Battle at the Botulism Bowl

Our first night in the hut, and we had to do battle with a roach. Phyl was brushing her teeth when she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye.


P- Argh!

G- What?

P- A roach! It ran down the wall and under the bags.

G- Ugh! I hope we're not going to be terrorized by roaches while we're here.

P- Kill it!

G- Whah! You know I hate killing them.

P- Don't let it get away!

I grabbed a shoe and moved the bag. The roach ran out and headed under the bed. I smashed it with the shoe and it died quickly.

G- Huh. That was easy enough.

P- Why did you use my shoe?

G- Because I didn't want to use mine. You want to use my shoe, you kill the roach next time.

P- Very funny. Push it under the bed and we'll get someone to pick it up tomorrow.

G- These Cambodian roaches aren't as strong as Nola roaches. That sucker died with one hit. I'd have to hit a Nola roach 6 times and still the bastard might not die.

P- I don't think that one flies either.

G- That's one good thing.

We got into bed and securely tucked the dusty mosquito net under the mattress. We didn't care for the caged in feeling, but were happy to have some protection against mosquitoes and roaches. The next morning we told Nicole about the roach.

P- I hate them so much and they give me the creeps.

Nicole – We have roaches in Australia, so I'm use to them. Call me the next time you see one.

G- Use to them? Believe me, New Orleans is roach Mecca, but I'll never get use to them.

P- Ours fly. You'll try to kill one and it'll fly at you like some crazy kamikaze.

Nicole – They fly? I've never seen one fly.

G- Yeah! It's terrifying!

The next night Phyl was securely tucked into the bed box and I was using the bathroom one final time when I caught some movement near the pipe, on the wall, beside the toilet. A lifetime of experience told me what it was. I jumped off the toilet and grabbed the sprayer in one fluid motion. He was a big one, maybe 2.5 inches long! The first spray of water knocked him off the wall and onto the floor. Then he reared up like the Lone Rangers horse and thrashed his front claws at me. I sprayed him again.

G- Argh!!!!!!!

P- What's wrong?

G- Damn roach! I can't even pee in peace.

P- Don't let him get into the room.

G- The son of a bitch keeps running behind the toilet!

I would spray him from the right and he'd run behind the toilet to the left. Then I'd spray from the left and he’d run to the right. Finally, after 5 times back and forth he was exhausted and water logged and I gained the upper hand. With my pants still at my knees I sprayed him right out of the drain hole cut into the wall.

G- Yay! I hope he doesn't come back during the night seeking revenge.

P- Stop playing with the insects and get in bed.

The morning after killing the first roach, which had been carried across the room by ants and partially devoured by morning, Molly came in to sweep it up. She then proceeded to sweep around the room, sending a toxic cloud of dust into the air, that promptly covered all of our belongings. We certainly didn't want that to happen again, so after a week of sleeping in one bed (I was sleeping in my Sleep Sac on top of the sheet and there was no top sheet, only a blanket that was too thick for the climate.) we asked Molly to clean the room.

P- Did she say when she'd clean the room?

G- She just giggled. I asked her not to sweep, to just change the sheets and empty the garbage can. The bathroom smells like shit.

P- Well we do throw all of our toilet paper into that garbage can since we're not allowed to flush it.
G- I already emptied the garbage 2 times.

P- How'd you get extra bags?

G- I took them from the garbage cans under the 'cabanas'. We can't get our garbage cans emptied in our rooms, but the 'cabana' cans are emptied everyday.

After 2 days and repeated requests to Molly & Juo, we gave up and just switched to the other bed. Once the sun went down it was too dark in our hut to see the dirt anyway.  So, our days were spent in a beautiful paradise, our nights in a nasty hovel. Really, we had the opportunity to switch to a nicer room across the road, but we just couldn't leave the beach and the sound of the surf.

Hot Water, PLEASE!!!!!!

So began our time on Otres Beach. We settled into a very nice pattern and our initial 3 days turned into 2 weeks. Our beach hut was a structure that we never wanted to enter, but we couldn't bare to leave. Mien Mein's staff was to customer service what Hitler was to world peace, but we couldn't bare to leave. Every night our sleep was interrupted by the loud music eminating from the bar/restaurant next door, and by the drunk, loud talking of the Russians who were staying at Mien Mien, but still we couldn't bare to leave.

Each morning we were awakened between 6:00 am – 6:30 am by the Mien Mien staff, but we still couldn't bare to leave. Apparently everyone else felt similarly because every person we spoke to had arrived on Otres Beach intending to stay a few days, but had ended up staying a week, several weeks, a month, several months, or had opened a bar on Otres and never left. Phyl described the beach was like human fly paper, once you arrived you were stuck.




