"See-um Ree-up"AKA Siem Reap

Me at the White Lady statue whatsis in Kep

 

View from "The Beach House" in Kep

Well, I certainly cannot win so far in terms of weather for little jaunts out of Phnom Penh. Went to Kep 2 weekends ago and it rained for the entire weekend. I loved it though - Kep is a little fishing village that used to be for the rich bearches of Cambodia to loll around at many years ago - it is somewhat decrepit now apparently = but I really enjoyed my little stay especially the incredible crab meal I had at the crab market restaurant called "Kimly". It cost me the royal sum of $7 US to have a full plate of cracked crab in satay sauce - 'finger-lickin'good' as the expression goes... and the young friendly wait staff will hover around and if you are having the slightest difficulty in cracking any uncracked crab open (if you know what I mean) they will come over and do the job and lay it at the edge of your plate for your lordship (me in this case) to scoff. I drank a 'black panther'(Cambodian guinness) with it and was off my face for the tuk tuk drive home as that shit is at least 8% alcohol!  See pics above...

Okay have been at the Montessori school now for 3 weeks and it is festival week for Pchum Ben and another volunteer and I have come to Siem Reap to do the Angkor Wat experience etc... Well, it has flooded in Siem Reap so on arrival 2 days ago ('deluxe limousine bus' [NOT!] for $11 from PP - can get one for $5 but decided to go for the plush job - which was not plush at all and took 2 hours longer to get there due to wet roads) our lovely TT driver "Mr Heng"who is actually Mr Heng's son - so he is "small Heng" - a terrifically funny young man who not only brought me to the hotel gratis, but said he'd take the other vol to hers as well. So the next day (we decided to go to Angkor while it was vaguely decent weather) he took us 'downtown' for some shopping first >>>> so much fun (I hope the shopkeepers are okay though in all seriousness).

errr...is actually me and small Heng in the floods in Siem Reap

Anyhoo, Angkor Wat was amazing, especially Bayon (with the faces) and Ta Prohm (left in its natural state), although the tourists touching the ruins and hopping on and off them for photo opps pissed me off no end (complete irresponsiblity in terms of stewardship of these 'wonders of the world' if you ask me and an english couple and I stood there and bitched about it while dingbat tourists were doing it - very satisfying really! - also their tour guide joined in with the rant and said dumb ass tourists weren't supposed to do it but they lack respect - hear hear Mr Tour Guide!).

Other vol and I at Angkor

Me in Ta Prohm

Next subject - so last night we also added in an  Apsara show with a huge buffet dinner included for US$12!!! We threw down 3 largies of Angkor beer and it was a top night. They are so elegant - the apsara girls were stunningly beautiful - you must see it before you die. The folk dances with the boys were also so cute - the culture here is so refreshingly non-sexualized as the other volunteer and I keep remarking - our culture is based around sex and theirs just is so not - I agree with them that westerners are often quite vulgar and lacking a certain savoir faire (means something nice in french).

buffet at Apsara dinner and theatre show last night then my camera died!

So today, got up for a leisurely (included) breakie - pancakes with maple syrup! Then blogging, trying to upload photos, will loll around in the room for a while before I walk through the flooded streets (the receptionist reckons US$3 for a Tuk Tuk downtown (WHATTTTT!!! - I thought $2 was bad in PP - this joint is not cheap like Thailand!)  for lunch and exploring markets (that is if they are open - most shut up shop as streets under water currently).