Siem Reap
A very comfortable bus ride to Siem Reap ended in the most extreme form of hassling we have yet encountered. Your feet can barely touch the ground as people descend upon you, screaming various impossibly cheap tuk-tuk rates at you, pressing in from all sides. Desperate people. Quite disturbing. And it doesn't matter what you say or don't say - do or don't do - they press on. Johan also had his own swarm and Janine was trying to persuade her swarm to alight and join his in this fiery negotiation process. Johan eventually (after considerably expressing his anger and frustration) picked a guy who took us a short distance and then stopped at his friends who were to explain to us that he won't take us the full distance unless we use him as our driver for the duration of our stay. We quickly had them understand that the full distance would be covered immediately. Our driver, who had no idea where he was going, was eventually helped to such a degree that we arrived at our destination quite a while later.
Although the swimming pool of our hotel was in the parking area, after a brief walk around the noisy areas of Siem Reap, we settled in quite nicely in our peaceful place. Our view from our window was overlooking two swimming pools full of fat crocs (we assumed their captivity was for culinary purposes). After good food and not so good internet we picked ourselves a driver and headed in the direction of the ancient and legendary Angkor Wat (a wat is a Buddhist temple).
Our driver took us on a detour to a land mine museum. A private, non-profit initiative of a previous Khmer Rouge and Vietcong fighter who uses the museum to expose people to the truth and the dangers of the weapons used in Cambodia. It also supports (by donation) land mine removal squads and the grounds are home to many a maimed local who had lost limbs to land mine explosions - a condition representative of too many Cambodians.
We had our 3 day Angkor Archaeological Park pass in hand, wind in the hair, as we zoomed off to the world famous, UNESCO world heritage site, Angkor Wat temple. What a sight. What an amazing construction. There were many people on the periphery, but inside the cascading temple levels we often found ourselves gazing at murals covering full flanks of the building - all alone. The evening was a good time as the heat is schorching in the day. We headed back to Siem Reap hungry and exhausted. After such an amazing meal that evening, we returned many times to the famous Red Piano restaurant during our 4 days stay.
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