Went to Siem Reap in Nov 2009 for 6 days 5 nights. My blogs will be separated into few parts, differentiating the places we visited, activities we did, and food we enjoyed in Siem Reap.
Day 1: Siem Reap town, Tonle Sap, Phnom Bakheng sunset
Reaching Siem Reap International Airport, we were greeted by our hostel tuk tuk driver, Safy.
This is how Siem reap town looks like ~ dry and dusty
We booked our hostel from internet at USD15 per room per night for twin sharing at Palm Garden Lodge. It is situated in the town, about 15-20minute walk to Old Market. Greeted by the friendly staff, we negotiated for a packaged price of the tuk tuk driver at USD61 for our entire trip.
The restaurant cum lounge
Our room was decent and clean
We started our day 1 by visiting Old Market. Local traders are selling many stuff ranging from food, rice, grocery, souvenirs, and even has a wet market inside the building.
Rice and spices at Old Market
Painting, souvenirs, french loaf, raw cockles are available at Old Market
Beautiful paintings
Colorful souvenirs
Wet Market - traders selling local food, french loaf, vegetables & fruits
In the afternoon, we rode in our tuk tuk to Tonle Sap, the famous lake. The journey to Tonle sap took about 50minutes and along the way we saw traditional houses of Siem Reap.
Traditional houses
Reaching Tonle Sap, we paid USD15 per pax for our boat ride to Chong Kneas floating village. It was really sadden that a Korean company actually already monopolized the boat trips and the fare is so expensive. We noted from the locals that the company earned a lot, but not the locals nor the boatman who took us in the ride.
View taken from the boat
Floating houses
The famous floating school & the school children
Small children paddling the boat to & fro school
Locals selling food to the visitors
Fisherman
Our boat broke down half way and luckily we were rescued by another smaller boat by tying a rope to the boat and tugging our bigger boat.
We were rescued by this small boat
Daily life of the people in Chong Kneas floating village
We stopped by a shop for souvenirs in the village
While we were in the shop, we spotted some children try to sell things to the visitors.
Faces of the locals
After about 1.5 hours here, we went back to the town to visit Artisan Angkor. On the way back, we saw a group of school children cycling out from a school.
Artisan Angkor is a place where the locals were taught of craving, wovening, painting and etc.
Thereafter, we were off to Angkor Wat to purchase our 3-day pass ticket at USD40 per person. Our photo were snapped from of the purchase counter and printed on our tickets.
Cambodia national flags at the entrance of Angkor Wat
Nice cloud pattern
We entered the small circuit of Angkor Wat the to view sunset at Phnom Bakheng. A tough climb of approximately 40 minutes, we reached the top and the sunset was just magnificent.
The crowd at the top to view the sunset
Sun was setting
The view was just breathtaking
The big egg yolk was sinking into the horizon
By 6.30 while decending from the hill, the sky already dark and we just have to rely to the tiniest source of light from our handphone and torch lights from the front.
