[WARNING : THIS POST CONTAINS HUMOR AND BASED ON THE WRITER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE]
Cambodia is famous with the currency because it use US dollar as their daily national currency. Actually Cambodia has it’s local currency called Riel (USD 1= Riel 4000), but they prefer to use US dollar. You draw money in the ATM, guess what you get “US DOLLAR”. You wanna buy some groceries, the pricing is in US dollar. You wanna order food, the price on the menu is in US dollar. The usage of US dollar make traveler spend their money easily because they don’t need to calculate the currency’s difference. Everything in Cambodia sounds really cheap, you won’t even realize when you already spent much more than you think you’ll spend that day.
Have you ever been in Siem Reap? If you said yes, you might be coming there for 2 reason : Angkor Wat and Angkor What. Angkor Wat is a famous temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, with the site measuring 162.6 hectares – I will tell the detail on how to get there in my next post. But what is Angkor What? It is a bar and club. Yep, you didn’t read it wrong. Angkor What is a famous bar in Siem Reap. There is a famous touristic area called Pub Street in Siem Reap with so many bars, restaurants, clubs, tuk-tuk bar with loud music. Travelers go to Angkor Wat at day but what would they do at night? Pub Street. All of the hostels and hotels was built around Pub Street area to make it easier for traveler to go there.
You don’t drink alcohol? That is really great for you because you wont waste your money in Pub Street every night. But how if you do drink alcohol? with draught beer is only 25-50 cents per glass and all kind of shots only USD 1-3 per shot. You won’t resist to go there again and again. But here is some tips so you won’t be dragged by the charm, colorful, and lovely atmosphere in Pub Street:
- Limit the money you bring
First day there? It is ok to get wasted on your first day. But to get wasted on your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, second week, second month is a sign that you are being an alcoholic just because alcohol is really cheap there. Everytime I go to Pub Street, I always bring only USD 10 in my pocket, so I wont spend more than what I have. But how if you meet a cute guy/girl in a bar and they buy you drink? Or your friends have so much money and buy you anything? You are screwed my man.
- Sleep early
Try to sleep early and just hang out in you hostel common room. It does help. Tell all of your friends and roomates that you need to sleep early and wont go to Pub Street that night. Make them understand your concern. I bet they would drag you out of you bed because they love you so much. And yes, I cant help with this. I don’t want to ruin your friendship.
- Have someone who would remind you when you drink too much
Going out to Pub Street with your friends maybe is a good idea indeed. They would remind you when you drink too much or when you started acting weird because the alcohol level in your blood increase drastically. Anyway good friends always support you. I bet when they know your drinking ability, they would make you join into some games in bars and would be really proud when you win instead of remembering you that drinking too much is a serious problem. This is what you call life my man.
- Do as much as activity you could do at day
Go to Angkor Wat sunrise tour, whole day tour, sunset tour. Do not go back to your hostel before sunset. Waste all of your energy exploring Angkor Wat complex. With sunset tour, you’ll be back to your hostel around 7 pm or 8 pm. And because you already used all of your energy, you wont have much more energy to go out drinking in Pub Street. Who says? Because your cute and amazing friends would lift you up to Pub Street to make sure you wont miss another awesome night with them.
- Make a promise to yourself
The last method I could suggest, make a promise to yourself. Repeat your promise three times before you go there. For example
” I wont get drunk, I wont get drunk, I wont get drunk”
Keep hang out with your amazing friends but don’t drink too much. This isn’t good for your health. But remember, if you are not drunk you have to take care of your drunk friends all night long. If you are drunk together the you would take care of each other. How sweet is that?
So the conclusion is all of these methods I suggest to avoid getting wasted in Siem Reap is basically depends on your own self control. If you want to enjoy life, just do what you wanna do. Sleep, drunk (not everyday), travel, eating healthy, anything you like to do. People would love you as long as you love yourself. So, happy travel for all of you.
Nb. This is just a humor post that came into my mind last night, so don’t take it too seriously (I mean the methods) **kiss