Day 4: Bus to Siem Reap

We left Phnom Penh around 8am. The sewage smell emanating from the bathroom of our room expedited our leaving. I am not sure I would stay in this hotel again. The upside was that it was clean, had a nice breakfast, had a good location and was pretty cheap. However, if I were to come back to Phnom Penh I think I would want to stay near the water. It was a little calmer over there.

 We took a little bus from the hotel to the bus depot (the bus tickets to Siem Reap else arranged for us by the hotel) and got on our seven hour treck up north. It was a really interesting ride as we could really see the Cambodian country side. 

Eventually we arrived in Siem Reap. We took a tuk tuk to our guest house (what they call small hotels here). We were getting a lot of pressure from the driver and later from the hotel workers to take their tuk tuks to Angor Wat the next day. We resisted because we wanted to ride bikes there. After we checked in we rested for a little bit, the hotel provided us with fresh fruit shakes, lychees, and bananas. We later saw a lychee tree at the hotel and assumed they came from there. It was all amazing. We then went out to buy bus tickets to Bangkok for Friday. 

We stayed at the Ta Som guest house, which was a pretty basic hotel. It was clean, cheap ($34 for two nights), included breakfast, and was more or less close to town. Walking to the center of town from the hotel took about 12 minutes. If you're down with 'roughing' it a little it's great. Keep in mind we did not have warm water for the shower and we shared our room with little hopping crickets. We enjoyed it!

Here is the tripadvisor link for the guest house:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297390-d1911328-Reviews-Ta_Som-Siem_Reap_Siem_Reap_Province.html

Siem Reap is noticeably more tourist friendly. It is also a little calmer and more approachable than the chaotic bustle of Phnom Penh. I was not as nervous about the possibility of getting hit by a car or motorcycle. We bought the tickets and then decided to walk to the city center, which was not that far. They have a couple of very touristy streets labeled in lights called "pub street," "night market," and "art center night market." The markets, as one would have guessed, sold touristy goods and wares as well as on the street massage parlors and these tanks with fish who nibble on your feet. Pub street had lots of restaurants and bars. It was very pretty and packed with people. We ate at a place called "Khmer Family Restaurant", which was pretty tasty. After dinner we walked through the markets and then walked back to the hotel. Since we had decided that we were going to get up to see the sun rise at the temples we decided to call it an early night.

- N