The Guy on the Boat in Phnom Penh

A Statue in the Village

 

People and Things are not always what they seem, you have to keep an open mind 

At first I didn't want to talk to him, he seemed "unusual" and a little too loud.  He was also a know-it-all and had too much to say about everything.  Plus he was rather effeminate and wore a lot of jewelry and rings and such.

I tried to avoid him, and just paid attention to my own thing, my own family, and the all the wonderful things there were to see. There were only a few of us on this half-day trip, and this guy was obviously Southeast Asian, but dressed too hip to be a Cambodian.  He was traveling with an elderly lady, who turned out to be his mother.

This particular day we were in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and it was a "silk cruise", an inexpensive excursion by boat and horse cart to an island where they make silk.  The weather was hot and humid as always but taking a boat on the Mekong River at least kept the air moving and the temperature a few degrees cooler.

The guy was talking a lot and did not talk softly, like so many in this part of the world.  He was wearing a Fedora and was very comfortable and informal.  He drew attention to himself.  He seemed to be around 40 years old, but that's a guess.

We had the chance to take a lot of pictures along the hour-long boat ride and we came to what they said was an  island, but I think that was more of a figure of speech, because it appeared to be somehow connected to the mainland.  We disembarked on a muddy beach, no dock or pier; and struggled up the bank to a small road.

We made our way to the "factory" where they produce silk all the way from silkworms, to the cocoons, to the silk thread, and finally the finished product.  If you haven't seen silk being made, it's a fascinating process.  It was a modest facility and the young lady began to explain the methods used in producing silk.

At this point the guy began to talk, he spoke pretty good English.  He more-or-less hijacked the conversation and kept interrupting the young woman who was the hostess.  He was not entirely inaccurate, in fact he seemed to know his stuff.  She didn't particularly object, but the rest of us (well, I can at least speak for myself) were rather annoyed - hey, just shut up and let her finish.

Once the modest tour of the production facility concluded they took us to their shop  to (of course) offer us the chance to buy something.  Then the guy really got cranked up and really started spouting all kinds of information, pointing out characteristics of the silk and how it was superior to silk from Thailand - which is where we later learned he was from.

"Look at this thread, it is very fine, Cambodian silk is much finer than Thai silk, and this pattern is very special because it is from the royal family and you simply must buy this one!"  "Here look!  I have one like it!"  He pulled out his phone and showed us a picture of him dressed in a similar outfit.  He went on and on and the hostess didn't seem to mind.  He was knowledgeable and almost transformed into a sales person.  He clearly enjoyed the limelight.

Several of the women started shopping, but I quickly got bored and went and sat down with my son Lewis.   The shopping went on for some time and I could hear the guy talking the whole time. Not knowing much about silk, it looked like pretty high quality and the prices, well ... like everywhere in Southeast Asia, it was a bargain.

 There were several items purchased (a few by my wife Fiona) and the guy spent a bunch of money.  "You won't find this cheaper anywhere in the world!" he claimed.  He was very flamboyant and spent a few hundred dollars buying stuff and continued to pontificate on all matters of silk.

We finally concluded our little factory tour and went for an adventurous horse cart journey around the nearby small village.  It was a lot of fun and very interesting, and quite an eye opener, with some real poverty and stark conditions, sometimes next to a fairly nice house.  It was clear that most people had almost no money, while a few others were obviously relatively affluent.  In fact, that's a common observation anywhere in the world (unless you go to a place where nobody has any money).

We got back on the boat for the return trip.  At this point everyone was more familiar with each other and the guy began to converse with Fiona and Ruby.  He talked for quite a while, but I was busy taking pictures and frankly, I was still stand offish toward him.  I must say he was a pretty happy person with a perpetual smile on his face, and seemed to enjoy every moment.

