Our first day in Siem Reap was just spent relaxing, the hotel we stayed in was amazing, beautifully looked after and really friendly staff. We had a free arrival drink, lovely dinner and free 30 minute massage, can't be bad. Siep Reap is a lovely little town and the people are so friendly. You are constantly harassed to use a tuk tuk or buy something but never in a malicious way. There are always smiles even when you say no. I guess the harassment comes with every tourist area. The biggest issue was what is referred to at the "milk scam", there are young girls carrying around babies asking the tourists to buy milk for them at the markets, when they do and split up the girl goes back into the market, returns the milk and splits the profits with the shop keeper. It is so hard to refuse to give money knowing what is happening. Like any other business they have bosses and it was wired to see 5 girls with babies handing money over to their...controllers I guess you'd call them.
Any hoo, so Siem Reap is all about temlpele and Angkor Wat, we had a day exploring loads of them and it was amazing. All built around 1000 years ago and still standing like Elton John, a little crumbly around the edges but the heart is still there.
In the evening we had dinner at a local restaurant and chatted to the owner all night learning about Cambodias struggles and history. A lot of stuff happened that I never even knew about but will be learning more about that in the next few days here in Phnom Penh. It was interesting to hear him talk about the latest rigged elections and the knock on effect to people working into the tourism industry and the to learn that Angkor Wat, which gets over 3.5 million visitors a year, is run by the Vietnamese so the Cambodians don't make much from that. It seems the people here really struggle to get by, it really reminds me of Africa. After dinner we chanced across a little school that is open from 5pm to 7:30pm offering free English lessons to poor kids who can't afford to go to school. It is run by a chap called Jimmy who is a tuk tuk driver by day and teacher by night. We spoke to him and offered to help the following day. It was a holiday so the kids were playing games and having a good time. Jimmy pu both myself and Kinga on the spot by getting us up to the front of the class to talk about England and Africa which was nerve racking but went well. After that we helped serve dinner and pour drinks before dancing with the kids. It really was an emotional experience and we were so happy to help out, if just for 1 day. At the moment they are trying to build a second site, if you are interested you can track them down on Facebook at Jimmys Village School. Please take a look.
Ok so that's Siem Reap in a nutshell, aside from a couple of wanders along pub street and cheap dodgy massages. The bus ride here was 5hrs of nice driving and then 5 hours of hellish road. I a, so proud of Kinga for surviving it. I had my first opportunity to buy bugs to eat but haven't dared yet!
Hope all is well,
Matt and Kinga
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