Blog : Siem Reap

Annoyingly we had to catch a bus from Koh Kong, back past Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh (again!) before changing buses and travelling to Siem Reap as there are only a few main roads in Cambodia and the west coast is not accessibly linked between north and south. It was a long trip, setting off from Koh Kong at 1pm after our jungle trek antics and not arriving to Phnom Penh until about six hours later and then we had a two hour wait, which we decided would be a good time to grab dinner. We hopped in a tuktuk from the bus station and headed over to Samakys, our fave restaurant underneath the top banana restaurant. A bloke from the bus asked of he could come with us as well so off we all pootled together in two tuktuks. I had a nice fish dinner but was careful not to drink too many liquids as I wasn't banking on the next bus having a toilet! I was right, it was a pretty horrific sleeper bus, which had double chairs so you and your neighbour were virtually siting on top of each other and I was unlucky enough to get the fifth seat with a stranger... I don't know what I must have said or done but after only a few minutes he disappeared and I had the whole double seat to myself. I didn't like the sleeper bus though as I was on the bottom bunk which had no windows, was pretty dark and dank and they played the most horrific and loud music all the way through the night as we were trying to sleep. I'll never understand why they do that, but its been common across the whole of south east Asia! People over here obviously don't value their sleep as much as I do!

The second bus between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap was six or so hours long and we arrived to a s***ty run down looking bus station at about 6am. We got a tuktuk to our hostel and all had to get back into bed for a few hours as noone had really gotten a very good nights sleep...

Once we had re-risen and showered we headed out of the hostel which was although basic, run by the most lovely family and away from the noise of the Main Street and not heaving with Australian 18 year olds as I had expected from what people had told us along our travels! We went for brunch at a recommended eco vegetarian restaurant called Peace cafe, which sold health shakes, coffee and soy milk(!) homemade cookies and a delish looking food menu. The girls were all a little disappointed with their choices, going for paninis or salads but I went for veggie sushi with wasabi and soy sauce which was so yummy! The rice was even brown rice - my fave :) From peace cafe we walked down the riverside to the centre of town - which was not as built up and smart looking as Phnom Penh, which I found bizarre as I'd have thought the Angkor Wat temples brought in a lot of tourism money or farang dollar as its called here. We nipped into a couple of your agencies to try and book up a trip to the temples and the Floating villages of Tonle Sap lake for our next couple of days... After getting a few quotes we booked with Mr T's agency who guaranteed to give us a "handsome tour guide with good English skills" which was thought was to funny to pass up on! We booked a sunrise tour and a sunset tour of the Floating villages for the day later.

After we'd done our little jobs we wandered around the central market in the mid afternoon heat which everyone enjoyed, looking at all the nick nacks and bargaining over a few dollars for scarves and bracelets and trying on different print Buddha pants with elephants or temples on them! I managed to pick up my little Cambodian flag to sew into my backpack and I wanted another pair of trousers for India but I had no luck. We carried on wandering and fancied heading into the night market next but it was only just being opened and lots of the stalls were still only just setting up all their goods. So we headed back to the main road which had lots of restaurant and shops etc on it and spotted a street massage parlour - for one dollar we all got an amazing foot massage whilst sat on a comfy sofa seat on the pavement and watching the world go by AND a head massage (heaven!) AND a back neck and shoulder massage. We must have been in the chairs for at least 20 minutes! Bonus! A well spent dollar we all agreed!

We then all decided to go to a little place in the middle of the night market which had a cocktail happy hour so we headed to Island bar and I had myself a nice tasting Cosmopolitan. And a whole box of tissues to mop all the sweat pouring off my face and the river between my boobs. It was so hot and anywhere that was sheltered from the almost non existent breeze was so still and humid it was impossible not too...! It's quite embarrassing and gross being so sweaty, as I always have damp tissues falling out of my pockets and its not exactly a lady like look to be mopping my brow and wiping my whole face down every few minutes! Gross! We sat and played cards in the bar which was fun and Kate and Alice taught us a new game which was a bit like Wist, called No Hearts, I really enjoyed it and will be teaching it at home with nan and granddad!

