Journey through Asia. A Travel Log - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.

[MitchThe$nitch]

propped. french slut.

[i eat babies]

Crimestoppers: I see you. Imma update this here with photos then reply to you with a proper message.

 

So. Onwards to Cambodia!

I'd like to give a little insight into my feelings as to how I wanted the trip to become. Up until this point, I had been sticking to the tourist trail. Staying in tourist spots with other backpackers and generally sticking to the guide book. This was a good way to start the trip, as for somebody going on an extended trip alone for the first time, on another continent for the first time, it was a good way of easing myself into things.

However, by this point I had decided I wanted something more out of the trip. I didn't want to come back from my travels having had the same experiences as everyone else. With the same photos and the same stories. I wanted something unique, I wanted to push myself out of comfort zone. I vowed at this point to seek out more adventurous experiences and say yes to more spontaneous ideas.

 

I got a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I arrived in town after a full day of torrential downpour. You can't see it too well, but the streets were completely flooded with water.

 

My room that night was literally a box, no windows. Nothing but a fan and a bed. I remember having a really strange nights sleep that night, partly due to my surroundings, partly due to the anti-malaria tablets I started taking(they give you the most intense fucking crazy dreams).

Next day I hired a Tuktuk driver for the day to take round the various things there were to see aand do around the city.

First, he took me to the shooting range:

You could pay to shoot pretty much any weapon you can imagine here. When you entered you were given a menu which had the different weapons which were available.

I myself chose the AK.

You could pay for various targets. I stuck with shooting a paper target but you could pay to shoot a coconut, a chicken, you could even blow up a cow with a rocket or grenade launcher should you so wish!

I thought it slightly cruel to kill an animal simply for my own entertainment, however others who I spoke to who participated in the cow-rocketlauncher combination said the locals absolutely loved it! Not only did they get to sell a cow at top-dollar to a tourist, they also got to eat the cow after it was killed!

The shooting range was good fun, so I felt horrible when I reached my next stop, the Killing Fields.

The Killing Fields are one of many sites where the Khmer Rouge committed their acts of genocide. I'm not going to give an entire history lesson on the Khmer Rouge, look them up, suffice to say new levels of barbarity were reached during this period.

Skulls that had been excavated from the site. They were all assembled in an enormous tower filled with the bones of all the victims found so far at the site. Many of the skulls had holes in them or pieces missing, as the preferred method of execution was blunt force to the head, so as not to waste bullets.

 

The most upsetting thing as you walked through this beutiful, peaceful glade was that you could feel the death all around you. The whole site has not yet been excavated. Meaning the stench of death still hangs in the air and as you walk you realise the pathways are covered in fragments of clothing and bone. You are walking on unexhumed dead bodies.

[i eat babies]

Our next stop was a prison in Phnom Penh used by the Khmer Rouge to interrogate and store their prisoners before they were taken away to be killed. This was an old school, that was converted once they took over.

Prisoners would be hung by their feet from these gallows with their heads dunked in water in the pots below as a method of getting confessions.

The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of who they were killing.

Cells where the prisoners were kept.

Barbed wire across the balconies, to prevent prisoners jumping off and killing themselves.

Again you could feel a weird vibe in the place. As if the building itself could feel the attrocities that had happened there..

 

It was a day of contrasts. From the prison to the royal palace. One of the most lavishly decorated places I've come across.

Cheeky Monkey..

 

My Tuktuk driver turned out to be a pretty cool guy and we chilled for a bit at the end of the day. Later, he took me to a Muay Thai match in town somewhere. Onlywhitefaceintheentireplaceoner.

Think there were 5 fights in total. One KO.

 

After the fight I went to a bar and got talking to a group of fellow backpackers. After a few(many) beers we went to one of the enormous casinos that are dotted all over the city.

In the bar there, we met these guys.

