Days 51/52 - Siem Reap
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday 28th September
Wednesday 29th September
I was awoken at 4:45am on Tuesday morning by the people in the room next to mine - they were getting up (presumably) to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. As I was awake, I decided to get a drink from my fridge (yep, I was staying at a high class establishment - I not only had my own room and bathroom, but a TV and fridge too!). Flicking the light switch - no light came on. Hmm, maybe a blown bulb I thought. But no, the heat in my room soon confirmed that all power was off. As I'd booked for a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat the next morning, I was hoping that the electricity wasn't turned off during the night or else I would be dressing in the dark the next morning. (I checked with the owners later, who said that a few rooms had been affected by an overload).
The power was on when I re-awoke at 9am. It was nice to have a sleep-in, finally having a day where I hadn't booked anything and had no place to be. I returned to my new favourite restaurant, Cafe Central, and had a delicious breakfast of cinnamon French toast with maple syrup - yum.
The rest of the day was devoted to doing nothing. I watched a DVD at the guesthouse, spent some time walking around the town, and went to a 'spa' for a pedicure. Well, I walked in wanting a pedicure and walked out 3 hours later, having been talked into (quite easily) extending my pedicure to a foot scrub, foot reflexology and massage for a grand total of $18! I also booked a mini-van for Thursday to Phnom Penh, and investigated options for guesthouses there. I can't remember if I spoke of this previously, but Cambodia has two currencies, the US dollar and the Cambodian real, with an exchange rate of $US1 - 4300 real. (How well do I always time it for my trips overseas! Last time I went to the USA in 2008 was when the dollar reached it's all time high against the US dollar, and now it's near record levels again!) No coins are in use in Cambodia, so for example if you pay for a $4.25 meal with a $5 note, you will be given the 75c in real (about 3000 real). So it's making for some interesting maths, converting Aussie dollars to US dollars and Cambodian reals!
It really sounds a lot of the time like I do nothing, but you'd be quite surprised at how busy I am when I have a 'do nothing' day. Simple things like buying a moisturisor can take up hours - walking across town to check in at every pharmacy or supermarket for the right item. Posting photos on the internet can also take hours - some internet cafes are extremely slow; some USB drives don't work; etc etc. There are always tours and buses to book, laundry to drop in, blogs to write, and food to eat - days revolve around meals quite heavily sometimes!!
I had an early night as the next morning I had a 4:30am wake-up call. Seriously, 4:30!!? I was quite surprised with the energy I had when I jumped out of bed though, and was downstairs five minutes early to meet my tour guide. This time we would be using a remork (motorbike-tuk-tuk) rather than a sedan, and we joined the 100s of other tourists on a piligramage to Angkor Wats. The lights of the remorks and cars in the early morning looked just like the headlamps of the hikers on Mt Kinabalu had. (Random fact of the day: In 2000, Cambodia had only 5000 international visitors for the year. Last year, they had over 2 million).
We sat on the steps of the library ruins near the lake that overlooks Angkor Wat and waited the sun to rise. Unfortunately, there was no spectacular view that morning - the light seemed to go from black to clouded in an instant, and the clouds prevented an image of Angkor Wat from being reflected in the lake. It was at this point that my guide, who I had booked the tour with until 10am, told me he had to leave to éscort his 90 year old grandmother to the pagodá', and left me in the hands of the remork driver. I doubted his story - I think he had actually booked to be the tour guide of another group that day, and as the tours started at 8am he needed to bail from me. I can't really blame him for double-booking though, given the small wage he earned.
My 'half-day' tour took me out to two previously unexplored ruins that were quite a distance from Angkor Wat. I had to pay the remork driver an extra $5 for the drive (this is the norm, not a rip-off) and he needed to pull into a 'service station' on the way to refuel. When getting petrol here, you pull up to a roadside stand where a litre of petrol is housed in a glass container, similar to the containers that milk was carried in in the early 20th century. Before he poured it in though, the driver had to undo the padlock he had on his tank - wow, people must really be desperate here!
Although the ruins were great (I picked up a mini-stalker at one of them - a child of about 10 would follow me wherever I went, just watching me from a distance - at least he wasn't trying to sell me something though!), it was the trip out that interested me most. Children riding those óld women' bicycles to school, school bags merely plastic bags, and often dinking two or three younger siblings (often the one riding was only about 8!). Properties with homemade scarecrows at the front of every property, along with signs of the ''People's Party of Cambodia' (seemingly the only political party here?) The image that struck me most though was of a young boy of about 7 with his grandfather. The grandfather was in a wheelchair, which consisted of a cane basket on wheels, and a rope was tied around the back of it in a loop. The young boy stood at the front inside the loop, and pulled the wheelchair along.
