Today we're off to Siem Reap. It's the base city for visiting the Angkor temples, one of the 7th Wonders of the Ancient World. These temples peaked my interest in Southeast Asia which evolved into this trip.
I'm also excited for the boutique hotel we'll be staying at the next 3 nights!! After the past few hostel experiences, I'm craving what I call are "clean corners." That's where our room has clean corners and the floor is dirt free. Our place in Phnom Penh had ants crawling in the bathroom, one towel, and a hair ball on the floor that was not ours. I'm not in my 20's backpacking and I'm sometimes my desire for comfort overpowers my frugal nature. And when I say splurge, this is a three star hotel & we'll be paying $70-for all 3 nights, including breakfast. As you can tell, we're breaking the bank $$$$$!!
The bus was 45 minutes late picking us up this morning. When we got on the bus, it was certainly a second world bus-seats were broken, floor was dirty. This was no tourist bus. And there is a group of gap year students aboard. They are English speakers so their constant chatter has kept me awake on the journey. There is a TV playing Cambodian music videos-on repeat. My goal was to catch up on sleep as I'm not feeling well-that didn't happen.
The chatty gap year kids were the least of our problems. This bus has stopped every hour for the first 4 hours. We picked up one guy who loaded 7 boxes to the back of the bus. We stopped for the bathroom and then took lunch at 11am. We stopped to fill up a tire with air. Chris was able to track us and by 1pm we wern't even 1/2 way there. 😧
Then there was the tire that blew. We're cruising down the road, there was a pop and we were riding on metal-back right. Guess that's why our driver stopped earlier to put air in it. We pulled off the side of the road & every male filled off the bus-foreign & domestic. Chris took photos while I stayed on the bus & took advantage of the non-moving bus to blog and read. Twenty minutes later we were back in the road.
Our journey to Siem Reap was a full 8 hours. We were dropped off far outside of town, again. Thankfully the boutique hotel has free transfers and we had a tuktuk waiting. For the second time someone was waiting with a sign with Chris' name on it. He's going to think he is hot stuff after this trip.
Again, we were thankful for the tuktuk as our ride was 10 minutes into town and it was raining. I scouted our places to get our laundry done & took in the sights. I gazed in awe as to how this non-organized traffic works. I think the key is the lower speeds at which vehicles travel. We arrived at Tanei Botique Villa-the driver took in my bag and we were served juice on arrival. The place felt like an oasis in the midst of rain & a busy city.
I must admit, I had alterior motives with our nice hotel. I wanted a place where we could find an English speaking tuktuk driver for visiting the temples. I read a blog which talked about how good their tuktuk driver was and how much insight he provided. I wanted a good tuktuk driver for our time in Siem Reap & I thought this botique hotel could provide us with one. I'd read about paying $18 for a driver for the day. Our hotel had no such offers-we read their tour information sheet & headed to our room. My alterior motives dashed.
Check out this swank. Real flowers, folks. This is what $21 in Cambodia can buy. I still have to take the toilet paper out of the bathroom each time I shower, but I feel like I'm in luxury and the blanket is in a duvet cover. I'm pleased as punch with the location and it's certainly an oasis.
Dinner was EXCELLENT. I had fish amok and Chris had sweet potato with chicken oven something or other at Khmer Kitchen Restaurant. The staff was friendly. Great English, and meals were just $5 (including rice). I'd like to take home the recepie for fish amok-it's like fish curry over rice. I couldn't finish my meal & was stuffed.
Our restaurant opened to the Angkor night market. I was in search of a frog. This market has a lot of t-shirts and elephant pants, lots of massages and oil paintings. Since it was our first night (and we still have to carry on our backs whatever we buy), we just browsed. Once again, I enjoyed being in a tourist town.
Chris was cracking me up. He is genuinely interested in things-be it a painting, sayings on a shirt, a figurine. He'll wonder about it & touch it-to look at some aspect. That's all a shopkeeper needs to tell you the price. Chris isn't interested, shopkeeper starts to bargain. He walks away, they keep taking about said item-or offers another item. He had one woman on his heals, about 18" away from him, following him throughout the store trying to sell him the hammock he touched. This happened 3 times and we had the "don't touch" conversation. I was cracking up-because this is just so classic Chris. He wonders about things, oblivious to the implication. I'm still chuckling about him as I write this-because I've seen him do it again & again. And he'll probably do it 3 more times before this trip is over. These are the quirky traits that are endearing in a marriage.
His "touchy" hands did find a frog. A little metal one-but only $1, we bought it. There is a toad that we keep seeing, but it is so ugly I cannot add him to my collection (besides, it's a toad, not a frog). We saw a silver frog for $8 and she offered $5 as we walked away. I'm still thinking about it, so something tells me we'll be going back. I'm going to start at $3 and hope to pay $4.
Tomorrow we'll head to the temples-which is a bucket list item for me. Let's hope this botique villa lives up to expectations & I can get a good night sleep.
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