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Wednesday 5th July Aaargh another early morning. Poor us. Indeed we were up bright and early at 6am to catch our 'Angkor Express' boat to Siem Reap. The reception staff in the hotel phoned us twice to ask where we were because we were not waiting in the lobby 5 minutes before the given time. It reminded us of our parents...
Anyway we got a minibus to the docks where our bags were thrown onto a pick up truck.
"Er excuse mister pickup truck driver, where are you taking our bags?"
"You can't get boat here. Take pick up truck for 20 minutes down river"
"Okay, so why has the minibus brought us here? Nevermind..."
So following our bags we hopped into the back of the truck, as did 20 other people. Apparently the mini bus was not the wiser option here. It's a fun ride down those bumpy roads when you're standing in the back of a pickup truck clinging on for dear life. No, really it is!
So we finally caught up with our boat and soon noticed that it was full of people, bags, planks of wood, baskets of food, parcels etc etc.
Funnily enough it didn't look like the 'Angkor Express' boat in the leaflet either. Our bags were thrown on top of the boat and we piled in. It was a bit of a squeeze, to say the least. I turned to Paul and asked him "Remind me again please why we're paying 15 dollars to do this when the bus costs 3?". I never did get an answer on that one...
The first three hours of the journey were not much fun given the cramped conditions. Plus for some unknown reason the boat smelled of rotten fruit. We docked at a floating village for lunch and instead of getting back in the boat me, Paul and a few wise others climbed onto the roof of the boat. Five minutes later the following conversation took place with the boat conductor:
"You. No" (man points downwards)
"Sorry?"
(man points downwards more enthusiastically and looks desperate)
"We have to go inside?"
(man nods head and makes swaying movement with his hand)
"Oh, we have to go inside because it's making the boat rock?... Is that possible Paul with all those people inside?"
(Paul makes some comment about the centre of gravity
being higher and I pretend to understand)
"No, it's too small inside. There's too many people on the boat. We have no room to sit. Can't we stay out here?" (I smile my best smile and bat my eyelids a little.)
"Okay. But..." (man makes motion to lie down)
So we spent the best part of the next 4 hours lying down but it was a much better journey than the first half. We actually got to see the amazing scenery, which reminded me of the Mekong Delta. And it was a lot cooler, and we had much more space. After a while the conductor guy even decided we were allowed to sit up. Yay! Journeying on the top of a speed boat is actually pretty good fun.
Paul got chatting to a pair of Cambodian teenagers (who had got on halfway through the journey along with many others even though the boat was already jam packed). They were highly amused by the phrases section of the guidebook and sat giggling at "I have diarrhoea" and "Help me I have been mugged". Bless.
We sailed past a few more floating villages, where Paul's new friends got off
and invited us to stay, and went through a huge lake. Eventually we arrived in Siem Reap (3 hours later than expected) and were met by a guy holding a sign saying "Welcome Laura and Paul". Excellent, I love it when that happens!
We were a bit confused by this tuktuk driver because he told us at first that the ride was free, then informed us it was only free if we paid upfront for him to take us around the temples tomorrow. Even though we don't really want a tuktuk tomorrow. After some haggling we agreed we'd just pay 3 dollars for the journey into town, and off we went down a very bumpy dirt track.
We walked around for ages looking for a bargain hotel room and eventually found one in a place called "River Star", by far the cleanest place we saw. We were walking straight past it because it looked too pricey for us but the manager ran outside and told us he had a 'special price' for us. He wasn't actually lying, and we eventually persuaded him to give us the room for half price. It pleased us immensly when we found out
that an American tour group is paying 7 dollars more than us. The manager must save his 'special prices' for dirty, sweaty backpackers that he sees walking past, rather than those that arrive in air conditioned taxis with their Louis Vuitton luggage...
After a much needed shower (yay this hotel even has hot water!) we walked around town and had some food. I lost count of the amount of moto and tuktuk drivers that shouted "Lady you want moto/tuktuk?", or my favorite, keeping it short and sweet, "Lady!! Tuktuk?!". There are also so many children begging here and one even slapped me on the arm before shouting "2 dollars!" at me. No chance mister!
Driving into Siem Reap was nice and there were lots of pretty little villages of wooden houses on stilts next to the river. The centre itself is very touristy, and I can imagine it is just getting worse and worse for this. Apparently there was only one hotel here in the year 2000, but now there are hundreds of hotels, bars and restaurants. Obviously tourism is bringing much needed money into the country but there are so many poor people here aswell that you
can really see the contrast.
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Catherine
non-member comment
Houses on stilts - no jumping about too much!
Haven't been able to access your blog for a few days so just catching up. Thought I was in bother as IT forbid me to open your website. Big brother is watching me, better do some work! By the time you get back Chris will be a fully trained PC, he starts his training in August in Lincoln. Can't believe the very dodgy transport you've been using, loved the bamboo train. Take care