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Out and about during the night-time: Down at Martinis (best disco in Phnom Penh as far as I am concerned – for pulling bits of stuff), Sharkys, Walkabout, Disco, “Conquests” on the motorbike-taxi: Just brilliant….
Girls: Massage-hens, Short Time in some whore house, conquests in various discos.
A few impressions of Phnom Penh:
A trip to Kien Svay (A whorehouse on stilts above the Mekong with adjacent restaurant): Oh, by the way, it rained…. The boat with the windows all round and curtains can be hired: The fun costs five dollars an hour. On this day, I would have been better off bringing the whore(s) with me: Apart from the nice, but not very attractive waitress, there was only a Khmer hen present; she was not even very nice or trusting. I had the fish to eat and toddled off. Was just not my day, a bit of a pity, I have experienced one or the other nice session here. Doesn’t matter though, one can’t have it all ones way all the time – and the temptations of the city are only about 20 minutes away by car. So……
We’ll carry on to Siem Reap (everyone knows Angkor Wat?). I won’t bother showing you any pics of temples, there are enough other things to do in this small but nice and pretty clean town…. Of course the cultural type of thing, what is better than having to do with people?
Siem Reap! The journey takes about five hours and costs six bucks, is pretty comfortable as well. Halfway there, a stop for a rest at a restaurant. I stopped in the ANGKOR SAPHIR. Room 20 – cost 20 US dollars.
Angkor Wat: The temple is really fantastic!!! Here are just a few impressions.
Siem Reap is a nice small but clean town with a decent infrastructure, especially for Cambodian conditions.
It never gets boring during the night-time: Vietchick in a ten dollar knocking shop (was good!). The Martini taken from the outside (yes your right, a disco with the same name can be found in Phnom Penh), and inside. ZonOne disco, “girlfriend” in the Zanzibar, one of the many restaurants in the lively harbour quarter, conquests.
Excursion on the Tonle Sap Lake: Passed the Tonle Sap River on a motorbike taxi, which was flowing nicely through Siem Reap, and later past stretches of river, lake, and paddy field landscapes right up to the floating village (about 30 minutes). It is quite late in the year, the Lake is full, and areas that had been dry six months before were flooded to the tops of bushes and trees. Later, when the water slowly starts flowing back into the Mekong, the people will move on – on the lake, respectively to its fresh banks. The people there are not rich but very friendly, and seem to be content. Everywhere where one goes, one is smiled at….
At the moment there is something to celebrate, one is obviously getting ready for some sort of procession or something similar. There is also a small fair, which pleased the kids. I had to purchase my ticket halfway there (twenty US dollars), entrance fee so to say. Apart from that, the ticket covers the boat trip out onto the lake, it’s very interesting. We moored directly at the village, I had a boat for myself together with my driver and boatman (luckily the boat had a roof, the sun was shining down on us fiercely).
An unusual sight right in front of our eyes: Everything happens down at and on the water – The church is a boat, the school and sports hall as well. The houses are on stilts or barrels. The crocodiles are presented by one of the tourism staff. Actually there are floating restaurants with souvenirs for sale. It is well worth stopping here, and the view from the second floor really has something to offer. We visit my motorbike taxi driver’s family whilst making the return journey, he is a nice young lad who comes from here, his father is a fisherman who greets me very friendly.
Here a few more appetizers:
Vietnam! I booked a flight and applied for a visa on arriving back in Phnom Penh. (max one day, only possible in Cambodia). A round trip ticket from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and back (open date) to Phnom Penh. Cost me around about 250 US dollars including the visa. I could have travelled from Phnom Penh to Saigon with the same VIP bus agency that took me to Siem Reap for a lovely five dollars; the trip would have taken about five hours. In fact, I most certainly would have done so had I known beforehand that I would have been simpler to travel by bus. One gets to see more, and in the end it doesn’t take all that much longer, at least when starting the journey in Phnom Penh.
The flight with Vietnam Airlines was OK, checking out in HCMC took a bit of getting used to…. They X-ray ones luggage after the flight for a second time – haven’t got a clue why they do that. Once in the arrival hall I went to the counter and ordered a taxi. The first one wanted 75 dollars for the journey to Vung Tau, the man at the second counter only 46 bucks. Nothing special happened during the three-hour journey, and although it was already dark and I didn’t have a clue where I was, I was not that worried about safety and the fact that I had cash and a camera etc with me. Vietnam is considered to be Asia’s safest country to travel in. One only has to watch out for pickpockets.
I checked into the Rex Hotel, a middle-sized place with 75 rooms. The price of a room ranges from 20 – 70 dollars. I haggled the two-room suite down to 65 dollars, my one and only treat. Apart from that I only stayed for a few nights. The hotel has a good restaurant and an adjacent pool, which can be used for a small fee. There was a safe in the room (combination lock), a fast internet connection, there was also an open-air bar connected to the hotel. There, one was also able to take girls with, but only after they had knocked off from work. I did without this service because all of the girls were a little older, one is able to get this category all over, but I wanted to “see a bit of the town”.
