Siem Reap

I've split my time in Siem Reap into two blogs because I saw two very different sides to the area. One was the normal, touristy stuff and the other was the charity and volunteering aspects. But first the tourist stuff!!

The hostel I was staying at cost me $1 a night for a bed, though that is a slight exaggeration. What I got was a matteress out the back on a wooden platform with a mozzie net. The locals also lived out there so I was woken every morning around 5-6am by either people leaving to get to the temples or by the locals waking up and getting on with their day, especially by the children playing around in my 'room'. There was also a lake out the back full of frogs that would hop out at me as I walked to the bathrooms each night. I thought I was going to have a heart attack the first few times but I did get used to them. There were many lovely people staying there, and a couple of nuts. One French-Iranian guy came up to me and, without an introduction, asked if I knew malaria. When I said yes, he asked "you have it?". Urm... no... He thought he had it but after sitting with him and going through the symptoms and where he'd been I told him it was very unlikely. Later on he said it wasn't malaria but dengue... His 'rash' was the fact his pores were open on his arms as it was so hot! That evening when I was in my mozzie net and him in the one next to me I hear, "hey you, you know any bedtime stories?"... I replied (grumpily as I wanted to sleep) that no I didn't... "shame, I know many beautiful ones". I can't remember exactly what I said to him but I think it was something along the lines of 'good for you, leave me alone, I'm asleep'. Bizzare.

Siem Reap isn't a large town but has two markets which are mad. I loved wandering around just looking at all the tourist rubbish on sale, but sadly everywhere I went I had people going "hey lade, buy something, lady, something?" It did get quite irriating. Especially the tuk tuks. By the end of the week I thought if I heard a guy say "lady, tuk tuk?" to me one more time I'd have hit someone! However, I did manage to pick up some Khmer so knowing how to say 'no thank you' (otay akhun) came in handy.

My first day in Siem Reap I met a girl called Jo from England so that evening we had a tuk tuk driver from the hostel take us to the temples for sunset. I wanted to be in Angkor Wat for the sunset but he insisted we walk up the hill to Phomn Bakheng instead. It was absoultely packed! People were sitting all over the temple and the sunset was nice until it hit the clouds, then it vanished. But we stayed up there for about an hour and the light went really wierd, all sort of red so quite pretty. Our tuk tuk driver seemed determined to take us around the temples the next day also, but I wasn't too happy about it as he wouldn't give us a price that evening. I got back to Siem Reap in time to meet Matt the Australian (will explain about him later) and he introduced me to a tuk tuk driver he gives English lessons to, Mr. Lao. He said he's take us around the temples for $15, which I knew was the average price, so I agreed to meet him outside our hostel at 5am(!) the next morning.

Had to be woken up by Jo at 5.15am as somehow I slept through my alarm - the only time I've ever done that! Oh dear. Had a slight hassle with the hostel's tuk tuk driver as he was still wanting to take us but we went with Mr. Lao. Arrived at the temples just before 6am and stood just inside Angkor Wat for sunrise. Despite the hundreds of people, it was still absolutely amazing. The sunrise over the towers was breath-taking and you hardly noticed anyone else. Most people disappeared for breakfast straight after sunrise anyway, so the temple itself was practically deserted. Walking around I was grabbed by an old man who tied a red bracelet onto my wrist. He was muttering and blowing over it and later I found it's meant to be a blessing and I'm to keep it on until it falls off. Angkor Wat is amazing; I cannot describe it properly in words but it is one of the most beautiful places I've been. We spent about an hour walking around it before finding Mr. Lao and going for breakfast.

