Monday, March 28, 2011

Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Siem Reap, Khmer etc. 1

Our flight was at 6:00 AM, my friends and I went to Cambodia last Thursday, 24th of March. It was too early for everyone and I was packing my stuff at the wee hours of Wednesday. I had to travel light as I usually had done for the past out of towns. When done with packing, I slept around 1AM and when my alarm struck 3, I woke up and immediately went to the bathroom. I was still sleepy and taking a bath at that was too much of an effort. After the shower, I opened my phone and there was Kay already up and done. I heard Olga rushing to the shower as I was in my room fixing myself and checking for the things I need to bring. At around 3:40, Olga and I went out of our flat and waited for a taxi in front of Lot 1, and good thing there were lots of them. I sent an sms to Kay that were on the cab and we were picking her up in Bukit Batok. The cab smelt like cigar and irritated my nose a bit and so with Olga's throat. Anyway, we were near Kay's block and saw her at the entrance. The cab then sped its way to Changi Airport.

We were too early. We queued for check-in and then went to withdraw cash. After that, we went to the money exchanger to convert our cash to US dollars as Cambodia's prices were in that currency. After that, we had a healthy take-out from Subway. We were going to our destination gate and Kay wanted to buy but couldn't find it so we hurried for our boarding gate. Water was not allowed to be brought inside the gate so we threw it.... When we were settled inside the waiting lounge, we savored our take-out food. When the clock struck 6AM, we queued to depart from Singapore via Jetstar. It was not a long ride but we managed to take a nap. When we arrived at Siem Reap, we were still sleepy yet we managed to take some pictures. Kay and Olga had their cameras in handy so they took the lead. We were greeted with a nice morning with Siem Reap's not-boxed airport. The guesthouse where we booked had a free pick-up and when we got out of the terminal, we were greeted by a tuk-tuk driver named Bud. He was soft spoken and really helpful. It was a unique ride which made the 30 minutes (or more) travel to the guesthouse enjoyable. What I noticed was the highway was filled with hotels and not much to see. Though the hotels were unique, I just wondered what else was there. It didn't bother me much though, because all my interest and focus in visiting Cambodia is to see and feel the grandeur of the Angkor Wat.

Upon arrival, we proceeded to the reception and confirmed the booking, then we had our breakfast again. We then had ourselves a huge sleep, a continuation from the plane's dreamland.
We woke up at around 2PM and geared ourselves for an excursion. But first, we had to dine and on our way, we saw a hotel serving Khmer food. It was our first take of the local food. Olga and I ordered some local noodles with chicken while Kay had beef. We also had mango salad. Khmer food is a bit sweet which I find not much of my liking :D Anyway, we were hungry so we did not dwell on that. The salad was spicy so we were carefully choosing the mango thin strips and Olga did not like the carrots on it, in short we did not finish the salad. The food was a bit expensive because it was in US dollars and the food in Singapore with that price with be tastier, even in the Philippines, one can eat a more delicious meal with that tag. Anyway, after the loads of carbs in our tummy, we paid the bills and went to the old market. Since the weather was on the sunny side, we bought ourselves a hat. We then went to see a temple a few hundred meters from the Old Market of Siem Reap.


To be continued :D