Siem Reap Roadtrip's After-Tots 。。。

Hope you had enjoyed reading about my Siem Reap's Roadtrip. The below 5 days trip formed my most intensive entries of 2009. I took such a long time to upload, cos i spent time writing & editing to ensure info are accurate & succinct. Facts are extracted from 'Siem Reap Angkor Visitors Guide' ~ a canbypublication & wikipedia website.

If you are interested in travelling to Siem Reap, there's a few things to note. As in going to anywhere, one needs to be vigilant and street-smart. It's relatively safe in Siem Reap's city area as we saw many police patrolling at night. However do not take things for granted. There's no sense of proper traffic directions & one needs to be extra cautious in crossing the roads. During your visit to the temples, it's advisable to wear a top that cover your shoulders & pants/jeans that cover your knees as these are still holy places for the Khmers. Jeans are really gd to protect myself from abrasions while climbing up & down the temples! A pair of comfy track shoes is essential as you need to walk alot to maximise your temple pass, haha! The temples' steps are not only steep but sandy, hence proper shoes is crucial. There's many cases of tourists who fell to death at diff temples, so lots of luck is needed too!  

If you ask me my tots from this trip... it's certainly insightful & it seems that i had went on a history & cultural tour.  What i had taken away from the trip is far more than i tot...  Thru'out our journey, we were constantly 'hounded' by street kids who peddled their handmade bracelets, postcards, scaves etc.... i find that despite their young age, these kids are really smart! Looking at how the kids talk to strangers & make small talk, such as asking ''where r u from?'' and using techniques such as, ''buy from me when you are out!'' etc... I'm impressed.  Comparing a similar age urban kid & a rural kid, i really do not know who is the more fortunate one. As an urbanite, we grew up in a comfy & sheltered environment but we may not be that happy.  In contrary, rural kids are only after the basic amentities & are easily satisfied even if juz some sweets from visitors.

Remember our cute boat-boy? On our car ride back, Rany told us the boy works to support his family too... his older sister works at the harbour earning a few dollars per mth. In a developing country, like Cambodia... rural families have many kids cos they want their children to work & help out the family's dire situation. As long as the rural kids learn to walk, they are already 'destined' to learn how to make a living, be it to plow the fields or peddle their wares. As we listened intently to Rany, we felt sorry & sad for the boy.... As one can never change history, i guess the passport to break out of poverty is a tertiary education. World Vision has a  ''Child Sponsorship Programme'' for children in developing nations. If your situation allows, can consider signing up thru' World Vision.  Frankly, if i'm financially stable, I will like to join too & this tot was way bef my trip.

Should you need to find a reliable & experience guide, do consider our dear Rany! He had been guiding for 8 years and enjoys photography! Thanks to him, we do not need to waste time in locating good photography spots... This is my first photography trip using my SLR and i hope to continuously improve my skills... i really enjoy sharing wif  you guys my point of view thru' my lens. One last thing, i had broke the 300 postings milestone on Dreamer's Blog over a 3 years period. Thank u for your support!

Day 5: Tuk-ing down Siem Reap's Countryside 。。。

Wif only half a day left in Siem Reap, we had arranged for a half day tour to the countryside on a Tuk-Tuk. Mr. Tee finally appeared to collect the fees & didn't brought us personally to the villages as promised. He left it all to the tuk-tuk driver & even told us that he would get the driver to send us to watch some rice harvest. We requested our driver to drop us at the Roast Duck Noodles' coffeeshop for breakfast. Juz as I wanted to place my order, we realised that the staff didn't understand english! Finally, there's this young gal who could understand some simple eng. I wanted to request for more noodles & she asked: ''Bigger?'' and i nodded ''Ya, bigger!''. Guess wat? End result, we got our huge bowl of noodles but there's no roast duck leg, sob sob! In place, there were the cut pieces...not as shiok as previous day's. It's double the price we paid yesterday too!!!

