We are back in Saigon now, having just spent 3 nights in Cambodia. But I am falling behind on posting so this is a recap of the first day in Siem Reap. I'll try to catch it all up in the next few days.
Upon arriving in Cambodia we were rather impressed with the airport. Customs and passport control were quick, everything looked new and clean. The first real snag we hit was when the guest house had not sent someone to pick us up. We waited for a few minutes but figured they were not going to show and grabbed a taxi instead even though the airport taxis are ridiculously over priced. On the way to the hostel the driver first tried to tell us that it was closed, then that no tourist stayed there, saying he could take us to a much better hotel. But we had heard all this before and told him we already had reservations and just to take us there. He said sure, maybe we wanted to look at it first before going someplace else. And in this one instance he was right.
I left Justin in the car while I went to check in to the hostel. Right away I knew it was going to be bad. The reservation system consisted of a whiteboard with the days of the month and the room numbers in a grid. A quick glance and signing the check in sheet told me we were the only other guest in the place besides one Malaysian girl. Also unsettling was when the reception guy told some other guy to go to the room and handed him a can of Raid and the AC remote. At this point I pretty much knew we were not going to stay there but I didn't trust the cab driver either. So I went to the car, got Justin and the bags and we went to the room. Any small amount of desire to stick it out anyway was gone rather quick when the sheets on the bed were almost brown and the towels equally as dirty. The place was also pretty far from the main area, so called Pub Street. I took a quick poll to see who wanted to leave - me yes, Justin yes - and we ran out the door to find an internet cafe. We found one just down the road and started researching a place to stay.
It took about 10 minutes before I found a 3 star hotel down by the airport for $40 a night. A little pricier than we wanted to spend but it was the cheapest I could find nearby. The only snag was it would not let me book the room online. So we had to find a way to get over to the hotel, get a room if they had it, go back to the other place, get our bags and check out, then go back across town. And here is where tuk tuks kick ass. Tuk tuks in Cambodia are more like carts attached to motorcycles, a little different than their Thai cousins but equally as cheap. We stumbled upon a guy at the gas station sort of relaxing in his. When I explained all we needed him to do and asked him how much he said 6 bucks. Really cheap but I negotiated him down to 5. So we loaded up, headed over to the Majestic and I again left Justin in with the ride while I went to get the room. At first they quoted me 120 a night but when I told them I had just seen it online for 40 they dropped the price to 50 instead. The place was nice, all wood carving paneling on the walls and doors, an open air swimming pool, a restaurant, bar and nice rooms. After coming from the hell hole of the guest house this place was heaven and at 9pm I was ready to shell out whatever I needed to.
After checking in I ran back to the tuk tuk, gave the all good sign, and we headed off to the other hotel. We planned to sneak out quickly to avoid any drama but that was snagged when the guy said we owned 1 nights payment even though we had only been in the room for 2 hours (actually only our bags had). But the room was only 10 bucks and it seemed like a small price to pay. The guy even asked why we were leaving, if we had found a better place, which leads me to believe we were not the first nor the last to do this. After loading up the bags we headed back to the other hotel. While I was checking into the first place earlier Justin had been negotiating with the driver about tours around town. Almost every tuk tuk will rent themselves for the day and take you around to all the sites. So we agreed to use our guy the next day for a trip down to the land mine museum and some other wats further away, opting to do Angkor Wat the day after that.
After dropping the bags we headed into town to grab dinner and maybe a drink. Siem Reap is still pretty small, even with all the construction going up, so there is one main street to eat and drink at. All the restaurants and most of the town in general only deal with US dollars and even the ATMs dish out USD. It was kind of weird to be using the money again but was also nice since we realized we needed more USD to pay Intrepid in Africa. So after eating dinner at the Red Piano, where we met a girl from the US that was studying Cambodia dance for her anthropology Phd (need I say she was ugly but loved Justin?) and a girl from Holland who was traveling around the world for a year (damn Dutch people seem to do that). They filled us in on the ATM giving out USD so we headed over there and tried it out by getting 100 bucks each. Then it was over to the Temple, a bar/nightclub where draft beer was $1 a pint and $3 a pitcher. We had a few, saw some bad dancing by an old white guy, saw a guy break a 6 foot mirror by backing into it and then headed out to sleep.
