City of Angkor Wat..

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After laid back Laos it was time for an experience that would most probably be a little bit more intense; Cambodia. From Vientiane we flew to the 1st of our two destinations in Cambodia: Siem Reap. Well, an intense experience it definitely was.

First of all we never had that much hassle from people trying to make us spend our dollars in a way that there's something in it for them. It started on our way from the airport: we took an official cab(appointed by an agency on the airport even!), that took his cab sign off two minutes after we left the airport and started promoting the tours of his company. I mean promoting in the most pushy sense. And the guesthouse we wanted to go to he didn't know, he couldn't understand our map, but he did know a few other good guesthouses.. Sure.. So I directed him based on our LP map, that I, completely unfamiliar with Siem reap, mysteriously did udnerstand.. Same story in our guesthouse, every time we left, they wanted to go where to, and insisted on arranging a tuktuk or whatever for us. No tnx.. It's just so annoying that it's never in a nice, helpful way, it's always very persistent. Same with people truing to sell you something.. Yelling from far away, repeating it over and over, grabbing you to get your attention.. I can dream the 'Pineapple lady? Cold drink for you! You want food lady?' AAAHHHHH!!

Another big thing is the begging. We had read in the LP that you should give people wounded from mines money and little children food or baby milk, cause there's no other support or way of survival for them. Hmmz okay. But our first afternoon in Siem reap was unbelievable, so awful. So many people begging. You just cant give them all, and actually you don't want to, cause they're not humble or anything but extremely aggressive. Children saying: you buy me meal! or : I want milk for baby, no money. The first time we did walk with one kid to buy milk, because we felt we had to. Well, he couldn't tell me how much it would cost, but he knew exactly where to get it and which one. The woman from the market said it was $7.. S-E-V-E-N dollars! No Cambodian would be able to afford that! One big scam! They are really making a business out of getting as much as possible out of tourists. I mean, come on, if you're really hungry you would also accept like a dollar and not demand a meal or you would be willing to sell one postcard for 1000 riel instead of only 10 for 4000. That really annoys me. The strange thing is, the begging really got a way of living for many people. Of course only in areas with many tourists, in rural areas people wouldn't beg. But you still see kids with their little, now 3-years old sister on their back because the baby milk trick always worked that well..

Okay, now to the positive stuff. Despite all the not so great things, that really do take away part of Cambodia's beauty, I had a great time in Siem Reap. Angkor Wat is just amazing.. We spend three days exploring all the temples, two days by bike (pretty exhausting, but hey, we have to be loyal to our Dutch habits..) and one by tuktuk. It was so great to see all the beauty of the Angkor Wat, and also to have enough time to take it easy. The evenings were also really good. There is one main street, the Bar street, where all the tourists go, and where no beggers or tuktuks or whatever are allowed I guess. Sounds a bit tacky, might be, but it's a great relieve and all the restaurants and bars are really lovely. One evening we've done some authentic Cambodian BBQ, which was pretty exhausting given our skills in this respect, but by no means less fun because of this. Another evening we've watched Cambodian dancing during dinner (it did remind me a lot of the ballet in Luang Prabang btw). And we've had a few really great 2 for 1 cocktails.. Hmmm.. So altogether we did have a good time, for sure!

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