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Published: March 2nd 2008
So get a load of all this culture! at last - a change from bars and parties on the blog ha ha!
Our first full day at the Green Town Guest House in Cambodia, Siem Reap - home to the famous Angkor Wat and other temples.
Siem Reap is a pleasant enough place, with great night market and plenty of bars and restaurants for farangs. A little too touristy if you are after culture but i'm sure if you venture further than the old market centre at psar chaa, then you will find the real culture of this town. we havent actually. arf.
The Cambodians on first impression are very nice, i like them a lot, they seem a little more sincere than what we are used to and friendly and polite with a sense of humour. They have been through mighty shit with the Kmer rouge and poverty and land mines as i'm sure everyone is aware.
so - our first day was spent chilling out, late breakie and a mooch about town, eating fruit from the market for lunch on a grassy spot in the main area and then out for a meal at the
Shadow of Angkor restaurant in the evening, followed by a massage - $8 for 90 mins (4 quid to us). Imagine our surprise and delight to find that our foot, head and shoulder massage was to be done by a couple of cambodian young men. its usually ladies so we giggled a bit but then laid back to relax and have our fat farang bloatyness manipulated and reflexologied. very nice indeed.
First day at the temples was done by Tuk Tuk ($10) to get our bearings, then the second day we hired bicycles for $2 each and cycled round. We had to re-visit some as both our batteries died at Angkor Wat in the morning the day before!
Anyway, it was about half an hour cycle to the temple area, and then cycle round to the various areas, very pleasant way to spend the day. There are plenty of cold bottles of water and bags of fruit to buy to sustain you through the day.
Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm are probably the most interesting sites, with the forest reclaiming the ruins and left alone in this state as it is as a spectacle in itself
at Ta Prohm. The only downside is that there is a tourist overload going on, and it can get very crowded on the best sites. There seemed to be lots of big busloads of groups of japanese tourists that would pour along every so often and have a mini takeover. this is not a racial slur, just an observation before i am inundated with offended people, not that i give a rat's ass. Sunset is a very crowded affair in the best spots and we actually left at this time as it was just awful. The best time is probably sunrise and very early in the morning.
Anyway, we are now trying to find the best way to get to Laos in an inexpensive manner! It seems you cant get a visa at the border crossing by bus and have to take a more expensive flight, unless you travel down to Phnom Penh to buy a visa from the embassy there.
We are off to the travel office now.............................
so we have to fly, expensive. 10am flight, roll on Laos.
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Jen Berry
non-member comment
At Last
Hey there, At last some culture and not seeing you with your head stuck in a buckett! Looks great. Have a ball, love jen x