I'm not a native English speaker so the grammar will not be perfect , please forgive me .
Trip through Cambodia from 16 till 31 december 2012 .
First some background info on 'little' May . I met May 2 months ago , while on a visa trip , in a bar on street 104 in PP . Only 142 cm but a great body ,
friendly face , good talk and nice to have around . We did go along very well so i stayed with her for the remaining 3 days of my trip till i had to fly
back to Thailand .
She has had a terrible accident when she was a little kid and broke her spine on several places . This is also the reason why she is only 142cm .
Father killed mother when she was 3 months old and is on the run ever since so she got addopted by an aunt that was living in the countryside .
As there was of course no money to get things fixed she has been going trough life handicapped from 2 till 16 years old . At 16 there was a French guy
that helped her out by giving her a job and arranged that an insurance company covered the payment for the badly needed operation . She has been in
a hospital in France for 2 months to get everything done . They used the splint bone of her right leg to repair the spine . Three big 30cm scars on her
back and leg still remember on what has happened .
After this she has gone back to PP and slowly worked her way out of the slum . Used the money from work to get herself into a decent school and to find
a good job . She is pain free now and can do everything .
The slum where she was living before she started working in a bar . Her sister with 3 little kids and some other family members are still living there .
Problem in Cambodia is even a good job won't bring you much more than $200 us a month and as this was not enough to support herself , her granddad
and her sister who is still living in the slums with 3 little kids so she decides to go to work in a bar . She tells me that she makes between $500 and $600us
a month in the bar . She is picky with who she goes with and takes 2 or 3 customers a week .
She is working there for 8 months when we met and that is where this TR starts .
After flying back to Thailand we keep in contact and when i mention that i would like to make a trip through Cambodia she was more than willing to come
with me .
16 Decmber i fly back to PP and May is all dressed up waiting for me at the airport . (It's always a great feeling to have a nice girl waiting for you at the airport) .
She had arranged a decent $7us airconditioned taxi that would drop us of at our hotel on the riverside . The first 2 days we spend in PP , eat good , have fun .
The evenings we spend in the bar where she was working . May proudly showing her farang boyfriend around and i can see they all love this little girl and are
happy for her . After buying her friends some ladydrinks her friends are my friends too so everybody happy .
One of the cassiers is also a good friend off her and she had arranged that i even didn't have to pay anything to the bar to take May out (you gotta love Cambodia) .
About 40 girls working in this bar and you actually have to do your best to find an ugly one in there . There are even girls of 16/17 years old 'working' there to learn
the job . They sit with you , have a drink and a chat but when you try to barfine them they tell you , sorry can not , so be a bit carefull .
The morning of the 18nd we take the bus to Siem Raep , 300km a 6 hour ride . The first hour the road is sand and putholes but the last 5 hours is fine . At the
busstop in SR there are dozens of touts and tuk tuk drivers almost fighting to reel you in , quite annoying . This is one of the small downpoints of Cambodia .
Every 5 seconds you are asked if you want a tuk tuk a motorbike or something else you don't need at that moment .
We have a very nice hotel in SR , the Lucky Angkor , one of better hotels at $50us a night . Big rooms , nice bathroom , swimming pool and very good buffet
breakfast . Siem Raep did surprise me positively and is a very nice town to spend a few days . Of course there's the Angkor Wat complex with all his great
temples but the town itself is clean , has a great centre with beautiful buildings , good restaurants and a lot of markets . Good place also to buy some silver ,
good quality and very cheap .
Next morning we arrange a tuk tuk for the whole day ($18us) to get to Angkor wat . It's the cool/dry season so it's the perfect time to visit . Wonderfull place
that is so big that you have to spend at least 2 or 3 days to get the idea of what it really is . Entry price farang $20us , Khmer free .
We visit Angkor wat , Bayan , Angkor Tom . Just look at the pictures to get an idea of this special place and all the history as it's little hard to describe in words .
Angkor Tom is really something mysterious and special .
Angkor Bayan
Angkor Tom
Next morning we visit a sort of mini Cambodia but it looks like we are the only guests in the whole park , entry farang $20us , Khmer $5us . They have picked up
some annoying Thai habbits already . Nice place to spend a few hours though .
In the afternoon we go back to the Angkok Wat complex to visit some more remote temples . Nice ride with the tuk tuk through the Cambodian countryside .
Waiting for the sunset .
Nice swim after we got back in the hotel and as May likes to dress a 'little' sexy with only a string and a mini bra most of the hotel personel was all of a sudden
very busy with 'something' around the pool , lol .