We boarded our tuk-tuk and off we went on our ride along the countryside. It's really relaxing as all we did was sit there & snapped pics casually.  We caught sight of horses, cows and water buffalos... the animals were all skinny & i called them ‘苦命牛’as they were a striking difference from the well-fed cows found in aussie. Probably that's why meat dishes were generally more stiff in cambodia? About 50mins into our journey, our driver asked us if we wanted to visit the silk farm nearby.  We were puzzled as we had not stopped at any particular villages? When the driver explained ''that's all'' in his halting english, we realised Mr. Tee had failed in his job again! He failed to deliver what he had promised us. Since we were already mid-way at the countryside, there's nothing we could do. So, we proceeded to Artisans d'Angkor at National Silk Center.  

Mulberry Fields

We wandered around the silk farm and snapped some pics. It's landscaping & lush greenery formed nice backdrops for our shoots. There were bright yellow cocoons of silk worms in their pens & an area wif newly hatched lavar which depicted the 47 days life cycle of a cocoon. As we strolled thru' the various areas, we saw how the silk were being spunned into various elaborate designs by the workers. It's really tedious & you definately need good coordination of both hands & feets to maneuver the huge looming machines.

Bottles of 'Whisky' for cars to 'drink', hehe!

It's the return journey now and along the way, we requested our driver to drop us at impromptu places to take photos. Hence, we alighted outside a primary school & saw school children strolling out after their classes. I managed to get 3 kids to pose for me & i really like this shot! We also posed for shots wif our driver & tuk tuk, as the countryside made a nice backdrop. Lastly, we paused outside a temple along the road for more shoots... As we headed towards city, I requested to drop at Angkor National Museum, our Day One's place to take some exterior pics... There is this famous Madam Sachiko Angkor Cookies further down the museum's route. Our driver was unsure of its location & asked his fellow tuk tuk drivers.

Prior to our trip, saw a blogger raved abt the cookies here, which were butter cookies shaped like Angkor Wat. But after our biscuits tasting, Ruby & I did not fancy & I felt that the taste was veri ordinary. But to each his own, maybe this is a good place for your last min's shopping. hehe! We went into Cafe Puka Puka~an attached cafe next door, to eat Mango Ice, which proved a great relief from the heat.  

Pub Street in the Day ~ huge contrast rite?

Returned to Pub Street and it's relatively quiet in the day, as most tourists were off at the temples. We finally sat at an alfresco table at Khmer House Restaurant located in the alley.  Ruby had her last USD50 cents Angkor beer (yes, dun rub your eyes at how cheap the beer is!) here. For our lunch, we shared the grilled beef & Amok Fish. But the Amok here was prepared differently from our first evening's dinner at Khmer Kitchen. We still prefered the first Amok Fish.

At Ei8ht Main Gate

Day & Nite Views of our Lovely Balcony

  Garden View Twin-Sharing Room

It's time for us to return to check-out at Ei8ht Rooms & our luggages were downstairs already. We took pics of the resort-feel huts at the entrance & the balcony. At this point, I realised that I had not taken any pic of our room! So, i asked the staff if he could open our room for a photo-shoot but alas, someone had checked-in. But he was nice enuf to open an almost similar room next door to let me snap a shot ^o^ The staff here are polite & friendly & speaks simple mandarin.

We got Ei8ht to arrange a Tuk Tuk to send us to the airport to catch our 4.30pm flight. The journey to the airport was at top speed manz! Our driver was a 'cheongster'! In a twinkle, we ended our 5 days 4 nites adventure in Siem Reap. Lea heuy (goodbye) Siem Reap!

Day 4: Exploring Banteay Srei & the Grand Circuit 。。。

Rany & Mr. Heng picked us up at 8am for breakfast, as Rany had raved abt this Roast Duck Noodles yesterday, I told him gotta bring us to try today! The breakfast venue was a coffeeshop & it resembles the olden days kopitiam. But no worries, I'm more concern abt the quality of the food (foodie me!) Rany helped us order Roast Duck Leg wif Mee Pok Soup (USD2.50). When my noodles arrived, the roast duck leg certainly looked appealing! By now, we realised that the locals like their noodles sprinkled wif asparagus & baby bean sprouts, plus some lime juice. So, 入乡随俗, we followed their style of eating. The mee pok is the thin flat kind & veri soft. After finishing my bowl, i felt like ordering a 2nd bowl! Ok, i decided to return here for breakfast tomorrow.

