Siem Reap Day 1

It was finally time to depart the city that smells like Durian – one of the major reasons Phnom Penh smelled so bad. The day before at lunch we had made arrangements to get a ride to the bus station that would take us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. We caught the 8:30 am bus that would take around 5 hours to get us to Siem Reap. I sat with Haruka and together we enjoyed the “in-bus” entertainment; a Cambodian singer on TV. The music wasn't awful, in fact it was much more enjoyable to listen to than the American crap they began playing later. Haruka & I had a good time together laughing at one of the parts of this video – a dance. Basically, this man was singing and his back up dancers were circling around him doing some arm move that resembled somewhat the chicken dance we have in our culture. It became the butt of our jokes for the next few days.

The bus ride was a really good way to see the country some more. Cambodia a really arrid country with very little vegetation. In some spots there is vegetation, but for the majority of this bus ride, I was just staring out at red dirt with a few trees or bushes scattered in no pattern. Their places of dwelling all sat alongside the road, not too much different from anything I had seen yet. Mainly shacks, wood homes that look like they haven't been updated in dozens of years. Kids are running naked, adults are laying in hammocks, families are gathered around a picnic table, a few stores trying to sell random items. Every now and then you go past farms, where you see cows that look hungry and men working in the rice paddies.

We stopped at a town for lunch that is famous for eating spiders. Don't worry – eating spiders would be against my vegetarian beliefs. Brian went off on his own, while the remaining 3 of us picked the closest available restaurant. I had vegetable noodles, this was probably the dish I ordered the most while being in this country. All it really is – is a packet of ramen noodles that has cooked vegetables on it with a tasty sauce (the sauce was probably meat based, but what can ya do?) . Our 30 minute lunch break ended and we all climbed back onto the bus. Only a few hours more and we finally reached Siem Reap. As we pulled into the Siem Reap “bus station” - I saw the man holding the sign with Katie's name on it. We greeted him as we got off the bus and the 4 of us were divided into two different Tuk-Tuk's.

We hadn't even been in the Tuk-tuk 10 minutes and I already could detect a large difference in this town from anything I had seen yet in Cambodia. This is the town that all the tourists stay in while seeing Angkor Wat; thus it brings in a lot of money from other countries. The houses weren't shacks, the people weren't begging, it smelled fine, everything about it was cleaner, nicer and more welcoming. Even the weather didn't seem as hot to me.

We were taken to our guesthouse, “Two Dragon's” that is owned by an ex-pat. Our guest house was sooo cute! I shared a room with Haruka while Brian & Katie took the other room. We had intended to watch the sunset over Angkor Wat this evening, but our Tuk-Tuk driver's had told us it was going to rain, so we cancelled the plans. The change of plans led us with free time for the rest of the evening which we discussed over some beer at the guesthouse. Our first plan of action was to go for a small stroll around the area to get a feel for it. We walked over a bridge that covered some pretty dirty water and into an area that had beautiful trees and flowers.

Some sort of fern, viney, plant was completely enveloping ancient trees. From the top of the trees hung a bunch of bats. It reminded me of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney. I remember seeing the same bats hang over my head down under.

From there we decided to do some more shopping at markets. These markets were much more spacious and open than the ones we had shopped in at Phnom Penh. I bought myself a skirt that became a staple of my attire for the remainder of my trip. We strolled on down to the food area and had some “Special Pizza.” The food was so cheap here, just like in Phnom Penh, even with beer. I ordered some sort of vegetarian pizza. The next stop was the bars! There is a street in Siem Reap creatively named “Pub Street” because well, that's what it was. A street full of bars and restaurants that caters specifically to the tourist in the area. It was cute but it still lacked the typical American bar that we college graduates are accustomed to. Cambodia, just like Japan mainly has beer gatherings at restaurants. Mingling doesn't really exist for some reason, so we had a few beers and went back early since the next day was jam packed with things to see and do.

That best part comes next...