G- OMG!  Why does Molly have to sweep and rearrange our porch furniture at 6:30 am? (We called her Molly, because she did not seem very bright, and this is the name of our friends' dog, who they also call Box of Rocks.  We had asked Molly her name several times but had never gotten more than a giggle.  Molly was about 15 years old.)

P- Um, because she's not real bright?  Because none of them give a damn that we're trying to sleep?

G- It would help if we could close the window, but then we'd smother.

P- These walls are so thin, closing the window would do nothing but make us sweat.

We never wanted to spend much time in the hut, so once awake, we'd dress, sit on our porch, and watch the morning sun shimmer on the Gulf of Thailand.  Each morning we would go to the bar and request 2 mugs of hot water for our instant coffee, and each morning it was like an act of Congress to get the water.

P- Did you ask for the water?

G- I did. We'll see how long it takes today for us to get it.

20 minutes passed

P- I'll go see if they forgot about it.

G- No, I think I see Molly putting something on a tray. Maybe that's our water.

P- It's about damn time. I could have dug a well, pumped up water, rubbed sticks together to start a fire, and boiled it in that amount of time.

G- Shit!

P- What?

G- She's bringing our water, but she's bringing it in a tall glasses without handles. 
(to Molly, smiling) Ah-coon! (thank you)
(to Phyllis) Now how in the hell are we supposed to drink from these glasses?  They're so hot I can't even pick mine up.



Perom



P- I'll go grab 2 mugs.

G- Get a spoon while you're at it.




Every day we went through something similar with the water. One would think that after the second morning, it would be excruciatingly obvious that we want 2 mugs of hot water and, at least, 1 spoon. But no, every morning we'd sit on our porch and either make the request to a passing worker (which they may or may not remember in the time it takes to walk 10 yards to the bar) or walk to the bar to make the request. Never, not once in 2 weeks, did one of the workers see us and acknowledge, before being asked, that we wanted 2 mugs of water and simply get the damn water!!!  Not once.  It became a joke, because even the other guests would pass and ask if we wanted them to remind the workers that we were still waiting for our water. Several days we'd get the water in a timely manner, sans spoon. One morning we waited patiently for 45 minutes.

P- This is so screwed up!  I've never known people to have less common sense.

G- I really hate to make sweeping generalizations, but we've been saying all across Asia that common sense seems to be lacking.

P- I know.  I can't understand it.  They can figure out how to move a sofa on a motorcycle, but common sense for daily tasks is non-existant!

G- Like sharing food.  We order one dish, they ask if we're going to share, we say yes, then they bring only 1 fork or 1 pair of chop sticks.

P- It's so frustrating!!!

G- Yes it is, but we're in paradise!

P- Yes we are.

We were usually on our beach chairs by 10:00 am. The days passed with amazing speed considering all we did was sit, read, write, swim, drink, eat, and visit with the beach hawkers.  Every night we would enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Be Careful What You Wish For..............



Our beach hut is the building on the right of the photo

 Around 6:30 am we were awakened by the usual noises: roosters crowing, Cambodians talking loudly, and horns honking. At 7:00 am we heard what at first sounded like a morning call to prayer, but it droned on for too long and we came to think it was something related to the Tet holiday. By 7:30 am music was blaring from the same speaker and someone started firing off fire crackers.

G- These people are going to be the death of me. Who lights fire crackers at 7:30 in the damn morning?!?

P- Cambodians.

G- If the NFL played an exhibition game in Cambodia, I think the game would start at 7:00 am.

P- Why not?  Everyone has been awake since 5:00 am. Ugh!!!!

G- Asia is not the place for a night person like me.  Whah!!

P- No whining!  We're about to find the beach we've been looking for.

By 7:50 am we were in the lobby drinking coffee and awaiting our tuk-tuk driver. At 8:15, he still hadn't arrived.  15 minutes turned into 30, then 45, then 1 hour.

P- I can't believe that guy didn't show up.

G- There must  be an explanation.  He knew we were a sure bet for payment to drive us back to Mien Mien.

P- He said he'd be here at 8:00 am.

G- I don't know what happened, but I'm sure it's something.

 At 9:00 am we hired a new tuk-tuk and instructed him to take us to Mien Mien. We left our stuff at Sunday Hotel and told the clerk that we'd be back before noon (check out time is noon at all Asian hotels) to collect our stuff or let him know that we'd be staying another night.

