Sihanoukville,Cambodia: Amazing Ream National Park


Well, it's been 9 days of Cambodia and Thailand and today was our last day before heading off to other countries. Thailand is definitely a place we will return to again and may even consider an extended retirement stay as it is a place full of good food, people, modern amenities at affordable prices. Cambodia is another story. Once joined with Thailand, it had been left far behind it's neighbor. Perhaps about 100 years. The people are earnest and hard working, but have been dealt a hard lot in life.

We began our morning with a walk around town. The tuk tuk drivers swarmed on the bus offering us rides to the beach or tours around town. We decided to do it on foot. What there was to see was not a souvenir strewn market for tourists but normal daily life. Fish and meat (I think goat) were covered with flies and all sorts of strange fruits and vegetables lined the street stalls. There was plenty of food but none looked terribly well preserved. After a 15 minute walk, we were sticky with sweat and the odors from the market were a bit ripe. We made a quick dart back to the bus and the ship.

We were the only ones of the group who hadn't bailed out on the afternoon tour. How bad could it be? Ha! Stupid is as stupid does. It was a 5 hour tour described as... Take a boat ride and cruise the river for 1 hour. Walk the village and forest for 2 hours and walk the beach and relax 1 hour. The rest was driving time. Difficulty was 2 little people.

Little did we realize that we were trying out for a new reality show called Amazing Idiots-A show all about 3 bus loads of tourists who decide to ruin a perfectly good afternoon and risk their lives on an all inclusive tour in sweltering heat instead of sitting on a luxury cruise ship drinking their all inclusive drinks and calling for room service in air conditioned comfort.

It all began with an animal sighting...one of a chained monkey who grinned at us knowing that we were soon going to be making monkeys of ourselves. There were large wooden boats and people were shoved 4 across on the little wooden slats. A little boat pulled up and we noted that it was only for 4 and Doug was grateful we'd only have 2 across and be rather a small intimate group. However, they added two more.

We took off...not much to see... A crane here and there...time went on, all the boats passed us leaving us in their wake and then we looked down. Our boat was filling with water. One of the crew was quickly ....or as quickly as possible...bailing water out of the boat and we noticed we were surrounded by massive numbers of huge jellyfish. Additionally, there were 6 of us and only 4 life jackets. We started to draw straws as to who would go down with the ship. Our one hour boat ride kept dragging on with no end in site and nothing to do but watch the guy bail out the boat. Then, we came to a crashing halt and the engine died. I guess they felt we needed some excitement. Thankfully, they got our boat started and we chugged on, noticing other boats were now broken down as well and people were being rescued.

Land at last. We felt kind of like Swiss Family Robinson. Getting off the boat, things didn't improve. The village was Little House On The Prairie Cambodia filled with chickens and pigs and people taking baths outside, we trudged in the heat over uneven surfaces UPHILL on rickety and rotten stairs holding onto one another not sure if we were going to die of heat stroke or a coronary. Where there weren't broken stairs, there were potholes large enough to hide a car or ravines we had to cross on single tree limbs. Some folks had to do this with canes! We lost a few on the way. They just gave up. This went on for two bloody hours. All we wanted was a cold drink, a cold shower and air conditioning. Finally, the beach was in sight.There was a place to sit, but you had to BUY drinks and few had money. There were no toilets. We were told we had to stay there one hour and relax.

Then, there was the request. Please take us back. Why.? Said the guide...this is beautiful ...you must stay here. Bring us our busses! Demanded the mutinous crowd. Let's take a show of hands for anyone who wants to stay. Not one hand went up. Someone muttered...see that guy over there? He's a psychiatrist. Anyone who wants to stay...go talk to him.

Finally, after much convincing, we were led to our bus. Our alliance won! As our lone bus pulled away, the beach remained empty, no people could be seen, and the other two busses remained empty. Perhaps they had been turned back on a detour to begin again?

This will likely be my final memory of Cambodia. I will also learn to read tour descriptions more carefully in the future.