow, what a place.Can you imagine this climb, in this heat. I am dizzy at the top!
Angkor Wat steep climb
The jungle has severly damaged the temples, different religions have defaced much, looters have stolen, and Pol Pot hastened the destruction.( He erased the calendar to HIS year and proceeded to remove all knowledge prior to that!). Each temple is quite different to another, and one could easily spend more time here. Like many places, the children descend on us, trying to sell postcards, etc and promptly recite more facts about Australia than most of our kids would ever know! 
This wall is about 100mt long, with amazing details the entire length and height, of opposing army forces particular to that era.
This is a very poor country, with a huge gap between the rich –officialdom, Customs officers etc, all “on the take”, driving Lexus cars, and looking healthy & comfortably covered - and the poor, living in shacks and dirt. We camp again in a remote quarry, enjoying an awesome sunset, and shortly we have company.
It isn’t long before one woman tries to converse with us,(impossible), and we realise later she was trying to sell her daughter to me! She sends this tearful child (about 8yrs old) home to collect her clothes, and the daughter returns with her wordly goods in a bag! Another time, I am fairly certain I am being offered a rather cute, but sad, baby! ! A young woman arrives at the quarry, carrying a huge leaf for a sun umbrella. She looks stunning, and we take her photo, but on looking more closely at the whole situation, we all realise she is there for a reason – maybe one of these men is single, and can offer her a way out of this lifestyle!
17.6.10
Bill leads us down dirt roads to a most incredible floating Village at Komplong Phhluk. The houses are all on stilts, up to 4mtres high, and near the river mouth. When the monsoon rains come, everything is hauled up to their floor and they continue life on the water! A young woman offers to be our guide, and we leave a small donation for the school, and to her.
Lunch – rice dishes for 6 costs us $7. At the markets we view meats – a pigs head covered in flies!, crickets, etc. I am encouraged to taste some leaves which I hope are a vegetable we can use. Well, this lady paints my leaf in some pink stuff, folds it up carefully, and tops it with a red slice of something – and I try BETEL NUT!! Life is an adventure! I will try many things I never thought I would, but the next town, Skuon, is famous as “Spiderville”!! Enough said. Pol Pot reduced the civilians (that survived his massacres in the 1980s), to eating whatever they could find.
Tonight we camp on an empty paddock, overlooking rice paddies towards a temple. What a spot! I wake early, 5.30am, to see the sunrise over the paddy fields, illuminating the temple, and the workers already hard at work.
We watch the old oxen ploughing, and the newer motorised ploughing, working side by side, and the workers gather the rice seedlings, stack them, and slash the tops. They are then sold on, for re-planting.
The emerald green colours of the rice in different stages, is beautiful.
18.6.10
It is so hot. Seldom under 40deg and the sweat just pours off us! Sleeping is difficult. We find another floating village on the edge of the Mekong.
The locals set up these plastic frames with a light on top, which attach bugs, which drop into the water. They harvest these for food. Not for us, thanks.
We find another empty paddock, and set up, but shortly a rather gorgeous young policeman arrives, checks us out, and phones a superior. Uh Oh. It turns out, he is concerned for our safety, and a Swiss man comes on the phone, and offers us safe accommodation at his property, and we sleep secure in his compound, surrounded by high walls topped with broken glass!
Heading for a particular beach spot, Bill & I are first truck over a dodgy looking bridge, which promptly deteriorates further under our weight, and we immediately advise the others not too follow. Ooops. Now we are one side, them the other. We try to find a way further, but the road is blocked, so after Kym & John checking the supports of the bridge, we gingerly return! Another great camp on the beach, and we have a rest & washing day, which is just as well, as John has succumbed to the dreaded tummy bug!
At most campspots (particulary on the beach) we put on the gloves, get a garbage back, and clear our spot! It is just disgusting how much rubbish is left – prawn skins by the million, plastic plates, toilet paper – everything! There are no rubbish bins – quite a problem in Cambodia, especially!
Kep sur Mer - settled by the French elite, eventually taken over by the Cambodian el ite, then almost totally destroyed by Pol Pot & the Khymer Rouge, as they had a hatred for the bourgeouise. The stately homes still stand – in bombed tatters. Some people live in the poorest imaginable conditions. It is very sad. No social welfare here, for deserted wives with kids! No wonder they try to sell their children
21.6.10
Lyn’s birthday today, so we have seafood on the waterfront! 2 large plates of prawns, (about 30), 3 crabs, a large plate of marinated crabs, etc etc - $32 total. Awesome.
PHONM PENH
Well, if anyone was feeling envious of us, you can sit back and laugh now! It took us 8 hrs to drive 153kms here over the most potholed roads imaginable (but I understand there is worse to come in Mongolia!). And, now we are camped 3 nights in a city carpark and learning the 4 Rs – rubbish, rats, roosters, and raucous music!! Aaaagghh. Just another dirty city & still very hot.
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