The Great Dopamine Rush of 2025

What a friggen day!, Today started early. Even for me, purposely getting up at 5am is a chore. If your dragged out of sleep for any other numerous reasons its not such a big deal, but doing it willingly. Bleggh. Anywho I quickly did my morning routine, as I was messaging my climbing guide James.

20 minutes after our arranged meeting time, James arrived with his assistant bouhd, and the other climber who joined us last minute. Her name was Mai she’s from Japan. Originally this was going to be a private guided tour, but only because no one else was with me. So having Mai join us just saved me $80 American which is great.

I hopped in James’s truck and off we sped about 1.5 hours north west of Siem Reap to a little town that I can not remember the name of. Breakfast and lunch were included in the tour which was awesome. We stopped at a locals restaurant and all us got a Cambodian staple of fried pork and rice served with clear soup and some pickled vegetables. It was delicious.

After fueling up we headed to the first crag which was up on top of one of the small Cambodian mountains (hills). It required a short hike through some nasty thorns and very slippery dry leaves. When we got there, the crag was much smaller than I expected especially after climbing in Thailand. One of the walls we climbed in Thailand had 28 routes on it, And I believe there is only 25 bolted routes in all of northern Cambodia. The limestone here is incredibly sharp and ruins your fingers, but the climbs were very unique to the area. Which is exactly what I’m looking for as I climb across Asia.

After 4 routes we headed to town for lunch. On the way to lunch James insisted on getting fresh coconuts to drink which I was all game for having not had one on this trip yet. We went back to the same restaurant as breakfast, I had Khmer fried noodles and an omelet with a grape Fanta to wash it down. It was also delicious.

After lunch we went to a crag that not even James the guide had climbed before, usually he only does half day trips to one crag. I had requested a full day as I didn’t want to drive 3 hours and climb 3 hours, to me that made no sense. This second crag was actually right in a Buddhist temple compound, and it required us to hike up through the temple grounds to a bluff that hung above the temple. It was pretty unreal. So cool thing about climbing in Cambodia, basically no one does. We were as James put it, probably the only climbers to climb this crag in the last decade.

We were joined by a rambunctious group of monkeys who desperately wanted the bushel of bananas we brought with us. Basically to me, monkeys are the raccoons of Asia. Opportunistic, smart as hell, and an absolute pest when you have their favorite food just sitting right there. To appease our friends we did give them some bananas. And it was adorable.

After a few more climbs we packed up and drove through the Cambodian countryside, to try and catch the sunset at a viewpoint that James had told me the name of but I’ve forgotten. We ran out of time to go there and as a second option we went to the Bakar reservoir, that the Angkorians built some 1000 years ago. It is truly baffling what this ancient society was able to accomplish with the technology of their time. The reservoir is absolutely massive, and its connected to Angkor Wat and all the surrounding area by an intricate web of canals. It was an awesome way to finish todays climbing tour.

James is actually a Canadian expat who’s lived in Cambodia for the past three years, so me and him talked all day long and it was nice hanging out with a fellow countryman for the day. It truly helped easy the little bit of homesick I’ve been feeling. We tried this Cambodian fried snack that came in a bag on the drive back, that looked like churros but was crunchy. That shit is dangerous, watch out. There is no nutrition labels and its a good thing, I could live on that stuff. We got these “sesame churro crunchy cheetos” I called them in a town that James calls “Chip Town”. Aptly named such as it seemed that every single stall on both sides of the road for more then a kilometer sold chips and fried snacks. Apparently its very common for artisans of a specific type to all be in one area here in Cambodia. There is also “Statue Town” which just sells statues of all shapes and sizes. Which also was over a kilometer of just statue stalls. Such a wild concept to me.

I could write a giant book about the Angkor society, and its marvels. But alas, I am tired and having even wrote about what I had for dinner yet. Like most Asian countries I’ve visited, street food is very popular here. Tonight I had fried pork on rice with an omelet and the biggest fucking coconut I’ve ever seen. This behemoth held over a liter of coconut water. and it weighed about 6lbs. For dessert I had mixed fruit, It was all scrumptious.

Tomorrow is Temple day 2 and I am armed with a bit more information than day 1. I am hoping to find some temples that have not been restored or cleared for tourists. James sent me some locations on maps so I am pumped. Till tomorrow.