Swimmin' in Cambodia

 We are now immersed.
 We made it from Bangkok through corruption at the border to Koh Kong, a mostly industrial port town with red clay dusty roads. At night the dust cloud through the head lights of oncoming traffic leant an etheral tint as long as you didn't think of what you were breathing. Then on to Sihanoukville named for the famous king who won independence from the French. He ruled up till he  was thrown out by Lon Nol who was supported by the US. (these names all come back from the Vietnam war days). But this is a nice beach town popular with Khemers  who came out in great numbers on Saturday to camp, play games on the beach and swim in the not quite snorkel-worthy water. A lot of places catering to a large international contingent of travelers including cheap beer and good coffee.  Lots of motorbikes for transport and wireless for communication. We got a great thatched roof room with bark siding door and with the occasional hot water though with temps in the 80's the cool shower is often the best choice anyway.
 Monks in ocher robes make the morning rounds for offerings to all the guest houses shaded by their umbrellas of complementary, slightly cooler color.
 We ate at the Monkey Republic restaurant where they recycled their cooking oil into biodiesel, donated to child-safe and played Jimi Hendrix (Foxy Lady), Rolling Stones(sympathy for the devil) and Beatles (Blackbird). Somehow an odd juxtapose as the timing of those songs was the time of the US "secret" bombing of Cambodia and the rise of the Pol Pot people.
 We leave the beach and head to the river town of Kompot. This is just beginning a revival and has some new and restored buildings amongst lots of colonial french architecture and a wide riverside boulevard. We rent bikes and head out of town over a clanging metal bridge and out a red clay road that turn into an agricultural  area. On one side of the road are flooded paddys where they make salt during the dry season and on the other side are dormant rice paddys.  The small wooden stilt houses stand along the road and most have large concrete urn cisterns.
 My bike has some lousy bearings in the handelbars and I often find myself  drifting to the middle of the road and those motor bikes are not going slow.
  On our way back we stop by the local wat and monastery. It is the typical elaboratly decorated serene scene. This one also has an ornate hip roof covered dock where a lone monk is saying his prayers.
   We head for Phnom Phenh early. The bus takes 5 hours and there is a lot of road work. Looks like highways are being upgraded everywhere we go and lot of building going on in Phonm Phen. I am reading The Gods Drink Whiskey by Stephen Asma (thanks Claudia J ). It is by a Chicago teacher teaching Buddhist Philosophy in Phnom Phen  because the Khmer Rouge wiped out so much of the educated class and monks that they needed to import an American to fill the void. Great read about buddhism and cambodian history.
  I know the motorcyle traffic has been over reported but I have to say seeing 50 motorcycles come into a roundabout at 35 mph and merge and diverge with up to 4 passengers or construction materials without incident is still a dance to behold.
 We just have one full day in Phnom Phen and after coffee on the riverfront at back packer central I take a tuk tuk to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum while Claud , having been there before goes in a different direction.  The place is kept just as it was found after the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979 when Phnom Penh was nearly empty. I spent 2 hours there with many others in near silence amongst well kept records of all that had come through what was once a grade school and had become ground zero for torture and murder of up to 2 million people over 4 years. It was not only impossible to comprehend how it could have gotten to that state but also how a people recover from having a quarter of their people killed for no reason other than having an education or being a monk or being associated with the past government. Almost equally unfathomable is that the US supported Pol Pot while in exile as the legitimate head of state for several years, misguided I guess, by anti-vietnam fanaticism.
  The next day we leave the Okay guest house and take the 6 hour bus up to Siem Reap and settle into the Red Piano guest house in the midst of a fast paced international destination just outside Angkor Wat. Claud was here 5 years ago and is astounded by the changes. It is clearly a happening place. Tourists from a wide variety of countries with Germany, Korea and Britan seemingly the largest percentages.
 We rent bikes to have early the next day and find an amazing vegetarian restaurant, one of the clear advanatges of a tourist town in ascendancy. The bad news is that it is cloudy with a little rain in the morning though the good news in that, is we have no qualms about not getting going at 5AM and missing the sunrise on top of the Wat.The disadvantage of an ascendant destination is obvious biking out around the various temples and sites among the buses, motorcyles and tuk tuks  There is an hour long wait in a line to be able to climb to the top of the main Wat. Angkor Thom ( tag Chris) is more laid back though some of the nicest times are the biking in the woods between the crowds at the temples and watching the monkeys.