Chanra's Bicycle Racing Team

Our friend Chanra in Siem Reap, Cambodia, participated in a mountain biking race this past weekend. He finished 16 out of 150 riders. Chanra is the one in the orange jersey holding up the bicycle. That's his wife in some of the photos.

Our friends John and Pauline recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. They met Chanra when they arrived in Siem Reap. Coincidentally, their tour guide rented bicycles for them from Chanra. Little did they know that they helped Chanra (and me) make some money.

Chanra's Invention

I got a phone call from our friend Chanra in Cambodia. He told me that he built a bathroom for his truck. I couldn't understand what he meant, so I assumed something got lost in the translation. I asked him to email me some pictures.

Sure enough. He built a bathroom for one of his trucks. This invention is for use by tourists that he takes on mountain bike trips throughout Cambodia.

What an ingenious device! After a muddy day of mountain biking, shower yourself off before heading for a beer or two.

Chanra's ingenuity amazes me.

Photo Album from Chanra's Wedding in Cambodia

Our friend Chanra in Cambodia got married on April 20 and 21. The first wedding was in Phnom Penh where his wife's family lives. The second wedding was in Siem Reap the next day.

Here are several photos he sent to me from the wedding.



If you want to see the pictures in a larger size, just click on a picture and it will link you to the Picasa Web Album.

We were invited to the wedding, but it didn't make sense to take such a long trip and we had another commitment that weekend.

The groom pays for the wedding in Cambodia, so this affair set Chanra back a lot of money. Most of the gifts they receive are money - usually enough to pay back the cost of the wedding and give the couple some money to start their lives together.

Our Final Dinner in Siem Reap

Who would have imagined that our friend Chanra wanted to go out for Japanese food. But that's exactly what he craved. He and his family had never eaten Japanese food.

At 7PM he showed up at our hotel on a motorbike with his father on the back (holding his crutches up in the air). On an accompanying tuk-tuk was his mother, younger sister, and an older sister with her four year old son. Caren and I jumped into another tuk-tuk and off we went.
So....here is an unusual sight. A party of eight walking into a Japanese restaurant in downtown Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the two Americans ordering Japanese food for the Cambodians. The only other people eating in the restaurant were Japanese.

We ordered a huge plate of sashimi, miso soup, edamame, three different plates of sushi rolls, a couple of plates of tempura, tokatsu (pork cutlets), rice, and several plates of yakitori. And of course, Asahi beer. Everyone loved it. Chanra's father really liked the wasabi mixed in his soy sauce.

I thought he'd burn the roof of his mouth, but he just lapped it up.

After the Japanese food, we headed for an ice cream shop a few miles away (motorbike and two tuk-tuks in caravan). Everyone had ice cream for dessert. I think Chanra's family felt it was a real treat and they had a great time.


You never know if you'll see someone again. We'll miss Chanra, but I think he is a real entrepreneur and will do well. His dream is to come to the U.S. for 5 years and then return to Cambodia. We tried to explain to him how difficult and expensive it is to live in the U.S., but it is good that he has a dream.

His company is doing well. He has formed a partnership with four other guys, but he specializes in the bicycle tours. The company is Green Elephant Travel.

He has a large group of Swiss tourists coming in on Friday for 10 days of bicycling around Cambodia. He has several more good bookings for December.

If you know anyone who wants to visit Cambodia, cycling or not, they should contact Chanra.

Temple Ruins, Weddings, and Rain

Today, we visited a couple of very ancient Khmer empire temples that for two reasons few tourists go to. Reason #1 - they are far from town and most tours only spend 1-2 days in Siem Reap and don't have the time to travel there. Reason #2 - they are still in an area being cleared of land mines by multi-national teams. Don't worry, the fields cleared of land mines are clearly marked, and so are those areas you should stay out of.

First, we traveled to Koh Ker - a collection of many temples that served as capital of the Khmer empire in the 10th century. Many of the temples are still in their original, unrestored state. Chanra and I climbed to the top of the tallest temple.

From the top, you can see the Thai and Laotian border. The Khmer knew where to build - it is a beautiful site with distant views. How they got the stones to this site to build the temples is still a partial mystery. Some stones were cut from the nearby river beds, but many came from the mountains miles away.

Probably a combination of slave labor and elephants did the work. Even so, they were great architects and construction engineers for their time.



Then we went to Beng Mealea, a complex of 11th century temples still partially overgrown by the jungle. Many Khmer historians believe this complex was a model for building the more famous Angkor Wat. The design is very similar.
Unfortunately, many of these remote temples have been victims of looting. In Bangkok, we visited many shops that were selling huge objects of sandstone that were obviously pilfered from the temples in Cambodia and Burma.


This is supposedly the dry season and cool time of year in Cambodia. You'd never know. It is hot and humid - definitely a three shower a day city. Today, it rained as we headed back to town. The rain actually cools things off for a few minutes.

This time of year, a lot of Cambodians schedule their weddings. It's treated like June in the U.S.. Our friend Chanra is attending a friend's wedding tomorrow (and Wednesday). Weddings here last for more than one day and typically are attended by 500-2,000 people, depending on the size of the village and family.

We were going to go back to Angkor Wat today and meet with an archeologist for a private tour, but we cancelled due to the rain. The upper levels of Angkor Wat have been closed to tourists since our trip last year because it was deemed to be too dangerous and it was damaging the temple. Look back at our blog from March 2006 and see how steep the steps are at Angkor Wat.

Tonight, we are taking Chanra's family to dinner at the restaurant of their choice. We'll let you know where they chose.

