a ride on the bamboo train

Once we arrived to Battambang and everybody was sent in different directions, I found myself with a small group staying at the Royal Hotel (pretty decent place: free wi-fi, cheap/clean rooms, hot water, and free scarves upon departure-the rooftop restaurant is way overrated though).

It seemed that most of the people on the boat were going to hang out around town, but after spending a dreadful hour eating shitty food at the market (while watching locals get served much more appetizing meals) and beggars continuously tapping our shoulders asking for money for the duration of our meal, the idea didn’t seem all that enticing.

It was about 4:30 pm and we decided to check out the (not so) famous Bamboo Train. Between six of us, we hired a tuk-tuk at a dollar each for a ride there and back. The tracks are just outside the town and it takes about 15 minutes to get there.

You‘ll have to agree on a price before setting off, and the more people, the better, for a couple of reasons.

They charged our group $10 for a trip on the Bamboo Train, and not having any sort of price gauge, this seemed pretty reasonable. At just over a dollar for the run, we were sold!

It’s a very simple ride, in every sense of the word. You sit on a 8’x12′ bamboo platform set on two axles with a small motor to power the contraption, and ride it for half an hour in one direction (although, this depends on how many people you run into along the way and how many times you have to get out of the way) and go back where you came from after a short break. And it’s so much fun.

We easily hit top speeds of 35mph on a badly maintained (if at all) railway which made for a bumpy ride. Every now and then you will run into oncoming traffic (other bamboo trains) and this is where loads come into play: the train carrying the heaviest load and/or the larger number of passengers stays put while the other one gets pulled apart to let the bigger load through. All in a matter of minutes.

Luckily for us we were on the train right around sunset and got in some great photos.

The Bamboo Train is something that is made possible due to the badly maintained railway system in Cambodia. The government is in the process of modernizing the railways throughout the country and, whether inadvertently or not, is going to put an end to one of Battambang’s most enjoyable experiences.

If the boat ride hadn’t been a good enough reason, the Bamboo Train would have made the trip to Battambang complete.

a boat ride to battambang

Rightfully so, the temples of Angkor are Cambodia’s main draw. The vast majority of people either head back to Thailand or cut right across to Southern Vietnam via Phnom Penh immediately afterwards.

My traveling M.O. is having no concrete plans whatsoever, just a rough idea of the places I’d like to visit. After Angkor, I really didn’t know what to do in Cambodia. I wasn’t too keen on Phnom Penh (I can’t say I’m ever ecstatic about capital cities in third world countries) but I figured I couldn’t do wrong heading to the beaches in the southwest.  And that I should do it as fast as possible.

I was lucky not to be hasty.

Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia but that is not saying much. It’s tiny. Battambang itself has nothing special about it: the food was sub par at best, beggars abound, particularly in the market (this was the first time I had someone stand next to me constantly begging for money for the duration of my meal-make that 3 someones at a table of 6) and it’s a dirty place. It’s the journey there that is quite the experience. A bus from Siem Reap to Battambang costs just over $4 while taking a boat ride costs at least four times as much, but it is worth every penny. No matter what price you pay. (Some paid as much as $25, others as low as $17; I paid $19, yeah, thanks Eric.)

You start off very early in the morning. Sometime around 7:30am the mini-bus starts doing its rounds around Siem Reap picking up tourists stuffing as many westerners in it as possible.

By 8:30 you’re somewhere along the Cambodian wetlands ready to board your boat and shortly after that, you’re off into the middle of nowhere.

The boat has seating for about 30 people and while everyone is scrambling for a seat, the best thing to do is to pack on the sunscreen, put on some shades and head to the roof. A solid rainy season and clear skies made for a quick trip with awesome sights and steady conversation. Five hours in the blazing sun is still a bit too much to handle but you’ll find that there’s a constant rotation of people heading up and down  so there’s always a spot available downstairs.

We passed a number of villages, hundreds of little kids excitedly waving in our direction, a handful of boats being operated by children that couldn’t be over 5 years old, stopped to drop off packages and pick up passengers.

Along the way we also cut right through what seemed to be the dumping “grounds” for the many villages’ trash. Almost simultaneously, all the trash on our boat went overboard onto the piles of floating garbage and dirty water. A sad sight.

Aside from the wet dumpster and the terrible sunburn I suffered that day, like I said, the ride was worth the trip to Battambang.

By the time we caught the storm clouds we had arrived and the tuk tuk/motorcycle/minivan drivers are lined up to give us a free ride to their respective hotels. (And they will tell you before hand which one it is.)

around the temples of angkor

We started our day off at 4:30 am. Early enough to have a light breakfast, coffee and pedal our way into the temples of Angkor for sunrise.

