Siem Reap Sights with Tuk Tuk Bean

Siem Reap in Cambodia is about an hour’s flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Our hotel, Memoire d’Angkor provided complimentary airport pickup and were waiting for us upon our arrival.

Cambodia is a poorer country than Thailand having just come out of a prolonged war. Our plan was to not only visit the famed Angkor Wat complex but to also get a feel for the town and an understanding of Cambodia.

I remember when growing up in Germany, Daddy had a friend from Kampuchea (one of Cambodia’s previous names). We had fondue at her home. It was my first fondue. Though I was young, I remember her and Kampuchea quite well because of their war. I remember making a parallel association of their genocide to the Holocaust, whose horrors I was well in tune with because whenever our family hosted visitors from abroad, we would take them to nearby concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. Horrors.

Over our five days (four nights) in Siem Reap we learnt a lot about the country, courtesy of our museum and temple guides and particularly our tuk-tuk driver, Mr Bean.

In planning this stage of our trip I contacted several tuk-tuk drivers recommended on a TripAdvisor forum to arrange transport to the Angkor Wat temples. Mr Bean (Tuk Tuk Bean) was one of the prompt replies. With the information he provided, I decided I would not pick and choose temples but rather do the tourist circuits – the Grand Circuit and the Small Circuit.

The Grand Circuit covered more distance so in the end, I chose to do this by car, booking a tour (plus temple guide) with Angkor Guide Sam (Sam Sophea). I had them take us to the Landmine Museum as it was along the way to Banteay Srei.

Since Tuk Tuk Bean had been so helpful in helping me decide what to do and how I decided we could manage a Small Circuit in a tuk-tuk. I asked him to take us to the Silk Farm and the War Museum in addition. He agreed without a change in the price. He then offered to take us on a countryside tour which I baulked at. I was concerned that there was a formal “countryside tour” company that he was trying to make commissions on referrals from. But no, he really was offering to drive us through the countryside. Sure, I replied!

Mr Bean more than delivered! I could not have found a better tuk-tuk driver. Even Mama said of him “he’s nice”, which if you know Mama is equivalent to A++. Not only was he punctual, flexible, and great company, he was a wealth of information. To the point that he would come along with us to the temples as far as he could (legally tuk-tuk drivers cannot be temple guides & vice versa, a guide cannot be a driver) and pour out his knowledge before our temple guide could do his thing. Comical. I knew immediately that I would ask him to take me back to Angkor Wat for sunrise the next day and hoped that he would be free.

After our pre-arranged Small Circuit Tour, Mr Bean dropped off the temple guide and us at the hotel for a rest. When he picked us up he wanted to show us the countryside and I kept reminding him I had requested the Silk Farm and the War Museum. “No worry, no worry”, was his reply.

Tonle Sap – Chong Kneas Floating Village

Mr Bean picked us up in the afternoon and drove us to Chong Kneas village along the way providing us insight into life for the average Cambodian. I had read about the tourist trap floating villages on Tonle Sap and had not made arrangements to go. But we had heard from Cambodians in the hospitality industry that it was worth a visit. So when Mr Bean took us to the dock we decided to visit.

By this time we were enjoying his company so much so that we brought him along on our boat trip through the floating village at Chong Kneas. At $20 per person with essentially all of the money going to the company that operates the boats and not to the people of the village, it did feel exploitative.

It reminded me of Nzulezo in Ghana but I got the sense that the villagers on Tonle Sap would rather be on dry land if they had the opportunity. However, we were not propositioned to part with more of our money. We just enjoyed the hour or so scenic boat ride as Mr Bean continued to give us his Cambodia culture and history lessons.

Cricket Harvesting

While driving through the province of Siem Reap, Mr Bean saw this contraption along the roadside and stopped to tell us about it. He really wasn’t kidding when he offered to give us a tour of the countryside. This contraption, a set-up of lights, attracts crickets (and other insects?) during the night. In the morning, the insects are harvested for frying and eating.

Oyster Mushroom Farming

Mr Bean stopped frequently pointing things out to us here and there while making sure we kept cool and hydrated providing us water or beer and refreshing wipes from his ice-chest. Another industry he was eager to show us was mushroom farming. He drove us to Spean Chreav where we visited a local mushroom farmer. He asked permission of the farmer to show us around.

He explained that mushroom farming was not native to Cambodia but that an international organization aiming to improve food security helped create these self-sustaining family enterprises over a decade ago.

He walked us through the steps of preparing a growing substrate from the sawdust of rubber trees and rice bran. He showed us how the mixture is placed in a plastic container, kept humid for several days, and then steamed to sterilize. At this point, mushroom spores are added.

Mr Bean animatedly showed us how and where the bags are kept in open space up to a month waiting for the roots to grow. Once roots grow, the bags are watered every day, often twice or thrice. As the mushrooms grow, they are harvested. When the substrate in the bottle turns black it is discarded. Each bottle thus lasts about 6 months. A farmer can expect to make $4 per kilogram of mushroom.

Palm Sugar Industry

The Palmyra palm tree (Borassus species) was pointed out to us previously by the temple guide provided by Angkor Wat Sam, Somondy, when we were close to Banteay Srei. Mama recognised it as a tree from her childhood, maleko, which translates from Nzema to English as “women’s coconut”. She was surprised to hear it was used to make sugar when Somondy was describing the process. She said in Nzema, the fruit was eaten and a palm wine could be made from the sap but not much else was done with the tree. Now they are harder to find.

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By the time Mr Bean took us to the Sugar Palm Village in Siem Reap we had seen and tasted various forms of palm sugar at Lily’s Secret Garden Cooking Class that Mama was very eager to buy some. And buy we did – granulated sugar, sugar cakes, and palm syrup.

Mr Bean explained that the men of the village were typically the ones to harvest each morning and evening. Somondy had previously shown us the bamboo sticks leaning against the palmyra trees that are used to scale the trees to the top. Short lengths of bamboo were used at the top to collect the sap from the flower buds. The women then processed this into various forms of palm sugar and sold it and other palm wood products along the roadside here for passing tourists, cooking the sap in a large basin over an open fire to stimulate curiosity.

While palm-sugar making is a traditional art, the trade of it en masse is relatively new. A way to to take advantage of the droves of tourists who come to see Banteay Srei. Some locals have received the aid of international sustainable development NGOs. They then rely on the temple tour guides who speak the various languages of the tourists to bring them customers and translate for them. I didn’t mind at all supporting their enterprise. I have bought palm sugar in the US before and was happy to buy it here, freshly made, and far cheaper.

A mystery solved…or not

Walking around the villages Mama identified a plant she recognized as emaleko. It did look like a basil varietal. Several Cambodians identified it as holy basil. It did not look like any holy basil I had grown from seeds bought in the US. Hmmmm!

A Plug for Mr Bean

We had great fun in Cambodia and we have Mr Bean to thank in particular. It goes without saying that he is a great tuk-tuk driver. But we found him to also be an awesome unofficial guide and photographer and frankly a great person to spend a few days with. A real cool dude! Jovial, friendly, and trust-worthy. We couldn’t have asked for more!