Cambodia Trip - 07/08/08

I pen down the happenings during my trip to Cambodia. Was away from 29th July to 31 July. Take a look what i did...

29th July
The day started when mum woke me up early. Having steamed a few buns for me, i set off for airport at 555am. Everything went smoothly. Checking in early, we had the time to walk around the transit area, ate some breakfast, played PS3 and Xbox360 and even tried out an OSIM machine before we boarded the plane.

Problem started for me when we were in teh plane. As usual since young, i had motion sickness. I did not eat the "giddy" medicine that my mum gave me. Though the the flight was a mere 2 hours, it was a torrid time for me. Within it, i vommiteed twice!

So the holiday didn't start off that smoothly after all. Luckily, i got better once we touched ground. Heading straight to hotel, we rejected the tour guide's services for the day as we opt to explore the place ourselves. By foot, we set off to our planned route. Along the way, Aaron, being his first time in a third world country, he could feel the bulk difference and lifestlyle there. For me, i noticed a difference in the road conditions. One, there are much more motorists than drivers. A chance upon a Nissan Camry was a quite a rare sight. Motorists could agred as young as 13-15 years old and they ride without helmets. Traffic lights were present but it served little purpose. If there are no predestrians walking across the road, vehicles would still moved ahead. One example, we were at a T-junction with no traffic light then, thus we had to look all 360 direction for cars/motorists in order to cross "safely" One good thing is the speed limit is 30km/h. Or else i do not know how many accidents would have occured per day. Drivers also do give in to each other as neccessary... More better road courtesy as some of those in Singapore.

Lunch was good as we settled at a restaurant allocated beside a hotel. We ordered catfish with sliced green mango, Amok chicken and pork soup with seaweed. Along with a huge serving of rice, I must say our first meal in Cambodia ain't too bad at all.

The next thing we felt was the dusty and sandy road. Thoughout the day, we bought probably more than 5 bottles of water to quench our thirst and clear our throat. Aaron kept complaining sand particles entering his eyes, while my throat began to sore.

Taking tuk tuk for the 1st time, we reached to Angkor Museum. The price for foreigners to enter inside was US12. We didn't want to spend money on it thus we didnt go in. Next, was Central Market. Along the way, we asked quite a few massage stores for price quotes. We had planned all along to go for at least one session for this trip.

One massage store name caught our attention. It was named "7 girls massage"
Nothing sleezy or dirty, when we reached there, at the price of $6, we carried out our full body massage! For that hour, it was damn good. The girls was professional as each stoke was with strength and precision. Being my first time, i was kinda awkward initially, but overall, the session was good. In fact, i was quite disappointed when after the session, we had to get up and go. How i wished i was given 1/2 hour or an hour to lie down and sleep.

We did most shopping at Central and Old Market, buying some tee and souveniors. For dinner, we ate at a Mexican restaurant and desert at a cafe called Blue Pumpkin. Another observation i made, in general, Chicken is nice to eat. other than that, try not to eat beef/pork... it is usually quite hard to chew.

Shopping experience wasn't that fantastic. Most or in fact ALL shops sell the same stuff. Exactly the same bags, same tee, same scarfs... However, one incident was interesting at a store. We were looking at some tee when we were served by this 12 year old girl. She was very enthusiatic, had a nice smile. When we said we may want to buy a tee, she practically took all the tees in front of us, and start taking out each shirt for us to see and try. Usually when we were served in Singapore, the sales girl/boy would open up reluctantly, knowing they have to put it back afterwards, but the cambodian girls showed me a different perspective and attitude towards customers. In the end, we got 2 tees and a coin pouch from her. After we left, i kinda regretted not having to take a picture with her as a momentum.


30th July
We woke up 1 hour earlier in the morning cos of the time difference. I used my handphone to set the alarm, forgetting that Cambodia was 1 hour earlier than Singapore... haha... Later when we finally woke up at the right time, breakfast at the hotel was good. I had my favourite bacon, along with sausages and bread.

the itenary for the day was to visit Angkor Wat. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Almost all tourists came here for this. The tour guide describes that it is 12km in diameter all round the area, which is almost about half of Singapore size. That's explains why there are 1-day pass, 3-day pass and 7-day pass to be purchased.

At there, minus the renovation, stolen artifact pieces, the trip to the temples presented me with a different view, a view i will not see in Singapore. What was exciting was that we had to climb at some temples. Being vertically narrow, there is always the risks of falling off. Thank god nothing happened.

It rained in the afternoon, and it kinda spoilt the mood a bit. We could not see the sunset as planned, thus for the last part of the day, we climbed up a hill to another temple. This was where we climbed the highest. at the top, we could see the whole stretch of greens. That reminded me of Brunei, where the mist covered across the area. Aaron thought of the SMU jump and we did it twice. Some other tourist even copied us... hahah...

Lunch and dinner were planned by the agency. It was good for both meals. for both, we ate a lot and had our fill. From Cambodian dishes like curry, Amok fish, there was also some thai, vietnamese, chinese food too. I even got to eat coconut ice-cream, and i ate 3 sticks!

Before the night ended, we went for another round of massage. Twice the price though, it wasn't as shiok as the previous day. Probably because we ain't as tired, probably the massage girls wasn't as good.


31 July
We headed straight to airport right after breakfast. The driver who drove us around for our stay was probably ard 17-18 years old. Always carrying a nice, smiling face with him, Aaron and I couldn't help but to tip him once more before we left. We finally reached Singapore at 330pm.

Looking back, the trip was worth it despite my flight unhappiness. This trip helped me to "escape" Singapore for the time being, allowing me to experience a new culture and environment.

It is quite sad to see those young kids selling hard to earn a living. On the other hand, we could do envy them, being that they could live simple, happily without facing the stress we have in Singapore. Given a choice, I would not exchange my life here in Singapore for a Cambodian life, but given the chance or ability, I do want to possibly help in a way or another.

Overall,
Great Experience, Great time!
But now, its back to reality...