At 4 am we took a taxi to LCCT . Cost us RM34. The bus departed at 430am and we arrived LCCT at 530 am. There, we met Black colleagues, Kanna and Pakli (Dato' K). I thought theres only two of us but now there are 4. We check in and board the flight just about time. Its raining quite heavily and it delayed the takeoff for about 15 minutes. On board, we are with people from Sime Engineering which is on a company trip.
We arrive arrive Siam Reap 2 hours later. The time here is minus 1 so its look like we arrive in an hour. The airport looks very traditional with Minangkabau style building. We look for driver and found good one. His name is Sin Dina and is very fluent in English. We decided to book him for two days tour, costing USD30 per day. We notice that the cars here follow the american way of driving - left wheel and right lane. The cars are recondition cars from america and look very tough.
We arrived at the Lin Ratanak Angkor Hotel Siem Reap.The girls working there looks very exotic. Humble, lemah gemalai and sejuk mata memandang. The room is quite big and we got the room at the ground floor. Black give the lady RM1 tip, according to him its his style as a token. We rest for a while and at 1030 Dina drove us to find place to have lunch. We asked him for a place that serve halal food and he seems to misunderstood. Bring us to a place where fog and frog is served. He then bring us to an indian food restaurant called Curry Walla - own and cook by Indian. There we pool USD20 dollar each as per Wafis suggestion. I had black tea for USD 1 and Chicken Beriyani for USD 4.
After we done with our dinner, the driver drove us to Tonle Sap lake. On the way, we saw cheap karaoke joints build on the paddy field. Also floating school and hall build on a boat. Currently it is the dry season. During the rainy season the tonle sap lake will flooded about 10 times the current size. We took a cruise along the lake. Cost us USD20 per person. The four of us share one big boat. On the way, we saw the culture of the people that leave on the floating village. There is restaurant, house, hall, church and everything. The use genset to generate electricity.
The cruise stop at the souvenir/handicraft shop with a small crocodile farm. Theres a map of tonle sap and Dina told us about the geography and history. This man is very good. He can spit facts naturally - eg. The angkor wat is build by King Jayavarma using 2.5 million people, 1000 horses, 55 elepahants and took 35 years to complete bla bla. From him I learnt how statistic can convince people and make you look smarter than others.
Theres a lot of beggar waiting for us there. The small kids are asking for "wan do la" One dollar2 and very pesky. One of them had a python with her and I ran away. Datok K give one girl a dollar and the beggars are attacking him for money. We took some pictures, look at the stuff thats on sale and leave. On our way back some kids called and says terima kasih terima kasih. Turns out that they sell some plates with our face on it for USD3 a piece. Its scary since we dont know when they took our picture and print it. Its very fast. Paklin and kanna bought it and I nearly had it if I had enough change.
After that we went to the War Museum. We had to pay USD3 for admission and its really not worth it. All that we can ever see is rusty junk from the old times. Tanks, helicopters, machines guns etc . We can finish the tour in 10 minutes. After that we went to the Killing Field, which is actually a Wat where they place a stupa (http://www.flickr.com/photos/densy2oo5/4347280601/) with bones and skulls of the victim of Khmer Rouge Massacre. We had to take out our cap here. Its the rule of the temple.
We then return to the hotel for a quick nap. At 4pm Dina pick us again and we went to a stylish souvenir shop and bought nothing. After that we went to the Angkor archeological park. Paid USD20 for one day admission that can be used in 24 hours. They take a picture of us using a webcam and print a pass. With that pass we visit the first temple The Phnom Bakheng. According to our driver, the temple is located on a hill and the view of the sunset is breathtaking. It is the first temple built in Angkor area. In Tomb Raider, there is scene where Lara Croft stand on top of this temple and use a binocular to view the Angkor Wat. We can ride an elephant for USD20 or hike for about 15 minutes. We choose the latter. There's a lot of people there. The stairs is very steep and we had to use our hands and feet to climb the stairs. We took a couple of pictures but do do not wait until the sunset since it will be hard for us to climb down the stairs with lots of people when it gets dark. We return to the bottom of the hill, had Coconut water for USD1 served by a girl name Chawon. Girls here really know how to flirt.
We then went the nightmarket and bargain for stuff. I bought a traditional cotton shirt and silk shirt and also a trousers. I'm not interested in the tshirt since it looks very low quality. The same same and beware of mines tshirt looks very local. I got the cotton shirt from a very cute young thing. She told me that Im very kind buying a silk shirt for USD9 from her unlike Wafi - the poor tourist. Later i bought a set of cotton and trouser for usd 12 from a very insistence guy. Double K had a chance to flirt with a good looking lady and she suddenly said that " I had 3 children" we burst out laughing. But still looks hot.
After that we had dinner at Saryrath angkor Chinese Seafood Restaurant. We had a grilled Romeo (?) fish, Grilled cockles , Cuttlefish masak black pepper and Udang masak pedas, I love the food. They used very little oil and little sampah (aka halia, bawang etc like here in malaysia). The black pepper sotong taste good with little oil and the gravy is nice. The udang also use little oil and taste good. We paid USD35 for the food which is about Malaysian standard price.
Then we send Wafi and Kanna for massage and me and Paklin went back to sleep since I'm very full and cannot take it anymore.
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