Man, thinking of catchy blog post titles is really hard. I'm on the road again, now heading south towards Cambodia's relatively miniscule little strip of coastline, and then west and into Thailand. For the most part, it's pretty easy going, and even though most roads are more dirt than pavement, I've almost always been doing more than 100km (60 miles) / day. It's been so hot that I don't really eat much during the day, instead preferring to get small calorie boosts here and there from the kind ladies selling freshly squeezed sugarcane juice on the side of the road.
It's dry season here, and hasn't rained yet. The soil is all a pale red color, and the arid heat makes Cambodia seem like a semi-desert land where not much grows. I'm told that while Thailand can afford to irrigate its farmland during the dry season and grow a prodigious amount of rice and whatnot, Cambodians rely completely on the rains, and so in the dry season most agricultural activity just stops.
That is, except for our bovine friends, who continue to graze placidly on the fallow fields. Oddly enough, everywhere else in SE Asia seems to have only the type of cow that we're familiar with in the west (I just tried to become a cattle expert on wikipedia, but it appears there are hundreds of types of cows, so I may be speaking completely from ignorance here), you know, some shade and combination of brown and white, with big eyes and long eyelashes, taught skin and a stocky appearance. In Cambodia, conversely, there only seem to be Brahman cows like the ones that are so hallowed in India. Loose, baggy skin, lanky appearance, big hump on their back. I know that Cambodia has received probably the heaviest Indian influence over the centuries, and maybe one result of that is cows!
Once I was slowed down by an elephant meandering down the highway!
My buddy Akoo taking me to his farm in the middle of nowhere.
I made several stops in small villages such as this; they all seem to be more market than town. No I didn't make it to the Smart Mega Concert.
The last several hundred kilometers, through the Cardamom Mtns and along the coast, were probably the most beautiful parts of Cambodia. Basically untouched jungle broken up by tiny riverside fishing hamlets every 40km or so. Perfect places for watching the sunset or camping on the banks.
Above and below: Fishermen at work, fishin' and repairing their boats.
And of course there were the ubiquitous curious children, ready to pose for a photo.
Goodbye Cambodia, here I come, Thailand!
It's dry season here, and hasn't rained yet. The soil is all a pale red color, and the arid heat makes Cambodia seem like a semi-desert land where not much grows. I'm told that while Thailand can afford to irrigate its farmland during the dry season and grow a prodigious amount of rice and whatnot, Cambodians rely completely on the rains, and so in the dry season most agricultural activity just stops.
That is, except for our bovine friends, who continue to graze placidly on the fallow fields. Oddly enough, everywhere else in SE Asia seems to have only the type of cow that we're familiar with in the west (I just tried to become a cattle expert on wikipedia, but it appears there are hundreds of types of cows, so I may be speaking completely from ignorance here), you know, some shade and combination of brown and white, with big eyes and long eyelashes, taught skin and a stocky appearance. In Cambodia, conversely, there only seem to be Brahman cows like the ones that are so hallowed in India. Loose, baggy skin, lanky appearance, big hump on their back. I know that Cambodia has received probably the heaviest Indian influence over the centuries, and maybe one result of that is cows!
Once I was slowed down by an elephant meandering down the highway!
My buddy Akoo taking me to his farm in the middle of nowhere.
I made several stops in small villages such as this; they all seem to be more market than town. No I didn't make it to the Smart Mega Concert.
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Above and below: Fishermen at work, fishin' and repairing their boats.
And of course there were the ubiquitous curious children, ready to pose for a photo.
Goodbye Cambodia, here I come, Thailand!
