~ DI.A.NA SIMPLI.CITY ~: Siem Reap

10th - 14th Jan 2011 with Ong

This is a way overdue entry about my trip to Siem Reap in Jan this year

An impromptu trip which happened because we stumbled upon the promo airfare that Silkair was having.
And since Jan was essentially a holiday month for us both
What better opportunity than this to go Siem Reap!
(p.s. we have been talking about going to this place for many years)

Prior to the trip, we did lotsa homework.
Researching on hotels, on driver & tour guide, on the places that we should not missed visiting, on orphanages that we can do some charity

The main bulk of the weight was due to the things we have gotten for the kids there.
Sweets, Stationery, toothbrushes & toothpastes

the picture says it all

after 2hrs flight, we stepped foot in Siem Reap Airport
No aerobridge.
Gotta walk down the stairs & walk through the airport tarmac area to the arrival hall

Our mood was dampen by the hotel's oversight to send the transport to pick us.
We wasted more than half an hour and money to make international calls to the hotel.

And instead of a proper vehicle that came to pick us
it was a tuk tuk! *gulp*
it was a super dusty ride

Finally reached our hotel which was No. 1 recommended on Trip Advisor
It's a simple motel standard which served it purpose.
Their limited quantity of hair dryer pissed me off quite abit though.

Siem Reap Street view

Whoever says there's no shopping in Siem Reap?

Much raved about Spa place which we of course booked a relaxing pampering session for ourselves

This must be the most happening place in Siem Reap after dusk

Feeding our stomach at an eatery name - Temple but there is nothing holy at all.
Definitely not vegetarian either

Very very yummy BBQ (if only it wasn't overcooked)

Taking a walk after meal which ended up with having a local dessert.
pancake spread with butter, condensed milk, milo powder & banana!
Crisp & sweet~ me likey

fish spa must be the most "in" thing over there now.
But looking at the gigantic piranhas looking tank of fish, i have no guts to try it out.
No matter how cheap it was.

it's better that we stick to the traditional foot message by hand.
did i mentioned it's only USD$2 for a 60mins foot massage along the street??

Day 2
Early morn, our hired driver - Sam picked us up at our hotel for the scheduled tour of Angkor Wat

Now if u think that Angkor Wat is just 1 temple then u're wrong!
The Angkor Wat temple area is more than just 1 Angkor Temple alone.
There are actually more than 100 temples in the whole area.
But of course we are only interested with the more famous ones.
Even then, it will take more than 1 day for us to complete the tour.
Hence, we got a 3-days pass which cost us USD$40 each.

In actual fact, we only visited Angkor Wat for 2 days.
2 full days of temples after temples, stone carvings after stone carvings & steep stairs after steep stairs was more than enough for me.

Besides the driver, we hired a tour guide for the Angkor Wat tour.
Which frankly was abit wasted for us.
Cos most of the time he was sharing with us about the history of Angkor Wat, we were more interested with capturing photos
*tsk tsk tsk*

But it was quite difficult for me to make out what he was saying with his not-so-perfect-english
Not to mention the alien terms like
Suryavarman ІІ, Apsara, Vishnu, Avalokiteshvara
i only know these terms after i google about it! hah!

Throughout the 2 days of temple visit, we went to many temples.
Here are the highlights

My personal fav must be Ta Prohm.
It left me in awe with the power of nature, trees especially in this case.
And among all these temples, the most well-known & largest is Angkor Wat temple

At Angkor Wat, one thing not to be missed is the Sunrise
So we woke up at 4am, armed with a touchlight & camera, we reached Angkor Wat in the darkness at 5am to catch the sunrise

We were not alone actually.
In fact, we overheard that some of them actually come for the sunrise more than 1 day.
Very "on" tourists!

Human were not the only ones interested to catch the sunrise

The sunrise for that day was mediocre as it was too cloudy.
The sun was hiding behind the forest, refusing to come out

And as we nearly gave up, the burst of sun ray emerged from behind the temple!

Besides sunrise, one can also watched sunset at one of the tallest temple - Phnom Bakheng

Not the best sunset as it was cloudy too.
So no pinkish sky

All the temples have super steep stairs which require high concentration when ascending and descending.

