Now that we've been in this town awhile, here are some impressions:Transportation
We use tuk-tuk (three-wheeled chopper with a surry on top) or samtheuw (gussied-up pick-up truck, covered bed with benches) to get around.
For the locals, scooters are very popular and vastly outnumber cars. You can fit on two people at least, and only dorks wear helmuts. Techni-color double-decker buses with labels like "VIP Dream Trip" are favored for longer trips or domestic sight-seeing tours.
Tourist-town
On the edges and under the covers, this is a hard-working city. Our best experiences have been places where locals outnumber farangs (foreigners). At one street fair, families strolled with their kids, and we saw a booth manned by the Thai version of Karen Yamagiwa-Madan (designed her own funky t-shirts and sold hand-crafted soft-sculpture dolls).
But on the other hand... the city-center completely caters to tourists. Everyone speaks English here, and you will be charged twice the price for the privelege. Everyone wants to take you on the exact same tours and sell you the exact same souvenirs:
* 4x4 jungle adventure!
* Ride the elephant and bamboo rafting!
* You get 100% silk two suit, two shirt custom-made for only $100!
* Tour the temples day-trip!
* Visit the hill-tribes, authentic remote!
* Genuine Nike, Adidas, Christian Dior! (why is that logo upside down?)
Food
Cheap. Good. There are inumerable traditional restaurants where two people can eat for about $4. Street vendors are everywhere, and while we've torn into the "friendly fare" like fresh pineapple, spring rolls, and rotee (egg-flour desert), we are chicken about a lot of it, like:
* Steamed snails
* Oil-fried duck eggs
* Meat parts on stick
* Sun-dried whole fish
* UFB (unidentified fried bits)
* Orange liquid in banana-leaf boat
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