The trip home was longer than the trip there, and took a little over an hour.  I was just looking around and saw the guy standing by the rail on the other side of the boat.  Who is this guy?  What's he all about?  He was talking to Fiona for quite a while and she had been interested in what he had to say, so he must not have been completely full of gibberish.  He certainly knew about silk.

I decided to approach him.  By this time I was curious.  I thought, ... hey, we're gonna be on this boat for a while, might as well have a chat.  I wandered up next to him and just started making small talk. He told me his mother was ill and he was taking her and a little vacation trip.

He was friendly and I began to ask a few questions, and he was certainly talkative.  It turns out he had an amazing story and frankly, he was a really interesting person, if a little unusual.  You never know what someone's personal story is like ...

I will tell this in chronological order, which is not exactly how it was told.  It was a little more meandering, in bits and pieces.

His name was "Ice" - not his real name, but his adopted identity.  Ice grew up in poverty, born into a poor family in Thailand somewhere near the border of Laos.  He had a very humble and modest childhood, but eventually got a job at a resort in the jungle in the region near his home.  He washed dishes and did landscaping, basic stuff until he got a break and landed a position in the kitchen of the place.

Turns out he had a talent for cooking.  He learned how to cook, and eventually became a chef, and moved around for a while as better jobs opened up to him.  Thailand has some resorts that are quite nice, particularly in the south near the beaches.  He learned English in the resorts and learned about the finer things in life, like silk, and jewelry, and wine.  He eventually decided to move to Bangkok, the largest city in Thailand and a very global city in many ways.

He got a job in one of the best restaurants in the city, and at that point made a decision.  He would open a restaurant of his own in Bangkok.  Turns out he also had a talent for business, and presently opened a second restaurant.  He began to make a lot of money, and also developed his personality and a certain flair.  He became "Ice".

By this time, Ice began to travel, and has been to Europe many times and to New York.  His goal is to open a restaurant in New York.  I became interested in his story about business, and he and I got excited talking about business.  It was a great conversation.  I encouraged him to pursue his goals, he is very ambitious and seems to be a real entrepreneur - someone who can identify business opportunities and bring them to fruition.  I told him my own business story and he was really interested and asked questions.

He became particularly excited when I told him that I currently work in a winery, producing fine Oregon Pinor Noir - his favorite!  He is not only talented, but energetic and very curious.   The conversation became very animated.  We had a bond.

Before long, we got to the end of the boat journey.  We were going to have to go our separate ways, he had to get his mother back to the hotel.  We exchanged emails, and promised to keep in touch.  Amazing what you can encounter in your travels.  I'm grateful for this experience.

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P.S. - There is a little more to the story.  Fiona told me later that Ice had won the immigration lottery, and was going to be given a chance move to America!

For those who don't know about this lottery - our country limits the number of people coming here to live.  There are so many people around the world who want to immigrate to America that in order to be fair and impartial, our government has created a lottery, where people are chosen by random to be given a chance to move here.  Ice had won the lottery.  What a life changing event for him.

I hope we can keep in touch.  I'm rooting for him to achieve his goal of opening a restaurant in New York City.

Monkey Attack in Cambodia!

The last couple of days have been full of activity and discovery, mostly good, with a little adventure thrown in ...

We toured the Angkor Wat ruins near Siem Reap Cambodia - a place we visited during our Round the World trip earlier this year.  This time we brought our son, Lewis and his wife Ruby to enjoy this as the last stop on our Asian travel quest.

The amazing thing about these ruins is that they  always reveal something new.  Part of the strength of this place is that it's so vast - it covers miles and miles of jungle and has so much to see.  You could probably spend a month here and still find different sights to see and views that are unique.  We weren't disappointed this time either, as we wandered around the numerous locations, and I have included some pictures, but they never really convey the eye-popping experience.

 

Warning!  Monkey Attack Ahead! 

On the way back to the town after a day of viewing, hiking, and climbing around the ruins, we were heading down a stretch of road that had a bunch of monkeys.  People were stopping to look and take photos and "interact" with the monkeys.   

