Pub Street

After 6 hours in the bus we arrived in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is also a lifeline to the temples of Angkor, the eighth wonder of the world, named. The temples are around a thousand years old and are among the largest and most beautiful in the world. We report on the temple in the next Article.

This time we treated ourselves to a room with air conditioning, because at about 40 degrees in the shade plus in a city you do not keep it from otherwise. The guest house “Jasmine Garden Villa” was for the next 8 days our home. The path from the main road there was a real dirt road and every time we had very dirty feet.

Siem Reap has about 120.000 Residents and the town is a lot going on. There is a so-called “Pub Street”, where a pub joins to the next and in the city there are many small streets with restaurants and shops. It all looks very western. There is also a huge night market, where you can buy all sorts of things. One must of course always act with the sellers to get a good price. Often you can bargain down to at least half of the first bid.
Quite annoying the many tuk tuk drivers can be, standing at each corner and ask three times, if you want a tuk tuk. “Sir, Tuk Tuk?” – “Not” –”Later?” – “Nooo!!” – There are three tuk tuk driver directly next to each other and when you first “Not” said, ask the other two still also again. One could have changed his mind within two seconds …

But even worse are the children, begging with a baby in her arms. They are quite aggressive and sometimes aggressive. We have heard, that they do not ask for money but for food for the baby. Then they bring a large shelf in the stands to a business with milk powder, but all without marked price. You then pick out the biggest and most expensive package milk powder and you should buy them. But behind it is a mafia. The children and babies are the victims. Also, many maimed people you see begging in the streets. The mutilations are from the horrible past of Cambodia, z.B. by the Khmer Rouge or by landmines, of which there are an estimated 6 million still in Cambodia.
Massages are also offered us constantly. But there is a special kind of massage, namely with small fish, the rumknabbern on the feet. On signs will be specially noted, dass es keine Piranhas sind 😉
And like everywhere in Asia, there are also a lot of mopeds on which whole families ride. I've even seen, as a woman breastfeeding her baby while driving. What we also noticed in Cambodia, especially in Siem Reap, were the many power outages. Almost every day was sometime away the power. On a night the whole city was dark for 2 hours.

We were also recommended in a special Cambodian circus, the circus “Phare Ponley Selpak“, to go. In the refugee camps across the Thai border once launched, circus has now found its place in Battambang. Here are kids from around the area in normal school subjects, but also trained as artists and performers. The aim is to secure them a future career and to give self-consciousness. The performance is made very creative and interesting and offers a good dose of skillful artistry and acting. We liked it very well.

In Siem Reap, we celebrated the reunion with our friend Dana. We have therefore spent an afternoon with cocktails and chatting.

Moreover, it was finally time again, that Dopey goes to the hairdresser. But unfortunately they have just told everywhere “No have”. This is what the Cambodians often, even if they do not understand a. So Dopey had to continue walking around with long hair and a long beard.