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ABOUT SIEM REAP
Angorwat is a vast area
of forest (the perimeter of the main circuit is 20
km) 10 km from Siem Reap where many wats (=temples)
are spread. Some are huge and well maintained and
reachable by a paved road, others , my favourites,
are ruins hidden and submerged by the wildlife. There
are some other temples 30 km far away from the main
ones, but I didn't get till there. I reached Siem
Reap as last leg of my travel through Indochina after
having heard for one month people describing the beauty
of the Angkor temples. Definitely they are awesome,
but one day and half for me was more than enough to
visit them. Then I was fed up since this area is so
different from the rest of Cambodia and I wasn't used
to the boring people yelling me: "Misteeeeerrrrr,
buy a coca pleeeeease!!!". The hundredth time
I heard it I was freaking out! ;-) But anyway everybody
is nice and not so pushy, at least compared to Africa.
Obviously it's the most touristy place you can find in the khmer land if you go
there you must expect it.
The funny thing was hanging out in the area by moped taken by a Cambodian guy, who
waited sleeping on the hammock while I was visiting the temple. After having visited a
bunch of temples, it was so hot that I stopped staying for two hours with him swinging on
the hammocks, sucking a coconut and playing with the kids.
Being in Siem Reap don't miss the chance to
visit the floating Vietnamese village. I didn't have
great expectations before getting there, but I found
interesting to see hundreds of not so big house-boats
where families with a lot of kids, grandma and grandpa
manage to live. And what about the palafitte unstablely
loaded on trucks? They move them to follow the seasonal
water level that, depending on the period, shows or
covers a several km road.
When you get in Siem Reap you'll pass through the worse
place you can find in the whole Cambodia. It's called Poipet: good luck! (read the story about it)
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