The next day, I checked out. I've booked Chork to bring us to the airport. I knew he would be early or on time, but when he wasn't here, I texted him. Apparently he went to our first hotel to pick us up :P He came as fast as he could, and off we went to the airport. This was the part I start questioning my life choices. You see, the airport was around 1hour away from Siem Reap, via a highway full of cars. And it was a Sunday as we made our way there. I started wandering was it a good idea to take a tuk tuk. What if Chork's vehicle broke down? What if the tuk tuk got hit by a larger vehicle? I was rather nervous through out the ride. I just hope I won't have to miss my flight! What a relief I was when I saw the sign above! I know I love tuk tuk rides, but maybe, maybe, just not when I need to catch a flight? Lol.
Heading towards the airport! Thank you Chork for getting us there safely and on time!
So, Siem Reap Airport seems to be built by the Chinese? And it was newly opened too! Either same year 2024, or the year before. Lucky us!
Here is a memorial stone of the opening of the airport, I guess?
And the casually placed golden statue of Brahma inside the airport....
My flight went well, and I transited in Bangkok Don Mueang airport. When I landed, I went to look for lunch as I was so hungry. I had eaten a pack of dried jackfruit at the airport in Siem Reap as my breakfast. I had 1000baht with me, so I thought I'll treat myself to a nice Thai meal. Well, Bangkok airport was chaotic! It was amazing I got a seat at all in a restaurant. I ordered chicken something, but they served me beef basil instead. I knew it looked kinda wrong. I waited a while to see if any waiter would come and rectify the issue. When nobody paid attention to me, I decided to start eating. Oh wow! The spices just hit me. I realised I missed spicy food so much. A super delicious meal, costing me almost 10SGD? But who cares! I enjoyed it. The waiter did eventually came over and apologies for the wrong order. He apologies again when I went to settle my bill. I told him not to worry, I enjoyed the delicious wrong meal! He was pleased, cause I think he got an earful from his supervisor for giving me the wrong dish lol.
A habit of taking ariel view while on a place. Here is one of Bangkok and it's river. I wander if I can see Julie's house from here :P
Flying over south of Thailand. Such a beautiful view of the ocean.
Finally, green landscape of Kedah/Penang mainland. Love the hills behind it. It was almost evening when I reach my hometown.
And finally, Penang bridge! What an awesome adventure I had in Siem Reap! Love it! Especially Angkor Wat itself, was worth everything to me. I spend around 900SGD for the whole trip, but 600SGD of it was for the flight alone cause it was a last minute booking, and I wanted to get back by Sunday for an appointment I had on Monday. So..... I thought I would regret spending so much on the flight, but in the end, I think it was worth it. It was the time and opportunity more than the cost of things. Sometimes, you just got to get up and go! Be fearless!
We spend most of our afternoon hiding in the hotel room with the air con on. It was just too hot to walk around in the town area. On our last night, I decided to just ask my friend out for dinner with us. I was going back to Penang the next day, and him onwards to Phnom Penh. I'm not sure when I'll see him again, so I though it would be nice to one last meal together. We went just cross the streets from our hotel, and into a Cambodian Food Restaurant that was bustling with people.
We ordered a spring roll wrapped as appetiser. Not too bad.
I ordered the beef Lok Lak. This dish was in my to-eat list, and it's a traditional Cambodian dish. I hate it when I order a dish on my last day only to discover how good it was. I could have been eating this daily! Anyway, it was awesomely delicious! I would definitely eat it again.
It was a very relaxing dinner. We ordered one appetiser, one salad, three main dish. I even ordered a watermelon juice! Again, free water was served to us too. I love this type of hospitality. It reflects a good culture.
And the total for a meal for three? Only 14.50USD for everything! With so much food ordered, and me offering to pay since I wanted to use up all my USD, I though I might not have enough. I though it would be at least over 20USD. Wow! I love Cambodia!
With our tummy filled from the first lunch, we walked on to find the French Restaurant for our second lunch! Hahahaha. What a weird trip this was turning out to be. Above is me, in front of the restaurant.
Walking in, it was a bungalow style house, with gardens. I immediately knew I would love the ambiance here. I love such places.
Side track. opposite the restaurant is actually the big temple we visited the day before. And there was this super retro looking tuk tuk parked outside of it, so I just had to take a photo of it before going inside for my 2nd lunch.
Inside the main dining room. Spacious, with classic tiles, and so much natural lights!
I also took a walk further inside and they have a smaller outdoor garden too.
And perhaps even a private area for events? But when we were there, it was just us, and a table of two ladies seated there.
First order, a local beer. I kinda preferred the one yesterday. This one was a bit bitter for me.
The husband ordered the classic duck confit, and it's been a while since I see it served as two duck legs! Good job! I was still full from my first lunch, so I decided to just have a simple cheese platter.
Lo and behold! My cheese platter is amazing! I would not have imagine that I would get such a spread. If you order a cheese platter before in Singapore, you will know how pathetic a serving can be. This, this was beyond my expectation. And so much lovely bread too! I truly enjoyed myself. Although I was too full, I did finish up all the cheese, sharing some with my husband. The only thing I could finish were the meat chunks.
And the total price? 30.50USD! I love Siem Reap! I need to come back more often for the food!
On our last full day in Siem Reap, we decided to have lunch at another French Restaurant. On our way there, we decided to go explore the old market. Since we have so much time and not much agenda for the day, I though it would be nice to just browse around the old market. While walking around, we walked pass the food section, and I guess the food caught our attention, cause we ended up eating here for our first lunch, lol.
