Siem Reap Cambodia: What a Wonderful World

November 2009
Just after breakfast at Royal Inn in PP, our service bus arrived to take us to the bus terminal. On the way we picked up 3 more groups for the same trip.

For another 6-7 hours bus trip, I made the wrong decision to settle my backpack on my lap, worried cause my netbook was on it. We had one stop over, we were near Siem Reap when we got off the bus to check on a local market. We were greeted with some seriously weird street food, crickets and spiders as appetizer!
It was interesting, but I wasn’t brave enough to try it. What got me were the mangoes, and they looked unusually huge mangoes. I am a fruit lover and especially on the sour side. I bought one mango and a pomelo for less than a dollar, it was on the street and was on a plastic (later on the mango got me pretty hard). Another 2 hours on the bus and we arrived at Siem Reap. We were greeted by a man wearing brown long sleeved shirt (most of them wear the same thing) with a big placard that says Golden Banana Resort. He helped us with our bags and led us to…tadaaa! A camry! How cool is that?!! We felt spoiled, we had a driver and comfortably sitting inside a car while other tourists negotiate with tuktuk drivers.
Just after few minutes, we arrived in our little paradise. Golden Banana is situated in a narrow street. They have 3 types of resort; Golden Banana bed and breakfast, Resort and the Hotel. We got our room in the resort where they have cold salt water pool. After checking in, we were brought to our room which for me is already a villa. 2 floors of Mexican/Spanish theme, on the first floor, there were two beds (1 king size and another bed just a bit smaller than the other one), we also had a closet, with safe box, and a door to the back side where the best seat on the house is located (the rattan swing). On the second floor, there’s a single bed, a tv, mini ref, a table with lamp and 2 big couch, the bathroom is also on the second floor. Every corner of our villa was sooo clean, I definitely felt at home and fell in love with the interior of the whole place.

We all changed into fresh clothes and headed off to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. The receptionist arranged us for the trip either we take the sunset or the sunrise visit.
We arrived at the ticket booth with other tourist gathered around with their guide. We lined up and paid $20 for one day visit. The ticket should have your id picture, so after paying they will focus a camera on your face and without warning take your picture and voila! your "clueless look" is printed in your ticket.
Our tuktuk driver, Mister T asked us if we want to watch the sunset on the hill or just around Angkor Wat, we chose the hill. When you arrive in your hotel, they would usually let you choose between sunset or sunrise…its part of the $20 one day visit. We opt to go for sunset, rather than having to wake up by 5am.
We arrived at the hill side, our tuktuk parked somewhere and we started our hike. The hike wasn’t so bad, for about 10-15 minutes you will get to the top for the perfect view.
When we got there it was all ready full of people trying to get their perfect spot to witness the sunset. I am very adventurous and up for dirt and all and at first I was worried about Pin but I was pretty impressed when she started climbing the very steep stone stairs without any whining. I followed her up and we began our “ass-to-ass” climb. On top, it was hard for us to get the perfect view as most foreigners are too tall, we got to the side where though it was a dangerous spot, we thought, what the heck! It’s our only chance to get a view.
After the sun gave its fabulous performance of ending the daylight, the crowd gave a standing ovation and heart-warming applause. It was a time to practice gratitude, that a day just passed and you're still alive witnessing the $20 sunset.