Only ... well ... have you ever been around monkeys?  They are not sweet little docile cute, teddy-bear-like critters - they are ill-tempered, vile, aggressive, disease ridden little beasts with a bad attitude.

We found this out all too soon.  As we stopped for a picture, some monkeys came over to us looking for food.  I thought our Tuk-Tuk driver was suggesting that I give them something to eat, so I tossed them some almonds that I had in my pocket.  My fellow travelers ...ahem, shall we say ... became upset with me - "never feed wild animals!  you idiot!"

So the monkeys got more aggressive, and got closer to the Tuk-Tuk, and then climbed on board.  This alarmed Ruby and she swatted one big money with her scarf - "shoo, get outta here!"  But ... the monkey didn't move ... so she smacked him with a guide book.

This really pissed off the monkey.  He flew into a rage ... and attacked Lewis!  Fangs were flying, and claws were out and he jumped on Lewis's back and started making mad monkey screeching noises and swinging some blows at Lewis - who was taken by surprise and yelled "What the ... ?" and jumped up and started fighting back.

The monkey (a vicious little bastard) threw a few more blows and tried to bite Lewis, then snarled one more time and jumped off the vehicle and we shouted to the driver - "let's get out of here!!!"  

People were still pretty amped up after the incident.  Lewis was kinda shook up and puzzled why the monkey attacked him ("I didn't even do anything!?!?).  I got yelled at some more about feeding them, and we sped off and everyone was yelling at each other and laughing and we were lucky to escape with our lives HA! HA! HA!

Unexpected Travel Gem Discovered   

We were heading in another direction for a slight change of pace from the Angkor Wat ruins, with the destination of a "floating village" - not sure what that meant.  We were trusting our TukTuk driver to take us to this place that he recommended.  We had the same driver all week and he was a good guy.  I nicknamed him "Carlos". 

So we drove off the beaten path, way out into the country side.  It started off raining hard but eventually let up, resulting in steamy tropical humid heat.  We went a long ways, in a direction not a lot of travelers go.

We drove along a canal for a while and then Carlos stopped and we got into a boat.  It was a pretty good sized boat, but driven by a little kid, like eight years old.  His big brother was there too.  Off we went in the canal into a broad swampy wetlands, it looked like it was flooded.  

We were pleasantly surprised after half an hour to come to a village that was basically built on the water.  It was a fishing village, and the structures were amazing.  They stick logs in the bottom of the water and go up four stories high or more.  It was a whole town built up in the air, like schools, churches, temples, shops, and even a small restaurant.  

This is not a place that a lot of westerners ever go to.  We felt like real explorers.  Then we stopped at a small shop and we got into even smaller boats, like canoes, rowed by ladies.  They took us out into a forest that was submerged in water, even more amazing, and so remote.  

Then after that, we got back in the big boat and went further, until we emerged into a giant lake!  This whole village exists so the fishermen and their families can fish the lake.  It's really out there a long way from anywhere.  And it's a huge lake, we couldn't see the other side, it turns out to be Tonle Sap - which is over 75 miles long, depending on the rains and flooding!

This was one of those rather thrilling moments in travel where you end up someone that you didn't even know existed and it's magnificent.  What a treat it was to go there.  

Whatever It Takes to Get There ...

Travel can take a variety of forms, especially transportation.

On this Southeast Asia trip we arrived in Phnom Penh Cambodia on Saturday via an early morning flight from Rangoon Myanmar/Burma.  We stopped on the way in Bangkok and changed planes.  We were flying with Air Asia, which has a bit of a mixed record lately.  You may recall some missing flights and such over Malaysia.  Fortunately, we made it safe and sound.

We have been to Cambodia before, early this year in fact on our Round the World trip.  But this was our first trip to Phnom Penh, the capital and largest city.  We didn't know what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised. 

