Week in Siem Reap

Mitch and I are in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the town adjacent to the temples of Angkor. Most of the tourists here are from Europe or China, but I have formed the opinion that an American with a week plus of vacation could do Siem Reap fairly easily.

Americans, fly into Siem Reap. Spend your next vacation in Cambodia of all places. Buy a week pass to the temples, go hiking in the jungle, visit the floating villages. Siem Reap itself is a booming little town with cocktails for $2, lodging for $10, and beer on tap for $0.50. Plus all the food and the shopping and the bumping tunes that you could ask for.

Seriously, do it. Bring some friends. It could be really fun.

It's hard not to get drunk, here.

The hedonism and touristy-ness is so strange, here, to me. The US bombed the shit out of Cambodia during the Vietnam war (more bombs than used in WWII), and landmines continue to be a problem. Siem Reap does not have a quarantined-off section for tourists like they have in, say, Jamaica or places in Mexico. It's all mixed together.

Tourism is so much more lucrative than other businesses in Siem Reap that tuk tuk drivers crowd the streets, assailing tourists constantly.

The Khmer Rouge is still on trial for war crimes - including genocide - that were committed as recently as the 80s. (The killing fields and such.) (The 80s!)

So it's strange to recommend it as a place to do your bachelorette party or your next spring break, but I still say Do it. Cocktails are $2.