I was back in Siem Reap town before 10am and re-showered and dressed, already sweaty from the day's activities. Back down to my favourite restaurant for breakfast, I then needed to find some hair ties as I'd lost my last one. Sounds easy right? Head down to a chemist/supermarket/department store and purchase! Um ... not that easy. I think I walked the whole town and checked in every store before settling for some rubber bands. In every other Asian city I've been to, there's always Western malls and Western shops to browse in. However, there is no such concept in Cambodia - apart from the couple of Western food options (here, it was KFC, Swensons ice-cream and Pizza Company), the rest of the stores were more like market stalls.
I swapped a few books I'd read at a second hand bookstore, watched another DVD (Julie and Julia), and decided to 'branch out' and try somewhere new for 'lunch' (at 3pm). Despite being so daring, the cafe I ended up in had exactly the same menu as Cafe Central ... I noticed this menu to be quite common around town! I finally found an internet cafe with a fast connection that enabled me to upload my photos over the past few days (there are more on my Facebook page if you're interested - Facebook handles images a lot better than blogspot).
In the evening, I watched yet another movie (Date Movie) and then went for a walk down to the Night Market. I'd seen the Night Market from the main street over the past few nights, and thought it was simply a few shops off the main street. How wrong I turned out to be - it was quite large, and actually had some innovative products! I most enjoyed a shop that had wall hangings of Tintin - some covers from the comics, some made up pictures - I wanted to buy one for Mark but it just wasn't practical.
I enjoyed watching 'Rush' (the Aussie drama) for the first time when I returned to the guesthouse, and then flicked onto the Asian news channel to watch the latest on the Commonwealth Games and India, as I have been doing consistently over the past week. The Aussie netball team has arrived and have given Delhi good reports (can you believe an interview with Sharelle McMahon made the Cambodian paper? Do they even play netball here?) and it is still all systems go for me at the moment.
Wednesday 29th September
I was awoken at 4:45am on Tuesday morning by the people in the room next to mine - they were getting up (presumably) to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. As I was awake, I decided to get a drink from my fridge (yep, I was staying at a high class establishment - I not only had my own room and bathroom, but a TV and fridge too!). Flicking the light switch - no light came on. Hmm, maybe a blown bulb I thought. But no, the heat in my room soon confirmed that all power was off. As I'd booked for a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat the next morning, I was hoping that the electricity wasn't turned off during the night or else I would be dressing in the dark the next morning. (I checked with the owners later, who said that a few rooms had been affected by an overload).
The power was on when I re-awoke at 9am. It was nice to have a sleep-in, finally having a day where I hadn't booked anything and had no place to be. I returned to my new favourite restaurant, Cafe Central, and had a delicious breakfast of cinnamon French toast with maple syrup - yum.
The rest of the day was devoted to doing nothing. I watched a DVD at the guesthouse, spent some time walking around the town, and went to a 'spa' for a pedicure. Well, I walked in wanting a pedicure and walked out 3 hours later, having been talked into (quite easily) extending my pedicure to a foot scrub, foot reflexology and massage for a grand total of $18! I also booked a mini-van for Thursday to Phnom Penh, and investigated options for guesthouses there. I can't remember if I spoke of this previously, but Cambodia has two currencies, the US dollar and the Cambodian real, with an exchange rate of $US1 - 4300 real. (How well do I always time it for my trips overseas! Last time I went to the USA in 2008 was when the dollar reached it's all time high against the US dollar, and now it's near record levels again!) No coins are in use in Cambodia, so for example if you pay for a $4.25 meal with a $5 note, you will be given the 75c in real (about 3000 real). So it's making for some interesting maths, converting Aussie dollars to US dollars and Cambodian reals!
It really sounds a lot of the time like I do nothing, but you'd be quite surprised at how busy I am when I have a 'do nothing' day. Simple things like buying a moisturisor can take up hours - walking across town to check in at every pharmacy or supermarket for the right item. Posting photos on the internet can also take hours - some internet cafes are extremely slow; some USB drives don't work; etc etc. There are always tours and buses to book, laundry to drop in, blogs to write, and food to eat - days revolve around meals quite heavily sometimes!!