Eric gave us a very convincing outline for a one day bike tour through the temples: skip right over Angkor Wat, which is where everybody and their mother heads for sunrise and go straight to Phnom Bakheng, known as the sunset temple (the time when it is normally inundated by the crowds), which was completely abandoned when we got there. From then on we’d go in the opposite direction of the masses, more or less following the same pattern given in the Lonely Planet, through Angkor Thom and onto Ta Phrom and everything in between. Angkor Wat would be our final destination.

We missed sunrise by about 10 minutes but only because we climbed up the wrong temple (too steep of a climb that early in the morning) which didn’t even clear the top of the tree canopy.

Once atop Phnom Bekhong, there was nothing but us, the sky and the deep horizon. You could see for miles in each direction and it was absurdly quiet.

After a good half hour of peace and quiet, we headed into Angkor Thom toward Bayon but deviated from the customary path and carried our bikes to the top of Angkor Thom’s wall for a more scenic route.

Per Eric, it was about 3km worth of biking through vegetation, spider webs, a few statues and (very) small buildings. The detour left us on the East entrance to Angkor Thom, on a dirt road heading straight to the temple of Bayon. A very shady and pleasant ride into one of the most popular of the temples of Angkor.

Even with the extended route, we found the Temple of Bayon almost empty.

The place is incredible. Hundreds of faces adorn the site; they are supposedly the face of the king responsible for erecting the building, and they keep an eye on the temple visitors. The place is big enough to get lost, which I sort of did when I became separated from my biking mates.

As we were leaving, we caught the first wave of tourists making their way into the temple. Close call.

Bayon is in the center of an area known as Angkor Thom with several other smaller sites, shrines and temples distributed within its walls, with bunch of those immediately north of Bayon. The Royal Palace, The Terrace of Elephants and The Terrace of the Leper King are some of its most popular sites. We walked about these, decided to forgo climbing a few temples in the area and broke for a picnic at the Terrace of the Elephants.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch, we hit Ta Nei. To reach this temple, we had to get off the main road (at the bend between Ta Keo & Ta Phrom) and onto a dirt road, parts of which was covered in water. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the first (or only) people to visit this temple all day. It was small, covered in moss and being swallowed by the Cambodian jungle. It was great.

Above are the steep stairs of Ta Keo. I promise you that climbing up those steps is the closest you’ll ever come to being Spiderman. There is a nice (and flat) view from the top. The very narrow steps make the climb down a lot more treacherous but using the big, flat blocks framing the staircase can make your climb a whole lot easier, safer & 10X faster. (Surprisingly, I was the only one doing it.)

Next up was the famous Ta Phrom. Besides Angkor Wat, this was the only temple where we ran into a massive amount of tourists, but since it’s a lot more compact than Angkor Wat, it made it tougher to navigate. And because of its popularity, it will take (and took me) forever to take a decent shot, but it is all a slight nuisance relative to the stunning beauty of the place.

The temple is in the process of being taken over by giant trees and going through it feels like walking through a still shot of a battle between humankind and nature-with the building standing in nature’s war path.

The site got a lot of notice for its use in the movies Tomb Raider and Two Brothers, and one of the trees made the cover of the Cambodian edition of the Lonely Planet a few years back and now has its own platform, from where thousands of tourists get their picture taken.

The temple might be compact, but it is big. It’s big enough that once again, I split up with my crew, coming out on the East gate instead of the West (where we parked our bikes). I was lucky enough to get a free bus ride back.

By this time it was noon and we were exhausted. We found a bench area just outside Ta Phrom where we knocked out for an hour or so.

After our nap, we stopped at a couple of very small temples along the 6km ride to Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is massive. There are lots of tourists around and plenty of food vendors claiming that you can park your bikes in the area for free, if you buy their food. And after a full day of amazing temples, I had simply ran out of excitement. Not to say that Angkor Wat was not, but Bayon and Ta Phrom were far more impressive. Even its very prominent central towers were closed to the public due to maintenance (and overuse). As a plus, the green canvas covering part of the façade of the towers made for an awesome photo op.

I think Angkor Wat would have been better left for a single day on its own. Green canvas or not, I’m sure I would have had a more enjoyable visit without 9+ hours of walking and biking under my belt.

The highlight of Angkor Wat was our short convo (and pics!) with a couple of monks there. Buddhist monks have tended to be on the shy side for the most part (and these were too!), then again, there are all sorts of types of monks out there.

By the time we pedaled out of the temple area, we were exhausted, hungry, terribly sun burned and oh so ready for an ice cold beer and a shower.

on crossing borders

You wake up at 5am in Banglamphu, Bangkok. You pack your bags, shower, whatever. By 5:30 you find out that no cab driver is willing to give you a ride to the bus station on the meter. You settle for a 150 baht and go.

