Dollars? Yes that is US dollars. The ATMs even distribute it. Cambodia has a dual currency system with a stable exchange between the dollar and the riel (Cambodian currency) for the last several years. 1 USD to 4000 riel. They, however do not do coins so if you need coin change you will get Cambodian reil back. Almost everything is quoted in dollars. In some places in Siem Reap they have offered to take Baht and Dong.
Today my plan was to sleep in. I woke up at 515. It was already reasonably light ours is so I decided to explore. The city was already wide awake. One of the first things I saw, which I still cannot explain was a guy on a motorbike with his IV fluids on an IV pole attached to the back of his bike and running into his arm. He had two things hanging. One looked like a normal IV bag. The other looked like an IV contrast bottle. Curiously several hours later I saw a different guy also on his motorbike with IV fluids as well.
I walked into a different part of the city this morning and found myself wishing I had more time here. 4 days will not be nearly enough. The productive part of the walk was the purchase of absurdly expensive pocket hand sanitizer ($2!!!!!! yea yea I forgot hand sanitizer. I think it got packed by the movers). I also found a French bakery where I asked if they had anything that didn't contain chocolate or cheese. The woman looked at me in horror and asked why? I wished her Bonne Journee.
Off to more temples I went. 3 today. They were smaller and older, but still very impressive. At the 2nd one there was an artist in residence that has done miniatures of several of the temples. Also at that site there was a TV show on whose purpose is to explain American idioms for Cambodians. Today they were explaining: "I could care less." Very painstakingly.
At every temple there has been small children (5-10 years old) attempting to sell stuff. Usually in close proximity to these kids there have been signs instructing tourists not to buy anything from then because it discourages them from going to school. This was also confirmed by an official guide. I asked about the schools and it seems that every child is supposed to go to school until at least 9th grade (after that per Mehuang mostly wealthy children go). Cambodian schools are only a half day.
After the temples I went to one of the floating villages or more accurately got near one. For some reason they wouldn't let all of us go by boat together and I ended up on a boat by myself that seated 20. It didn't make sense. And made less sense when the boat took me straight to a souvenir shop that had a widows peak where I could look at the floating village from a distance.
Fortunately the guy who was on the boat to help dock whose name I cannot even begin to attempt to spell understood me and talked to captain into going closer. Sadly my boat was too large to get as close as I would have liked because the water is currently too low, however it was worth the drive out of the city into the countryside.
This floating village on Tonle Sap (the lake) moves with the water. There are 1100 families with houses an bamboo rafts. Just like any village there is school, stores, & restaurants. In the reason season (July isn't quite there yet) the water is 12m deep and much closer in the shore. Currently the water is only 1.5m deep.
One of the most ingenious things that I have seen is when the tuk tuk put up hammocks inside the tuk tuk to relax in while they wait. It is amazing. It is really too bad cars don't have this option. Maybe those of us who live in big cities should consider the tuk tuk. It could be the new Vespa (still highly maneuverable, better storage and room to hang a hammock).
This afternoon I took a cooking class with Taylor Swift's 1989 as the soundtrack. I learned to make mango salad, amok, and Khmer pumpkin dessert. It was all delicious and I learned I need to add a mortar and pestle to my cooking supplies ASAP. The cooking class included a trip to market. I learned that I have been calling rambuchon fruit, lychee fruit and discovered many new fruits and vegetables and their uses in Cambodian cooking.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention what a cool place Siem reap is at night. It's post college adventurous traveler meets 30-something adventurous traveler and not in a creepy way. In a lets all hang out and have a good time and then all go sweat it out at the temples together tomorrow kind of way. Tons of people out and about. Street food. Karaoke. Bars with pretty fun themes. Clubs. Night markets.
Tonight I went to the Phare circus. This is an organization that takes young people from the streets, orphanages, and struggling families and gives them an arts education. At Phare they are offered a free education in several artistic disciplines while expressing and healing themselves through that art.
In 2013 Phare circus was set up to give artists a chance to use their art to earn a living wage. It was comprised of music (composed by the two musicians), visual art, dance, and acrobatics.
Tonight's show was about a woman and her terrors after the Khmer Rouge was in power in Cambodia from 1975 to January 1979. During this period 2 million Cambodians died or were killed. Millions of land mines were also laid which has led to thousands of deaths and continues to kill and maim Cambodians in addition to the mental health issues caused by the above.
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