Siem Reap

After my meeting in Siem Reap I found a moto to take me to my hotel. I asked if the driver knew where the hotel was, he said yes. He meant no. I had a reasonable idea where the hotel was and I had a map, we found the hotel without really getting lost. The Mandalay inn is very nice; my room was like a large Persian room; that means there was enough room to walk around in this bed. The ceiling fan is a bit noisy but I did not notice that, someone's air conditioner outside drowned out the fan noise. Glad I brought my ear plugs.

My room was on a a corner with two windows. The air conditioner noise made me thinks I had air conditioning even though there was only a fan. A breeze gave nice cross ventilation.

Leaving the hotel looking for a moto to take me to the KAPE office, I spotted a young man sitting on a moto. I asked if he could take me. Wouldn't you know it, usually I am hounded with "Need a Moto" "Want a Tuk Tuk". This man was not a moto driver, just someone sitting on his moto waiting for a friend.

Finding a real moto after a short walk I called my KAPE colleague and he gave the driver instructions. After the driver hung up, he asked his colleagues something in Khmer. This was an omen of what was to come. The moto driver may have been new to the moto game or was not familiar with the part of town we were headed. On the way we stopped twice and I called my KAPE colleague again to give more directions. As we were bumping along a road under construction, the KAPE driver came up on his moto. I said "follow him". I made it. Because I had not seen a moto close to the KAPE office I asked the driver to wait. Going back to the hotel was much faster than finding the KAPE office.

Siem Reap is a tourist town and the Mandalay inn is about three blocks from one of the main restaurant and market areas. Looking for dinner, I walked around a bit to see what was available. An Indian restaurant caught my nose. I had a very good dinner for six dollars.

After dinner I walked two blocks to the Quick Mart. I had forgotten shampoo and the hotel only provided tiny pink bars of soap. I picked up shampoo and a few other items and stood in line for checkout. When it was my turn the woman behind the counter scanned some of the items and had trouble scanning the bottle of water, the label was wet. She set it aside and scanned two more items; one of these did not scan either. I was waiting for her to key in the codes. She just rang it up. I did not argue, I just paid the bill and walked out.

I went back to my room, put in my earplugs and hoped for a good night's sleep.