Siem Reap (Cambodia) - Day 1

First and foremost, i would like to share some information in term of price of goods offered at Siem Reap which i've surveyed for 4 days live in Siem Reap even i didn't buy it. hahaha~!

• Fried rice, noodle : USD1 (in both siem reap town and angkor archeology park)
• Coconut, soft drink, variety of milk shake : USD0.50 (in both siem reap town and angkor archeology park)
• Scarf : USD1.50 (Old Market)
• Water : 6 bottle for USD1(Pub street)
• T-shift : 2 for USD1 (Angkor Archeology park)
• Elephant key chain : 5 for USD2 (Old Market)
• spaghetti stripe singlet : USD3 (Old Market)
  

Overnight at LCCT , we took the flight from KL at 7am and arrived Siem Reap after 2 hour. But Cambodia time is one hour slower than Malaysia so we reached at 8am. We book Golden Temple Villa which situated somewhere around the Siem Reap town which gave the free pick up service from airport. I thought that they'll use tuk tuk to pick me up but ended up they took us to the hotel by car~~!

AcCoModaTion

The hostel cost us USD45 with air-conditional three days for two person which is very cheap. We did the advance booking but no charge is needed. The hostel condition is good, free 24 hour coffee, tea and hot water, free banana, free 30min message, free pick up fr airport and one welcome drink as well. No problem for booking the tuk tuk from the hostel. Here's some picture i would like to show but i forget to take the photo of my room. You can even get cheaper price for fan house.

My Trip Begins...
1st day - Cultural Village
Tuk Tuk = USD8

Heading to Cultural Village which offered plenty of shows and different villages. Quite a nice place for me. The entrance fees is USD9 due to their New Year Celebration where the receptionist told us the normal price is USD12. You can refer to the following link for Cultural Village Map
http://www.cambodianculturalvillage.com/map.htm

it's not as large as you think. I suggest you reached there right two hour before the afternoon session show time(2.30pm). For us, we need to spend one more hour doing nothing waiting for the afternoon session show time started which make us quite boring and leave before finished watching all the show. We leaved after chinese traditional dancing and go to Psah Leu Market. It's very big but dirty which make me buy nothing. But i think it's worth to go and have a look. The USD8 tuk tuk include the Culture Village and anywhere you like as long as it's not so far from the town.

Cultural Village

Show Time

Psah Leu

At night, we went to Angkor Night market.

Angkor Night Market floor plan

http://www.angkornightmarket.com/stalls.html

The market is small. So, it takes us less than 30 minutes to completely "explore" it. Do not rush to buy anything, every stalls selling the same stuff where you can get cheaper price in else where. After that, we went to pub street. And... i've found that there plenty of hawker stall which actually sell all the fried noodles, friend rice... etc for USD1. Shit~! So, I know where am i gonna have my dinner tomorrow. There's one mini market where you can buy plenty of stuff. Yogurt at USD0.5, Some beer for USD0.7... etc

Siem Reap (Cambodia ) - Day 2

2nd day - Angkor Archeology Park

Tuk tuk = USD12 ( Include Sunrise ) = USD9 ( Journey Begins at 7+am)
Map for one day trip

http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/templemap.htm

We took the USD12 package and enjoying the sunrise at Angkor Wat. There are plenty people waiting for the sunrise. For me, USD12 is worth enough since the tuk tuk driver have to wait for you whole day and bring you around the Angkor Park. The Angkor Archeology Park Entrance fees is USD20 for one day. You can buy 7 days pass for USD60. For me, One day is much more enough to go for those most popular Wat. They'll take your photo and print it on the ticket and you need to show it for the guard at some temples. If you lost the ticket, you probably need to pay for another USD20~!

Angkor Wat

The wall carving is amazing and the whole angkor wat is actually made by stacking up all the carving rocks. There's one guy approached us and ask us whether wanna pray or not. I thought it's kind of respect to their god or something so i just say yes. After that, they ask us to donate some money for them.. so i feel that it's kinda been cheated.

Then, the tuk tuk brought us to the central Angkor Thom area where it's consider as a very big compound you needed to explore yourself.

Angkor Thom Map

http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/TempleMapaap2at.htm

There are few wats are situated in this area : Bayon, Terrace of the elephants, Baphoun... etc. Bayon is the most famous wat in this area.

