Intricate Carvings at Banteay Srei

Today is the last of our 3-days temple visits, which means our trip is coming to an end... We travelled some 38km to Banteay Srei, which is one of the outlying temples. Due to the long distance, it's necessary to spend abt half a day here. Built in 967AD, Banteay Srei stood out from the rest of the temples, as it's constructed from pink sandstone. Thou' it's relatively small, it's maintained in pristine condition and had stunning intricate carvings on its walls. Banteay Srei is loosely translated as 'Citadel of the Women', probably ref to the fine carvings. This forms another tourists' hotspot as we stood under the scorching sun waiting for photo-taking opportunities. There are many pretty doorways around, which you could use it to 'frame' someone in your photos. There was a spot, which we spent at least half an hour perfecting our artistic angle, cos unable to pass Rany's standard! He showed us how to hide behind pillars & shot thru' the pillars to frame the temple structure, but there were many heads 'blooping' around, hence had to wait patiently to capture a nice shot.

                                               

Destructive Landmine

After leaving Banteay Srei, we went to the nearby Cambodia Landmine Museum, entrance fee cost USD2. The founder Aki Ra had been interviewed by world-wide media and his main objective was to educate people abt the horrors of landmines and to provide a shelter for children affected by landmines. Besides this, as a former soldier, he knows alot abt landmines & train a team to go around Cambodia disposing landmines in a safety manner.

Next, we hopped on our car & drove to the nearby Banteay Samre, which was constructed around the same time as Angkor Wat, hence it's architectural style bears a strong resemblance to Angkor Wat. We had lunch at a small make-shift place at the temples. I ordered stir-fried beef wif potatoes & onions + rice, while Ruby pref something small....opted for the khmer style spring rolls, wif chix fillings. Wow! The spring rolls were not small at all, there were 8 pieces of golden brown spring rolls resting on the plate! Luckily, we din order other dishes & ruby impressed me by finishing 6 of those! Applause!

''Warning!!!Climbing at Your Risk''

We continued the afternoon by exploring the temples in the grand circuit. We arrived at East Mebon, a mountain-temple dedicated to the Hindu God ~ Shiva. 5 distinctive towers could be seen as we ascended to the 3rd level.

 Kids @ Ta Som

Then, we travelled to Ta Som, the most distant temple in the grand circuit... this place has a strangler fig growing on top of the eastern gopura (means entrance-way). Over here, a little boy tried v hard to peddle his post-cards to us & waited for us to finish taking photos before trailing us out! But i gotta praised him for his ingenious marketing skills, as he packaged his post cards at 2 sets for 1 dollars or 3 sets for 2 dollars, out-doing his competitors (the mkt-rate was $1 for each set).  We relented by paying for 6 sets, thou we did not intend to buy so many initially!

Neak Pean was next on our list...it's different from all the others we had sighted.  It's structured in such a way that there's a central temple in the middle and surrounded by pools of water. At the 4 directions of North, South, East & West, there is a centerpiece at each pool. Each contains a different symbol inside~an Elephant, a Horse, a Lion & a Human Head representing the 4 elements. As Rany described the area, i could imagine how pretty this temple was in ancient times, when the high water level filled all the pools & one could see water sprouting fr each!

We proceeded to Preah Khan (means sarced sword), which used to serve as a Buddhist monastery & school. King Jayavarman VII dedicated this temple to his father, while Ta Prohm was dedicated to his mom.  Preah Khan is pretty huge inside and if you do not pay attention, you can get lost in this maze! Rany got me do another whacky pose here, to replace one of the 'warrior-less' statue position! keke! Really fun! Then, he played prank on us by purposely hiding himself to see if we could locate him, wahaha! As we ventured further in, we saw the ruins of a once-upon-a-time library, wif it's classic round pillars glowing under the sunlight. There's also some strangler figs crawling up the walls. Here, I finally saw a Linga & linga stand, a phallic symbol of the god Shiva (for further interpretation, i rec visitors to visit the national musuem).

