Asia 2008 – Day Three
November 3rd, 2008 - 11:50pm
Day Three – Nov 3rd 2008
Siem Reap
23:50
We slept in later this morning than the past few days. After quickly getting ready we popped out for breakfast. I had chicken noodle soup and a pancake, Justine had bread and muesli, both were accompanied by coffee (mine cold with ice, Justine’s hot).
Our tuk tuk—same guy as yesterday—took us to Tonle Sap lake, a floating village. As it is no longer the wet season the houses are spread out. We took about an hour to explore the village. Besides the driver, it was us and a tour guide. The village is another world entirely; the houses move from day to day and even the schools, police stations, churches and basketball courts float. We bought some (very overpriced) books to donate to a local school. The kids seemed underwhelmed though grateful.
After we’d finished with Chang Kucas (the village on the lake) we headed for Wat Athvea.
Wat Athvea is a not-very-well known temple. Upon arrival we made our way to the temple and started investigating. No one else besides us was around. A few moments later we heard a “hello,” and a young man appeared. Supposedly, he was studying history with the local monks. He proceeded to tell us all about this temple’s history and its significance. The most impressive thing about this temple was the silence. In comparison to the “Angkor” temples the silence was near deafening.
The young man also gave us a tour of the pagoda the monks use beside Wat Athvea. Feeling generous, we paid him $1 USD, just like we paid the Chang Kucas tour guide and boat driver.
Next, we wanted to go to a puppet shop, as we’d described to our tuk tuk driver. Instead, he took us down a dirt road rather than the “boulevard” on the address. This dirt road turned into a slum which turned into a great fear about where we were being lead. I asked a few times to turn around and go back to the hotel, but the driver persisted. He stopped a handful of times asking for directions and lead us over dirt roads so bad a 4WD would have trouble. I nearly lost it when the tuk tuk got bogged in a particularly large pothole and almost flipped. I got out and worked it free.
Eventually, we stopped at an orphanage which the driver tried to convince us to visit. I demanded we go back to the hotel.
An uneventful trip later, and the driver dropped us in the centre of town, then asked for payment but I declined, advising we were to pay our hotel directly. Slightly distraught, we had lunch at a burger joint. Perhaps mirroring our mood, it began to rain.
Some wandering of the town lead us to a restaurant where I grabbed a large bottle of beer and Justine had a margarita – strawberry. After the drinks we headed back to the hotel for a short while.
The sun went down, so we headed to the night market. We bought some tops—cotton because it’s our second wedding anniversary!—and went to a bar in the market. We had a few more drinks and chatted to the bartender which entertained us with card tricks. I had a shot of French absinthe—it’s like a cross between Sambuca and Listerine.
Back into the markets and a large American man yelled at us to try a “fish massage” place. We’d seen him there earlier.
A quick lap around the market and we ended up at the “Dr Fish” massage place. Plucking our courage we removed our shoes and plunged our feet into a pool of water. Instantly dozens of fish raced to our feed and began eating—yes, eating—the dead skin from our feet. It’s a strange sensation, slightly ticklish but not at the same time.
We met some other travelers: “Germany”, “America” and “Sydney”, who were also in the process of having their feet eaten.
Meeting up with the travelers later in the same bar we’d visited earlier, we chatted and drank long into the night.
It turns out that our “we are lost, going somewhere we don’t want to go, and are worried” experience is far from unique. Rather than being troublesome, it’s a comforting thought.
Photos taken today: 188
Photos taken to date: 1025
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[...] Asian trip. At least the first functioning one. We’d visited temples the few days before and enjoyed our time at Wat Athvea too but this pagoda is, for me, the most interesting one we [...]
[...] Something I’m doing this time around is plotting the location of all of the activities, sights and other places we want to see using Google Maps. I’ve not done much of it yet but I’m hoping it will allow us to make better use of our time away by allowing us to see all of the things we want to see in a specific location rather than circling around aimlessly and revisiting locations when we don’t need to. Having lists of what we want to do has, in the past, made it possible to see a lot and not forget those things we might otherwise overlook while in a new and interesting place. The trouble with such lists, though, is that it can prevent the thrill of discovering or doing something unexpectedly and that will definitely be a bit of a tightrope walk. However, we’ve done it pretty well in the past — usually we check off all of the things quickly and efficiently and then spend time aimlessly wandering. A combination I’ve enjoyed: how else do you end up at a fish massage joint? [...]