They were having a big party for one of their girlfriends, and were quite happy for us to join them. They were ordering Johnny Walker Gold Label by the bottle and were pouring it down everyones throats like it was water. When we asked them what they did for a living(people that age with that kind of money in Cambodia is very unusual), the conversation went quiet and tense. "We don't talk about that. Don't ask about that." We inquired no further...

They also had a guy that seemed to be hired just to draw tattoos on everyone with a sharpie.

The guy in this photo, I later learned, went totally off the rails in Saigon on a heroin and hooker binge and had to go home early..

 

This would end my stay in Phnom Penh. The city didn't have much charm to it in my opinion and I had seen most of what there wass to see, so the next day I got on a bus onwards..

[RIPS]

Vang Vieng ?

[Guest]

di di mau

[i eat babies]

My travels would now take me to Shianoukville, a beach town on the south coast. From my experience this town is an absolute shithole. The beaches were nothing special and the bars all had a curfew that meant they shut at like 11. I stayed in a place that looked like it had been built by someone on a cocaine binge in the 80s, with no maintenance done since. The staff were all total stoners who did nothing all day and weren't very helpful unless you wanted to smoke weed with them.

The place cost 1$ a night and you could instantly see why. The dorms were just one long platform stretching across the whole room with single matresses dotted around on it. We called it the concentration camp experience. There was also a rat that climbed out of the ceiling and wandered the hallways each night. I got really ill here. I think it was from a mosquito that had something nasty. My ankle(where the bite was) swelled up to the size of a tennis ball and I had one of the worst fevers I've ever had. I ended up having to stay in that shithole for 3 nights longer then I intended I was so ill.

The only highlight of the town was a cinema run by an American guy who gave you free reign over a sack of weed the size of a small child whilst you were watching.

I got the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.

 

Next, I went to Battambang, a town in the West of Cambodia.

The town had many remmnants from the French colonial era, and was an odd clash of architecture.

I walked around town a bit, and found some traintracks...

I followed the track and stumbled upon an old freight train yard, with some of the trains still(partially) intact!

The yard was also a site for a slum. I felt like a bit of asshole, tthe rich westerner taking snaps on a digital camera surrounded by people living in squalor. So I left.

 

I wandered around the market where I got talking to a guy named Yali. Yali was one of the nicest people I've ever met. He began chatting to me and then proceeded to invite me to his village to eat with his family. I was happy to obliged and was then treated to lunch in his shack.

Yali's kids

The view out the back of Yali's shack.

More of Yali's kids. These guys were so much fun.

Yali's yard.

His kitchen.

 

After Lunch, Yali decided he would take me on a tour of the surrounding countryside. I got slightly suspect about his intentions, thinking there would be some sort of money demanded from me(I don't mind paying for a tour, but I like to know I'm paying for a tour), but he seemed to read my mind and told me "Hey, I'm offering to take you around the area, I'm not providing a service so you don't need to give me any money. I already have a job." This was true, when I met him he had just finished work. He was a little shady about what his job exactly was, but it involved collecting money from everyone in the market. He said his boss was the chief of police in town. I took this to mean he was a bribe collector.

So, we set out on Yali's moped for a tour of the area.

Drying Fish...

He took me around the area, introducing me to his friends. Then he asked if I wanted to go see an old temple.

Giant Bhudda statue

[i eat babies]

Supposedly these were all the stories of Bhudda.

 

After this, Yali took me to an old Pepsi factory that had been put out of operation when the Khmer Rouge took over. I tried to get in but couldn't find a way without breaking something and wasn't keen start breaking and entering..

Yali then took me to an alligator farm.

I genuinely didn't believe they were real, they were all so stock still that I thought they were models. So Yali decided to show me..

Yali threw a stick at this fella

SNAP! Thus, Alligators became some of the most sinister animals on my list.

 

Following this, I was taken to a train track for an old, wooden, diesel powered train.

Shooting along these unmaintained tracks at 30mph on a flat wooden platform was good fun.

