S'upp peeps!!
First of all, this is my new blog page. I apparently forgot the password of my old blog page and decided to start fresh with a new blog. So, here we are!!
Let's get started. I was on a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. First thought of the trip, educational maybe?! Yeah, being a stereotype much! But seriously, I didn't know what to do on this trip and did not expect anything at all. But it was different when I got there. Well, not "I" but "we". Together with me in this trip was Stephanie, Winnie and Uul. Yeap, 3 girls and me. Now2, its not what you think. Nothing happened.
Anyway, we left Miri for KL on 26/02/2017, overnight flight of course (my style of travelling). And went homeless (well, not entirely homeless) at KLIA2. The girls did get few hours of sleep. Me? I manage to sleep like 10 to 15 mins. Could find a nice spot to lay down cause apparently a lot of people went homeless too that night. So all the "good spot" to sleep was taken. Well, there was the capsule hotel and Tune Hotel nearby but we're only gonna spend few hours at the airport and its just not worth it to spend huge amount of money on hotel rooms. Oh yeah, we reach KL just pass midnight and catch the earliest flight out to Siem Reap at 7am.
Reached Siem Reap at 9-ish (Malaysian time) or 8-ish in the morning (local time). The time different is not that far, its like 45 min different. So, its not really a big deal. The first we did, well, the girls did was buy the sim pack at the airport. I did not get mine cause I don't see the point of wasting money on a sim that you used only for a few days. Well, that's just how I am. #typicalasian
So, we took a taxi ride instead of "Tuk Tuk" cause we got were carrying huge luggage. So taxi is a good choice. Now, the taxi costs us about $7. Tuk Tuk is around $5. You could get a Tuk Tuk ride but it all depends on you. As we arrived early, they hotel have yet to get our room ready so we have to wait till like 2pm (ish). So we got like 5 hours to kill. Our taxi driver cum tour guide, suggest that we go to this floating village which was just about 30 min drive from the airport. So we went for it.
Once we reached the jetty of the floating village, we have to pay $20 (entrance fee). We paid and off we go to the floating village. From the jetty to the village itself took around 20 mins. There is nothing much to see as or do there cause, its a village basically. What more can you expect. Now here is the part where I find disturbing. Our guide, who is just a teenager, request us to donate some food for the local orphanage. According to him, most tourist would go and donate some food but I'm not really sure of it. So, if any of you guys went there, again, its totally up to you either you want to donate or not. We did not cause we're on a tight budget. The good thing here is they won't force you to donate. So we're safe. So after, we took couple of photos around the area and went back to the jetty.
So, on our way back we stopped by a lotus flower farm. Again, nothing much too see there other than the massive lotus flower field. Now to enter the lotus field, you have to pay $2. But you could just take photo from the roadside, just like what we did. Now, you guys might find this boring but all of us were tired when we reached Siem Reap. So we were a little bit inactive.
So finally its lunch time and our hotel room is still not ready. We left our bags at the hotel and went off to look for lunch. We just went around the block and sure enough rows of food stalls and restaurant. All you have to do is pick. Some restaurant are offering reasonable price for their food so be sure to check their menu beforehand. So, we sat, ordered and ate. Went back to the hotel got our room key and nap.
Woke up, shower and went out. As usual, the first night is always for exploring the city. We went to the famous Pub Street of Siem Reap. I'm pretty sure they got the name of the street from the numbers of bars, pubs and clubs along the street itself. So, our mission was simple. Look for dinner. For those that been to Pub Street before, you would know that the area have lots of restaurants. From Mexican food to the Khmer food. And we choose, a food stall that sells noodles. Don't get me wrong, we Malaysian are very particular on our food (not sure either that's true). Now, there's a reason why we choose this food stall. The noodle is yummmeeehhhhh and spicy too. We love spicy food. I'm pretty sure there are more restaurant that sells delicious and spicy food around that street but street food is always the best.
Done with dinner and head back to hotel and sleep the night away. Oh yeah, before heading back to our room, we chill at the hotel's bar and chill. That is where we were introduce to Bunthi the bartender. He's good at card tricks. Basically, you choose a card and you guesses the card that you choose. And if he is right, we take a shot. So, we took a shot that night. It help us sleep thou.
