Siem Reap

The next morning, Don drove us to the airport for our 7:15am flight to Siem Reap. When we got to the domestic departure lounge, we were surprised to see all the people, but we were the only backpackers in sight. They used to have 7 flights a day to Siem Reap, but after the fighting (we were constantly reminded of the date of the recent coup – July 5/6) they cut it to twice a day. The flight was a short 35 minute jump aboard a French turbo prop place (after the VA Tupolev crash, you wouldn’t have seen us boarding a Russian built place!), and we basically followed the huge Tonle Sap river all the way to Siem Reap. We had debated taking the 4-5 hour boat ride up the river, but we’d heard that it was possibly dangerous.

When we arrived, there were twice as many touts and people waiting outside the doors of the airport as arriving passengers, but one guy was inside and offered to take us to town for a dollar, obviously working on commission. We tentatively agreed, and that guy went out first and physically pulled us through the hoards of touts asking “where you go”. These people were so desperate for business – we were their only chance of the day, and only one lucky guy would get to take us. It must have been like a miracle for Mr. Proeun to hear us shout “We’re going to Mahogany Guesthouse”. Mr Proeun was the 33 year-old manager/co-owner of the family run Mahogony Guesthouse, what must have been the best place in town. When he heard us, he pushed a cheesy ID card in our face and shouted “I’m from Mahogany… please trust me, it’s true!” When I glanced at our potential driver, he gave me a defeated “it’s true” nod.

The drive in to town, only 7 or 8 kilometers was through some beautiful rice farming areas – picturesque rice paddies with tall, solitary coconut trees and grazing water buffalos, being hand worked by villagers with tattered clothing and the ubiquitous conical hats – we were in heaven. When we asked Proeun if his place was clean, he said “I don’t know. You see it and then you decide. I don’t like saying things about my hotel, because every tourist is different” – we were getting pretty accustomed to the Khmer honesty.

The place was great. Empty and great. We negotiated on $20 for three nights for a large room with a fan, attached bathroom and mosquito nets – you needed them as the bugs were bad and there was a danger of being exposed to malaria in the Angkor Wat area. Beth and I had started taking our daily doses of Doxycycline a couple of days before. Preoen (Prune) was able to organize everything – transport (riverboats $25 for 4 hours and even helicopter rides $45 to Phnom Penh) and guides or drivers.