Wandering Scotsman

No-one told me Siem Reap was beautiful. No-one told me Siem Reap was clean,landscaped, with a lovely river lined with trees and benches. No-one told me the Cambodians are as friendly as the Laotions (I think that’s how they are referred). No-one told me Cambodian food was tasty.

I’m sure all that’s written down somewhere, and some people have told me these things, but it never stuck in my mind.

Siem Reap street scene :

Siem Reap, at least in the centre, is chock full of french style colonian shophouses, it’s well paved, I felt safe walking around at night, and everyone is friendly. Yes, you get ‘hassled’ a bit more to buy knock off books, bracelets and postcards, but it’s all done in such a friendly way. There’s clearly been a lot of cash pumped in as plush hotels litter the roadside. Maybe the capital isn’t as friendly but I’ll hang on to this for a bit longer.

We ‘did’ the temples in a day, maybe not giving them justice, but doing it in such a manner we felt satisfied and not templed out.

Yesterday I had to laugh. Two young girls approached me trying to offload some postcards and books :
1st girl : “Hello sir, you buy postcard from me?”
“No thank you I don’t want any postcards”
2nd girl : “Hello sir, you buy bracelet from me?”
“No thank you I don’t want a bracelet”
“Sir, you buy bracelet for wife”
“I don’t have a wife”
“Sir, you buy bracelet for girlfriend”
“I don’t have a girlfriend” (I thought saying that would stop them!)
“Sir, you know why you don’t have a girlfriend, you don’t buy ladies anything. You buy from me you get girlfriend”

You have to laugh, but ‘hassled’? I think not.

If you don’t that, you get something like this :

“Sir, where you from?”
“Scotland”
“I live Edinburgh. Edinburgh is capital of Scotland. Scotland has five million people. Scotland next to England, all part of UK. England has 65 million people. Capital of UK is London. UK is in Europe. You speak French? Bonjour. Cava?”
“Tres Bien, et vous” (ecxuse my poor French!)
“Moi Aussie, Tres Bien. You speak any other languages Sir. Paris is capital of France……”

Quality.

I’ve also got more used to the haggling thing as well,to the point where yesterday we got a tuk-tuk. “How much to Green Town Guest House?”
“Two dollar”
“No way, Two dollar? How about 2000 Riel?” (about 50 cents)
“Yes, ok, get in”.

Same for knock off books.

Siem Reap is a great place. A lot of culture on your doorstep, and I sat in a beer garden surrounded by butterflies while typing emails on my laptop.

Yesterday I reluctantly left Laos after almost 4 weeks (seems like much longer thank God!) and flew to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I met an English girl called Jenny on the flight and kinda decided to hang out for a couple of days..largely based on the fact that none of us were that arsed about seeing Angkor Wat and the temples, and kindof felt we had it on our agenda because it was one of those things that you had to do. I had semi-joked to people last week that I could (in my mind) go to Cambodia and not ‘do’ Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat :

Anyway, what’s all the fuss about Cambodia, or maybe it hasn’t hit us yet. People here are so friendly, yes you get the odd bit of ‘hassle’ for stuff, but jeez, it’s talked up from what we’ve seen so far. We got moto guys into town yesterday, whizzed around a few guesthouses and got settled at a place a wee bit (10 mins walk) out of town. We then bumped into a British guy during this and went with him on the hot air balloon overlooking the temples ($15, ten minutes, not worth it) and the sunset over Siem Reap.

I decided last night I liked Siem Reap – it’s like a pubbed up version of Luang Prabang, obviously with a lot of cash being pumped into keeping the place historic, tidy and attractive to well heeled tourists. And for Asia, I haven’t even smelled one open sewer yet!

Pleasantly, we went to a few of the temples today, and had a great day. Initially we buzzed 30km out of town on the moto’s, then came in and did the normal ones, hoping we’d cover them in a day. As it turns out we were both pleasantly surprised that we quite enjoyed our day on the bikes. I could probably do another day but would probably feel templed out by then so I think I’ll leave it at a single day’s visit. Unfortunately I left it too late to speak to the guys at hiddencambodia.com about a dirt bike tour, so think I’ll be missing that out. 🙁 The main reason I did my bike test!

I had great fun practising my bargaining today while waiting for lunch outside one of the temples. A girl tried to punt bracelets did actually say “You buy from me I give you peace and quiet”. I then bought one for a third of the price, and a book for less than a third.

“Peace and Quiet” book bracelet seller :

Anyway, wasn’t planning on doing this tonight, so more tomorrow maybe, and maybe with some pics. A lazy day planned tomorrow hitting some fresh tunes on my MP3 player from Boom Boom ‘records’ in town, and ‘planning’ my time in Cambodia…or at least when I’ll leave here. Jenny leaves Monday for Phnom Penh, and I leave then too but for Battambang.

Me stepping down in Angkor Wat :

Me in Ta Prohm (the Tomb Raider one) :

Jenny took this, I wish I did – a cracker :

Beng Thom :

A sheep for the Aberdeen readers :