Visiting Siem Reap, Cambodia
From quiet riverside towns to the bustling heart of tourist Cambodia
We spent two nights in Kampong Cham at a reasonable hotel close to the Mekong River. There is no real reason to stay in Kampong Cham — it’s just a big, noisy, dirty Cambodian town. But neither of us was keen to get straight back on another bus, so we spent a couple of relaxed nights there doing very little.
When we booked our onward bus to Siem Reap, we were told it was a public bus, so we expected another ancient, hot and slow journey. We were delighted to discover a shiny new air-conditioned bus waiting at the station. It even had a big TV screen playing bad Cambodian karaoke, but that was a small price to pay for air conditioning! The bus stopped along the way for food and toilets — total luxury. Once again, we were the only non-Cambodians on board, which left me wondering where all the other travellers were.
The road from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap is one of the main east-west highways in the country, yet about 50% of it was still unmade gravel. We didn’t travel on a single fully sealed road in Cambodia — a clear sign of just how poor the country remains.
Siem Reap — we have found the tourists!
We were met at the bus station by a tuk-tuk driver from our hotel, which was a lovely welcome. We stayed at the fabulous Villa Medamrei, a short walk from Pub Street and the restaurants. It was a delightful small boutique hotel — easily the best place we stayed on the entire trip.
Siem Reap is a nice town, but it is a total tourist town and not at all representative of the “real” Cambodia. Suddenly we went from seeing almost no Westerners for days to being surrounded by them. Most visitors follow the well-worn route of Sihanoukville → Phnom Penh → Siem Reap → fly out.
After weeks of rice and curry, I really enjoyed the tacos at iViva on Pub Street. It was there that we met Dout. Dout had lost both arms above the elbows in a landmine explosion when he was seven. Now as an adult, he sells books to support himself. He is articulate, well-read, and speaks beautiful English. Over the next few days we bought two books from him — we didn’t need them, but we wanted to help him just a little.
What fascinated (and saddened) me was how other people in the restaurant completely ignored Dout. They looked down, put their blinkers on, and pretended he wasn’t there. The cost of one meal in that restaurant would have fed him and his family for a week. We later learned from the hotel concierge that Dout is very unwell and trying to support a family of four. It was a sobering reminder of the realities that exist just beneath the tourist surface of Siem Reap.