New Years in Siem Reap

Siem Reap was a thoroughly charming place to spend New Years. We visited a few of the hundred or so ancient Khmer temples just about 9 kilometers outside town in Angkor during the day of the 31st. They were otherworldly and captivating. Nora's diligent photo taking will reveal all in time.

We celebrated the coming of 2008 on the threshold of our Irish guesthouse with a mixture of about 500 convivial locals and foreigners in a street party sandwiched between a few pubs and clubs. Nora and William and I danced until about three, splattered with mud from the street, when William retired, followed a bit later by me, and then by Ms. Norina.

We woke late on the 1st, around 11, before packing our bags and heading out in search of food. Khmer food rivals the Sri Lankan delights of my honeymoon as the most delicious food I have ever eaten. (I miss rice and beans, however).

At lunch, we called around trying to find cheap flights to our next destination. (We have thus far planned our trip, not at the whim of sailing breezes, but at the mercy of the complex economic forces that set airline prices.) Phenom Penh came it at as cheaper, by far, than Hanoi, HCMC, Luang Phabang, or Vientiane, so...off we went..to the airport with a hour to catch a flight with no tickets on the back of a struggling tuk tuk with all we have piled between us. The little tuk tuk that could chugged and chugged and delivered us to the wrong terminal of the airport just in time. We spent another twenty minutes literally running to secure the cash to buy the tickets, but they held the flight for us...

So we arrived in Phenom Penh at about three yesterday, were not yet ready to succumb to the smells of sounds of another big city (PP is like Bangkok, I imagine, was, about thirty years ago) and so we caught a taxi for the southern coast of Cambodia. We spent last night in an 6 dollar guesthouse run and operated by a tremendously kind and generous man in his seventies.

It was very clean, but we were lusting after a Western bathroom (one that you don't have to fill the toilet with water from a bucket) and a hot (or warm) shower...so now we are in Serendipity Beach, just outside Sihanoukville (yes, named after the King). We are staying at a guesthouse recently purchased by a young (our age) Dutch couple who also started an orphanage for Cambodian children. And, we have hot water and a flush toilet!

I have a bit of a cold, but in all I can only thank God for my health this trip. Seems I was built for a diet of curry and espresso. William, I think, is drawing a quarter of his daily calories from Thai beer.

My love to all!