A Very Special Meal

This morning, our friend Chanra picked us up at 10AM and took us to visit his parents. It was a very special meeting. I'm sure that very few American tourists are invited for lunch at the home of a Cambodian family. Now we have done it twice in two days.

The Sim family lives about 1 km off a main road in a house sitting on a 5 meter by 30 meter plot of land that they own. Chanra's father was injured in a bicycle accident in Phnom Penh about 3 months ago. He has a rod and several screws inserted in his thigh, so he is still on crutches.

We had our hotel prepare a big fruit and sweets basket that we brought them as a gift.

Chanra looks like his father. We also met his younger sister (he has two older sisters) who looks like his mother.

We had a very good meeting exchanging stories about life in our respective countries. They asked a lot of questions about life in the U.S. They see programs on television, meet people from the U.S., and have some acquaintances that have moved to the U.S., so it is of great interest to them to learn about our country. In a similar vein, we asked a lot of questions about their background and how they live. Caren and I kept thinking how our friend Ed M. would have enjoyed this meeting - he asks a lot of questions to people he meets.

Chanra's mother cooked a very delicious meal. They grilled two catfish on a charcoal grill - one fish we ate with rice and a spicy mango salad, and the other they cut up and put into a soup. The sour soup was very similar to a Thai soup we've eaten in the U.S.. They also prepared a plate of unbelievably tasty sauteed vegetables. And sliced pineapple for dessert.

After the meal, we sat around and enjoyed sitting outside and talking.

Then Chanra took us in a tuk-tuk to Tonle Sap - The Great Lake. This time of year, the volume of water in the Mekong River makes it "back up" into Cambodia and fill the lake to 3-4 times its size in the dry season.

Hundreds of people live in houses that they move with the receding of the shoreline over the months. You don't like your house location, wait a few weeks and tow it to another place. We saw schools, churches, and government buildings being towed. The people make a living fishing the huge variety and quantity of fish in the lake.

This was the first day we really encountered a lot of rain. It poured on our way to the lake, most of the time we took a boat trip on the lake, and on our way back to town. Not bad for a 2+ week trip. The B&R bicycle trip in Vietnam at the same time we were in Thailand, encountered a typhoon hitting the coast, their hotel flooded in another city, and a third city they couldn't reach at all. I think we were very fortunate with the weather on this trip.

Tomorrow, Chanra is taking us to a set of Khmer empire temples we have not visited before - they are located about 80 miles away and very few tourists go there. But they are in their original state and supposedly more beautiful than many temples in the busy Angkor Thom area (where Angkor Wat it located). After our trip in the countryside, we have a very special meeting arranged. More about it tomorrow.

Visiting our Friends in Cambodia

We have arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. Meeting us at the airport was our friend, Chanra. He looks great.

We toured around Phnom Penh with him today, visiting the Royal Palace (of the deposed monarchy), National Museum (history from era B.C., to Khmer empire days, to colonial days), and Genocide Museum (from Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s).

We stopped in for lunch at his brother Maliden's place. Same brother who stayed with us in September when he was in U.S.. Maliden and his wife fixed us an amazing meal. Fresh prawn soup, curried crab, squid salad with mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and Budweiser beer. Several other couples stopped by as well.

We brought presents for Maliden's two young girls - note cards with photos we took in Africa of various animals. The girls know no English, but they were entranced by the pictures.

Maliden and his wife have a very nice townhome in Phnom Penh and he has a successful travel company.

Chanra escorted us back to Siem Reap and we are going to meet his parents tomorrow AM. Not sure what to bring as a gift when visiting someone's house in Cambodia. We asked hotel concierge and she is putting together a fruit/food basket.

In Siem Reap, we are staying at Hotel de la Paix. Very hip, very modern. This hotel rivals anything in style in Manhattan or LA. All is well, having a great time. Bicycle trip in Thailand and Laos was fantastic. Will be home on Tuesday night..

The End of Tourist Season in Cambodia

I heard from my friend Chanra in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The tourist season has come to an end. The weather is too hot, too humid, and too rainy for many tourists to visit until October.

It was a successful season from a business perspective for Chanra. He made money renting his bicycles to B&R and other tour companies. He also was hired as a guide by several other bicycle tours.

He just led a group of Swiss tourists for 10 days throughout Cambodia. I told him that the Swiss do not tip very well. He called me to say that I was correct. For 10 days, the entire group only gave him US$20.

He should have enough money to last until next tourist season, but he is looking for work to make more money and to avoid being bored. If anyone knows of a job opening in Cambodia for a hard-working, English-speaking (somewhat), smart young man, let me know and I'll pass it on to Chanra.

We have signed up for another B&R bicycle tour - this time to Northern Thailand and Laos. We plan on going in November and stopping for a few days in Cambodia to visit Chanra. Meanwhile we need to get ready for our upcoming trip next week to Morocco.

A Holiday Gift from Chanra

Chanra is a friend of ours who lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We met him during our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam in March 2006 when he was one of the local guides on our bicycle tour and a real help when Caren had her Vietnam visa problems.

We've stayed in touch by email, SMS, and internet phone calls (the wonders of modern technology bringing the world closer together).

We helped him out with financing his fleet of bicycles and support vehicles. He now has a thriving business renting the bicycles and support services to various tour companies (including Butterfield & Robinson). Another micro-lending success story.

The other day we received a great gift from Chanra - photos of the bicycles, truck, and Chanra himself. Check them out. Chanra's the fellow in the middle of the first picture and leading the pack of cyclists in the last picture.

We hope to visit him again in late 2007.