Siem Reap, Cambodia

On Monday morning we woke up, left Bangkok and headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We took a mini-van with six other passengers, four from Japan and two from England, to the Thailand-Cambodia border. The drive took about 4 hours, with one short break. Once we reached the border we had to stop and fill out papers, and give up our passports for about 20 minutes as we waited for our visas to get processed. Once we had our visas, we headed to immigration. We had to go through Thai immigration before wandering through this small area between the two countries. The five minute walk was filled with people trying to sell things, busy motorbikes and casinos. When we reached the Cambodian immigration point we again had to fill out papers and get our visas checked. When all of this was finished, we had officially entered Cambodia. From there, we were paired up with the British couple and jumped in a taxi. We took the taxi for two hours, from the border to Siem Reap. We were all worried as we approached the city as we had heard that there might be flooding. We were not prepared for what we saw. Some of the small villages along the way were completely flooded. Grown men walked in water up to their mid-chest. The taxi cruised down the road spraying water in all directions. After reaching the city, our fears were not diminished. The British couple was staying at another guest house and they were dropped off first. People at their guest house kept telling us that we could not reach our guest house. They said that the water was past their waists. I was so nervous and feared that we would be without a guest house. Fred was more calm and he convinced me that we should at least check out our guest house (He had received an email from the owner the night before stating that they were find and to not believe others.) Our taxi driver said that he would not take us due to the water levels. Fred called the guest house and we were soon picked up by their tuk tuk. As we drove, we passed a river that had flooded into a park. You could not see where one began and the other ended. As we turned down bumpy and muddy roads, we reached our guest house. To my surprise, and great relief, it was not flooded. We checked into our room and stayed in for the night.



The road to our guest house



Park or river?

On Tuesday we woke up and were determined to explore the city despite the rain. We jumped into a tuk-tuk and headed for the central market. The driver could not bring us directly to the market because of flooding in the area, so we were dropped off a few blocks away. We wadded through streets with water past our knees while it continued to rain. After a few hours, we stopped for coffee to get out of the downpour. We then walked to a temple and back to the guest house.


Fred going to help push a stalled car

On Wednesday we woke up early and headed to Angkor Wat. We bought a one day pass and hired a tuk-tuk driver for the entire day. The temples were all majestic, massive and impressive. As we walked we passed numerous groups of Korean visitors, all decked out in their brightly colored, mis-matched hiking gear. We tried to listen to their tour guides and Fred translated what he could. We saw five of the main temples before we were exhausted and sweating (it was a sunny and humid day). We headed to a restaurant near our guesthouse for some delicious pizza before heading to bed early.













































Today we slept in late, and walked around the city. Again we were lucky, as the weather was beautiful. We sat and planned out a little more for our next leg of the trip, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

We have loved out time in Cambodia and wish that we had planned out more time to explore this country. Everything is gorgeous, cheap and historical. The people are so friendly, happy and helpful. Here are a few interesting things we learned:
1) US dollars=King. Everything is priced in dollars. No one uses Cambodian Reils.
2) There are a lot of Korean people, supermarkets, restaurants and soju in Siem Reap.
3) Even though the city may be flooded, life goes on as usual.
4) Siem Reap feels like a small US suburb but is one of the biggest cities in Cambodia.

Tomorrow afternoon we are off to Vietnam! Lets keep our fingers crossed that no more typhoons head that way!
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