There was a light
rain falling when we left the hostel this morning so we hired a
tuk-tuk to take us to the bus station for our trip up to Siem Reap.
There we boarded a very fancy 'VIP' coach, which had loads of leg
room, seat belts, air conditioning, power sockets and even wi fi
(although that proved to be kinda short-lived). The coach headed out
of Phnom Penh at breakneck speed but it wasn't long before the tarmac
ran out and we were travelling on bumpy roads of bright-red mud, or
not travelling at all as we got caught in some sort of traffic jam.
On either side of the road, flat green rice paddies stretched off to
the horizon, scattered palm trees rising among them. We passed though
makeshift villages, everything turned red by the dust rising from the
road, including the naked toddlers toddling around in front of shacks
made of corrugated iron and wood. Big white Brahman cattle flicked
their tails and their big floppy ears on the roadside.
The bus stopped for
lunch (fried rice, fried noodles) and then we arrived in Siem Reap at
about 2pm, where it was also raining. Our hotel had sent a tuk-tuk
for us (luxury!), so we climbed aboard for the short journey, and
were greeted at the hotel with cold towels and cold orange juice
(more luxury!). We checked in and then headed out into Siem Reap
itself, which was unrecognisable from when Kate and I last visited 13
years ago on our way to our new life in the UK. What had been a
sleepy little town was now a sprawling backpacker hangout (there's
even a road called Pub Street). We wandered around in the rain for a
while looking for somewhere to eat dinner. The girls have been
craving Western food and the places offering local food looked pretty
grim, so we ended up at a little pizza place with a lovely big
wood-fired oven out front.
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