Our last stop to wrap up our 3-days temples tour was at the rear view of Bayon. Rany asked our driver to stop here for our final photoshoot.  It's really beautiful as the peak emitted a light orangey glow from the rays of the sun. So happen it's sunset time when we arrived. There's a hiliarious scene here, cos we wanted Mr Heng to help us take a grp photo wif Rany. But he seems so phobic in holding a cam & didn't know how to focus! Our hero, Rany tried to go to rescue by teaching Mr Heng how to use a camera....Ruby & I couldn't stop laughing at how the duo communicated in an animated way (in their cambodian lang)! Recounting this scene still makes me smile ^o^

Before long, our car had reached city centre & we handed out 'lucky money' (tips) to both Rany & Mr. Heng, wif short messages of appreciation.  Both were all smiley & Rany was so cute...he even had a parting-shot speech in the vehicle, wishing us all the best in all aspects! As we bade farewell to them, we felt abit sad as we had forged a friendship wif Rany whom we juz knew for 3 days.... we had endless topics to discuss, besides listening to his stories abt the historical places. While Mr. Heng was the soft-spoken & reserved guy who waited patiently for us & opened car door for me.

Back at Pub Street, we headed for foot reflexology at Dr. Feet, a massage palour highly recommended by travellers. There were many massage places dotting Pub Street but we decided on this place i researched on. It's in a strategic location, facing The Blue Pumpkin. After 3 days of 10hrs walking per day, it's time to sit back & relax! The massage cost USD6 for 1hr. Luckily, we arrived a tad early as the crowd arrived soon after we settled down. My masseur really use lotsa strength to poke my accupoints & I think i'm pretty unhealthy! Really a test of my pain threshold ah! But amazingly, i recovered from all my muscle aches the next day! It's MAGIC!

Since tonight marked our last nite in Siem Reap, we decided to have a feast at Champey Restaurant. Bingo! You r rite, we settled on the 2nd level again but this time in the air-con area. There's only US here, so nice... I spotted this nice pic of grilled lobsters on the menu. So, we ordered the Grilled Lobsters (USD9 for 3 lobsters!) and Pineapple Fried Rice. Wow! I really enjoyed the lobsters, marinated by their khmer spices (but not spicy), yum yum! Smacking lips good! The fried rice was not bad too.

After our sumptuous dinner, we strolled around town for digestion. The best way to round up the nite? To drop by TBP for Waffle Ice-cream! This was our 3rd visit here in the week! We lazed around at its lounge to savour 3 diff flavours of ice-cream ~ jackfruit, dark choc & green apple. Lastly, we headed back to our guesthouse to pack our luggage.

Day 3: Tomb Raiding @ Ta Prohm + Sunset @ Pre Rup 。。。

Started our day at 8am and Rany promised to bring us for breakfast. Arrived at this roadside stall which specialised in Beef Noodles/ Kway Teow Soup. We didn't know that kway teow is also called kway teow here & asked for 'white noodles', keke! Really tourist hor! We sat down at a small wooden table wif Rany & Mr Heng, our driver. Rany ordered a french loaf to dip wif his beef soup. Wow! the soup is really tasty & beef lovers will love this! Wif some soup left, Rany asked me to try dipping the loaf into my soup, yum yum! When billing time, we were surprised that it cost us only 1 bucks each! hmm, i tink i could eat more, keke!

After filling our tummies, we continued to explore the 400 sq km of Angkor Archaeological Park. We spent the morning exploring Angkor Wat ('Wat' means temple in cambodian), one of the largest Khmer monuments in the park. At the main entrance, Angkor Wat is framed wif 2 Nagas (a mytical multi-headed serpent) on both sides. Rany brought us on this interesting walk along the walls (yes! we are abt 1 feet from the ground) & pointed out to us this close to perfect-looking Aspara (mythological celestial nymphs) hidden at a corner of the wall.  He helped me to take some close-up shots of the Aspara! It's amazing after all these years of rain & shine, i could still observe the intricacies of the Aspara. Thru'out the temples, you can see Asparas lining the walls, decked out in various costumes, expressions & accessories ^o^. 

