Stay Another Day

Both Laos and Cambodia have “Stay Another Day” campaigns – they know that many people go to Luang Prabang and Siem Reap for just a day and don’t see anything else of the country. We had just about 24 hours in Luang Prabang, and it wasn’t enough. So when I was making my Siem Reap reservation I decided to stay another day. Not that that was enough either, but it did give me the opportunity to see something else. Sure, I could have stayed longer, but it was a trip to Thailand and Indonesia, so anywhere else was already a bonus!

Kong said that many people come for just one day – the first time. And then they’ll come back for three or five days to see the temples again and to see some of the outlying temples, or they’ll come back for a week and also see Phnom Penh, the capital, and the beach at Sihanoukville, or maybe the northeast part of the country. I asked him if he could drive me all over if I were to come back and he said yes. As with Laos, it’s not as easy to get around the country on one’s own as it is in Thailand. But I get ahead of myself – first, we had the day (or really part of the day, since I was flying out in mid-afternoon).

I thought of going back to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, seeing them in the quiet of the morning, when I was more fresh. But Kong had told me about some of the other things in the area, and I chose to go to a big lake, Tonle Sap, that had a floating village and a boat ride (I love boat rides). When he picked me up in the morning, though, he had changed his mind (so now I really have to go back, to see the floating village!). Instead, we went to Phnom Kulen, the big hill where all the sandstone that was built into the temples comes from. It’s a sacred site too, with a temple built high on a rock at the peak, a reclining Buddha and a Buddha footprint.





There was also the river of a thousand lingas (phallic symbols) – carved into the stone under the river! – and a big waterfall that is visited by the locals (in the background you can see locals dressed in costume for photos – kind of like Americans dressing in old Western outfits). After all the major tourist sites, it was nice to see a place where Cambodians go. I had a snack of fried banana, but didn’t want to eat too much, because on the way there we had passed the place where we’d had lunch the day before, and I wanted more chicken amok!




We then went to a silk farm, this one run by Artisans d’Angkor, a fair-trade operative. Fair trade is expensive! Or, to put it another way, when you get a really good deal, it means someone is not earning a living wage. It was interesting to see the process from silkworm to loom. I will never look at weaving in quite the same way now that I know more about it!






And all too soon it was time to go to the airport. Maybe flying to another country is not the most festive way to spend New Year’s Eve, but it beats being caught up in craziness in another culture when you don’t know anyone, so for me it was a good way to ring out the old and ring in the new.