21th December we hire a private car to get to Battambang as it is not easy to go there by bus . $40us but in only 2,5 hours we do the 200km ride so worth the
money .
Battambang looks like a very boring little town in the countryside (it actually is) but it has some great surroundings to visit . We did a trip with the bamboo train ,
basicly a set of wheels on an old traintrack covered with bamboo used to transport the growings from the surrounding farmlands . At the end of the track there's
a little shop runned by 2 older people where you can have a drink and a snack . Just sit down there and listen to the stories these 2 oldtimers have to tell .
He's has been a in the army during the Pol Pot regime and has some great stories to tell .
After the bamboo train we visit Banan EK a temple 1300mts up in the mountains . After climbing the 400+ steps in 30 degrees and low oxygen air it's time for a
rest and a drink .
Killing cave is next on the list . The name comes from the time Pol Pot used these caves to drop people of to a certain dead . About 10.000 has lost there live in
the caves in Battambang only . The cave isn't that special but there's a nice temple next to it with a lot of monkeys and great views .
May got robbed by this little sucker , few bags of fruit .
The family has to wait till the big boss is done .
At 17.45 , one of the highlights of this trip is watching a million bats flying out into the night to find food an unreal sight and very impressive .
I had given May my Canon S95 to shoot pics for herself but she was so impressed by the bats that she had totally forgotten to take the camera with her and left
it on some wall along the road where about a hundred more people where watching 'the show' . It was about an hour later in the tuk tuk on the way back to the
hotel that i asked here where she had put the camera .... oops . We asked the tuk tuk driver to turn around (without much hope) to have a look if maybe the
camera was still on the same spot . Just before we arrive back on the spot we got stopped by another tuk tuk driver that very happy and proud hands me my
camera . He remembered May (sexy as usual) and he had seen her with the camera before so when he didn't see us no more he had taken the camera with
him to hand it to us later . He knew our tuk tuk driver and would have found us through him . I thanked him 3 times , handed him $10us and everybody was
happy , only in Cambodia i guess .
Battambang at night is dark and boring . With almost no tourists it wasn't easy to find a place to eat but with the help of a tuk tuk driver we find about the only
restaurant that was open . Nice cheap meal a few beers and back to the hotel as we weren't really on ease in a place in the middle of nowhere with only a
dozen of drunk Khmers as other visitors .
Back in the hotel , planning the rest of our trip we find out that the bus ride to Koh Kong , our next destination , is about 17 hours by bus so not really comfortable
to do in one day . We decide to go back to PP (6 hours by bus) to spend a few days there and look where we go next .
Back in PP we rent a Honda 250 dirt bike to go to May's hometown about 60km outside of PP . She wanted to visit her granddad . She's also trying to get a new
pasport and needs some paperwork from there to get things sorted . The office is only open till 12.00 so we have to come back the next day as it's 14.00 already .
The little town is really in the middle of nowhere and only has dirttracks . Happy i rented a decent bike and not a small scooter . Next day we do the same trip and
also meet May's sister with her husband who are willing to help to sort out all the paperwork for her . After driving around 3 hours , 6 offices and 4 bribes later the paperwork is sorted ... and this is only the paperwork to apply for a pasport ... oh my Budha this country is so damm corrupt and inefficient . (You want pasport
quick ... $250us extra you have next week ... no i did not) .
This girl doesn't really belong here anymore .
Driving around the countryside all day to get the paperwork sorted .
Every office we visited we where being stared at by the locals . Cambodians can be really shameless and a lot of them are pretty dumb .
According to May the first barang in this countryside village . It's getting a little ackward being stared at for hours by the family .
The corruption is so in your face in PP where 50% of the cars is a new Lexus , Landcruiser , Range rover , Cadillac , Hummer , ect. ( while the average wage is
about $120us a month) that it must be very frustrating for non government personel .
17.00 we drive back to the hotel . I'm used to drive a motorbike in Pattaya and Bangkok for the last 4 years but rush hour in PP is quite a different level . A red
traffic light doesn't mean wait , driving on the right side of the road doesn't mean everyone is going in the same direction , the big Range rovers and Landcruisers
think they're king of the road and don't give a shit about motorbikes , total annarchy . Let's say i was happy to be back in the hotel again without any accidents .