The guide also brought us to this lil' village that make palm sugar as means of living

as we gave out some sweets to the kids, 1 old woman came up and ask us to give USD$1 to each of the kids!
Which we refused and walked away
Not as if u're handicapped or unable to earn a living.

Unlike these people, despite being physically handicapped, they earned a living by playing music at various temples in Angkor Wat.

Besides Angkor Wat, the other must visit destination is Tonle Sap
which we visited on Day 3 (finally! no more temples!)
Theme for Day 3 is children which u will know why later.
On the way, we see stilted houses on both sides of the road and rows of fishes laying on the ground "suntanning" which gave the whole area a less than pleasant smell.
we traveled for nearly an hour before reaching the jetty.

While we were unloading the things we have brought along for the kids at the floating school, we got "ambushed" by these kids.
As u look at them, it will be cold blooded to walk away without giving them some thing.

the jetty for us to take a boat out in Tonle Sap Lake and to the Floating School

It was a great pity that we did not get to visit the Floating School which i have heard so much about as school hours was over.

Apparently their school hours is from 7am to 11am.
Remember this if u're making a trip there.

According to Sam, the floating school is for children living at Tonle Sap, that is at the various floating villages. While those living at the main island will go to the city school.
As we have so much stationery along with us, we requested to visit one of the floating village.
Since we can't give the kids the stationery in the floating school, we give them at their village loh!

When we first stepped onto the village, there were only a few kids playing around.

But out of a sudden when we started giving out the stationery, i don't know where all these kids ran out from!
Suddenly, we were being surrounded by tones of children and it scared me.
i have never had so many kids fighting for a piece of me which in this case is the stationery we were giving!
Some of them were practically snatching from me!
But there were some who really thank us after getting the gift.
Looking at them, it was kinda sad.
Most of them were barefooted.
Even if they had shoes on, it's way too small for their feet.
Almost all of them were wearing dirty torn clothes.
i don't even know if these children will use the stationery for school purpose.
hiaz~

On the way back, we stopped by along the road where we saw those stilted houses on both sides of the road earlier on.

According to Sam, they too live by the Tonle Sap lake and so they would bath & cook & clean using water from the lake.
But somehow the kids here looked cleaner and seems to be clothes better
And they seems to enjoy being photographed!

Next stop, Orphanage

This stop makes me fully realized the importance of education.
No pushing & shoving & snatching
They wait for their turn as we go around giving out the stationery & toys
saying thank you with palm held together at chest level
And the farewell flowers they gave me nearly brought tears to my eyes.
The most touching flowers i have ever received. ever~

Some other places we also visited
Siem Reap Museum
where i learned that one of the holy object cambodian pray to is

which represent a male & female's reproductive system!
Too bad no photography inside the museum

The silk farm
now i know silk worms are feed by mulberry plant!

Artisan Workshop where they produced all sorts of handicraft products
paintings, wood carves, silver molding

Sam also brought us to watch this cultural dance performance which also served buffet dinner

the traditional dance which is very similar to thai traditional dance

Speaking of Cambodia Khmer food, here are some we have tried
Almost all eatery would recommend us to try Amok whenever we asked them what's nice.
But after trying, i found it just ok only leh.
By the way, on a side note that huge coconut which was bigger than my head tasted sour. *yuck*

we learned that mushroom over there are the abalone mushroom type when we ordered a plate of fried chicken with mushroom.

This must be one of our top fav among all the meals we had

We have totally different reaction towards that piece of lard

Cambodia style of BBQ cum steamboat

During & After (p.s. that piece in the center is lard!)

and we tried Cambodia curry too.
It taste a tad bit sweet like Japanese curry
And look at that big-head prawn! The head alone was longer than my finger!

Stew beef with noodle is good!
It taste very similar to chinese food and the beef chunks were tender & aplenty.
And the bottom shows the claypot noodle.
i'm sure it would taste alot better if there were no parsley.

their soup noodle reminded me of mama's cooking.
Very homecooked style

Beside all the interesting sights we have seen and wonderful slurp we had in Siem Reap,
did i mentioned we had massage after massage?
both atas type

and streetside type

streetside massage which offered beautiful sunset view & playing Angkor Wat documentary show on the projector screen

Night after night we returned to Pub street where we had our dinner, shop around, maybe have a massage before heading back hotel in tuk tuk for USD$2.