I went to Cambodia; Pnom-Penh and Siem Reap on a weekend during my staying in Vietnam. Went there with Novi, with a plan to go to a trip which is cheapest as possible:p.
So we start our cheap Charlie plan by searching in Internet to find a cheap motel, and we did. We found the motel called Jasmine Lodge with the price for 1 room and 2 people: 2 USD, so we book for 2 nights (p.s.: that price is including airport pick-up!). At that time, we didn’t even dare to imagine how would the room look like. Even if it is just a hut without any water and electricity, we couldn’t complain with such price.
Then we went to one of travel agents in Pha Mu Lao, tourist area and book 2 seats for express bus to Pnomh Penh. It costs us 11 USD per person and takes around 6 hours. We depart the next morning at 7:00 am; it was a minivan with 7 people inside including the driver. We passed land route to Moc Bai, border town between Vietnam and Cambodia. The road was good, with the scenery of fields, houses, small village and swamps. We spent most of the time by sleeping. We arrived at the border around 1 pm and we waited while the agent processing our passports and visas, and to our surprise that we, Indonesian were expected to pay for the visa 24 USD. We thought that as one of the ASEAN members then we would be visa-free. We tried to argue with the lady, but didn’t avail. I mentioned to Novi, it is ok, we have to pay, as long as we got a new stamp on our passports (somehow that we’re obsessed with more and more stamps inside the passports, so that we feel that our passports is useful). We stay in the restaurant for long time, waited for other to finish the lunch, while we didn’t take our lunch; instead we bought a can of chips. We joked that the other person were thinking that these 2 poor girls is so cheap, maybe they don’t have enough money for food, by judging the way they look at us. In fact, yes that we don’t have too much money with us. Only 500 USD that Novi brought and another 100USD which I have. We’re afraid to use credit card since according to Novi’s friend that Cambodia is on the black list of the country which often has electronic breaches of credit cards. After the stop then we continued the trip. The scenery in Cambodia is slightly different compare to Vietnam, especially on the shape of their temple; Cambodian Temples are more close to Thailand temples. Overall greenery is the same, but it is obviously seen that the rural area along the way to Pnomp-Penh is not that developed. We crossed one big river and must wait for the ferry to come and took all of us together in the car. The ferry is full with other big cars and trucks, not mentioning the people. In the ferry stop and market, they were a lot of seller, who offer their goods to the passengers. They sold French banquettes, bright-red boiled small shrimps, raw mangoes, cigarettes and candies.
Finally we reached Pnomp-Penh, a hectic city and look brown to me, maybe because of the color of most buildings, or because so much dust around. Tuk-tuks are everywhere; tuk-tuk here is basically a normal motorbike, connected with a small cart (enough for 2 persons) inside, which is sometimes scary, especially if the driver makes a sharp and quick turn. We stopped in the agent there and tried to find another way to reach Siem Reap as soon as possible. Finally we decided to go to the tourist center in Central market, where they told us that they have a bus schedule to Siem Reap. We took a tuk-tuk and surprisingly, they accept USD everywhere, even the tuk-tuks! This is somewhat a surprise to us, Indonesian, where USD is rarely seen being used widely, so seeing the 1 USD notes was a bit strange as well. So the tuk-tuk dropped us in a restaurant/travel agent, which was packed by tourist having the lunch. We tried to get the information of how to go to Siem Reap, but to our disappointment that the fastest available boat is only on the next day. So, we decided to go to the airport and take the flight, well, this is a little deviation to our cheap Charlie plan, but we can’t have too much flexibility with our short time. We took another tuk-tuk to Airport. This city is hectic, a lot of people, as what normally cities in Asia looks like. Too bad that we didn’t have time to wander around this city. Uniquely, the streets names in Cambodia is numbered, which is for me is much better, since sometimes we are not familiar with the names, but if it is numbers, then, it will be a lot easier to remember, plus it will be more organized.
The airport is nice and looks new, we bought 2 tickets to Siem Reap and cost us a bit more than 200USD per person, the girl who served us was very nice, even we can went inside her office and borrowed the phone line to confirm the airport pick up with the hotel owner.
