Sihanoukville & Siem Reap, from beach bums to culture vultures

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After the darkness and grittiness of Phnom Penh, we were in need of some relaxation. A mere minnow in terms of beach tourism, Cambodia is nonetheless determined to hold its own with the best of them, ie Thailand and become the next big destination. However there is beach tourism and then there is dodgy tourism. Recently introduced, stringent laws in Thailand mean that it is no longer the cheap and easy choice for sex tourists so what have they done instead? Gotten the ferry over to Sihanoukville to take advantage of an even poorer and more desparate society.

Sihanoukville itself is a non descript town, and most of the hubbub centres around the Serendipity Beach area which is fast becoming the backpacker area of choice. We arrived by bus from Phnom Penh into the eager waiting hands of the moto mafia who brought us to the place that gives them the biggest kickbacks. 5$ for a little bungalow 100m from the beach is fair enough but we soon realised that the hotel tends to turn a blind eye to the more dodgy tourists. So we upped and moved next door to a much more pleasant, family run establishment. Although there certainly is an aspect of seediness to the resort, the beach was nice, the water calm (if not entirely crystal clear) and again I had myself a massage and pedicure whilst sprawled out on a sunlounger. Amoung the various beach vendors we met a delightful Ladyboy who went by the name of Fruit Salad, and true to his moniker he made us delicious fruit salads for an exorbitant price. But for sheer entertainment value he was worth it, he even knew "Pog mo Thoin".

We spent 4 days lazing around, soaking up the sun, basically living like beach bums. We knew it would be the last beach visit for a while.

Reenergised we returned to Phnom Penh to catch a connecting bus to Siem Reap. For anyone who is not familar with the area. Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor are quite simply the biggest tourist attraction Cambodia has to offer. The temples are up to 1000 years old, built by the ancient Khmers and are said to hold their own with anything the Mayans and Aztecs have to offer. Well we certainly found them impressive. The temple complex is about 8km outside of town and a 3 day pass costs 40$. Hefty enough. Mind you the Khmers get in for free. Now we're not begrudging the Cambodian people free entry into their national symbols but sometimes the 2 tier pricing system, so omnipresent in SE Asia really gets on our nerves.

Siem Reap has also by far the worst Tuk Tuk Mafia we have ever seen and trust me that's saying a lot. When we got off the bus from Phnomh Penh they were on us like a pack of hyenas-separating us in order to pick off the weakest (ie ME), all wanting to take us to any guesthouse for free. No such thing as a free lunch you say? How right you are. Guesthouses pay kickbacks to the tuk tuk mafia for delivering fresh meat which is nothing new but in Siem Reap competition is even more cutthroat as they all want to be your chauffeur for the 3 day trip to the Angkor temples. We didn't want a chauffeur, we wanted to hire bicycles and do it ourselves. Our tuk tuk driver had magic earmuffs on, choosing not to hear us and followed us into our room in the guesthouse trying to find out our schedule for the next day. A polite "feck off" wasn't going to do the job so a door was shut in his face. I'm not the most pleasant person in the world after a 6 hour bus journey and being manhandled by "The Family". I can't say our guesthouse was anything special (even if it is listed in the Lonely Planet) The standard of accomodation in Cambodia is far lower than in Vietnam. Still we managed to procure some seriously crappy bikes. Maintenance seems to be a dirty word (I mean how hard is it to put a bit of oil on a chain).

Despite all of these rather minor peeves, Angkor really was worth the trip. Its a spectacular site, some temples over 1000 years old, reclaimed from the jungle only a few hundred years ago.I'll just let our photos do the talking. Did you know Tomb Raider was filmed here? Like the true saddos we are we had to get ourselves photographed at that particular temple. Also there was the added bonus of a family of monkeys living in the temple complex. Locals are in on the deal, they offer wildly overpriced bananas to tourists wishing to feed the monkeys. We're huge monkey fans so we spent almost as much time with them as we did exploring the ruins!

Unfortuneately the roads in Cambodia leave quite a lot to be desired. After Siem Reap we decided to move up to the north east and on to Laos. The absence of a proper road meant that we had to go all the way down to Kompong Cham, an uncomfortable 5 hour journey. There's not much to report in Kompong Cham, save for the fact that our hotel room was straight out of Hitchcock. We had a first floor room facing over the Mekong. Some bright spark left on the light in the hallway, and the door to the shared balcony open and as a result we were plagued with insects-and I do mean plagued. We had mozzies, grasshoppers, ants, beetles and other unpleasant flying beasties. Half a can of Raid later and there was scant improvement. It was horrendous. We hid in our sleeping bags (mine covering my head) and tried to sleep through it.

The following day saw another interminable, cramped bus journey up to Stung Treng on the Laos border. Another non descript town, it's not the most popular border crossing so there is a transport mafia ready and waiting to cash in. Our biggest gripe about Cambodia is the constant overcharging, which although common in SE Asia, rises to new heights here. The almighty dollar is king but paying big money does not guarantee any service or value whatsoever. It's the main reason that we only stayed 2.5 weeks in the country. Cambodia is a truly fascinating country, with an ancient history that is remarkable and a recent history that is shocking, but it is light years behind it's neighbour (and sworn enemy) Vietnam when it comes to offering tourists a good deal. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit but Vietnam is still holding on to the Number 1 position!

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