Phnom Penn

I took the bus back to

Phnom Penn and stayed at Number 9 Guest house on a lake in the city.

Traffic was crazy and so was the pollution from the motor cycles. I saw the Killing fields and S-21. Both were made famous by Pol Pot. In te tree years he was in power, managed to kill 25 percent of his own people. When accused of the crime his response was --he did not sign any death warrents. Good lawyer.

The capacity to use motorycles for large projects is remarkable. Here a man is hauling live ducks.

From Angkor Wat to Sihanoukville, Cambodia

I took several buses and boats to get to Sihanoukville. The first boat was a small one to take us out to Tonle Sap lake were the larger and faster boat took us via lake and river to Pnom Phenn. The embarkation point is a sewage system with a village around it.

The fast boat was pretty amazing. We went by floating villages. Lots of houseboats.

On the Banks of the Tonle Sap river, the food is produced from farming, which employs pumps to irrigate the field in the dry season and fishing which was everywhere on the river.

The long boats are propelled by gas engines that swivel to direct the propeller to all orientations. To drag a net, the long boats extend a net from extensions on the front and back and propel the boat laterally

I took the first bus to Sihanoukville. The bus had two waitresses. A four hour ride, air conditioned, for $6 including snacks. Go figure.

Sihanoukville is a remarkable place. It has, of course white sandy beaches and hundreds of beach side shacks providing the usual for the usual suspects. Victims of land mines walk by asking for money. Blind men are led around by beautiful children doing the same. An elderly lady brought an very old man by. Hard to say no....

When the currents are right, lots of trash washes up on the shore. At first they tried to bury it in the sand. Several of us pointed out that the plastic would not decay if buried and would soon be exposed. So we all got in the water and helped collect the trash. Wonder where it comes from.




I spent four days in Sihanoukville. Mostly sitting in one of the beach-side shacks thinking about thermodynamics, sterling engines, sail boats and Cambodia.

Assuming the folks here are so inclined, I believe it is relatively easy to develop indigenous technologies to decrease dependence on foreign oil and foreign capital. Cambodia is a sunny place that has relatively low energy demands. Solar powered Sterling engines could easily supply all non-mobile energy needs. There are very simple sterling engine driven water pumps. On the beach they are blessed with plenty of sunshine and plenty of wind. Their energy needs are low: there is very little AC and refrigeration. A couple square meters of solar collectors and a 1 meter windmill on each shack could supply the bulk of the electric power needs. Due to the enormous amount of available solar and wind energy, these engines could be simple (sacrificing efficiency for cost) and made locally as opposed to buying a much more efficient and powerful solution abroad.

The boats in the rivers, lakes and oceans are not used continuously. While sitting idle, the sunshine and wind might charge simple batteries to supply the power needed for electric propulsion. This would reduce the need to buy gas and potentially the need to buy electricity.

Sterling engines and small wind generators are simple technologies relative to the ubiquitous motor cycle, cell phones and Internet. Since everyone knows how to operate and maintain them, there should be only a small learning curve to adopt these new technologies. I think getting people to switch to these new technologies would be quite challenging because it would be offered by an outsider, who naturally is not familiar with precise needs, politics, hidden costs, corruption and other pre-occupations.

I am off to Phnom Penh today and then to Brussels tomorrow.

Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), Cambodia

Angkor Wat is in a forest. The trees grow all over the buildings.

It is hot here. Hot like DC in July. Add lots of dust and lots of diesel and noise. Some people wear surgical masks to keep out the dust and fumes. The worst is being on the back of a motor bike stuck in congested traffic, behind a bus. You end up breathing exhaust in addition to dust.

The main strip is loaded with big hotels. It has the look of Atlantic City. Five star places next to lots of run down places.

There are lots of Korean groups here. They travel in groups through the temples and out to dinner. Buses take the whole group from place to place. Many more 5 star hotels are being built in Siem Reap. However there are a finite supply of temples to see, so expect in the next few years all the temples will be a circus. Maybe casinos are next...

One place, frequented by locals, has three TVs on a wall. Each playing a different show. About a hundred chairs are placed so people can come in a watch them.

Shade trees are in short supply. Despite the heat and lack of AC, many folks go out of their way to kill trees on the side of the road. I guess they are getting in the way of something.

Then there is the curse of the common. The streets are loaded with trash and dust, though the houses are clean.

Poverty is expressed much more conspicuously here than Laos. Walking around Angkor, everyone including Buddhist monks have a tried and true means to get money from tourists. Cute children try to sell postcards. Buddhist try to get their future education paid for. For a dollar a day I could send a monk to university. I doubt it is a scam because they are monks and it does make sense to ask tourists for a little payback on 2,600 years of amazing architecture.

I spent two days seeing all the temples I could. We went on a 100 Km trek to a temple that few bother to go see because it is too far and not as big as Angkor Wat. The far out temple I saw was notably occupied by the Khmer Rouge and then by Hollywood, to film a movie, like Tomb Raiders.

After a while some children joined me and pointed out which way to go in the deserted temple. In one place bats flew out as I walked in...

The motor bike ride was just as interesting as the temple. I got to see loads of villages on the way and see the amazing use of bicycles, trucks and motor bikes.

Gas is sold in Johnnie Walker bottles by road side stands. They have gas stations. Maybe not enough though.

Trucks are often heavily loaded, well beyond any manufacturers rating. So are motor bikes.

