Day 12/13 - Siem Reap

The new hotel

So as usual apologies for the massive delays in updating, no excuses, just getting lazy! We must finally be in holiday mode.  So when we last left you we were on the bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.  Now this was a real experience in itself, before leaving we were advised to only travel by day as it was too dangerous at night.  After seeing what passes as the National highway here, I can see this was definitely good advice.   The condition of the road could only be described as horrific, with the bus regularly crossing to the wrong side of the road to avoid pot holes, the horn was constantly in use, and when there was oncoming traffic? Well we just rode the pot holes, though that word doesn’t really seem adequate, they were more like craters than pot holes.

Despite these minor challenges we made it safe and sound to Siem Re

The new hotel breakfast table & pool

ap, and after some negotiation caught a tuk-tuk to the hotel.  We were starting to wonder what we might have signed up for, after a few twisty turns down dark dirt roads, however the hotel ended up being lovely.  So after a long day on the road we were just thankful for a nice rainfall shower, and a comfy bed with a/c cranking. 

The next day we were free to explore Siem Reap, and we found that it was much more to our liking than Phnom Penh.  For a start, it seems to be much cleaner, and it is also much centralised and easier to navigate, with just a few blocks covering most of the markets, pubs and restaurants.  No doubt this is partly due to the fact that it is significantly smaller than Phnom Penh, and the sprawl is still quite large when it comes to local venues, however as a foreigner it seems to be much more tourist geared.  So we spent our time wandering around the town, SR seems to be much more of a late rise late finish town, with several markets having only a few vendors, or the local

Hotel bathroom with rainfall shower 

geared sellers open with most of them closed.  Again we noticed that while it is quite dusty here, the piles of garbage in the streets so obvious in PP were not present here.

The markets also seemed to have much wider range of goods than we found in PP, maybe we were just looking in the wrong places, but we didn’t have to go far here to find a good range of souvenirs, obviously all at “good price for you sir, buy something lady” prices.  One relief we did find here is that there are far fewer children on the street trying to sell you goods as you eat, though the tuk-tuk drivers are just as intent on winning your business, and while it can get a bit wearing over time, it is usually always in good humour, and a “maybe later” is enough to placate them while they promise “I’ll wait here for you”.  When we did end up going back to one later, he nearly fell of his seat!

So after wandering through the day we headed back to the hotel for a swim in the beautiful pool, and a relax on the sun chairs they have nearby, only to be brought glasses of iced water and a platter of sliced mango!  I have to say I think that’s the closest to a life of luxury I’ve ever found myself!  Once we felt fully recuperated we headed back into town to check out the night scene.  The happening stre

Cocktails at Terrace des Elephants

et is aptly named “pub street” and while it is definitely tourist catered it is a great place to sit and watch the world go by.  It has a large variety of restaurant/bars, with most offering a combination of Khmer food, and Khmer interpretation of “Western” food. To be honest, while it shames me to admit it (as I’m always pretty judgemental of tourists that I see eating western cuisine) after all our tummy incidents lately, it was a big relief to eat some comfort food. 

It also proved to be quite entertaining, as Khmer interpretation of our meals definitely does not mean an accurate translation.  For instance one dish I just had to try was a “Chicken Saltibuca” which ended up being a fried chicken breast piled with bacon, covered with a very cream based sauce, and with fries on the side.  Not what I was expecting, but you also didn’t hear me complain!  Cambodian cuisine however is very delicious, unlike many

Aptly named street

Asian countries there is not a big focus on heat (spicy) here, and rather they have a real sweet tooth, which is often balanced with sour.

As I’m covering two nights with this post, I also have to mention our venture down to the local Austrian restaurant, which is at the end of another half closed dirt street about 10 minutes’ walk from town.   We decided to do a recon earlier in the day, as we had heard it was quite hard to find, at one stage I’m pretty sure Giss was ready to abandon me when we got to a very “local” looking area, complete with multiple street dogs roaming, however to her credit we soldiered on and finally found the place.  We just walked in to check out the menu, and somehow I found myself talked into an Erdinger (a German beer) by the big bellied, and bigger personalitied owner “Roman”. 

Lovely lamps in the river. In case you were wondering
they have extension leads dangling through the water
plugged into power boards floating on wooden rafts.
Safety first!

I am proud to say this was my first beer before midday the whole holiday, and since Australia is 3 hours ahead, it was already 2pm there, so I carry no guilt at all.  So after promising to come back later, we continued our wanderings.  Returning later that night, we found Roman…. Pretty tipsy to say the least.  His personality is pretty huge, and it was such a polar opposite of the Cambodian people that it was most of the fun of the visit.  After ordering a schnitzel he decided I would like the ribs better, and for Giss? Well she was still a bit crook so thought she might have a small side, though she ended up with the world’s largest Cordon Bleu.  The ribs were pretty darn nice, definitely amazing as far as European food goes in Cambodia, though I still wish I had tried a schnitzel.  Neither of us could finish our meals, and by this stage Roman seemed to have enjoyed enough of his own beer tap, so we decided to hit the road.

Ribs, garlic bread, potato salad, and kraut

Big chicken time

So all in all, so far Siem Reap has left a much better impression on us, it is cleaner, better organised, and easier to get around.  Our next adventure here takes us out to the temples in the Angkor Archaeological park, where we will no doubt be battling hoards of other tourists, so until then, we’ll continue to enjoy the 50c beer and $3-5 meals.