TRAVELMAN in CAMBODIA: A Bike Ride, Siam Reap at Night, and The Difference Between a Bull and an Ox.

“A tourist sees what they came to see, a travelers goes to a place and sees what he sees.”
-Printed on the wall behind the check in desk at Onederz hostel

I rented a mountain bike and took an afternoon bike ride while in Siam Reap. Originally I had planned to visit Angkor Wat that morning but the weather forecast predicted clouds, so I postponed the trip until the next day.

I found the bike rental place by googling “bicycle rental Siam Reap.” ...So there you go, that’s your how to guide on renting a bicycle in Siam Reap.

The harder part was finding the place after I left my internet connection (my phone with the MapsMe app was out of battery power). Not every intersection in Siam Reap has a street sign. In fact, most of them don’t, and even less are printed in English characters.

It turned out the rental place was at the end of the street my hostel was on. ...So there’s the sequel to my soon to be famous How to Rent a Bicycle When Visiting Siam Reap guide- Stay at the Onederz hostel, exit the hostel, turn left, walk to end of street, look left, see bike, rent bike.

—Lotus flower and a cow—

In writing this post, I became curious about Cambodian cows and what to call them. First, I learned that an Ox is a castrated male cow. They are castrated to make them easier to control. They are trained to follow commands in order to pull wagons and farm equipment.

Next, I learned that the skinny white cows with the droopy ears and fatty hump on their shoulders that you can see all over Cambodia are called Zebu or Brahmin. There are more than 70 breeds. You can check out this website where I learned this if you want to know more...
http://www.terrafirmatourist.com/cows-skinny-white-cows-or-oxen-livestock-cambodia/

—-same same but different——

Then, I learned that one of these cows costs about $700 dollars. Doesn’t sound like that much, right? Well, consider that many family’s houses in rural Cambodia cost $200. Owning one cow can improve their lives drastically. It can provide them food, income, and be used as cowpower (I think I will start using this “cowpower” word I just invented rather than horsepower. As in, “Nice sports car. How many cowpower is that engine?”)

I learned the last tidbit from this site about a guy that started a farm where he gets the cows pregnant then lends the pregnant cow to a cow-less family. They keep it until the baby cow is born, keep the baby cow, then give back the adult cow. Go here, if you’d like to learn more... http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2015-03-13/cows-for-cambodia-charity-poverty/6314030

—-This guy needs more cowpower—

The bike was a cheap model of a Giant mountain bike, it was five dollars, I had to return it by eight PM the same day, and it served me well.

Two days previous, I’d arrived from Phnom Penh by boat and took a tuk tuk into Siam Reap from the docks near the floating village. I’d remembered it as a scenic 13 km ride and wanted to do it at my own pace on a bicycle.

I rode south (I think it was south), and enjoyed the feeling of being on a decent bicycle again. Like every other day I’d spent in Cambodia, it was hot and dusty.

I decided not to stop to take pictures until I turned around to come back. The way out was a photo scouting mission and a way to more fully enjoy the ride, experiencing rather than recording the moments.

—-This is the outskirts of the floating village. It’s across from the building that sells boat tours through the village. Over twenty percent of Cambodians live in poverty. A large percentage of the poor live in rural areas.—-

—-An elementary (primary) school built on the water—-

—-A hospital next to the school, also on the water.—-

—-Close up of the sign on the front of hospital. So yeah, maybe we blanketed their countryside with more bombs than were dropped in all of WWII, but look! We built them this little hospital. I’d call it even.—-

—-A side street cutting through a very poor area built on the shallow waters of the flood plain. Garbage collects in nooks of wild growth on the edge of the neighborhoods and around the pillars of the raised structures. I do not miss the smell of rotting fish and glops of trash collected in stagnant waters.

—I’ve talked to people who look at the lives of the people in S.E. Asia through the lens of a Westerner craving the simple life. They visit S.E. Asia and think it makes them more enlightened than those back home who are merely aware that there are seriously poor people here.

These people bug the shit out of me. They talk of how the people have nothing, but they are rich in life, in spirit, and family, they’re wise in their poverty. True, Westerner’s may have a thing or two to learn about being content with less material possessions and about how to be kind like a Cambodian, but I defy you to show me a person who prefers to live with their entire family in a one room structure above stagnant, decaying, fish and trash filled waters, wishing they could afford a fucking cow. ....Bugs the shit out of me!

Take your elephant pants, prayer bracelets, and symbol tattoos, and live with no cowpower and no dental care for the rest of your life. ...Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.—-

—-I assume there was a temple at the top of those steps. I was too lazy to walk up and see for myself. Who knows, coulda’ been an In and Out Burger at the top of the steps.—-

—-If you zoom in real tight on this pic, you may be able to see a woman in the house weaving a basket from some of these reeds.—-

—-Just so you know, I didn’t saturate the color with Apple photo editing at all on this photo. It was really that vibrant green.—-

—-I like this pic—-

—-I couldn’t get closer to the Lotus flowers because they grow in the marsh. The pictures suck because my iPad camera can’t handle the truth of their beauty. Every part of the Lotus flower can be eaten (googled it)—-

—-Roadside barbershop—-

And now some pics of Siam Reap at night...

And here’s a measure of what a big tourist town Siam Reap is...

—Hard Rock Cafe—-

!steemitworldmap 13.3582 lat 103.8530 long A bike ride and Siam Reap at night, Cambodia, d3scr