Siem Reap

The first thing I should mention before I start to tell you all about Siem Reap is that hotelier work was not the only thing that our guesthouse did to earn a living! After being told to check out the back of the hotel by a very excited Chris, we wandered down our top floor corridor and out onto a little balcony. We stared down into a stagnant green pool amazed as a dozen full sized crocodiles came into view! To the side of this pit was a series of little what looked like rabbit hutches, where the baby crocodiles were reared. We were later to discover that these guys were all being bred for their skin, and the hotel had guests (often Chinese and Japanese) who would pick their croc and then take the skin home – presumably to be made into a pair of shoes, handbag etc! I’m guessing the Cambodians don’t have a division of the RSPCA... and as we were to discover later the meat doesn't go to waste either!

After crocodile watching we headed into town, and I was surprised by what we found. The centre of town was very western and still retained a colonial French feel. It was in general a very pleasant place to stroll around and had a fantastic French influenced bakery and lots of bars and restaurants. It even felt European in the weather - lots of rain :)

We had a great couple of nights out enjoying the many drinking establishments all with cheesy names such as the ‘Temple Bar’ and ‘Angkor What?’ The whole town flaunted its obvious wealth in comparison to its neighbours, which undoubtedly derives from the hoards of westerners coming to see Asia’s version of the pyramids. I’m sure that outside of the tourist areas the place had a very different feel to it – this poverty was hinted at by the child beggars and the landmine victims who had a band on the corner of one of the streets. If Siem Reap was your only insight into Cambodia you could be forgiven for thinking that it was as rich as its neighbour Thailand.

The other thing of note we did one evening was take a wander around the night market. This was full of tourist souvenirs and goods and had a very vibrant feel. In the centre of the market was a big square tiled trough containing lots of tiny fish. These 'DR Fish' as named by the locals running the stall – ate dead skin. The idea was that you popped your feet into the water and these fish would nibble at your feet and remove all the dead skin – 'leaving your feet smooth and refreshed'. We were intrigued, we had to try it. So for a few dollars we jumped in for our 20 minute session (it is probably good to explain here that strangely they have 2 currencies in Cambodia the US Dollar and Riel. Most people preferred and would quote prices in Dollars but you would quite often get your change in Riel. Even the cash points only dispensed US Dollars!)
It is a hard sensation to explain – but it is incredibly tickly! I pushed my feet hard to the floor to start with so the fish did not nibble the bottoms, and as I got braver slowly lifted them. It was almost too much to bear, and me and Rob found ourselves laughing uncontrollably at times. You could have as many as 50 little fish nibbling all over your feet at points! We don’t have any photos unfortunately as we mislaid the memory card (more about that later). But I really recommend it if any of you ever get the chance – it is an experience, and what’s more it actually works! My feet have never felt to supple and smooth! Maybe one day it will reach UK shopping centres?

Also at the end of this market was a tiny cinema which showed a film about Pol Pot. If I am honest I didn’t before visiting Cambodia know much about the Khmer Rouge, so we went and watched the film; and although informative in places left out a lot of detail. It did however make me keen to learn more about this part of Cambodia’s dark history and I knew I would learn more when I got to the Capital.

The final thing to mention was our pizza experience in Siem Reap. We went to this restaurant for pizza and discovered you could ‘space up’ the pizza at no extra charge! We were of course slightly cynical at this claim so we ordered our pizza with ‘space’. We thought it was funny that the owner and his family then came and sat in the restaurant, and then we realised it was blatantly to laugh at us stupid tourists! He had done what he claimed and indeed the pizza was heavily ‘spaced’ so much so that within an hour we found ourselves giggling manically and making very benign conversation. Then we got very tired, and as myself, Rob and Chris were all planning on going to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat at 5am we retuned home to bed. However, when getting up at 4am to my surprise I was even more stoned than when I went to sleep, so much so I forgot our passes for Angkor and had to go back for them while Rob didn’t even make it out of bed. Needless to say watching the sun rise over Angkor was a very other worldly experience for many reasons! Our hazy evening is also when the memory card went missing, neither myself nor Rob has a very clear memory of leaving the restaurant with or without a memory card, but thankfully my camera and card survived the experience so we still have some photos of the previous 2 days. The moral of the story – don’t be responsible for anything for 24 hours after eating pizza in Cambodia!