TIPS FOR A TRIP TO SIEM REAP => ANGKOR WAT
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I’m no expert but here you go

THE 8 ‘MUST-BRING‘ FOR THE TRIP:-
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1) Slipper/Sandal
*it’s bloody warm there. Sneakers just won’t do
2) Sleeveless shirts/spagetthis
*you’re going to end up will pools of sweat
3) Sun block
*unless you luv looking like a life size roasted chicken
4) Cap
*also to avoid being a life size roasted chicken
5) Tiger-balm/’minyak angin’
*to help from getting bitten by giant red ants at the temples that you can’t avoid
6) Tooth-paste
*weird tasting tooth-paste…um
7) Bring along a power socket to re-charge your gadgets
*they are using 2 pins only

Map
*aahh…of course to navigate… and to avoid ending up looking like us clowns

15 ‘HANDY THINGS‘ YOU SHOULD KNOW:-
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1) ‘Or-Kun’ is ‘thank you’ in Khmer.
2) Most Cambodian in Siem Reap understands Chinese and English.
3) Get a lesson on basic numeral in Khmer (at least 1 to 10). Very useful.
4) National currency is Riel, but USD is more popular in use.
5) USD1 = 4,000 Riels
6) Junks in New Market are cheaper than any other markets or souvenir shops.
7) Junks sold by peddlers (mostly kids) around the temple are the cheapest.
Artifacts they are selling in the markets are probably fakes.
9) Great collections of silk and gems could be found in the markets.
10) Never buy anything from those kids at the floating village.
11) Survey survey survey and negotiate negotiate negotiate! Don’t get reaped off.
12) Cambodia has the best not to mention dirt cheap beer in South East Asia.
13) Scour the town in late evening to find local snacks (must try the baby-duck in shell)
14) It’s the best way to check out the town and temples is on foot. Experience the lifestyle of the locals.
15) Get a copy of the ‘visitor guide’ available at most eatery outlet in town for FOC to find out more spectacular temples for visit.

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In a nutshell, Cambodia (Siem Reap) is a wonderful and amazing place to travel to. The panoramic landscape and magnificent temples are enough to take your breath away. A backpacker heaven so to speak. Locals are extremely helpful and friendly considering the hard-ship they have gone through. I personally fell in love with Cambodian people. The food was great as well… and um… interesting. Too bad we missed out on the ‘fried tarantula’ dish. I think it’s you can find it in Phnom Penh. All in all it’s suffice to say i will be planning another visit hopefully soon.

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18th July 2007<
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The agency’s bus was our main means of transit in Siem Reap for the past few days. On the last day, we figured we should at least check out the town on foot by ourselves. First, we hitched a tuk-tuk to Central Market (New Market) *woo hoo!

Central Market area

There was nothing much in the Central Market that you could not find in the Old Market. Most of the trinkets selling in both places were similar. But surprisingly, the stuffs in Central Market were much cheaper than in the Old Market. We thought things in the Old Market (emphasizes on the word ‘OLD’) should be cheaper. *kena con again -_-”.

EatAllYouCanShung managed to get a great bargain though. He got for himself a beautiful oil painting of Angkor Wat for a mere price of USD18. The seller quoted it for USD65 initially! Thanks to me *wakaka we had it at such good price. (I suspect we can bargain for an even lower price. Maybe as low as USD10).

They have beautiful paintings, especially oil paintings. Great as mementos.

Pics of the Central Market…looks alot like the Old Market right?

There’s a food court within the New Market. The food wasn’t bad and the price was reasonable. *can’t remember how much was it lar.
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Decided to check out those nice looking cafes or coffee houses but guess what?? We got lost! I don’t understand how we could have gotten lost in a tiny winy town like that *@_@ So idiotic. We didn’t have a map with us either. Geez… Went in circles. Locals stared at us clowns, watching our blurpot faces. We kept on returning to the same damn place. *smacks forehead
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Finally, found a so-so Cambodian style cafe. Cambodia beer is really good and were ridiculously cheap …USD0.50 per can *OMG!! How cool is that?! My personal favs are Angkor Beer and Beer Lao.

Late noon is the best time to explore the town. That’s when it wasn’t that hot and humid. That’s when the town comes to life.

