ShiftyFeet.com

Angkor

   

When You're on a Roll

We hadn't planned to hit the beaches of Cambodia, but when you're a stones throw away, and already floating in a sea of relaxation, the tide just pulls you in.

 

All we can say is soft-white-sand, fiery sunsets and waves lapping at your feet are the perfect accompaniment to being served 50 cent draught and plates of freshly caught BBQ for cheap, cheap.


      

Chill Out

Leaving Phnom Penh, we set out on a bus journey to Kampot. We droopled over hiking nearby Boko National Park, scoping out its eerie and deserted hill station, and our plans to bunk down for a night at the ranger station. The Czech people we climbed Mount Ejin with made it out to be a main highlight of their time in Cambodia. But the promise of adventure was flattened. Steamrollers, bulldozers and cranes are constructing a new road. Presumably to support the future casino. Booooo. Entrance is forbidden for the next two months. And our chance to explore the ghost town: busted.
 
The upside to all this was an extra day in Kampot. After crashing for a night in town, stuffed on a soothing Sri Lanken feast, we set out for Utopia -- a secluded guest house for chilling out, floating around, and soaking up the beautiful Cambodian weather. Only 1.5 km towards our goal was Bodhi Villa, a riverside guesthouse that was calling our names for breakfast. We sprawled out in papsan chairs, got our bellies right, and succumbed to the cool, gentle breeze whisking off the water. We spent the next 24 hours in perfect peace. Eating, exercising, sipping, reading, writing, listening, breathing, in this enchanting little paradise. Then for grins we spent the next night at Utopia and really relaxed.

   

19, 20,

The absence steals my breath
The long reach of emptiness pulls fast and from deep
Thoughts race into four walls they cannot see
The pocket of my soul, picked. Clean.

Silence strikes with the echo of madness
Humanity lost

Eyes burn. The flesh screams. The light holds no truth
Drained. Purged. Nothing moves
Shackled to my own corpse

   

These are some of the horrors we witnessed at S-21 -- a former school, turned wartime prison under the Khmer Rouge in 1975, turned museum.

Hanoi Gets Jealous

Phnom Penh totally caught us off guard. With Cambodia's brutal, recent past, it didn't seem possible for it's largest city to be so filled with joy. The riverside has a sweeping, perfectly manicured park area that forms a giant L around the Royal Palace -- which provides a marvelous temple strewn backdrop, especially as the day draws to a close and masses of people gather to play. Flicking rackets. Kicking legs. Soaring kites. Balls and shuttlecocks of all kind. And then the fountains come alive. Shooting majestic streams in ever changing patterns, as the cool, gasy lights bounce off the billions of smiling droplets. And, is the water in time with the music?! Young and old. Local and farang. It's the type of scene that makes you feel the world is full of good.