Siem Reap, Gateway to Angkor Wat

Siem Reap, in Pub Street on a busy night

In all of Cambodia, Siem Reap is truly the "it" place. Only three kilometers north of it lies the UNESCO site of Angkor Archaeological Park, an enormous complex 400 square kilometers wide (154 sq. miles!). Inside are the remnants of the ancient Khmer empire - Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, and Angkor Thom, the ancient capital of the empire.

Siem Reap, as the only nearby place to sleep, has become the tourist base and gateway for the whole complex. People come from all over the globe - on a busy night in Pub Street, you can alternate between Aussie accents, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, and a number of un-identifiables. Often, in the tourist areas, you see more white/Asian foreigners than you do local folk.

A typical house by the road, in Cambodia

For Devlin and I, who had just left first-world Europe and modern Istanbul, the transition was profound. The city, and the lives of the people, were just as fascinating as the ancient ruins. Even the journey to the city in the taxi was enlightening. Cows wandered freely in fields next to the road, unhindered by fences. Occasionally we saw water buffalo, their snouts loosely run through with a thin string - used for leading them. There were frequent small roadside shacks, pieced together with corrugated metal and wood, which sold everything from water, fruit, and coconuts, to motorbike fuel in recycled glass coke bottles.

A tire repair? and refilling station by the roadside

Children splashed next to a cement water tank, or more often, down by small ponds near the road. The houses were elevated on poles or columns, leaving the bottom area free for chores during the day, or sleeping animals at night. Chickens roamed everywhere, and ducks. Palm trees abounded.

And that was just the countryside. Inside Siem Reap, we gaped at the tangles of electrical wires on every telephone pole, and the dizzying zig-zag of travel - motorbikes zipping between tuk-tuks, while narrowly being missed by bigger buses and crazily loaded trucks. Just about anything qualifies as a vehicle - even a tractor, jerry-rigged to pull long loads.

Hectic traffic and tangled wires

We quickly mastered how to say "no thank you" in Khmer - "te o kun" (tay oh coon) - to the innumerable tuk-tuk drivers hankering for our patronage on every corner. Just as important was the art of bartering - except for restaurants and stores, everything is negotiable. Everything from a ride in a tuk-tuk, to a dress in the market, and even our hotel price, could be bartered down. Devlin spent a blissful afternoon at the covered market, finding the best deals on dried taro chips, sugared ginger and coconut (my favorites!), and dried mango.

After three days, we began to feel at home in Siem Reap. We had earmarked our initial favorite eateries - in particular, a small Khmer restaurant on the edge of the daymarket, which had the best mango shakes and coffee shakes. They also had a dizzying variety of traditional food, all illustrated with photos in a menu 5" thick. We quickly learned the cheapest, and often best, restaurants always had a tome of a menu - we avoided the thin menu places.

Our familiar street, walking home - always lined with
tuk-tuks ready to take us somewhere. "Tuk tuk, lady?"

We spent three days adjusting to jetlag and to the town. And then, on to the temples!