There were many mini mobile hawkers selling local snacks and such. They made rounds around the town looking for tourists.

Mobile stall selling Cambodia instant noodle

I had the best instant noodle i’ve ever had! I’m not exaggerating. Tad too spicy but reeeaaal goooood!! *yummy

The best instant noodle ever!

Nanpuchai is something like a flat dumpling with veges as stuffing. *tasty stuff! Comes with some ‘watery’ chili sauce or something. Sweet and spicy

MicrophoneChiang learning to cook

Come join me

Oooo… mouth watering

Last bite

There were something like ‘mamak’ stalls there too. *wakaka. Some we tried but some we did not coz those could also be found in Malaysia.

CRAP WE ATE:

This tastes like the daikon cake (white radish) or ‘lo bak gou‘ in Malaysia but not as sweet. It’s quite small in size (as big as an egg only). To deep in chili sauce before eating

Cambodia ‘lo bak gou’

White-duck egg & brown-chicken egg

Ahh… The popular chicken eggs in Cambodia. The yolk had already been drained out from the egg. Inside, were inserted pepper and other spices before roasting. The texture and taste is like our ‘agar agar’ sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Eggy roasting in the sun

Ooooh … If you ever go to Cambodia, this is a must-try! A very very popular snack in Cambodia. It’s called ‘balut’. It’s fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. *damn gross! I think this delicacy could be found in most South East Asia except in Malaysia.

It’s good to go with salt, pepper and lime. If you’re lucky (should i say unlucky), the embryo would have begun to form a real chick in the shell. Imagine eating a dead baby duck … with feathers, beak and all… *ewww! Once you peel off the shell you can actually see the blood veins vessels *+_+!

The famous ‘balut’. See the feathers and blood vessels.

Well you see, #*@!FoulJoe dared everyone to eat it. We looked high and low for these babies! (no pun intended) He didn’t eat it but his face expression was priceless! *wakaka

I can’t really describe the taste of ‘balut’ but i for your info, none of us who tasted barf or got sick after eating. You have to try it for yourself

CRAP WE DIDN’T EAT:

Something like rojak

Pau!

Roasted chicken

We found quite alot of interestingly named restaurants. To name a few, ‘Angkor What?’, ‘Dead Fish Tower’ …even ‘Kamasutra’! *cheeky!

Kamasutra????

Warehouse here doesn’t sell clothes…sell food lar

Siem Reap was quite a happening place at night, especially near the Old Market area. Pubs and bars filled with tourists.

Lunatics roaming the streets

Happening pub

Dinner at a local diner was fun and satisfying. Some food worth a mention are the ‘Mexican Cheese Chicken’, ‘Coconut Rice with Fish’, ‘Cambodia Steak’ and ‘Cambodia styled Curry’. Good stuffs. I especially liked the Mexican chicken dish and coconut rice. *thumbs up! For curry fans out there, i have to warn that the curry in Cambodia is not really spicy but sweet and a lil’ bland. Oh, well everyone else liked it, so…

Last dinner in Cambodia

Our last stop at the Night Market. The market was very difficult to find and the alley heading towards it had no lampposts. Extremely dark and very dangerous. Best to check it out in large groups.

The Night Market was nicely furnished. Very tropical like and classy. Same old junks but were more expensive though.

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Note:
All nice pics taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8, the not so nice pics are courtesy of other PigDog Klan* members

17th July 2007 (still)
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You could get around town by foot, bicycles *there were many for rental, or by tuk-tuk . Always bargain with the tuk-tuk drivers for a cheaper rate. They asked for USD3 per tuk-tuk but we managed to get it for USD1.50. If you’re really good, you can get the ride for USD1 only (we found out later).

Oh yeah, the drivers didn’t seemed to understand ‘one fifty’ as in USD1.50. We had to tell them ‘one and a half’ instead.

Tuk-tuk in Cambodia

The Old Market is at the south of town. Quite a happening place where we found stalls selling souvenirs and other tourist junk. To name a few, there were miniature wood/stone carvings, silk shawls, paintings, bags, gems *not sure if it’s genuine though, etc… Things there were not as cheap as those sold by peddlers around the temples vicinities but there were more varieties.

