I flew on Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur, three hours in total. As you might imagine, with the recent Malaysia Airlines news, I got a great price. Thailand to the left, Laos above and Vietnam to the right. Siem Reap is just north of the large lake in the middle of the country, Ton Le Sap lake. It feeds Ton Le Sap river which meanders southeast where it joins the Mekong outside of Phnom Penh.
There are two seasons in Cambodia: wet and hot and dry and hotter. I arrived at the peak of the latter. It was mid-day when I landed and 102 degrees in the shade. In the back of the tuk tuk I felt like I was inside a convection oven filled with clay dust. I was on my way to a small studio apartment a few kilometers outside of town that included free airport pick-up.
When we turned off the main road onto a rutted clay street it felt like we'd gone from the 3rd world to the 4th. The local soccer pitch had tree limbs for goals and half-starved cows grazed at the edges. I would later see a group of kids playing soccer here, some of them completely naked and ignoring a stubborn water buffalo who'd plopped down mid-field. Ninety percent of the housing was made from timber and banana leaves. There was an open sewer along the street a few feet from which many were cooking food over wood fires.
This was my block, if you can call it that. I was renting from a Frenchman named Jean-Pierre and his Cambodian wife Ly. He'd been living in Cambodia for a dozen years and told me that if I thought this was poor, I should've seen it before.
In comparison to their neighbors they lived in relative splendor. They had a small house with two apartments behind. There were three generations living there, at least. I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. In addition to Jean-Pierre and Ly, pictured here with two of her nieces, there was a sister and her husband, their kids, a cook, a maid and others. The nieces ran over to me every time they saw me, smiling, eager to practice their English. They were fed a steady mix of Khmer, French and English and swapped amongst them with ease.
Ly's brother, Song, lived nearby. He was my designated tuk tuk driver. He took me wherever I wanted to go at no more than 25 miles per hour. The classic Cambodian tuk tuk is an open two wheeled chariot pulled by a scooter.
Their house was covered in flowering vines and shaded by mango trees on all sides. It felt like the south of France.
I got one of these every morning, fresh off the tree and carved up for me by the cook.
Breakfast was served in an outdoor thatched roof cabana, thankfully equipped with an overhead fan. I opted for the Cambodian breakfast every day. It was always a hot noodle soup dish, this one with pork and assorted veggies.
At every meal, my new little friend slept on my feet.
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