Lora really wanted to go and see an Aspara show - traditional Khmer dancing and costumes and we found a place on "Pub street" where if you had dinner you could watch the show for free, so we settled down and ordered Amok curries - best with fish and egg and not spicy at all. And watched the show. It was funny to begin with as all the costumes were crazy colours, with huge headdresses and all of the girl performing in complete symmetry hopping around the stage and then we got into the music a bit, clapping along with everyone else and there was a good atmosphere! I had the big SLR camera with me so I even managed to get a few good shots of the show.

As we were being collected the following morning at 5am for our sunrise Angkor Wat tour we said we'd only go for a few quite drinks as we'd have to be getting up at 4:40am odd! Al headed home as she didn't fancy a drink and we walked up Pub Street (exactly what it says in the tin - a street of bars and restaurants with people and loud music spilling out) which is pedestrianised after dark. The Angkor What? bar was the busiest and loudest and so we nipped in and ordered a cocktail. We squeezed onto the end of a table with some English boys who were all absolutely smashed by about 10pm it must have been... I think Lora and Alice enjoyed talking to them but I got wedged right on the end next to an absolute arse who had as much conversation as a brick wall and could only insult things... Angkor What? bar had graffiti all over the walls, tables and benches and pens everywhere, so after a couple of naughts and crosses games we played hangman on the table top. He was really pissing me off at that moment, being really boring and up him self so I decided to use a word - chunder - that basically means you make me sick and by the time he had finally worked it out I'd drawn a big arrow facing him at the table and everyone was laughing at him! Served him right for sitting with his back to me, making no effort and very wet conversation! Hahaha. We ended up staying at the bar until quite late, I'd managed to get through almost a whole 2l bottle of water (pouring it I to my empty G and T glass obviously) in the time and the girls were all pissed enough for a good biggie in the dance floor, so 1am a decision was made to head back to the hostel to drop our day backpacks off and jump back in the tuktuk back to the bar fit dancing. We'd come up with the theory that is we were getting up at 4am anyway for our sunset tour, the difference between essentially two hours sleep versus now ours sleep was minuscule and all agreed that of course yes it was a sensible option! When we got back to the hostel bless her, al was fully settled in bed an really didn't facing coming back out with us. At 3:30am that evening when the lights came on, on the dance floor we decided to call it quits head home. We all fell asleep pretty much instantly and I think i was the only who set an alarm so in the morning I had a pretty touch job of waking everyone and facing all the
morning grumps and hangovers! Kate was the worst, she was really snappy and yelling at everyone and threw a fussy feet when we shouldn't find her shoes!!

We were picked up from the hostel at 5am by Mr Pom, our tour guide for the day, and he was brilliant. He spoke good English, grasped our sarcasm, jokes and was really sweet and used all of our first names that he'd remembered there and then. We went to the famous spot to watch the sunrise in front of the actual Angkor Wat temple, which was a pretty spectacular sight to behold! It was absolutely heaving with tourists as some looked like they must have arrived at 4am or so to nab the best positions and set up their tripod and equipment and everything. The actual sunrise was a little bit of an anticlimax as the sky was full of those misty clouds but it did still go a beautiful pinky colour... I got some good pictures of it though and the surrounding grounds. Oh and a couple of both Alice and Lora lying on the scrub land and dusty ground fast asleep through the whole thing!! Our guide Mr Pom took us around the temple and explained to us how it had been built, how it reflected the various different religions of this around us.... It had been originally build as a Hindi place of worship and then was moved to be of Buddhist orientation and then many of the Buddha statues or heads were removed during another king's reign and in other temples muslims from Vietnam took refuge in a temple... Mr Pom was really knowledgable and patient with us girls and we loved him! At lunch time as we were flagging slowly after walking around many of the big and famous temples, some of which were really full of tourists and others empty or derelict. We saw the iconic trees and stunt locations from Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider film and all had our pick taken in action poses. Mr Pom was in his element when we asked him to take a picture, partially when he got to handle my SLR camera. He got all vogue on us, taking pics at obscure angles and directing us on how to stand! It was really interesting to learn about the temples and all of the markings and engravings on the walls which we'd probably have just walked straight past otherwise. I would have been happier however if we'd walked straight past the gino spider the pointed out in The Angkor Wat temple, which we'd all been obliviously standing near...the girls said it was f***ing huge and I had caught a glimpse of it before realising what it was and looking
away. It ha quite a crowd taking pictures on it and I really had to focus on my breathing so not to have a complete melt down in the middle of such a holy and religious and spiritual place!!