My image of Phnom Penh was a war torn, poverty stricken, bombed out city struggling to rebuild after years of civil war that nearly destroyed Cambodia.  This may have been true a few years ago, but not now.  Phnom Penh was impressive and really on the move with a lot of construction and forward momentum.  Our hotel was modern clean and possibly the best place we stayed on this whole trip.

Being intrepid explorers (!), we set out to make the best of our short time there and went for a boat excursion.  We sailed across the mighty Mekong River, which runs all throughout Southeast Asia.  




We landed at an island with the destination of a silk production facility where they produce the finest silk, even better than Thailand.  The picture below shows the silkworms eating mulberry leaves, which they spin into cocoons, where silk thread comes from. 

From there we went on a horse drawn cart ride through the village area, which was pretty eye-opening, with every imaginable range of housing from "comfortable" to "poor".  This region is very wet, and a lot of the land is what we would probably call wetlands (almost swampy), with standing water everywhere, especially after the heavy rain. 

We ended up at a very colorful temple, where I was able to capture this picture of two young monks in the doorway as the sun was going down.  

Phnom Penh has a lively river front along the Mekong with every kind of restaurant and a lively night life, which again was not expected.  I would foresee this city taking its place among the major cities of the region.  

 

We left early the next morning for a long bus trip to Siem Riep, Cambodia, where we would return to the Angkor Wat ruins, this time with our son Lewis and his wife Ruby.  This journey was much better than the ill fated grueling train ride in Myanmar, although - at seven hours long - it was not a quick trip around the corner.  

We arrived in Siem Riep, late in the afternoon yesterday, and found our way to our AirBNB accommodations.  This is our last stop on this trip.  Angkor Wat awaits.   

Men Wear Skirts, Paint Their Face, and Spit All the Time

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is an interesting country - and a little strange

Myanmar is newly opened up to the world, after being closed off for fifty years.  It is just now getting used to newcomers and visitors, so their tourism industry is not fully developed yet.  They lack more than a few modern conveniences, like a functioning bank system, safe water, or safe trains. 

Consequently, it is also unspoiled by the world around them and they have retained most of their traditional ways of life.  It is becoming increasingly rare to visit a place on this planet that has stayed beyond the reach of modern life and gives a glimpse of things the way they used to be. 

Let's take a look at some of the unusual aspects of life in Myanmar/Burma:

All the men wear skirts 

Yep - pretty much every one of the grown men, and most of the boys.  They had some Burmese name for the wrap-around garments, but they looked like skirts to me.  Not sure if I've ever seen this elsewhere.  They appear to be quite comfortable in their everyday life, and seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that everywhere else in the world, men wear trousers. 

In fact, when we visited a couple of the almost infinite number of pagodas, they made me and Lewis wear them because we were not "properly dressed" to honor the Buddha.  I didn't care for the skirts; they were hot and uncomfortable, and not very easy to get around in.  I doubt this manner of attire will catch on anywhere else but Myanmar.

There are an infinite number of pagodas in the country 

I guess I am repeating this statement because we visited at least a couple dozen shrines in Myanmar/Burma and we didn't even scratch the surface.  There must be thousands of them, everywhere in the country.  Some are incredible and spectacular, and others are merely impressive. 

The biggest and grandest is the one in Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) which is almost four hundred feet tall and covered in gold.  Really amazing.  The gold here adorns everything, and these large pagoda shrines could only be described as priceless.  In other words I don't know that you could possibly put a monetary value on all that gold, it must be hundreds of millions of dollars.  Yet the country  largely remains poor ... I'm just sayin'. 

They paint their faces - with a powder made from tree bark.

At first we found it was kinda weird, seeing everyone (including the hotel front desk clerk) with a painted face.  Was it some kind of beauty thing or what?  The men did it too.  They explained that it was partially cultural, everyone did it so that made everyone else want to do it.  And also it provided like a sunscreen type of protection from the intense unrelenting hot sun. 

