Day 9 - Friday, May 8, 2009 - So long Loas, Hello Cambodia

We made the early flight out of Pakse, the flight gave us a breakfast of hotdog with mayo and fruit. We landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia around 9am. After customs (and another $20 visa...) we split a van into the city with a bunch of other travelers.

--Random side comment--
In Cambodia they use Riel as their currency, $1 USD = about 4,100 Riel, but almost everything is paid for with 1, 10, or 20 USD bills, but if something is less than 1 USD or they need to give you 50 cents change they give you 2,000 riel.
--Back to your regularly scheduled post---

We found a hotel called "The Heart of Angkor" for $15 a night with 3 beds. After dropping our stuff off James and Meg took right off for Angkor Wat with a fellow American ('merica!) that was on our flight. I decided to stay behind it was over 100 degrees outside and I was pretty exhausted. I rested up for a while and then went out and walked around. The streets were bustling and dusty with tuk-tuks everywhere. I found a stone fired pizza shop and ordered a chicken pizza. It was pretty good, but it was still effected by the bain of all pizza made in Asia, a paper thin crust. I think a tortilla chip would be better crust than some of the crusts I've had.

I walked quite a bit more, I ended up walking past the hotel accidentally, I was literally 10 feet away from the door when I walked by. After about 15 minutes I decided to ask a tuk-tuk driver, he offered to take me there for free since it was directly back the way I came. He was hoping for me to book him the next day to go around Angkor Wat, I didn't know what James and Meg had worked out so I told him I had to talk to my friends first. I came to find out they already had booked Sall for the next day too.

The Tomb Raiders returned around 6 exhausted from their long day in the sun, but their minds were blown by all they had seen. I can't wait to get there tomorrow

This is the only picture I took on this day, it's not very good, but whatevskee...









Our Cambodian tuk-tuk driver showed up last night and brought us to have an authentic dinner. We rode for about 15 minutes before pulling our motorcycle powered chariot off at a large street side area. There were about 30 tables and a mini-butane stove at each one, with the ever present red plastic kids chairs at each one. We sat down and ordered 4 Angkor Wat beers and the fired up the butane stove and placed a large clay pot filled with soup base ingredients. Following this they brought out a plate of spinich type greens, meat, and meatball shaped meat, spices, yellow noodles, and rice. We talked with Sall for a bit, found out he had a wife and son. He pays $30 a month for his son to go to school and a little extra for him to take english lessons.

We were the only Westerners at this place, it was immediately apparent there was a friendly yet unfamiliar sense that our presence was very intriguing for all around.

After a should while our little pot started bubbling and Sall dumped in the meat plate. 5 minutes later he dumped in the veggie plate and spices and let it return to a boil. The Cambodia soup was served with a ladle and placed in our individual bowls where we ate it with chopsticks and the Chinese Spoons that are everywhere in Southeast Asia.

We finished the pot, all 4 of us filled up, and paid the bill. Sall says that he rarely comes here because even a $5 meal for 3 people is too expensive for his budget. We loaded up and took off for a place with live music. After rumbling by a place that was closing we pulled up to a very much open, but very much deserted Karaoke bar. We were greeted by a chorus of "suh-suh-die" from the very colorfully dressed and very pretty Cambodian singers waiting for their turn on stage. We had a seat and listened to a few songs, it was just a Yamaha keyboard with some pre-programmed arrangements and a rotation of singers. We were the only ones in the audience. We decided to move on shortly in search of a "Riscotech (Boun from Loas' pronunciation)" aka Discotech.

Sall pulled us into a place and when we entered we were swarmed by a mass of suited usher/waiters. We were shown directly to a choice seating area with a sea of coaxing arms and smiling faces. "The Don" as I call him, motioned over a bunch of glasses and bucket of ice. It was a pretty surreal experience, being V.I.Ps with everyone shaking our hands and cheersing us. There was an entourage of people constantly dropping ice into our glasses and topping us off.

When it came time to leave we called for the check and our entourage immediately crowded around us. Sall then informed us as to why they were waiting, they were looking for tips from us. So we handed "The Don" a bunch of Reil and I passed out some $1 bills to gratefull hosts and we were off only after dispensing about 100 more handshakes.

We made it back to the "Heart of Angkor" and bid farewell to Sall until 8am the next morning.