On the last day of the trip we stopped by another few Khmer Rouge points of interest before riding back from Anlong Veng to Siem Reap. Aside from one fun section of singletrack through the jungle it was a pretty boring ride so I took a few pictures to liven things up.
Last night’s rain made for some muddy riding today — fortunately, just enough to make it fun, not enough to make it tedious or difficult. After breakfast in Thailand we made our way to Anlong Veng, the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge who controlled the area until they were overthrown in April 1998.
The second day we rode to Prasat Preah Vihear, a temple-mountain on the Cambodia/Thai border. Obstacles encountered today include a suicidal cow and a notoriously steep and sketchy path up the mountain to the temple.
The first day of my 4-day dirtbiking trip we rode about 160 km, from Siem Reap to Koh Ker, stopping at a bunch of great deserted temples. A few times today we did some stretches of really fun singletrack that I loved, and no big wipeouts!
I have been taking up tons of new sports lately; one that I had never tried before is dirtbiking, so I figured what better place to learn than a country covered in land mines, with no decent hospitals! I’ll just be extra motivated to stay on the bike. And so began my 5 day adventure, dirtbiking around rural Cambodia.
After getting over my illness I spent a few days exploring Phnom Penh, including the Royal Palace, Russian Market, Tuol Sleng torture museum and the Killing Fields. Aside from those last couple gruesome and depressing places it’s a really nice city.
When I arrived in Phnom Penh I was all fired up and ready to explore Cambodia and Laos, but shortly after arriving I caught some kind of bug that sapped all my energy and took away my momentum. But I’m over it now.
I spent a week scuba diving at Mabul, Sipadan, and other islands nearby, some of the best sites in Malaysia. Sipadan is frequently rated one of the top three dive sites in the world, and I can’t disagree with that. Mabul was really cool too.
(pictures are from Sibuan Island, where I went diving yesterday)
I came to Semporna expecting to dive a few days at Sipadan then continue on to Indonesia or somewhere, but it has turned out to be a great place to work, so I worked most of the week and will spend the next 4 days diving at Sipadan and nearby.
A couple days ago I went to the annual Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves, just outside Kuala Lumpur. Hindu devotees pierce their tongues, faces and bodies with metal skewers and hooks, and carry milk pots, coconuts, fruit and portable altars called kavadi along a 10 km route from the city and finally up 272 steps to the temple inside the cave complex.
(warning: some of these pictures are not for the squeamish)