Return to Cambodia

We arrived at the Siem Reap airport in the early afternoon and were greeted by our Tuk Tuk driver Mice.  The drive in from the airport filled me with joy. The beauty of the countryside, the shabby shanties, the dust and heat and shiny brown naked children jumping in the brown muddy puddles beside the endless lime green rice fields, the lotus lakes, the dodgy dodgy wiring, the smell of roadside fires, the smiles of the people. It made me feel I had returned to somewhere loved.

We booked into our hotel. It has about 8 garden units around a swimming pool and everywhere lotus, palms, bamboo and banana palms. It is lush and green, beautiful pots everywhere filled with water, fish and floating lotus.

It is hot and humid and I could almost  hear the mozzies clapping their legs together as they saw me coming, what they didn't know was that I came with Bushman's tropical strength DEET which I wear as my new perfume!

After settling in we walked up the back streets toward the town, over the bridge across the fast flowing smooth brown Siem Reap river and into the chaos that is Siem Reap town.

Everywhere there are motor bikes purring along, Tuk Tuks touting for business, a string of flash imported cars,  which are new to the scene since our last visit amble along and weaving between this are a plethora of people of all ages on push bikes, people pushing wheel chairs and people missing limbs and using crutches sharing a road as there are no pavements as we know them. 

We sat outside for a beer and spring rolls and watched the world go by. Small brown big eyed children, some with missing arms come sullenly to our 

table to beg before they are shooed away by proprietors. It is a hard world for these young people and your heart bleeds for them. You have to confront your own humanity as you look away and vow to make a large donation to a Cambodian children's charity when you get home, knowing that any money you give these begging children is likely to be commandeered for alcohol or drugs by their desperate parents. We make a mental note to take some dried fruit to give to these kids next time we see them.

We wander down the road and find a restaurant for dinner, sitting at the side and enjoying the the mix of accents as the tourists of many nations congregate at this amazing place full of history and pain.

Replete after dinner we find a Tuk Tuk driver to take us home. We give him the name of our hotel and he asks if we know the way, Fortified by wine and beer we feel it can't be all that difficult to find our hotel. Siem Reap is not a big place and we know we have to cross the river.

We drive for a few minutes and a police man steps out in front of our Tuk Tuk. There is a short conversation and the policeman stands with his arms folded, his expression and the gun in his holster make him look very fierce. A few minutes later our Tuk Tuk driver opens his wallet and passes some bank notes to the grumpy cop. He then returns to the Tuk Tuk and apologises to us. I ask him if he got a receipt for the money he paid and he laughs and says "No, madame, this is Cambodia".  It was a quick reminder of the corruption that exists that exists within the ranks of those that hold the power. 

Suddenly we are quite sober and Jim is pouring cold water on my desire to go back and photograph the policeman.

We proceed in the direction of what we think is our hotel, the Petit Villa Boutique and Spa, Wat Damnak, Salakomrouk Commune, Siem Reap. Unfortunately with no side works, dirt roads and  no electric street lighting, everything looks so different. Our Tuk Tuk driver has no idea and neither do we. Rattling down dark shrub shrouded alley ways in a strange  country with no idea of the direction you're travelling is quite an exhilarating experience. Eventually boredom set in for the tuk driver and he stopped to ask several people who were eating at road side stall, all seemed to point in different directions, so our driver acted on the consensus and eventually delivered us back to our hotel,