Day 1 (Part 1/3) – Old Market, Siem Reap
Some of you might have forgotten or have not read the post where I’ve mentioned my winnings in Asiayak.com’s photo contest. This time round, my airfare to Siem Reap is fully borne by Asiayak. So it’s free for me except for other miscellaneous expenses.
Before you continue reading, if you need to pee please do so now cos this is a super duper long post. Not long in words but it has been spam by tones of photographs by Yours Truly of course (ahem). Since the page need sometime to load, why don’t you go and pee even though you don’t need to pee?
JUST GO AND PEE LA!
While you are there, why dont you go grab yourself a drink or some snacks?
… or eye drops?
*pat-pat* Good girls and good boys.
The flight from KL to Siem Reap is about 2 hours and 5 minutes journey. I am staying in Golden Temple Villa which includes transfer from the airport to their hotel. The moment the van stop outside my hotel, my jaw almost drop cos the road is full of yellow mud and very dusty. Good thing the hotel is clean.
For US$18 per night with internet service, water heater, air-condition, 24 hours banana/coffee/tea what else I can ask for from the Third World country?
11.30am – We started our tour to the Old Market which is only 3 minutes walk from our hotel. At the same time, we need to get a bite too. Street food is definitely for me.
We spotted french loaf. If you are a muslim, be very caution as what you eat. Cambodian eat lots of pork. Those are pork chop, some fish sauce and pickle veges. French loaf are then put in a charcoal oven to retained it’s crispiness. Very yummy indeed. Cost us 2000 Riel (4000 Riel to US$1).
Next we spotted a fruits push cart.
I like the way the cut the mango. Looks like a lotus bud. Albeit the colour, they are not so sour at all. You can eat with with choices of shrimp paste or salt with chilies. I choose the salt with chilies. Cost us 2000 Riel. However, prices defer everywhere.
We did not try the skewed banana. Looks a bit unpleasant to me.
Enough food for the time being as we can’t wait to attack the old market. My mom has a saying, “The money in your pocket can bite you issit”. lol
I have enough of these bags from my hubby’s previous trip to Vietnam. However, I got myself these:
Smaller pouch for weekend outing selling at US$3 each. I bought 7 bags at US$18. I sucks at bargaining. I know I could get cheaper elsewhere.
Next is some ‘bling-bling’ aka jewelery. My aunt bought them when she is here. My cousin bought them when she is here. I bought them when I am here!
Don’t get fooled by them when they told you it is white gold. They are silver actually. But you can be rest assured that all their stones are real. The 2 ballerinas is for my 2 Princesses. That round sapphire is mine. I Heart sapphire cos I can’t afford a diamond. And I bought the jade for my Mom. My sis bought a bracelet too. All in, I paid about US$70. AND THAT IS A CUT THROAT PRICE! Kanasai nia. Don’t want to talk about price. Past is past.
Then usual lor. We window shop a lot looking for Khmer product.
They sell lots of Asparas dancer, elephant, buddhist statue and et cetera. It all depending on what you want to buy. Some people can buy the whole of Siem Reap.
3pm – After 3 hours browsing thru the market, we got almost what we wanted. Came this tuk-tuk driver offering us US$3 to Floating Village. Well, that is a good price. We negotiated with him at US$5 to include a sunset tour in Angkor Wat. He agreed. We hop on his tuk-tuk.
… watch out for Part 2 – Floating Village
p/s: I’ve changed my mind to keep my post short. I’ve break them into 3 parts for easy reading/viewing. So, in part 2, no need bring pop corn or coke la.
eve said,
September 21, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Oooo..the bags look so nice..I would have bought a few too if I was there..
Psst..I came back fr the toilet and with a bag of chips , tak sempat bukak pun..habih baca dy..aih..
athena said,
September 21, 2007 @ 11:45 am
wah…so nice !! cheap bags…kekeke…nice food…:)
Kyels said,
September 21, 2007 @ 11:54 am
Damn, I wanna go there too!
🙂
Glad that you had fun.
Eden said,
September 21, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
Everything must bargain until 20% left. If not you will cry over there.
Cambodia is Small city which is only fill with yellow and green color 😀
Jessie, post la the floating city after raining and the children which say ‘Jie Jie, Jie Jie, buy for me’ Oh it is so irritating until I feel like pushing them away.
The Sister said: The flood have to wait for Day 3. Still long way to go.ÂÂ
duckie said,
September 21, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
did something to your hair? nice…
laymank said,
September 21, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
interesting read.
waiting for more….
😀
Hijack Queen » Day 1 (Part 2/3) - Tonle Sap Floating Village said,
September 21, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
[…] … continue from Part 1/3 here […]
Allan ( Having driving lesson,wish i dont fail 0.o" ) said,
September 21, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
The market looks alike the thai market “chat tu chat”…My brother used to told me that if i really want to try those outside street food,make sure that is your last day at there hahah~Anyway the skewed banana can be see in thailand too(but also dont dare to try)
Connection error while submit comment,sorry for the duplicate comments pai seh~
Denise said,
September 21, 2007 @ 4:57 pm
I was there too, in july…yea very dusty and hot, and i agree the market was smelly! hahaha. i found it interesting that they put dried meats next to jewellery at the market. but it made me appreciate malaysia, esp KL a lot more 😉 didn’t it feel great to be home?
sila said,
September 22, 2007 @ 11:24 pm
wow, that mango with chilli and salt sounds gooood 😀
at least the inside of the hotel is ok, just the outside street is icky, so kira ok la 🙂
Lil said,
September 23, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
hmmm… why post price comparison to USD and not RM? USD not so stable currently… and yeah, as sila said, the mango sounds great!
The Queen says: They trade in US Dollar and Riel. US$1 is equivalent to 4000 Riel. For example if the goods is 6000 Riel, you give them US$1 and 2000 Riel. At the same time, they don’t use Dime too. So, it’s a mixture of Dollar and Riel.
Bernard said,
September 24, 2007 @ 11:00 am
Have to clear the jasmine away meh? Can tido berbunga also mahh! Wake up smelling like flowers.
stacey said,
November 14, 2007 @ 11:00 am
hey,i m ur blog supporter.recently i m plannig go backpack v my fren at my next uni sem break,so can i get some info from u.is tat all expenses in Us$?