Klahng na! Very strong!

About the time that Jeack was wrestling our motos across the big river, these farmers that we ran into had to get their tractor up a steep muddy hill. They pulled some rope around a tree at the top o the hill, attached it to the tractor, and pulled. Then some guys on the downhill side started to push. It was quite a sight!

Moto madness

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We were crazy. I don’t know what we were thinking. We took motos (think Vespa but the Honda version) on 4WD roads meant for dirt bikes. In the most heavily land-mined province in Cambodia. Seriously, on the sides of the road there were red signs with skull and crossbones that said “Danger Landmines.” It was quite an adventure.

Anne, Jeack, and I took a taxi to Kampong Thom, about halfway between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, pretty much in the middle of Cambodia. We were embarking on a visit to Preah Khan, an ancient Cambodian temple that used to be the palace of a king or two. It is still largely overtaken by the forest, and we’d heard it was a cool spot, so away we went. Early in the morning we set off on rented motos up a pot-holed gravelly red-dirt road. About an hour in Anne and I had to pee. Jeack picked a likely looking place, and we pulled off the road. But there was a red and white flag hanging from a bush, which means, “You can come here but be careful because there may be landmines.” Jeack assured us it was fine to walk into the vegetation a little ways but we decided to pee right off the side of road. Like they say in the guidebooks, just swallow your pride and do it- it’s not worth losing a leg!

Shortly thereafter we turned off onto a much narrower dirt road that wound off into the forest. Now, mind you, what you call forest here is what we think of as jungle back home- huge trees and thick vines and impenetrable undergrowth. Here there be tigers. The road began to get narrower and wetter almost immediately, and the vegetation grew over and around us. There were deep tire ruts from other bikes, which the rains had filled with water; when we couldn’t slog through them we had to slog around them. We were forced to ride at a snail’s pace to avoid the rocks, vegetation, and deep water, and because if we rode too fast we would have mired ourselves in the mud or the deep sand which would occasionally take the mud’s place. At one point we had to get the motos through a river that was about 3 feet deep- enough to leave the engines sputtering and dead. We thought we’d lost them but somehow Jeack got them started again. The whole ride was a constant battle of wills with the handlebars; they wanted to go one way and I had to wrench them the other way to avoid the one foot drop-offs into a buffalo-sized puddle.

Big moto stud going through small stream....srool-easy!

Jeack helping me out of a tough spot...

Again...

It was hot sweaty hard work. Did I mention it was only the second time I’d ever ridden a moto?!

We rode like this for hours. Many hard hours. We didn’t have a map. I asked about one but Jeack insisted that “the mouth is the map” in Cambodia. I imagine a map wouldn’t have helped much, really, with all the small detours and road branches. But then the villagers we happened to run into didn’t help much either!! They seemed to have no real concept of time or distance, which isn’t very surprising considering they probably rarely to never travel more than a few miles from home. The villagers we ran into had small farms or herds of cattle, and their homes were very few and very far between. It was actually quite exciting when we saw a villager, because we were convinced we were lost the whole time and it was a relief to see someone nod and point in the direction we were already going. And thank god for Jeack, I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t had a native Khmer speaker with us.

Stopping to talk to a local...again..

House out in the middle of the forest...

Village school...

Somehow, miraculously, we made it to the village just outside the temple ruins grounds. I was beat. The bones in my hands hurt, my butt hurt, my arms hurt, my back hurt, my body was one big pain. It had taken us about four hours longer than we expected to get out there, and while we were already looking at having to spend some time driving through the jungle at night, it would have been ridiculous to go all that way and not drive the final few miles to the temple. So we did. It was beautiful and peaceful. I wish there’d been more time to enjoy it.

So exhausted but relieved to finally be there....

Really old bridge....

Walking an ancient road...

I like to call it "rubbling"

More temple shots ...

Cool faces...

Evidence of looting- digging under the towers looking for valuables...

Victory!!! Now we're ready for the ride back!!

And then we were back on the road. The locals had pointed out another road that was supposed to be much easier, if a little longer of a drive. I personally didn’t really care how long the drive was, I just didn’t want to be in the jungle at night!! About an hour in, as the sun was setting, we somehow turned off the decent dirt road and ended up passing by a house, where the man of the house pointed us to a road back into the jungle. I absolutely refused! There was a good road, where did it go? As long as there was a decent road I wasn’t going back in the jungle. A couple of guys in military greens drove up on their motos and when Jeack asked where they were going, they offered to lead us back to their village on a good road, and then there’d be a good road back to town. As we started to follow the men, the light fading quickly, it occurred to me that this wasn’t the safest situation. But what else can you do when you’re lost in the forest in the middle of Cambodia? In the meantime, Jeack and Anne were having this conversation on their bike—

Anne (flippantly): Gosh, those guys sure do look like Khmer Rouge, don’t they, with their military clothes and patches?

Jeack: They are.

Anne: What?!

Jeack: They are Khmer Rouge.

Anne: What?!

