Siem Reap, with pictures!

Let's start from the very beginning: The airport!

I'm sure you know the heady feeling when you've just arrived in a foreign land for a holiday and it's full of promise and adventure. We went with Jetstar and it was a very smooth two hour flight to Siem Reap. 

 The air was crisp and not as humid as Singapore, so that was very welcoming.  It was also a bit cold, about 23C maybe? 

 We stayed with Golden Temple Villa and their service is awesome!  A tuk-tuk was waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel, and we even had a complimentary Iced Lemon Tea! The journey to the hotel was my first induction into a third world country.  I felt like an intrepid traveller.  :-D

 The drink was served in this really unique silver bowl and it tastes absolutely delicious.  It isn't recommended to take ice from the streets in Cambodia, but from the hotel we were not worried.  I also learnt that if it's crushed with jagged edges, it's unsafe but if it's smooth and cylindrical, it's not a problem.

Below is the interior of the hotel restaurant.  Very well-decorated and cosy.  Even has a pool table and a huge tv screen.

 We arrived way too early before the check-in time of twelve so we had about 4 hours or so to kill.  Decided to take a walk around the vicinity.  This is one of the markets.  It's not that different from the wet markets in Singapore's Chinatown except it's much bigger and.. smellier.  Cambodians always keep their floor clean because they eat on the floor as well and we witnessed that here.  It's a bit strange to see people eating on the floor in public.

An explosion of colours in the markets

 We wanted to eat at these stalls in the market initially, but then they didn't speak any English and we decided not to push out stomachs too much on the first day. 

 Instead, we went to a hawker centre-ish place for our lunch.  The noodles with beef tasted really delicious.  The Cambodians eat it with a spoonful of sugar!  It's really odd that everything that's usually savoury is sweet-ish there.  Not my favourite cuisine. 

Finally we get our rooms!  It looks really awesome, doesn't it?  With the mosquito nets and the blanket with Khmer prints?  I really enjoyed the room.  I just wished the mattresses had springs.  Kishy didn't sleep very well because of the mattress and we both had backaches by the end of 5 nights.

 This was our favourite cafe there!  It's called Peace Cafe and it's situated a little off the beaten track but we went there about three times there.  It's an organic, yoga place.  Very peaceful and even has a meditation hut.

Kishy introduced me to the Coconut Milkshake and we couldn't stop drinking it.  It was just soo delicious and coconut-y. 

 The yummy food!  This was ciabatta with eggplant dip if I remember correctly.  Kishy loved it very much.  I thought the eggplant was a bit sweet but it was a good snack.

Organic and healthy-ish if you don't look at the chunk of butter..

 The streets of Siem Reap.  It's very dusty! 

 Ah, Pub Street!  This is a pretty short stretch with all the bars and tourist-trap restaurants.  Despite being a tourist trap, food is still very affordable.  A steak will set you back about USD 7.  A cocktail is on average USD 1.50, or USD 3 but "all day one-for-one" so Kishy and I had a nightcap every night.  :-D  C'est la vie!  

Pub Street

 Our dinner on the first night.  I can't remember where we ate.. One of those tourist-y restaurants.  The food was good.  The curry, of course, had sugar in it. 

 Oo!  My favourite street food.  It's actually nothing really that special, just that it satisfied my sweet tooth and my adventurous soul for street food.  It's sort of a prata thing with bananas and wrapped in milo powder and condensed milk.  LOVED IT!  Kishy went on and on about calories. 

 The next day, we set off early to the Angkor Archeological Park.  We decided to get the 3-day ticket for USD 40.  On hindsight we could have just taken the one-day ticket for USD 20 because visiting the temples was really hard work and I didn't expect there would be so much climbing involved!  We set off at 8am.  There were sunrise options but we would have to set off at 5am! I don't think I've been up at 5am in more than a year!

 I can't remember the order of temples so I'm going to be really vague.  Except for Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm and the Elephant Terrace Ruins, I can't place the other photos though they all did look different from one another. 

Angkor Wat looming!

 I was really impressed with the architecture.  As much as I love Europe, I don't think there are any ruins there that could compare to this.  It really made me think of the rise and fall of civilisations and corruption and power, complacency of kings, etc. 

