hanno

Use "google earth"...enjoy the pictures...save your money and get yourself a "soapy massage"...

That sounds like a good idea. Angkor Wat has really become a tourist trap the last years.

If you plan, it is still pretty awesome. Just don't follow the sheep.

If you fly into Siem Reap it's worth getting an e-visa before hand. It took 3 weeks for my e-visa to come through and then only after I asked where it was by email.

Of the 150 people on my flight about 10 had e-visa so we went through the evisa check in 2 minutes. I hate to think how long the 140 people took to get their visa on arrival.

OK it costs a few dollars more to get an e-visa but the time saved is well worth it.

E-visa has the added advantage of not taking up space in your passport. Having said that, immigration is one of he few things that actually works in Cambodia and getting the visa is very fast.

Got plenty of Koreans here in Temple Town and many of them come across as very aggressive. Of course all the men learned Taekwando as part of their military service but they do not realize that any serious street scrapper will take them down in a heartbeat. As this guy learned....

Yes but this family will actually look after the dogs,unlike here,were they are barley fed,allowed to roam the streets,and bark and howl all damn night.

People and their pets can be dangerous territory to comment on, "Soi Dogs" is a genuine organization that does good things, but I wonder if it would be better to raise funds to have the dogs neutered than fly them all over the world and take them out of their environment. There's a whole group of them not far from my Condo, and I cannot imagine them being happy in the US, Canada or the UK etc. They have their own territory, hierarchy, habits and foibles... In the morning I often take a left over sandwich to feed the odd one or two, and would just love to put flea collars on them, but don't have the guts to get that close. They do bark, and cause some noise, but all in all, I wish them well. This is Thailand after all, not suburban L.A.

Actually, part of the work the Soi Dog Foundation does is to sterilize cats and dogs, close to 80,000 so far according to their website.

There is an airport nearby? Forgive my ignorance

If you mean Siem Reap then yes, the airport is about 15 minutes from downtown.

Before moving to SE Asia I worked in Europe and the Middle East and often had the delicate task of telling a staff member to head for a shower and change clothes (I work in hotels where BO doesn't exactly help). Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence over here and, when it happens, it involves a foreigner more often than not.

Thanks for the updates rbkk

I am a runner, not a biker. Got a 50K run tomorrow so it will be out of bed at 2:30 am......

It is not just to beat the heat but also to beat the traffic.

People covered from head to toe is more to prevent sun reaching the pristine skin. Personally, I couldn't care less and run in shorts and vest.

If you are overheating, you may be pushing too hard. You cannot rode/run at the same intensity as you would in 18-degree weather. Take a notch out.

You may be right about me pushing too hard. I ride in the south of Phuket, there are short hills but they can be very steep (10/20%). I'm probably not fit enough to tackle them as they leave me completely drained. But I also want to get better and manage bigger climbs like Big Buddha or Kata View Point.

I also sometimes try to follow some local riders when riding around the lake at 32+km/h for a couple laps. I have to recover for 15 minutes riding at snail pace after that while they continue speeding through without shedding a drop of sweat

I've logged about 700km since I bought my bike. Maybe too early for higher intensity work?

Again, I speak from a runner's perspective but the principle is the same: I have coached many people (hobby, not professionally) and inevitably the folks that pushed too hard were the first ones that dropped out or ended up with injury. Look at the Kenyan runners, they do a lot of their training at a slow (for them) pace. Ease off, it is not just fitness but your body needs to adapt to the new stresses as well.

I am a runner, not a biker. Got a 50K run tomorrow so it will be out of bed at 2:30 am......

It is not just to beat the heat but also to beat the traffic.

People covered from head to toe is more to prevent sun reaching the pristine skin. Personally, I couldn't care less and run in shorts and vest.

If you are overheating, you may be pushing too hard. You cannot rode/run at the same intensity as you would in 18-degree weather. Take a notch out.

Suburban Survival Tools : Snake Bite Kit: https://youtu.be/G-UdRaymkRQ

Complete waste of money and time. Sucking out venom does not work. Fixate appendage, maybe bandage and get to hospital ASAP.....

