Flashpackin' in style

Monday February 11th

Ahhhh, Siem Reap. The city itself is situated around Siem Reap River – a little waterway that’s stagnant and muddy-colored – but has a bit of charm nonetheless. To me, at least...heather didn’t share my appreciation as wholeheartedly. I seem to be a sucker for little arched bridges though, connecting two sides of towns (I was a bit obsessed with Amsterdam when my mom and I visited in 2006).

Kim had told of us of a guesthouse run by the survivor of the Khmer Rouge, from which a portion of the room prices go to pay for school uniforms for impoverished kids. We were sold. We arrived at the guesthouse, Marina Villa, after a bit of a hassle finding the place (we didn’t have the name, we didn’t think, ended up that we did but were looking for another one…slight debacle that ended up working out fine).

And we were quickly ushered into a new lifestyle – Flashpackin’…termed by Lonely planet and backpackers all over the world, the population of travelers that do the backpacking routes but are willing to spend an extra few dollars for nicer guesthouse (mostly for the sake of air-con or hot showers). Usually, though, the higher end guesthouses will also offer a variety of services, and the women running Marina Villa set us up with an English-speaking tuktuk driver for the following day for Angkor, let us know there were bikes, free of charge, we could use whenever we wanted, and they could call places for us or offer ideas for other things to do/sites to see. While other guesthouses we’ve stayed in have offered the same services and we just haven’t taken them up on their offers, this establishment enlisted the help/employment of family friends and reputable people within the community (at least they claimed, and we were inclined to believe them). And while we weren’t able to sit down with the family for an extended period, apparently there’s a deaf girl in the family who can lip-read 5 languages, the owner is a Khmer Rouge survivor, and there’s a young boy of 5 who speaks English incredibly well. All of this information is thanks to Kim, by the way.

So we settled into our new flashpackin’ lifestyle, a bit away from the tourist strip of bars, restaurants, markets and guesthouses, and then went to explore Siem Reap…