Siem Reap - Arrival

Arrived in Siem Reap - Northern Cambodia - on 18 May after a comfortable 6 hour bus journey. The Cambodian countryside is very nice, and lots of interesting sites along the way.

Arrival in Siem Reap was another new experience. The bus pulled into the depot admist a howling mob. It was like we were in the 60s and The Beatles were onboard. It was not our autographs that the mob wanted however, but our tourist dollars. There must have been around 50 - 80 yelling tuk tuk drivers, or touts. Yelling, waving signs, trying to get at the bus. We were surrounded.

To add to the madness, there were two Policemen attempting to control the mob - firstly with long sticks waving around, and then when the crowd got bigger, they pulled our their electric stun guns and made bzzzz bzzzz threatening lunges at various drivers. Meanwhile our bags were being pulled out of the bus and into the crowd. We were just sitting there trying to work out how to deal with what we were about to walk into. We decided to pick a driver first before stepping out. When we did step out, it was like being in the middle of a particularly rough rock concert, only we were the band, and we were amoungst the audience. They seemed to be talking at about 40 sales pitches per second.

Somehow we managed to get out of there with our chosen driver carrying our bags and were soon on the Tuk Tuk, heading for our guesthouse.