6/9: Siem Reap

Siem Reap is an odd town. Part of it is definitely "tourism gone rampant" - guest houses, restaurants, massage parlors, tuk tuk drivers (way too many, at least for the low season), and bars - there is even a "Pub Street." There have been a few beggars (which I never saw in Laos and rarely in Vietnam), and children in the streets selling everything from bracelets to books on the Khmer Rouge. There are also a lot of land mine victims (I am a little relieved that the US is not solely responsible for all the injuries and deaths, as the civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the CPP (the pro-Vietnam communist party) from 1979 through 1998 is responsible for laying most of them) , some of them begging, some selling books, some playing music at the Angkor temples.

Very odd (I think there is something wrong with this)

After 10 hours at the temples yesterday, I took the day off today. Four hours in an internet cafe and a two hour massage, and there goes your day. (I have gone to the same masseuse every day. Her name is Yem, but she can't pronounce my name. so I shortened it for her - Rob. Now she calls me "Frog," thinking she is saying Rob. I let it go. Today, when the massage was done, she asked me, "You have pee?" "No, not yet," I replied. "Why not?" Yem asked. It was then that I realized she was asking "You happy?" Not, "You have pee?")

So in the afternoon I went for a bike ride.

I rode south along the river. Immediately it turned from city to village - simple raised huts, simple shops, dirt road, and kids everywhere.

Simple shop (and the shadow of me taking the picture)

A lot of laundry out to dry

A nicer house

And beautiful kids

It seemed like there was one village after another. I rode until there were only rice fields.

End of the road

Of course, on the way back I got lost, and the return journey took an hour longer.