I walk the streets of this town, one of my favorite towns in my travels so far. A man pulls himself along on the ground with his arms. He has no legs. A boy sits with a basket in front of him, in between where his legs should be. But, he cannot pick the money up that is placed in his basket. He has no hands or arms either. Just a head and body, but he smiles and laughs.

I left Indonesia and the island of Flores and the small town of Labaunbajo by plane, with a transfer in Malaysia . Labuanbajo was the closest thing to a town I found in Flores. Even at that, it was a small, kind of dinky place. But, the people were friendly and it was a good place to base myself for other adventures.

My next destination was Cambodia, a country I have visited several times already. I spent some time in Siem Reap, Cambodia, perhaps my favorite city in Cambodia. Some time was also spent visiting with my friends that live in Battambang.

THE FUNERAL
 From my hotel room in Battambang, I could see a Cambodian funeral taking place. The funerals are 3 day affairs. There is lots of music and food for the three days, and every morning around 5 a.m., the monk gets on a loud speaker and starts reciting prayers, or something. It can be heard all over this area of town, and is very loud in my hotel just across the street.

I could see large photos of the person that had died. It was a man and he was dressed in what looked like maybe a military uniform . But, it may have been a police uniform. On the last day I got some photos and videos from across the street, so I wouldn't be noticed. The 3 day ceremonies were over and now the coffin was being loaded on to a wagon and, I guess, taken for burial. A walking group of mourners followed as the wagon with the body left the area.

I attended a Cambodian wedding the first time I was in Battambang, over a year ago, and have seen funerals from a distance, but have never been this close to a Cambodian funeral. The funerals are somewhat of a festive event from what I can tell. There is lots of food and drinks over the 3 day period. The Buddhist believe in reincarnation and want the deceased to have a good next life.

THE BEACHES OF CAMBODIA
 I have visited most of the places in Cambodia that I am interested in at least once. But, about 230km (150 miles or so) southwest of the capitol of Phnom Pehn there is a small peninsula with untouched beaches and tropical islands that I have not been to before .

The name of the town is Sihanoukville, located on the coast of Cambodia, about halfway between Thailand and Vietnam, on the Bay of Thailand. The peninsula is separated from the central plains of Cambodia by a mountain range.

There are a number of beaches in Sihanoukville and over a dozen islands that you can get a water taxi to for diving, snorkeling or game fishing.

Villa and Samnang, my Cambodian friends in Battambang, decide to make the trip with me. They have never visited the area or seen the ocean.

We boarded an overnight bus around 10 at night and arrived in Sihanoukville around 4 P.M. the next day.

We found a one day tour to 3 of the islands. One was mostly for viewing and had some nice scenery. At the 2nd one, we spend a few hours on shore. I got a few of the people into a volleyball game and then spent time in the water, but it turned out not to be a good spot for snorkeling, mostly swimming .

On the way to the 3rd island the boat got caught on some rocks and it took a good while to free it. By the time it was freed, either too much time of the day had passed or the boat pilot was just too stressed to try to make it the rest of the way to the island. Either way, we headed back to the main shore after a really good day on the beaches and in the water of the Bay of Thailand.

A VISIT TO THE ONLY WAR MUSEUM IN CAMBODIA
In my opening paragraph I started with the sad, but common sights in parts of Cambodia that I have seen. Also, I have seen many amputees in other parts of SE Asia also, as a result of land mines left from the wars here.

In the touristy town section of Siem Reap, there is usually a band playing on the street at night. They sit on the pavement. They have no legs. They are victims of land-mine accidents and play for donations and also sell a CD of their music. I often drop something in their basket as I walk by .

One thing I have not seen on my other visits to Siem Reap is the Landmine Museum. As I walk along the streets the tuk tuk drivers call out to me, wanting me to go somewhere today. I do not want to go today, but I do want to go to the landmine museum before I leave, so I stop to ask one of them about the trip.

His rig is named Spiderman. That is what caught my eye and caused me to stop to talk with him. He speaks good English and I tell him what I want to see and ask the price to go there. He tells me he can take me for $10 and bring me back. 

But, he advises me instead to go to the War Museum. He says it is more informative and a better experience. I suspect it will cost more to go there and maybe he is trying to make a little more money off of me. But, he says it is closer to town and he can take me there for $5 round-trip. We talk a little about the differences in the Landmind Museum and the War Museum . I decide to take his advice and go to the War Museum, but not today. I set up a time for him to pick me up the next day.

I'm not sure what date these figures are from, but I read the population of Cambodia is 14.9 million. The life expectancy is 63 years. The Gross National Income per person in Cambodia is $880 per year. A large percentage of the population live below the world's poverty line.

Cambodia has a major problem with landmines. The country has been through 30 years of war, ending in 1999. The Khmer Rouge Regime and a couple others placed the landmines all over the country during the Civil War in Cambodia from the 1970's to 1999.

It is dangerous to walk though the open fields or get off the beaten path in Cambodia because of the landmines still not found. The Unexploded Ordinance Victim System reported at least 64,017 landmine casualties from 1979 to the end of 2011. Out of this number, 19,619 died and 44,398 were injured . Cambodia has over 40,000 amputees, one of the highest rates in the world. 

There is estimated to be as many as 4-6 million unexploded mines in Cambodia, still. This affects the develop of the country and hinders the use of the land for crops and housing and even limits access to water sources.
 
The landmines in Cambodia were placed by different factions (the Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes) that clashed during the Civil War in Cambodia in the 1970s. They were placed in the whole territory of the country. A common problem that Cambodian faced with the anti-personnel mines is that in many cases even the people who placed the mines do not remember them a couple of years later.  

My guide at the War Museum is a war victim. All the volunteer guides here are either war veterans or landmine victims. They are amputees missing either an arm or leg. They not only can tell you about all of the war machines on display, but also give horrible personal details of their own war experiences in their country in the last 3 decades of the 20th century .

Here you can see war machines like the tank T-54, the jet fighter aircraft MIG-19, helicopters and field artillery guns. You can hold rocket launchers, the M16 or AK-47s. Many of these weapons were used in WWII before being used in the Cambodian wars.

Many photos on the walls show young boys, some barely teenagers, with weapons. The brutal Khmer Rouge recruited these young people for their military by promising them plenty of rice to eat in the starving country.
 
I slipped a nice tip into my guides hand as Spiderman and I left the museum. I hope everyone that visits does the same.

The next night I got Spiderman to take me to the boxing arena in Cambodia. I have seen the boxkicking fights her before, but tonight the boxers are not boxing. They are demonstrating the moves they learn during training!

NEXT: THE EMPTY STREETS OF THAILAND