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I spent 4 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of Angkor, the world’s largest and greatest collection of temples.

This video shows my first sunset at Angkor Wat. Tourists can check out the temples until the sun sets, then they have to leave. Most tourists had already left by the time I reached the far side of Angkor Wat. The guards were closing up, telling the few stragglers to start making their way out. As the last one out and a single tourist, I must have looked like an easy sell to a guard looking to supplement his income.

Angkor Wat is going through some rehabilitation on its outer upper level walls right now, so is closed off to the public. Naturally I found a way to go where others could not.

If it seems like I was rushed, it’s because I was. I sped to all sides of the upper level, trying to get some good video of the sun setting, while being mindful of the unusual circumstances. I knew I couldn’t loiter. Nobody except a guard, who you can see in the video asking me for money, was up there. The experience was incredible, yet somewhat scary in that all other tourists had left and I was going into a restricted area alone. Life is too short, and odds are I’ll never visit Cambodia again with so much more of the world to see. I had to do it.

Clint Mansell’s “Lux Aeterna” and many versions of it can be found on iTunes. If you like the song, you might try listening to some of the dozens and dozens of remixes on Youtube.

By no means am I advocating this type of speed tourism as a normal, quality way of travel. It is, however, fantastic for seeing some of the world’s wonders on a very limited timeline. No matter what, rushing around a new city is a lot more exciting than sitting in an airport surfing the web for several hours!

As a budget traveler, I look for bargains, which usually means layovers, awkward times, indirect flights, and inconvenience. The best air fare from Cambodia to the United States meant an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After that, I had to wait several hours to take an Air China flight to Beijing, before proceeding to San Francisco several hours later. This was the least expensive routing I could find, so that’s what I purchased.

How much does it cost to do high-speed layover tourism? I spent $15 each in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, with the majority of that spent on public transportation.

Here’s how things went down:

Friday morning at Angkor Wat. One of my favorite things to do is watch or take pictures of other people watching and taking pictures of something else. Confusing?

this is what everybody stands around waiting for: sunrise. I took in one Angkor sunrise and three sunsets.

On the ride to the airport Saturday morning, I try to cram some final pictures I had planned on taking...like all the unusual forms of transportation. They use these trailer beds to haul people around, too.

I have to say, this picture drives me a little crazy. In fact, I nearly wrote an entire article about it. See all the empty seats? There are MANY. I took this picture after everyone had boarded. I took my own row where I could stretch out. Now notice the girl with the hairbun thing in the window seat on the right side of the plane. She made the other two people in the row move so that she could get to her assigned seat. For some reason, all three of them sat in their assigned seats the entire flight. WHY?! I don't know why this gets me worked up, but it does!

As you can see, I take my backpack storage very seriously. It was my one and only possession for which I was responsible. In Kuala Lumpur, I stored it for the day at this airport locker area.

This bus took me from the airport to downtown KL, Malaysia. While in the airport, I took 5 minutes at the tourist desk to get a free city map. On the bus ride, I decided I had enough time to see Chinatown and the Petronas Towers.

Once in downtown, I picked up a subway ticket to make my way around. Notice my shirt. I wear it for over 48 hours. It's retired now.

Taking in Chinatown...probably not the best choice on a limited layover, especially seeing that I would be in CHINA the next morning.

Hey, I told you, one of my favorite things to photograph is other people taking photographs. I find these people more interesting subjects than the sticky rice it looks like they are capturing.

In a high-end Malaysian grocery store. I liked how the juices were so orderly as to type and size.

Standing outside the Petronas Twin Towers, this was to be the highlight of my day in Malaysia. These are the tallest twins in the world, and used to be the unqualified tallest towers until 2003.

When I went inside to get a ticket to the skybridge connecting the twin towers, they were "sold out." It turns out they usually distribute all the free tickets before noon, and I was arriving in the afternoon. Luckily for me, I understand the power of friendly persistence. While others were being turned away left and right, I managed to work my way into the lineup.

I checked out all the history while waiting for my chance to see Kuala Lumpur from the Skybridge.

This is the group I joined, an Indian family from, um, India! They were extremely happy to have me join the party, especially the guy in the bottom left.

Prior to escalating to the Skybridge, we were shown a 3-D mini movie about the towers. I tried to keep the shades, but that didn't work out.

