September 19: The Road to Siem Riep

The first part of today has consisted largely of the journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Riep. Another early morning for us. We had to be ready for the bus by 8 a.m., but I took a few minutes after breakfast to try to call Mark via FaceTime, which you might think of as Apple’s version of Skype. I was able to get through for about 15 seconds, but the Wi-Fi in our hotel was not very good, and we lost our connection. It was really nice to see him, though, and to be able to say hello. I’ll try him again tomorrow.

We were collected by a feeder bus at around 8:15 and rode it to the collection point where we jumped onto the big bus. It was a tour bus holding around 40 people, so it was fairly comfortable. I can’t say quite the same for the roads between Phnom Penh and Siem Riep; they were pretty varied. Some were just dirt and were badly rutted. Others were more akin to small highways. Unfortunately, both extremes made for poor photo ops. The bus pitched and swayed too much on the dirt roads, and on the good roads, the driver was going too fast for me to focus. I did get a couple shots, but I missed so many: the in-progress statue of Buddha; the stone carver at work; the variety of cattle; the monkey; the heavily ornamented road-side gates at the entrance to every Wat; the naked children in doorways, yards, and streams; the people working in the paddies; the shacks; the flood water that sometimes reached right up to the floor of the elevated shacks; the ubiquitous dogs. Here, at least, is something.

The people living along this road are poor, even by Cambodian standards, but they all seem to own at least one cow or bull, which they must feed. They do so by creating large mounds of hay—some 10 feet tall and wide—that look uncannily like Cousin Itt from The Addams Family. As the cattle nibble away at the mounds, they begin to look like mushrooms with caps that are out of cattle’s reach. The resulting hay sculptures are positively Seussian. (Thanks to Jan for the photo; mine were all much blurrier.)

We just checked in at the Golden Banana in Siem Riep, and it’s lovely (except, perhaps for the very charming traditional tile roof that leaked, something we learned of during the incessant night-time downpours)! We have our own cabana with sleeping on the first floor and living room and bathroom upstairs. The cabanas surround a bar area and a luxurious central pool with a waterfall. The room comes with breakfast, and lunch and dinner are available without leaving the B & B. Already the employees all have been extremely kind and helpful. I think we’re going to enjoy this place.

The refrain for the day—as delivered at the night market—was “Hello, ma-DAHM. Fish massage?” (I think if Jan got “ma-DAHM”ed one more time she was going to take someone’s head off.) Apparently, the current craze is to put your feet into a large tank while a couple hundred ciclids nibble at them. We saw dozens of these setups while walking around Siem Riep. The better ones also posted a small sign reading, “We don’t use piranha”—presumably a suggestion that their competitors do.