ARRIVING IN SIEM REAP
I haven’t heard a bad thing said about Cambodia so my and the Americans are keen to see what it has to offer. My mate Paddy from my London/Oz group has given me a host of ideas on what to do and where to stay, he likes a drink so looking forward to seeing his recommendations.
Got a taxi from the airport and the driver seemed fairly nice but he was keen to try and get a few ££ out of us and had an amusing strategy. He chats away to you, tells few jokes and then try to get you signed up to a few tours. The fella went on about the money for this fare not being enough for his lifestyle. Trying to change the subject Dusty asks him what he likes to eat. He says, Expensive food, I like shrimp! We all started laughing. What do you like to drink ‘I like expensive drink’ he says! ““But I can’t afford it with this fare.” He have us a laugh if anything!
100% of crispy deliciousness
WHERE IS SIEM REAP?
Pub Crawl Siem Reap
As recommended we checked into Siem Reap downtown hostel (which I think is now sold). The hostel is in the city centre, has a pool and the outside bar is beach themed with sand etc which is pretty good but the stuff you can end up finding between your toes isn’t.
We were conveniently checked into the same room as 3 Swedish girls (Nora, Asas and Matilda). Upon closer inspection they all turned out to be completely nuts so I’m guessing we are all going to get on just fine!
Siem Reap
EATING SPIDER
The local city market here is very small, which is due to the government fast tracking in restaurants to accommodate and attract the increasing amount of tourists. For a city such a Siem Reap, one thing that sticks with me was the amount of restos. I expected something a little more 19th century but it was far from it.
Take your pick
Unfortunately local markets have been forced to move out of the city so the restaurants didn’t have to compete with their prices. There is still an area with a few stalls in the city which we decided to check out, but soon realised why they were still permitted to sell in the area. They only sold insects, spiders and other bizarre foods. The boys had snake and I tried spider which was surprisingly ok. Not a kick off from having chicken. More was to come tomorrow
Tasty spiders in Siem Reap
Back to the hostel for a game of beer pong with the Americans. It’s all they play through High School so naturally they are pretty good. They got a bit cocky when they played me and probably the drunkest fella I’ve seen in Asia, we didn’t stand a chance. The game seemed to last forever so we invited another fella onto our team. It was like bringing on Ole Gunnar Solsjaer on in injury time, we had the game wrapped up within 2 minutes but they weren’t having any of it.
Beer pong
THE PUB CRAWL
The Americans took it thick so we offered them double or quits without our sub. By this stage my Dutch friend was on his last legs and if im honest I have no idea how we managed to win but in the end it was drinks on them again! Paddy told me the guy who works behind the bar at the hostel who runs the pub crawls etc had left so myself and the Americans offered to take his place.
Having never set foot in Cambodia in my life I was now responsible for directing a pub crawl on the day i arrived! You could imagine my luck when I found a street called pub street. We bluffed it all night, jumping in and out of every bar using our numbers as bargaining power for free drink. Although I soon relaxed on my responsibilities the more drink I was given. But if you cant guide a pub crawl down a street called pub street you have serious problems!
NEXT UP
If you thought that was bad then tomorrow I have The craziest food tour in all of Asia where I eat some of the most bizarre food!
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
23/229
This episode is part of The South East Asia Series, click to see episode 1.