You arrive to the Morchit bus station in 20 minutes, just in time for a 6am, 1st class ticket to the border. You get your 250B ready… wait no, it’s only 212B. Surprise. But it leaves at 6:15 and it stops every 20 – 30 minutes, just like in 2nd class… Surprise indeed.

At this rate you’ll be lucky to get to Aranyaprathet by noon.

Surprised again. It’s only 10:30 am and you’re there. Plus, you’re so close to the border you can stash those 80 baht you were saving for the tuk-tuk. But beware of those travel agencies posing as Cambodian immigration officials. They’ll even stamp the form onto which they’ve stapled your passport photo. Then they’ll ask for 1200B and drop the price to 1100B as you walk away and warn you that you’ll be turned back if you don’t pay them the money…

You breeze through Thai immigration while the 100 or so Thai people who were there before you still wait.

Enter Cambodia.

Going through the immigration process there takes half as long as in Thailand but only because there is nobody in line.

Twenty USD plus 100 baht or 800 baht. They love dollars in Cambodia.

One more line past the casinos and you’ve officially stamped your way into the country.

It’s 11:30 am.

You ignore the “tourist bus” agents because you don’t want to pay $10 to ride an overloaded bus that makes frequent stops and won’t even leave until it’s “fully” loaded. Instead you walk a few more blocks and wonder when these tourist bus agents are going to finally leave you alone. They are a passionate bunch.

Eventually, a cab driver drops in on the action and brings down his fee for the “non-stop” ride to Siem Reap, from $35 to $30.

He likes this price but you don’t so he gets into his Camry and follows you for one more block (while the tourist bus agents are begging to know where you want to go and why you‘re not taking the “free“ bus). Then he drops the price to 900 baht. The two other people that you’re with decide that 300B per person for a ride to Siem Reap is a good deal so you jump in for the ride.

Less than two hours later (after a gas stop and a “toilet” stop) you’re at your destination. Or at least at the tuk-tuk station where they pay the taxi driver $3 a head for potential customers (at potentially zero cost to you). They’ll get paid $7 if they deliver the goods to a particular guesthouse but instead reluctantly take you to where you ask them to, Prince Mekong Villas, because they don’t pay commission for guests, at least that’s what Eric (the guesthouse manager) tells you.

the road to cambodia

I’m headed to Cambodia in a day, and as it turns out, this little road trip to Siem Reap is a bit more complicated than it appears to be.

I’ve heard/read a few stories already and they seem to concentrate on what goes on at the border. (Border towns/crossings tend to make for some seedy spots which you’re better off getting through as fast as possible if not avoiding altogether.)

Tomorrow, I have an appointment to purchase a “direct” bus ticket from Bangkok to Siem Reap for just south of $10. Buses leave at 7am and arrive at their destination at 4pm or 5pm or 6pm or 10pm…

*record scratch*

It turns out this is the infamous Khao San Road Bus scam (also mentioned on the Lonely Planet), which amounts to every and any bus leaving the Khao San Road Area toward Cambodia (not mentioned on the Lonely Planet). It *might* turn out to be cheaper in the end but it’s a big pain in the ass.

The disparity in arrival time depends on how long the bus drivers want you to wait along the road. And they are all the same. They just want to get you to your their destination worn out so you put down your bags as soon as you get off the bus and STAY.

Plus, once you are close to the border there are a fistful of other pain-in-the-ass scams ready to come down on you if you’re not careful.

There is also a lot of fuzz about getting a visa prior to the trip, but that’s just nothing but fuzz.

Thank god for Tales of Asia. (Where I read all the juicy details about this mess on which I’m about to embark.)

I’ve decided to do the trip on my own. Cab it to the bus station North of the city; bus it to the border town of Aranyaprathet; take a tuk-tuk to the actual border; walk a couple of hundred meters through a crazy sounding border market; get my Indiana Jones on; and cab it all the way to Siem Reap to catch an early afternoon tea, around 4pm if everything goes according to plan. 6ish if it doesn’t.

And if the internet is as readily available there as it is here in Bangkok, I’ll upload some photos of the sunset at Angkor Wat.

from what i remember

Right before I left the home, I remember telling a friend that I’d be able to keep everyone updated day-to-day, down to the minute, because India is the land of technology. I mean, even their curry comes with a side of wi-fi…

So much for that.

