Cambodia – Siem Reap homestay tale

 

Cambodia was interesting.  If you come here definitely confirm the quality of where you are staying and square away the costs for anything beforehand.
Despite my research, my lodging turned out to have a shared bathroom with no running water and was more of a homestay than a rented room like I expected (there is just one room for rent). The reviews of the place on booking.com were really good, so I gave it a chance.  (All my other rooms from booking.com so far have been fine).
There was a squat toilet and a barrel of water with a ladle to put water in it to flush it. That barrel was also your shower, by pouring cold water on yourself. The provided toiletries were a bar of soap and two small packets of anti-dandruff shampoo. The listing said: private bathroom, hot tub, shower, free toiletries, shampoo. So I was expecting minimally running water. So what I got was an unwelcome surprise.
The listing also said it had a fireplace, balcony, sitting area, dining area, terrace, outdoor dining area, dining table, and desk. For the most part, all of these things consisted of 4 plastic chairs you could move around and a table that was on a porch. Inside there were 2 King beds and a table with a TV, a small insulated cooler (one day I was given ice) and a basket with the toiletries that were provided and a scrubbing brush. Not sure what the fireplace or the hot tub were meant to be. They cooked over a fire but that was it.
 
The room had outlets by the bed but no light other than a night light there, so I spent

most of my time on the porch, listening to the crickets, lizards, and cicadas. Watching lizards eat insects, and slapping mosquitoes despite my DEET. I also listened to several neighbors that play loud music, starting at 6am and continue randomly into the night.
 
 
If you wanted to use the bathroom at night, you had to maneuver down very narrow slatted steep stairs, and go around the house to the back to use it, probably with the light out. And it was a squat toilet.  I was very glad I had brought pee funnels like these with me (you can click the picture).
The room was very hot and only had a ceiling fan over each bed, oddly each was wired to the switch closer to the opposite bed. The floor was planked and you could see through the gaps to their small rooms below. I set up the mosquito net over my bed with the wife’s help.
The family included a husband and wife and 3 well behaved young boys. The wife is a really good cook and is expecting another child soon. There is also a sweet dog with a bunch of adorable puppies.

Breakfast was included and there was a selection of different foods available that you could select the previous day. Congee, noodles, waffles, omelet, etc. I tried the omelet twice, yellow noodles with egg once, and the one day was given waffles with my omelet. One day coffee cake with cream. The other days it didn’t. Each breakfast came with fruit as well. All the breakfast items were good.
Also, varied Asian dinners were available, which was good since the location, despite being right near Angkor Wat, was not really a place you would walk around as it was far down muddy and potholed dirt roads, that can make you motion sick in the tuk-tuk if you are prone to that.
Additionally, they served a lot of fruit, including dragon fruit, persimmon, sapodilla, and bananas. All were very good.
One free dinner was included, so I had dinner with the family on the first night. That was a good meal. The 2nd day I bought a late lunch so didn’t have dinner. The third day, I had snacks throughout the day and so didn’t plan on dinner. He asked me about dinner and I said I was fine and just planned on reading and watching tv on my phone, but then he said for me to come to eat with them. I had rice and a small piece of chicken and some vegetables and a glass of Coke with ice. I was charged 8 dollars for that. He put the chicken and some fish on the plate but I just picked at the fish because they were small fish with bones and skin and I think they were from the river which wasn’t very clean.
I never managed to finish a meal they provided. Breakfast could be an omelet with toast and coffee and fruit.
The host, Mr. Bill, drives a tuk-tuk and can take you to any local sites for a fee, shown on a chart on the porch. However, he may be the only tuk-tuk in the area that doesn’t have rain gear. One of the days I toured with him it rained all day and I was soaked despite the plastic disposable poncho they gave me to wear because the water soaks into the seat and then into anything touching the seat. So the water soaked into my pants and then up my shirt. And nothing dries here. I set everything up with a fan blowing all night and everything was still damp in the morning. Everything I had was wet. Even things in my backpack and belt bag were wet.
One day I was going too far for a tuk-tuk, so he had someone he knew with a car pick me up. I thought the cost was 45, so I paid him at the end. So when Bill told me I need to pay another 15 dollars because I had misunderstood the price, he had me get in the phone to tell the driver that I did not give him a 45 dollar tip on what turned out to be a 60 dollar trip. Bill has tried to tell him but he didn’t believe him so he had a security person go into the airport and find me to ask me to come out. I thought maybe I had left something in the tuk-tuk but he wanted me to tell the guy that I had not given him a 45 dollar tip on a 60 dollar day trip. I needed to say it several times before he believed me. He seriously thought I gave him that huge of a tip although basically all he did was drive me to 3 places and tell me where to meet him next.
If you come here definitely confirm the quality of where you are staying and square away the costs for anything beforehand.