However, fate decided to step in and make the deal even sweeter. On our first night, we went out on the town to enjoy a bucket of gin and tonic (which included a free t-shirt—score!), and we started talking to the young Australian couple seated next to us. As it turned out, they loved karaoke too. So after a few beers and a couple games of pool, we found a tuk-tuk driver that new of a karaoke joint, and we were off.
We drove through the night, clueless as to where we were going, and then…we arrived. Where? Well, none of us had any clue (though I managed to find it two days later on my way to the airport). We got out of the tuk-tuk, and I instantly knew what kind of establishment we were about to patronize. In the parking lot, there were a few pairs of Western men, hesitatingly getting out of their tuk-tuks, vocalizing their misgivings about going into the brightly-lit building. My group exchanged looks, and we decided, “We’re here. Let’s just do it.”
A man greeted us outside the door and walked us into the first room. An aisle was created in the middle of the room, lined on both sides with about four rows of chairs, filled with girls. Girls dressed in short, tight-fitting dresses, high heels, and loads of make-up. We turned to the man and said, “We just want to sing.”
He took us to a room that cost $15/hour and included its own bathroom complete with shower. I know what you’re thinking, they thought of everything! Who doesn’t need a shower after a killer karaoke performance of Bon Jovi’s “Shot Through the Heart”? Yeah, they totally thought of everything. The man hung out in our room with us for quite awhile (and I like to think it was because we were entertaining since we really were at the karaoke place for the purpose of singing karaoke). He started to bring in some ladies, but determined that we really weren’t interested, so we were merely accompanied by one girl whose job it was to operate the machine. She was quite friendly and made song requests for us, so it felt like she was part of the group.
We sang for two glorious hours and paid ridiculous amounts of money for the alcohol that was served. When we left the building, there were far fewer girls seated in the “display” room. Those that were there appeared to be miserably unhappy, and we suspected that our presence probably didn’t help matters. Our tuk-tuk awaited us outside. We jumped on board and headed back to town, laughing the whole way about our innocent adventure to a prostitution front. And THAT is what counted for karaoke in Cambodia.
The next day we met our tuk-tuk driver and went on a tour of three of the temples: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm. Simply put, it was awe-inspiring. As always, I started feeling like I should be more impressed as we walked through Angkor Wat. It IS a UNESCO World Heritage site after all! Then we drove to Angkor Thom. As our vehicle rounded the corner, both Diane and I stopped speaking. Impressive indeed.
We wandered the temples in 90-degree head until our hangovers couldn’t take it anymore. I will admit that I regret not taking another day to explore the temples. They were spectacular. So I guess that means there’s always next time.
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