Tiny Bus to Siem Reap

We thought that the smaller, air-conditioned van would be more intimate and comfortable. Um...no.

That was not the case. They had me, easily the biggest passenger there, uncomfortably wedged between Corrie and some other guy, with four adults lined up across a seat that may hold four adolescents. For four hours on the tiny road we all suffered. Nearing the end of the line, one of the other passengers left the bus and I moved to his seat.

Corrie, the other dude, and the fourth guy next to the far window on our row all heaved a loud and noticeable sigh of relief once I got up and moved. It was tough. This is the topic of another Aside, being a giant.

Siem Reap is the tiny tourist town that has since sprung up in the shadow of ancient Angkor. It has many hotels and guest-houses, motels and cabbies and tuk-tuks, shopping centers, an international airport, and even a few photographic supply and processing establishments.

It is also a combination of blight and sprawl, or whatever qualifies as that in Cambodia.

It had a tourist side of town that Corrie and I somehow managed to avoid until New Year's Eve. Once there, we realized immediately what an awful place it was, like having a magically horrible mirror brought to our faces.

We stayed in Siem Reap for three nights, the 29th, the 30th, and the 31st. The 29th it was dark when we arrived and we went straight to the hotel and then found dinner across the street. The day of the 30th was our first day at the Angkor temple sites; the 31st was the day we finished up the main bulk of the temples, and the 1st we ventured back to Angkor Wat for sunrise (more on that later).

Not much to look at personally, the town was an overwhelming crush of greed and tourists. But, it was bikably close to the temples of Angkor, and they have some of the coolest walk-signs:

The ancient temples of Angkor will occupy the next few of these posts.