See Travel Blog

After a pretty hectic first ten days of this trip, today was quite chill and uneventful – giving a welcome chance to recharge batteries for the next few days.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually finding these long bus rides quite cathartic in our busy schedule.

Today we travelled from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, and there weren’t the same dramas that we had two days ago travelling into Phnom Penh.  

Again it was a Giant Ibis bus, and if that’s a Giant Ibis, I’m curious to know what the normal sized ones are like.  

Unfortunately we didn’t have our friend Mr Chow leading us today, instead his colleague Kimse was in charge everything was very slick.  Kimse is like the anthesis to Mr Chow, respectful, calm and quiet; the sort who wouldn’t say boo to a goose.

It is roughly a 6 hour journey between the first and third largest cities in Cambodia.  In terms of population, it’s not close.  Phnom Penh has over ten times as many inhabitants.  The journey cuts through nice rural landscape, but there’s not much of significant interest to see on the way.

Leaving Phnom Penh, we notice a lot of monks wearing bright orange robes.  We were told yesterday that they go round door to door, collecting money for the Buddhist temple.  The people are taught from an early age that if they give money and do good deeds, they will become rich and successful in life – call it karma if you will.  The monks are merely facilitators in all of this.  

The bus stops at lunch at what can only be described as a wooden zoo. There are dozens of animal statues carved from wood in the car park – elephants, birds and deer are all I have time to notice.

Rural Cambodia seems to be even more underprivileged than we had seen in the outskirts of Phnom Penh.  Houses are basic wooden huts on stilts, and it’s not uncommon to see cows walking down the middle of a main road.  

Coming into Siem Reap is a very different picture.  There are big sprawling hotels, a lot of western tourists, and the place is clearly not short of money.

As the bus pulls up at the bus station, there is no sign of our driver.  It’s the first time that we’ve had any interruption in our travel plans on this trip, but even still he’s only 10 minutes or so late.  To be honest our bus had been delayed as well, so I wouldn’t blame for heading elsewhere.

He brings us to our hotel – Pierre Hotel in the centre of the town, and we check in.  There are drinks waiting for us upon arrival – purple Butterfly Gins were told, although it tastes like the gin has flown off leaving a nice refreshing fruity drink – soft drinks are more my style anyway, so no complaining here!

After checking in, we head back out for a dander and hear a bit of commotion further down the street.  It sounds like some form of parade.  

It turns out that there is a boat race here later in the week (Thursday and Friday) and teams are getting into the spirit and doing a spot of practice.  It’s all tied in to the Water festival I talked about yesterday.  

The streets have been stopped by police, as big floats drive down the street.  On top are two boats, a lot of young men and some decorations and costumes. 

There are several teams around – one of which is out on the water practicing hard.  From a standing start, the boat is gone in seconds.  There are maybe 30 people inside, and it’s a well drilled operation.  

Meanwhile, another team is unloading their boat from the trailer.  They are directed by two monks.  It is very surreal.  I’m thinking these guys are late secondary school age.  

After that excitement, we decide to go for a walk through the town, and towards the famous pub street.  It’s clear this place is very touristy.  It might be less populated than Phnom Penh, but it surely gets many more tourists, passing through between Vietnam and Thailand.  It’s turned the city into a very westernised place.  Driving in, the hotels reminded me of Orlando, Florida.

Walking further does nothing to dispel these thoughts.  The whole place is geared up for tourists – pubs, hotels, restaurants and plenty of activities.  Of course, we all know why they’re here, and hopefully tomorrow we’ll see for ourselves.

The bugs are wild – I’ve never felt anything like it.  I know this area is more jungle than any of the cities we’ve been so far, but bugs weren’t a factor on our day in the Mekong Delta, and I thought that would be worse.  

Bugs aren’t the only thing hanging around.  There are a lot of beggars walking around asking for money.  They’re just very young kids (maybe 5 or 6) that just follow you around pestering for money.  

Pub street is crazy – it’s like a slightly dumbed down version of Bui Viên walking street in Ho Chi Minh, except there are no prostitutes hanging around out the front.

There are very few locals around as well, most of the people walking on the street are white tourists.  Mum and I were in the mood for a pizza, so found an Italian restaurant about halfway down the roads. 

I’m not sure who had the better meal – us, or the bugs feasting on our skin.  It was crazy:  it genuinely felt like I we were on I’m a Celebrity… doing a bushtucker trial.  Needless to say I didn’t hang around long when the food was served – there was already enough protein on the pizza thank you very much, and I didn’t want to be eating flies as well!

We slowly meander back to the hotel after dinner, via a few market stalls, and a street seller making banana and chocolate pancakes.  Sadly they weren’t quite as nice as they sound – the pancake itself was like tough paper.

That’s a wrap for today (oops sorry more of a pancake than a wrap).  It’s early to bed for another big day of sightseeing tomorrow!