Siem Reap, Cambodia

When we initially started this trip we wanted to see as many places as we possibly could, however, we have come to like spending time in one place and thoroughly exploring it before moving. This is also nice because it means we don’t have to lug our giant bag as often. Plus, it seems no matter the mode of transportation traveling takes the entire day. It doesn’t matter if we are taking the bus to a different town or flying to another country, the entire day is consumed by travel. So, we have decided these last few months are not going to be about seeing as much as we can, but instead really getting to know a place. So, we spent 10 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Cambodia is a difficult place to describe. It was once the largest empire on Earth, but is now a very poor country with lots of poverty. The people here have been through some very tough times in the recent past, especially during the reign of the Khmer Rouge at the end of the 1970’s. The Khmer Rouge regime not only wiped out millions of people, it almost succeeded in destroying a lot of the traditional culture, and they also set the country way back in terms of technology. We have encountered a lot of poverty. We have been approached by dozens of very young children selling postcards, bracelets, flutes and magnets and telling us the money is so they can go to school. It is absolutely heartbreaking. The main tourist area of Siem Reap, Pub Street, is home to the land mine band, a group of land mine victims who have formed a band to make money instead of begging (they are really good too!).

Pub Street is full of cool bars and upscale restaurants where western dishes cost around $7-15 and local dishes cost $3-4 (and for the most part, everything is in US dollars, even the ATM’s give US dollars. The riel is the official currency but for the most part everything is priced in dollars. Although, there is no change so if something costs $2.50, and we paid with a $5 we would get back $2 and 2000 riel, the equivalent of $0.50). However, I cannot help but think Pub Street is not just the main tourist place, but also almost exclusively for tourists, since dishes that price seem to be out of the price range of many Cambodians. We got a foot massage for $2 for half an hour. Even if the masseuse is making the entire $2, spending $7 per person on dinner seems very extravagant!

There are also issues with electricity. The first 2 nights we spent in Siem Reap we spent in a room with only a fan and Cambodia is HOT. Hot and humid. On the beaches of Thailand we enjoyed ocean breezes, but here no such thing exists. So the first 2 nights were pretty tough and we didn’t get a lot of sleep, it was just too hot. We decided to spoil ourselves and upgrade to an air conditioning room for the third and fourth nights at our guesthouse. We enjoyed the AC for a large part of the day and then went down to Pub Street to get a massage and have some dinner. While we were there, the lights went out a few times but came back on within a few seconds. We didn’t think much of it since the lights came back on. Until we were walking back to our guesthouse and kept passing houses and shops lit by candlelight… we started to  get worried. Sure enough, the power was out at our guesthouse as well. They had a generator going so that the lobby area was lit up, but that glorious air conditioning we were so looking forward to was gone. We didn’t even have a fan. Just lots of hot, still air in our room. The proprietor of our guesthouse informed us that the lights stayed on in Pub Street because they were connected to the government generators. He also informed us that the power would be down all night because it was too dark for anyone to see what they were doing, so they would resume work on it in the morning. It was a long, hot night. Neither of us slept much so finally about 2am we decided to go sit on the balcony (where it was several degrees cooler and there was a slight breeze) so we went and watched movies on the computer until we had cooled down and gotten quite sleepy. The power eventually came back on the next day around 1:30pm. We enjoyed one more air conditioned night at the first place we stayed before we moved on to a guesthouse closer to Pub Street. Once we moved we felt that we liked Siem Reap more. It was closer to walk to Pub Street and the streets were not quite as dirty. One thing that we noticed a lot of was trash. We saw many, many people from vendors to tourists to police officers open or unwrap something and just drop the trash where they stood. Consequently, the streets had a lot of trash in them and the river that we walked past from our first guesthouse was filled with floating trash and debris. Again, it was heartbreaking to see. I guess not being able to see all that trash helped us to put it out of our minds and enjoy the city a little more. I am not sure how I feel about that either.

However, I feel that I have been focusing on the negatives of Siem Reap and there are so many positives. The people, for example, are incredibly friendly. We were waiting for a van to pick us up for a tour and it was running very late and we had no less than 4 people offer to help or call the company. One was even a tuk-tuk driver who would otherwise be enticing us to ride with him. We have also been enjoying the cheapness of the country, we have stuck mainly to traditional Khmer food since we have been here and have found dishes to be very reasonable, around $2.50 a plate. We have also gone to get several foot massages and fruit shakes (fresh, tropical fruit from passion fruit and guava to mangoes, banana and pineapple pureed with ice and coconut milk- such a refreshing and relatively healthy afternoon treat!).

We even tried foot baths where little fish eat the dead skin on your feet. It is a really bizarre feeling and it tickles SO MUCH!!

However, eventually I got used to it and enjoyed letting the fish nibble on my feet. Nick, however, was really weirded out and barely got more than his heels in before he quit because it was too weird and tickled too much. There are plenty of wonderful things to see and do in the Kingdom of Wonder!