One other thing I notice there that everywhere we go, there will be somebody who can speak enough English and understand what we’re talking about. It is quite different than Vietnam, there, even if they understand English, then their accent is hardly understood. Cambodian accent is very clear and they speak slowly. The people is more similar as South Thailand, more to Malay than Chinese, the woman traditional dress is similar as Thais as well, with a look-alike kebaya. We’re waiting for the flight and decided to go to the café in front of the Airport for a late lunch. Novi ordered fried rice and myself a fried noodle. The taste is good, but no specialty from Cambodian.
The plane left ontime, when we went inside, we can see more that the Airport is really good. We’re looking for a fridge magnet, but couldn’t find it.
We arrived as scheduled in Siem Reap; it was dark outside around 8 pm. When we’re looking for a cab or van that might be the pick up from the hotel, then we saw a guy with Novi’s name in the paper, so we came to him and to our surprise again, he showed us a tuk-tuk! Novi and me looked into each other eyes and try not to smile, both of us knew what the other person might say that no wonder they can provide the airport pick up with 2 USD price.
The road was big and good, and along the way there were a lot of hotels, motels, huge villas, lodges and you named it, start from a luxury building to a small and decent houses, all for tourists. It was very nice. The weather is fresh and a bit chilly. After 20 minutes driving, then we arrived to that Jasmine Lodge; again we have to be surprise that in fact for the 2USD, this place and room overall is much much better. There was no AC of course, but we didn’t need any since the weather is nice. The bathroom is including and it was clean. In front of the rooms, there is a veranda in the second floor, which is open aired, only covered with a bamboo roof. It is the dining room and also the owner office. The owner is a young man with his family and again, his English is very good and clear. Seems that tourism is managed well in Cambodia, somewhere in the way, even I saw a sign of a French-tourism school. We talked to the owner of how to get to Angkor Watt and he told us that the tuk-tuk driver can drive us there and we must leave early on 5 am to catch the sunrise there (I knew what Novi thinks in her heart to know that we have to get up very early..:p).
Then, we decided to just walked out and went to the what called traditional cultural event, which turned out to be an over crowded night market, with some children plays and lots of cheap accessories goods to be sold. We didn’t stay that long there and went back.
We slept early, since we were already exhausted with the traveling during the day.
The next morning, the air was so fresh and nice; it was still dark when we went out of the room and find the tuk-tuk has been standing by in front of the house. Then we took around 30 minutes to reach the entry gate of the temple. We have to pay 20USD per person for 1-day pass, if we take 3 days or even 7 days, it will be cheaper for a day rate.
What we didn’t know before this is that actually Angkor Watt is just 1 big temple and there are actually a lot of other big temples inside the complex, so it is like a village of temples. As Borobudur times 20 (no need to mention that I’ve never even see Borobudur yet, although 1 stay for 4 years in the city which only need 1 hour to reach that temple). It was completely dark when we reach the first temple, which is Angkor Watt. We waited the sunrise raises over the big pond in front of the temple. It was so fascinating and great, there are a lot of people also watching nearby us, but when the sun came up, everybody was silent, even the sound of breath was not heard. The air was clear, and we can start to see the whole building of the temple with the huge gate. The temple condition is still good and clean and some parts of the temple are still used for religious practices.
After that, we went around with the tuk-tuk, visiting each temple, countless temples, for Novi, and me who are not really temple lovers.
We passed an entrance gate and bridge, with the carving border of big statues.
There are small stalls in front of the temples selling the food, water and some accessories. I bought batik slayers from the kids who chased after us with a very cheap deal of 1 USD each. Novi bought 2 bamboo flutes. I bought a t-shirt with Cambodian drawing for 1USD as a bonus for Novi, since she bought a traditional Cambodian dress for 4USD, and also the postcards. Good deals we had. All the prices are in USD. One time, there is a misunderstanding that when I thought that we will buy from one girl, but Novi handed the money to her friend who sold the same stuff. Then the girl whom we didn’t buy from was so pissed off. We apologized, but she didn’t accept it and she said, ”I’m sorry misses, but that’s not the way”. We were so feeling guilty for her and decided to leave from that place.