I had an early night as the next morning I had a 4:30am wake-up call. Seriously, 4:30!!? I was quite surprised with the energy I had when I jumped out of bed though, and was downstairs five minutes early to meet my tour guide. This time we would be using a remork (motorbike-tuk-tuk) rather than a sedan, and we joined the 100s of other tourists on a piligramage to Angkor Wats. The lights of the remorks and cars in the early morning looked just like the headlamps of the hikers on Mt Kinabalu had. (Random fact of the day: In 2000, Cambodia had only 5000 international visitors for the year. Last year, they had over 2 million).
We sat on the steps of the library ruins near the lake that overlooks Angkor Wat and waited the sun to rise. Unfortunately, there was no spectacular view that morning - the light seemed to go from black to clouded in an instant, and the clouds prevented an image of Angkor Wat from being reflected in the lake. It was at this point that my guide, who I had booked the tour with until 10am, told me he had to leave to éscort his 90 year old grandmother to the pagodá', and left me in the hands of the remork driver. I doubted his story - I think he had actually booked to be the tour guide of another group that day, and as the tours started at 8am he needed to bail from me. I can't really blame him for double-booking though, given the small wage he earned.
My 'half-day' tour took me out to two previously unexplored ruins that were quite a distance from Angkor Wat. I had to pay the remork driver an extra $5 for the drive (this is the norm, not a rip-off) and he needed to pull into a 'service station' on the way to refuel. When getting petrol here, you pull up to a roadside stand where a litre of petrol is housed in a glass container, similar to the containers that milk was carried in in the early 20th century. Before he poured it in though, the driver had to undo the padlock he had on his tank - wow, people must really be desperate here!
Although the ruins were great (I picked up a mini-stalker at one of them - a child of about 10 would follow me wherever I went, just watching me from a distance - at least he wasn't trying to sell me something though!), it was the trip out that interested me most. Children riding those óld women' bicycles to school, school bags merely plastic bags, and often dinking two or three younger siblings (often the one riding was only about 8!). Properties with homemade scarecrows at the front of every property, along with signs of the ''People's Party of Cambodia' (seemingly the only political party here?) The image that struck me most though was of a young boy of about 7 with his grandfather. The grandfather was in a wheelchair, which consisted of a cane basket on wheels, and a rope was tied around the back of it in a loop. The young boy stood at the front inside the loop, and pulled the wheelchair along.
I was back in Siem Reap town before 10am and re-showered and dressed, already sweaty from the day's activities. Back down to my favourite restaurant for breakfast, I then needed to find some hair ties as I'd lost my last one. Sounds easy right? Head down to a chemist/supermarket/department store and purchase! Um ... not that easy. I think I walked the whole town and checked in every store before settling for some rubber bands. In every other Asian city I've been to, there's always Western malls and Western shops to browse in. However, there is no such concept in Cambodia - apart from the couple of Western food options (here, it was KFC, Swensons ice-cream and Pizza Company), the rest of the stores were more like market stalls.
I swapped a few books I'd read at a second hand bookstore, watched another DVD (Julie and Julia), and decided to 'branch out' and try somewhere new for 'lunch' (at 3pm). Despite being so daring, the cafe I ended up in had exactly the same menu as Cafe Central ... I noticed this menu to be quite common around town! I finally found an internet cafe with a fast connection that enabled me to upload my photos over the past few days (there are more on my Facebook page if you're interested - Facebook handles images a lot better than blogspot).
In the evening, I watched yet another movie (Date Movie) and then went for a walk down to the Night Market. I'd seen the Night Market from the main street over the past few nights, and thought it was simply a few shops off the main street. How wrong I turned out to be - it was quite large, and actually had some innovative products! I most enjoyed a shop that had wall hangings of Tintin - some covers from the comics, some made up pictures - I wanted to buy one for Mark but it just wasn't practical.
I enjoyed watching 'Rush' (the Aussie drama) for the first time when I returned to the guesthouse, and then flicked onto the Asian news channel to watch the latest on the Commonwealth Games and India, as I have been doing consistently over the past week. The Aussie netball team has arrived and have given Delhi good reports (can you believe an interview with Sharelle McMahon made the Cambodian paper? Do they even play netball here?) and it is still all systems go for me at the moment.
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