DAY 1 20/3/2008 : 12.05 Arrived in the newly open Siem Reap Int’l Airport. The WHL agent sent us a driver w/ van & drop us to the hotel,
check in was chaotic, the room wasn’t ready before 14.00 While waiting, my husband order espresso & cappuccino from the hotel’s bar. This two coffee is his, I’m allergic of them.
After the room is ready, I call Chea Sinak our driver & tour guide, Nak – as he address himself. I found his e–add in a website. Since then we email back & forth to fix the schedule & price. He’ll pick us up at 4.30 PM, for sunset tour.
In the mean time, we’re too exciting to have catnap, or just laying around the pool. No matter the sun around 12 – 1 PM in Siem Reap is definitely torturing, we put our head up & browse this city on foot.
Start from Prince d’Angkor at Suvitna Road – where we stay for these following 5 days. Turn left on the Highway no.6 till meet the park. Victoria & Raffless Grand at our left.
King’s Palace at our right. Walk over the bridge & come back. Witness a Khmer gentlemen watering bridge’s plant w/ bucket on a stick, first time in my life see this action. Then walk further along the river, direction south. Passed the FCC on the right. At our left was a white giant plastic naga on the river.
Our driver said, only silly foreigner will build art work like that. Well, Cambodian New Year is on the way, so silly or not, everyone has differ form how to celebrate it.
By the time we reach the second bridge, our top was soggy. But we go on. Passed Central Market on our left & stop at a fake DVD store. And continue walking to reach de La Paix, hotel & cafe.
I did my homework seriously, beside listing what to do & see in this city, I sourced all cafe & resto that serve real European food & coffee. I don’t eat nor drink them. My husband does. Since I knew his coffee at the hotel was weak & lousy, I insisted that we must stop in this cafe.
Alhamdulillah, Halleluya, Praise the Almighty, his eyes suddenly shine bright as kid’s in a toy or candy store. He found his pastries & coffee here. He took (again) 1 espresso, 1 cappuccino, plus now 3 pieces of strawberry danish, and none for me. Honestly, I don’t like those kind of European snack & drinks, why should I force myself to have them? I prefer to take some photo click around this hip hotel.
Before we ready to head back the road, I beg him to take away some more pastries, for his night snack or if he bear to wait till breakfast tomorrow. No offend, no matter our hotel has 5 stars, but by seeing their cakes in their coffee shop/bar, it won’t be the same as in here.
4.30 sharp Nak showed up in our hotel lobby. We drove to tourist office to buy 3 day tourist pass at USD 40 each, then we climb Phnom Bakheng to view the sunset.
Around 17.30, with short of breath, we arrived at the base of this temple, and voila… look up the top of Phnom Bakheng, sunset‘s worshiper are already sit everywhere, there aren’t many places left for us. But it didn‘t stop us to climb this temple to the top. W/ limited space left & foggy weather, for sure we won‘t wait till 18.30 to witness the sunset.
So, browse around on this temple a little bit & climb down to the ground, then we left.
The sun was gorgeously golden red when we are on the south gate of Angkor Thom. Almost every temple in Cambodia was designed w/ moat around. The bridge to pass this moat has balustrade w/ two batalion of squat army statue, on the left and right side, hold a huge cobra or naga. At the top of the gate, four faces of Jayavarman VII, greeting every visitor to see his city.
Back to Siem Reap, passing Angkor Wat’s west gate. Full round moon was posing on top of this magnificent ruin. Tomorrow, it’s your turn, mate. Tonight we’ll like to taste local Khmer delicacy. I didn’t prepare for this though, but my husband asked the hotel concierge & here we are, in Khmer Kitchen at the Central Market.
My husband order grilled fish, I took stir-fried kangkong or morning glory as it stated in the menu. My kangkong was OK. The fish took too long to wait.. and tasted awful.
Finished our night-out around 9.30 PM, back to the hotel & asked Nak to pick us up at 8.00 AM tomorrow. We tried our DVD in room’s player. It was a good copy. We watched it till the end. Beside DVD, our room TV chanel has 80 programe. That’s more than enough for our eye’s entertaintment.
On the way back to the hotel, we stop in the resto BBQ Suki at the corner of the traffic light by the national museum. This place was full w/ locals, but food, taste & price are much better than in city center. For only USD 10, we had huge fish-deepfry, sumptous postion of spring rolls, beef salad, stir fry kangkong, tea & lime juice.
