Cambodia...I'll admit it, up till now I just haven't had the nerve to go there. This in spite of already visiting many of the usual mongering locations, LOS, P.I., Costa Rica, the Dominican and countless runs to TJ. I mean that whole Khmer Rouge/Killing Fields thing didn't happen in the pre-Columbian era, but in my lifetime! Pulling in the other direction has been a burning desire to experience Angkor Wat, that much admired wonder of the world. I finally became convinced that while Phnom Penh might be a little iffy, the only thing I had to fear about Siem Reap (the town near Angkor) was fear itself. And since you can fly directly in there from BKK, what the hell, give it a go. And after four nights of intensive Nana Plaza/Soi Cowboy action maybe a cultural injection is just what I need.

Should have listened to the folks at Dynasty Inn Grande and allowed 30 minutes for the taxi ride to the new airport for the 8:00 A.M. flight, had too much time to kill. Encountered a gaggle of middle aged U.S. tour participants, mostly female, also going to Angkor. They all thought I was quite the adventurer for doing the whole thing solo. A nice ego boost. Had I been home in the U.S. I likely would have arranged a dinner date with the cute one from Dallas, but I wasn't about to violate the No White Chicks While in Asia rule. The flight was a piece of cake, 35 minutes on Bangkok Air, a efficient little operation, they even found time to squeeze in a meal. Touched down, picked up the on the spot visa and now for the moment of truth...will the Prum Bayon Hotel have a guy there to meet me as arranged? Sadly, the answer is no. Sonofabitch!! OK, improvise. The gent at the taxi desk informs me that a taxi into town is $5 and lift on a motor bike is $1. While I'm as thrifty with a nickle as the next guy, I just couldn''t visualize me and my gear on the back of a motor bike, so the taxi won out. The driver is named Lok who I ask to take me to the Prum Bayon; some poster on some board or another had said this place, located with a string of other newer hotels between the airport and town, was guest friendly and their website made it look quite nice. However, since A)I hadn't given them a credit card number and B) they had stood me up it didn't take much for Lok to convince me to let him show me a few other hotels closer in.

Our first stop was the Angkor Diamond Hotel, which is adjacent to the river on the east side, and south of the main highway, in what they call the Wat Bo area. I would consider it a mid range hotel that consists of a series of bungalow type structures, each containig four units. Kind of on the rustic side, but generally appealing. The place is very guest friendly and offered me a rate of $40 per night. No doubt would have been less without Lok's commission, but what the hell. I decided this would be a suitable place to bivouac for three nights. It ended up being a good choice. I was in an end unit, seperated from the road by two other buildings and a block wall, thus, no motor bike noise. I suspect that could be a problem with some of the other right on the street, multi story hotels in Siem Reap, I mean there's a lot of motor bikes in that place! Location wise, its good. I might actually prefer to be closer the Old Market/Pub Street area but most of the accomodations there seem to be more backpacker oriented.

One thing that quickly struck was how well the hotel staff spoke English. In fact, over the course of my stay I came to the gross generalization the average hospitality worker in this part of Cambodia has a better grasp of English than his Thai counterpart (is it just me or is the level of English proficiency in LOS declining at about a 5% annual rate?). Anyway, I digress.

One thing in my haste I had failed to do before arriving in Cambodia was lining up a driver. As others have said, you need to have a driver and it needs to be a car. There are tuk-tuks available but unless you're really on a budget, I wouldn't do it. Cambodia is a very dusty place and I can still see those poor souls with kerchiefs over their faces and me in the air conditioned Toyota Camry passing by thinking "I'm doing this the right way". Of course Lok promptly offered himself up to be my driver for the duration of my stay. The standard daytime, around the temple rate is $25. I was looking for that plus night service plus a jaunt further afield, so we settled on $120 for the three days.

Despite getting off to an initial strong start, I'm not going to be able to recommend Lok to my fellow board members. Turns out the guy is major control freak who insists on only taking me to places which 1. will provide him a commission and 2. are Cambodian owned and only employ Cambodians("Viet Nam girls no good"). While I know he has to feed his family and I can appreciate his sense of nationalism, I finally sat him down and explained the very Western notion of paying the piper and the assosciated tune calling privleges that brings. After that trip to the wood shed he did show some improvement, but I never could really trust him. I probably should have fired his little Khmer ass.