We spent a total of seven hours around the temples. They were gorgeous but by the end I was feeling slightly 'templed out'. We visited: Bayon (the temple with all the heads - I got talking to some Japanese archaeologists that were working on it so very interesting), Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Chau Say Thevada, Thommanom, Ta Keo (so so many steps!), Ta Promh (Tomb Raider temple, the one with all the trees and almost definitely my favourite. I happily strayed off the path and went exploring but I didn't find any secret passages), Banteay Kdei and finally Pre Rup. So yes, just a few. But even after visiting all those we hadn't seen a fraction of the Angkor complex. There were lots of street kids hanging around trying to sell stuff and they are so hard to say no to. I did quite well until Banteay Kdei when a little girl just tried to give me a bracelet. I said no but she was adament I was to take it as a gift. I felt so bad I ended up buying another bracelet off her but it was only a dollar so...

Another day that week I was just sitting at the computer in the hostel fairly early in the morning when I was approached by a Dutch couple who asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to Kompong Phhluk - a village on the Tonle Sap lake. They needed four people to hire the boat so I agreed and the next thing I know I'm off on a 30km journey in a tuk tuk with the Dutch couple and an Italian girl. It was actually a really good day. Kompong Phhluk is, in the wet season, one of the 'floating villages'. In the dry season, the houses stand on stilts 10m or so above the ground. Our tuk tuk driver grew up there and his family run a small tourist restaurant where we had drinks. The road we took to the boat is normally 3m underwater and the lake itself is huge. Even in the dry season you couldn't see the other shore. It's pretty much an inland sea. We ended up sitting on a bamboo fish farm for a while just floating around, which was lovely. That evening the four of us went for dinner at the 'Raja Yoga Peace Cafe'. I looked into how much their yoga classes were but at $40 a session I decided to skip it. The food was good though!

On the Friday I met an English girl also called Charlie who was volunteering at a school so we had a walk around the markets and had a tradition Khmer massage which was just wonderful! And before anyone asks, they give you clothes to wear so it's not dodgy like some of the stories I heard about Bangkok! They also gave you free tea afterwards :D That evening we both went to a free hour-long introduction to meditation which was really good. Though at the start we wondered what we'd got ourselves into as it was taught by a really stereotypical American hippie and when he started taking about 'peace and love' Charlie and I couldn't look at each other in fear of laughing. I was actully biting my lip to stop myself giggling, but once we got into the mental exercises it was quite interesting.

Tammy (from ABC's+Rice - to be explained!) had lent me her bicycle so I thought I'd cycle to the West Baray lake for a swim on the Saturday morning. Bad idea. I almost died. It was about 40+ degrees and 70% humitiy at least. I passed the airport and stopped to see how far away I was as I'd been cycling for 40mins. I wasn't even halfway there! I confess I gave in and turned around to cycle the 40mins back, with a vague idea of finding a swimming pool. But by the time I got back to the hostel I was bright red, drenched and my legs had turned to jelly. I crashed out on my bed and woke up a good three hours later feeling shamefully unfit. Spent that afternoon drinking iced coffees (so so good - they do them with condensed milk over here and I think I'm becoming addicted) and watching Scrubs. But that evening a group of us decided we wanted to see Angkor Wat in the moonlight as it was a full moon so we cycled up there at around 6pm. Took us half an hour and when we got there police were everywhere. We'd had vague ideas of getting into Ta Phromh in the dark but the police soon put an end to those plans, basically not allowing us to get any further down the road than Angkok Wat. We tried! But they growled at us so we went and sat with the locals overlooking Angkor Wat until the police found us and told us to get lost. There wasn't even any moonlight >< Stupid clouds. We did see lightening in the distance though!

I'd thought of going to Bangkok the next morning but that evening I got an email from the boys I'd travelled through Vietnam with saying they were in Siem Reap. I'd just missed them in Saigon and Phomn Penh so we got to meet up that evening which was awesome! So nice to see them again and exchange misadventures. The next day was my last day in Siem Reap so Charlie girl and I met up with Charlie boy for lunch (yes, three Charlie's - it was confusing!) before Tom, Danny and Jimmy caught up with us. Had another lovely day hanging out with them before saying our proper goodbyes as they're heading into Laos (possibly with a chicken!) and I'm going to have left Asia before they get to Thailand.

I left Siem Reap at 6am the next morning, on a bus bound for Bangkok. But that journey's another story :D