You see, I have a soft spot for Asian food, specifically anything spicy or sour. And looking at all these cooked dishes kinda made me drool. It was the same in Thailand, but since my friends don't really want to eat at such stalls, I didn't have a chance to try many things there. But here, I was with my husband, so when I suggested to eat here, it wasn't just a suggestion, it was more of a statement, lol. Luckily he obliged. Probably cause he saw some bbq skewers around :P
One of dishes I wanted to try here was the sour soup. I bet they were made from tamarind. I love tamarind so much. And they have so many pots in front of the stall. So I picked this one to eat in. Actually, the stall next to it looked a lot nicer, but it was empty. And this stall was filled with people tabao-ing food, even though nobody sat down to eat. Given a choice, I would always pick the store with the most people, even if it looked more chaotic and dirty. I would trust the local people not to betray me when it comes to their food!
Look at that!
This is where they bbq some of the meat.
And this is what we ordered. I ordered amok again, cause I wanted to make sure it was the same as what I ate in Angkor Wat. It was totally different! This one here was so much nicer! I also ordered a bowl of sour soup. I just wanted to try and when I saw the lady putting so much inside a bowl for me, I told her not so much. But she didn't care, she continue to put more meat and vegetables and soup until the soup was full! Lol. I bet she was going to overcharge a tourist like me.
My husband came back with two bbq package. I think was chicken, and the other was the minced meat bbq frog that I wanted to try too! So happy he got that! We sat down and asked for rice. We were also served with a dish of raw vegetables. Drinks were also served to us. The owner of the stall kept an eye on us as we eat. Sometimes telling me which vegetables to eat with which sauce. Again, it touches my heart that they care that I enjoyed their food. It also reminded me of a kind Korean aunty who also taught me how to eat green chillies with sauce long time back when I took my husband on his first trip to Korea. It's these small interaction with the locals that I enjoy the most when I travel. People can be nice everywhere.
Here is the shop we ate at looking out from the inside. The total bill was just 6USD for two person, with all that dishes. I think it was average priced since we did ordered mostly meat dishes. I often read how you could have a nice meal for 1USD in Cambodia. I guess those days are over? Or maybe those who said it were vegetarians? Anyway, this was one of my favourite dining experience in a foreign country! Love it! We cleared everything, and the lady ask us to come back for more the next day :P
Finally we are here to document about the Siem Reap River. I love walking along it. It connects the place we stayed to the museum, so we walked quite a large section of it. It's nice that it's shaded, and the walkway was quite comfortably wide. Various bridge connects it from one side to the other. The one above is from the first temple we went to, we had to cross over the river to get to the second temple (Wat Bo).
I did not see the river at night time. I'm pretty sure it's lighted up too. We could see the wires and led lights anyway. I think I prefer to see it in the day time, with it's trees and dark green water. There were actually kids swimming in the river. Some fishing there. And many just sitting around it, drinking coffee or ice water sold by the vendors along the river. A very chill place to be.
I also saw some of the above at the river side. Do they just put these everywhere? Like it doesn't cost any money at all to make? How can you place such a beautiful stone so casually everywhere? Lol.
A relaxing scroll up and down the river.
At one of the giant trees, we saw two hornbills! Two gigantic hornbills! I've seen hornbills before, lots of the in Pasir Ris Park in Singapore. But these in Siem Reap where huge! And so colourful too! Those in Singapore are just black and white, and act like crows these days. But here in Siem Reap, majestic!
Here is a video I took of the two birds :)
It was so hot that when I saw a couple eating some ice cream, I started looking for an ice cream vendor. What is cooler than eating an ice cream while walking besides the river? Ah, reminisce of my days in Hanoi lake. Ice cream instantly transform you into a kid again, and eating them under the hot sun is just one of life's simple joy :)
My coconut ice cream. The lady ask if I wanted nuts on top, yes please! The lady ask if I wanted condensed milk on top, yes please! I love coconut ice cream. I used to be able to get them for only 2.50rm from a stall at Midland Penang run by a thai lady. It had so many stuff in it, even bread! Sadly, the stall is no longer there....
As we walked nearer to the town area, we were looking for the night market. We came across the old bridge made of wood. Somehow I love this photo. Again, it reminded me of a place I've been to, and this time it was Florence....
We were too early for the night market. Nothing much was open yet. And looking at the things on sale, I wasn't really interested to try any of the food here. It was mostly fried, or thai dishes etc. I wanted traditional Cambodian food.
Well, I did found my rotii here! Pratha with banana, condense milk, and here with chocolate too! I've been eating a lot of this at home, home made. And I wanted a taste of home, so I bought this, and it was kinda my dinner too :P
There is only one cool thing worth seeing in the whole museum, and that is the beautiful sandstone carving. Note that this is just my personal opinion. The benefit of the museum is, you can see these carving all cleaned up, and well, at eye-level! At Angkor Wat, some of the carvings are either high up on the roof, or way down low, or at some weird corner you can't get too. Too dark, too difficult to see? No problem. Come to the museum, pay a high price and see them nicely displayed here! Above was taken at the jewelry hall cause I like the gold leaf tree behind the statues.....
So, stone carving. Don't you think these looks rather Egyption like? Gah. Maybe I should go visit Egypt one of these days and confirm that once and for all!
Back to the carving. Look at this ridiculously detailed carving of I'm-not-quite-sure-what. Someone must have taken a long time to make this, right? But why? What was the purpose of it?
So many detailed carving here.
Some in circular design too.
I'm not gonna describe them all.
I just want to post them here so that these photos of mine are not lost.
And that I can remember all these beautiful work I once saw. All these beautiful work that someone once worked on.
So much dedication and passion.....
And monkeys!
And so ends our post on the museum. Again. I would advice against visiting it.