He did know his way around, I'll grant him that. On the first night he took me to what I would describe as a karaoke compound called Nagla, down a dark side road in the vicinity of the Passaggio Hotel in the southeast part of Siem Reap. You drive in under a large sign into a good size parking lot. On one side there's a building with a various karaoke rooms, on the other a block of rooms presumably for the girls. Mamasan brings three girls up to the car, two of whom do nothing for me, the third Zina (wasn't she queen of the jungle or something?)is pretty cute, speaks a little English and is all smiles towards me. I decide to walk around and find maybe 12 more girls milling about, none all that exceptional. The posssibility for take out was obviously there, but I couldn't quite figure out how the place worked if you just wanted to hang out a while. I go back in the parking lot and flirt with Zina a little more. Mamasan wants $60 to take her for the night. I was viewing this as more of a reconaisance mission than anything else, so I refrained from negociating and thus getting myself committed. I make a mental note to come back for Zina at a later time and decide to go back to the hotel and hit the sack. Lok doesn't get a commission that night and is obviously displeased.

More to follow.

Baxter
It looks like you had a better (mongering) time in Cambodia then I did. I have to agree with you about the English skills I found that most Cambodians in the hospitality industry had better English then there Thai counterparts. We also had a few Thais on our tour and they hated being out of Thailand all they could talk about was getting home they also refused to eat the food (except for the minimin) and would not try anything, it was weird. I will be posting my full report in a little wile. I am writing this from the lobby of the Nana Hotel.

$60 for LT???? "Just Say No" Read the previous threads to get an idea of what the going rates are.

Ditto...no to $60 LT...should be 20 or less unless exceptional than a bit more.

Cab also should not be $40/day...no way. My buddy and I rented a cab to go all over Angkor and had it for the night for $25.

yeah , I agree $60 bucks is quite high for
Cambodia..
was she a perfect 10 ? or your hormones were
acting up ?? or something ??

thanks for the report..

happy monger

As a suggestion if other Mongers go to Angkor wat,
You can get a speed boat to Phnom Pehn $25 For a day or two, and can picked up a vietnamese for $20 freelancing in Sharkys, Martinis, Walkabouts, or picked up a Cambodian in the many Bars in Phnom Pehn for $20, pay bar $5/$10

Sure, I recognized that $60 for Zina was way too much, regardless of how good she looked. Don't I get a few points for walkin' away?

Well I visited Angkor Wat for 3 days in 2002. Got off the plane and got on a moto for 5/6 bux a day. Moto takes me to nice guest house( about 4) 20 to 30 bux a day. Moto comes back for dinner/gal pick up ride. BTW fun to have wind on your face on moto going around temples and the roads are great. You dont need a car unless it is more than two in a group.

Had a couple of nice Viet. One could be in Playboy and was enthralled at the electric shaver which she never saw before and wanted to use on herself and had to pull it off her. LOL.

Regardless the Angkor Wat( the main one) at evening is sublime and possibly even surpasses carnal pleasures.

(Message edited by ibaski on November 19, 2006)

Yeah Bax, you get big style points for walking away. Wish everybody would!

did have a good time ??

if you did, then good for you

It was definitely a good time, the Angkor temples positively knocked my socks off and I eventually found the right babe to hook up with. I'll try to crank out Part 2 in a couple of days. Don't worry, I'll leave the temple description to Fodor and Lonely Planet!

once again thanks for the report.

its guys like you and me who write these reports, and all the other mongers that keep this
site so informative.

Kudos,well done, keep up the good work
( mongering )

happy monger

once you were in Cambodia, did fear anything ?

I mean are the streets safe to walk,
did you feel at any time in danger ??

just curious,,

happy monger

The_happy_monge
I go to cambodias capital Phnom Pehn about twice a year and never had problems, just the over charging in some brothels,

I appreciate the positive input H.M.,as well as the major contributions you've made to this board. While the place is severely poor, for the most part I felt pretty secure in the small part of Cambodia I experienced. I felt a little nervous at night given how out of the way a few of the brothels were, but never had one of those "oh shit, I better get the hell out of here" moments.

Relatively its pretty safe here but of course there are the places that even the locals dont go. I have heard of rare occurences of robbery from the back of a moto at a stoplight or a slowed down putput with the help of the driver but I feel safe here. My rules are dont carry much,no jewelry and take transportation at night.

Mr. Baxter..

I'am overwhelmed by your compliment..

well at least somebody, who sees some
of my contributions..

thanks,,,

for some strange reason,, I read your report

a couple of times. the only other report

that I did this was Khun_more AC report.

interesting to hear, that of cambodia
thier English is better than the Thai.