The rock road seemed even more unpleasant at 9:00 am, but it was totally worth the trip when we arrived at Mien Mien and were told that one of the beach huts was now available. Yay!! We did a little happy jig and got back into the tuk-tuk for the ride back to Sunday Hotel to pay, and collect our stuff.

G- (to the manager) The tuk-tuk driver who brought us here yesterday was supposed to come get us when you called, but he never showed up.

Manager - I not call him.

G- Well that explains it.  (to Phyllis) She didn't call the tuk-tuk driver.  That's why he didn't come get us.

P- Well you'd think he'd come tell us that she hadn't called him.

We  held onto our bags as we bounced back to the beach, thrilled that this would be the last time we'd drive on rock road until we left the beach.  It was only 10:30 when we arrived back at Mien Mien, so we sat under one of palm thatched 'cabanas', and ate breakfast, while the current occupant of our room readied himself to leave. At exactly 12:00 his time was up and 2 girls “helped” him carry his bags to another palm thatched 'cabana'.  Basically, they threw him out of the room because his bags were clearly not packed.


We entered our room expectantly, only to learn just how primitive our new beach hut, that we were so thankful to have, really was. The floor was concrete and something less than a half assed job of cleaning had been performed. The hut contained 2 queen size beds, each with a mosquito net that looked like it had not been cleaned since it had been hung, over a decade ago.  Sunlight streamed in through the holes and the worn areas of thatching in the walls. It did have electricity and a fan  The bathroom resembled something one would find in a train station, but there was indoor plumbing and a western toilet. The shower drain was a hole cut into the wall, at floor level, next to the toilet. The mirror above the sink had long since fallen off, and the walls were lined with a thick plastic. I immediately named it the botulism bathroom because of the diseases that no doubt lurked in every corner.  The bathroom was revolting!!

G- This place is incredibly disgusting! I can't believe we're paying more for this place ($17.00/night) , than any nice place we've stayed  since Bangkok.

P- Yes it is, but look at that view and listen to the waves crashing onto the beach.

G- Exactly right! Let's put on our suits and hit the beach!!!

We told the Mien Mien manager that we were going to stay for 3 days.

2 Tickets to Paradise

We had purchased our bus tickets to Sihanoukville from our guesthouse, but were advised that due to the Tet holiday, we would not enjoy the customarily included ride to the bus station. We paid our bill and negotiated a ride with a tuk-tuk driver outside the hotel. At the bus station we stood in the parking lot and chatted with a Dutch couple. We complained about the extra bag we were carrying because the charge was $200.00 USD to mail it home. They proudly told us they were traveling with only large day packs (maybe 50 liters), but we learned that they were only traveling for a month. Pi-sha! We're traveling for a year with only 1 large backpack & a day pack each. We explained that we put our backpacks into larger, zippered bags so that we can lock them and because they protect our backpacks clasps and straps when in transit.

The bus ride was about 4 hours and uneventful. We did stop once for food and a toilet break. We purchased fried rice, placed in a styrofoam go container and beef & green beans sauteed in garlic, placed in a clear plastic bag. As is often the case, the food was room temperature; Phyl was not happy, and we again played the “pretend your food is hot” game. We saw many more children naked from the waist down and an elderly lady washing on the side of the road, in a plastic tub. She stood on the side of the tub, bent in half, her boobs hanging down into the water. I'm not sure why, but these sights continue to amaze us.

P- Do we know where we're going? What's the name of our hotel?

G- Hmmmm. I don't remember.

P- Did we write it down?

G- I am afraid that we didn't. I planned to do that this morning, but I forgot.

P- I guess that's what we get for booking a hotel when we're a little drunk.

G- Hahahah! I guess so.

P- How in the hell are we going to tell the tuk-tuk driver where to take us?

G- Chill! We'll tell him to take us to an internet cafe and we'll check our emails. I know I received a confirmation email.

P- How did we forget to write it down?

G- It's called beer, Gladys. We drank a lot of it. No big deal. I cannot even come close to remembering the name, but I remember what the outside looks like so maybe I'll recognize it.

As luck would have it, we were dropped off right next to an internet cafe. I paid for 15 minutes, checked our emails and wrote down the name and address of the hotel. While I was doing this, Phyl was negotiating with a tuk-tuk- driver and talking to that same Dutch lady we had spoken to in Phnom Penh.

P- Ok, the tuk-tuk drive is going to bring us to the hotel, wait while we check in and put our stuff in the room, then take us to Otres Beach to see if we can find a place on the beach.

G- What's Otres Beach?

P- The Dutch lady was telling me it is considered the quiet beach. I know we don't want to be on the party beaches, Liberty, Serendipity or Ochheuteal.

