siem reap at last

As expected a large part of today was spent travelling from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap via Phnom Penh.

We ate Cambodian fast food for lunch while waiting for our bus in Phnom Penh in the only shopping mall in Cambodia, Sorya Shopping Mall. A fast food set meal with three pieces of fried chicken, a Coke and french fries costs only 1.6 USD. The fries were good, but the chicken was not as good as KFC. It was interesting to note that the fast food restaurant gives a 20% discount off the bill for those who come with children below 1.2m in height.

The bus to Siem Reap was filled with a mixture of Westerners and locals. We were the only Asian tourists coming outside of Cambodia on the bus. The two American girls sitting behind me ended up in the same guesthouse as us.

Along the way we had two rest stops to refresh ourselves. I realised that as we moved further away from the city the people get friendlier. Two Cambodian girls selling pineapples chatted with us. They asked the standard questions. “Where are you from?”. “You have girlfriend?”. One of them said that if they ever visit Singapore we have to take them around, and vice versa.

I was quite surprised when they revealed that they are 24 and 16 years old respectively. The 16 year old girl looked too old for her age while the 24 year old lady looked too young and short.

What was most surprising was their command of English. They spoke better English than many of the Cambodians we have encountered. This is compounded by the fact that the particular rest stop was in the middle of nowhere. As far as I could see, there were no town centre and no schools in the vicinity. I wonder how they got their education.

After spending much of the day comatose in our respective seats on the bus to Siem Reap, we ended up in a guesthouse about 300 metres from the main city area. We were brought there from the final bus terminal at Siem Reap by two friendly tuk tuk drivers who told us that they knew of a guesthouse that provided free internet, have air conditioned rooms and A SWIMMING POOL at guesthouse rates. I was intially quite sceptical but after they offered to bring us around town to find other accomodation if we find that particular guesthouse unsatisfactory we agreed to their plan.

They were not lying. This place, the Ancient Angkor, is one of the best places I have stayed at so far for the price range. I think I will report this to Lonely Planet to earn my free guidebook. 15 USD per night per newly-refurbished twin room that comes with air conditioners, free internet service and A SWIMMING POOL is pretty damn good. It costs about 7.5 USD per person per night here. About the only bad thing about this place is that the place where the free internet computers are located has many random flying insects at night, many of which landed on my arms and body. I had to swat them away.

Alright, that’s all for today. Angkor awaits us tomorrow. Good night.