Cambodia Day 4

Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

We started the day back at the markets. Unfortunately the guy I wanted to buy silver from wasn't open when we were there, so I saved myself some money in that respect. This time when we caught a tuk-tuk back, we showed the guy our hotel card written in Khmer, but it turns out he was illiterate. He said yes anyway, and we started driving, before he pulled over to a group of other drivers and got them to tell him where we were meant to go. After that, we got there with no problems.

The landing on the flight was a little bit heavy this time - more of a drop-down than a touch-down! The flight was only 30 minutes. There is a road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which should take 4 - 5 hours. Unfortunately, it has fallen into such disrepair that we heard from a couple of sources (tourist and Cambodian) that it now takes 8 - 9 hours. We had a tuk-tuk transfer to the hotel waiting for us. Once we arrived we used our ever developing map reading skills to walk into town. It's a small town, with a very different feel to the big city of Phnom Penh. There are easily as many tourists here as Cambodians, from all corners of the world.

One view of Siem Reap from the Royal Crown Hotel rooftop

One thing that we have noticed is that the Cambodian people seem to be a generally happy people, with a sense of fun. They will laugh and joke with each other while they are working, and also at the various markets we've been to, stall holders will be having a big laugh amongst each other. They are more than happy to share their sense of humour with us. We didn't see that in Vietnam. The people in general seem harsher, until you get to speak to individuals, that is. Cambodia is a lot dirtier than Vietnam (there is no rubbish there, it seems it is swept up and burnt in little piles at the end of the day), but Cambodia does appear to be big on recycling. Vietnam is a much harder sell - you can't walk anywhere without having goods pushed on you. Here it is more of a gentle, not really trying type push.

Another view of Siem Reap

We went looking for a late lunch of Cambodian, but ran into the same problem as Phnom Penh - every restaurant touts a mix of Cambodian and Western food. For example, the "Cambodian Kitchen - specialising in Cambodian food" had a section of the menu for Khmer specialties. Under this section was included French Fries and Fried Onion rings. Amok is the national dish, but all others seem to be very heavily Thai or Western influenced. We wandered around the streets of Siem Reap, looking at some shops. There was a handmade ceramics place that had nice goods. Sarah was looking for gifts at the markets, and came across a stall with a young Aussie guy. It turns out he didn't work there, he was trying to pick up the shop-keeper. Sarah put him in his place by telling him that he was too old for the girl, and that he was punching above his weight! He took it all in his stride and promptly ignored all advice.

The Full Moon Rooftop bar

When we returned to the hotel, we headed up to the rooftop bar for sunset and cocktails in a cool breeze, with Rasta music playing in the background. We know, it's a difficult life.

Sunset and Happy Hour