Me and Yali pon train.

There's only one track, so when something bigger comes in the opposite direction they take the entire thing off the tracks, wheels and all.

Move Cow! You're not a train!

And back on the tracks..

 

That evening, Yali invited me to have dinner at his house again, which I did.

Yali in his shack.

We spoke about the situation in Cambodia. Bascially the Khmer Rouge disbanded but the same people are still in charge. People are living with the effects of the genocide and still having to see the people who did it to them in power. There is a stupid amount of corruption in the country as the result of this turmoil. Apparently it is common knowledge that the presidents wife has had 2 of his mistresses killed.

At the end of the night, Yali drove me back in to town, where he then tried to buy me some weed. He got ripped off, and felt so bad that he tried to give me my money back. I told him it didn't matter, and gave him some extra when we parted ways. Knwoing hew earned just $40 a month, I thought he could use it.

[i eat babies]

Could anyone tell me if the images are working properly? Also is my face blurred? Not too keen to have my face all over the interwebzz....

[KARD like WOE]

yeah working fine and your face is blurred... yali ooks liek hes the man.... those are the adventures you could never have gotten without a local... good shit

[RIPS]

they work nicely and we don't see your face

[BullshitTantrum]

excerrent thread

[i eat babies]

From Battambang I took a boat to Siem Reap.

The trip was basically a slow snaking through rivers.

Sea of green, so many plants growing on the surface of the water that they got tangled in the proppeller and the boat was stuck for a while.

When I arrived in Siem Reap, I made my way to a hostel I had heard was of the 'cheap and cheerful' variety. I asked for their cheapest bed and was escorted to my $1 p/night matress + mosquito net.... Outside.

It was fine other than the baking heat in the mornings.

Siem Reap is an uninteresting town, but it is know for the Ankgor Wat temple complex on the outskrts of it.

This is the iconic Angkor Wat view.

I thought the main complex was overrated. It was pretty amazing obviously, but aome of the other temples were far more interesting architectually.

Like this Badboy!

This temple is made entirely of the face of the guy who commisioned it.

 

This was another temple just next door.

 

More tomorrow.

[Keepitrail]

Onwards! To Ha Long Bay. This was the one of the most stunning pieces of nature I've ever seen.

 

Stopped on one of the islands to have a look at a cave.

 

 

Then carried on sailing.

 

 

People lived on floating houses floating literally out in the ocean(okay it was in a bay, so the water was calm, but still)

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we landed on Cat Ba Island, one of the largest islands in the bay. This is where we spent the night.

The next day we went to climb one of the mountains on the island.

Taking pictures of korean tourists on the way.

 

Saw this Fella on my way up.

 

 

I had left my shoes back at my hostel in Hanoi, and my flip-flops had fallen apart the previous night, so I ended up climbing the mountain barefoot.

The view from the top.

 

 

 

 

This right here is perfect... keep them coming!!!

[CONCRETE RIVER]

Fuckin Gnar!

[swif1]

Thanks for sharing!

[Qawee]

Dope thread, can't wait for Laos!

[vanfullofretards]

Awesome, something you'll remember forever. My one critique is...

 

You had the opportunity to shoot a cow with a rocket launcher and you DIDN'T DO IT?!

 

 

You could have been forever remember as that guy who "shot a rocket launcher and blew up a cow"

[gasfacevictm]

They should let people blow up former Khmer evil doers.

I'd pay top dollar to blow one of those commie pricks to high heaven.

[AllTheWrongWords]

 

I appreciate that you took regular ass photos with more intention on enjoying yourself and soaking up the life than running around with a canon t12321t123 changing lenses and adjusting exposures.

 

You sir are not an asshole.

 

Thank you for sharing and I hope to enjoy what you've seen in my life experiences.

 

 

 

 

And I hope you fucked that bitch.

