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February 8, 2007
Siem Reap
Siem Reap is in the North of Cambodia near to the Tonale Sap Lake and Ankor Wat and it's Temples. This makes it Cambodia's top tourist destination. In the centre of town there are lots of bars, restaurants and Stalls selling postcards and silk scarfs, but if you look a little further then it's qiute different.
The roads here are mostly sandy, bumpy tracks and you don't ofen see any cars on them. Everyone has either a moped or a push bike and they use them like a family car. You see up to 4 or 5 people balanced precariously on the back of a moped and sometimes their pigs are balanced there too!!! Although everyone is supposed to drive on the right here, this is something that doesn't often happen. You'll be riding along on your push bike when a moped comes straight for you. Usually they swerve just in time, but it makes for an interesting ride.
Petrol stations are pretty different too. From a distance they could be mistaken for roadside drinks sellers. A mo-ped will usually take one Jonny Walker bottle of fuel every coulple of days, poured in through an old metal funnel. This usually costs just under a dollar. The one car we saw at a petrol station was being filled with a watering can full of petrol (not a Jonny Walker bottle - that would be daft).
Although the Cambodian currency is Riel (8000 Riel to the Pound), everyone uses dollars. You occasionally get riel as change but all prices are in dollars and the cash machines only give dollars.
Posted by admins at February 8, 2007 4:14 AM