 These steep steps are characteristic of almost all the temples we visited in the Petit Circuit.  The one pictured below is probably one of the safest because there were properly constructed steps and a handrail. 

View from the top

 When I was younger, I used to think that I would bungee jump and do all those extreme sports from up above, but I think the reality of mortality is hitting me and heights are starting to frighten me.  While Kishy was hopping down effortlessly, I would be holding on the crevices for my dear life hoping I won't slip, all the while having visions of me tumbling down in my head!

Apsara dancers posing for tourists!

Scenes from the Ramayana carved on the walls. 

Apsara dancers carved on the walls.  Apsara dancers are the epitome of the female form and grace.

A green beetle we were fascinated with.

Treacherous steps!  They were steep.  Thankfully this had railings. 

This didn't!

I believe this is the Elephant Terrace Ruins.

More treacherous steps.  Kishy took a liking to photographing me whenever I had difficulties getting down.

I really like how the ruins look.  It must have been painful constructing it!  Imagine people manually carrying boulders and then carving them so it looks like that.  It is a lost art.

That's me again trying to get down without breaking my neck.

That's me taking a break.  Exploring the ruins were REALLY tiring!

This girl was sitting on a tree branch that was shaped like a swing.  Many tourists were snapping pictures of her, it was a bit like she was in the zoo.

I'm pretty sure it was the buttress roots that caught Kishy's fancy but now I see the lizard and I'm not so sure.

This temple is Ta Prohm, the scene from Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie.  I've never watched the movie, but I read so much about this temple.  It was also the selling point of this temple.  The buttress roots are quite magnificent!

It's just so beautifully convoluted!

Landmine victims trying to make a living.

The thing is, I was very sympathetic towards them but I read so much about them not being 'genuine beggars' that I was very hesitant to donate money to them.  Once I did donate because I was thinking, "what if they really are beggars?"  Thus, I donated a bit of my riels to them.  But then! I noticed that most donated 1 USD (which is a lot in Cambodia) and those guys gave me a glare like I wasn't donating enough!  What the hell!  I do not need to be judged by the amount of money I give especially since I wasn't even sure if I would be donating to a just cause! Grrr

Left: a plate of uncooked vegetables.
Right: prahoc (fish paste thingy) fried with egg

One thing good about the food in Siem Reap was their generosity with vegetables!  The food is always laden with vegetables (especially onions).  In this case, we had a whole plate of vegetables that were uncooked, so that was a bit strange.  Even the long beans and brinjals were uncooked.  While I didn't mind the raw taste, Kishy didn't like it so much.  Also, after a while, I felt like a cow munching on raw greens. 

Prahoc is supposed to be the Cambodian national dish, and according to my multiple sources, widely available!  But, I didn't see it at all!  Even at this restaurant, it wasn't on the menu and I had to ask for it, all the while getting strange glances from the waiters.  I guess tourists don't eat that so much?

According to one writer, prahoc is a dish that you either like or don't.  It's fermented fish made into paste.  We both liked it very much and it reminded me of otah.  We came to the conclusion that SEA cuisine probably has many similarities and so we didn't find it repellent.  It was one of our favourite dishes there, also because it wasn't sweet!

Amok chicken curry

This is one of the popular Cambodian dishes!  Amok is the mix of spices that they use.  It's mild curry.  And in this case, after trying Amok curry for the second time later, we realised on hindsight this was a bit watered down.  Not sure if that's because of the coconut juice?  It isn't usually served in a coconut but they tweeaked the presentation.  This place is also the most expensive place we ate at.  The curry itself was USD 5.  Totally tourist-trappy.  We wouldn't have eaten there if our driver, Sarath, hadn't brought us there.

I read that the tuk-tuk drivers gain when they bring customers there.  In this case, I think he has a free meal, he told me. 

After lunch, it's back to the roads again!  We tried our best to extend lunch.  In fact, after eating, we just sat around talking and chilling out until most of the crowds were gone.  We were supposed to finish the tour with sunset at 5pm, but it was 1pm and we were already almost done!

So anyway, we climbed back on our tuk-tuk very reluctantly because we were pretty tired and off we went!

More ruins.  In the spirit of whiling away time, we were actually tempted to just sit against a tree bark and ruminate about life.  But we didn't, because we decided to just forgo sunset today and catch it another day. 