From old market..nice hor?

Do bargain with the sellers for the best price. You can lower it down by at less 70%-80% of the quoted price. Oh, and you can get a better bargain if you buy in bulks of more than 3-5 pieces of each item.

Most sellers speaks Chinese and since PigDog Klan* had MicrophoneChiang as out trusty negotiator, we had no problem getting around *very talented negotiator, he is :p.

I managed to get 5 pieces of shawls for USD1.50 each and 2 Tshirts as souvenir for USD2 each. SweetToothTim, SnapMe!Eve and BigSistaJune bought some gem bracelets. Many stalls sell gems around there. Many varieties in many sizes.

Members of PigDog Klan* with pretty local seller (in black)

Most of the stalls sell similar stuffs but the price varies. So, it’s best to go around the whole market for a survey of price.

Talking bout surveys, EatAllYouCanShung got conned the day before. He bought 2 books *bookworm! from the peddlers at the temples for USD14 *so cheap hor? kena con got lar… We found out later that some other peddlers selling one of the books for onlyUSD1 ! *whacks head So, do survey first before buying.

Small wet market inside the old market

Come get it! Come get it! Fresh veges for ssaaaalllleeee!!

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PuppyEyes bought us to another souvenir shop before we went to Old Market. I forgot the name *sorry. You need to get visitors passes (FOC) to get in. The stuffs there were super expensive. Not a good idea to go to those big modern shop lots or souvenir shops.

PigDog Klan* and PuppyEyes (in middle) smiling like idiots in front of souvenir shop.

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Next stop Cambodia Cultural Village. This park was well built and maintained. Within the village, there was a small wax museum and alot of miniature monuments. Here is a chance for tourists like us to watch dance shows telling about Cambodian cultures.

Admission fee is USD9 per person and additional USD5 to hire a guide. Ours are free

Just behind you my dears

Wax museum

BigSistaJune caught in the act

Noooo…errr…i’m not trying to steal it…er..

I found the museum a tad too boring for me. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to learn about Cambodia’s history.
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It started to rain again. Instead of exploring by foot we took a ride on the Electric Tour Cars.

Monks running in the rain

See my trusty pasar malam slippers

There were cute miniature monuments all over the place. Nicely built, great for taking photographs.

Miniature Cambodia Royal Palace and Bayon temple

Druglaw: I’ve got stacks of weeds at home…bout this tall

Sleeping Buddha ZZzzZZZZzzzzz….

Small waterfall! Nice!

Oops! What’s these doing there????

See the difference?? Nope. Me neither…

We went for 3 cultural dance performances that day. Loads of people there. There were locals watching the shows too but mostly tourists like us.

The narration during the shows were in 3 different languages. Japanese, Chinese and Khmer…. *why no English??!!

Err… the cultural dance shows were bit boring too. *yawn. Except for the last performance

The final skit told us about Cambodian traditional wedding ceremony. They even invited an audience to act as the bridegroom! *wakaka My favourite character in the show is the stooge in traditional Chinese costume. He plays one of the 3 suitors. He was so damn funny!

Very enjoyable show.

Comedy in the making

Heavenly sky outside the village

Nope it’s not a ferris wheel

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Note:
All nice pics taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8, the not so nice pics are courtesy of other PigDog Klan* members

17th July 2007
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If you’re in Cambodia, don’t miss out on a visit to Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.

Reasons not to miss it:

1) Because it’s really large.
*there was a point where we couldn’t see land. It’s that big!
2) Because you get to ride a boat!
*what?! i love boat rides lar!
3) Because you can see Chong Khneas Village, the floating village.
*there’s even a school and church floating on the lake!
4) Because you get to see the lifestyle of poor locals living within the vicinity
*small kids on ’sampan’ chasing after boats to sell bananas
5) Because you get to learn about appreciation
*floating wooden shacks not bigger than a tiny bedroom makes out their entire living quarters….
6) Because you get to learn about sanitation
*locals cook with water from the lake, bath with it, wash cloths with it …i don’t know if they do pee pee and shit there too…
7) Because you get to learn about agriculture
*locals fishing and.. breeding pigs and chickens on the lake..gulp
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The road adjoining Siem Reap town and Tonle Sap Lake was in poor condition. The living conditions here were extremely terrible to say the least. Tiny wooden shacks belonging to locals decorates the landscape. You could see naked kids running here and there.

