Survivor Mekong: Siem Reap for Dummies (Like me)

I have heard from a few people that we are "adventurous" travellers, like Steve Fossett flying in a balloon around the world or Ham the Chimp blasting off into outer space. But I beg to differ. Siem Reap is, as was most of Laos, very tourist friendly. All the temples are well demarcated and you can easily view them without a guide if you buy one of the many Angkor books peddled at the entrances. Angkor is also serviced by clean and well maintained toilets for those occasional bouts of Suryavarman's Revenge. Downtown Siem Reap is very safe, with tourist police hanging out on every street corner, though sitting in the shadows so as to not visually disrupt travelling revelers. Pub street and concomitant side streets and back lanes are full of funky little bars, restaurants, massage parlors and Internet shops. With so many people sitting at streetside, it's virtually impossible for crime to take place that is not in full view of hundreds of people. Last night we sat at the Central Cafe and listened to a Khmer rock band belt out songs from The Police, Soundgarden, Alannis Morrisette and the Red Hot Chili Peppers: a pretty ambitious set, but props to them, they played to near perfection.

Head out into the countryside as we did yesterday and you pass villages, pagodas and endless pasture land: some rice fields that are at this point in the year, dust dry. Pass the teaming markets in Siem Reap and there is a bounty of fruits, vegetables and bagettes, with smokey meat stalls and spinning spits. There is no shortage of food here but there is a lack of income, which is a common refrain in many developing countries. You see poverty here, children foraging through garbage bags, and that damn one-legged boy who keeps walking with you asking for money and what do you do? Give him money? Give him food? You cannot possibly give to every sad story here, there are just too many. Of course there's the other omni-present scourge and that is garbage. Cultures that did not have plastic a decade ago have no method of disposal so it piles up in the fields under the sign that says "Keep our city clean."

But for all the sad stories, to consider where Cambodia was barely thirty years ago, it's remarkable how far they've come. Cambodia is open for business and the glitzy hotels along the promenade are proof of that. So don't fear coming to Cambodia: Khmers go out of their way to give you the best service possible and it's a level of service that is long extinct from Western cultures. The vast majority of Khmers are honest, hardworking, FRIENDLY, people who are proud of their country and proud of their hertige, both good and bad.

Of course, we have yet to visit Phnom Penh, but for Siem Reap at least, do not think of us as adventurers, think of us as travelers who really love being around good people, good food and some of the world's most famous and beautiful archeological sites. We're more like Bobo the chimp, coming down from the tree to forage for termites.