Room, pool and hotel, view:
It is a large town, motorbikes dominate the town’s appearance. It is not all that long ago, in times of “real existing socialism“ in west and middle Europe, that the deserving functionaries were sent here to recuperate. Huge roads that present a sterile image and large residential complexes that remind of Russia as seen on the telly, alternate with generous clean parks, small restaurants, cafés and quarters that are characterized by tiny old houses, run-down hotels and colourful markets in which people are going about their business.
Long have times passed when Europeans moved about as if the most normal thing in the world. Westerners have become a very seldom sight. Surprisingly, I was looked at and studied wherever I went, sometimes by a critical eye, but mainly in a friendly manner. Here a mixed impression of all this.
There is no need to do without a thing when it comes to nightlife...
Many Bars and Karaoke dumps are spread out all over the town, even just across the road from the Rex Hotel there is a billiard place called “Red Parrot”. Many bars are situated around the Palace Hotel (not that far from the Rex, ask a taxi driver). The alk just flows (unbelievable, the girls nearly drank me under the table), the dolls dance and the place shuts at two in the morning. One then returns to the hotel. It is not that easy to get a “beauty of the night” into the hotel for the night with prostitution being illegal in Vietnam (ha ha ha). Either one stops in one of the run-down ST hotels and does without all the comfort. Or one books a whole room for ones “girlfriend”. Of course she sleeps there alone .
Girls from the hotel bar, pimp in a karaoke bar, ST hole, Palace Hotel, in a karaoke bar, beauty of the night, night-time bar quarter, dishes.
Vung Taus beaches seem to be never ending. The town lies on a peninsular. The restaurant and beach business is clearly adapted to the native public. Masses of restaurants and rows and rows of deck chairs along the sandy beaches. I have never seen it very full there, what the hell do these people live from? It is even empty at the weekend…. Maybe visitors turn up in the evening for a meal, haven’t got a clue.
The view of the beaches sometimes takes some getting used to. On the one hand, the few beach shops, huts, and food stalls nearly remind of the poor situation in Cambodia. Knocked up simple wooden huts, self-made carts and the simplest of “beach furniture” dominate the scenery. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to be very clean and tidy, but this could have something to do with the fact that not all that long ago the place was hit by a hurricane, which caused a great deal of damage. It always hits the poorest and simplest of people worst of all.
Will be returning to Cambodia soon: The hotel reception booked my open ticket to Phnom Penh for the next day, which cost me five dollars. The hotel taxi (50) took me to Saigon airport. By the way, it is now possible to travel from Saigon to Phnom Penh by boat, it travels along the Mekong. There are two variations. One is with a speedboat which takes only a few hours, the other is with a comfortable boat, which takes two days, may in fact be a little romantic….
In Phnom Penh I stopped in the Big Luck again, the next morning I carried on to Sihanouk Ville (Kompong Som). It is possible to get there from Phnom Penh with the cheap bus, the price being three dollars, or with the VIP bus for five dollars. I had a girl with me and took a taxi, 40 dollars.
Breakfast during the journey: We had these really delicious baguettes which one can get all over at mobile street stalls. They had learned to bake baguettes from the French, they taste better than in Germany. They have a sort of liver cheese pâté and goose liver on them. Depending on the time of day, this stuff may have been on the baguettes for a few hours in the blazing heat, this could be seen by the change of colour, and the ball of meat where it had been cut off got darker towards the inside. To go with it, there is a hot and spicy sauce and another liquid that I could not identify, which was taken from a pot that did not look very friendly either, finally, whole spring onion to top it off, finished. Lovely, for my girlfriend and the driver, I preferred to eat a dry baguette, have had one or the other experience in this country when it comes to eating….
Stopped in the Golden Castel again (see hotel tip on the homepage), this time I took the large suite, haggled the price down to 45 US dollars (50). There was even a sauna in the room…. That’s for those who need such a thing. Forget the whirlpool, not enough water pressure, apart from that, great.
Hotel, bath, room, view:
I really enjoyed SHV again this time. The small town is up and coming…. It hadn’t really been all that necessary to take a girl along, there seemed to be enough possibilities there. The plank brothels down at the harbour (next to the Khmer disco BIBA) are open, Blue Mountain with the Vietbrothels as well. A new place (was new to me) the “Victory Hill”, a street with around 20 bars and restaurants. Short Time hotel is nearby (good room five US dollars). Not bad.
Victory Hill: Bars, girls, on the way back to the ST hotel...
The main attraction of the town as far as I am concerned is that it is spread out and the nice beaches. Motorbike hire (3 – 5 US dollars/day), girl on the back and off you go, down to the beaches and into the water, the holiday feeling as if on an island.
Beaches, shop assistants, fun on the beach:
To finish off with a few pics from the surrounding area, taken with a wide angle lens…. Maybe I can lend one or the other of you the appetite to visit the area?
Time just flew, the final couple of nights were spent in Phnom Penh from where I caught the flight back home to Munich via Bangkok. Of course not without painting the town red for a final time during the trip.
So lads, that’s it for the time being, that was the short picture gallery. In much greater detail and with many more (much larger) pictures as always on the CD:
I hope you have all become an impression!
Best regards and lots of fun.
Grubert
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