We met Mister T and asked him to drop us off to the night market. He left us there apologizing that he couldn’t wait for us cause he lives far and it would be really late for him. We agreed and he told us that he would meet us early the next day to tour Angkor Wat.
I find the night market a bit expensive, the Russian market in PP was way cheaper, but I was able to haggle and bought shirts for LIV and my mom. I was of two minds about this vintage looking tiger eye ring…but I didn’t buy it and now I regret it. I should've *sigh*
We had dinner at one of the restaurants outside the market and ordered more Khmer food. It was a bit awkward for us, cause after they serve you the food, they would stand right beside your table and be there to assist you if you need more rice, its like having a personal butler which we're not comfortable of. It was just too gracious and we felt weird that someone would be serving us rice…we were not used to it. We gave the waiter that was assigned to us a tip, we don’t normally give tips but we felt that they were too kind to us even if we don’t look like foreigners to them.
We ended our first night at Siem Reap with some night shots by our resort’s pool.
The next morning, the group were up and ready to hit the road. Right before we finish breakfast we saw Mister T waiting for us outside. We grabbed our stuff and off we went to Angkor Wat. The morning weather was perfect, and surprisingly cold. We didn’t expect that kind of breeze as Pin video us as we hit the road and very much unprepared of the coldness.
We toured inside Angkor Wat and took pictures of the amazing structure of the famous temple. For the whole day, Mister T took us to different places and temples...it was all amazing but around late afternoon that was it for us. There were still a lot of temples to visit, but we thought we’re satisfied already and also…we were getting tired. I could feel my skin and the dust…not sure which one is getting thicker, I imagined the pool at our resort…the first thing I thought was to jump on it even with clothes on…or running to the pool like a mad man while getting it off.
That night we went off to the old market and along pub street to try out more Khmer food. We explored the streets with bookstores, restaurants, flea shops, old markets and more local delicacies. After a hearty dinner, we thought we could use a glass of beer or two, but because of the heavy meal, each of us just passed on it and decided to retire early.
The next day, we had the whole day to shop, explore and enjoy Siem Reap for the last time. We took off that morning and went around for our shopping spree at the old market. Everything in SR cost around $1 dollar. But if you use your charm and smile and smart ways of haggling you could even get 2 for a dollar, which I always do. I got some nice colored balls with little bulbs on it, an eco friendly bag to use for bottled water or jugs, of course…fridge magnets, scarves, and one of my prized possessions rights now…a brown fedora hat. I could say that it's pretty cheap to shop in Cambodia, it is a haven.
We had lunch back in our room, because as backpackers/budget travelers…we brought food, and I can advise it to anyone. We were not on a tight budget but it did helped a lot and got us to save more for shopping.

For our last night, we decided to hit one of the biggest bars along pub street called Temple Bar. A draft beer cost $50 cents, I fell in love with Siem Ream even more. From French fries to chicken barbeque and beef skewers! everything was superb that night.

The next day, we were up early and heading out to the resort’s restaurant for early breakfast. Leaving Siem Reap at 7am, it was a mixture of sadness and of course excitement, to go home and see LIV and show him my adventures. Our stay in Golden Banana resort felt like home, but the thought of ending our trip was the low part of it. We were picked up by the service van and we said our thank you and goodbyes to the kind staff of the GB.

The trip back to Vietnam was a pain. Unlike the ride from Saigon to Cambodia, it was only 6 hours and we stayed for a night in Phnom Penh. This time, it was a straight trip, only getting off once for the border. I will not recommend it to anyone, if we had another day, we would stop by PP again, stay for a night and continue our trip the next day. Almost 15 hours of bus trip is a pain, I felt my butt cheeks hurt, Pin threw up for half part of the trip, I got bored…really bored. That was the only ugly part of everything. I was too happy when we finally got off the bus, but Pin almost kissed the ground if she was only feeling much better. We saw couple of taxis lined up waiting for passengers. As soon as we had one, we filed up the small taxi and we were on our way to the airport where we decided to have our dinner. Jun and I arranged our stuff on the carts while Ina and Pin arranged the taxi fare. As soon as the taxi left I saw their faces with disappointment. We were overcharge the driver grabbed a dollar bill from Ina’s hand and claimed it was airport tax. The two were too shocked to react. The driver got away with $30 from us, and the trip only took 25 minutes. The first taxi who drove us from the same airport to the bus terminal charged us half of it, we were robbed! We whine and complained about it for full 15 minutes and just told ourselves…we’re almost home…so just breathe.

Our flight back to Manila was in time and arrived at Terminal 3 by 4:30am. My Pap was there to pick me up and I couldn’t wait to see LIV. When I got home, LIV woke up and went straight to the living room and called out, with hair standing from his head and was still half asleep when he saw me. My 8 year old ran to me and wrapped his arms around my body…aaah home.

for more info about the places we stayed in, please visit:

http://www.goldenbanana.info/ (in Siem Reap accomodation)
http://www.royal-inn.net/index.php (Phnom Penh accomodation)

For more Cambodge picture: http://islandermaui.multiply.com/