5. First day at the temples

I woke up kind of early again, trying to get a head start on breakfast and coffee before Oeun comes to take me on a temple tour. First place we went was Angkor Wat. Perhaps we should have saved this one one until last, because by the end of the day I was inured to temples. Of course they were spectacular, but after Angkors Wat and Tom they all sort of looked the same to me. It was slow going in the bigger attractions, with huge crowds queuing up. 

The touts, beggars and hawkers are what eventually ruined it for me. I paid for a three-day pass the first day, and I must have said "no" politely 100 times. Some would push their bodies up against me, others would grab my hand and try to pull me to their shop. The worst part was toddlers too young for school, endlessly intoning "one dollah" for their little trinkets. There's only so many times I can say "no", jostled and pulled before I began to feel like I wanted to punch someone. I don't want to feel that way, so I will not return and my 3-day pass will be wasted. It's a shame they ruin it like that. 

One monk with an iPad photographing others in front of Angkor Wat

I'm getting my days mixed up. I can't always get online: too many people using the internet, or the clunky PC's not working, or too tired or something. This post was supposed to be for Saturday (I think) but was only able to upload photos (eventually!). It's been only now, Sunday morning, that I could get back on here again and start typing. 

I think this was at an inner area of Angkor Wat. I took a montage of photos I will try
to stitch together later to have a big picture of this area, which seemed to be large pool.

Lovely dancers on break

Is this Angkor Tom? I lose track of them.

The hotel I got was a backpackers hotel. Only young, fresh-faced hippy hipster European types there. Nobody looked at me or said hello. Guess I was too old. I did my best and tried wearing my most "rad" shirt and baggy shorts. I even sucked my belly in most of the time, but they weren't fooled. They like to stay up all night shooting pool, I know because I talked with Hee (When he introduced himself, he said "I'm a man"--funny guy) who told me he did not get any sleep the previous night. Apparently these desk staff sleep at their stations, and if the guests are up, they can't go to sleep. I wandered down from my room to the lobby in the middle of the night one night and there they were, sleeping on the floor in front of the desk and bundled up head to toe in blankets against the mosquitos. Don't do this to them, these guys really work long hours.

This one had extremely steep ladders way the hell up there. I was pretty scared.

The hotel room was spare. I chose it because it has a 5" thick piece of foam for the mattress which allowed me a comfortable night's sleep. Other than that, it was not a very good room. Many hotels are full up here and I'm glad to see it for their economy, but I'm a little surprised. I'd have thought the flooding would scare away many. Things are back to normal, but you can see the water line on the buildings, and the streets are still covered with the silt and trash the flood waters brought.

Somewhere inside one of them, doorway blocked by stones fallen long ago

This was on the last temple I went to. Someone spent some time and made
their own miniature versions of the temples, using pieces and chips of stones.

This was around the corner from the little piles of stones. It's a common way to end handrails.
The rail is the body of a big snake, and then it rears it's many heads up at the end of
the bridge or walk. These look like they were stockpiled over to the side.
Perhaps it was uncertain exactly where they were supposed to go.

When we were done after a long day, I was quite exhausted. I told Oeun to take me back to town, and immediately to a travel agent. I asked the nice lady where can I go from here and she said "Anywhere!" My kind of travel agent. I had been told by two different people that there are no flights to Sihanoukville, but she informed me otherwise. Cambodia Airways now has a 1 hour flight  leaving this Monday at 2:00 PM, and I snapped it up (later I saw you can get this flight for about $45, but I bought mine less than 24 hours in advance for $100). At first I wanted to take a nice air-conditioned cab to the airport. It's $10, only $3 more than a tuk tuk. I got some dust in my eye yesterday, and they are quite noisy too. But Oeun was so disappointed that I decided to cut my visit short, so I called him a little while ago and told him I'd pay him his $7 fare to the airport. 

I met up with my buds and we discussed travel plans. Their itinerary is fixed, but I'm free as a bird. I found out when they will be in Phuket for scuba training and a liveaboard, and evenually just hanging out for a few days. After a few days in Sihanookville, I'll try winding my way back up the coast somehow back towards Bangkok and eventually make my way down the other side of the bay to a little town called Hua Hin. It's supposed to have really nice beaches there. Then on down to Phuket to see what that's like. Well, that's what I'm thinking today. We had tequila shots. I showed them how to slam one like they do in Texas. You know (don't ya'll know?), lick the hand, sprinkle the salt there, pick up the shot glass with that hand, lick the salt off and slam the shot then bite the lime, held at the ready with the other hand. They were impressed. We high-fived. I got drunk.

The Cambodian Tuk Tuk

It's quite a bit different than the Thai style. Oeun said it's the "poor man's" version! Well, one man's ceiling is another man's floor! It certainly is simple, and the design seems to work well. In fact, if I had never seen one before and you asked me to build one, this is how I would do it. 

The venerable underbone, biggest exponent of which is the Honda Dream, workhorse of Asia

There are many brand new looking tuk tuk here in Sihanoukville which are Chinese imports. They are built all one unit as a trike but they look ten times more expensive, all shiny chrome and new paint, and smacking of American Iron styling (think Harley). Kind of cartoonish. I wonder how long those drivers have to make payments on one of them, and if they will last that long. 

Some of the heavier duty ones have welded on rebar to reinforce the spokes. The
rebar is welded directly to the hub and the rim. I suppose it rusts out
before too long but it's "good enough" for a long while.

They don't get paid any more than the drivers with the old style tuk tuks. During the boat trip later, our guide made a point that Chinese boat engines only last a few months, while the Japanese engines just keep on ticking. I wonder if it's the same deal with these tuk tuks. The poor man's version just uses whatever scooter works at the time, usually the venerable Honda Dream (unavailable in the USA). 

Rebar axle

Step

There are large cushioning washers made from truck tires which obscure things. Between them the female part (carriage) connects with the male part (scooter) and it's locked down with a padlock for safety and security. 

The connection looks like a mess in these pics but it's strong, simple and works well. 

I had Oeun take me to the airport, as he was very disappointed to be missing out on the other two days I had planned to spend in Siem Reap but cancelled. He put down the front fairing which made the trip very pleasant. I've caught road dust in my eyes riding in these things. 

Seat lifts up for storage

Home-made handle, well done.

These pics were taken in the airport parking lot, to the great amusement of airport staff watching a big farang on his back photographing the underbelly of an old tuk-tuk. I thought about doing this same photo treatment for the Thai tuk-tuk, but there's probably already a lot of information about them somewhere. For all I know, plenty on this type too.