It was hard not to stare at them, and I struggled to get a picture.  The only way to do it was to shove your camera in their face, and I was reluctant to do that, being a polite visitor.  So I would ask them if I could take their picture and they would giggle and run away. 

 

They spit everywhere, all the time. 

Mostly all men, and some women, chew this mixture of betel nut and tobacco, and of course you have to spit regularly to expel the juice.  The evidence is everywhere, on the sidewalks and other surfaces, this bright red spit.  You can't avoid stepping in it, which is a problem when you're walking barefoot all the time (see below) 

I copied this comment from a google search on betel nut:
Heavy users of betel quids reveal their addiction when they smile. Their teeth are stained a reddish-black, dyed from years of chewing potent parcels ... betel leaf; In Myanmar, they're popular with taxi drivers who use them to stay awake on the roads .... Just one of many things to ponder before you go there.

You can't wear shoes in the presence of the Buddha

Whenever we were anywhere (which is everywhere) in the vicinity of the pagodas, shrines, and Buddhas, we had to take our shoes off.  I don't mind this, many countries have "rules" about what you can wear when you near a religious spot.  But Myanmar takes this to the extreme. 

We would often have to walk long distances (I bet we walked more than three miles) in our bare feet.  Sometimes they would take your shoes and it was hard to get them back.  They didn't appear to have high standards in other ways around the Buddha, but shoes had to come off!

And the ground was dirty with dog poop, trash, puddles from the frequent rain - and the ever present red spit.   You really had to watch your step.  We'll be lucky if we didn't pick up some kind of tropical foot disease from the visit. 

Speaking of gold, they pound it into gold leaf

We were treated to a visit of a gold pounding business, where they take a small about of gold and beat it by hand for hours until it becomes flat and thin.  It's impossible to imagine doing this for hours in the Burmese heat!   

When it is sufficiently thin, they cut it into small pieces and put them on a paper so they can be applied to a Buddha or other important religious iconography.   In fact, the guy we were with insisted that Lewis and I take part in this ritual.  It was a "unique" experience, but made more unique by climbing up high and balancing on a small ledge with no railing twenty feet above the concrete below, a little un-nerving. 

Oh well, at least it doesn't cost much there ...

I don't mean to degrade the country, the people were really wonderful, and smiled all the time - and are pretty relaxed and laid back.  They were also very eager to help, the service was pretty good, if somewhat amateur. 

But one notable side affect of a newly opened developing country is that their prices are inexpensive and their currency is not strong, so everything is a bargain.  Prices were low on food, accommodations, and travel.  I mentioned the dreaded train ride in an earlier blog post, but hey, it cost us less than eight bucks a person.   

Our rooms in Mandalay were only $39 a night for a very clean top-notch air conditioned hotel with excellent service (including full breakfast) .  

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Myanmar/Burma is an interesting country.  I would like to come back here some day to visit, before it gets spoiled by the modern world.   

This May Top Them All - A Train Wreck ... ?

Today we got in a train wreck.  As far as travel stories go, it’s going to be hard to top this ...

Are you kidding me?  A train wreck?   Pretty much ... it was certainly close enough for me.  We've had some adventures, but this may take the cake

Read on for details - 

We decided to take the train from Mandalay to Rangoon.  We’ve been in Burma/Myanmar for several days now, and it was time to make our way to next stop, the capital city of Rangoon, which they now call Yangon (why do they keep changing the names of these places?)  

Being ready for some travel adventure we took the train, which left at 6:00 in the morning.  It had been a considerable hassle to get tickets, and the ride was going to be really long (twelve hours?) but we didn’t realize just how exciting it would turn out. 

We paid the upcharge to get “Upper Class” seats, which means "first class" by their not-very-high standards.  We paid a whopping equivalent of $7.52 each, and the train took off right on time, which we found surprising to the point of amazing, as the Burmese people are pretty laid back. (it certainly didn't arrive on time)  

Interesting note:  We could have actually paid in American dollars, it's the co-official currency here along with the Burmese Kyat. 

