This series will be divided into 5 parts, each describing each day's events.
A number of comprehensive travel guides to Siem Reap are available online at Canby Publications, WikiTravel and Tales of Asia. You hardly need to buy a travel guide book from the book stores before travelling as the information from these sites are rather complete; you can purchase a well-printed bootleg travel guide from the street peddlers that flock the tourists zones, for as cheap as USD$2-5, although I do not recommend bootlegs, but its heart-wrenching not to buy from handicapped peddlers trying to earn a living. I will be more than delighted to provide tips to travelling to Siem Reap as well.
Angkor is located in Siem Reap town of the Kingdom of Cambodia, while the capital city is Phnom Penh. Angkor is all about the history and heritage of Cambodia, thus the silhouette of Angkor Wat on the Cambodian flag. The majority of the population are Khmer, ethnic-Chinese, ethnic-Vietnamese, Cham and immigrants from around asia particularly Korean. The people speak their own language, Khmer, while some can converse in basic English and French. In Cambodia, the currency used is US dollars together with Cambodian currency Riel (US$1 = 4100 Riel). Cambodia is in the GMT +7h time zone and their business operate from as early as 7.30am till late 11.30om. The main religion in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism, though there are many aspects to Buddhism, their differences are very subtle. There is also some influence from Hinduism. One thing to note is that in Cambodia, fresh water supply is an issue and the tap water is not potable. Hence, even their own people drink/cook mainly using treated distilled water. The climate there is hot and dry with temperatures soaring to 35 degree Celsius. I had problem roaming in Cambodia on my mobile phone and 3G SIM card cannot even get any reception, hence I could only make international calls from via the internet at internet 'cafes' (usually a small shop or a corner of guesthouses).
We left Singapore at 6am (Singapore time) and the flight took 1h 15mins, reaching Siem Reap International Airport at 7am (Cambodia time). We took a budget ticket from Jetstar Asia. It was my first experience on a budget airline, to my expectation, food, beverage and in-flight entertainment were not provided, however, I was quite pleased with the sitting space, with some room to stretch. Jetstar flies from Terminal 1 at Singapore Changi International Airport instead of the budget terminal (eg. Tiger Airways). All in all, the short flight was quite a comfortable one. When we reached the airport, we were expecting a pick-up from our guesthouse (gh). I was told that there will be someone with my name on a sign picket, however, there was no one. I tried to make a call to the gh but all calls or sms from my mobile were barred. I then asked the taxi booking station to help me make the call, but they refused and insisted that I book a taxi from them to send me to my gh. I was pissed but had no choice but to pay US$5 for a taxi ferry. Along the way, the taxi driver kept asking whether we need him to bring us around the Angkor tours for the next few days, but I told him that we already had our itinerary planned. He mumbled something and switched off the air-conditioning immediately. He went on to rant about waiting 3 days in queue for the taxi pick-up and hoping to get a booking for the Angkor tours. I chose to ignore him.
Upon reaching the our accommodation at Little World Guesthouse, we were quite surprised that the Korean boss was not around, his wife welcomed us, but she could barely understand or converse in English. We bunked in to our room and started to sort out our itinerary with the lady boss whom we addressed as 'madam' after hearing what the rest of her staff called her. As she could not understand us well, she told us to wait for our guide/'tuk-tuk' driver, whom later introduced himself as Sakhorn. Sakhorn have had some basic knowledge of English during his understudy as a monk, so he was able to be our translator. Sakhorn is more than welcome to provide transportation and bring tourists to Little World Guesthouse to anyone whom may be interested in visiting Siem Reap. Interested parties may contact him via his mobile (855) 12 490 016 or bunna_driver@yahoo.com. I strongly recommend him for his sincerity and reasonable rates, and also to help him out. We sorted out our itinerary for our visit. We planned to get our 3 day Angkor pass on Monday (2nd of April) and start our Angkor tour then. For the first day, we decided to ask Sakhorn to show us around the city and a visit to Tonle Sap lake.