After the towers tour, I went to a bookstore in the mall right next door to make a layover plan for Beijing. After that I took in a movie. While in line, some woman offered to give me this free ticket for a couple dollars, which was less than the regular priced tickets. I accepted. You can see the writing on my wrist. That's my reminder of the next takeoff time. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the ending of Inglorious Basterds, and had to rush out of the theater to make my flight.

While running to the subway to catch my flight, I had to take one last picture in front of the brightly lit towers. It's not my best self photo, but time was of the essence. When I returned to the airport, they told me I was at the wrong airport! It turns out there are TWO major airports in KL, and Air China used the other one. Ugh. Luckily they are 15 minutes apart, and I made the flight.

Many countries are showing graphic images of smoking hazards. We'll probably see this in the U.S. soon. Who knew smoking could mess up feet?

This little map, that I ripped from a subway magazine, became my day planner, complete with email addresses of new friends, schedules, bus routes, money spent, and journal of events. What's shown is in the early stages. I left the airport at 6:50 AM and had a 2:00 PM flight. Could I see the Great Wall in such limited time?

Tiananmen Square, my first stop. In my very short stay in china (7 hours), I was very impressed with how modernized people and infrastructure were. I was surprised to be one of the very few Western tourists. The large majority of people on the subway and at the tourist sites were Chinese. I imagine places like the Great Wall have Mecca-like status for Chinese. Take a look at the blurriness of the sky. For once I can pass blame to something other than my camera and photographic skills...that blurry sky is Beijing smog, some of the worst in the world.

Realizing I was on a super tight schedule, I didn't have time to stand in the enormous line to see Chairman Mao. You can see I had to tug around my backpack all day. I was still in the same shirt...

I made my way over to a park by the Forbidden City, where folks were doing morning Tai Chi (or some other sort of martial art/calisthenic).

Yep, bicycles are still popular in China!

In front of the Forbidden City, soldiers were marching around. I tried to take a self portrait with some of them in the background, and was surprised to see this guy eyeballing the camera. He needs to work on his military bearing!

After speeding through Tiananmen Square and seeing the front of the Forbidden city, I had to make my way to the Great Wall! I nearly took this little cab thing, but the prices were too high, so I walked it.

Just like Halong Bay in Vietnam, I found the logistical setup for moving throngs of tourists to the Great Wall absolutely machine-like. This long line moved so fast. As soon as a bus would load the seats, it left. The next bus would move forward, load every seat, and leave.

Somehow all the Chinese tourists could sleep on the hour long bus ride to the Great Wall. I was exhausted from all my sprint tourism, but managed to stay awake for this picture.

This picture was taken in Badaling, probably the most popular tourist spot for Great Wall walking. I had such limited time that I took some pictures and video, then went right back to the buses without ever actually buying the $6 ticket and standing on the Wall. You can see the Chinese pollution well in this photo.

While I literally ran back to the bus stop, backpack bouncing, to stick to my strict timeline, I stopped briefly to get these pictures of a girl imitating art for her mom.

On the subway from Beijing to the airport, I found amusement in the little information card. I really think they (governments, businesses) should email me their drafts. Before going to print, I will ensure their products are top quality. Stay tuned for a "million dollar idea" on this topic...

Before boarding, I snapped one last picture of the airport hygiene necessary for any sprint tourist! USA or bust!

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After over 20 miles of easy bicycling around Angkor, I made my way to Angkor Wat to catch another sunset on the great temple. I was interrupted by a bunch of monkeys on a stretch of road. Instead of bringing you something serious, I have this goofy video of me trying to feed some overfed, ungrateful monkeys. Note to self: if a monkey give me “crazy eyes,” back away!

Besides watching me nearly become a victim of aggravated assault, you can see a tiny glimpse of Cambodia, even if at a major tourist attraction. Check out the tuk-tuk (or remorque-moto) drivers hauling tourists down the road in mini covered trailers hitched to motorcycles. Notice the banana lady wearing the surgical mask. It seems everywhere in Asia, many people wear surgical masks. They cut down on dust, road pollution, and germs. I’m surprised this hasn’t caught on a little more in the US.

