Siem Reap

i didn't sleep the whole night. well actually i did, but i let my light on so every few minutes i alwasy woke up. a friend texted me at 3ish am so that i didn't miss my flight. during checked-in i read the info under my e-visa and that was when i realised i had to have 2 copies of it. bugger! searched high and low to print or scan or even copy what i have but you couldn't find any in changi! i gave up and stopped to have my breakfast. casually i shared my frustration with the staff and what do you know, he had this phone-fax-copier machine and he copied one for me. very sweet of him. during boarding, my sunblock got confiscated as its > 100ml. i tried to negotiate as it's only half left in it but i'm sorry miss. i just got it few weeks back and its pretty costly too. oh well.

day 01 - thursday, 15 Nov'07

reached there on time and found the guest house's driver holding a paper with 'mehrani sakasim' written on it. haha. he was also fetching another 3 person from singapore so after all were there we went to the hostel. casually i asked those guest if they're going to do the tour provided by the hotel. they were and they actually asked if all of us could go together. i agreed but of course being a minority there i sort of have to follow what they want, like car instead of tuk tuk. i weighed the pros and cons. if i were to go with them i could cut my tour cost down to 75% and i could do tuk tuk on my own. so i agreed and after putting all our stuff we started the tour. we went to angkor thom, angkor wat, bayoun, and few others. had amouk, which was like our sayur singkong but better, for lunch. done with all the temples we went for a foot massage first to kill time. we were asked to change to pyjamas and the foot massage somehow ended up like a whole body massage with concentration on legs. us$6, not bad eh. done with massage we went to this temple to see the sunset. it was a steep climb up and we had to be very careful as the traffic wasn't control so you might just stepped at someone who's climbing up and quite a tiring one too. sunset was good that i enjoyed it even when i was alone and surrounded by people. well, even when i was with other people we only spent the journey and meal together, the rest of the tour i was practically on my own. it was good though, from eavesdropping other people's guide i managed to make friends with a group from mexico and explored angkor wat together with them. done with sunset we're all ready for some food! the planned was to go to the guest house's club where there was a free apsara dance. however, the driver brought us to this buffet dinner which has a better performance. oh well, not that i can eat much there but i sure did stuff myself with loads of french loafs.

day 02 - friday, 16 Nov'07

nobody wanted to do sunrise at angkor wat so all of us get ready and left the place at 9 am. 1st stop, waterfall. it was out of siem reap and the only option is car so another tuk tukless day for me. the journey itself took like an hour or so and once we reached there we started our trekking up. just few minutes up we met this couple and casually asked on the journey up. they looked disappointed saying the waterfall ain't that great but told us to continue and decided ourselves. one girl was having a 2nd thought and i was a bit afraid they decided to cancel. it's one against 3 neh. but the guy was pretty wise saying to continue so as not to waste the long journey. it was quite a tough trek up where you have to climb few rocks and stuff before reaching the waterfall. 30 mins of journey and there we were looking at some stone crafts around the waterfall, enjoying the view before continuing our journey down. i was perspiring like mad which was good considering how long i've been missing a good workout. i sprained my ankle on the way down and i had to walk a little bit slower after that. thank God its nothing serious. back from waterfall we continued doing the grand tour - jungle temple, angkor thom and few others. i have to say angkor thom is definitely my favourite one, with the trees and stuff; this is where they filmed most of the screen from the 1st lara croft movie. after all these tour we stopped at central market for some shopping though most of the shops were closed already. dinner and off we went back to the guest house. i requested for massage - us$3/hour in your own room, tell me if this isn't a good deal! they even covered your face with cucumber when they're doing the front side of your body.