Sakhorn took us on his tuk-tuk to visit the Killing Fields memorial site. The monument in the Killing Fields memorial site has got a collection of bones from the victims of the Khmer Rouge communist regime. There was this little puppy with a badly infected skin that kept following us. We also visited a Buddhist temple in the compound. Sakhorn had told us a bit about himself. He used to be a monk and had done so because he wanted to study but did not have the money, so he became an understudy. Most elder monks in Cambodia are highly-educated (some even went to University) devoted personnels whom have given up their well-off lifestyle for the religion. He had learnt much from the his tutor monk. He later gave up his monk-hood and started a family from a planned marriage. His wife just gave birth a few days ago but sadly, his son has got a medical condition that needed surgery. His wife would later return to her hometown while Sakhorn continue to work in Siem Reap.
After the Killing Fields, we visited the Mine Museum, which is small compound dedicated to victims of mines. Till today, there are still many mines that were undiscovered in Cambodia. The creator of this musem is Mr. Aki Ra. He was once a soldier and he is very skillful and single-handedly defused a lot of mines and traps. Much of his establishment are documented in pictures and the tons of defused mines in the museum. Apart from mines, there are also empty/detonated shells of bullets and mortar bombs. There are also a lot of bomb victims there, mostly without a limb, to provide a guided tour. The tour and visit is free-of-charge but monetary donations are very much welcomed to help the victims and keep the museum running.
We later visited the War Musuem, which we paid US$2 pax. The museum has a lot of de-commissioned weapons and machines of war, ranging from Ak-47, anti-tank RPG, AA-Guns, tanks and artillery.
Sakhorn then dropped us off a Old Market (Phsar Chas) Area located in the southern end of Siem Reap town. In the market itself, there is an area dedicated to selling souvenirs for tourists. The heart of the market, is where the locals sell their groceries similar to our wet markets. There are a lot of peddlers selling vegetables on the floor while others had stalls selling fresh meat and preserved meat. My walk among the wet market was brief as I was not used to their smell of the preserved foodstuffs.
Sakhorn brought us back to our gh where we briefly had lunch, a plate of Khmer fried rice and rested till 3pm. We then bought a voucher from madam to visit Tonle Sap lake at US$13. En route to Tonle Sap lake, we dropped to visit an undiscovered (not part of the Angkor Temples) temple. At the temple, we were greeted by 3 young teenagers whom showed us around the small temple compound. They told us their plight of hoping to study and could only learn through communicating with tourists, making us feel obligated to give them a dollar each. From first look, the temple was never complete at all, from the absence of bas-relief (carvings).
We continued our ride to Tonle Sap lake. Tonle Sap lake or The Great Lake is one of the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and it runs through the heart of Cambodia and connects to Mekong river. When the water level in the Mekong river rises, the water level in the lake rises to about 10 metres depth and area of about 3,000 square km (dry season) and 16,000 square km (wet season). Tonle Sap lake is the major source of protein for Cambodia dominated by people 'living on the water'. Tonle Sap lake is also the location where the significant great naval war took place between the local Khmer and the Cham. Along the way to Tonle Sap, we witnessed very poor people living in the rural area. They lived in small straw shacks, with no proper rooms, kitchen or sanitation. The living conditions are harsh beyond our imagination but the people never failed to have smiles on their faces while engaging in their daily routines.
We paid our toll of US$2 pax together with our voucher for the boat ride. A young kid took us out to sail the lake and a couple of times, our boat got stuck on some shallow water. He had to get off and yank the boat out from the lake floor. Sakhorn also got down to help as well. We spotted a 'floating' school contributed by a Japanese group. We managed to get a good view of the setting sun on the lake itself and were visited by the boat people who sold us a couple of soft drinks for a dollar each. Along the faraway shore of the lake, we also saw some settlement that belonged to Vietnamese who migrated illegally to Cambodia via the river to Tonle Sap lake.
After sun down, Sakhorn took us back to the town where we had dinner at Jasmine Angkor. It is a Khmer-cuisine buffet with traditional performances all night. The meal costs us US$10 pax excluding beverage.
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