Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2007
Edit Blog Post
As my son and I got out of arrival hall we saw many transport operators waiting for the group tourists. Surprisingly nobody approached or haggled us, may be we didn't look a potential customer as we only carried one small backpack.
I found no tuk tuk or motorbike transport around and started wondering how to get to the town without taking a taxi then I saw one tuk tuk passed by and dropped a tourist at departure hall. Quickly we crossed over there and the driver gladly took us for $5, bargained from $6 (on the last day we paid $3 for the hotel-arranged one)
The tuk tuk driver dropped us at Old Market and we started walking around and looked for guesthouse. Most of the guesthouse around the main roads of Old Market were not appealing from the outer appearance. Luckily we had lots of time, as it was only 9am, and we ventured into side street and tried our luck.
Before long we came across this Golden Temple Villa which has nice tropical garden to welcome us. I asked for a room with fan but was told all booked. The one with aircon cost $18 which
was off my budget, but after seeing the nice and cosy room, and not wanting to wander around again under the hot morning Cambodian sun we decided to stay. And it proved to be the best bet we could get in Siem Reap as we enjoyed the stay very much, and later saw a few backpackers from other guesthouses switched over; one was disappointed as the rooms were full. The free internet, refreshing welcome drink and beer, hammock in the garden were all bonuses.
Since we planned to visit Angkor only the next day, we needed to find a place to go and my son mentioned he read in school geography about Tonle Sap being the largest lake in southeast asia so we decided to go and see. The hotel staff arranged a trip to Tonle Sap by tuk tuk ($9), and boat trip $10 per person. Needless to say the lake looked as vast as a sea. Many shabby vietnamese boat houses was seen along the river leading to the lake, and as they are landless many floating schools were built by foreign aids judging from the flags of other nations.
Back to hotel I enquired the
trip to Angkor by bicycle but the hotel staff said that is very tiring and counter-suggested a day trip by tuk tuk for $9 which would take us to all the temples along a prescribed and well trodden route. Later I found this best suited us as the area covered was really big and cycling will surely be remembered as physical training in Angkor.
The night we spent on the 'Pub Street'- lively and merry making similar to Kao Shan Road in Bangkok but at lesser scale. We ate at sideway food stalls, our confidence was boosted by seeing westerners also eating there. The standard price was $1 for most of the dishes: fried rice, fried noodles etc.
The next day on the way to Angkor I saw a few cycling tourist along the way. The bicycle rental was $1 for single-speed from shops.
Our single day trip was $20, no need of photo for the name tag as for 3 day trip.
The first temple visited was Angkor Wat, then Bayon. When passing by Ta Keo we were excited to see people climbing the steep stairway, as before this we missed climbing the last level
of Angkor Wat due to restoration work there. The climb did not disappoint us as the gradient was about 70 degree and we got caught by fear and panic halfway looking down.
The next and last temple was Ta Prohm, with the famous tree roots encircling the temple.
With one more night to spent and not wanting to eat at roadside stall again, I enquired the hotel for any aspara dance as read from blog earlier and seen on signboard around town (listed price as $30), and was pleasantly surprised when told it cost $10 come with buffet dinner in a restaurant. This was a real bargain which turned out to be a showcase of fine cambodian cuisine and graceful dance. The hall housed at least 30 tables and was nicely decorated but the dress code was casual and could see most of the diners were tourists.
To cap the wonderful stay we chanced across a cafe at Pub Street which showed on large LCD screen an interesting football match between Arsenal and Tottenham. The coke and martini each cost $1.
Overall, the trip was a very enjoyable one. Security is never a problem as in
Bali and Bangkok. Food is clean. Lots of convenience shops, pharmacies, automatic teller machines (Visa, Plus, Cirrus), bistro, cafe, pubs, galleries, internet facilities, bookshops, friendly people, dust, ruins etc.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0649s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb