If you have two weeks holiday and want to decide where to spend it, two weeks in Siem Reap may not be an obvious choice, but that's exactly where I've rocked up for almost a fortnight. But don't worry I haven't gone temple crazy, I do have my reasons! My Thai visa, even though for a year still meant that I needed to report in to immigration after 90 days. I had heard stories that this could take all day as the new tourist visa rules meant that all those people who previously were whizzing about doing visa runs to the border were now crowding out the small immigration office on Samui. They are building a new one but it isn't finished..... I also needed to get to Cambodia ahead of time and needed enough time here to get a Vietnam visa. So all in all it made sense to get out here a couple of days ahead of when I really needed to be and also do an advance Swanley Travel recce for my VIP visitors expected soon. So am happily ensconced in the FCC Angkor and am equally happy wandering the streets and walking along the river. I am re discovering Pub Street, a great place to people watch and enjoy the pleasure of a glass of decent why why (I don't say thanks to the French very often, but this time thanks for the wine legacy...) and at only £2. Can't say I am missing Mont Clair wine yet... I am also just getting my bearings from the last time I was here and whilst I can't see any big developments it is definitely busier. But there is still that old charm of dirty streets, broken pavements, markets, backpacker children and backpacker adults. The bottom seems to have fallen out of the photocopied book business though I guess Kindle finally put paid to that although you can now download them cheaply at ROGUE, as you can download $2 movies there as well, creating another business failure out of the copy DVD market too! Big tour groups, although they will be here, are, I think tucked away in the bigger tourist hotels on the airport road when they are not "doing Angkor Wat". Most people just drop in here for a couple of days, do the temples and then leave. I seem to be doing the opposite..... And I am having to get used to the new traffic.
Unlike Thailand who drive on the left, I now have to remember to look the other way. Crossing the road is impossible at times until I recalled my old Vietnam training - take a deep breath and go, the sea of motorbikes should part around you.... So far so good... And the drivers here do seem a little slower than the Thai's. There are a few sets of traffic lights here too even sporting little green men at the crossing and unlike the Thai's the Cambodians do actually stop at red lights, a real novelty... On the way from the airport the driver explained the police stopping some motorbike riders who were being fined "one dollar" for not wearing their helmets. No mirror on your bike is also "one dollar" and not obeying a red light is also "one dollar". I wonder how many "one dollars" end up in the police pockets?
Yesterday I walked into the Angkor Park in the rush hour, all tourist life was in the traffic. Big coaches of Wendy Wu type Chinese tourists jammed into big coaches, streams of ten tuk tuks with groups of Travel Indochina type posher smaller group tourists, gorgeous independent travellers (as you find with Swanley Travel) in their own tuk tuks, rich American's wafting in from Raffles in their aircon limo's and the Germans and Swiss on their push bikes.... and me bringing up the rear in my flip flops. And that reminds me, my Jawbone UP told me recently that I had completed my thousandth flip flop mile in 88 days, way ahead of my 100 day target. I am now trying to pat my own back...
Today I walked through a bizarre sight in the park in front of the a Royal residence. I have never seen so many brides in my life. All being attended by cameras, video cameras, make up artists. Some looking graceful in traditional Khmer dress but most looking far from that in pretty bad Western ones. I do feel the poor girl below was rather badly advised.... Perhaps "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" is on tv here... I think it's all about getting the pictures, I think the ceremony itself follows on weeks if not months later.
But Siem Reap itself, although it has brash places like Pub Street, it also has lovely little lanes with some great shops and restaurants.
Oh and of course some big temples... I made my first visit this time this morning and unlike last time, about seven years ago, there was some water in the reflecting pool and here's the pic to prove it!
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Location:Siem Reap, Cambodia
