I slept well last night in Siem Reap, worked out the bugs on the air conditioning being too cold and not able to adjust it: I simply put some clothes on and went back to sleep. I have taken to passing out dollar bills to all the staff when I leave a hotel when there are not a huge number of staff.
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While waiting to go, took one more look around Siem Reap.
I much prefer mornings here than evenings. It's party central in the
areas I saw. This is a Vietnamese man who polished my shoes for a buck. |
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Time to leave, tuk tuk on the way to the airport, saw this transport. They use these
little Hondas to move everything, and you can't buy one in the USA. |
It seems I flew on only the second or third flight of a
new route by Cambodia Angkor Airways totally by chance. I have been told it started last week, one or two flights, and I flew on the first flight the following week. While waiting for the flight to leave, I had a nice chat with an older couple from South Africa. They gave me some good tips of the places they liked the most, which I scrawled hurriedly as we began boarding the flight...alas, I cannot read my own scribbles now.
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| My trusty fanny pack, which I have found indespensible, broke. I now have a clutch. A man bag. I need to get it fixed fast before I leave it lying on a table somewhere.
I took it apart while waiting for the flight, the original is at the top. At the bottom is the replacement I found in a luggage shop in Siem Reap, with the name Northface on it, supposedly a superior product. I don't know how to replace the female end. I should have had the guy replace it where I bought it, but was kind of in a hurry to get to the airport. I had to wait until I was in Sihanoukville to complete the repair. It broke again three days later: Northfake. |
The flight was only 70 min. and ran smoothly until we got there. We had about 8 executive suits on the flight with us, and the plane was met by about 100 people, half were dressed in traditional garb and playing instruments and dancing, and the other half were airport and local officials, and the press. It was quite strange....I wondered at the time if everyone was met with the equivalent of a brass band and red carpet treatment...but no.
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Arrived in Sihanookville, and on the bus to town. Snapped this out the bus window as we passed.
This pickup is loaded with chickens and ducks, all apparently alive, dinner for tonight at some restaurant! |
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Several free roaming small herds of cattle we had to dodge on the way into town.
The bus driver honked a lot, and the horn sounded as if it was inside the cab. Extremely loud. |
We were shunted unceremoniously onto a shuttle bus to be whisked out of the way. No one was allowed into the terminal. Some travelers were livid and suspicious, muttering about "another scam". It seemed the airport only wanted to tidy up the area of that cluttered tourist look so that the VIP's could be welcomed and filmed. We were told the shuttle bus would wind us around another way to the front of the airport, but it seemed there was a road block to that entrance. So we were taken to the outskirts of the airport to a fork in the road, nothing in sight, and were informed we must exit the bus and board a larger bus that would take us to the bus station in Sihanookville for $6. Now that's a pretty good price compared to Siem Reab, where a taxi to town cost $9. But some of these travelers were shouting "Where's my luggage!?!" and "I have a pre-arranged taxi waiting for me in front of the airport!!" Some were simply suspicious and would not board the bus. A couple tuk tuks figured out what was going on and found us, as well as a taxi or two eventually, the driver holding up a sign with a name on it, and a woman yelling her relief when she saw it. As I said, the bus was a pretty good deal all-in-all, about 3/4 of us bought a ticket and were delivered not to a bus station as promised, but to the parking lot of a large new hotel. Everyone but me hopped in tuk tuks and were off. I needed to pee so went into the hotel and inquired about the room while I was there. It was a nice room for $20, but the bed was hard as a rock....always a deal breaker for this guy, and I really wanted something right on the beach.
So I went outside and hopped on the back of a motor scooter where the driver said he would take me to a guest house for a buck. The first two were full, and I ended up looking at about about six total, half of which were full. This is a big town, not what I was expecting. Loads of backpackers seemed most apparent to me, with the odd couple or three.
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| Finally found a place with a soft bed, right on the beach. |
I'm afraid I made it a little hard on him. He couldn't understand why I didn't want this one, or that one. I said keep going. He was probably afraid one dollar wasn't going to be enough. Riding on the back of a scooter is a pretty good way to go. I even had him drive me over to Sokha Beach where all the fancy hotels are. He tried to warn me, "No, no, you no like, too expensive, 100, 200, 300 dollah". And man are they ever fancy. Many of them, all new versions of temples to rival almost anything to be seen in the Grand Palace or the Royal Palace. They really spent some money on these places. Rooms started at a little less than $200 and on up to more than $1,000 at the one place I stopped in at. So I said thankyou very much and they said don't let the door hit you on the way out you backpacker trash (I'm totally kidding). Went back out to the scooter and he laughed, said "Too expensive!"
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| View of the front of Coasters |
So we drove back into town to the third place we visited, down at the end of Serendipity Road, up a narrow street, and down a very narrow alley. I had to tuck my knees in tightly on the back of the scooter, afraid I was going to hit something. At the very end of that I found Coasters Beach Resort, and very small place. Got my first room without air conditioning. And it has a mosquito net too.
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| View from the chair where I drank my beer |
Karen was at the front desk, and she showed me the rooms. They had the fan room for $20, A/C for $25, and an ocean view A/C room for $30. I took the fan room, figured I would only sleep there. It worked out well. The room was hot when we looked at it, I figured it would cool off later. Try it for one night anyway, see how it goes. The scooter guy was waiting to get paid, and I told her I had him drive me all over hell, way more than a dollar's worth, and asked her how much I should pay him. She said, "Maybe another dollar?" I went out and gave him three. He smiled ear to ear. I think it's more than he usually makes in a day. Karen told me most poor people in the cities live on about $2/day. People in the country probably on $2/week if that.
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The vivacious Karen Griffith, lovely proprietress of the hotel,
graciously bought me my first beer. |
I washed up and got settled a little. It was not very busy, so Karen joined me with a cocktail out near the water edge in some comfortable beach furniture. We talked until well past dark about all my questions. She is a fountain of information. A Dublin transplant, she has been here for three years now and loving it. She told me a very entertaining story about being "arrested" a few weeks ago while participating in a training operation conducted by the local police supervised by an ex-FBI trainer. They are trying to crack down on human trafficking and the exotic animal trade. It was so interesting, I told her I want to interview her about it in more detail and write it up here. Never got around to it!
I like my new flip flops. When we went to the market yesterday I tried on several, but didn't find any cheap ones that felt good. I liked the kind the moto guy was wearing, but they were $7. I eventually went back to those after trying others, glad I did. They're really nice. I'm staying here at Coasters one more day, that's enough to get a feel. Maybe take a boat trip to one of the islands....but maybe not. Speaking of boats, here some pics of some on the beach.
On second thought, definitely not. I'm just sitting around a lot. I little while ago I decided to move on. I'll be catching a bus and heading west tomorrow morning. I'll make the border crossing at Koh Kong and then....I guess I could take another bus. I'd like to take it slower than that, see some of the towns along the way. But it would take quite a bit longer than a single day to get to Pattaya, I suppose I should see what that's all about. So just see the world out of a bus window, like from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap--that was a 7 hour bus ride in a rattletrap bus. I suspect it will be at least that long, maybe get in as it gets dark. Ticket cost $26.