[AlwaysOverDoinn]

This is definately one of the best photo threads Ive seen on here so far (right up there with KIR's). Its so dope to see little bits and pieces of countries all the way on the other side of the world that Ive only ever heard of...

 

That shooting range looks like a great (yet sketchy) time. It must have been awesome to be able to shoot fully automatic guns. Did you get to shoot that Famas? And what was that handgun below the AK/above and to the left of the Famas? Super snub nose? :lol:

[Carl Sagan]

whats the language barrier like?

[i eat babies]

More temples. This one is the one in the Tomb Raider movie apparently..

 

 

This was the coolest one out of the main temple complex. It's pretty awesome how nature had grown around the buildings.

 

The temples I've posted so far were all pretty cool but are in the process of being raped by tourism. It is such a shame that the poverty in Cambodia ensures that things such as this are milked for all they are worth with little thought for preservation..

I remember thinking "this is cool it's just a shame about all the other tourists."

However, as I was about to discover, the coolest was yet to come..

 

Monsoon season begins

 

This place. This place was the business. I heard about it from some other travellers, who told me I could forget all the other temples as long as I visited this one. Apparently it was only just recently discovered, and it's a good hours drive away from town. This means it hasn't(yet) been made into a tourist beacon. Apart from some wooden scaffolds to keep it strucutrally sound, it didn't look like it had been touched since it was first vacated. Proper adventure time!

We were the only people there, and we decided to just climb around and explore.

Nature had really reclaimed this place.

I nearly walked face first into this fella

I felt like a kid again, running around exploring an overgrown ruin. Swinging of vines and shit. This was one of thhe coolest days of my trip.

[i eat babies]

The Khmer Rouge covered the country with mines. As such, people are strongly advised not to stray off paths and roads or stick to areas which have been cleared.

 

Saw this fella in town. He was about the size of a forearm.

 

I ended up staying in my hostel in Siem Reap for a while. It was nice to just chill, drink beers, smoke weed(oh yeah, the hostel sold weed and you could openly smoke it in the bar) and play pool for a few days. It was here that I met Rik, an integral part of the rest of my travels.

Me and Rik started talking after 2 days sat at opposite ends of the bar, smoking weed. On the 3rd day we decided it was ridiculous that we weren't talking, as we clearly had things in common.

Rik was from Holland, and had travelled to Cambodia from there, overland. He hitchhiked about 90% of the way. Apart from in Iran, where he said he wasn't too keen on rocking the boat, so to speak.

He only took one flight, over Pakistan. And that was only because when he got to the Iran/Pakistan border they told him there was no way he was entering bandit country without 2 armed guards, which he would have to pay for.

An interesting guy to say the least.

We got on well, so decided to travel together for a bit, as we were going the same way. Rik asked if I fancied hitchhiking. With my thirst for adventure not yet satisfied, I agreed. Thus would begin the most intense, but also the most fun part of my journey.

We bought a shitty map of Cambodia and Laos, and planned our route. We were slightly limited by the lack of decent roads, so had to take a few detours, rather than go the most direct route. We got one of the guys in the hostel to write down the names of the places we were passing in Cambodian script and then we were off.

Initially we had some difficulty getting out of town, most people stopped because they wanted to help us get to the bus station. Once we got into the car only to be driven to the bus station!

Eventually we caught a ride with a family who were going the same way. The car was already full so me and Rik had the share the front seat whilst 5 people sat in the back.

After being dropped off, we were lucky enough to get picked up by some guys who were all on the way back from work.

They had hung hammocks across the the back of the truck so we kicked back in them.

Like a Boss.

 

That night, we ended up in a guesthouse in some middle of nowhere, closes when it gets dark town.

We were bored, and only had a couple of beers so we went to find something to amuse us.

In the hallway outside our room, we found this fella.

He weren't shook, attacking the camera whilst I was snapping.

We also had this guy chilling in our room.

A plan began to form...

 

 

You could hear the crunches as he ate.

