14th & 15th May 2010
Friday was a travelling day, so the morning was spent packing up and in the afternoon we boarded a bus for the 6 hour 300km journey to Siem Reap. The main road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was more like a countryside B road than a major highway and in parts was still unsurfaced dirt track. This is the part of travelling we’re now not enjoying so much, the getting from A to B - things take so much longer in this part of the world and the journey is generally more bumpy, prohibiting any activity besides listening to music and enjoying the view out of the window.
We arrived in Siem Reap after dark and it was pretty much a quick meal at the hotel and bed. Lucky for us that our tuk-tuk driver from Phnom Penh has a nephew working here in Siem Reap and had arranged for him to meet us off the bus, so at least we were spared the haggling for the price of the journey to the hotel.
Saturday was a very relaxing day spent around the hotel in the morning, unpacking because we are here for a week. Then we took a wander into town, which is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel.
The main reason that people visit Seam Reap is to explore the nearby temples of Angkor, so the town itself is little more than shops, bars and restaurants. We explored both the Old Town and central markets with their stalls full of souvenirs for tourists, the same types of things we were seeing in Phnom Penh, from Cambodian silk to pictures to Buddha statues.
While we sat for a drink the heavens opened and we experienced a refreshing and loud thunderstorm for about 40 minutes, after which the humidity returned with a vengance so it was an afternoon by the hotel pool for us. Refreshing.
In the evening we caught the hotel’s shuttlebus into town for a meal at the Red Piano which is a colonial building with a lovely balcony overlooking the street below where we could sit and people watch while we enjoyed a pleasant meal. In the evenings this street is called ‘Pub Street’ and shut to traffic, which is a nice change.