G- No, we definitely want the quiet beach, and we need to book a place today because it's Thursday and people are going to start pouring into this area because of the Tet holiday.

We left the Sunday Hotel, rounded a traffic circle containing 2 very large, gold painted, lions, and turned down a narrow, 2 lane, road. Corrugated metal shacks lined the road, and just to their right, several men were showering at a communal “bath house” that consisted of 4 PVC pipes, affixed to a fence. Two women bathed small children in plastic washtubs. Cambodia may be hot and dusty, but Cambodian people are clean. They may live in a shack, not use soap or shampoo, but sometimes I think Phyl & I smell worse than them.

After about a mile, we turned left and ran into a heard of gray, horned cattle walking down the road toward us. The tuk-tuk driver slowed and moved to the left, the owner of the cattle drove them to the right side of the road and we passed within inches of these big, brown eyed, beasts of burden. Not long after we passed the cattle, we turned again and began driving down a dirt road, covered in medium sized to large rocks. The tuk-tuk bounced along, the driver moving from side to side avoiding the holes and larger rocks. We bounced around, often flying off our seats.

G- Baby, you better hold those boobs down or you're gonna knock yourself unconscious!!! I'm not kidding.

P- Oh, I didn't think you were joking, but I can't hold my boobs and hold onto the handle.

G- This road is almost as bad as the road we drove up into the rain forest in Belize. The one that gave us shaken adult syndrome.

P- That road was way worse, but this one is killing me.

Our tuk-tuk driver first stopped at a place called Mien Mien, but they were unsure if they would have a room available the next day and they were currently full. We stopped at every place along the beach but no one had a room available. The total number of options was only about 10 places with some having as few as 3 rooms to rent and several with only communal sleeping quarters above the bar/restaurant. We were disheartened when we returned to the first place, Mien Mien, to sit in their restaurant, drink a beer and watch the sunset. The woman running the place said that she thought she might have a room opening up and she'd call our tuk-tuk driver in the morning and let him know. This gave us a little glimmer of hope!

P- Whah! I want to stay here, in that shack on the beach.

G- I know. This is exactly what we were looking for.

P- What are we going to do if we can't get a room here? I don't want to stay at Sunday Hotel and pay double what we're paying for tonight. Damn Tet holiday!!

G- I have the feeling that everything is going to work out. Tomorrow someone will leave and we'll be able to stay here.

P- I hope so.

Pursuant to our request, our tuk-tuk driver to brought us to a restaurant, grilling fresh seafood on a large, roadside grill, along Serendipity Beach. Of course it was open air, but there was a slight breeze so it wasn't too hot. Phyl enjoyed grilled shrimp with roasted potatoes and a sort of cole slaw salad. I had grilled tuna, roasted potatoes and cole slaw salad. We each had a beer. The meal was delicious and cost us about $7.00.

Our tuk-tuk driver had taken another fare, but was back and waiting for us when we left the restaurant. Back at Sunday Hotel we confirmed and reconfirmed that he would come to the hotel at 8:00 am tomorrow morning and tell us if Mien Mien had a room.

Scenes Around Phnom Penh



Very nice riverfront




              We thought that this was funny and that it made sense for both to be handled by one Minsitry.

I'm just going to nap in my hammock until someone comes to buy my fruit.

                         The end of the day, and classes, at the Buddhist Monk's University.

Meat market

This is the comedic tuk-tuk driver who almost got his ass kicked when he joked that Phyl is fat.

                                      Happy Chinese New Year to us!  Bring us a bucket of Kingdoms.

This city block was lined with barber chairs and people where getting haircuts.  We have no idea how the chairs are brought there each day, but we suspect it's on the back of a motorcycle.

Gotta pee while your driving? No problem, just pull to the side of the road.  This was on a 6 lane road.

We were never sure what these things are.  Presumably they are food, but if you shake them, they make good maracas.

How  many revolting flavors of potato chips can there be?

Food to go.  The whole restaurant goes.

Why would our Greek salad come with French dressing?

                                                           The produce department.

Another chicken takes a ride. Do you think they enjoy the wind in their faces like dogs do?

Come pick me up.  Yes we'll fit.  I only have 3 small bags.

This is a typical intersection.  No stop signs or lights; if they do exist, they are ignored. Everyone just goes very slowly and wiggles around each other. There is no horn blowing.

Adorable baby at Karma Cafe.

Views of rice fields on the road to Killing Fields.

Mekong River with vegetable garden growing along the bank.

Sidewalk department store.



Killing Fields

We returned to our tuk-tuk and tried to scrape the sorrow from our souls as we rode to the Killing Fields.

