Welcome to Siem Reap! Welcome to our house!
Here is a collection of important information that we thought might be useful (or at least amusing) to you while you’re here. Some of it is specific to staying at our house, and some of it is more general. We expect you will have lots of questions, and we look forward to answering them – if we are lucky enough to know the answers ourselves!
Money:
The de facto currency is the US dollar. That’s what comes out of the ATMs, and that’s what you can use to purchase everything. There are no coins, however, so any change of less than a dollar will come back to you in Cambodian currency, the riel. Big stores and Western-style restaurants can change large denominations of dollars ($20, $50, $100) but small vendors and shops will do much better if you use small denominations or riel – which you will end up with a pocketful of anyway. The exchange rate is 4000 riel = one dollar, so a 1000-riel note is equivalent to a quarter. Some of the riel notes look like they’ve been around since the 70’s, but an old, ripped, or marked-up dollar note will not be accepted, so feel free to reject any dilapidated dollars if someone tries to give them to you as change, and don’t bring any with you that don’t look fresh and relatively crisp.
We’ll be happy to tell you which ATMs in town don’t charge a service fee for using your card. If you’re reading this before you come, don’t forget to let your bank know that you’ll be traveling here so they don’t freak out when they see foreign withdrawals. And don’t even think about bringing travelers checks. I have no idea what you would have to do to cash them, but it probably involves a lot of waiting in the bank.
Laundry:
We have two laundry services that we like. Both charge $1/kilo of laundry. They both wash and dry by machine and can get your laundry done the samae day if you bring it early enough in the morning. Lots of other places wash by hand, hang to dry, and then iron, but can take overnight. Let us know when you want to get some laundry done and we’ll be glad to arrange it for you.
What to wear:
Lightweight, comfortable clothes and slip-on sandals are the uniform here. You will be sweating and you will be taking off your shoes every time you go inside (as is the custom.) Flip-flops are the most common footwear, though I’m partial to my slip-on Keens for extra toe protection. T-shirts and knee-length pants are more culturally appropriate than strappy tank tops and short shorts. A hat isn’t a bad idea if you like to keep the sun out of your eyes.
Phones and other telecommunications:
Having a cell phone here is a good thing. We have an extra phone that you can use for local calls - $2 will probably buy as many minutes as you might need here. We have Skype on our computers, which allows you to call home for a few cents a minute. We also have a Vermont Skype phone number (802-735-2529), and people can call here using that number at no charge to anyone on either end.
We have wifi here at the house – just look for the signal called ADW-4401 and we'll give you the password. There are lots of restaurants in town that have free wifi as well, but you’ll probably find ours faster, though it’s not nearly as fast as you’re used to at home. (There’s not really enough bandwidth for videos, but it’s good for everything else.)
Getting around:
Bikes are a great way to get around town. While you’re here, you can rent a bike for about $1/day, or you can buy one for $38 and then donate it when you leave to someone who will make very good use of it. You can ride from our house to "downtown" in under ten minutes, and all the roads here are completely flat - no Vermont hills to contend with!
Rules of the road are a bit different from home. Everyone drives on the right here, which is good, but they also drive on the left and in the middle of the road, which can be confusing. Traffic moves slowly enough to be quite manageable, except for on the big "highway" - Road #6. The trick is to stay on the far right most of the time – but watch for people coming the wrong way in your lane, who should be hugging the shoulder even more than you are. When approaching an intersection where you will make a left turn, use any opportunity to get in the left lane well before the intersection – and then stay completely to the left so as not to confuse those riding straight at you in the same lane. Waving your left arm out to the side as you prepare to make that left-lane shift is a good idea, and do be aware of the traffic behind you.
Might makes right, so the bigger the vehicle, the greater the right of way they have. Watch out for guys driving the big Lexus SUVs, who think they own the road. (Actually, they probably do.) Also watch for occasional potholes, speed bumps, open grates, and other potential hazards on the road itself. I’m probably making it sound scarier and more complicated than it really is – you’ll get the hang of it in no time! Riding on the smaller, quieter roads is a delightful way to see a lot of area at a delightful pace.
