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Published: March 26th 2009
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My Country My Beer
His 'n Hers drinks After a stopover in KL we took our flight to Phnom Penh capital city of Cambodia where we spent one night staying at “Me Mates Place” guesthouse before taking a 6 hr bus ride north to Siem Reap gateway to Angkor and its temples. We didn’t do much in Phnom Penh apart from a quick look around Wat Phnom, and dinner in one of the many nice restaurants by the Riverside. One thing that we did discover is that ATM’s issue US dollars and not the local currency the Riel. The bus journey was quite uneventful apart from the Cambodian Karaoke videos being played constantly on the bus’ TV screen (Thank god they didn’t plug the mic in)!!! We passed through lots of small villages on our way north and the countryside was lovely, it reminded us of parts of Goa with the cows constantly crossing the highway and the driver having to break rapidly to avoid a collision. Upon arrival in Siem Reap we were greeted by our tuk tuk driver from the Jasmine Lodge guesthouse which was to be our home for the next six days, it was nice to know that we’d be in the same place for
Cambodian Riel
Not seen very often due to the US$ being the preferred currency more than a couple of nights so decided to unpack the backpacks for the first time since leaving home. Jasmine Lodge is a great place to stay, very clean and comfy, we got an en-suit, TV, free breakfast and access to free Wifi, not a bad deal for $10 a night…..we’d definitely recommend Jasmine Lodge to anyone coming to Siem Reap.
We opted for a three day pass to Angkor which costs $40 a piece, the pass is printed with your photo on it so that it can’t be sold on, anyone found at the sites without a pass gets an instant $100 on the spot fine!! To miss the morning crowds at the ticket office we opted to take a tuk tuk there early evening on the 22nd to purchase our three day passes which would give us 23rd, 24th and 25th at the sites….plenty of time to see what we wanted to see there. Because we purchased our tickets after 5pm they became valid immediately and we were able to enter the complex that evening to catch the sunset. Phnom Bakheng is the most popular place to witness the sunset as it sits on a hill giving
Rickshaw Driver Phnom Penh
He must've been pedalling for hours panoramic views of the surrounding area. Obviously being the most popular place has its downside, the most obvious being the amount of tourists fighting their way to the top of the hill and laying claim to a spot of terra firma from which to snap away. The sunset didn’t happen for us as it was too cloudy but we still enjoyed the whole experience and after covertly photographing a few novice monks we caught up with one of them on the dark descent back down the hill (no sun and no lights at this point, only our small wind up torch), he was really interested in where we came from and what we did for a living and he told us about his life and of course his favourite football team, well he actually had three favourites; Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. We had a good old chat while he smoked a sneaky cigarette and threw the butt off somewhere into the jungle when he’d finished…..monks have their vices too!!!
The small city of Siem Reap has few attractions, apart from it’s close proximity to the temples of Angkor there really isn’t a great deal to see here, there
are a few shiny Wats spread about town and a couple of museums, they also have a couple of markets and a Royal Park which is quite nice to stroll through. Nightlife is surprisingly good here, there are lots of lovely restaurants and bars mainly concentrated on “Pub Street” and “The Alley”, the noon night market gives an opportunity to shop for souvenirs during the cooler hours, you can also have a relaxing massage or visit Dr Fish. Dr Fish is a bit of a strange concept but a very popular one over here. The Garra Rufa species of fish are related to the carp family and supposedly have healing powers; for $3 you get to stick your feet into a big pool full of these slimy little creatures and they just nibble away for 15 minutes (if you can take it for that long), apparently this rejuvenates you and gets rid of your hard skin…..I can’t see this one catching on back home but who knows, maybe there’s money to be made…..I might just see if I can get myself a couple of hundred of the little blighters!!!! The restaurants on and around “Pub Street” serve a wide selection
Karaoke Bus
Thankfully no Mic of food types and beer is cheap here, you can get a glass of Angkor draught for 50 cents. We’ve tried quite few of the local dishes including Cambodian Barbecue and Amok which is a tasty coconut based fish curry. The cheapest of all the places to eat are the pavement side carts that set up once the sun goes down, we’ve eaten at these places a couple of times, the food is lovely and for only $4 for food and drinks for two people you can’t complain. Our favourite place to sit and people watch is “The Cambodian Soup Restaurant”, it’s situated on the middle of “Pub Street” opposite the rowdy “Angkor What Bar”. We sit and watch the prostitutes trying to make a living from western tourists alongside kids selling roses and postcards, and land mine victims trying to get by in life by selling pirated books and CD’s, last night we watched a brass band of westerners busking on the street, they had the crowd rocking!!
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Jonny Redman!
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more nice pix
Hope you are enjoying the change in the weather-it's 4c here at the moment! Pics are wonderful-where would we be without the digital camera? I have just bought a brand new 35ml film camera! I yearn for the retro times! Hope you find what you are looking for out there. Take care! Jonny