Almost a Year Late: Cambodia

After Chinese New Year, Tuyet and I left Vietnam and went to Thailand and Cambodia...last year. I got really behind in blogging while traveling for various reasons, none of which I'll expand on here. Now that it's New Years again and Taipei is like a ghost town, I'll take this time to reflect on what I was doing nearly a year ago.

Cambodia
Tuyet and I landed and I got through customs no problem. She went in the same line as I was and it took forever for her to get through. Once out, she explained that the official had tried to bribe her - demanding money for him to give her the necessary passport stamp. Ridiculous. Luckily she refused and after a long battle of stubbornness, she won and was let through.

After that was standing in line to get a visa. Make sure you have your photos on you (not in your checked baggage) and cash (USD) to cover. We had reserved a room at Earthwalkers, which was highly recommended from my friend, Chewy. They were supposed to send transportation for us, but no one was there when we arrived. We also tried calling them but couldn't get through - definitely had the wrong number. So we hailed our own tuktuk (easy, they're around like vultures) and made our way.

Earthwalkers Guesthouse
Postbox 93073, GPO, Siem Reap
Kingdom of Cambodia
Phone +855 (0) 12 176 12 77
http://www.earthwalkers.no

We soon learned that everything is cheap but people still try to rip you off. Though a $1 motorbike taxi ride sounds cheap, it should really only be half that (2000 riel). After a few days we started bargaining down. Even at the food shops by Angkor, all the menu prices are jacked up by $1USD/4000 riel. Just mention you thinking about going somewhere else and they'll take it down.

Angkor is absolutely beautiful, amazing and awe inspiring. However, it is easy to get watted out. We had a 3 day pass and were definitely ready to do something else before the end. It's too bad you can only use it in 3 consecutive days, as it would have been nice to break it up and gone every other day. As inexpensive as most things are in Siem Reap, be prepared to spend a lot of cash to see the Wats. The top 3 expenses are the airport (entrance visa and exit fees), the Angkor Wat pass, and the daily transportation fees to get to the various sites. If you're alone, it's easier to hitchhike (we picked someone up).

We didn't hire our own tour guide - though I tried to stand near tour groups and listen to what they had to say. One funny story I heard was about this one:

The man has turned around because he thinks the woman has pinched his butt. But it's really the turtle she's carrying that's nipped him on the bum.

There is much to be seen on the walls, many stories visually told. I could recognize some characters from stories I'd heard from my Indian friends about Hindu culture. Even without a personal guide giving you the background, there is plenty to enjoy just with your eyes alone.

Look up...

Look down...

Look in detail...

Look around...


Other adventures in town included visiting a silk farm, boating on Ton Le Lake to see the floating village, and trying to teach Tuyet how to ride a bike. We had gone in both thinking she could and just needed a refresher. After watching her fall multiple times, scraping her legs, and watching locals laugh at her, we decided it best not to have her venture out on the very busy city roads. So I rented a bike on my own and rode around for a couple hours (on my birthday). I highly recommend getting a bike and exploring different parts of town and getting out.

When I got home, Tuyet had surprised me with a birthday cake. We celebrated with the folks at Earthwalkers - staff and customers. We also went out to enjoy more mango shakes and get a massage. Since it was my birthday and it had been a rough month, I was ready to treat myself by splurging on a 4-hand massage. They didn't have it though. We found ourselves at a really shoddy place that didn't know what they were doing - all with false advertising. No hard feelings to the workers who couldn't speak English or understand what the handout said customers were supposed to get. We walked out on them after 15 minutes of awkwardness and frustration. We found ourselves at another place (7 Girls Massage) and were quite happy. We had two young women working on us - mine in particular was quite entertaining as she seemed to hit on me, in a mostly joking way. We kidded around with them despite language barriers, using English, Chinese and Khmer.



A year later reminiscing on the past, I can conjure up mostly positive memories. It isn't until I go back and read old emails that I'm reminded that it was profusely hot. So hot, that just being had me sweating buckets. I guess it's something I don't really like to think back on, but funny how I can have nearly blocked it out completely. So in case you're considering - Siem Reap in late Feb is damn hot.

One thing I do remember clearly is the niceness of the people. Outside of cabbies always wanting more money, if we ever had a chance to chat with someone they were always super nice. Our tuk tuk driver, Sunny, got drunk with us and another cabbie, Manil, treated us to mangoes, chicken and rice, while we played Crazy 8's and Cambodian Poker (a close relative of Vietnamese Poker) by a lake where locals could rent clothes to go swimming. Even the steamed bun man was friendly and wanted us to take his picture for memory's sake.


One of the funniest incidents was when Tuyet and I were wandering around the streets and popped out of an alley onto a main touristy road. A group of Korean tourists were clearly excited and asked me to take their picture. I gladly obliged. Not soon after they asked if they could have their picture with ME! I was quite surprised, and they gave the camera to Tuyet. Finally one of them tried to confirm that I was Cambodian...a local. HA! I had to laugh. Every local I had met was half my size, both in height and in width. The only thing we had in common was black hair and dark skin. So that explained why they were so excited - they thought they had finally found a local. We corrected them and told them we were both American, with me being of Chinese descent and Tuyet being of Vietnamese. They were hardly dismayed - they continued to be friendly and have their picture taken with me. So strange.