Jeack: They left the Khmer Rouge area several years ago and now they live here.

Anne: What?!

SO there’s that. The KR were kidnapping foreigners not so long ago, so I imagine we were pretty lucky in our timing. Or something. Jeez, I don’t know, but it gave me quite a start when Anne relayed this information after we’d passed the men’s village. I can’t believe we were escorted out of the forest by Khmer Rouge guys. Damn!

Anyway, they put us on the right road back to Kompong Thom. It was still a long drive, and it again occurred to me that driving at night on back roads is exactly what you’re NOT supposed to do in Cambodia. But you know, it really fit with the atmosphere of adventure for the day. We finally made it back to town around 10:30, exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, and sore. But you know what, it was worth it- it was one hell of a day.

Back of the bike

Some random photos I've taken from the back of the moto...


It's incredible what you can fit on the back of a moto. These are small loads!



Bicycles too!

Cambodian road hazard

Village well...I've seen better here
Woman walking with child
Rice fields on a gorgeous day

little roadside store



brick factory. I ust read that these are notorious users of child labor


Coffee break
The Cambodian People's Party is the current party in power in Cambodia. It's election year so the campaigning is in full swing. The CPP, which is extremely corrupt and robbing Cambodians of every opportunity to leave the past behind and better their lives, will go to outlying villages and hand out T-shirts or rice to get support and to have their posters hung. We even saw a bit on the news where the CPP was in a village handing out 1000riel notes to the villagers. Most people are very quiet about supporting opposition parties, as politics are quite literally a deadly game here. Already several opposition party members have been killed, as well as one Cambodian journalist who wrote a piece giving his opinion on each party. Sam Rainsy is one of the leading opposition party members and many people's hope for Cambodia's future, and his wife recently gave an interview calling the current administration corrupt and broken, outright calling them liars. The piece was published in English, and many of us hope it stays that way, for her safety. So anyway, these signs are all over the place right now. The election is end of July, and I can already predict the outcome-- the current PM Hun Sen and his party take the victory-- no matter what the ballots say. Same same...

lingas and gibbons

It’s been good to be back in Cambodia again. I haven’t honestly been really good about my time management here, instead preferring to relax hang with some friends, have good meals update my blog, etc. Later this week I’ll be doing some environmental ed with the Gecko kids so I’ve done a touch of planning for that. When I first got here I made a list of the things I wanted to do in Siem Reap and I’ve actually managed to do all but one, so that’s good.

At the top of my list was a visit to the ACCB Wildlife Center, which happens to be next door to Kbal Spean, an ancient Khmer site on a river.

While waiting for the wildlife center tour, we took a walk up the mountain to see Kbal Spean. There are thousand year old carvings in the river of Hindu gods and symbols, and a section called “River of a Thousand Lingas” which has thousands of linga carvings, small stubby cylindrical nubs in the river bed.

Carving of Hindu god Shiva and his good wife who rubs his legs....

Me and my friend Minear . Some of the carvings have been looted but most are still intact.

A joint effort between an NGO and the Environment and Forestry Department, the Wildlife Center rescues and rehabilitates wildlife found at market or in private homes. They have a breeding center (which visitors aren’t allowed into), and display animals for public viewing with a guide. The center also does a lot of work with locals, running programs to educate them about their local wildlife in an attempt to halt poaching of what are now endangered species. For instance, people think that eating pangolin (looks like a scaly armadillo) will cure many diseases, and they’ve hunted the pangolin to endangerment. People also hunt the animals to sell at market, with gibbons, pangolins, turtles, and other species fetching a couple hundred dollars, enough for a family of four to live on for months. So the center runs alternative livelihood programs, where they’ve taught people to farm beehives for honey harvest, and then set up agreements with hotels and restaurants in Siem Reap to buy the honey.

Some of the animals in the visitor center... pileated gibbons, a couple from private homes and some from the market. Different species than the gibbon experience gibbons.

This guy had fallen from a tree as a youngster and broke his leg. Some villagers found him and took him in. The center staff learned of him, confiscated him, and found that his leg wasn't healing properly and it had to be amputated:( He gets around just fine though

It seems like a great center and I was really impressed with their programs and their staff, who spoke some of the best English I’ve ever heard in Cambodia and really seemed invested in the project. Having nothing to compare to and not being too educated on the subject, I can’t speak for the state of thei enclosures. They seemed adequate to me, considering, and I know they have plans to enlarge everything in the next few years. I can say however, that they put some effort into enrichment, and that as we were touring the facility, the gibbons were singing; it’s my understanding that disturbed gibbons don’t sing, so I figured that must be a good thing. Anyway, again, I was impressed with the place and it was a very enjoyable visit.

Komodo Dragon

Slow lorisOpen-billed storkAdutant

Silver langur

On the way back we had to stop at Angkor Wat because the afternoon sky was this gorgeous blue and there were clouds and I wanted to get some pics. SO even though we were sweaty and tired,we made the mini-pilgrimage to the temple, and were well rewarded with some gorgeous photos.