Siem Reap

The travel gods smile upon this lucky idiot. I had to change buses in Phnom Pehn. I was walking around a crowded bus station looking for my next bus when a girl tapped me on the shoulder. My camera had slipped from my bag during the last trip and had fallen down behind my seat. Amazed that I got it back. Some good natured citizens aside Phnom Pehn didn't look too appealing, thought I might give it a miss and spend a few more days somewhere a little prettier to look at.

Siem Reap was one of the more attractive towns in Cambodia, clean streets, nice landscape gardening. Lots of Hotels of course. As nice as it is there isn't a lot to do in town. The markets are shit, t-shirts, jewellery, painting, wood work, same same, but still shit.  The local market out of town a bit was more interesting and relaxing. Almost anything you could think of to buy and no hassle, but the smell of rotting fruit and raw meat and fish in an enclosed space gets to you after a while, like it does in Bangkok.

A British guy and myself hired a tuk-tuk to take us out to the floating village on the shores of lake Tonle Sap. It wasn't arranged but we stopped at the tuk-tuk jockey's village along the way and he invited us in for lunch and some home made rice wine. Very smooth stuff. Another variation was with egg yolk and sweetened condensed milk. Tasted a bit like sambucca. Also nice. The boats to the Kampong Phluck left from a canal a bit further in land. The canal during the dry season was just a ordinary road. A little surreal passing bridges that just poked out above the water. The floating village wasn't really 'floating' at all but on stilts. The only floating part were the pig pens, tethered to tree on the channel. Good idea, bacon without the associated stench. The boat took us out past the channel and the village on to the lake. Water as far as you could see, blending seamlessly to the horizon. The only break to the scene was the occasional fishing boat and tree branch sticking out just above the water line. Tonle Sap is an interesting lake. During the wet season it takes the overflow from the Mekong some 400km away, joined by the tonle river which drains the same lake back into the Mekong during the dry season. The village itself was much like any other. Just on stilts. their was a main street, still dry for a few more weeks until the water rose. Lots of activity, boat building mostly but also lots of kids trying to sell note books to be donated back to the local schools.

Really the reason anyone goes to Siem Reap (and for some Cambodia) is to see the Angkor ruins. The tuk-tuk jockey picked me up early to see the sunrise over Ankgor Wat. Very pretty but also lots of others there for the same reason as me. After this though the crowds dispersed and a lot the ruins were yours alone for the rest of the day. Tuk-tuk driver would drop me off at a temple and pick me up a bit later on the other side. Most of the time I found him sleeping, poor guy had a hangover, out til 3am. Some temples were amazing, others not much more than a pile of rocks. Even some of those were pretty cool, such as one which had succumbed to the forest and had a stream and waterfall running over top of it.

On the way back to town we stopped at local fare. Lots of the usually fare stuff, food stalls, rides, games. Also the cheapest beer in town. 1000 riels bought you a dart, hit a ballon you win a prize. Beer was amongst the prizes. It was too easy, and I almost felt bad, winning at what was probably a kids game but i figured if beer was amongst the prizes it was for adults too. The food stalls had a bit of everything, i had the grilled frog skewers but there was also fried insects and turtle stew amongst others. I usually will try anything once but the duck not-quite-embryos-not-quite-chicks still in the shell was one thing I wasn't willing to try.