Hello Lady....

Hello Lady….

After taking a quick must needed shower back at the hostel after our day of sightseeing in Phnom Penh on Saturday afternoon, my friend and I headed down the road to the weekend ‘night market’ for some dinner with the locals. It was fabulous and for $2 we got to choose a range of appetizers such as shrimp rolls, meat ball skewers, green beans, stir fry noodles, papaya salad and more, to be brought to us on the mat. We sat with many others doing the same thing enjoying the open air atmosphere, market shoppers and live dancing entertainment.

With a larger group, we then headed out to the riverfront for a drink or 2 and maybe more!

Some fun dancing and a 3 am return back to the hostel meant that I only had about 4 hours of sleep before having to get up for our bus to Siem Reap at 8:45am on Sunday morning.

The bus journey with the ‘standard’ ticket I purchased ($5) would be a 6 hour journey with no toilet on board, but 2 stops along the way. It was a full bus and I dozed off quite a number of times during the trip, but to be honest it was quite uncomfortable and the sun was shining on my side of the bus so I got super hot towards the end of the trip since the air-conditioning on the bus was not working as well as it could of.

We arrived into Siem Reap town at about 3pm and was informed by the bus assistant that we would have a free ride into town about 7 km away from the bus station. My friend and I did not have a room booked but had the address of a hostel that had great reviews on hostelworld.com and we were just hoping there would be a room for us. So here’s the thing, once we arrived at the hostel the tuk tuk driver stuck around wanting to arrange a day at the temples for him to work for us. I felt bad because I was so tired from the bus journey and quite grumpy to be honest only wanting a quick shower to freshen up. I informed him that we had no idea what we were doing and he insisted to stay. In the end, I just got up and headed to the room for that much needed shower and rest.

I jumped online and emailed my dear friend whom I had met traveling South America nearly 2 years ago. We had arranged to meet in Siem Reap as she will continue through Laos and I to Thailand. I sent an email to her enthusiastically awaiting her arrival the next day, but as I stood up and got off the computer, there she was getting out of her tuk tuk. I had mixed up the days (since I just have no idea what day or date it is!) and it was the best thing ever to see her after sooo long.

We had the evening to stretch our legs (She coming in from Rome, Italy to Bangkok then doing an 8 hour trip on a bus to get from Bangkok to Siem Reap!). We plan to spend a few days here since both of us don’t have an itinerary to follow. As we headed closer to the night market, we stopped for some dinner of delicious noodle soup for $1 and then kept walking. By this time, there were tourists everywhere and the market had come alive. Many vendors using the phrase “Hello Lady” to greet me.

In Phnom Penh, I had questioned how “cheap” everybody had said Cambodia was and I think their working with the US dollar threw me off a bit. But now, I understand….the market tee shirts and goods were all soooo cheap $1 for beautiful scares, $2 for tee shirts and more. I am planning on dumping some of my old tees and getting some new ones for the rest of my travels.

Waking up now, I had a wonderful sleep in an A/C room last night with the perfect bed softness and pillow fluffiness. We have a big day of doing the famous Angkor Temples today, with an early start to try and beat the crowd. I’m thinking my camera will be getting a good workout. Perhaps a $1 foot massage after the day of exploring or maybe try the crazy fish feeding on your feet to promote new skin cell growth teatment? Can’t wait….!

I’ll be sure to post and upload pics at the end of todayJ