Off to Siem Reap

5:15 a.m. and we are headed to Changi for our flight to Siem Reap via Kuala Lumpur. But first a quick stop at the Amex counter to change our Sing dollars into USD – the currency of choice in Cambodia. The country does have its own monetary unit, the riel, but it has no value on any exchange. We later learned that there were no national banks until about 10 years ago. USD is king. One US dollar is the equivalent of 4,000 riel. Feeling rich with all these 1,000 riel notes – until we realized they’re worth a quarter! On the other hand, a dollar goes a long way in Siem Reap.

After a brief and unappetizing layover in KL, we arrived in Siem Reap around noon. Immigration was easy. All we needed was $20 bucks, an extra passport photo (add $2 if this is missing and they’ll scan the photo from your passport), a valid passport, and a short visa application form – handed it all to the first guy at a long counter. He instructs us to go to the far end. Then 13 – yes, I counted – fellows pass our documents along, supposedly checking something at each point, until it makes it to the last step in the 20-foot production line. This final inspector calls out our name, one at a time, we step forward, he eyeballs us, our photos, us, our photos – finally, he says okay, hands the documents back to us and points us to another check point. Here, after much more looking and stamping, we are in.

Our driver is waiting and whisks us off to Angkor Palace Resort and Spa – we’d found a great deal here through Expedia. It proved to be a good choice, very colonial. We spent the afternoon at the pool and spa – unbelievably great spa at low, low prices. We all three chose the aromatherapy massage, then Kate and I steamed ourselves silly before a final swim before dinner. We met Bun Von here, the bartender at the swim-up bar, a cheery Cambodian with great English who enjoyed chatting with us almost as much as we enjoyed getting to know him and to learn about his country. We talked about education, food, the world, travel. Having good language skills is a big plus in a place where tourism accounts for a major portion of the employment.

Dinner was on Pub Street and we arrived by tuk-tuk, an open-air cart attached to a motorcycle. It was $3.50 one-way. When we got into town, the driver wanted to take us back at the end of our evening. We said we didn’t know how long we would be and didn’t want to make him wait. He said no problem, and we did see the advantage of having someone to take us home who knew where we had come from. We offered to pay him for the first trip, but he refused. No, pay in full once he delivers us back to the hotel, he said. Okay, off we went.

Pub Street has an abundance of choices so we scouted about for a bit and finally decided on the Cambodian Soup Restaurant which had a good buzz about it. As we placed our order, the waiter became so tickled he could barely contain himself. What could be so funny? We soon found out. Although we had only ordered $28 worth of food, the servings were so large that our table was overflowing and, even with our prodigious eating skills, we were well beyond our depths to put a dent in the feast before us. The $6 pot of Cambodian soup was rich and herby – and large enough to feed a family of four. Add to that pineapple rice, curry, amok, veg, spring rolls – well, you get the picture. Absolutely delicious – like most of the Cambodian food we had. Very fresh, very spicy.

Sure enough, after dinner when we came around the corner to the agreed-upon meeting place, our driver, number 4565, was sitting there waiting, talking to another driver, and quickly jumped up, waving at us. Off we went, tuk-tukking along. Then it was to bed – our guide would be waiting in the lobby for us at 6:30 a.m. for our temple tour.

Siem Reap Photos