Shaking energy of Siem Reap

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From Thailand to Cambodia, from the quiet island of Koh Chang (see my previous entry) to lively Siem Reap. After 13 hours in bus, another bus, tuk tuk, ferry and all the other stuff you need for transportation here, it is not easy to focus on finding a hotel here - even if it's not a big deal, there are plenty of them. But better find one by your own before and show the taxi /or tuk-tuk as they call it here, but i's not the same as you probably saw in Bangkok/ the adress straight away. Our dear driver tried to take us to some other places, where he becomes some money for bringing customers - but as usuall this aren't the best one you can get - we checked in in the hotel recommended by another passenger in the bus, a cambodian lady with brilliant english😊.

Siem Reap is quiet city - comparing to Bangkok at least😊 - but it's nice. I didn't prepare myself for the possibility, that a lot of them see white tourist as a source of money, so they'll ask 3-5x time more as they would from a native... well, I'll have to learn how to walk away. (They'll call you back anyway, but...) You can have tuk-tuk here for 1-2 dollars (depends on where you are going), or you can use thai baht or cambodian real, which is usually better.

About the tuk-tuks - learning the phrase "te alkoon" ("no, thank you") can be really helpful.

We decided to walk more and take pictures of people, places instead of just visiting the touristic stuff. Btw.touristic stuff - you'll get mix of all kind of massages you can imagine (thai, fish, special, extra, vip - last three are probably the same), and all the restaurants are surprisingly featured by some guide (Lonely Planet, Rough guides or something) - even if you'll never find them in the books themselves😊.

I'm happy now we didn't let them talk us into changing too much money on the border. I realized in many hotels you can pay by credit card here. Despite of what the kind guy on the border was telling us.

We were really lucky to find the best tourist guide we could - Youth (or Yut). If you're looking for one, just write me a message and I'll give you the number. He and his brother in law name Dom (he works as tuk-tuk driver) invited us to see their family living in nearby village. Although the parents, their wives and children don't speak a word English, they were very charming, made dinner for us (I saved one chicken, as they wanted to kill it specially for that occasion) and all in all it was lovely day. There is completely different world out there, without that touristic crap you can see all around in the big cities. Learn from them, watch, see - the real Cambodia not that tiny place around the destinations stylized for foreigners. It's disappearing every day.

And of course you have to see Angkor Wat if you're there, as well as all the other temples. It's amazing and stunning - and sad, when you see all the tourists, the shops with souvenirs and the ruins slowly fading out from this world. It's paradox that by visiting these places we slowly are helping to destroy them.

We visited Polanka pagoda and our monk friend Jame (Hello Jame, hope you'll get the chance to read this!). We met at the Tree Temple near Angkor Wat. Because I couldn't make it at the day we promised (again I ate some tasty food, which my stomach didn't like so much), I realized it isn't so easy to let a monk awaiting you know, that you're not about to come. Without telephone or email access, the only way is to send a note - reminds me of the old days, or old movies - which fortunately our receptionist was willing to do on his way home. (Greetings to Mandalayinn Hotel stuff - highly recommended place to stay!) Next day he brought a phone number from Jame, so we arranged a visit. The pagoda was lovely, even though we didn't have so much time to look around. There was only 30 minutes left, before our bus departure, but nevertheless - the conversation with him and other monks made me think about quite different things as you usually do. I was impressed by the amount of books we saw at his place, and the goodbye letter he wrote for us.

After saying our farewells we left Siem Reap. I hope one day I'll return.

Next stop: Phnom Penh, where Youth's friend Lucky is awaiting us. (Yes, it seems this guy knows somebody on every place here!)

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Photos

Sunrise at Angkor Wat
Too many clouds... maybe next time.

Angkor Wat
the temple

Monkeys
This one came so close. And even climbed up on my back later:).

well
this is supposed to be art... don't ask:)

Jame and friend
Our friends from the monastery

Jame
our friend from Polanka pagoda

Village near Siem Reap
How do they live, everyday like this?

Cows
at the countryside, they are everywhere....