Cambodia's biggest tourist attraction
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
127
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Siam Reap,
Cambodia
Monday, February 25, 2008
That afternoon we got a bus to Siam Reap as we'd decided that even though we were both more interested in adventure and nature than historical sites, we couldn't really come to Cambodia and not visit the nation's favourite temple, Ankor Wat. As soon as we arrived we were cornered by a tukkle (my collective name) of tuk tuk drivers hassling to take us into town as apparently the bus station has moved location and we were now 9km away from town and not in the cntre as stated in the LP. We didn't believe them at first but the bus company confirmed this information so we knew we'd have to eventually choose one of them. By this point, Ollie had gone doo-lally, sticking his fingers in his ears shouting 'la la la, I can't hear you!' to the drivers but one of them was holding a sign for the guesthouse we wanted to go to and said the rise would be free
A dolphin
. We enquired.....'definitely free? No money? You take us to the guesthouse?'. 'Yes, free for you!' came the reply, so we put our faith in him and off we tukked.He was very chatty along the way, the usual stuff that foreigners in SE Asia seemed to talk about to try and be friendly.....football and David Beckham, Liverpool and the Beatles. After quite some time we arrived in the busy tourist town of Siam Reap and he took us to the guesthouse as promised. We went in and found they were full-gutted as it was a Friday night and getting quite late. So we decide to thank the driver and told him that we would have to look elsewhere as they were full. He then said that since we weren't staying there we'd have to give him $5.....now, we'd heard about free tuktuk scams which usually went alomng the lines of it being free provided you stay in the guesthouse they take you to so they get comission. We explained that if he had been after comission he shouldn't have taken us to a place that was full. He then tried to tell us that he didn't get comission but he'd hoped we'd want him to be our driver for Ankor Wat. We explained we were going there by bicycle and wouldn't need a driver and that he had said the ride was free so as far as we were concerned, end of. After a lot of discussion we decided to give in and offerered him a dollar which was plenty enough to cover the fuel but he wasn't having any of it so we walked off
Feeling like lady muck
. He then followed us, swore at us and got quite angry and said we were bad people and he never met anyone as horrible as us from England. I said he was a bad person for being horrible to tourists and makes his country look bad. I think he eventually took the dollar and tore off.After a lot of places telling us they were full we checked into Mitre Guest House for $8 and ate dinner there. Vegged out in front of the TV and watched the Inside Man.
The following day Ollie felt quite ill which wasn't suprising as the meal we'd eaten was pretty awful. The bathroom was filthy in our room so we decided to move to a place called Smiley's Guest House where we had a really good breakfast. We didn't do much all day as Ollie was feeling pretty terrible so he stayed in bed but in the evening we decided to head into town and had dinner at a cafe that is run for a charity but lo and behold we ran into the horrible green herb in the meal which makes it taste like aniseed and I couldn't eat it. Ollie had decided to play safe with some roast chicken and rice which was pretty good though.
Luckily we noticed a bakery had half price goods for sale on the way home and it just so happened to be attached to the best hotel in town (Hotel de la Paix) so we went into the main lounge area where I ate my muffin in style
Pretending we're guests in the lobby
. We'll be coming back here again for sure. Yesterday we hired bikes and rode out to a guesthouse out of town to grab breakfast where we were distracted by the pool table but were soon back on track and rode out to the Ankor Wat area. The number of tourists was unbelieveable - tuk tuks stacked back trying to get through the gates like rush hour traffic. Would you believe that even on our bikes we were being asked if we wanted a tuktuk?! You got hassled everywhere you went ranging from 'you buy drink, cold drink for you sir, only $1' to 'you buy postcard sir only $1, you come back after and buy postcard' and some young kids counting to 10 in a few european languages and asking for money after. It reminded me of all the calls in Thailand of 'you want masaaaaage sir? Massaaaaaggge for you?'
At the end of the day we decided to 'splurge' out $10 and go up in the hot air balloon on a rope so watch the sunset over Ankor Wat which was quite nice. Unfortunately sunset also meant it was getting dark and we still had to get back to town but luckily I'd got my headtorch as a backup so I rode in front with that on (got a few funny looks) and we survived the crazy traffic and made it back in one piece (just).
We headed to a bar in town to watch footy for Ollie and played some pool then checked out what was on offer in the bakery that night and had more muffins and a sarnie which was good
More sea creatures
.Today we rode out around the big loop in the Ankor Wat area and went to Ta Prom where they filmed Tombraider which was quite good for exploring although there's a lot of restrictions around the temples due to damage. We were exhaused by the time we got back as we'd cycled quite a long way and the bikes were hardly high spec (I was lucky that I had 3 gears).
We got back and went to yes, Cafe de la Prix and this time we splashed out on a bowl of muesli, sourdough bread, a wrap and some apple and cheese quiche which tasted amazing and a muffin! We managed to bag a big soft area you could lie down on in the lobby so we had our luxurious meal in style (and cost less than $5!). The muffin was supposed to be banana but tasted of pineapple so i took it back and exchanged it but ti was yet another pineapple. The hotel manager then came over and apologised, stating that there were no banana muffins that day and she would refund the money to our room! We obviously looked decent enough to stay there or they don't get many backpackers. We said it was fine and there was no problem. After a second helping of quiche I decided enough was enough and we headed off to bed.
Tomorrow we're aiming to bike to Ankor Wat at the crack of dawn for sunrise.