Then, Mr tuk tuk bring us to Takeo, Bantrey Kdei and Ta Phrom. You will be experienced a 80 degree staircase where the stair case is about half of your step size. It's quite challenging and worth to give it a try. Ta Phrom is actually a wat which seems like hiding under the root of the tree. Quite special!






















































Then, we have our lunch at East mebbon area. The price is listed as USD3 but we manage to get it at USD1.50. I believe we can get it at USD1 but i'm too lazy to bargain as the cook offer USD1.50 herself. Sprite for USD0.50. White rice is provided.























Then, we go to Predup and Prasat Karvan. Nothing really special there. After that, we went to our last wat of the day for sunset-- Phrom Bakheng. You need to take around 20 min walk up to Phrom Bakheng. But you can go up by using elephant instead which cost USD12 and USD10 for walking down. The sunset started around 5.45pm.



























After that, we went to Wat Thmei which is known as the small killing field in Siem Reap which is situated somewhere outside the entrance of Angkor Archeology park. The entrance fee is free.































After that, we took tuk tuk back to hostel. After having a bath and nice rest at hostel. We decided to take our dinner at pub street. I ate fried rice noodle with mango shake for USD1.50. I've found that no matter fried rice, rice noodle or noodle, it tastes the same because they fried it by using the same brand chilli sauce. And we ordered one "LOK LAK" with plain rice with USD1.50. LOK LAK refers to fried beef.





































I ended up the rest of my day in pub street. Quite a good place to hang around where you can plenty of pub there. I've found on scorpion immmersed in the wine~!

Siem Reap (Cambodia) - Day 3

3rd day - Free and Easy around the Town

Siem Reap Town

http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/srmapmain.htm


Old Market Area Map

http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/somrmapmain.htm


We begins our day with Artisans D'Angkor which is less than 5 min walk from our hostel. It's a place where variety of handicraft are made. You can buy some handicraft and manage to see their workshops. Their crafts include silk painting, stone and wood carving, ornamental painting and etc. Some of them are hearing impaired. You can get free book about travelling in Cambodia as well.











































































After visiting Artisans D'Angkor, we went to Old Market Area. Plenty of souvenir is sold here but basically.. every stalls are selling the same thing. It actually divided into dry section and wet section. Some food could be found here as well but i've no interest towards the food here.















































Lunch Time~~! Walking along the Sivatha road, i've found one chinese restaurant which sold dumpling at reasonable price. At last, I don't have to eat fried noodle. We ordered one sour soup ( USD1.50) and several types of dim sum (USD2.50). The jasmine tea is free. The portion is big so we didn't order any white rice.

























Then, we went to Center Market which is within the walking distance from the restaurant as well. The center market is much more cleaner than old market area but not much people could be found here as i believe the old market area offered the goods at cheaper price.




























After that, we actually plan to have a look at another market which is stated as Angkor Market in the map. When we reached the so called "Angkor Market". We've found that it's actually a name of a mini market.


Walking down the Sivatha road to National Route No. 6, there are one small jewelery shop, one small shopping center with two storeys and two shop each floor and one Angkor Shopping Center which is very very small as well. You can go to Angkor Wat Miniature if you want but since i've been to the real Angkor Wat so I not feel like going there. Walking through the stone bridge and going back by the wat bo bridge, we just found one small park. thank god it's raining, otherwise i'll be melted~~! I went to Wat Bo as well but nothing impressed~!















































On the way back from Wat Bo bridge to Old market area, finally, we've found one shopping center.... one and the only shopping center in Siem Reap Town. It's not so big but at least i can feel it's really feel like a shopping center. I bought one SWENSEN ice-cream there which cost USD1.20 one scoop.

Hanging around for a while... we went back to hostel again and dine in at night in Pub street. The last day free and easy trip is not so special but i still feel OK with it. I've found one restaurant which offers several types of BBQ such as snake, kangaroo, crocodile... etc. If you do not comfortable with the free and easy trip you might try out the Kampung Phluk Package which i'm not so interesting about that. Lastly, I would like to post my fried pork with white rice and soup for USD1.0.

























Remember to keep USD25 for Airport tax, service charge or whatever tax.