STC’s snapping with new camera is frenzied and the results
electrifying. We’ve only been here for 24 hours – fresh eyes’n’all that!
Cambodia
is feeling a little more familar than I thought – Vietnam in 2002 was a
great Asian introduction – now the street vendors seem like great
places to eat; the hanging ducks, strange smells and plastic stools on
lumpy footpaths as restaurant floors are not only comprehensible , but
indeed exciting culinary adventures.
I was scribbling some
notes about all this in Siem Reap’s ‘In Touch’ bar, drinking beer and
pissing sweat at 9.15pm whilst STC busily read the camera manual to
ensure that no street corner ruckus or beautiful saffron robed monk
passed a lost photographic opportunity. I am attempting to distill 24
hours of travel to a small white page with a blobby pen. Now, in front
of a computer, it is similarly hard to transcribe.
We ended up
in Siem Reap after a short flight from Bangkok, cheaper taxi fares as
we figured out how it all works, the essential puchase of a calculator
(still in conversion chaos!) and the purchase of an el-cheapo full
photocopied Lonely Planet guide.
Siem Reap (pronounced with a
Jamaican accent to sound like a local – strange but true!) is a
frontier town, exploding with tourism. Hotels are flourishing skywards,
propped up with bamboo poles as another level is erected. Tuk-Tuk
drivers smile before asking you if you need lift; there’s 3 on every
street corner. The Khmer are a happy bunch.
A large bottle of
Angkor beer costs $2.00 – 2.50USD and tastes fantastic whilst sitting
under fans, rotating on gimbles from every roof and terrace. Our bill
for dinner and a few lagers comes to $7.50USD, but we’re stuck with a
$20 note, nothing smaller for the moment. Change comes as $12USD and
2000 Riel. Both currencies co-exist happily here, but we try and spend
Riel where we can.
Mmmm… there’s a power cut in the bar
whilst I write notes in a little black book. The head torch comes in
handy… the musicians keep playing like nothing’s happening, candles
arrive quick smart and life and hospitality continue. It’s a beautiful
soft atmosphere, although illuminated further behind the bar with the
blue glow of the manager’s mobile phone, unaffected by the need for a
power cable. Such paradox. It’s always the small details that so excite.
