Siem Reap

This was supposed to be something of a rest day between yesterday's long ride and tomorrow's climactic day at Angkor Wat. An optional tour was scheduled, but canceled because too few signed up (we were among those who had not, so no disappointment). Thus, we were free until 2 p.m.

On our own, we set out walking to the Old Market after breakfast. We got off to a slow start. The map provided by the hotel showed a street continuing straight, all the way to the river. It didn't. We followed some bends and turns until we came out on the main highway, north of the hotel. We had essentially wasted our time going in a circle. We also discovered that the map's scale north and south was considerably different than the scale east to west. Very odd!

Arriving at the market, we discovered that many stalls were just opening up at 9 on a Saturday morning. However, with the new year approaching, the locals were all over the food area. We wandered the interior aisles, buying a couple little things for our granddaughter, looking for a number of other items, but finding nothing. We decided to go back out to the riverside parkway and find a cafe where we could sit and drink a cup of coffee (and also use the restroom).

After a bit of people-watching in the cafe, we set out along the river once again. We very shortly passed a 14th century Buddhist temple and decided to step in and see the gardens. We found a bench and enjoyed that scene for a bit. Then we found a tuk-tuk and bargained a price back to the hotel where rested by the pool and read for a couple hours.

At 2 p.m. we met the group and boarded our new, smaller bus (the big bus which brought us here returned to Phnom Penh). We drove quite a ways out into the country, including down some rough dirt roads between the rice paddies, to a canal. There we boarded a boat for a fairly long trip down the canal, past a number of people fishing both from shore and from small canoes.

We eventually came to open water where and entire village was floating. There were dozens of houses, a church (the Buddhist temple is on land nearby), a school, shops, everything on floats. It was some of the deepest poverty we've seen anywhere -- these are people who can only fish, who are remote from almost any support services, and who are here because they are too poor to afford a piece of land on which to build. We stopped briefly at a shop that doubled as a pen for captured crocodiles, then continued back to the bus. It was quite an eye-opening tour.

The bus drove us only a short distance, across land so flat it made Nebraska look like a mountain state, to a village where the primary industry appeared to be taking tourists on brief buffalo cart rides. Mary and I were less than enthusiastic, as we've ridden a lot of conveyances and didn't feel the need to certified in ox cart, but we tried to be good sports about it. It was then back to the hotel to shower and to wash out every piece of clothing we had on before dinner.

 

Dinner at the hotel this evening was the worst meal we've had on the trip thus far. The food was mediocre and the service terrible. The staff was very poorly trained, and there seemed to be no adult in charge.