Day 21/22 Siem Reap

Day 21: Off to the main destination of the trip: Angkor. I feel a bit hungover from last night's beers, bus ride was okay. Unfortunately, the weather god has opened all the floodgates in Siem Reap. Luckily for me, the tuk-tuk driver dropped me off at the wrong place. That's what happens when you show someone else where you want to go and they explain it to the driver. It got a bit heated because he wanted more money to take me to the hostel. Long story short, it got a bit louder and he left me standing in the rain (of course I didn't pay), both of us annoyed. No problem though, I had my rain protection. Waited for 10 minutes until it almost stopped raining and walked the rest to the hostel. From now on, I'll only order tuk-tuks through an app (where you enter the destination directly). The last 100 meters barefoot because the entire street was flooded. The hostel is good, recommended by the 2 Croatian girls.

In the afternoon, I explored the city on foot. The city is about the same size as Battambang but focused only on tourism. The downtown area consists of only bars, restaurants, massage parlors, and tattoo studios. And what really annoys me is 'Hello sir, Tuk-tuk?' or 'Massage, massage!'.
Back at the hostel, two amusing girls from Swabia moved into my room (Katta and I believe Julia, looks like her). We went to the night market for dinner and the two of them looked at jewelry, clothes, and trinkets. For 2 dollars, we got a half-hour foot and neck massage. It was good and we were so tired, we went back to the hostel.
Overall, I can only partially recommend Cambodia. The infrastructure is poor, even for short distances it takes a long time. I don't find the food as good as in Vietnam. Of course, everything is very cheap, even though you actually pay way too much for tourist attractions. The people are mostly very friendly, sometimes a bit artificial. Now 7 days without a cigarette.

Day 22. Got a 3-day ticket for Angkor Wat. There is only one place in the city where you can buy it, and it's 5 km from the center (where all the tourists live). So I took a tuk-tuk there, bought the ticket in 2 minutes, and took a tuk-tuk back. Just stupid. On the way back, I got off at the city park and the royal residence. Both unimpressive. But there were thousands of bats in the trees making a lot of noise.

In the afternoon, I booked a trip to the floating village. The guide wasn't that great. He seemed to have had a stroke or something, giggling throughout the tour. Overall, it wasn't bad. A somewhat long journey by bus, then onto a boat and floated around for about 2 hours. A strange life that the fishermen lead there. It was again very touristy, a bunch of foreigners being led through the village to gawk. Sunset was as expected for this time of year, at least it didn't rain.

In the evening, I met up with Giuliano. He said he might be able to accommodate me for 2 nights. Was at a pub not far from the hostel, he performed there. Very amusing, I bought him a beer and we chatted. He's also one of the long-term travelers (7 years). His place consists of a room without air conditioning, well, I have some requirements, so it won't work. Still, it was fun.