day 03 - saturday, 17 Nov'07

left around 9ish in the morning to do the floating village boat ride . prior to that we stopped at the old market, looking at the weekend activities in the wet market and did some shopping and off we go to tonle sap. seeing all these people makes you feel really really blessed being borned in a normal situation where you don't have to worry much on where your next meal will come from. and yet we *well at least me* still complain every now and there wishing for something more. done with the tour we were brought to 4 more temples. by this time i was already sick of temples. so i just went in awhile, took pictures if the place was nice or simply taking candid shots of the kids and the surroundings. talking about the kids, they're all just so cheeky and smart. they can named the capital city of almost every country and in return they'd asked you to buy something. when i said i have bought it they'd said i didn't get it from them so i had to. you just need to be very firm and said no, which is something i'm not good at. one of the lady brought lots of candies, biscuits, pencils and gave it to them. she was told to do so by her friend back home so as not to make the kids disappointed when we rejected buying things from them. it is an excellent idea and it never came across my mind to do so. they're so happy and i think it's a common thing there that sometimes they would asked you point blank, 'you have candy for me, lady?'
done with all these, we stopped for lunch. this time around i tried their lhok lhak beef. not bad as well. before leaving the place i bought some sourish stuff from the passer by seller and enjoyed it on my journey back to city. we went to central market and asked the driver to fetch us back in 2 hours time. i was like what the heck must i do spending 2 hours shopping? not for me. so after getting the things i need i went out of central market in search for some cambodian goodies. asking around and some said old market, so i walked to old market and after searching high and low to no avail i started asking around for a nearby supermarket. tough time finding people who understood me. from one minimart to another, walking for quite some time along the road and yet i still couldn't find any cambodian goodies apart from that overly charged cookies so i just get something from vietnam instead, haha. don't care lah, colleagues are not allowed to comment. tired with all these and i still have an hour to spare i hailed a tuk-tuk and with a mixture of english, sign language and some acting i got him to take me around the city for an hour. he brought me quite far that i kept asking if there's enough time for me to reach central market by 6 pm. i casually asked about the french loaf and what is put inside. he said mostly pork and i made face, so his next question is about my belief. and apparently he's a moslem too. so the journey became enjoyable when he stopped and explained to me about the moslem in siem reap, about his imam and stuff. he then brought me to some paddyfield and asked me to watch the sunset while he went away leaving me alone in a tuk-tuk in a middle of nowhere. i enjoyed the view and at the same time tried to locate his whereabouts. apparently .. he was doing his own 'business' behind the bush. after having enough of the sunset i asked him to move and i reached central market just at the same time as the driver came. dinner by the road side, fried mama noodle with vegetables for me, we headed back to the guest house. it was pretty early so after i had my shower i went out strolling around the area. stopped at the night market and then went to the main road hoping to get some french loaf. pretty interesting view i saw in the lane i passed by, girls "preparing" themselves for some action, girls already in action, that i increased my pace to reach the brighter lane faster. stopped at those road-sides carts but i couldn't get anything as all i saw was those porky nose hanging loosely waiting to be eaten. eeekkk. did some walking and decided to go back to the hostel when i realised its already past 9. ordered garlic bread from the bar *it was nice!* and another massage i ended the day sinfully contented.

day 04 - sunday, 18 Nov'07

left the guest house at 6. the driver was so cute, when i was taking some pictures of the guest house he approached me saying that since i would go bye-bye soon take picture with him. so we had our pictures taken. i asked for his number and he asked for my email. wuah, not bad eh! left the guest house and reached airport early BUT still i was late for the flight. final boarding announcement and i was still standing at the immigration queue. thanks to the slow staff in my queue. when i asked him to hurry up in stamping or typing as the flight's going soon he told me that i need to come early for that. i was annoyed and told him off that i was early and he was too slow. come on i came in earlier than the 3 person but they took the other queue and were done way faster than me! huh!

well, all in all it was a pretty interesting getaway.
its been a while since i went on a trip alone and its just nice to spend time with myself. and not to mention, i have 3 new friends now.

ps. juwi, i got 200ish pictures and i can't upload all to flickr. still finding a way to upload all before sharing it with you guys ;)