Goodbye Vietnam - Hello Cambodia!

Well, our group of 8 was very fortunate to have a much later flight to Siem Reap.  The other 6 folks had very early morning wake-up calls & were on their way to the airport before we were even awakened.  Turns out that they were delayed an additional 6 hours in Tokyo's Narita Airport on top of the 2 hour layover they already had scheduled.  OK, ignorance is bliss, but now Iris and I are worrying about our connecting flights back home.  And, in addition to JFK, O'Hare, and Frankfurt Airports, I now have another airport to avoid like the plague.

We were picked up in Siem Reap (which means, "Victory over the Thais") by our new guide, Thai. From the airport we headed to our hotel, the Angkor Home Hotel, for our group briefing and check-in. As Thai was giving out the room keys and assignments, he paused after saying Iris and my names - asking us if it was OK that our room had twin beds. At first we were a little puzzled, then we (and the rest of the group) cracked up when we realized he thought we were a couple. He obviously didn't get the joke, so very gently we told him twin beds were fine.

After a quick walking tour of the neighborhood (noting the nearby ATMs, which surprisingly dispensed American dollars), and the 7-11s surrounding the hotel, followed by a quick tour of the Market,  we took a very bumpy oxcart ride through Siem Reap and stopped in for a very short home visit. The poverty of the area was truly overwhelming.

On our way back to the van we stopped to investigate a village anima festival, where we watched local musicians keep beat to one of the women who apparently were seized by the spirit danced until she could dance no more (very interesting).

 

My first Cambodian beer - Angkor.

$3.50 for a large bottle!

Delicious!

 

 

Draft beer - even more affordable!

 

 Downtown Siem Reap - easily navigated.

Pub Street, the Market Street - pretty much self-explanatory.

 

 

Loved this sign.

Yes, this is where you can have the dead skin

on your feet nibbled & eaten by live fish

as you relax!

 

 

Bun bo - pastry meat pies.

 

Pad thai.

 

Barb & Iris on the oxcart.

 

 

 The fishing village.

 

 

 

 

An impromptu festival.

 

This woman was seized by the spirit

& moved to dance.

 

 

Once back in the van, we traveled to The Killing Fields & Choeung Ek Memorial, which was originally a Chinese cemetery before becoming he execution grounds for the Khmer Rouge during their maniacal reign under Pol Pot (1975-79). What is most prominent among the mounds & mass graves is the monument of catalogued human skulls.

 

 

Our first day in Siem Reap concluded with a very mediocre buffet dinner, tolerated only because there was an Apsara dance show that accompanied it. I believe it was something I ate here that sickened me the next day - the first time in all my travels that I've felt that badly.

 

 

Back to the hotel by remok (motor rickshaw).