Cambodia: Siem Reap

We flew this morning from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.  We are staying in a hotel in the french quarter, right near the old market.  It is a great location.  We spent a little time in the old market before lunch.  It has lots of tourist thing to buy (scarves, t-shirts, etc.) but it also has spices and a busy food market in the middle (with lots of fresh fish and other items from the water).  I got a few silk scarves and a t-shirt.  You have to haggle and it turns out that some of my students did a better job at it than I did (I overpaid by a dollar or two).

My favorite new fruit is rambutan.  In Vietnam it is called chôm chôm, which means messy hair.  The outside is covered with red spines, but inside is a grapey /lychee like fruit and the area around the pit tastes a little like coconut meat (at least I think so).  I bought a whole bunch of them and longans in Phnom Penh and we ate them while we waited for the flight.  Delicious even if your hands get all sticky.  I've also started to tread lightly into the realm of street food.  I had a fresh squeezed cane juice in the night market last night and a deep fried doughy thing this morning.


Another favorite thing is the offerings that build up in the little shrines.  We had lunch at a enormous buffet place and the shrine had all sorts of food.  The shrine at our previous hotel included a strong cup of coffee.  I think those gods must have been really happy; Elijah and Santa should be jealous.

For the rest of today I am breaking from the group to get some work done and also explore a little on my own.  I am only really missing out on a museum that is described in my book as mall-like and corporate owned.  A field trip and guest speaker I have been trying to arrange for my class seem to be coming together, so I need to rearrange my syllabus a bit before Tuesday.

Tomorrow we go to Angkor Wat by tuk tuk at 5am to watch the sunrise.  Very excited for that.