Cambodia is Complicated Feb 15 - March 6: "On the Street Where We Lived"

This charming site was rather an anomaly and a little anachronistic.
Don't get the wrong impression. Siem Reap is no "horse and buggy" town.
It is a bustling, vibrant, amazing city! We were here 5 years ago, and it has
vastly changed. Because of the tourism for the ancient temples of Angkor,
it has quite exploded -- especially with high-end resort hotels.


We were fortunate enough to have learned through a
friend about a Cambonian-American couple who had a
guest house available a couple of miles from the center
of old town. Here is the dirt road in front of the place
where we spent the first two weeks. It was a neighborhood
of wonderful variety. We really felt we were allowed to
see a part of what living in Siem Reap would be like.


Here is the first flight of stairs to our third story room.
I had a wonderfully long phone conversation at its top
one day when my son phoned from Brussels. Unfortunately,
Keith acquired some mobility problems and these quickly
became problematic. Ah, to be young again . . . .


The third floor with an overview of the big high school.
Always there were at least 2 or 3 soccer (excuse me: football)
games going on if there was any daylight at all. This veranda
was shared with one other guest room (the suite) occupied by
a Canadian woman who was involved with several NGO's
(more about Lisa later). Internet was by a pre-paid card and
connectivity was spotty at best.


I loved Somali's laundry domain here. She stays with the family
of Yarann and Saeng who live on the ground floor with their daughters.
Yarann is the cousin of Ronnie Yimsut, the owner. All of these folks
are very involved with small NGO's trying to help the Cambodian
people improve their lives as they recover from a generation
of war and genocide.


One interesting feature of this neighborhood was the prevalence of
numerous "private" schools. (Small crowded desks or benches with a
single white board or green chalk board. These are attended in addition
to the public schools. It is said the kids love school here. I tend to
believe it if attendance is any indicator. Of course, I couldn't tell
how many did not go to school. It was suggested that some
teachers deliberately omit some necessary part of their subject
so students must take a private lesson to complete the curriculum.
It is true teachers are not particularly well paid.


In Thailand gasoline for motorbikes was stored in
soda bottles. Cambodia goes for whiskey bottles.


The University of South East Asia is a few short blocks
away at the paved street that took us west into town. It was
just a wee bit too far to walk in the heat of the day, so
we rented some bikes that helped us get around. It was
still best in the early morning.


This is the turn off from the paved street onto
our little neighborhood. We enjoyed patronizing the
local stores. As much as we'd like, we couldn't quite
pull off being a "local," but folks were patient and
very friendly with us "barang"