Run down wooden shack along the road…so small…

Boats were ready to be rented at Tourist Boat Arrangement Centre for i think USD10 per person. Again our ride was included in the travel package *yay!

Small size boats for rental

Our little hero, looking out for our safety on the boat

Floating Village.. living quarters are built on ’sampan’

It was my first time seeing a community living on water. The water from the lake was extremely muddy. The locals used it to bath, wash, cook… basically everthing… *we saw a small girl squatting outside her home, washing plate using the lake water … Very poor hygiene…

Where’s the land?…only got muddy lake water @_@

Fancy a ride to school?

Or to church?

The boat ride brought us to something like a floating seafood restaurant. Once we reached the jetty, a handful of locals, mostly kids tried to sell us stuffs (especially bananas). *don’t but anything or everyone will be chasing you to buy after that! It was really difficult to say no coz they looked so pitiful…

On board there were stalls selling souvenirs and crafts. *so expensive compare to those we saw near the temple complex..almost double the price!

They are coming! Run! Run!

Guess what’s hidden beneath the restaurant? Crocs!

Did i tell you there were crocodiles beneath the restaurant? I think they breed them. Might be on the menu

Look at me! Roasted by the sun..skin so red…look at me lar not the snake

There was a little girl bout 7 years old or so carrying a big python on her shoulders. She was trying to persuade tourists on board to take pictures with the snake so she could make some $. It didn’t matter how much you paid her as long as you do after taking the photos. Some Japanese tourists obviously didn’t understand that *they didn’t pay her… so bad… she look so sad…

What a cool ride!

What did we learned from all this place?… One word. The word is HUMILITY

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Note:
All nice pics taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8, the not so nice pics are courtesy of other PigDog Klan* members

16th July 2007 (still)
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Ta Prohm is located 1km east of Angkor Thom. Yup, it’s not in Angkor Thom.

Ta Prohm is the best known temple uncovered from the jungle. So there were lots of gigantic trees covering the area. Magnificent silk-cotton tree and strangler fig trees (i suspect it’s named as such because the trees were so huge they looked like they were strangling the building) are growing out of the ruins. The atmosphere at Ta Prohm was eerily romantic and touching. Few scenes from Tomb Raider were shot here. Imagine how stunning it looked…

Photographers love this site. I personally love this site…

I took damn lotsa photos here..here are just a few *wish i could post more… It literally took my breath away

Heading towards Ta Prohm

Stunning temple covered in moss

Tree strucked

Green rubbles

I guess this is the strangler fig tree ya

I think this is the silk-cotton tree..not sure


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Finally Angkor Wat. Located six kilometers north of Siem Reap. Angkor Wat is one of the largest of Khmer monuments. It was built as a state temple and capital city, around the first half of 12th century. It took about 40 years or so to built it *keng! A proud symbol of Cambodia, it’s even on their national flag.

Cambodia’s Flag..In the middle is Angkor Wat

By the time we went back to the bus to head to Angkor Wat, it was drizzling. Nevertheless, the sight of the building for the first time was overwhelming. Again i couldn’t help but wonder, how anyone could have built this with just bare hands and old fashion tools.

Visiting the gorgeous temple during such weather has it’s ups. It makes you “feel the moment” even more. Nostalgic… *sings Negaraku

We entered from the west entrance. We were supplied with umbrellas but EatAllYouCanShung and myself ‘act hero’ lar didn’t want the umbrella. Konon wanted to take everything in al’naturel *wakaka

West gopura… see the blue dinosaur doing reconstruction

Angkor Wat surrounded my moat

We could catch a glimpse of the temple and its reflection in the water!

Gorgeous Angkor Wat in the rain

View of the entrance gopura from inside…nice

Library…got porn?

Going in

Going going…

Inside we reached the starting point of the famous bas reliefs depicting scenes from various mythological stories and historic events. We came across scenes carves on each walls where each wall depicts scenes from battle of Ramayana *i like, coz got lot of elephants, battle of Mahabharata, army of Suryavarman II, scenes from judgment by Yama, churning of ocean milk by demons and gods to get the nectar of immortality *this story is very popular. I think i’d heard it thousand and one times already Vishnu’s victory over demons, victory of Krishna over Bana and other scenes of battle between gods and demons.