Fascinating trunk.

Street food: baguette. It was yummy! That was dinner for us.  1 USD split between us!

Street food: fried noodles (with sugar!) 

It was pretty yummy, and despite it being sweet, it was enjoyable.  Wouldn't have it again though. 

Street food: pancakes (sort of like prata) with banana, milo and condensed milk

My favourite street food there!  It's nothing really explosive, but it completely satisfies my sweet tooth.  I had it about once a day.

Enjoying my dessert!

Weary travellers enjoying our nightcap!

Apsara dance

We were at Golden Temple Villa (affliated with our hotel) which offered "free" apsara dances nightly.  "Free" because you do have to buy a drink or some food. 

Check out the night scene on Pub Street behind me

I must say, it is quite nice to be the affluent traveller once in a while.  It's nice not to have to worry about breaking your bank while travelling.

Snacks at night!

Our room was right beside this patio-balcony-ish-thing so it felt like we had our own private space.  We would sit here (after liberally applying mozzie repellent) and enjoy our snacks du jour: green mango, pomelo, awesome pancakes and..

... a cup of tea to wind down. ;-)

The next day, we went to this place that sold scents and spices.  This is at their workshop.  Senteurs d'Angkor if I remember correctly.  Pictured above, they're weaving small souvenir baskets. 

After that, we took a walk around the French colonial area.  It wasn't anything really special but it was more serene, clean and had an atas feel to it. 

And then of course we're back to Peace Cafe!!!!!!

Street food: egg noodles fried with beef and cabbage (and sugar!)

Because we don't see livestock in SG, it's fascinating when we see it on the streets in other countries.  Look ma, these chickens are white!!

An advert that took Kishy's fancy.  It's about losing your innocence.

Our grilled dinner!  This was really yummy!  USD 4.50

Nightcaps: I don't even remember what we drank.

There, we tried a lot of the cocktails that we always wanted to try but couldn't because it's so expensive in SG.  My only grouse is that it's very strong. 

Lounging

Amok set!

We decided to try the Amok curry set in our hotel because it's really the cheapest place there is.  USD 7 gets us a degustation set of Amok chicken, fish and beef! (AND A FREE T-SHIRT)  The portions are huge and we were so full after that.

I really wonder how they made those bowls!  It's so pretty!

The Tonle Sap Lake was a must-see for us and so off we went.  Our hotel also gave very competitve packages and I believe, didn't try to rip us off.  For eg, the Khmer massage is 3 USD there but elsewhere it's 5 USD.  And the Amok set was USD 7 but elsewhere it's at least USD 10. 

Tonle Sap Lake

Boats like that were considered big and lived 3-5 families!

Kishy gets to helm the boat, and I'm the woman behind him.

The place where they tried to rip us off

I wrote about it here, so I won't write about it again.

The orphanage we visited

Their play area

I thought this was really fun! These children would sit in large-ish basins and row about.

The moment they see tourists, they either pose like the above or ask you for a dollar.

"Crocodile farm"

Creepy boy with snake

We saw a number of children playing with the snakes like that.  Doesn't it remind you of Voldermort and Nagini?

I think there's something romantic about eating local produce, for eg fish from the local lake.  But after seeing this, we went for dinner at a place that sold "fish from the Tonle Sap Lake" and shuddered.

The temple we visited for our sunset

Panoramic view of Siem Reap!

Sounds were coming from these structures.  Kishy guessed bats, but none of us wanted to go in to find out.

I love seeing the sky.  And for me, the best part about visiting another country would be to look at the sky.

My crepes with lemon sugar.

Check out the signboard

The sign tickled us a lot.  We passed by there every day, but only on the last day did Kishy finally work up the courage to take it. 

Street food: mashed sweet potato with sesame seeds

Angkor What?

I think this is THE must-see bar.  I remembered reading about this in various sources.  It's more pricey than elsewhere but the atmosphere inside is really magnetic. 

Vandalising the walls! 

We decided to just splurge on the last day and get a mix of food.  Here's fried rice, chicken wings and spring rolls!  Went back to our room and just gorged.  This concludes my super long post.  If you want to read more about the hotel, I wrote about it here. 

Our spread on the last day!