So, morning of day 2 in Siem Reap! Our tour guide pick us up after our very heavy and satisfying breakfast and went off to Beng Mealea. A temple located just outside of Siem Reap. Its about an hour drive. I'm not really sure what are the history of this temple but its really beautiful. We spend around 2 hours just walking around this temple. Was trying to get few good photos but some of the tourist spoils some of the photos I took. Not mentioning tourist from which country. I think the whole world hate them. So yeah. So 2 hours later, we went back to our tour guide/taxi driver and guess what. He left the car keys inside the car and the car was locked. So, we had to wait for them (his friends were there too) get the key. It took them almost 1 hour. So we went back and rest for the rest of the evening. The weather is super hot and dry. Be sure to bring a huge bottle of water with you where ever you go. By the way, the entrance fee for Bang Mealea is $5. So, after the trip we went back to the hotel, had our lunch at a small restaurant just next to our hotel. Around 4.30pm, our taxi driver pick us up again and this time we went to Angkor Wat to check out the sunset. The ticket to Angkor Wat was recently increased by the local government from $20 to $37 for 1 day pass. Its expensive but its Angkor Wat. So we paid and head off. I'm a sunset lover and the sunset there was just fine. Maybe because of the heavy cloud or something. After few hours checking out the sunset, we head back to the hotel and rest for a bit.
Like the night before, we went back to Pub Street and had the same spicy noodle again. This time, I decided to eat the scorpions. I bought 1 skewer that had 3 small scorpions. The first bite was the most nerve racking bite of my life. But then, the taste was no where near what I'd imagine it to be. Its really does taste like sweet dry shrimp. Uul took 1 bite and I finish it off with the last bite. So, another insane experience crossed off my list.
Day 3. Woke up early (4am), took our breakfast and head off to Angkor Wat again. This time for the sunrise. The air at Angkor Wat at 6 in the morning is just refreshing. We tried to find places where we can get a good view of the sunrise but it was difficult because of the number of tourist at the area. After positioning our camera at the right spot, we wait. In the midst of waiting, comes tourist that are really loud and spoil your shot by walking back and forth in front of your time-lapse camera. Again, I don't need to mention from where are these tourist from. The sunrise in Angkor Wat is really breathtaking. Manage to get few shots of the girls with the sunrise as their background.
It really does took us few hours just to walk around Angkor Wat. The place is huge! Now, we didn't went up to the viewing point of Angkor Wat (the center of the temple). The line was just insane. If you guys really want to go up to the viewing point, be patient with the line cause it might take you few hours to get to the top. So we skip that part and went to the lower part of Angkor Wat which is the field surrounding it. Really nice and calming surrounding as most of the tourist are lining up at the center of the temple.
After 2 hours (I think) we went off to Ta Prohm temple or the Tomb Raider temple. During this time around, restoration work are in progress around the temple as most of its original structure was giving away. Trees that grow all over Ta Prohm temple are just magnificent. Again we spend about 2 hours walking around that temple before moving on to the last temple.
Last temple would be the Bayon Temple or Smile Temple. Its amazing how they can build a temple and craft out four faces. By the time we reach this temple, we are exhausted. Mainly because of the weather. We rest for a bit at the temple before heading to the "Bridge of Good & Evil". Each side of the bridge have 54 demon gods and guardian gods all together. Again, some of the structure are being restored. But overall the temple tour was just amazing.
So, we leave the temple behind and head back to rest. Not much to do at night, we just hang back at the hotel, have a couple of drinks then off to bed.
Day 4!! Should I be excited for day 4? After breakfast we stay back at our hotel until 3-ish in the evening. Why? Cause all of us are still exhausted after spending the whole day under the hot sun the day before and we just want to chill. While the girls get their beauty sleep until 3pm, I hangout at this swing with a table installed in the middle and just chill. It was the perfect time for me to clear my mind. The girls got up and get ready for super late lunch which we had like at 4-ish in the evening.
