April 13th, 2008 - Battambong, Cambodia & Siem Reap Cambodia

After being all Templed out yesterday, I decided to chill out for a day, read, catchup on my journal explore the town and visit the Land Mine Museum.

I’m not going to write too much about the Land Mind Museum b/c it is really depressing to even think about. Its sad and disturbing. Land Mines have no prejudice whether its tanks, soldiers, animals or kids, they dislike everyone equally. They are cruel and just plain evil. Its sad to think that the US has 20 million land mines stock piled and ready to use while China has over 300 million! Gross.

The evidence of land mines is all over Cambodia. You’ll see the signs that say beware of mines and stay on marked path but it doesnt hit you until you see 1 out of 10 people missing an arm, leg, hand, limb, eye or whatever almost always because of a land mine. The US and Germans offer a land mind detecting service but charge $80 for each mine they find so the Cambodians stopped using them and paying kids $2-$5 for mines, that is if they survive the find. Hard to even fathom.

Blah, anyway, back to the not as depressing stuff. I walked around the market and ran into Ruth and Greg while they were eating, they bought me a beer to thank me for the ticket and we hung out for a little while that afternoon. I was supposed to meet them back at the guesthouse for a “drink” but had to eat first and ended up sitting down with an Australian named Billy. We talked for a bit over a beer and he was actually waiting for some people he just met. Two other Australians named Gary and Beck and an American named Kat whom all met on the bus to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh.

Billy has been all over the world, just like every other Australian I’ve met, I think he’s been to 87 countries which is amazing. Apparently, mining is huge in Australia and you can make big money in short periods of time right now. Work and live at the mine for 28days straight then get 7 off, all meals and travel expenses paid with a salary equivalent of $80k US. Squirrel it away and you have a nice travel fund and thats exactly what Billy has done.

Gary and Beck were also on the first leg of a year long trip, from here they are going to Europe for 6-months. No idea how they are paying for it, other then Beck’s teaching job in Australia offers her 6-months paid leave, so I guess that has something to do with it. They were fun people.

Kat is an American from Oregon who just got to Asia via Singapore. Turns out that she and I are kind of on the same path with our travels for the next 10 days or so. From Siem Reap to BKK to Chiang Mai to Koh Tao. Small world.

We all ate and then went to another bar to talk some more. Gary and Beck were able to give us some good tips about places to stay and things to do in Chiang Mai so Kat and I said we’d both stay at the place they recommended in 2 days and meet up then. A travel buddy, Yay!