Mr Kim San had recommended the Angkor beer as it was locally made and it was the beer the locals drink if they wanted a nice beer IE for weddings etc. Like most Asian beers it was dirt cheap but actually quite drinkable. They Bayon beer (named after the temple at Angkor Thom was also not too bad apparently).
Our hotel was really quite nice, although sometimes the food service was a bit slow and everything was warm - cold drinks werent really ever cold, the food was always just warm and even the pool water was always warm.
While we were out yesterday we had asked Kim San to recommend a good restaurant to us that has a cultural show with dinner. Of course he knew just the place - a restaurant called Koulen II. As he had a friend that worked there, and he most happily had him books us a table - right near the stage. Of course me being me, I had to google it in advance and see what the reviews said about the place. Unfortunately across the board they were pretty scathing. So much so that we had decided late morning that we wouldn't actually go there and we would forfeit the deposit we paid so that we could go somewhere else. We thought about it some more and decided to take a chance and go anyways - it was only $12 a head for the buffet and show so if the food looked dodgy at least we could have a decent show and we could get food back at the hotel later if needed.
So at 6 30 we went and grabbed a pair of tuk tuks and made our way to the restaurant. On the way there we went past a wedding celebration. At 9.30 this morning, when we first went swimming, we heard this loud but beautiful Cambodian music start up and it sounded like it was coming from the street. Now we had found the source of it.
Anyhow, on arriving at the Koulen we soon discovered that the reviews were very wrong. The food was hot, plentiful and really tasty. The universal favourite was the noodle cart when he made fried noodles in front of you....mmmm so yum.
I really liked the dancing, the others not so much he he. I think I like them because they always tell a story. There were three main dances tonight - one Id call the crazy coconut dance, the second was Nate's favourite because the main character held a small axe the whole time, although I think he was disappointed that no blood was shed, and the last definitely had a fishing theme.
The tuk tuk drivers we had take us there had promised to come back to pick us up after the show and take us back to our hotel (probably because they overcharged us and wanted to do it twice). As we walked outside the restaurant there must have been 50 tuk tuks sitting there - all very eager to get our fare. We started to get into the one with the driver that looked most familiar and then we heard a panicked yell at us - our original driver was sitting on the roadside and was terrified we were not going to use his services. It was kinda funny as the other driver tried to keep us in his vehicle instead and a short argument ensued. The original driver and his friend won and got our fare.
