Favourite Places

Tuesday, June 12, 2007



hello guys!
ok time to add sth to this blog before it closes itself down in frustration....hehe met hamid at e airport just now...welcome back, man! now what kind of coincidence is it that my bro’s flight landed 2 mins after urs, plus at adjacent belts??

i would like to blog abt my recent trip to cambodia w mo, ningyi and bing zhu (who shall henceforth be known as ningz and bingz respectively). it was to be a budget, backpacker, stay-in-hostel kinda thing. my first backpacking trip! well e wk before we left was such a rush, what w ortho end-of-postings & all, thus i was unable to get properly excited abt e trip...plus i dint really know what to expect as i hadnt been reading up lonely planet like e rest...but guess wat?

i was bowled over. Cambodia is an amazing country. just visiting 2 “cities”, Siem Reap & Phonm Penh, already evoked so many different emotions in me. sorry if tt sounded cheesy. seriously, i did not expect to be so enamoured w e country, its culture, its history & ultimately, its pple.

e only glaringly bad part was e extreme weather, so super freaking hot tt by 8 am (kid u not, sunrise was at 5.30) ur brains feel like fried mush, sweat pours down ur face not in rivulets, but e amazon (or mekong) river kind, SPF 55 sunblock applied at every opportunity plus caps & straw hats cant keep u from getting darker by e day...it was terrible. when i arrived back in s'pore, for e first time ever, i appreciated e weather, believe it or not. by that, i mean our air con weather, of course.

ok anyway, in mo’s blog, u can get a blow-by-blow account of our 8 days there...hehe hopefully lah. here, i’ll just put up photos & captions, cos i know if i do a day 1, day 2 kinda narrative, i’ll probably lose steam by day 3...(as evidenced by my blog entries of our m’sia trip in M1)

oh an interesting thing happened...we met alvin teng & a few other RI/RJ guys at changi, also on e same flight. thus, e siem reap part of our trip was spent w them, & we saved a lot in terms of transport and getting a tour guide. oh yes, & apart from sight-seeing, trekking, climbing temples, watching cultural performances, going to museums etc. bingz found e time to get married! yup, u read right & i'm not kidding either.
okey dokes...let's start!

WELCOME TO CAMBODIA!


DAY ONE - SIEM REAP
Ze lovely airport at Siem Reap, tres belle indeed
 Free pick-up from airport was part of our hostel agreement. We were tickled pink when we saw that our transport was gonna be in e form of tuk-tuks! yup these cute lil vehicles are e commonest mode of public transport in cambodia. every little bump jars ur spine and over potholes u get sent up e roof, literally. yet, we really enjoyed all those tuk-tuk rides.

Our hostel, Queen Villa Angkor, is located at e gate to e left. Quaint!
Bingz thinks it's not bad for US$3 per night!
The breakfast alcove. Free breakfast - grab a baguette, slather w ur choice of
communal condiments. Don't mind e flies & e occasional nibble by the cats...
haha i'm not complaining!
We set off straightaway for the floating village on the Tonle Sap lake. Rode a tuk-tuk which we paid a ridiculous sum for. basically, we were fleeced. oh well...we got street smarter after that.
Stopped to get tickets for e boat ride. US$20! as we
were to find out, everything in Siem Reap is super
expensive. Clever to ketuk tourists!
 On our chartered boat, here posing with alvin.
The floating village

We spent abt 2 hrs chugging on e Tonle Sap lake in order to get to this place called e flooded forest, in which a really unique village exists. during e rainy season, e lake swells cos it takes in overflow from e mighty mekong river. thus e forest becomes flooded, and e water level rises high up such that e houses actually seem to be floating. but they're actually supported by stilts...
here many lil kiddies greet us as we reach e forest. cute cute cute!






Needless to say, it's e dry season now. According to our
boatman, during e rainy season, boats can actually go
into e forest among e trees & right to e villagers' doorsteps!





Stopped en route back at a floating fish & crocodile farm.
Banana 1 dollah! Cheap cheap 1 dollah!That's what these kids kept reciting as they descended upon us while we were still in e boat. Man i just can't stand to see lil kids working...but these kids were just 4 out of hundreds we saw working in e streets of Siem Reap & Phonm Penh...







Posted by Adila :: 11:16 PM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo---------------