Siem Raep

5 days of holidays (+ sat and sun) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Thai's King accession of the throne. Excellent time to go out country.

The plan is to take a bus from Mo Chit Train station (Northern station) to the border of Thai/Cambodia, Arayanprethet/Poi Pet. Then frm there to transfer to some trucks. Stay in some backpackers guesthouse and return via the same way. Approximate expenditure on transport, Overland travel around the World!

The day started wrongly with the alarm failing to wake me up at 5am. Maybe it did, but i might had been too tired as i was watching the 1st game of WC2006. So hurried out to get to the train station. When I got to Mo Chit, had to take another motocyc to Mo Chit Bus station. Darn those exhaust, its the 2nd time i burnt myself!

Had to take the private bus, which is a little cheaper but takes abt 2 hrs longer to get to the border!

Border of Cambodai )Poi Pet. Friendly backpackers and police to guide me around. Hengz SG pple no need to pay for the USD 20 visa. Some scammers were trying to sell to me and the others at USD 100?!?!?!

The pathetic buss that could only go at 50km/h!!?! Driver claims that the gear is spoilt. The roads are very uneven so traelling tt slowly REALLY made the whole trip very bumpy.
There were 2 Fins (very friendly people who used to study in Penang and NUS), 2 Amercians, 3 Swedish (whom 1 had some bladder problem and had to stop a couple of times for her to go the bathroom. Not the best experience she had with the village toilets), couple of canadians, 1 french and as usual 1 SINGAPOREAN!
We left Poi Pet at 3pm, but reached Siem Reap at 10?!?! The journey was suppose to take around 5 hours only!!!

After tt, the guide brought us to this guest house. NONE of us stayed as we all think its a scam and decided to venture out at arnd 10pm at nite to find accomodation. No worries.. its pretty easy to find... =) luckily its not peak season!

Darn those conversion rates.1 Baht to 100 Riels. 40 Baht to 1 USD. 1 USD to 1.67 SGD. Well.. bring USD.. Baht rates sux and they dun accept 10 baht coins. Worst if they return you in Riels?!

Basically i booked a fan room for USD 5 a nite. I was too tired too really bothered the heat. But anyways it was pretty cooling at nite. Clean toilets. But the water smells "metallish"

Hired a motorcycle for 1000 baht a day (meals inclusive). Its kinda expensive but i think its pretty worthed it. I wanted him to bring me to non-tourists places, so basically i eat watever he eats. His name is Sophia ( isnt tt a girl's name??) and he'll bring me to anywhere i want. Saves the hassle of haggling. At abt USD 1 per trip for a tuk tuk or motorcyc, i figured its pretty worth while.

1 USD for 1 liter of petrol at the road side. Expensive.

Its all ruins and ancient buildings in Angkor Wat. Shan't bore anyone with the pics.
Entrance fee is at USD 20 for a day pass. USD 40 for 3 days and USD 60 for a 6 days pass.
YUPZ.. 6 days.. the place is HUGE. IF YOU ARE REALLY into history and stuffs, then take the 6 days packaage. Else u can pretty much cover most of the impt places in abt 3 days. There's a lot of climbing of STEEP steps, so get ready for some workout!

Few ways to learn abt the place:
1. Ask the locals (see if the speak english)
2. Listen to the tour guides tt are bringing the SCORES of chinese tourists and europeans. Its USD 20 a day for a guide?! and another abt USD 10 for the transport a day inside the place.
3. Buy a guidebook. Read and immerse yourself in the serenity of Angkor Wat. Which is wat i did. Get to 1 temple. Find somewhere cooling and sit down and do some reading abt the history of the place, places to look out for etc... a very different travelling experience.

Note those steeps steps i mentioned. Many a times u have to "crawl" up and down.

The serenity of the waters surrounding Angkor Wat. A popular Lovers Hangout on weekends.
Kinda scary at some places.... There is usually a altar inside the temple where an old lady will chant and offer you incense. Of coz u will have to pay for that.


My motor cyc driver, Sophia. He doesn't wash his hair till the last day.. damn... it sux when he removes it and i am sitting at the back of the motor cyc!!!

There was this time when he got lost. I really panic. Wasted USD 5 to get back to the guesthouse and rendenvous with him after the guesthouse manager manages to get him. No reception at parts of Angkor Wat.A HERD of chinese tourist. Its flooding with them. Noisy people. Many thais too. I manged to 'hear' 2 groups of Msia and SG in the crowds. Met 1 couple at a mountain where we stopped and rest after a 30min climb. Taking budget airlines, sleeping at budget guesthouse. 2 weeks of travels around Siem Raep and Phom Phen. Too bad they are not visiting Sihanuokville. The coastal area of Cambodia. On the southern end, nearer to Phon Phem.

A weekend hangout for Cambodians.... Oh.. cambodian people enters for free. If I had dressed more cambodish, I could have blended in... haha. My motorcyc driver's friends tot i was 1 of them and offered beer...
I tot it looked like 1 of the wallpaper from Windows.
Cambodia kids i met playing hide and seek with me haha...

Hall of Dances... some of the more visible artifects remaining. Most are pretty much destroyed by looters and wars.


A pair of cambodian kids in their traditional uniforms playing "scissors paper stones".
Most of them like to wear Black pants and white shirts. And i tot their military uniforms (no 1) looked a little like the Thais.

Climbing to the top of Ta Phrom. People of all nationalities gathered here to view the sunset. A rather interesting sight to see people of all hair/skin colours gathered in 1 place.




Evidence tt i crossed the border... =)
THe return trip was much better as i got my motocyc guy to arrange a taxi. Shared with 1 couply sitting in the front seat, 1 driver, backseat, 1 monk, 1 pregnant lady and husband who speaks english , and me. A little packed, but it only took 2.5 hrs!!!

Push carts at the border to ferry foods and humans.

The tuks tuks in Cambo is slightly different from bkk. its like a motor cycle with a trailer at the end of it Its more comfortable for 2 people. Recommended.
Back to bkk. Back to Work...
Busy Week...