Blogs from Siem Reap, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 206

The one-legged teenager pondered the huge piles of rusty anti-personnel mines with the feigned disinterest common to those his age - I almost expected a drawled "whaaatever". Then he handed me one of the mines and said, with something approaching glee "Press here". It should have been obvious what would happen but when we heard the loud 'CLICK' of the internal detonator we all jumped nonetheless. He laughed, with something of a developing swagger. He would be a man soon, an Asian man, from a poor, underdeveloped country. A one-legged man. The biggest thing that struck me about all these deadly landmines was just how simple they were. But for a few bureaucratic hurdles best circumvented by those with better connections, I think my immediate friends and I could have a landmine factory setup and running ... read more

Our first day in Siem Reap was taken up by recovering from the journey, getting some food, and recovering from the short walk to find food. It is swelteringly hot and sweatily humid here! After getting our bearings and finding out that the guesthouse we were taken to was a couple of km out of town we decided to relocate to a nicer place nearer the city centre. The major reason for visiting Siem Reap is to see the temples in the surrounding area, but we decided to chill-out and see the town for a couple of days first. It's easy to see why people are scared of it getting too commercial, as the number of restaurants geared towards tourist tastes seems to outnumber the number of visitors. First real reaction is that it is definitely ... read more

Nach einem relativ anstengenden Bordercrossing per Boot, Pkw, Fähre und Bus von den wirklich wahnsinng idyllischen (und ruhigen!) 4.000 Islands in Laos sind wir nun also in Kambodscha. Siem Reap lautet unsere nächste Anlaufstation. Kaum auf kambodschanischen Grund und Boden, sind wir um die erste Abzocke auf der Reise reicher, um 25 US$ pro Kopf ärmer und vor allem zwei Dinge: völlig entnervt und hungrig! Sprich, wir reagieren entsprechend aufgeschlossen, verständnisvoll und freundlich auf die veränderte Situation, die sich am Busbahnhof von Sieam Reap ergibt. Wir verlassen den Bus, um unser Gepäck aus der Ladeluke zu fischen als plötzlich ungelogen 20 Tuk-Tuk-Driver gleichzeitig an unseren Armen zerren. Alle wollen sie uns die preiswerteste Fahrt unsere Lebens in ihrem Tuk-Tuk andrehen - zu einem der besten Hotel selbstverständlich. Noch dazu alle zu dem besten Preis, den wir ... read more

I decided to come to Cambodia with Stephanie and Gemma, two English girls I met in Pai. Ok I heard the road from the Thai border into Cambodia was bad but you can't even dream up a "road" like that. It would have been smoother to drive across the rice fields. The journey took 5 hours from Bangkok to the border, on an air-conditioned bus with reclining seats. Then at the Cambodian border we got ripped off on our visitors visa and paid 40 dollars which we later learned was double price. Next we hop on a small bus that looked like it was suitable for transporting live pigs. No air conditioning. I thought Thailand was as hot as it gets but trust me Cambodia is almost unbearable. The ride was uncomfortable to say the least. ... read more

April 10 - 15, 2006 -- Siem Reap and the Temples at Angkor Written April 24, 2006 from our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City Having completed our often harrowing ride from Poipet and the border to Siem Reap we were relieved to find our hotel, Villa Siem Reap. We didn’t find it right away, mind you. We stumbled around in the heat for a few minutes before settling in to have a Coke, ask directions to no avail, and then stumble around until getting directions from a chef named Raymond (a Chinese man married to a Vietnamese woman living in Siem Reap, suspicious for his friendliness and excellent English). Villa Siem Reap is a lovely new guest house near the center of town that appears to be a part of a boom in the city. ... read more