Siem Reap

The first stop on our adventure…

All in all we spent 8 nights here….4 at the GG (Golden Gecko Villa) and 4 night across the street at the 20th hotel. Both were wonderful, and both had great pools which we all loved. We definitely fell in love with the city of Siem Reap, in part because everyone was so friendly and welcoming, we felt very safe. Also, because there was so much to do and see. Despite doing so much in such a short period of time, we managed to stay within our modest budget. On excursion days, we overspent a little because they charge entrance fees to a lot of the sites (Temples were $37ea adult, waterfall was $10ea, floating village $40 for boat, ect, plus tuk-tuks to and from). However, we managed to make up for that on “off” days, by eating $6.75 meals for the Fam. On these days we explored the city, volunteered at a local school (only 2 days), and laid by the pool. Lisa and I enjoyed just walking around. The local women and children would stop what they were doing when we walked by to get a closer look at Ellie and Isabel. They are always “dolled up”, and have been sporting these ridiculous sun hats (pink and blue) with a flower on one side. Ellie loves the extra attention…Isabel does not, lol. Being the smaller and blonder of the sisters, the local women really go nuts over her, pinching her cheek and smiling…Isabel makes her “mean” face, which they find even cuter still…so do I.

We’ve already posted about the floating village and temples… we also visited the:

National Park
Rented a 4WD SUV and guid to take us to Phnom Kulen national park. This was an amazing day! We drove about 1h15m from Siem Reap, through the countryside to our destination. Here we saw a river with 1000+ year old carvings in the stones underneath the (shallow) water. Then proceeded through a tiny rural village where I tried some BBQ shrimp with chilli sauce and got the girls a fried banana ($1 for both) to a series of waterfalls. We descended down the long staircase into what seemed like the waterfall garden of eden. Butterflies danced all around… in the distance, an absolutely beautiful sight. Needless to say, the weather was hot, and I couldn’t wait to jump into the pool at the base of the cascading water. While swimming I said to Lisa “I don’t think I ever want to leave”. We used our phones to take picks and vids as we approached the falls, then switched to the Akaso camera given to us by Lisa’s parents to capture the swim, Thanks Bruce and Laurel!!!

Butterfly Center
On the way back from the National Park, we stopped at the Angkor Butterfly Centre ($5per adult). Ellie and Isabel loved it! It was about the size of a football field, totally enclosed by netting. We saw countless species of butterflies, from the cocoon, to caterpillar, to butterfly…some of them have only a 10day lifespan as a butterfly.

Silk Farm
$15 got us a tuk-tuk for the morning, and entrance into the silk farm. This place was really eye-opening. I had no idea how difficult it is to make silk. First of all, It takes about 1600 cocoons to make 1 small scarf. The Angkor Silk Farm is world renown for making some of the best silk on earth (golden silk). The farm employs Cambodian men who have lost a limb to landmines (of which there are quite a few), and women who are otherwise unemployable. These women don’t speak english, have no other skills, and have children to look after. The farm provides a school for the children or daycare while the women work and earn a monthly salary, or a “by the piece” wage for the ladies who become skilled at operating the “weave”… It is INSANE to see these operators in action. Depending on how complex the piece, they have to coordinate up to 1000 “chopsticks” of single strand silk that have been Tie-dyed, count, and sequence in the machine. It can take the most skilled operator anywhere from a few days to a month to complete the silk required for a shirt, dress, pillow, handbag, ect.
At the end of the tour, they lead us (predictably), into the showroom. Wow, all of a sudden we were inside a retail store that would rival Saks 5th Ave. The products were truly amazing! The finest silk sheets, handkerchiefs, blouses, and nighties. I really wanted to purchase gifts to family and friends back home, but they were way too expensive. There were some obviously rich Chinese tourists there buying everything up, but we just couldn’t join in, too bad, because wow it was nice!

The food in Siem Reap has been wonderful and some of our favourite places to eat where not only really really delicious, but super cheap too. Under $10 we would have a full meal for the four of us including water and of course a fruit shake for the girls! One of my favourite meals was a anchovy and BBQ pork sandwich with fresh diced veggies, cheese and just the right amount of hot chilli sauce on a warm baguette. It was from a street corner off the beaten track that cost only $0.50!

Off to Battambang…