Shall we dance?

 

Few more from the road.

Trying to catch a ride

[i eat babies]

whats the language barrier like?

 

In response to this, it varied. Most people in the big towns and tourist spots spoke at least some engrish, usually enough to try and sell something to you.

As we began venturing further of the beaten path, it became more of an issue. People that had no other contact with foreigners other than us spoke no engrish. It was sometimes difficult to get it across to people where we wanted to get to, as often none of us would speak the same language, and most people couldn't read maps either.

 

Near the Lao border, we seemed to run out of road..

 

Can't go over it, can't go under it...

 

130 ciggarettes, 50cents.

 

Ghetto shower.

 

Finally we got to Laos and crossed the border. Cambodia was an amazing experience. The place is beutiful. But the country is fucked, because of poverty and the lasting impact of the Khmer Rouge. The levels of corruption are hideous, you can do anything and everything you want if you pay off the right people. People there are hardened as a result, although in my experience once you get past the hard exterior the people are good natured and kind. It's as if many are forced into being calculating and cold and hustling, but don't actually want to.

[screaming hand logo]

my friends mom survived the killing fields. he had a big party for me on my 18th strippers and all. he thought she was staying three hours away in fresno or some shit. she was 15 minutes away. when she got home everyone was gone except me and my friend she came in the door saw me and uppercutted me.

she apologized 5 years later when i brought her flowers after he was killed by a dui driver.

 

i guess i got past her hard exterior and now she is kind and good natured.

[PU_local]

this thread is incredible, and i for one, am extremely jealous of what ive seen so far.

[Qawee]

that mantis v. cockroach fight was dope

[i eat babies]

At the Lao border, we had some problems with the guards over how much the bribe was going to be. You expect a few dollars on top of the official price, but they were asking for $10 extra each. Rik got really angry and started talking about reporting them at which point they started getting pretty aggressive with us. If there's one group of people you don't want problems with it's border guards, they can fuck up your day a lot more than you can fuck up theirs.. I managed to settle on $10 total with them then I dragged Rik away.

We started walking along the road towards our next destination. We probably walked for around 10 miles before catching our first ride, a really cool guy who let us sit in the back of his pickup truck.

 

On the way he stopped the car and took us to this.

 

Cold chillin.

 

We had another walk of about 3 miles where he dropped us off.

 

This was our destination, Don Det, an island in southern Laos.

 

This place is known as a brilliant place to just chill and watch the world go by. Our room had a balcony with hammocks overlooking the Mekong. We spent our time chilling out, smoking weed and meeting other travellers.

 

Of course the Dutch know how to roll big joints..

 

An old steam locomotive I found.

 

More waterfalls.

 

We also made friends with this guy.

 

Thieving monkey. He would always try and take shit out of your pockets.

 

We moved on, catching various rides going North. Hitching in Laos was made easier by the fact that there is just one road going from the Southern border to the Northern one. As such we could catch any ride going north and know we were going the right way.

One evening became known as the 'sugar truck night'. We caught a ride with a guy and his wife and I think his mother in law. They put us on the back of the truck, which was laden with sacks and sacks of sugar.

 

After a few hours driving the truck got a flat tire. We ended up having to lift the truck up whilst the guy put the spare on. We drove on, but after a while it became clear that the spare wasn't pumped up enough to support the trucks weight. Eventually the driver called up a buddy of his to help spread the weight of the sugar. His buddy caught up with us and we helped lift the sacks over from one truck to the other.

We laughed at how sketchy this looked, two white boys and two locals lifting big sacks of white powder from truck to another in the middle of the night. Eventually they dropped us off at a guesthouse on the side of the road.

 

Dirty work. My t-shirt from the 'sugar truck night' next to a fresh one.

 

"the best lollipop I ever had."

[Internerd]

Rad.

 

You're definitely travelling the right way.

 

Props

[Schnitzel]

seriously awesome thread!