Done with our meal, let the girls loose and off they went to shopped. Basically that is my experience in Siem Reap. There are some details that were left out like drinking at Angkor What? Bar and almost got drunk at SkyBar of Funky Flash Packers. Guess I just mentioned it now. By the way, we stayed at Funky Flash Packers. Really nice place and friendly staff. But not for those that seeks for a quite night sleep. It can get really noisy every night. Its like a party hotel.
First of all, this is my new blog page. I apparently forgot the password of my old blog page and decided to start fresh with a new blog. So, here we are!!
Let's get started. I was on a trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. First thought of the trip, educational maybe?! Yeah, being a stereotype much! But seriously, I didn't know what to do on this trip and did not expect anything at all. But it was different when I got there. Well, not "I" but "we". Together with me in this trip was Stephanie, Winnie and Uul. Yeap, 3 girls and me. Now2, its not what you think. Nothing happened.
Anyway, we left Miri for KL on 26/02/2017, overnight flight of course (my style of travelling). And went homeless (well, not entirely homeless) at KLIA2. The girls did get few hours of sleep. Me? I manage to sleep like 10 to 15 mins. Could find a nice spot to lay down cause apparently a lot of people went homeless too that night. So all the "good spot" to sleep was taken. Well, there was the capsule hotel and Tune Hotel nearby but we're only gonna spend few hours at the airport and its just not worth it to spend huge amount of money on hotel rooms. Oh yeah, we reach KL just pass midnight and catch the earliest flight out to Siem Reap at 7am.
Reached Siem Reap at 9-ish (Malaysian time) or 8-ish in the morning (local time). The time different is not that far, its like 45 min different. So, its not really a big deal. The first we did, well, the girls did was buy the sim pack at the airport. I did not get mine cause I don't see the point of wasting money on a sim that you used only for a few days. Well, that's just how I am. #typicalasian
So, we took a taxi ride instead of "Tuk Tuk" cause we got were carrying huge luggage. So taxi is a good choice. Now, the taxi costs us about $7. Tuk Tuk is around $5. You could get a Tuk Tuk ride but it all depends on you. As we arrived early, they hotel have yet to get our room ready so we have to wait till like 2pm (ish). So we got like 5 hours to kill. Our taxi driver cum tour guide, suggest that we go to this floating village which was just about 30 min drive from the airport. So we went for it.
Once we reached the jetty of the floating village, we have to pay $20 (entrance fee). We paid and off we go to the floating village. From the jetty to the village itself took around 20 mins. There is nothing much to see as or do there cause, its a village basically. What more can you expect. Now here is the part where I find disturbing. Our guide, who is just a teenager, request us to donate some food for the local orphanage. According to him, most tourist would go and donate some food but I'm not really sure of it. So, if any of you guys went there, again, its totally up to you either you want to donate or not. We did not cause we're on a tight budget. The good thing here is they won't force you to donate. So we're safe. So after, we took couple of photos around the area and went back to the jetty. |
| Lotus Farm |
 |
| Overview of the floating village |
Woke up, shower and went out. As usual, the first night is always for exploring the city. We went to the famous Pub Street of Siem Reap. I'm pretty sure they got the name of the street from the numbers of bars, pubs and clubs along the street itself. So, our mission was simple. Look for dinner. For those that been to Pub Street before, you would know that the area have lots of restaurants. From Mexican food to the Khmer food. And we choose, a food stall that sells noodles. Don't get me wrong, we Malaysian are very particular on our food (not sure either that's true). Now, there's a reason why we choose this food stall. The noodle is yummmeeehhhhh and spicy too. We love spicy food. I'm pretty sure there are more restaurant that sells delicious and spicy food around that street but street food is always the best.
Done with dinner and head back to hotel and sleep the night away. Oh yeah, before heading back to our room, we chill at the hotel's bar and chill. That is where we were introduce to Bunthi the bartender. He's good at card tricks. Basically, you choose a card and you guesses the card that you choose. And if he is right, we take a shot. So, we took a shot that night. It help us sleep thou.
