On the other side of town (A wholly different side of Siem Reap)

My plane takes off on time at 17:15 at Da Nang International airport (Don't laugh, there are planes taking off for Macau, Singapore, Guangzhou, Seoul, Siem Reap, etc etc).

This time the propeller plane is half empty, so I can secure myself a window seat to take some propeller pictures through the scratched plastic window ;-)

Yes, there are quite a lot of propeller pictures ;-0

But then, how often does one get to fly on a propeller plane at sun-set over dream clouds these days?

Instead of US $30 for the regular  Visa on Arrival, I pay $32 because I didn't bring the REQUIRED passport pictures. I LOVE the attitude Cambodians have towards RULES ;-) The whole wait time to get the Visa on Arrival (even without passport pictures) is 20 minutes.

 Add another 10 minutes to get through Immigration and Customs, and I am allowed to roam freely in Cambodia.

A quick cigarette, and an airport-hire Tuk-Tuk to my hotel for $5 (motorbike $2, car $7), and I'm on my way. 

This seems to be a different Siem Reap than the one I visited in December.  The first few kilometers into town are the same, but instead of heading North from the road-crossing at the geographical centre of town into the quiet and dark streets where I stayed last December, we head South towards my hotel, and I see a Siem Reap that I didn't even know existed.   Crawling with tourists, thankfully most of them still reasonably sober at 8 pm, full of open and lit-up stores, the Pub Street (oh oh), and a brightly lit Night Market that seems to occupy half the town.

I check in to lots of smiles and a welcome drink and am shown to my room. The room itself is nice but not flashy; what is fabulous is the balcony overlooking the pool area with heavy wood sitting furniture and an ashtray ;-)

But having seen all the crazy commotion outside earlier, nothing keeps me in my room after check-in, and I wander around the streets wide-eyed. I am fully aware that this is NOT Cambodia I'm walking through, that these streets in no way represent the lives of the Cambodian people, except maybe that these streets show that Cambodians are at the beck and call of anyone with foreign currency.  It is a showcase display of how lucky I was to be born to the parents that luck chose for me, instead of ending up as a toddler here in the dusty streets of Siem Reap.  Think about that next time anyone bickers about 'those bloody foreigners'!

I know that I will be able to significantly stock up my shrinking wardrobe collection in the coming days and end my wandering around by finally stepping into a hole in wall (No, NOT a cave this time), a restaurant by the name of Meng's Cafe. A Mixed Special Amok with Rice is pretty much the most expensive item on the menu at US$ 3. It is nice to eat healthy food at very low prices and walk to and from the restaurant at 9 pm in shorts and short sleeves and still start sweating. At this very moment, I am contemplating extending my stay in Cambodia at the expense of time spent in Vietnam (which also means I'd have to come back to see those parts of Vietnam that shall remain unknown on this trip ;-).  

Amok Fish

My neighbouring table is occupied by the typical young female over-privileged first-time Asia travelers. Girl 1 of 3 orders loudly "I'll have the French Onion Soup" while Number 2 girl says "Do you have Feta cheese?". WTF?  Why didn't you travel to France or Greece if that's what you want to eat? Don't you know that YOU are responsible for Cheeze-burgers and Onion rings ap
pearing on the menus of tourist restaurants around the world?
   When I ordered my Mixed Amok I noticed a small smile on the owner's face, which widened into a grin when I asked her for chopsticks.   Imagine going into a fancy French restaurant in Paris and ordering Chinese or Indian food. It's an insult to the chef and the country!  And what is worse, the locals have to subject themselves to the insults because they need the money.  Try not to be a tourist swine.  Or as my accountant always says: Travel Well ;-)

The restaurant is receiving new guests at 10 pm but I'm starting to peter out.  This is the longest I have stayed up on this trip without major naps ;-)  And I think I'm finally back on track; I'm walking previously unexplored paths again; I think trying to repeat Da Nang was a mistake, and I will try to learn from it QUICKLY.  Or maybe it's just the outside temperature of 28 degrees?