Passing thru' the towers, Rany asked us to look up to view the damage done by bullets! As you know, Cambodia was under long period of warfare & this park served as a fortress for the army.  It's a pity that scars were left on the exterior of the temples. Besides that, there were many small holes in the interior, which were dug by robbers who came to steal the precious gems hidden inside.

There are more bas-reliefs found in Angkor Wat and we only manage to view a small part of it. The most famous 'Churning of the Ocean Milk' scene is currently under restoration, hence we were unable to admire that.  At the central tower, we walked thru a gallery ~ Preah Poan (Thousand Buddhas) and inscriptions were found on the stone pillars. Angkor Wat is indeed huge and before we realise, it's noon time.

Exited from the back of Angkor Wat and walked thru' a forested area to our next stop, Prasat (means Tower) Kravan ~ the only example of brick bas-reliefs. Prasat Kravan was originally constructed by a nobleman rather than a king.  I spotted some beautiful lilac water-lilies at the small pond here & couldn't resist going down the slope to snap a pic! But alas, the intense sunlight paled off the sweet lilac colours :(

Less than a few mins drive away, we dropped by Banteay Kdei, the entrance resembles the buddha faces of Bayon. Yup, cos this temple functioned as a Buddhist monastery under Jayavarman VII. The place is still under restoration,wif some areas blocked off. There r visible signs of the massive deterioration as the once upon a time roofs were gone & ropes were used to reinforce some structures.  We break for lunch at a nearby restaurant.

After our not-so-fulfilling lunch (this restaurant was flooded wif tourists & not only long waiting time but food was lousy), we crossed the road to visit Ta Keo. Ta Keo was constructed from huge sandstones and dedicated to the Hindu God ~ Shiva. The steps are really steep and we only climbed to the mid-levels for photoshoot.

Finally, we reached the much anticipated Ta Prohm, another key highlight of our itinerary & a MUST DO! Ta Prohm is popularised by the hollywood movie ~ ''Tomb Raider'', where Angelina Jolie filmed her adventures here. This place was intentionally left partially unrestored and contains lots of parasite trees. The trees are all over hundreds of years, perhaps even 1000 yrs old! However due to the massive number of tourists thronging the place, there were wooden platforms set up juz for photo-taking spots... i find this really tarnish the 'feel' of the place! The amazing strangler fig trees forms a nice contrast wif the temple ruins, as its roots creeped over the rooftops! No wonder, Ta Prohm is a photographer's heaven & I did some black & white shots here. It's also a test of our patience as we need to wait for long time bef the tour groups disperse...

Strangler Fig's Roots Creeping over the Roof!

See how the tree 'crush' the temple

                                  Magnificent Sunset                                    

       Us & Dicky

Our last stop for today was at Pre Rup ~ to watch the sunset. Omg! It's really a pretty sight here & we simply love it. Juz before sunset time, the lighting was just nice and the clouds looked fabulous! hoho! I love to take landscape pics wif nice clouds if you notice, keke! After snapping some shots on ground levels, I had this whacky idea. I asked Ruby to stay put wif my cam, while i climbed up first. Guess wat? I sat at this high spot & pretend that i'm meditating, keke! Cos i visualise that it will have a nice contrast wif the skies & lion statue. But i dared not sit anywhere further out, it's danger point! Frankly, i really felt like sitting there abit longer as i find peace there. However the sunset watchers began to grow & I quickly found a good spot to sit down first. Over here, it's pretty cramped & scary to look down our feets....really can give u the jitters due to the steep steps. Then, this guy who sat next to Ruby started talking to us in chinese and he's Dicky from HK, a solo backpacker. Later, he intro us to Winnie & her mom, whom he met on their flight.  We chit-chatted while waiting for sunset & this certainly distracted us from the 'stress' of sitting at the edge ;p  The sunset was breath-taking or was it the accompany? I couldn't differentiate, haha! But we concluded we really like Pre Rup!

    Cambodian Soup Restaurant

Back at Pub Street, our dinner was a Curry set for two at Cambodian Soup Restaurant. The curry set was really yummilicious, consisting of fish, beef, chix & shrimps wif jasmine rice. I had this refreshing Apple Shake as well & wish to drink it again! Great meal to wrap up our long day...