G- I simply cannot get over the way the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty. It is so in your face. The number of Lexus and Land Cruisers astounds me and the number of motorcycles carrying chickens, ducks, bananas, and every other commodity sharing the street with them is almost comical.

P- I hate the way that LEXUS and LAND CRUISER is written in big letters on the side of the cars. Is that really necessary.

G- It's just so gauche!

P- What the hell does that mean?

G- It's so Al Copeland. New money, lacking in class. It screams, I am wealthy, look at me.

P- How is that different from anyone driving around in vehicles that cost more than the average person earns in a year?

G- It's just worse when the name of the luxury sedan/SUV is printed on the side of the car.

P- Look! There goes another bike with chickens hanging off it!

G- Damn! I can't seem to get a good picture. Do you think they're dead or alive?

P – They must be dead!

G- Not necessarily. I think they're alive. Look at the woman on the back of that bike holding that rooster by the legs. He's alive.

P- How do you know?

G- He flapped his wings.

P- You sure that wasn't the wind from the moving bike?


G- No, it was when they stopped because that cart came out in front of them.

P- I wouldn't want to be an animal in this country.

G- They may fare better than our chickens. At least their whole lives are not spent in tiny cages.

P- True.

G- This dust is killing me! I'm getting the blue cloth to hold it over my face.

P- Let me use it too.




The dust was terrible, but we did enjoy the breeze and the sights. Cambodia simply takes the cake for shocking things we saw on a motorcycles. It's just over the top! We enjoyed passing the “shops” and seeing what and HOW things are displayed and sold. We passed several places that had wall to wall chairs (like lawn furniture chairs) facing a TV in the back. I guess people without TVs go there to watch important shows or soccer.

We arrived at the Killing Fields after about 30-45 minutes. By 1977 the S-21 prison and a nearby cemetery were filling up with the dead so the Khmer Rouge seized a Chinese cemetery, about 15 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, near the town of Choeung Ek. At the time this was a substantial enough distance that the area was far into the country. The site was equipped with electric power to facilitate night executions and to help guards complete paperwork of execution lists. Nearly all executions occurred at night, to hide the activities at the site, and just next to holes in the earth so that the bodies would drop directly into the shallow pits. Prisoners were executed immediately after arrival, making holding cells unnecessary. I am unsure why the prisoners were not executed at the prison and carried, dead, to Choeung Ek, except that it took less manpower to have the prisoners get into and out of the trucks of their own accord.

In 1980 the site was discovered and excavated. Pits of mass graves were found including one of over 100 headless bodies and one filled with only naked women and children. The tree next to this particular grave, still covered with bone and brain matter, was red with the blood of babies that had been held by their feet, their heads battered against the tree. Babies and children were killed so that there would be no one to grow up and avenge the deaths of their parents. Most were killed by blows to the head with very primitive implements such as hoes, ox cart axles, metal bars, and wooden clubs.

Many fell into the pits still alive and died from suffocation or were poisoned by the powders sprinkled on them to prevent the smell of decay. Approximately 9,000 bodies have been exhumed, but only about 1/3 of the graves have been unearthed. 17,000 people were killed there.

We walked around the fields viewing the various shallow graves. The dirt path through the holes in the earth still contain clothing, bones and teeth all of which rise to the surface during heavy rains. We walked carefully as we could see clothes, bones, and teeth just under or escaping from the dirt under our feet.

P- Be very careful where you walk. Look! There is a tooth.

G- This big white section here is a bone.

P- And there are so many pieces of clothing still coming out of the ground.

G- This is horrific, but somehow it is not as difficult to bear as the prison itself.

P- I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it's a sunny day and we're outside or because this setting is pretty.

G- I think it's because there are no photographs of the victims here. Looking into the eyes of those poor people haunted me. Seeing their bones is horrible, but doesn't quite penetrate my soul the way looking into their eyes did.

P- Yes, I think that's it.

Today Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by an 11 level Buddhist stupa filled the with skulls and bones of the approximately 9,000 victims who were exhumed.



We left the Killing Fields in a somber mood and rode quietly back to Phnom Penh. We had our tuk-tuk driver drop us off at Karma Cafe where we had several beers and ultimately ate dinner. During the evening we met Allison & Brian, Americans who recently graduated from college and are now living and teaching English in China. They were on holiday for Tet Celebration (the Chinese New Year). We sat and spoke to them for several hours, got a little buzz on, and made plans to visit them when we were in China. We then went to the Lazy Gecko for chocolate cake and ice cream, a rare treat in Asia!!

We returned to our room, booked a hotel for the next night, and fell asleep.