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Tags: Amazing-Race-15 / Chasing Racers / Amazing Race / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

Sean Penn Cambodia Here We Come

Click Here for Amazing Race 15 Map

Chasing Racers is back, with a brand-new Amazing Race 15 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors; become a member and comment on the stories below and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray.

Remember to zoom in, out and around on the map—with so much happening in each episode, it's easy to miss a map point.

In the last episode of The Amazing Race, it was all about fathers, as senior Marcy got emotional being in Ho Chi Minh City, where her Air Force general dad was shot, and Globetrotter Big Easy revealed that his pops died two days before the race. He made good progress on his promise to win it all for his dad by coming in first that leg. The victory brought the towering buddies so close, Flight Time says, that he launders Big Easy's socks and undies—that's either really sweet or utterly gross. But we had to say farewell to the seniors. Nine teams remain. Will the poker pals get out of their slump? Will Lance make good on his threat to wrestle Phil at the pit stop?

Find out after the jump.

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Tags: Crime / Sex Travel / Travel News / Cambodia Travel / Travel Crime / → All Tags

New Crackdown On Sex Tourism Targets Criminals In The Air

Sex offenders beware: You can run, but you can't hide. A new international crackdown is zeroing in on American "sex tourists" who could find law enforcement picking them up from the airport when they get home.

Operation "Twisted Traveler" was set up under the PROTECT Act of 2003, strengthening penalties for child-related crimes such as abduction and producing pornography. The act establishes an international age of consent at 16 as well as making it a crime to pay someone under 18 for sex; Americans who break the law can be tried and convicted back at home.

The first three suspects arrested under the international provision of the law were nabbed in Cambodia in February. All had served time for sex-related offenses in the U.S. before. The men have been charged with various crimes from enticing young boys with money and candy to visiting one of Phnom Penh's child brothels.

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Tags: History Travel / Pol Pot / Wars / Dangerous Travel / Khmer Rouge / → All Tags

Holiday In Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Historical Sites to Be Developed for Tourism

The era of Pol's Pot's Khmer Rouge is among the most brutal and horrific of any in history, resulting in the death of about a quarter of the Cambodian population. This grisly fact is reason enough for the government of present-day Cambodia to implement a $1 million plan to develop 15 Khmer Rouge sites for tourism - including Pol Pot's cremation site (pictured) - and charge tourists admission to see for themselves where the bad stuff went down. As the AP points out, the landmarks in Anlong Veng include Khmer Rouge hideouts, execution sites, and battlefields, all serene reminders of the atrocities that took place from 1975 to 1979.

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Tags: The Jauntys / 2008 Travel Awards / Embedded Travel Guides / Travel News / → All Tags

2008's Best Jaunted Embed Is...

Travel embeds are Jaunted's superheroes: Boldly going where no tour bus has gone before, they come back with unforgettable stories of the adventures you can have by setting down the guidebook and picking up your pack. We salute all our embeds, but particularly Tim Patterson, whose series on his trip to Cambodia was an invaluable addition to our pages in '08.

Patterson's series, as outlined in his first post, was not only about getting off the beaten path but about seeing Cambodia uncoupled from its history and measuring it on its own merits, from local transit to tourist traps.

From describing the seaside town of Kep as "a steamy bath of crab meat and rose petals" to tantalizing us with the offer of orangutan boxing in Koh Kong, his eye for detail made us feel like we were really there. In 2009, maybe we will be!

Related Stories:
· Embedded Travel Guide Cambodia: Angkor What? [Jaunted]
· Embedded Travel Guide Cambodia: Kep Is For Romance [Jaunted]
· Embedded Travel Guide Cambodia: How to Travel Like a Local [Jaunted]

[Photo from Patterson's report on the Phnom Tamao Zoo]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / Siem Reap Airways / Airline Hell / → All Tags

EU Blacklists Siem Reap Airways And Others

Siem Reap Airways is the division of Bangkok Airways used exclusively to carrier tourists to and from Angkor Wat, the famed religious complex we helped you navigate recently. The busy airline is now suffering some seriously bad publicity after the European Commission banned the airline from using EU airports. The reason? Inadequate compliance with international aviation safety standards. Yikes.

Since the airline only flies between Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap, the town adjacent to the Angkor ruins, it seems like the ban prohibiting the carrier from flying inside the EU is purely symbolic. But it also serves as a warning to travelers that the planes are considered sub-par. The commission also extended bans on Angolan carriers and two carriers from the Ukraine. All the more reason why land travel becomes more appealing with each passing economically-depressed day.

Related Stories:
· EU bans Siem Reap Airways [Reuters]
· Wats Up: Intro to Angkor [Jaunted]

[Photo: Taekwonweirdo]

Tags: Religious Travel / → All Tags

Buddha-Loving Termites Cause Impromptu Pilgrimage

We've told you before about some pretty strange religious pilgrimages. Most of the quests involve hordes of Catholics rushing to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary on grilled cheese sandwiches or garage doors. Now it looks like the spontaneous holy tourist attractions have crossed over to a new religion: Buddhism.

Beginning about a month ago in Cambodia, hundreds of religious citizens (which means pretty much everyone in the country) have flocked to a collection of five unusually shaped termite nests that resemble seated figures of Buddha. The mounds, discovered just outside Phnom Penh, appeared on the cement floor of the home of a woman who was about to host a death festival to honor her late husband.

Now, as long as she doesn't try to sell these peculiar piles of dirt on eBay, we'll know for sure that the people of Southeast Asia have matched their Western counterparts in kitsch but not greed.

