Rainy Day in Siem Reap - Chillaxing

I am 4 days behind in my blog so will make this quick.

Last day in Siem Reap and it was raining so lucky we did all our temple stuff the 2 days before. We had a look at the markets where I managed to spend about $70 on a dress, a couple of tops, some cambodian pants which rock and god knows what else.

We ended up getting a massage for $7 each which was abit freaky at the start. They took us up to this room with four beds and told us to get undressed, then left. We were lying there wondering whether we were going to be forced in to having group sex (Damian's fantasy) but it all turned out well at the end. I was in pain for some of it as they like to crack your toes and fingers by pulling on each of them, and if there is one thing I hate, it's knuckle cracking.

We had met these two Cambodian boys about 10 outside the spa while we were waiting and somehow said that we would buy them something to eat after we finished. Of course, an hour later they were waiting so they took me to a local street shop and I gave the lady $4 to plate up some food for them.

The constant sellers and beggers started to give us the shits and we didn't end up finding out the Khmer phrase for 'piss off'. It is sad, but you can't help everyone. At the end of the day, I think I gave about $70 from the kindness of my heart.

During our stay in Siem Reap, we met some cool Brits and Aussies who we caught up with a few times for 50c beers and $1 cocktails.

The freakiest thing was on our last night we went to our fave bar and I met up with Tezza who I met through my mate Shane. His girl Cathy, is Tezza's best friend. .

Bit of background on Cambodian wages... Det, the bar tender said that he earns $80 a month and the waiters earn about $50. His rent is $50 a months so must share with 2 others and also pay to go to English school. The cambodian people are very poor, but they are always smiling.

He said that if a Khmer woman drank or smoked, she is a nasty girl... meanwhile, here I am drunk, smoking and swearing like a truckie.

The hotel we stayed in I would definitely recommend. The Mandalay Inn staff are fantastic, always smiling, happy to help and fixed the hot water in our room that wasn't working. I refused to have a shower, so was on the balcony smoking with the shits..ha. We had dinner at their restaurant which I dont' think many people do but the food was unreal. It was only a 5 minute walk to the centre of town and very safe, although the street was dark so we always had a torch for our drunken walk back to the hotel. We organised a bus from our hotel to go to Phnom Penh with the company Paramount. It was $7 an took 6 hours. The seats are stiff and small but it was clean.

At the end of the day, I recommend a visit to Siem Reap, it's one of my fave places so far.

Here are some random pics...

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