Indochina Day 25, Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Tuesday June 21^th

We started early today for the long drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Looking out the window while listening to music was the order of the day. I enjoyed watching the different things the Cambodians carry on their various types of vehicles. They use a different type of vehicle as a 'bus'. It's a metal cart that they tow using a motorcycle. There are wooden planks for seats, and these can be removed to use the device for carrying other loads. Saw a couple of pigs trussed up on their backs alive on motorcycles and off to the market, as well as a bike loaded with little chicks. Also drove past lots of wooden shack type houses on stilts with rice paddies behind them.

We stopped for a toilet stop and snacks at a roadside market. There were people selling fruit and bugs and spiders as snacks! Check out what the woman has on her plate. There were buckets of live trarantula type spiders that they raise in this area for food. We stopped later for lunch at a nice place by the river and had a good meal while it poured rain for a half hour.

We arrived in Siem Reap by 3:30. We checked in, had time for a swim in the nice pool, before meeting up in the lobby for our orientation walk to the old part of town and then dinner. This used to be a small fishing village until Angkor Wat was rediscovered in the 1950's. Now it is a booming tourist town with lots of shops, restaurants, bars, a couple of markets and two malls. We walked around to get our bearings and then went to a bar to have a drink during Happy Hour. We enjoyed a couple of beers for $0.50 each. I spent the time talking to a young Chinese American medical student, Kelly, who is travelling with her Indonesian medical student boyfriend, Richard. It was obvious that they'd had a fight of some sort, as they didn't sit together on the bus today and the body language spoke volumes. So, I sat with her and tried to cheer her up. Seemed to work and she loosened up over the evening. I sat with her at dinner as well, and we enjoyed good food, a few laughs and another beer. We all headed to the night market for a night cap, before taking a tuk tuk back to the hotel to catch some shut eye before a really early morning.