Siem Reap I love you


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Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap
July 31st 2016
Published: August 3rd 2016
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Arriving in Siem Reap it was already dark so we got a tuktuk to our accommodation. I had bagged a bargain on Groupon for La Residence Blanc D’Angkor. According to its website the rooms were usually around the $150 a night and we had got it for about $50 a night. Probably should have been a warning sign.

Upon arriving we were disappointed in our initial impression. The grass was overgrown in the garden and the reception/breakfast area was quite cheap looking. Even to the point of having white laminated tables with cigarette burns… We were shown to our room and thought the pool looked nice lit up at night…

The room was quite ‘trendy’ looking with polished concrete floors and a huge bathroom however the floor felt quite dirty underfoot and we had two really large cockroaches in the room straight up. Normally I am not that fussy with bus in SE Asia but along with the discolouration to the concrete shower, the fact that the windows had large shutters that only opened from the outside over them so there was no natural light and no ability to lock your windows… it just gave off a bad vibe.

We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to Pub Street dismayed to realise we were so far out of town that it was a $3usd tuk tuk each way (and about 10-15 min). Grabbing a meal we headed back to the hotel for an early night. The following morning our dislike of the hotel grew when in the cold harsh light of day we realised that the pool area and garden were both totally overgrown and the hotel was full of Chinese men. Breakfast was almost laughable when it was served with a slice of bacon about 2cm and we couldn’t hear each other talking for the loud large group of Chinese men smoking and eating their breakfast…

We made the decision that we were going to move. The hotel confirmed that we couldn’t get a refund so we decided we would cop the expense and just move regardless… $300 down the drain but at that stage we knew we were not going to be happy where we were.

We arranged for a tuk tuk driver to drive us around and I made a list of hotels that were in our price bracket with our needs (pool a must!). We went through so many hotels and a couple seemed okay but we were struggling. Our saving grace was that one of Todd’s bosses from work was actually staying in Siem Reap at the time at a little boutique place called LaDear Angkor Boutique Resort. His wife messaged me on Facebook saying that it was not too bad and cheap so we went to look as a last resort…. They offered us a room at $35USD a night including breakfast and took us for a look around… WOW. We loved it… We were sold. We took our tuktuk back to the hotel, gathered up our belongings and moved on back to LaDear!

I think so far I have forgotten to mention how hot Cambodia was… May is one of the hottest months in SE Asia and we were absolutely sweltering.. it was often 40-44 degrees with 80-90% humidity… the Days were hard going!

Settled into LaDear we jumped in the pool, where Todd’s boss, wife and friends already were and enjoyed drinks in the pool. Due to no shade on the pool it was like a warm bath but we didn’t care.. it just made the beer even more enjoyable!

Day 3 was a special day. It started with a tour by Beyond Unique Escapes of a Monk blessing followed by the Walk/Talk tour through a local village. We were driven to a small local temple where it all started by offering gifts to the Monk while he blessed us and put little strings around our wrists. We were then ushered into a tiny bathroom, given sarongs and told to strip down. We both looked at each other perplexed at whether we needed to keep on our underwear. In the end we both ended up naked under the sarongs and headed out. We were directed to sit on the steps of the temple while the Monk stood behind us chanting a prayer and throwing water over us. I could hear Todd next to me almost choking on the water each time and I was struggling to breathe. Every time he choked I had to stifle a giggle.

After the blessing had finished we dried off and set off on the second tour called ‘Treak Village Tour’. This is a short 2km walking tour of Treak Village, about 10 minutes from Siem Reap. You walk with your guide around the local village encountering people going about their daily lives and get a history on the village and what Beyond Unique do to assist the village. It was a wonderful little walk.

Once the tour had finished we headed off into town in search of food. It was at this point I realised we had no cash left on us and we desperately needed some. I attempted to use our card on two different ATMs and each time it rejected. I started panicking as by this stage we were hot, flustered and had not a cent to our name. I ended up phoning Westpac who told me that my card had been cancelled due to a fraud attempt. Seems somewhere along the way someone had skimmed my card (we suspect an ATM in Kuala Lumpur) but luckily the bank had picked it up and saved the day!

Only problem was now that my ATM card was dead for the rest of the trip. We hailed a tuk tuk and went back to the hotel to get some cash and then went out for lunch. Afterwards we spend another lazy afternoon tanning by the pool excited for dinner that night. I had made a booking at Cuisine Wat Damnak….

