Trip Snapshots 4
June, 2003
 Most of Cambodia is flat as a pancake except in the area of the hill tribes along the Laotian border. In the rest of the country there is not much geographic diversity, just open vistas of rice paddies stretching to the horizon with trees on the embankments holding the paddy waters. |
 UXO is the military designation for UneXploded Ordnance--bombs, mortars, and artillery shells that were fired in war but didn't explode and still litter the countryside. Cambodia has a lot of UXO in addition to about a million landmines still in the fields. This 12-inch artillery shell was on the ground beside us as we ate lunch at a little house on the outskirts of Svay Rieng. |
 Most of Cambodia doesn't have electricity. But almost all of Cambodia has television! How do they do it? With car batteries to power the TVs. I don't know how many nights a family can watch Thai soap operas on one battery charge, but when it's gone, this man comes around with his hand cart, picks them up, and takes them to his home/shop where he hooks them to a huge generator (inside next to his bed) and charges them again and returns them to the villagers. |
  We stayed in a guesthouse in Svay Rieng for $5 a night for a room with a bath, fan, TV, and large spider. I knew it wasn't a tarantula, and beyond that was just hoping it was friendly. |