You can get the visa on arrival. Visa fees increased recently and are now USD 30.00 for the regular visa. I figure the drive is about 2.5-3.0 hours.

If by travelers you mean back-packers then yes, there are plenty. I am not sure if they are nice as it is not really my crowd.

A few places where expats hang out but which one depends on your age and interests.

Siem Reap may be a massive tourist attraction but end of the day it is still a small village. You are unlikely to make close friends with locals in a couple of days. Don't get me wrong, I find the Khmer to be very friendly and polite but they will not fall around your neck at the first meeting. Unless, of course, they want something from you; see the discussion about Mikey's above:-)

The finished the road a couple of years ago, Preah Vihear is actually doable as a day-trip now.

I don't even bother, it is no big deal. My first place of work in SE Asia was Vietnam. This was 20 years ago and everybody stared.

There is also the small matter of maybe nobody giving a damn where you come from and what is considered bad manners there

Where abouts in Isaan are you located.

Siem Reap is only just over 2 hours away from the Chong Chom border in Surin, and even less from Chong sa Ngam in Sisaket

True, and the road is one of the best in Cambodia now.

Fly. Since Air Asia started doing the route, ticket prices have come down a lot. I am not sure why you would go via Phnom Penh?

Again, apart from the cash: what makes you think that the Thais, or anyone else for that matter, need an unqualified volunteer. To paint fence posts? Dig crappers?

They are crying out for native English speakers to help the kids learn English just about everywhere especially ones who don't need 50k baht a month, aircon, 4g in. Nakhon nowhere.

Just being a native speaker does not a teacher make.....

Very true but it's good enough to be a volunteer teacher and much better than no native teacher which is the situation the school is in at the moment.

I can only speak for Siem Reap where there are plenty of volunteer teachers. They stay anywhere from 2 hours to 2 months, come with different accents, no curriculum, no plan, just the urge to help the poor brown people.

Must be pretty difficult for the kids to go through the "Hello, I am Jim (John, Susie, Alan, Sheila) from England (Australia, US, Sweden), How are you?" every few days/weeks.

Oettinger isn't that bad imo-mate you disappoint me...

Mate have you ever tried our Aussie beer?

Trust me, Oettinger is not as bad as our beer.

I'll take a Weihenstephner at twice the price any day.

I am a big fan of "Weizen" but I have had some seriously good craft beers in Oz.

That is plenty of money. Ignore these other troll posts. They are blowing their funds on bargirls and expensive restaurants. A Thai(and most other people in developing countries)can live on 10,000 baht a month(which is probably the median wage) and be happy. So can you.

I do not know any Thais that live on 10,000 a moth but then I only know city people...

The Bar is called Mikey's on Sivutha. It is really grim with the bottom of the barrel (both ladies and their customers). There are a couple of KTV's and there are, of course, the beer gardens. Just don't screw with the locals in those.....

Marginally less grim than the former Mikey's premises - although most of the girls remain equally grim.

The working girls are still around and the mamasan is often seen around the Piano Bar end of Pub Street. If you are a male on your own the tuk-tuk drivers will very quickly offer you "Lady massage, lady boom boom".By all accounts the beer gardens offer a better selection but they will ask $60 to go with you.

I don't know but chances are better that it won't be a ladyboy:-)

Well I tried sounding cosmopolitan and said European but I really only meant German beers. They are brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot (your link doesn't really say anything against it... most of the arguments there are pretty pointless or don't concern the end user).

This is NOT a Thai bashing thread. Nor is it a thread about beer ingredients. I only wanted to know why the Swedish beer is so cheap (46 baht) when the German one is so expensive. The 500ml Oettinger (yes, considered piss, I know... still Germany's top-selling beer) sells for 119 Baht a can when it is 10 Baht a can back in Germany, so it can't be the price at the source country.

Didn't take it as Thai-bashing:-)

Either supply and demand or they are trying to shift stock.