Dinner time quickly rolled around and we set off for the meal. Cuisine Wat Damnak has been voted in the Top 50 restaurants in the world and the only one from Cambodia that made the list. They rotate their menu every two weeks and you get to choose from 2 set menus – picking either 5 or 6 courses. We went with the 5 courses of course and chose a different menu each so we could try all 12 meals

We started with an Amuse Bouche to begin and then the meals started rolling out…. The dishes included: Free range chicken, fried rice salad herbs and puffed rice; Prawn and calamari salad with Burmese grapes and wild ginger leaves; Steamed Maam with minced pork and egg, herbs, flowers and local crudites; Mekong langoustine curry with fresh rice noodle and sweet peanut sauce; Spicy braised pork ribs with smoked fish, holy basil, water celery and mushroom; Fresh coconut tree heart in a light curry broth, Tonle Sap croacker fish, toasted rice puree and moringa; Stir fried frogs legs with Angkor stout, lotus roots stems and seeds; Pan fried Sanday fish, caramelised palm sugar, tiger eggplant, fresh peppercorn and green mango; Phnom Kulen Vanilla pannacota with cashew nut crumble, fresh mango and mango sorbet; and finally Steamed dark chocolate cake with rice praline and pandan whipped cream. This was followed up with a small fresh fruit platter with chilli salt and sugar…

This meal was $28usd per person and the best meal I have ever eaten. The menu focuses on local food and seriously is not a restaurant you should miss on your travels. Highly recommended.

The following day we caught up with my dear friends Tekea and Chantou with their daughter Chankim. We had discussed this for a little while and made a decision that we would help Tekea and Chantou by paying for Chankim to attend one of the International schools. It is something I had wanted to do for some time and I was super stoked that Todd had got on board with the idea.

We visited a school that I had been recommended by the lovely girls at Sister Srey Café and also went to a school that Tekea wanted to look at. Ultimately we decided it would be Tekea and Chantou’s decision and we were just the funds. First we went to the Western International school that I had been recommended. It was a nice little school and the staff were lovely. We left there with a good impression. I think that at that point Tekea would have been happy to enrol but we told him we thought that we should still definitely check out the one he wanted originally for completeness.

I cannot remember now the name of the second school but we were ushered into the Principals officer straight away. I immediately took a dislike to the man. He was very authorative (not sure that’s a word) and dismissed Chantou like she didn’t exist (and me to a lesser extent). Perhaps a cultural thing in Cambodia but I didn’t like it at all. The school was bigger and seemed to have some better things such as a really good computer room but I just didn’t like the vibe.

I didn’t say anything although Todd and I gave each other ‘the look’ a few times through the tour. Once we left, I asked Tekea what he would like to do. He was very much looking to us for a decision but I explained to him that ultimately it was HIS decision as it was his daughter. I didn’t want to influence him as, even though it was my money, I didn’t think it was still my right to make that kind of decision on their lives.

I was relieved when Tekea stated that he did not get a good vibe from the Principal and that he actually preferred the other school. We headed back to the Western International and enrolled Chankim, bought her some uniform (see the photos with Todd… bless!) before heading out to visit Tekea’s grandmother and see his new house they had built since our last visit. For dinner that night we ended up at Sugar Palm, another beautiful must visit restaurant that has been there since my first visit in 2006. Dinner included beautiful spring rolls, papaya salad and peppercorn calamari.

The next day we took a tuk tuk out to the Temples and did a huge day of temples. We decided to split them up over two days and also visited the Cambodian Land mine museum which I have not managed to get to on any of my trips. Over the next two days we managed to see many temples including Bayon, Angkor Wat (of course), Preah Rup, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, and possibly a few others… it kind of all starts to blend after a while. The rest of our stay in Siem Reap included a meal at Tekea’s hotel where he works - Golden Temple Villa, cocktails at Miss Wong’s, lunches at Viva Mexican and general bumming around the hotel – have I mentioned how much I LOVE that hotel? Our favourite staff member was Piseth our breakfast waiter who had the biggest and best smile of anyone I have ever met. At the end we slyly gave him a $50 USD note before leaving. We sincerely hope that he put it to good use.

Next stop : Bangkok


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