Cambodia

Friday was the last day of school for the academic year. The way the contract is though, teaching summer courses is expected.
I'll be teaching History of South East Asia for 5 weeks, 4 hours a day - 8am-12 from the 15th. I'm looking forward to it. With the whole morning it should be feasible to plan excursions without too much hassle. Quite a few of the top year eleven students are opting to take it so hopefully it should be quite lively and interesting.

As part of preparation for that I've decided to take a trip to Cambodia - probably leaving on the 5.30 am train on Tues. There are two trains a day but the other one arrives too late and I would be arriving at the border at nightfall. It'll be the same border crossing as I went to before - a seedy border town with a no man's land of beggars and cripples, touts and taxi drivers, corrupt border officials and casisnos. Pol Pot's Vegas, as it was described to me.
Arriving at Poipet in the daytime is definitely preferable.

I need to get a reentry visa tomorrow and will also pop into the Cambodian embassy to see if they can do a visa in a day. I can get at the border but dislike haggling with border officials who add extra dollars onto the specified price. (I have a particular dislike of institutionalised corruption.) If it's going to take till the next day, it will make more sense to get it at the border.

My rough plan at this stage is to go to the border and from there to Battambang, - both a provincial capital and the name of the province. It's one of the areas that has gemstone mining, it's also considered 'the' or perhaps just 'a' ricebowl of Cambodia. Rural and scenic.

From there I will catch a boat to Siem Reap, go to Angkor Wat. Probably spend 2 or three days there. If feasible I will look around by bicycle. I prefer my own wheels in general to a tuk-tuk or taxi.

From Siem Reap / Angkor I would like to go to Preah Vihear, which is the temple on the border that the Thais and Cambodians squabble and skirmish over. Thailand is seriously aggrieved that international courts have given ownership to Cambodia. Apparently Thailand is being very childish and wants to build a full scale replica directly opposite on the border...

Preah Vihear is quite off the beaten track so I will need to find out more when I am in Siem Reap. From there I will see if I can find I boat down the Mekong to Phnom Penh, see the killing fields museum and the converted Khmer Rouge prison as well as spending some time just looking around.

Depending on how much time I have left, I will either come back to BKK directly or via the beach - probably somewhere near Koh Kong.

I'll keep you informed of my whereabouts anyway :)


If you're interested at all this is quite a good guide to Cambodia.

http://www.canbypublications.com/cambodia/cambodiahome.htm