I was supposed to leave Siem Reap this morning, but a last-minute e-mail from my friend Kathryn sent me running to the bus ticket agency to change my date of departure. Because of a booking conflict with her hotel in Bangkok she had decided to hop on a bus and take a tour to Siem Reap. I thought that was wonderfully spontaneous. She asked if I would consider staying in town for another day so that we could get together, and I thought that was a great idea.
I had another day in Siem Reap and absolutely no idea how to spend it. I knew that I would need some time for writing and uploading pictures, but that wouldn’t take the whole day. I decided to check out Artisans d’Angkor, a place where they make arts ands and crafts items and allow the tourists to tour their workshops. Because I read my guidebook incorrectly, I also thought that there was a landmine museum in the same area. I looked at a few of the workshops where they shaped soapstone, sandstone and wood into figures that resembled some of the images at the temples. There was even a reproduction of one of the famous bas reliefs at Angkor Wat which I appreciated because I only got to see half of the original. The other half is being restored. I can just imagine….. “in this room we’re going with Santa Fe style and in the study…early Khmer.” I was more interested in the production of the silk items and I think that they had a free van to go see the silkworm farm, but I really wanted to see that landmine museum. I asked the fellow at the information desk about it and he pointed out the “true” location on my map of Siem Reap.
It was just after midday and I was looking for some sustenance and some air-con relief. I ducked into the Lucky Mall to get some western food at the Lucky Burger. As I sat waiting for my food, I looked around and thought, “this could be anywhere in the States.” I was in a shopping mall with escalators, a food court, a department store, an electronics store, and a number of people sitting around working on computers or playing with their phones. The only difference that I could see was that the restrooms were labeled W.C. (Water Closet), but they were western toilets. My poor family was imagining me stumbling through fields of undetonated exploding devices or being captured and sold into the sex trade. I know that things like that happen, but they don’t want old maids like myself. They are looking for some fresh young thing that steps off of the plane looking for excitement and inexpensive beer. I don’t even stay out much after dark. I’m too tired from a full day of dodging the sun, putting off tuk-tuk drivers, and looking for a good frozen coffee drink.
Kathryn had given me the name of her hotel, but she hadn’t told me what time she was arriving. Her hotel was near the area where the fellow said the landmine museum was, so I set out on foot looking for both. The two places were on Highway 6, and I swear I walked halfway to Poipet before I finally found the hotel. There was no sign of the landmine museum, but I was so hot and sweaty that I had given that up as a lost cause. I was so disheveled that I was afraid to enter the Cozyna Hotel. I just kind of called from the door, asking whether or not the tour group from Bangkok had arrived. The clerk at the desk motioned me to come in, but he had no idea what I was talking about. I asked specifically for my friend, and again, nothing. I wondered what was going on. Usually tours make reservations, don’t they? I thanked him and scurried out the front door. Within five minutes I had three different tuk-tuk drivers tell me that I couldn’t walk back into town because it was so far. “I know……I just walked it!”
What happened was Kathryn had been told one hotel in Thailand and then a different hotel once she crossed the border into Cambodia. She had no way of notifying me until she was in town, and by the time I got the message, she had gone to dinner, but I didn’t understand this because when I tried to call, the phone reception was bad, but not as bad as the clerk’s English skills. When I showed up at her hotel in person, I finally understood that she had left her room. I wanted to cuss out the clerk for his lousy English, but then I remembered who was in whose country. Enough! I tried! God knows I tried. I scribbled a note to Kathryn telling her, “maybe next time”, and I stalked out into the hot Cambodian night. The past five nights I have had difficulty sleeping because my room was so hot. Today I had decided to splurge and spend $10 for a room with air-con, and all I wanted to do was go and cool off.