We had planned to watch both sunrise and sunset but by 11am it already felt like 3pm on our body clocks after lack of sleep and so once we'd seen all of the recommended temples by LP we called it a day and headed back to the hostel where we had no choice but to have a nap as there was a Siem Reap wide power cut! We got ready and went for an early dinner at a Mexican place once all the girls had awoke. I didn't sleep because I knew it would make me more grumpy so just stocked up on diet coke and prepared for a long night of being out! The Mexican was alright but quite expensive, I had vegetarian bean enchiladas - I can't wait to have spicy turkey fajitas when I get home, it made me think of when we used to have Mexican food and nachos whenever my pop was away as he didn't really like it... Nom nom nom! And then we headed to Angkor Waht? bar again for drinks... We all had a fun boogie and watched street games like a tug of war and group skipping with a big rope, to mark the start of the Khmer new year celebrations. It was quite a late night again by the time we got home and so we all enjoyed a bit of a lie in the following morning.

We went for brunch again in an American style cafe and I was starving so had a whole fruit salad as well as spinach and mozzarella ravioli. It was pretty yummy but probably a bit of a weird choice for breakfast! We headed back to the hostel after food and Lora and Alice sat by the pool at the boutique-y hotel next door whilst us three sat down and really started to get our heads around India and our plans, route, travel, everything. I think we all felt quite a lot better after visualising all of the days we have on a calendar and accurately building in all the travel time we'd need between places. At 3pm we were picked up and taken by tuktuk half an hour of so out of Siem Reap to the Tonle Sap floating villages which were an incredible sight to see (minus the millions of tourists and "crocodile farm" which was pretty s*** and just a money maker for the people) We were told that over 3 million people lived on the lake - 1/5 of the Cambodian population - which seriously looked like a sea, you couldn't see the banks at all. All of the little shanty town style corrugated tin roofed houses we built on platforms of gas canisters and barrels to keep them afloat and during the dry season (now) all o the houses are anchored in the middle of the lake but during the wet season when the lake rises up to 10m more, the people tow their houses to be close to the shore as the lake has large waves which could tip over an unstable house. We saw other types of houses which were so cleverly built around four trees and fastened in each corner so that when the water beneath the house rose, the house would rise up the tree like pillars, floating without being dragged away.

Back at the hostel and we went for our last dinner all together before Lora, Alice, Kate and I caught the night bus back to Phnom Penh and Al caught hers to Laos. We went for a cute looking traditional Khmer restaurant where I had chillied tofu in lemongrass which was tasty but the huge chewy chunks of the lemongrass weren't really my fave to eat. Towards the end of the meal there was another power cut, which plunged the whole street into complete darkness and we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces which was a bit unnerving and we all reached for our bags quite quickly. The restaurant staff brought out candles and we could finish our dinner by candle light but the lack of fans, heat of the flame and eating a hot dinner made me pour with so much sweat it was actually uncomfortable! I must have gotten through ten glasses of ice, just crunching away to cool myself down. It took a while for the power to come back, it flicked on and of once which made the whole street sigh and we must have been say waiting for at least 45 minutes... I was just thinking I couldn't imagine having such regular city wide power cuts back home - people wouldn't cope! Whereas here noone was fazed and even the getting candles to the table thing wasnt rushed! It did feel a bit rushed once the power came back though, we dashed next door for a quick cocktail to say goodbye to Al, Kate and I would be catching her up but we wanted to take the girls back to the airport and have another two days in Phnom Penh and she was meeting one of her girlfriends from home up in the north of Laos. And then we dashed back to the hostel, threw all my stuff into my backpack, had a wet wipe shower and a quick chat with B to let him know I was alive(!) before being harassed by a far to overly friendly and slightly aggressive tuktuk driver... He was early to collect us and take us to the bus and we weren't quite ready but he grabbed my arm and shook it telling me to hurry up and almost shouting to get in. Lora said he had poked her in the stomach and Alice that he had hurried her along, so a bit weird but we got the bus station in no time, about 30 minutes early and the bus was equally late so it was a bit annoying to know we'd rushed so much :/ but oh well, night bus on sitting up chairs to Phnom Penh here we come!