For longer trips, or times when you just don’t feel like biking, tuktuks and motorbikess are the way to go. A moto is cheaper, and generally takes one passenger. Tuktuks can take four Westerners or approximately 17 Khmers. You can hire a tuktuk and they will happily take you anywhere in or around town and wait while you do whatever you feel like doing and then take you home again. We can hook you up with whatever transportation you need. Just let us know; we've got connections. :)
Our house:
There is air conditioning in your room, which you should use as you need. (We’ll show you how to use the remote control.) We ask that you don’t leave it running when you’re not in the room, as electricity is quite expensive. Ans as much as it’s nice to cool off, emerging from a cold room into the heat makes the heat that much more uncomfortable, so we would advise you not to overdo it. The fan does a lot of good, especially after a cool shower.
You have hot water in your shower, though you may find you don’t need it much. In fact, in the middle of the afternoon, when you most want a cool shower, you may find that the water only runs warm due to the sun heating the pipes. If it runs long enough, it may cool down, so the second or third person in a row to take a shower may find that it’s eventually refreshingly!
You shouldn’t drink the water from the tap, though we use it for brushing our teeth and never have a problem. We have a dispenser for cold water in the kitchen. Help yourself often, as you will be amazed at how quickly you can get dehydrated in the heat.
In general, help yourself to most anything in the fridge or elsewhere, and let us know of any special requests. We can go to the supermarket or the local market with you – always an adventure – and stock up on whatever you’d like to have around.
We have one TV with cable in the living room, which can also be moved into the guest room if you prefer. It does get some English channels, and Khmer TV is an interesting cultural experience in and of itself, so feel free to grab the remote and see what’s on.
You may notice that despite having doors that close between rooms, there is a vent between all rooms up near the ceiling. This means that noise can travel from room to room a bit more than you might expect. If noise is bothering you, turning on your fan will likely drown it out. That’s what we do. You will also notice that while our road is pretty quiet in terms of traffic, there are plenty of other noises, especially early in the morning and after dark (which comes at 6pm.) Dogs bark and fight and howl, roosters crow, people bang stuff around a lot, sometimes you can hear the monks chanting from the pagoda, and on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours, the Christian mission behind the house plays live music. Overall, it’s more entertaining than bothersome – and the fan drowns it out most of the time!
We try to lock the house when we leave, and we’ll give you your own key or show you where we hide the communal key so you can come and go as you like.
We have someone who comes in to clean once a week. We never know for sure what day she is coming, so it’s always a pleasant surprise when she shows up. She doesn't really speak English, but she's very friendly. She will undoubtedly expect to clean your room. She will also re-arrange your personal items in ways that are probably quite logical to her and quite mysterious and entertaining to us. Feel free to tell us if you would rather she not tidy up in your room. (Also, please let us know when you would like to change the sheets on your bed, as we all have our different standards about that and I may not offer as soon as you’d like.)
The most single important thing you need to know while you’re here:
Seriously, the most important thing to remember is to never put toilet paper in the toilet. Not in our house, and not anywhere else that you find a Western toilet (which will be most places.) The septic system just can’t handle it and it causes all kinds of havoc (not to mention the need for a plunger and other unpleasant consequences.) As our friend Lori so nicely summarizes: If it doesn’t come out of your body, it doesn’t go in the toilet.
There is a better alternative anyway! Every toilet will have a little kitchen-sink-type hose nearby. Use that to rinse off – it’s much more effective anyway – and then use paper just for drying. Then the paper goes in the trash. Easy to do; hard to remember. It will probably become second nature the day before you’re due to go home.
Around Siem Reap in general:
There are countless restaurants in town and they can be lots of fun to explore. Let us know what kind of food you feel like eating and what you feel like spending, and we’ll tell you about some of the options we like. We also keep a current copy of the local Dining Out guide in the house, which lists lots of places we've never been. There’s a Mexican place that has an 8-hour Happy Hour during which tacos and frozen margaritas are a dollar each. There’s Indian food, Burmese food, vegetarian food, BBQ, French food, Thai food, wood-fired pizza, a fast-food burger place, and all kinds of Khmer food on the street and at sit-down places. If you want a local experience, there’s a collection of noodle stalls downtown where most dishes cost a dollar. There are plenty of places where you can have a nice meal for $4-5. You can even have beef carpaccio, lamb chops, crème brulee and a nice bottle of French wine at prices close to what you’d pay at home.