The evenings we spend in May's bar . Playing pool and having fun with her friends . The last night almost ends up in a barfight with some Aussie guy that thought
i had done something to his Khmer wife . Luckily most of the girls had seen that not me but she started to make trouble and backed me up . I bluffed my way out
by telling him i've been a pro boxer for 10 years so he maybe wanna reconsider his plans of starting a fight . He wasn't shore what to think of the situation , checked
bin after 10 minutes and left the place , pfff . Going to the gym a few times a week can help you out in situations like this sometimes i guess .
26th December we take the bus to Sihanoukville . A 6 hour ride ... but after 6 hours we are .... halfway so at 23.00 instead of 18.00 we arrive in Sihanoukville . I had
a confirmed booking made through Agoda but the hotel seemed fully booked . This is not what you want after an 11 hour bus ride at 23.00 at night . After calling 4
times with the big boss there was at once a room available for us . The next morning at 6.00am i understand why this room wasn't meant to be rented out . We got waken up brutely by the sound of power drills and other heavy equipment . This was the view from the room ...
Complaints where not going to help as it was holiday season and everything was fully booked .
Sihanoukville is like most cities in Cambodia a bit French orientated . It has some nice beaches with a lot of restaurants but not much to do during daytime . There
are some areas with Pattaya style beerbars but as i was with a girl already i didn't visit them so can't say much about the quality .
First day we rent a bike , visit some beaches and relaxed for the day . Next day we hop on the boat for the 3,5 hour boattrip to Koh Rong . The boattrip was including breakfast and lunch , good value for the $20us . We where meant to go back the same day but after arriving on Koh Rong we got offered a beach bungalow for only $15us . The choice to spend a night on one of the most beautiful beaches you will ever see or waking up again at 6am by a powerdrill wasn't that difficult . To be
honest i didn't sleep much as there where all kind of animals running through the 'bungalow' at night . The island is full of rats , snakes , monkeys , tukets , millipeds ,
ect but is absolutely stunning . There are no roads and it's only accesable by boat but definitely worth the 7 hour boatride .
Our 'bungalow' on the beach .
The view from the bungalow isn't that bad .
Local family .
On our way to lonely beach . The most stunning beach and seaside i've ever seen .
The black spot in the water is all fish .
Strange creatures in the water as well .
Absolutely stunning .
Back to the hotel for the last night in Sihanouk and in the morning the bus to PP for the last time . We decide to take the 7am bus as we will probably be woken up
at 6am again anyway .
Sihanouk sunset .
The busride is 6 hours so we are back in PP at 1pm and have the afternoon to visit some friends of May , do some shopping in the central market , have a good
meal and a few drinks on the riverside watching the crazy daily PP life go by . Also a good moment to have a serious talk with May about what she expects from
the future . We did go along very well in the last 2 weeks and i wouldn't mind staying with her for a longer time , she has the same feeling . We can split our time
in 2 weeks PP and 2 months Pattaya for the rest of this year and look how things work out , sounds appealing . Flights are cheap in the Air asia big sale and i have
to go out of Thailand now and then anyway to renew my visa so why not . But when the subject kids comes up we are not on the same level . She wants at least
1 kid and i have 3 kids between 12 and 19 already so not really (really not) wanna start again . We decide to give it a rest for now and first look how things work
out in the near future . We have to wait till her pasport is ready anyway .
30 December last night in PP we rent the Honda 250 again and make another trip to her hometown to have a little farewell party . $20us for beer and cigarettes ,
another $20us for granddad and everybody is happy . The ride back in the dark through the Cambodian countryside is a little tricky after a few beers but we arrive
safely back in our hotel .
My new Cambodian friends .
It was a little dark and it took me a few moments to realize what i was exactly eating . Tasted ok though .
We're back at 11pm and not really sleepy so we have a shower and go out for the night . May takes me from small bars with $0,5us big beers to some fully
packed hiso place where we have to make our way through the Range rovers , Lambos , Ferraris and even a RR to get in . The beers are $12us in here
(and it was only half the size of the $0,5us one) . Never seen so much beautiful ladies in one place together though , oh my Budha . There's a huge difference
between rich and poor in PP .
The next morning we still have the motorbike till 2pm and May takes me to a real Khmer restaurant along the riverside outside PP where probably no tourist
has ever been . We have a great meal , Khmer food is really tasty . This makes a perfect end on a perfect trip .
After this it's back to the hotel to pick up the bags and off to the airport . I give May the last $300us in my wallet to get her through the next weeks and promise
to come pick her up as soon as her pasport is ready .
And back to Thailand for now .
Some more pics of May ...
To be continued ... probably .