In the morning, arround 6.30, we had breakfast in the guesthouse. After this we left with a tuk tuk to the pier, got on the fast boat and off we were to Siem Reap, our last destination with the four of us together.
After Siem Reap my sister, brother and father were to leave by plane to Ho Chi Minh City, then a transit to Singapore, stay there a few days and then back to home for them!
The boat trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is ok. We had a fast boat, and it was really fast! It was making fish sauce for sure. The first part of the trip was still through the Tonle Sap River, and with a nice view of the forest and small villages. Then after an hour or two/three we entered the lake, were you could imagine yourself on a sea. You could see nothing but water arround you. The lake is arround 50km wide, and about 120 km long, this can vary with the season. In about 6 hours the boat took us to Siem Reap. There was no real harbour or so, because during the rainy season the water is higher and the boats stop further inland. All the houses here are floating, so they move with the water! Luckily we booked allready a guesthouse, the Okay Guesthouse from Phnom Penh had a partner in Siem Reap: Hello Guesthouse! The guesthgouse owner was waiting by the boat to pick us up and bring us there. There were about 20 screaming people at the boat, all wanting to offer you a place to stay, a moto, a tuk tuk or whatever. We arrived in the guesthouse, but it wasn’t exactly like the Okay GH, but okay, we stayed. At 16.30 we went to the Angkor Complex, about 3 km from there, to buy a entrance pass, that would allow us to view the sunset from ther for free that evening.
We got the tickets; 40 dollar for the tree day passes fro Rob, Carolien and Mark, and 60 dollar for the 7 day pass for me. We got in. Wow! So much tourists here i didnt expect…. Busloads and busloads and busloads… And then there were the tuk tuks… 100′s of them! We went up a mountain, and up there was our first temple, completely crowded with tourists all wanting to see the sunset. The sunset was nice, but i took more pictures of tourists taking pictures of the sunset than ik took of the sunset itself! It was so funny….
We went back to the city, walked a little bit arround, dropped off our photo cards at a shop to make another (5th!) cd, and had dinner at Bayon Restaurant. Nice restaurant, with a shadow puppet play by children, but the food was not really much, and the rice wasn’t included. Went back to the guesthouse to go to sleep.
The following days we visited A LOT of wat ‘s. The ones i liked most are: Ankor Wat and Tha Prohm. The first one is the famous one and is on the Cambodian flag, and the second one is were the trees are forcing the whole temple to collapse, it also figured in the Tomb Raider movie. I had a great time, and i can even go back there another time.
The 22nd of november Mark, Carolien and Rob had to leave me.. I went to Siem Reap Airport with them, and then i was left alone! After three days of temples i had a little bit enough, and decided to start planning my trip in Thailand. I went to a park in Siem Reap to read in my Lonely Planet. After a while a boy asked if he could sit next to me. We talked about his school, about the world, and Holland. After 2 hours or so i wanted to get some food, so i said goodbey, but he invited me to come to his village the next day. Its was about 7 or so km from Siem Reap. I accepted, and we said goodbey. On the way to the hotel i spoke another guy, who was in the park before. He had a moto, was teacher but it was his holiday and said that he could bring me to the village. We decided to meet at 13.00 the next day in the park. After all this i went back to the guesthouse, for my first night alone in Cambodia. It was still early, and i planned a little more for Thailand before going to bed.
The next day i rented a bike and went to the Angkor complex early. It was a bit further then i thought, but a nice ride. I found a nice quiet spot in Tha Prom and had lunch there. After this i went back to Siem Reap, to the park. There i met the guy from the day before, Waha. We droped the bike at my guesthouse and continued on his moto. After 30 minutes or so we arrived at the village of Chhey. A small rural village, with houses on stilts and a small market by the road. He was pleased to see me, and he climbed up a coconut tree behind his house to get some coconuts to drink! His house looked like you would expect in this country. We heared some music, and he told me it was a wedding. This was the wedding season! We went to have a look, and it was funny to see a thing like this. After this we went to a small wat (temple) behind his village. After that we met some friends of him and drank some palmwine and ate some bbq food. After this we had dinner at his house with his whole family. We then talked about the world, Holland, Europe and school, with his father, Chhey and Waha. Then it was time to go back to my Guest House, were Waha put me off.
The next day, my last one in Siem Reap, i went to visit some temples outside Siem Reap with Waha. We met early in the morning, and he was with some friends. We went, and 30 minutes later we arrived. Temple was nice. But after 15+ i now know how they looked so ok. We had some fun with the people outside the temple. It was nice to be there with some locals, everything was cheaper now to! After a day at the temples we went back to Siem Reap arround 14.00. In Siem Reap people were practicing for the Water Festival Boat Race. Funny to see, a lot of locals were shouting to support the people rowing, and the park surrounding the river had a nice atmosphere. After some time we met Chhey again, and he invited us to come and drink palmwine at some sort of community house in Siem Reap. There we ‘cheer up’ed a lot, and they bought snacks to, dried fish, snake and sorts. After the wine we bought some beer at the local market and went to Ankor Wat to drink it! That was a nice experience, at full moon! I brought my discman, and i let them listen to ’2many dj’s’ and ‘Carl Cox’ and we danced to it. Arround 12 it was time to go back, the next morning at 6 i would be picked up to go back to the pier in Siem Reap, from where a boat would take me to Battambang.
Siem Reap goodbey, i had nice time here!