Related Stories:
· Buddha Shaped Termite Nests in Cambodia [Inquirer.net]
· Embedded Travel Guide: Cambodia [Jaunted]

[Photo: velo steve]

Tags: Fall Festivals / Festivals / Boats / → All Tags

Cambodians Love Their Festivals, Especially This One

Yesterday, Cambodians rushed to the country’s capital, Phnom Penh, for the annual Water and Moon Festival, which starts today and lasts all week. Officials estimate that about four million Cambodians attend the event each year--in a country with a total population of about 14 million. That'd be like 100 million Americans showing up to watch the ball drop in Times Square next month.

The event isn’t a big deal, it is the deal, an annual Olympics of sorts where family members and neighbors compete in crew-style rowing competitions along the city’s Tonle Sap river.

In addition to the races, the festival features Cambodian carnival food: Replace candy apples with fried bananas and corn dogs with dried fish patties. It also offers spins on a Ferris wheel that rivals any rickety, life-threatening rides found in the county fairs of rural United States.

To escape the battle for chair space along the boardwalk, nightly fireworks are visible from the expat-stuffed Foreign Correspondents' Club. The traffic, the crowds, the sometimes-capsizing boats and the infectious good cheer among the Cambodian people make this one of the most overwhelming and stunning cultural experiences in Southeast Asia. We'll see you there.

Related Stories:
· Biggest Water Festival To Date Expected This Week [Phnom Penh Post]
· Embedded Travel Guide: Cambodia [Jaunted]

[Photo: calcpimp]

Tags: Live Music / Rock Concerts / Angkor Wat / The Click Five / → All Tags

MTV, New England Rockers And Angkor Wat Unite

What do a hipster band from Boston and ancient temple ruins have in common? Apparently, something. On December 7, MTV will host a rock concert featuring the pop phenom The Click Five in front of the world’s largest religious monument, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat.

Organizers picked the band because they’re touring the region and have a particularly avid fan base in Southeast Asia. The concert will attempt to draw attention to the country’s human trafficking problem.

Whether you consider it sacrilege or humanitarianism, at least MTV is doing something other than creating faux-reality TV shows for once. Not that we don’t enjoy those--it’s just good to change things up from the evil wrought by Spencer Pratt to look at some of the real ills plaguing the world. If we can’t have music videos and Loveline back, at least we can watch a band of attractive, floppy-haired musicians churn out some catchy tunes in front of a kick-ass backdrop.

Related Stories:
· US Rockers to Play Cambodia’s Angkor Wat [AFP, via Google]
· Jaunted's Guide to Angkor Wat [Jaunted]
· Live Music coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: ilovekyle_click5]

Tags: Train Travel / Trains / Southeast Asia Travel / → All Tags

Aussies Overhauling Cambodia's Railroad

War-torn, poor and corrupt Cambodia is sometimes thought of as the missing link in rapidly developing Southeast Asia. But at least when it comes to train travel, the designation might soon end.

Currently, the national railroad’s cars chug along rickety rails at a sluggish 18 miles per hour. And riding the train carries about the same risk of death as hopping the NYC subway in the 1980s. Now, an Australian rail company is planning to purchase and overhaul the system, renovating the cars and adding new lines. Right now, long stretches of missing track prohibit train travel throughout the country except for trips between Battambang and Phnom Penh, and even then, the lumbering, open cars are subject to robberies.

The 30-year contract will split profits between the Aussie firm and Cambodia’s government, and the upgrades should be complete within three years. Seems like an optimistic time line for a country still fumbling around with its attempts try Khmer Rouge cadres for crimes they committed in the 1970s, but if the project works, maybe by 2050 Cambodia will have its own Danube Express.

Related Stories:
· Ailing Railway Set for Upgrade [Phnom Penh Post]

[Photo: mattames]

Tags: Amazing Race 13 / Amazing-Race-13 / Chasing Racers / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

Amazing Race 13: Do It Like a Madman

Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 13 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray.

Remember to zoom in, out and around on the map--with so much happening in each episode, it's easy to miss a map point.

Hey race fans, Amazing Race 13 is in high gear, with teams making their way from Bolivia to New Zealand--where even Phil's dad made a cameo appearance on the mat. Kelly and Christy made some major gains and landed in the top three--ahead of archenemies Nick and Starr.

Will Ken and Tina keep up their winning strategy? Will Andrew and Dan get their act together enough to pull ahead? Will Dallas have an opportunity to take off his shirt and flex for the camera? Seven teams remain. Who will be eliminated next?

LET'S FIND OUT

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Tags: Temples / Angkor Wat Travel Guide / Public Transportation / → All Tags

Wats Up: There and Away

This week, we're all about Angkor.

There are plenty of options for traveling to and from Siem Reap. Most visitors arrive from either Bangkok or Phnom Penh. Each city provides hourly buses, daily boats and endless share taxis. Several airlines fly into Angkor's entry point daily, too. But every mode of transportation has its pros and cons.

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Tags: Temples / Angkor Wat Travel Guide / → All Tags

Wats Up: Facing the Poor

This week, we're all about Angkor.

Be prepared. Visitors to Angkor are confronted with great beauty and terrible ugliness. Indifference toward poverty occurs everywhere, but the contrast is even more stark in a city surrounded by a great world wonder and filled with foreign-owned, five-star resorts.

The ultimate irony of Angkor is that a thousand years ago, poor Khmers built the great temples they were never allowed to enter, and today they are essentially left out of Angkor's lucrative tourism industry.

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