*so damn grand man

Other than that, there were other details of Khmer carvings. Much of the building had been ruined by the weather and environment. Some part of the roof was leaking. It’s a painstaking process to re-construct and preserve this baby…

Walls with battle scenes

An old couple in Angkor…i love this pic!

#*@!FoulJoe making magic…now you see the hole…now you don’t! Geez!

Angkor Wat Central Tower…O_o so tall

Gulp….

To get to the top of the central courtyard, we had to climb up the steep steep steps of the central tower. *almost 70 degrees! There was an alternative way up on the south which was less dangerous coz the steps at that end had been fitted with a handrail. Rumours has it that long time ago there was an angmoh who accidentally fell to her death climbing up. That’s before they fixed the rail (we learnt that later after we had descended!)

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The PigDog Klan* were feeling adventurous and with ‘donno what is die’ attitude as usual. What’s a little danger right? *Noooooo…I almost died of heart attack while climbing k…

Ok. Suffice to say, eventually we later descended using the south steps with handrails -_-”
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We had passed by Phnom Bakheng the day before but it was pouring. It’d stopped drizzling so we took the chance for a visit. It’s a Hindu temple located on top of a 65-meter hill just few hundred meters south of the Angkor Thom. Phnom Bakheng is a popular tourist ‘must-go’ destination. Most famous for it’s panoramic views of Angkor Wat *uh-huh. You could actually see the 5 towers of Angkor Wat from up there, and for the spectacular view of the sunset in Cambodia.

There are 2 ways of getting up there. 1) The elephant ride 2) Walk up. We opted for 2). It was not that bad coz there was a trail leading to the temple.

* climbing the hill after a day walking/climbing around the other monuments was so challenging..and so tiring….

Castle in the sky~~

#*@!FoulJoe scouring the land for new victims @_@

It was really worth the sweat. Phew… Amazing view from the top. You can really view Angkor Wat.

PigDog Klan* conquered another estate. Yee haa! …*how come SnapMe!Eve is always ready with a pose wan…

Angkor from Bakheng

Linga, symbol of Shiva’s manhood?? Eww!!!

Oh yeah, there were lingas scattered around within the complex of most temples we had visited. Phnom Bakheng has a huge one smack right in the middle of the courtyard.

*what the hell is a linga?

The Linga also known as lingam is a symbol for the worship of the Hindu god Shiva. In a nutshell, a linga:

A scholar named Bhrigu went to consult Lord Shiva about something he deemed very important towards the survival of mankind…

Bhrigu : Die lar! Why is it like this…people can die because of this…I better talk to Shiva
*knock knock
Bhrigu : Ish…why no one answer…
*bam bam
Bhrigu : WTF??!! What’s goin’ on in there
*bam bam bam bam bam
Shiva : Err…Wat’s up?
Bhrigu : #%*@!! What took you so long??
Shiva : Me n my darling here having some…some fun just now…err..sorry…
Parvati : Yeah sorry dear
Bhrigu : I curse you *#@#&#*&@eternally!!!!**generations!!#$@!!

And so, from then onwards Lord Shiva was worshipped in the image of his organ for generations…. as a symbol for fertility. Read more about Linga

*didn’t know so vulgar wan O_o” Locals believes that if you drink the water from the linga you can get babies wor!! So who wants one? Small miniature lingas are available for sale at the Artisans Angkor.

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Back to Phnom Bakheng. We were looking forward to watching the sun go down but unfortunately the weather did not permit. It was rather cloudy after the rain. Plus it was getting dark so we descended before there’s no light.

When we had finally decided to hitch an elephant ride, there was none available! Elephants went ZZZzzzZZ. Apparently, their services stops at 6pm each day. So whoever wants the ride should book before 6pm (we found out later)…Anyway, it costs USD10 for 3 people but you can always bargain more a cheaper rate…. *run down the hill lor, what else…

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Note:
All nice pics taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8, the not so nice pics are courtesy of other PigDog Klan* members