Shopping in stores with price tags means that the price is non-negotiable. Shopping in the markets (and there are several) means there are no price tags and everything is negotiable. Bargaining can be fun, or stressful, or both. My general advice is to decide what you’re willing to pay for something, and then stick to it. There’s a negotiation dance that goes on that looks something like this: You ask the price. They name a price. You offer something around 60% of what they ask. They laugh and/or shake their head sadly at your pathetic offer. They make a counter-offer, slightly less than their original figure. If you want it badly enough, eventually meet them somewhere in the middle. If you can’t agree on a price and you say thanks and walk away, the price may drop one final time. If you do agree on a price, it is only polite to then purchase the item. If you’re buying more than one of something, you have slightly more bargaining power. Most of the vendors are not aggressive, but are sometimes determined. A smile and a “No, thanks” go a long way. Everybody here is just trying to make a living, and that 50 cents you're haggling over means way more to them than it does to you, so don't get too attached to a few cents.
You will see people begging and approaching you to sell things you don’t want (mostly books, postcards, and bracelets.) It’s probably the most difficult and uncomfortable part of being here. My general rule is not to give money to begging children or to women begging with their children in tow – the rationale for this is that I don’t want to encourage people to use their children for begging rather than using appropriate resources and sending them to school. If anyone approaches you to beg or to sell something, the best response is a gentle “no” and shake of the head without engaging any further. If you make even eye contact, they will be encouraged to be more persistent and may stand next to your dinner table staring at you for a looooong time. I know this sounds harsh, and you can obviously handle this in any way you choose, but I share my strategy so you don’t think I’m a completely heartless and thoughtless jerk when you see me in action.
In other interactions with Khmers who speak English, don’t be surprised or offended by observations or questions that we would consider rude. Asking how much you paid for something is very common. I can’t tell you how many people have come to our house for the first time and immediately asked how much we pay for rent. (This includes the laundry guy, tuktuk drivers, coworkers, etc.) They may also ask things like “How much you pay for that camera?” Answer as you see fit. People may make comments about the color of your skin, your height/weight, or any other physical characteristic, but if it makes you feel any better, they do this with everyone, including each other, and it isn’t considered rude at all.
Being a tourist:
If you want to see Angkor Wat and other temples, you have several options. Tickets for the temple complexes cost $20 for one day or $40 for three days. Transportation there and back runs about $15-20 by tuktuk. A professional guide is optional and costs about $30 for the day. The temples are worth seeing for at least one day, and much more if you like that sort of thing. Let us know what you want and we’ll make arrangements.
There are other fun things to do and see. There is a new National Museum ($8 admission, I think) close enough to get to by bike. There is the “Khmer Cultural Village” which I’ve never visited but might be interesting (or bizarre) for an hour or two. (I imagine it as a Cambodian version of Shelburne Museum, but I’m sure my expectations are not quite correct.) There is a silk farm where you can see the entire process of silkworms making silk, which is actually pretty cool. You can go to the local children’s hospital and give blood. You can visit Buddhist temples. You can have an hour-long foot massage for $5. You can buy bootleg movies and music. You can chat with monks. You can watch the local men play volleyball. You can sit along the river and do nothing in the shade. You can pay $3-5 and spend all day at a lovely hotel swimming pool. You can play pool. You can drink 50-cent draft beer.
Some of my favorite ways to pass time are just trips into the countryside or out onto the Tonle Sap Lake to see smaller villages and how people live outside of Siem Reap. The Tonle Sap includes whole villages that float on the lake, and stilted villages along the way that tower 20+ feet in the air to avoid being flooded during rainy season. There is a Landmine Museum outside of town and the ride there includes beautiful scenery of rice fields and places that make palm sugar and smiling kids waving from the side of the road. If you like people-watching and taking photos, you’ll be in heaven everywhere you go.
Most important of all:
You’re here to experience new things and have fun!
Please ask us anything and everything so that we can help you get what you came for.
Seeing this place through someone else’s eyes is great fun for us,
and we’re so glad you’re here!
Carpooling, Khmer-style
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