Day 1 (Part 7): Night Market & Dinner

After watching the sunset, Songpiak drop us Night Market. Shopping again. That's what Singaporeans do best.

Fish massage or so it is called by the Cambodians. It is actually the fish eating the dead skin. US$3/15min. In the end we had 30min (free 15min). 5 min after we sat down, a Canadian couple join us. Then another dunno-come-from-where western couple sat down. It seems like the two of us are crowd pullers. No wonder the boss is so willing to give us free 15 min.

Hungry fishes and very big too...Feed the fish first. Later then feed ourselves.

Dinner time! We decide to enter an empty restaurant. After about 5 min, more customers came. We really 招财进宝。Bring business to the restaurant. Very soon it is full.

Waiting to be served, Xiulan a bit stoned...

Food here are not cheap. This is considered one of the cheapest.

After afternoon's first taste of Angkor beer. We have two bottles for dinner.

Xiulan's Vietnamese soup with chicken.

Kaiyi's beef noodle. It's like beef hor fan.

My Khmer green curry.

We ended our first day with a hearty meal with good beer and then a ride back to Jasmine Lodge in a street hired tuk tuk. US$2. Too tired so skipped the bargaining.

Zzzz...

Day 1(Part 6): Sunset @ Phom Bakheng

After changing into our shorts and slippers, we booked a tuk tuk for the whole sunset trip from the guesthouse (US$4). Our driver is a 25 year old shy man called Songpiak (sounds like but I think wrong spelling). It's 4.00pm and we are all ready to set off.

Selling of the entrance ticket for the next day starts at 4.45pm. This ticket though it's for tomorrow, we can use it for the sunset trip today. We are buying the one day pass (US$20). The queue starts to form at 4.30pm when the ticket sellers take their place behind the counter. Even though the place is starting to get congested with tourists, the authorities refuse to start selling the tickets. So the ticket sellers and tourists stared...

While we queue, Songpiak (in green) waited together with other drivers of tuk tuks, motorcycles, cars, vans and buses for their clients.


Finally the ticket in hand...(this is Kaiyi's)

Immediately after we got our tickets, we hop onto Songpiak's tuk tuk and start to rush to the ticket checking entrance. It's like the Amazing Race where all the transportations start to race towards our destination. Must get a good place to catch the sunset.

Go! Go! Go!


Finally we have arrived. Huh? Where is the sunset? "Climb to the top of the temple" said Songpiak. But where's the temple? "Walk on the dirt road up hill" offered Songpiak.

And so we started to walk in slippers... We are not the worst. Some Korean aunties wear heels... 佩服佩服。

After 15min of walking, the temple is in sight. But climbing has not ended.

STEPS!!!!

All the effort was worth it...

Yeah!!!

Day 1 (Part 5): Butterflies Garden Restaurant, Wat Bo & Psar Chaa

By right, we are supposed to visit Wat Bo before relaxing at the Butterflies Garden Restaurant. However, due to the extremely hot weather, we decide to make the restaurant our next stop. According to the guide book, we are supposed to see butterflies flutter in the garden while we enjoy our food and drinks.

Our first Angkor beer and many to come in the days we are there. When we get in, there are no butterflies. Instead a few children carrying cages of butterflies sit in a row in front of us. I guess they want us to pay them to release the butterflies. Well at that point in time, we were not keen on butterflies but a cold beer and some food. We had our breakfast at Changi Airport at 5.15am. So at about 11.30am, we are starving.

We ordered a bottle of beer, fish and chips and 2 chicken wings that cost us about US$13 in total. Expensive... But at the time, our pockets are full and no one blink an eye when paying.

Finally we are ready to set off to Wat Bo. We do a back track to see Wat Bo. Can't wait to finish visiting this temple and get away from the heat once more.

After Wat Bo, we are on our way to Pasar Chaa when we discover Blue Pumpkin which is recommended by Xiulan's (my cousin) friend. It's just about 2 hours from our finger food at Butterflies Garden Restaurant and we decide to once again escape the heat and laze in the aircon cafe in the shopping centre. We order some deserts and drinks to cool ourselves down.

At Pasar Chaa, we set off to our first day of shopping, knowing that we won't have much shopping time in the days to come. Shopping here needs some bargaining skills. Usually prices can be slashed up to 40%. Don't jump into buying from one store first. Look around. We discover that there are sisters who ran different stores, some are relatives. So they help each other to look after the stores when the other person is not in. However after bargaining to the price that you want, please buy. Don't bargain for fun.

Day 1 (Part 4): Walking Trail - Wat Preah Inkosei & Market

After leaving our luggage at Jasmine, we take a tuk tuk to our starting point of our walking trail. This trail is featured in Lonely Planet, Siem Reap. Our first stop, Wat Preah Inkosei. Not a big place to visit. So we took some pictures and left.

Beside Wat Preah Inkosei is a school. It's recess time. When I gestured to them to offer to have their photos taken, they smiled shyly and motioned excitedly to their friends to join in the fun. Though we do not understand each other, we share the same laughter. The clanging of a rod and the rusty tyre rim marks the end of recess time. The future of Cambodia...

A group of older children are playing on a tree by Siem Reap river. A hammock is tied on two branches, offering a place for reading or nap for the youngsters. They wave at us, shouting "Hello!" while we are crossing the bridge to reach to their side of the river. One by one, they create splashes as they jump into the river to remove the heat off their back. At this point, I wish I could cut off the jeans I'm wearing. It's too hot...

The morning market along Siem Reap river.

This little girl could not talk properly. Not even Cambodian. She makes sounds and smile for the camera. After seeing her picture in my camera, she smiled shyly and run towards her laughing father. I'm the enrichment for her young daughter.

Along the market, there are barber stores and shops that has one to three televisions. People can pay to sit and watch all three televisions at the same time.

We actually took the opposite direction of the river and ended up at some unfamiliar place not shown on the map. We interrupted a hair cutting session and the barber pointed out the right direction. He then told his onlooking son that we are actually asking for the direction of Wat Bo (our next destination). It seems like he is teaching his son some useful English so that in future he can make a living for himself by serving the booming Cambodian tourism industry.