At the upper left of this Pub Street shot, notice the ad for "Free Apsara Dancing" - Neil Gaiman fans, maybe the gods are still here after all...enjoying the air conditioning.
Fish pedicure opportunities were everywhere. This photo is from National Geographic, a wonderful shot that captured exactly what we saw. Musicians playing for change to support families devastated by UXO explosions were juxtaposed with these Americans, Australians and Europeans who still had their feet. Garra Rufa fish in tanks nibble the dead skin off of one's feet, a delicate massage that feels great after you get over the tickles. There was a free pond of these little guys at our friends' hotel, and I tried it. Tickles like crazy, and the laughter makes you feel as good as the massage.
The streets were jammed with motorbikes and tourists strolling around through the alleys. We had an excellent meal, and walked over to the Night Market across the river.
The Night Market area here looks newly built, and has much more expensive shops - we knew we'd come back the next day to compare prices with the older Psar Chaa market.
Being very close to Chinese New Year now, there were many Asian young people exploring Cambodia. Many of them sported expensive shoes and handbags, and we were all targeted by the people begging at the open restaurants. The gulf between people here seems not to be so much an East/West division, but about poverty and wealth, and about whether one has lived through the war, or never experienced that particular hell.
Coming back the next day, we explored the market area downtown. Here, folks hanging out on the shady bridge over the Siem Reap River.Several foot bridges take you across from the old Psar Chaa market to the new Night Market with more upscale shops.
Inside the huge Psar Chaa market, a warren of stalls under a warehouse-like ceiling, we saw... stuff. Lots of it. Trinkets of ceramic, wind chimes, pots of every kind, hats, clothing, handbags, jewelry, housewares... you could live in there for a year on about a hundred dollars. Because this was a food market too; meat, vegetables, bread, you name it.
The smell in here was a bit overwhelming. We were not tempted to try this food, not even a little bit. I'm sure, with enough antibodies, we would be fine, but I think we'd have to live here for a while.
Jules was on the lookout for a gold chain for her daughter. The gold and gem business was doing well here in the market - we found a whole wing devoted to gold, gemstones and silver. We didn't know enough to be sure what was good quality and what wasn't, but certainly the prices were generally a LOT lower than anything in the West. Here is the woman who fixed the gold chain to the right length.
Time to get the heck out of here, and find the sunlight again! We didn't want to have to buy more suitcases to bring home more stuff! I don't think Jules bought the hat, but the Euro fellow did.
Strolling around the river area, we saw the most amazing variety of life in Siem Reap.
Construction was taking place, roads were paved, banks and hotels and restaurants were springing up along the wider streets. There are some wider boulevards, French influenced, which give these areas a peaceful, roomy feel.
And then there are the shops along the road where manufacturing is taking place. If the tag in your shirt says "Made in Cambodia", it could come from one of these shops. These young men and women were working long hours. We'd see them sewing away in the morning, and the shop would still be open at 9:00 PM when we rolled home.
Families combined work and play - these were some proud parents!
Here are a couple of photos of food on the street - nuts here. I remember betel nut being chewed by so many people in Laos back in the day, but I didn't see so much of it now. I'm not sure what kind of nuts these were.
And whatever this was on the roaster (a pig?) it didn't run fast enough...
Some of our ASV alumni had also made the journey to Cambodia. Jack and Kathy, Jill, and Karen were here as well. Karen was housed in our hotel on the airport road, while the others had a really swell place in town by the river. It had an excellent restaurant, and we gathered for a great dinner there before our last big day in Cambodia.
Jack was planning to rise at O Dark Thirty to go birding at the Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary, an important breeding ground for large water birds at Tonle Sap Lake. Jules and I will go to Chong Kneas, a floating village at Tonle Sap not far from Siem Reap.
But first, we celebrated being here!
The Cambodian Real - dollars usually worked well too, with Reals for the "change", since they were worth less than a dollar.
Tomorrow, on to the Floating Village, where this meal became a distant dream.
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