Siem Reap - the name means 'Siem Defeated', which is hardly the most tactful name for a major city near Thailand. The empire of Angkor once included much of modern-day Thailand, but there's a touch of irony about the name, given that Thailand ultimately defeated Cambodia and controlled Siem Reap and Angkor from 1794-1907.
Siem Reap - formally known as 'Siam' was little more than a village when French explorers discovered Angkor in the 19th century. With the return of Angkor to Cambodian, or should that be French control in 1907, Siem Reap began to grow, absorbing the first wave of tourists. With the advent war and the Khmer Rouge, Siem Reap entered a long slumber from which it only began to awake in the mid-1990s.
Tourism is the lifeblood of Siem Reap and without careful management it could become Siem Reapolinos, the not so Costa-del-Culture of Southeast Asia. However, there are promising signs that developers are learning fort he mistakes that have blighted other regional hot spots, with restrictions on the height of hotels and bus sizes.
(Thank you Lonely Planet)
This is the Golden Palace Residence. The hotel is only 2 months old and the pool is lovely. Over the fence there is a very small, dark and uninviting pool with a black inner tyre floating in it. We are very lucky!
This is where a lot of Cambodian blogging was done from. You're welcome.
When we ventured out for our 20 minutes yesterday and made it to the bridge...
Where these little kiddies raced up and stood, waiting for us to take their photo. They didn't ask for money or anything, they just stood and stared at us while we stared at them..... How gorgeous are they?
Once the evening had cooled down to a still unbearable 38 degrees we headed for the night market. They sell everything here - your usual t-shirt/dress/bag/pashmina stalls, but they also sell dried meats, which is a good combination.
A sit down in a cool bar with a cocktail was definitely in order and since we were the only ones in there I asked them if they would mind turning down the doof doof music. I joked saying that we were old and had old ears..... giggle giggle.... so off she went and the music didn't get turned down, but she did change the music to olde time tunes. It was appreciated, but we still had to ask them to turn it down.... what are we like?
To hot to wander around and a little to early for dinner, we all agreed a foot massage was in order. Marie was forced to make her first and only decision for the holiday and pick a place. We happened to be standing out the front of a place that had chairs out the front, but also advertised air conditioning..... and the decision was made.
We walked into a ramshackle room with old, broken leather chairs and footstools along one wall and mattresses on the floor along the other. There were curtains that we assumed sectioned off the rooms to make the mattresses into private massage areas, but they were all ripped and falling off their railings. There were also plastic water bottles all over the floor. We were hot and desperate, so we stayed. There seemed to be some confusion about who was going to massage us. The one lady (seen below in the right) started massaging Jenny and then just yelled to the people outside in Khmer. And just kept on yelling because they wouldn't come. Finally, Jenny was about 10 minutes into her rub down when the others joined in.
When the third person (the chap) came in he was followed by a naked boy, about 3 years old. He turned out to be the son of the owner who was sitting outside and was quite oblivious to what he was doing inside.
He sat next to Jenny and at first she was humouring him and laughing, but that only encouraged him and his antics got more and more weird for a good massage experience.
When she started to ignore him, he just danced in front of her.
It was hilarious!
Jenny used her fan to fan herself and he thought it was a great game, so he jumped over all the chairs to go and get massage menus and would then fan her with them.
The 3 masseurs looked out the door the entire time.....
The lady rubbing Jenny's feet kept slapping the little boy's bottom and then continued to rub her legs.... we were looking at each other and nearly wetting out pants laughing. Then she slapped his penis and that same hand, without missing a beat, went back onto Jenny's leg for more rubbing. Ew!
The little boy presented Jenny with a clump of dirty hair that he found on the floor and I said, "um, no!" and ONLY THEN did the lady tell him to get down and lay on the mattress.
Towards the end of the massage 2 more children, a younger boy and an older girl, all siblings, wandered in and out in various states of undress.
For me, it ended up being one of the better massages I've had, but poor Marie's lady thought she was digging for treasure under her leg muscles and pulled her toes so hard that the skin broke! So she was a little sore afterwards.
As I finished up last, Marie and me Jenny were waiting outside and I walked out to marie discreetly shaking her head to some passers by who looked interested in a massage there.
We saw them a bit later in the market and they thanked us for saving them for what would possibly have been a hilarious disaster!
