Travelling for my family meant going to Europe or the States. Working on the other hand meant living in third world Asian countries and Africa. It was an unconscious choice, the decision to spend holidays in developed, first world countries, stemming for the need to "get away" from what was routinely unpredictable and culturally challenging. More importantly, for us, I think it was a need to get back to an environment that was orderly, recognizable, constant (albeit a bit boring) and also to mingle with people without being identified as expats.
With retirement, however, came a desire to explore Asia more closely. Africa may come later.....maybe. When my sisters suggested bringing my mom to Cambodia, we immediately agreed. We decided not to go to Phnom Phen but to Siem Riep, the gateway to the temples of Angkor.
Siem Riep is a cluster of towns along the Siem Riep River. These towns grew around buddhist pagodas or temples or Wats. There is a market and very good, reasonably priced restaurants near and around the hotels that proliferate in the town areas and its surroundings. We were impressed with the simple, yet elegant airport where one descends from the plane to the tarmac. Immigration was quick and hotel vans were outside waiting to take you to your hotel. For others who were not being met, there was the local tuk tuk or passenger tricycle, which we did get to ride later. As far as my baby nephew was concerned, the tuktuk experience was second only to the elephant ride!
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| the tuktuk |
At the hotel, one is met in the lobby with cold drinks and snacks presented by khmer ladies dressed in their very elegant silk sampots, much like the sarong worn by men and women in most Southeast Asian countries. Asian hospitality was in full display here, the hotel staff warm and welcoming, never servile but service oriented.
Our first day was spent entertaining the younger members of our party, bringing them to the crocodile farm, and then to the butterfly farm.
We also ate, and ate a lot. Khmer cooking is very similar to Thai food in that it is flavorful, redolent with spices like kafir lime, basil, oregano, lemon grass and pandan, the difference is that khmer cooking is not overly spicy. On that first lunch we had their local speciality, loklok, which is sessentially thinly sliced beef fried in oil with onions and then dipped into a lime and pepper sauce. The pepper was not just any pepper but kampot pepper, grown exclusively in Cambodia. Kampot pepper has a milder flavor and an entirely different aroma. We also tried their roasted quail, again dipped in the lime and pepper sauce. We became addicted to this kampot pepper, lime sauce, which is always present as a condiment in any table, in any restaurant.
Shopping in the public market is pleasant. One can buy wood carvings, metalcraft, kampuchean pajamas and jewelry. Precious stones like rubies and blue sapphires are mined in Cambodia but some uncrupulous foreigners open showrooms, peddling synthetic man made stones, passing them off as the real thing. Sad to say, we fell victim to one of these scams but we were able to get our money back before we left. So yes, there is always a serpent in paradise!
Siem Riep is a small town, very much like most small towns anywhere in Asia, pace of life is slower, people generally friendly and helpful, not particularly clean, but teeming with tourists, all here, like us, to see the wonders of the temples of Angkor! I couldn't wait but for my baby nephew the highlight of the trip was his encounter with the ephant!
