Adventures in CAMBODIA

Day 1 ~ 5th April 2007

Siem Reap

Touchdown at Siem Reap International airport.


We immediately hired motorbike drivers to take us into town. That's Sokhan, my driver. We agreed to use them throughout our stay in Siem Reap, depending on how far our daily travels were, the fee was between USD10-20 a day. We were taken to the 'King Angkor Hotel' (a guest house really), costing USD15 a night. The hotel wasn't too bad, clean and friendly crew.


We then wasted no time, taking a quick lunch and decided to go to the Floating Village on the Tonle Sap lake, the largest lake in South East Asia, measuring 2000 sq. km., adjoining the Mekong river. As it was the dry season, the river was shallow, and the lake only measured 1 meter deep, and can rise up to over 10m during the rainy seasons. Along the way to the river, there were rows and rows of attap village houses, which probably only measured around 12 by 12 feet, housing entire families with only hammocks and floor mats as beds, with no rooms. Really poor living conditions, and no electricity. When we got there, we hired a boat to take us to the lake, and we could see kids (who were more like little fishes) jumping into the river and splashing around while the adults were wading in the river trying to haul in the day's catch.

How cool is that, kids on buffaloes, a sight we never get to see in the city...priceless

Life on the floating village, fishing the only means of income

Little fishes...

Guess what this is???
Its a Floating primary school!!! Check out the basketball court on top!

Peddlars on sampans, spotted us from far away and rowing their lives away to reach our boat to try and sell us drinks and bananas. There were quite a few, and had all tried to see who reached us first. The only other kind of livelihood other than fishing.

After the fishing village, we had a little time to kill before sunset, so Sokhan suggested we chilled out one of the hammock huts. These are sheds with hammocks from end to end, facing paddy fields where locals go to escape the afternoon heat, have a siesta and chill out to the afternoon breeze. Wish we had these in the cities! After that, we went to visit the Bakheng temple, which was situated on top of the hill not too far away from the Angkor ruins for a view of the sunset over the Tonle Sap lake. Absolutely beautiful. It was a fair hike to get up there, but most worth it!
The Bakeng Temple

Once upon a time, some doorway/corridor of the temple...

Sunset over the Tonle Sap

After that, was just a quiet night. Cambodian beef noodle soup for dinner at some local stall, and then we hit some local bars. Beer Lao, a local brew, really not bad at all. I'm impressed!

Day 2 ~ 6th April 2007

10am To the Shooting Range

Jen the Communist: AK 47
Tommy the American: Carbine

30 Rounds each, awesome. Killed a few cows along the way and blasted some buffaloes.....go sick!!! No...kidding, haha.
12.30 pm The Banteay Srei

One of the most intricate and well preserved temples, designed by women using pink sandstone. Srei meaning woman. Small and neat, arguably one of the most beautiful of the temples, purely dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.

Cambodian Laksa for lunch. Meatless, in a light coconut gravy with cucumber and peanut sauce. Not too bad, although some chicken would have been better (you know me...can't live without my meat).

2.15 pm Pre Rup
Meaning Temple of 'Transformation', and could've been an early royal crematorium.


The rest of the afternoon, we visited Ta Phrom, featured in Tomb Raider One of my favourite temples, built by the King Jayavarman VII for his mother. Bummer, cos my camera batteries went flat, so couldn't take any photos. Then to The Bayon - the main temple, had 54 towers representing each province (being a cheapskate, I sat around some tour group that had a guide explaining the story behind the temples, really interesting). Since I really loved these 2 temples and would absolutely kill myself if I didn't have any photos of them, we decided we'd come back the next day so with my battery fully charged. Lesson of the day: ALWAYS bring a spare battery regardless!!!

That night, after our showers and rest, there was a power failure throughout the town, so we had candlelight hawker food...could be romantic, if constant sweating teamed with mosquito buzz for background music is your thing.

Day 3 ~ 7th April 2007

One of the best highlights of this trip, a 5am wake to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Yawning all the way there on Sokhan's bike, we got there at abot 6am. The temple took 37 years to complete. The sun peeked from behind the eastern side of the Angkor, illuminating the sky with a pinkish orangey hue, taking about an hour for the full sunrise. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Losing a few hours sleep for this was most worth it!!! There was a pond in the front courtyard, which produced a mirror image of the Angkor under the sun.

One of the Angkor towers, glowing in the morning sunshine

The we headed to Angkor Thom to explore the Royal Palace and back to visit Ta Phrom, and the Bayon.

The Bayon, with 54 towers, absolutely massive temple

Along a doorway in the Bayon

Amok with fish/chicken/beef, another Cambodian laksa accompanied by rice for lunch. Not bad at all, traces of fish sauce and chopped peanuts.

Ta Phrom

My favouritest spot in Ta Phrom, you would've seen this in Tomb Raider. Just totally amazing, overgrown trees, many many centuries old. This temple was completely enveloped by the forest when it was first discovered, and had undergone much restoration and is still in progress.

That's me with Sokhan, & Tommy with Da (pronounced Ya)

The nightspots in Siem Reap town. Check out the line up of tuk tuks, competing with each other to eke out a living, ushering tourists to get on their ride...