siem reap

Hey all,

It's an odd time for a blog update (for me, anyway), but the internet seems to come and go here so I'll post now while I can!

Since writing last, we've made it to Cambodia. Woohoo! I like it here much more than I expected to, though the journey here wasn't exactly one of our finer moments-- we spent the whole day taking careful precautions to avoid getting scammed into paying $35 for the theoretically $20 Cambodian visa, but we didn't quite pull it off. I'll get to that in a bit.

Anyway, our second morning is Bangkok was great. We were just jet-lagged enough to wake up around sunrise, so we had a pretty full morning filled with lots of yummy street food (like Thai tea in a bag), and saw the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.



We decided to take a train to the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border, and we made sure to have American cash so that we could try to sidestep a few of the major scams (being overcharged for visas, and being taken to a mediocre guesthouse by bus companies) The train ride was beautiful, but we messed up on our way off the train when a tuk-tuk driver asked if we wanted to go to the border. (Moral: never let a tuk-tuk driver choose you.) Long story short, we accidentally ended up at a travel agency instead of the border, and we ended up getting caught up in both scams. BOOOOOO. It was arranged that a taxi would take us from Poipet to Siem Reap (the town near Angkor Wat), which was fine, but that the agency would reserve a guesthouse for us. We arrived, exhausted, at the "No Problem Villa" guesthouse around 9 p.m. It looked reasonable, so we checked in. Thankfully though, I read reviews online before we went to bed, and learned that it had bed bugs. ICK. We covered ourselves with deet and survived the night with only a couple of bites.

We checked out promptly at about 6:30 a.m. the next morning and made our way to the Shadow of Angkor guesthouse, whch turned out to have a swimming pool. SO GOOD. I've never been so happy to find an unheated pool in the shade-- after a full hour in it we were actually a little bit cold! So, so happy.

By the time we finished swimming it was still only about 11 a.m., so we had tons of time to explore Siem Reap. We had a lunchtime feast at a super yummy Khmer restaurant for about $3 each, wandered the marketplace, then decided it was time for a massage-- not as glamourous as it sounds, necessarily, but worthwhile. In Cambodia, there is a business called Seeing Hands that gives blind people an opportunity to work as masseuses for $5 per hour. The location was in the main part of town, but up a quite poor alleyway that looked basically like what you see in infomercials for sponsoring Cambodian children. The people there (blind and otherwise) were all sweet and friendly, so it felt very safe, but sad. I can see why people disagree on how long one "should" or "needs to " stay in Cambodia on a trip like ours. There is enough time to see the sights in just 3 or 4 days, but I certainly think there would be value in spending more time with the people here. I've heard the same is true, though, in many of these countries-- so I'm looking forward to slowing down later in the trip.

Since it was likely to be our only day in town, we decided to just walk around and enjoy the town at sunset before heading to the night market, which was lovely. By the way, I've been spending way too much money in the marketplaces, but I'm having a really hard time turning down deals like three scarves for four dollars. But, we're only four days into our trip, so I suspect I'll develop better willpower (out of budget necessity, if nothing else) soon.











I suppose that's it for now. We're actually in the middle of "seeing Angkor Wat" day, but we had seen the major temples by noon so we decided to come home for lunch and a nap and return for sunset. Sooo, I will talk about Angkor Wat next time.


Love,
Sara