It has been a week and two days since Hiroki and I reached Pokhara, Nepal, and eight days since we last saw our trusty companion. Hell, half of Team America (World Rickshaw Runners) is back in Miami by now. It’s hard to believe, but after 12 days of maniacal driving, all we have left is the well impregnated memories (and photos) of what happened and you could say it all happened in the bat of an eye. Now that I have proper internets (here in Thailand) I’ll try my best to do some sort of recount of what happened. Twitter updates and all. With photos.

insert sad face here

Some people might say it comes with the territory but I think it’s more a matter of correlation than causation. There’s an awful lot of football fans in Gainesville, Florida, specially when it comes to alumni and I happen to be one of them.

The last time I was this amped about college football was at the beginning of last season (heh). The problem is that I won’t be around to watch this year’s  madness go down, not one Saturday. I’ve already missed the first one, and the odds that I catch any of the remaining games are fairly low-unless there are indeed Gator clubs out in the East. (I´m sure there´s got to be a few Gator fans out there in India.)

If there´s one thing I might be mad about with respect to this trip, this is it. But probably not (that much).

=)

all up in your television

(cross posted from Team America: World Rickshaw Runners: THE BLOG)

According to the Adventurists’ “person who organises things and looks after sponsors,” otherwise known as Lamorna, a French TV channel is interested in documenting the plight of their fellow french peoples.

I’m not exactly sure whether this particular event gets a lot of television exposure but its sister event, The Mongol Rally (the one that started it all), seems to get a lot of press time and even face time on European TV.

No word on their american counterparts tho, at least none from that I’ve been able to find and I really cannot imagine why. This is something I definitely see being broadcast on a Travel Channel, or a Current.tv, or even Discovery. Or Deco Drive.

Did I mention we’re the team coming out of Miami?

This event and its cause could definitely use a little more exposure and maybe a few more trailers like this one:

On a totally unrelated note, Team America: World Rickshaw Runners is looking for sponsors. We’d love to plaster your logo all over our tuk-tuk and have it shown on Miami and French television.

on personal projects

Earlier this year a friend asked me to consider what many would call a crazy proposition: to join him on a two week trek across India. On a tuk-tuk. When I say that many would call it a crazy proposition, I am implying that I waited to finish my beer before giving him an emphatic YES! So on the 9th of September we will board a 16 hour flight to Mumbai and then head to Goa, the starting point of the Autumn 2009 Edition of The Rickshaw Run.

This rally functions under some really basic parameters:  First, there’s the two stroke, single cylinder, air cooled, ultimate driving machine, otherwise known as a rickshaw (and to some as the tuk-tuk) that you must drive; there’s a starting point, which as I’ve mentioned is somewhere in Goa (on the SW coast of India); there’s a finish line in Pokhara, Nepal, which is all the way up on the NE, at the foot of the Himalayas; and finally, the trek must be completed within two weeks, give or take a day or two. Other than that, you are free to do as you please. You can go whichever route you please: North, South, along the coast, right through the heart of India, etc. You can stop wherever you like for however long you’d like (within the given timeframe). You are also allowed to have as many teammates you wish to have. So if you think you can cram 10 people inside your tuk-tuk, then cram on. (My team started off with three guys and now we’re down to two which is about an average sized team.) Basically, for two weeks in September, I will be taking part of the real-life version of The Wacky Races.

The event is not purely for sport. It’s also a massive effort to raise funds for charities in India and Nepal. With 64 teams competing (at least originally, me thinks the total is a bit lower now) and the minimum amount you are required to raise set at £500 per charity (roughly $750), there will be lots of funds being generated… which reminds me, we still have a long way to go with ONE of the charities and every bit of help is incredibly appreciated. =)

Since my teammate and I are both naturalized citizens that would do a convincing job as foreigners in our own countries (regardless of the fact that we are both fluent in our native languages), we came to the conclusion that the only fitting name for our team was Team America: World Rickshaw Runners.

We have also sorta, kinda been keeping a blog which we will try to keep updating regularly during the trip. There, you will be able to find a lot more details and information regarding the event. Feel free to CHECK IT OUT.

p.s. We’re also on twitter.

cuzqueñas negras

I had my first ever at the Sofa Bar in Chivay, in Arequipa, and it is sweet. Maybe a little too sweet for my tastes. Nothing too complex, but I’ll take the more straight forward lager version of the Cuzqueña any day. 10 soles got us a 610ml bottle, enough for a couple of glassfuls between two people.

As for the locale, yes they had a couple of couches and a few comfy seats, but what caught our attention was the pool table that took up about 1/3rd of the space in this small bar. Luckily for us it was free. Unluckily for us the pockets were ridiculously narrow and it took us about half an hour before we hit our first shot, and about another half hour before the next two. We gave up soon after that being that we had to be up @ 5am for the remainder of the trip.