Siem Reap, Day 3

The day started with a hotel breakfast of fried rice, bread, and fruit. Husband and I opened the restaurant, surprise! This was hands-down one of my favorite meals on our trip.

We then hired our favorite tuk tuk driver, having come to know him in our short stay, to take us to Tonle Sap Lake. While the lake experience was not what we imagined, I loved riding through the country by tuk tuk. This ride took us a ways outside the city and provided a glimpse of what life was life for the local Cambodians. If I had the power to stop the tuk tuk, I would have a million pictures... and for better or worse we might never have made it our destination. The rising sun over the brightly colored houses lined with full, lush gardens had me captivated. There were also several picturesque hammock bars overlooking the neon green rice paddy fields and budding pink lotus flowers plots.

After purchasing tickets, we were excitedly off on our private boat. Things quickly went down hill as we realized we were scammed with the ticket price. We were then told to buy rice for the local school at the outrageous price of one dollar per kilogram. We might have been lured further, had we not been asked to buy the "school rice" in fifty dollar increments. The boat ride proceeded to a restaurant for more price gouging. The views and floating life were fascinating and I would have relished in the experience more, but the entire ride we were being hounded for money. This being our only negative experience throughout the entirely of our trip, it hardly damped our spirits. Though I would not recommend this to those traveling to the area, I delighted in having more tuk tuk time and getting a glimpse of the floating village.

We headed back to Old Town for a bit more shopping and lunch. Our tuk tuk driver took us back to the hotel after lunch for a bit of relaxing, postcard writing, and packing before our afternoon departure.

We were dropped at the wrong terminal of the airport, but given that we were picked up on tuk tuk, the walk to the domestic terminal was short. The plane was delayed about an hour, which lent itself to much confusion; we had no idea what was going on. Once we finally arrived at the hotel, exhausted and after dark, we realized someone had walked off with our bag. This ended up being no big deal. The driver simply tracked down the prior drop off and made the switch.

We were greeted with super sweet juice and tiny chocolates. We had arrived at the fancy portion of our travel. A bit sticker shocked by prices, we opted to walk down the street for a not so good Khmer barbecue dinner. Our first impression: Sihanoukville is a nasty tourist town of bars, casinos, and pizzerias, built largely in part by the two sizable ports.