My motor bike driver for two days was Mr Vireak (vireak02@yahoo.com) his cell phone is (855) 12 86 30 16. He drove my around for about 200 Km and I got to see a lot more of the off-the-beaten-path stuff. For this, I am very grateful to Mr Vireak. I recommend him to any one visiting the temples in Siem Reap. The back of a motor bike is probably less safe than a bus and not as comfortable, but I got to see a lot of stuff in Cambodia up close.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

CM is a relatively big, hot town with gobs of Tuk-Tuk, mopeds, cars and food stalls. I am staying in the northwest corner of the old walled city. They have Starbucks, 7-eleven and ATMs. Obviously the Thai are flooring it towards modernity.

I am in a typical tourist ghetto: everyone sells planes tickets, bus rides, massages, treks, rafting, elephant rides, beer, smokes, laundry, rent anything and places to stay. Stream-of-consciousness travel is the norm. I stay at places until I get excited about someplace else. I am leaving for Angkor Wat tomorrow. I just went into some places, handed over $250 and came back a day later. No receipt. Why bother, especially if you have no cash registers.

The Thai appear genuinely pleased to offer assistance whenever I ask. I appear genuinely thankful.

The Thai would like to be whiter. They buy cream to look whiter and many of the TV personalities and persons in advertisement are lighter skinned. Conversely many of the northern Europeans want to tan.

Organization of large groups appears effortlessly as, no doubt, the Thais have been serving tourist the same way for quite some time. When I went to my cooking class this morning, the tuk tuk driver just showed up to pick me up and then meander through the maze of alleys to pick up. Clockwork, I tell you.

It is perfectly normal now to pack 10 people into a car the size of my pick up truck (can only carry 3 people in the US...). Remarkable. In traffic, a dog was simply sitting on the back seat of moped as the owner maneuvered through traffic.

I stopped by a used book store and got two books for Cambodia. I'll fly there tomorrow. One is a academic biography of Pol Pot and the other was The Rape of Nanking by the Japanese in WWII. My alternative choice was TVs most Hilarious Bleeps, Bloops and Blunders Volume 17.

The cooking course was a blast. Exceptionally well run too. We all met up in a large covered back yard with about 20 burners and 20 woks. After coffee we went to the market (via tuk-tuk of course) and learned all about ingredients. We cooked about 8 dishes and ate all of them. I go a cook book to . Typically the cont ruction of the facility was, unplanned shoddy but highly functional. Dogs where running around the whole time. Great course I am psyched to have people over. Several of my fellow cooking students were engineers. We started talking about solar powered air conditioners and solar heaters and the environment. Did you know Melbourne is going to run out water in 3 years? Kriykey!

Afterwards, the Dutchman remarked that it will take a long way to get where your going if you are walking in the wrong direction. He was talking about getting back to the guest house through the maze of streets. I thought he was talking about Bush. Zing!


Last night we we went to see a Muay Thai boxing match entirely produced for the sake of tourist. I think the fights were real though. Our waitress was formerly a guy. I think, alternative sexual orientation is much more normal in Thailand. Anyway we drank a bunch and stumbled home.

I meet people on the fly all the time. After thirty seconds after I said goodbye to Nancy and Fredo, I met a Swiss girl (don't worry Kris) who I have been travelling with for three days. She came here via the trans-Siberian railway through Mongolia China and Laos. My 6 week itinerary is relatively lightweight, most people I meet travel for 3 to 6 months. OK off to the night market and street vendor food.

From Luang Nam Tha, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand

I am in Chiang Mai Thailand. It took two days to get here from Luang Nam Tha. From Luang Nam Tha to Huay Xai on the Thai border, the bus broke down 4 times. It kept getting flats because the road was mostly dirt and the bus was overloaded as are most public conveyances.

The Lao are not proactive about maintenance. Apparently they wait for failure to occur and are well prepared to make fixes in the field.

The road is have paved and is scraped through the mountains.

We were rescued on one occasion by a pick-up truck carrying 16 people and their luggage on the same 200 KM trip. This truck is nearly identical to my Toyota Tacoma.

This morning I said goodbye to Fredo and Nancy from Quebec. I travelled with them for a week. Great folks.

So far, Thailand is very modern and as sophisticated as the west. The cities are clean except for the air which is polluted by the ubiquitous diesel engines and dust. But my place tonight is still$6/night and includes a pool.

The Thai love their king as proclaimed in many large posters on the highway. Coincidentally it is illegal to say bad things about the king or to step on money (which has the Kings face on it). I like the king too.

Tomorrow, I'll see Chiang Mai and figure out how I am going to get to Cambodia.

Travels around Luang Namtha, Laos

For the second day I rented a motorbike. In the morning I took highway 3 west towards Huay Xai. Great road as it had no traffic, was well paved and surrounded by mountains. The only thing I had to worry abut were pigs and chickens crossing the road. Why? The highway abruptly turns to dust 15 Km. This is where the contruction continues another 100 km to Huay Xai. I travelled on it for a bit, but the dust was too much.

I took some side roads which were always unpaved. I drove through several black thai villages. The motorbike is the best way to get around. It cost $5/day and gas is only $3/gallon.

Tomorrow I am off to Huay Xai and Thailand.

Motor Bike trip From Luang Namtha to Muang Sing

Went on a great motor bike trip today. I'll stay in Luang Namtha another day. More later...