Chill day in Siem Reap 2008

July 28, 2008

After 2.5 days of harsh tours in and around Siem Reap, we declared our last day stay as a "chill day". What do we mean by "chill"? Well.... we woke up a bit late, had breakfast, went back to sleep, woke up again to pack and finished out last minute check-out.


We walked over from the hotel to Angkor National Museum (where Iad used to work). Don't expect too much of it though. We were quite... hmmm.... what's the word.... disappointed? shocked? curious? or well... something in that sense. The first thing that caught our attention was to see the artifacts being labeled with permanent marker. Some with liquid paper (the correction pen). Maybe they have so much of this carved stone that they didn't really treasure all of them too well. This really depreciates the significant value of the Angkor as a whole. But well... sometimes things cannot be complained for.


We later went for a chill lunch at this so-called "Blue Pumpkin" cafe. The place became famous because of its cozy atmosphere and the free wi-fi internet service.

my lunch -- good at the look, but not the taste

Later in the afternoon, we went to the craft center a few minutes walk over from the old market.

drawing
stone carving

Then.... back in town for an afternoon massage at Bodia Spa. It amazed us how you can simply find this class of massage in Siem Reap town. But it definite is a good evidence to convince that Siem Reap is now not for traveling like a local, but fully tailored for tourists.

at Bodia Spa
FYI, we went to two different places for massage during our trip. The four of us + Iad agree that Frangipani (the shop we went after our Angkor Wat tour) provides much better massage than Bodia. If you plan to go there, make sure you make a reservation before hand. It's likely you won't get any available slot when you show up without rsvn.

Our last stop for the trip was FCC Angkor. We had a super quick drink there before heading back to the hotel for airport pick up. It was so funny on the way back. We were trying to find a Tuk Tuk when it could start pouring any minute. We met one, bargained for the price we wanted, but got declined. So we started walking away pretending we were alright without one. It started raining right then. While we were having a second thought of going back to beg for the driver, he probably felt shameful for us and so offered to drive us at the price we wanted. Poor him cuz it ended up he was riding in the rain when we sat rather dry on the car! If he was slower by just a mere second, he would have had us riding at the price he wanted! =P Good for us, but probably not so good for him!!


Thanks so much P'Golf and Iad for your kind VIP hospitality! It was really nice catching up and spending time with you. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding and we'll surely meet again soon!

Bye Bye the Angkor!

Tonle Sap 2008

I totally forgot to blog about Tonele Sap!

Tonle Sap is the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia.



We went with the rental boat from the delta passing by the riverside shelters and out into Tonle Sap. Most of the boats in this areas are still without engine and it's amazing to see how they deal with large waves from bigger boats.




Life around here is still very primitive. You have enormous space for your bath and toilet! =P (look at the little boy above!)




The water at this time of the year is quite muddy. And we went right before the rain, so we got enormous waves in Tonle Sap. I was told that the water during winter time is rather clear and you'll most likely see huge fish. Btw, the lake is overwhelming huge!

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Out and around Siem Reap 2008

July 27, 2008

Entering another World Heritage Site
We LOVE it here at Banteay Srey, little in scale, but great in its impression.

Banteay Srei

The place was build using pink sandstone which has much a softer texture than gray-ish stone used at Angkor Wat. Limited by size and restricted to certain location during the time of construction, Banteay Srei instead received very care attention at the stone carving. The depth of such carving is just magnificent! It's very overwhelming! (Jill has better pictures that portray such beauty.)



Apsara here is known to be very well carved and received a worldly attention of being the Asian version of the famous Mona Lisa.

Asian Mona Lisa
drained
After lunch, we distanced ourselves into the area of Kbal Spean.


It was more like a mini hiking up the not-too-steep mountain to witness stone carving under water. This is man-made though. There are huge amount of stones in this area (of course, the ones used for building Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were also taken from here.) And it was meant to be something parallel to the natural sacred river of India.


At the time of the year that we went, there was only little rainfall and hence the river and waterfall were nearly drained.


lingam - yoni
Along the trail, we could see these trees with outstanding red painting. Yes, you're suggested not to wander out of the prepared routes as there is still a high possibility to run into active landmines.

danger zone
Our 3rd day in Siem Reap was the national election day of Cambodia. Our tour guide came to pick us up after the election. At the election booth exit, all electors were to dip their right finger into this color stain, to proof that he/she has already completed with the election. The color stays for another 2 week at the minimun despite how hard you try to wash it away!! Interesting...

our guide after election

Angkor Wat & Angkor Thom 2008

July 26, 2008

sunrise at Angkor Wat
We started our day VERY early in the morning to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was not the right time of the year to view magnificent view of the sun rising right above the middle tower. Plus, we had quite a cloudy morning, so this was only what we got.

The town is quite lively as Siem Reap visitors marched into the sacred area of Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We needed to purchase a ticket at the entrance to Angkor area. The admission fee varies according to a number of days of eligibility (US$20/1 day, US$40/3days, US$60/7days). One ticket is valid for all temple tours in Siem Reap and the nearby area. We had our photo taken at the ticket booth and, of course, it is printed on the ticket (oh darn!! our morning faces!! =P)

loads of visitors at the break of dawn

After taking a short break at the hotel for breakfast after sunrise, we headed back out for a full-day temple tour. We started off with Angkor Thom.