So, morning of day 2 in Siem Reap! Our tour guide pick us up after our very heavy and satisfying breakfast and went off to Beng Mealea. A temple located just outside of Siem Reap. Its about an hour drive. I'm not really sure what are the history of this temple but its really beautiful. We spend around 2 hours just walking around this temple. Was trying to get few good photos but some of the tourist spoils some of the photos I took. Not mentioning tourist from which country. I think the whole world hate them. So yeah. So 2 hours later, we went back to our tour guide/taxi driver and guess what. He left the car keys inside the car and the car was locked. So, we had to wait for them (his friends were there too) get the key. It took them almost 1 hour. So we went back and rest for the rest of the evening. The weather is super hot and dry. Be sure to bring a huge bottle of water with you where ever you go. By the way, the entrance fee for Bang Mealea is $5. So, after the trip we went back to the hotel, had our lunch at a small restaurant just next to our hotel. Around 4.30pm, our taxi driver pick us up again and this time we went to Angkor Wat to check out the sunset. The ticket to Angkor Wat was recently increased by the local government from $20 to $37 for 1 day pass. Its expensive but its Angkor Wat. So we paid and head off. I'm a sunset lover and the sunset there was just fine. Maybe because of the heavy cloud or something. After few hours checking out the sunset, we head back to the hotel and rest for a bit.
Like the night before, we went back to Pub Street and had the same spicy noodle again. This time, I decided to eat the scorpions. I bought 1 skewer that had 3 small scorpions. The first bite was the most nerve racking bite of my life. But then, the taste was no where near what I'd imagine it to be. Its really does taste like sweet dry shrimp. Uul took 1 bite and I finish it off with the last bite. So, another insane experience crossed off my list.
Day 3. Woke up early (4am), took our breakfast and head off to Angkor Wat again. This time for the sunrise. The air at Angkor Wat at 6 in the morning is just refreshing. We tried to find places where we can get a good view of the sunrise but it was difficult because of the number of tourist at the area. After positioning our camera at the right spot, we wait. In the midst of waiting, comes tourist that are really loud and spoil your shot by walking back and forth in front of your time-lapse camera. Again, I don't need to mention from where are these tourist from. The sunrise in Angkor Wat is really breathtaking. Manage to get few shots of the girls with the sunrise as their background.It really does took us few hours just to walk around Angkor Wat. The place is huge! Now, we didn't went up to the viewing point of Angkor Wat (the center of the temple). The line was just insane. If you guys really want to go up to the viewing point, be patient with the line cause it might take you few hours to get to the top. So we skip that part and went to the lower part of Angkor Wat which is the field surrounding it. Really nice and calming surrounding as most of the tourist are lining up at the center of the temple.
After 2 hours (I think) we went off to Ta Prohm temple or the Tomb Raider temple. During this time around, restoration work are in progress around the temple as most of its original structure was giving away. Trees that grow all over Ta Prohm temple are just magnificent. Again we spend about 2 hours walking around that temple before moving on to the last temple.
Last temple would be the Bayon Temple or Smile Temple. Its amazing how they can build a temple and craft out four faces. By the time we reach this temple, we are exhausted. Mainly because of the weather. We rest for a bit at the temple before heading to the "Bridge of Good & Evil". Each side of the bridge have 54 demon gods and guardian gods all together. Again, some of the structure are being restored. But overall the temple tour was just amazing.
So, we leave the temple behind and head back to rest. Not much to do at night, we just hang back at the hotel, have a couple of drinks then off to bed.Day 4!! Should I be excited for day 4? After breakfast we stay back at our hotel until 3-ish in the evening. Why? Cause all of us are still exhausted after spending the whole day under the hot sun the day before and we just want to chill. While the girls get their beauty sleep until 3pm, I hangout at this swing with a table installed in the middle and just chill. It was the perfect time for me to clear my mind. The girls got up and get ready for super late lunch which we had like at 4-ish in the evening.
Done with our meal, let the girls loose and off they went to shopped. Basically that is my experience in Siem Reap. There are some details that were left out like drinking at Angkor What? Bar and almost got drunk at SkyBar of Funky Flash Packers. Guess I just mentioned it now. By the way, we stayed at Funky Flash Packers. Really nice place and friendly staff. But not for those that seeks for a quite night sleep. It can get really noisy every night. Its like a party hotel.
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