Disclaimer: I don’t condone name calling in any circumstance, even with animals. I apologize for my lack of self control with the animals in the  video, but all their monkeying around was really frustrating me. They were not harmed in the making of this video, and aggravated assault charges were not filed against the bad monkey.

This Google Earth map amended with powerpoint markings shows where the critical points on the bamboo train (norry) railway are. The black line is the actual rail line, as depicted by Google Earth. The two towns South of Battambang are the typical bamboo train route, but you can also find operators near the river. My bamboo train ride started at the river, marked with a green arrow, went to Ou Dambong, then turned around, went across the river twice to finish where I started.

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Riding Cambodias bamboo train (called norry by locals) was one of only a few specific activities I had in mind when starting my travels in June. Today I did it! I found out about these trains while researching cool things to do in Cambodia. It turns out the Lonely Planet Cambodia travel book has a small blurb of information on these trains as well. None of the information Ive found online or in the travel guides seems especially detailed. Hopefully, the Google map Ive included will help anyone else trying to find the trains for free.

Cambodia has one rail line. It is not well built, not maintained, and generally unsafe. For that reason, Cambodia no longer operates heavy trains. The people, however, have created an inexpensive and lightweight system to travel safely on the rails. These bamboo trains are pushed by small gasoline engines, and roll on two axles. They can be removed from the railroad or assembled in about a minute flat. Locals are charged about $0.25 (1,000 Riel) for a lift, but foreigners (me) get a huge markup. Despite what sounds like a $1 negotiation in the video, I ended up paying $5. That is the low end of what I was expecting to pay for a private ride. Fortunately, I got my moneys worth, learning how to operate the things. For the typical train ride from Ou Dambong to Ou Sra Lav, foreigners can expect to pay $8.

You can see in the video how the train is controlled. A foot pedal provides friction to the rollers, slowing the traincar. The stick held by the driver is pulled back to increase fan belt tension between the rear axle and engine, speeding up the traincar.

I was unsure exactly where to go or how to set up a train ride. I had no idea if the trains even existed anymore, since nearly all of the available information talks about their impending extinction. Like many of the things I’ve done while traveling, I enjoy figuring it out for myself, without the help of a tour guide, taxi driver, or anyone but “regular locals.” This keeps things more adventurous and a can be a little chaotic, in that I might not have an accurate read on a dynamic situation.

Yesterday, I went searching for the trains without a map, knowing only that I needed to follow the dirt road running along the Stung Sangker river, South of Battambang. I found the point where the railroad tracks cross the river, but no trains were there, nobody in the area spoke English, I was unsure if perhaps there were other rails, and the tracks weren’t easy to walk. I crossed the bridge on foot and then wandered back South on the tracks to see if I could find any clues. There was nothing. With the sun beating down on me, I gave up for the day, but resolved to find it the next day no matter what.

With a little more research, and the help of Google Earth, I figured out that I might need to walk the poorly maintained railroad all the way to Ou Dambong, which has a “train station” and seems to be the Northern bamboo train hub. Well today, I went back, taking the same path along the Stung Sangker to where the rails meet the river. I was all set to walk the tracks to Ou Dambang, but lo and behold, there is a bamboo train with two guys ready to work. They were at the exact spot I had visited yesterday! I guess it’s all about timing.

To make a long story short, I jumped on the train and rode to Ou Dambang, but didn’t want to pay $10 extra requested by another “railroad engineer” to reach the normal destination of Ou Sra Lav. My ride ended up being an hour long, and covered a good amount of territory, including the river crossing at the end. Best of all, I figured out how these things work, and successfully assembled, disassembled, started, and operated one. I believe this video is the most detailed of any Bamboo Train material you’ll find on the internet. Watch it and let me know what you think!

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These sugar cane drinks are delicious. They are called Nuoc Mia in Vietnam, and Am Pov (or something like that) in Cambodia. I found them all over Vietnam, and have been kicking myself in the butt for not making a video or taking pictures of the sugar cane drink production while there. Finally, two months later, I ran into a Cambodian street merchant selling them. Doing a little Google research, it looks as if Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma) are the countries that make this tasty streetside beverage. The drink is very sweet, but not as sweet as you might think, and it has a nice flavor to it. Just after I stopped my camera and continued down the street, I noticed another half dozen vendors selling sugar cane drinks…I guess we see what we want to see.