What I notice about the temple is the stairs; they always built it so steep, with high and narrow stairs, so that if we didn’t really go near the stair, than we wouldn’t think that there is a stair below. It is almost 90 degrees upright. For me, this is unacceptable, I am afraid of height, and no way I can push myself to climb up. So, only Novi went up and saw the other part of the temple. One time I push myself to climb, but only up to the middle and I regretted so much my decision, because I was terribly scared to go back down. So the only way to get down for me was to crawl (literally), I grabbed the stonewall and went down very slowly. Novi was at the bottom and took my picture acting like a monkey. The temples were huge with several rooms and closed or open corridors, normally it is squared with another higher parts in the middle that goes up to another rooms. Some temples were broken and covered with huge roots of trees. We went to a temple that the damage because of the root is the uniqueness of the temple itself. Unfortunately we didn’t really understand the history of each temple, so we just wandered around, took some pictures, gossiping about the other tourists, and telling our self-silly stories, even.After several temples and several hours passed, we were so exhausted, and start to complain of why the temples list that we haven’t seen are not ended yet. And finally when the driver took us to the last temple, we gave up and asked him to skip and went back to the hotel. We were just giggling about our self. We are convinced that we are pure tourists and not travelers. We arrived back to the hotel around noon and decided to change the ticket, so that we can reach back to Pnomh-Penh in the afternoon, took a night there and the next morning goes back to Saigon. The owner suggested us to go to one guesthouse called Sunday guesthouse. We went back to the airport with the same driver after taking a lunch and short nap in the open veranda. I took a papaya salad and Novi fried rice. My salad was disappointing, since they put small crabs inside, which make it difficult to chew, since you will crunch the shell quite often. It tasted similar as Thai papaya salad called somtam.
We just sat and felt asleep in the veranda, with a very nice subtle breeze. Then the driver picked us to drive us back to the airport.
We arrived in Pnomh-Penh already dark, so one of the option is to stay in the airport until the next morning, but we then decided that options is still too cheap, even for a cheap Charlie plan. So we went out and took a tuk-tuk to the Sunday Guesthouse, which the tuk-tuk driver said that he knows the place. The road was quite big but crowded as well; the driver told us that there is some event in downtown, that’s why it is crowded. We paid 4 USD and arrived in a small but clean house and a shop also restaurant in front. We do what it is called check-in in proper hotel. Then one girl showed us a room upstairs, it is quite big, with fan and TV, clean and new. The bathroom is so comfortable as well, completed with hot shower. For 2USD per person a night, this is much better than we thought.
After putting our bags and clean a bit, we went out, try to find what’s interesting outside. But I guessed we were too tired, plus, our money is limited and we don’t want to withdraw any money from here. So we just bought some snacks and cakes for the next day and came back to the guesthouse. A quick look, the town is similar as any moderate town in Indonesia, with a lot of people, several eating-places along the street.
We didn’t have any more appetite, so after arrived in the room, we took bath and sleep straight away.
The next morning we went to the bus agent, it is less than 50m from the guesthouse. We were waiting quite some time, together with several other people. There were buses, to Saigon or to Siem Reap and some other town in Cambodia. We paid 5USD/person for the bus to Saigon. While waiting, we watched and played with 2 very active little puppies. They were so cute, running here and there, teasing each other, biting people’s bags, rolling over and it was very hard to catch them in the camera.
Finally the bus left and we spent most of the time by sleeping inside. Again the same journey back, the difference is this bus took 5 times more people than the van, mostly the backpackers like us.
This was a short journey, maybe too short, not specifically for the temples (which I am pretty sure that I’ve had enough), but for other part of Cambodia. I’ve been surprised by this country, since it had more than what I expected. The people, their ability to communicate, how good their effort is to promote their tourism and really doing that, not just saying it out loud. For the cheap things that we’ve got here. Last but not least, for the little girl who can stand up and say what she thinks is the right thing, but still managed to do it very nicely and politely…Yes, Cambodia is a surprise for me, the whole of it.
Labels: travelling
uest: One of the things that I've tasted in Vietnam is Snake Wine(rượu rắn).
uest: One of the things that I've tasted in Vietnam is Snake Wine(rượu rắn).
icine to improve the health. Don't know if this is true.. but to make it real tough, normally they drink this with fresh internal organs of the snake itself as accompaniment.