Entering Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom means "the great city" in Khmer. It was founded by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII in the 12th Century. I've decided not to get too much in to its history or details of the architectures as it cannot be described in short. Most of all, I believe it requires a certain level of background knowledge regarding Asian beliefs (for example, a story of the goddess of Hinduism, or a ritual tale of Indian Ramayana). Our tour was also focused on the highlights of each places in the Angkor (=town/city), so I'll simply replicate what we saw here. :)

Bayon
Bayonis one of the must-see places in Angkor Thom, situated right in the middle of the city. The distinctive feature if the massive stone-carved faces, known to be that of Jayavarman VII's. All temples here were built to portray the power and authority of the King (noting that in that era, there was a faith of raising the king's status to be God). Anything that could be built GRAND would portray better of the king's status

stone carved faces
Aside from the wall carving, we were very much attracted to the style of Apsara (นางอัปสร). We particularly love the Bayon's style as Apsara in this period looks relatively chubby. It explains well why Bayon's Apsara are dressed in solid pieces of skirts. :)

Dancing Apsara
Just around a corner from Bayon, we walked through the ruins of Baphuon and Terrace of the Elephants.

ruins of rock temples - very common scene in Siem Reap
Just out and around places listed above, we used up already half a day. Lunch break was really needed to cool down the heat at noon-time. It was HOT!! Sunburn -- ouch! But despite that, we had some showers in the afternoon. It was wet, but felt rather good.

In the Eastern Baray from Angkor Thom, there was this Banteay Kdei, a small-scale Buddhist temple built in the same style as Bayon. It was rather at ruins, but we could see the main outline of the place.

Nice window frame at Banteay Kdei
under renovation for ages...
Then, we proceeded to Ta Prohm, another temple of the same set. If you have seen Tomb Reider, you'd probably recognize! (I never, so it was my first time seeing it! =P)


The place is famous for being swallowed by gigantic roots. It was magnificently HUGE! Another must-see spot is the Apsara's face, the only one of the kind that was free from being fully eaten by the roots.

The only Apsara escaped from gigantic roots

Our last spot of the day was back to Angkor Wat. We reached there just slightly before rain.
Angkor Wat and the water reflect
We were able to capture this smiling Apsara before it started to rain though. The artisans in that era were quite humorous. Maybe he was bored of sculpting only beautiful Apsara, so he played around doing smiling one just behind the main gate into Angkor Wat where it would be hard to spot if you didn't intend to find it. Btw, we didn't like Apsara in this period because she was too skinny. =P haha.

Smiling Apsara at Angkor Wat
another funny Apsara
Wall sculpture inside Angkor Wat

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Siem Reap Town 2008

If not because we have Iad working in Siem Reap, our trip could have already been canceled due to political chaos. It was actually a good decision to have kept going with our plan. The city, even though still with a number of tourists, was not as crowded as I'd expected.

July 25, 2008

We flew to Siem Reap with Bangkok Airways, leaving Bangkok at 8:30 a.m. The flight was rather EMPTY. But we didn't get to enjoy the extra space that much since it was only a mere 40-minute flight -- the shortest I ever got on board for (even shorter than BKK-Chiang Mai =P)



Cambodia requires tourists to file for visa. We (and probably most of the tourists) did VISA on arrival ($20) - don't forget to bring your ID photo, otherwise they might charge you extra $1-2 as penalty. We met P'Golf, Iad's finance who works for Bangkok Airways, right after our landing. Then, waited for Iad to come pick us up to Tara Angkor Hotel with the hotel shuttle.

planning our tour
Iad shocked me!!! I don't know why I was that shock. Maybe I didn't think I haven't seen Iad in that long a time. But it was actually more than 6 years!!!! Anyways, she is now a guest relation manager at Tara Angkor Hotel (where we stayed) and I needed to get use to that :)

We did the planning of our stay, rested a bit and started heading to town.

Cambodian Tuk Tuk - our main private transportation
Our first stop was the old market where you can find local souvenirs. Nothing interested us much since lots of stuff were identical to Thai souvenirs (local people told us that most of the stuff sold here are imported from Thailand -_-")

souvenirs
The nearby fresh market portrays very well how local living is so different from tourist living. Siem Reap's majority of the income is from tourism and hence we have to bare with the fact that we can never get anything at the same price as the locals. Everything was charged in USD for tourists. Average Tuk Tuk ride was $2 for four (make sure you bargain before you take the ride). Food price was between $4-8 in general.

local market
local barber
local shoe repair stall
Out back on pub street area, the scenery changed. Now you'd see all the modern looking cafes and restaurants. There were some art galleries and nice massage stores too.

downstairs if an ice cream shop, but upstairs is still for local living
our company - Waew and Pat
restaurants in pub street area
McDermott's Art Gallery
Inside McDermott's, the house is kept at its original construction. very impressive architecture!

We had lunch at one of the restaurants here. The most common dish would be "Amok", Cambodian version of Thai ห่อหมก and "Lok Lak", stir fry meet in oyster sauce.

Lok Lak
Cambodian dish - AMOK

After a short walk up north from Pub Street, we visited Hotel De L'Paix, a small luxurious hotel in Siem Reap. It was... impressive. We love the art garden!


@ Hotel De L' Paix

.... to be continue