Siem Reaping

We arrive in Siem Reap shortly after 12 noon. The heat is stifling. Just standing still and breathing causes sweat to pour out of us. Shortly before arriving, we learn that our guide, Bouna, has experienced a death in his family and will be leaving us in Siem Reap to travel back to his village.

We are saddened to be losing Bouna as our guide, but more saddened to hear of his uncle's untimely death. Bouna has been excellent, so good natured and possessing a true caring spirit as he looks after everyone in our group. We will miss him dearly our last few days.





We have an small farewell lunch around the pool at the hotel and are introduced to our new guide, Alann, who will be taking us around the Angkor temples and then accompanying us back to Bangkok. I am pleased that we have a woman (only our second female guide on this trip). I soon learn from Alann that it is frowned upon for a woman to do this job because there is unaccompanied travel involved and the family cannot guarantee that the girl will be "pure" for her "future husband" as she is not under the watchful eye of her family. Alann, who at 27 is already considered by her village to be a spinster, speaks about how it was quite difficult for her parents to support her at first, but now that they see how knowledgeable she is about the countries that she travels to and how she is able to earn a good wage, they are much more open to her decision.

You learn to manage more than a few cameras as a tour guide...




Alann tells me proudly that she will be using the money she makes to build a school in her village. "If we want, as Cambodians, to improve our situation we need to improve our education. It is very easy for me to get a job because I speak several languages and if my village is to succeed then they need access to good education" she posits, "I will hire a teacher while I am still working as a guide, but eventually, I will teach there too". This is a girl with a vision! All the power to her to persevere in the face of the expected tradition. That takes determination.

The afternoon is our own, and once we get our room, Keir uses it to try to sleep off the cold bug he has picked up. I head down to the town centre with Jenna and Brett to check out the local market and have a wander round.

It is so ridiculously hot that it feels that we are almost moving in slow motion. Siem Reap is made for tourists and seems to it lack the charms and authenticity of the other places we have visited in Cambodia. People come here for one thing and one thing only -- the temples - and that is evident. Everything seems catered for "Western" tastes, which I have to say, here, are not to my liking.

Returning to the hotel I find a very sweaty Keir. The power supply to the hotels and restaurants are so taxed that daily brown and black outs are a common occurrence.

With both of us still feeling nauseous, and with Keir's cold, we opt to call it a day and crash. With a 7:30 am departure to the Angkor Wat temple and another sure-to-be-stifling day, we want to be feeling as best as possible.