Even leaving at that early hour, it was hot and muggy.  It’s extremely humid here and the temperature has been in the high 90’s (reaching 100 degrees yesterday).  We loaded all our stuff; not a lot compared to many travelers, except we had a bunch of food and water for the trip.  

The train was really basic and was not air conditioned, a fact we knew in advance.  So we were prepared to be sweat the whole way - and we did, we were drenched in sweat all day long.  The only saving grace was the open windows and the small rotating ceiling fans.  The train was loud and rickety and very bumpy and didn’t go terribly fast, at least in the beginning. 

About 4:00 in the afternoon, the train began to speed up and go faster, and as a result we started bouncing around like crazy.  It also got really loud, with banging and noise and lurching from side to side.  It seemed like we were going too fast, and it was so bad you all you could do was hold on.  It was super loud, banging and clanging, and you had to shout to talk to anyone.  It was wild, but the Burmese seemed to take it in stride.  I captured some video of the action but was unable to upload it to the blog. 

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Not sure why they decided to speed up, but it got pretty crazy. I began to wonder whether the train was going to fly off the tracks, it was pretty radical.  It seemed real dangerous ...  

The train was not very stable in the first place, and now it was super bouncy rocking back and forth.   These trains here are old and funky and they run on narrow gauge tracks that are neither smooth or flat.

All of a sudden we heard a bang and the train came to a screeching halt, kind of in the middle of nowhere.  We looked around - no train station in sight, why did we stop here?   We were in the jungle near a small village.  Everyone looked at each other - what’s going on?

My son Lewis looked outside and saw a bunch of train employees running to the back and shouting.  Upon further investigation he declares:  “Whoa,” he said, “looks like we lost some cars off the train!”

Turns out the train had broken in half and come apart!  It separated in the middle and there were rail cars left up the track behind us!  This is nuts!  Apparently a very large hydraulic hose had busted while the train was careening down the track and the coupler hitch broke loose.  This left the fine folks in the back three cars rolling on their own down the track as we sped on!   

This is like what you would see in a movie or something.  It was scary and kind of funny at the same time.  Soon everyone started running out of the nearby village to see what was going on. Everyone was shouting.  It's a good thing we weren't going downhill, or around a big curve. 

People started getting off the train to have a look.  “we’re gonna be here a long time ...”  we realized.

Nobody seemed to know what to do, and they started walking down the tracks looking for parts and pieces of the train.  I wondered if we were even going to be able to continue.  Train guys started arguing with each other and pointing here and there.  Somebody walked up with a pair of pliers!  HA! HA! HA! Pliers?  We're going to need more than that. 

To make a long story short, they eventually decided to hook up the lost cars with a mechanical coupler, no hydraulic hose or anything, no brakes, and just pull them down the track behind us.  Kind of like pulling a boat behind your pickup truck.  Except this is the National Railroad and there are probably a hundred passengers back there, a very unsafe solution, even downright treacherous.    

At least they slowed down from that point on, and became a lot more careful.  Frankly, there were still people back in those last cars, wouldn’t you want to unload them into the functioning part of the train?   But they just put the thing in low gear and pressed on, we had a long way to go.  This whole thing made a long trip even longer.  

At least Lewis was able to have some fun hanging out the side of the train ...

I figured we still had a couple hundred miles to go, and we were crawling along at twenty miles an hour.  You can do the math, maybe ten more hours?  Good Grief!

Turns out that the entire trip took eighteen hours ... I though twelve hours sounded long, but eighteen?  Unreal.  To make matter worse, the sun went down and the bugs started coming out the jungle into the train car and eating us.  We still had the windows open because it was so freakin' hot.  What a miserable time ...  but it made for a good sunset picture!

   
This has to be in the top five of our travel adventures ... or rather ... misadventures.  This is the kind of thing you can tell the grandkids.