2012 Cambodia - Siem Reap

Siem Reap, day 3

We are having dinner in the Khmer Kitchen on Pub Street in Siem Reap. It's very touristy, but at least the food and crafts on sale in the market are mostly Cambodian. We had lunch at Chivit Thai restaurant and Jay would be happy to go there for Tom Yum soup every day. We overate, at $3 a dish and $1.5 for fresh guava and watermelon juice it was hard not to.

There is so much pleasure to be had. The air is sweet and warm, breezy in the evenings and bearable, if a bit sleepy, mid-day. I feel so at peace. Even the traffic seems to be at peace. You have to cross like the Holy Cow, slowsly but moving along like you don't care, and motorbikes will just weave around you gently. Evebn the haggling at the market is gentle.

Their faces are so beautiful. Wide set almond shaped eyes, high cheekbones, thick black slanted eyebrows. I even took a photo with a woman in the market, she was so beautiful. I'll probably also go buy from her altough ugly sellers also deserve a chance to live, right?!

I had a foot massage at the Baray Spa at the back of the Angkor Night market for $3 (60 min). Jay lay next to me and had cocktails (at $3, $10 for drinks for both). A perfect moment, drinking watermelon juice, having foot masage, looking at the colourful silk stalls, and listening to "Camisa Negra" with candles in the night.

A book seller has just been chatting to Jay here at the restaurant.
"I'm not a fast reader". (Jay)
"You know why you don't read fast? Because you don't have this book!"

Siem Reap, Day 4
I am sitting down on a warm lava-rock at Pre-Rup temple. We had a long day, waking up at 5.30 because I couldn't sleep anymore, so I read on the iPad about where to go to see Apsara dancers sculptures. So I came across a blog about waterfalls near the Banteai Srei temple, where there are lingas carved in the bedrock, as well as gods.

So this morning we had breakfast with noodles and fresh fruit on the lovely terrace of the hotel. The tuk-tuk driver and the guide picked us up - $25 each for the day, $7 extra to go to the waterfall.

We drove with the morning breeze in our hair through the beautiful countryside. There were houses on stilts, mostly made of wood, with people working or playing underneath. There were chicken running around, long-necked tall chicken that looked like a stretched-out version of their European counterpart.

A little girl came to sell us toys at the petrol station. I tried to chat to her. She said she was 9 years old and goes to school, has no brothers or sisters and lives with her grandparents. Every time she didn't know a word she would take a step back. The guide helped her.

There were shrines on sale and the guide told us the people still have an animist religion, they worship their ancestors. So in China and Vietnam they sacrifice fruit on the family shrine and keep it there for 3 days. In Cambodia the shrine is at the gate, in front of the house, and they keep the fruit there for 15 min, then they eat it. This is every month at full moon, as they use the lunar calendar.

The rice fields, those that are not dry, are incredible. They shine with a fresh, bright green, and the soil is red like bricks. The cows are thin, the buffaloes plumps and muddy black.

Siem Reap, day 5.
We are in a restaurant on Pub Street. An older lady (about 50) who takes our order has a long white hair hanging from her chin, 5 cm long. Lizards, small and almost translucent, run wiggling on the ceiling, chasing each other. A cat is prowling among the legs of the customers at our restaurant, then crosses the road to the restaurant next door - across the path, finds two rubbish sack and has a shit next to them. Then sits nearby, satisfied. My beer has a fishy after-taste.

I had a full body massage for $4 in the market spa, Baray. The masseuse spent a long time massaging my legs in various positions and stretches, using her arms and sometimes her feet. Then she ran out of time for the back.