Siem Reap Story

[Julian2]

Siem Reap Story

 

The naked Khmer girl got out of bed and ran into the bathroom; she came out wrapping a folded towel around her hips, not for modesty but to show me something. She held her hair up and flattened her body against hotel room wall and said ?you see, you see, I am Cambodia girl?. The camera shots that I had just showed her of the dancing girls carved into the wall at Angkor Wat a thousand years ago could have been taken of her twin sisters. But where as their breasts were black with the touch of a hundred thousand dirty hands hers were still brown tipped and inviting. I summoned her back to bed. Americans talk about getting a piece of ass, I was getting a piece of history.

 

My mates, Bob and Andrew, had organised their Cambodia visas in Australia but I decided to leave mine till ?point of entry?. Needless to say it took a while but after handing over photos and USD I hurried to immigration to catch up with them. They were chatting up three Japanese backpacker girls and Bob was accusing them of having rich parents. They were hilariously denying it but two of them pointed at the third and said she definitely did. I arrived just in time to propose marriage to her which set them off into another fit of giggles. We separated at the cab rank, Andrew complaining that Bob always set the hook but failed to reel them in. Learned in the ways of Asia I wasn?t wasting any time chatting up Japanese backpackers. We set off for the town and I was amazed to see that ruins lined the road, it was a bit like Stone Henge where you come over the hill and there it is in all its startling historic mystery.

 

The hotel arranged previously, we booked in and went to see the town; this is where Bob and Andrew lost their innocence in Asia, after the wide clean boulevards of Saigon we walked across a bridge over a stream where children swam only metres from where a man was shitting happily into the water. Garbage was piled high in the surrounding streets. Still understandably reluctant to trust me in the choice of food they found a backpacker restaurant that served pizza and we settled down for the meal, me ordering Angkor beer and glowering at them. We had entered a large open air restaurant on the way that offered western food along with the local tucker and employed interesting looking waitresses. As it appeared it had just opened and we were the only customers the entire staff seemed to wander over and stood around smiling. Bob lost the plot; ?I?m not tipping all this lot? he said and refused to order.

 

Andrew left for the hotel immediately after the pizza, culture shock had set in, so Bob and I wandered around a little before setting off back to the hotel. Bob refused to go back into the earlier mentioned restaurant and went back to the hotel alone. Sighing with relief I sat down and ordered a Carlsberg from the smiling waitress. She clapped her hands in joy, ?my beer? she said, ?my beer?. Opening the bottle she happily put the top in her pocket and informed me she got a USD for every ten tops. My first introduction to Asian beer girls. I offered her a glass and soon found that Miss Heineken and Miss Tiger had no qualms about drinking the opposition?s product. I ordered plates of what looked like the deep fried reproductive organs of strange animals for them. Later in the evening, Cambodia Girl asked me where I was staying and, full of good cheer, I said I?d show her in a minute. Without hesitation she went and got her bag and said ?not busy tonight, we go now if you want?.

 

The next day we headed for the ruins; they were the highlight of the Cambodian trip for Bob and Andrew, they scrambled happily up steep steps and had their photos taken in hollow trees. I stood with our guide and he told me a few stories about the old days and the Khmer Rouge. I was yet to see the main trepidations of these gentlemen and that and another Cambodian tourist attraction yet to be assessed was to make me re-think the world in general and myself in particular. Bob and Andrew had a low opinion of Siem Riep and after a quick meal and a hurried drink in some of the tourist bars they would hurry back to the safety of the hotel while I headed for a few Carlsberg?s with my Cambodia girl followed by another night of historical discourse.

 

When you look at Cambodia you have to take into account that this is a country that murdered nearly every body who could read and write a generation ago. All that remains are the peasants and the executioners of the rest of the population. More of that later, but we witnessed a country that was slowly dragging itself out of one of the most shameful events in history. My mates changed their opinion of Asia in a few days; they vowed never to return although Bob relented and is coming to stay with me in my village for a week on his way to Europe next month. Thank God the streets will be clean; they?re burning all the garbage right now.

 

On our last night I managed to persuade them to accompany me to my restaurant where they lightened up and proceeded to make up for lost time. I finally had to remind them we had a 4am call to catch the boat on Tonl?e Sap Lake which was to take us to Phnom Penh. Triumphantly bearing Miss Heineken and Miss Tiger they staggered back to the hotel. I left them arguing at reception over the ?lady joiner? fee. I had refused to hand over cash, just telling them to put it on my bill, hoping they would forget. (They never, they added it to my mini-bar bill.)

 

Later that night Cambodia Girl suggested that she could accompany me to the capital, which with the benefit of hindsight now seems a good idea, but I declined her generous offer. You always know you are overpaying them when they want to come with you. However she was a happy girl and an enthusiastic and inventive bed mate. What more can a man ask for to bring a little joy into his old age.

[dddave]

Fun to read; it's so frustrating when one's travelling companions are blockheaded and closedminded but you seem able to go your own way.

I'll look forward to your next effort.

[chuckwoww]

dddave said:

Fun to read; it's so frustrating when one's travelling companions are blockheaded and closedminded but you seem able to go your own way.

 

Ah yes....but it makes for a bit of tension in the story. Good work Julian.

[Julian2]

Thanks guys, compliments are always welcome ;-)

Bob and Andrew weren't bad people and usually good company, Cambodia was just too much for them. Andrew in particular almost seemed to go into a state of shock, and I think he was a bit afraid of the place. Probably wouldn't have done me any harm to bit more afraid of some of the places I've been to.

[BJ_Blackowitz]

SR had some fun for me, but where was that place with the beer girls?

 

never found that one.

[Julian2]

You look across the klong from the Old market, cross the bridge and its a large outdoor resturant on your right. Further down on the left is the hotel we stayed at, the name escapes me. It's seperated from the rest of the town by the Klong.

I checked out the small bars the other side of the market, a few goodlooking girls there but all appeared to have farang boyfriends resident in SR. Didn't bother after I met beer lass.