Siem Reap

Siem Reap – the main reason to go Cambodia
I got in a minivan to travel from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap at 5pm 30 of September 2013 and arrived bus terminal of Siem Reap between 10 to 11 pm and I just woke up when we reached there. Before buying bus ticket I asked about whether they’ll leave me at my hostel or bus terminal and they didn’t answer clearly. I hoped they’ll drop me at my hostel but when we reached there they tried to leave me at bus terminal, 3km far away from center and time was almost 11pm. I started to discuss with driver angrily to take me until my hostel but discussion was going worse and later I stopped myself since there was not many people around and here is Cambodia! Then I calmed down and started bargaining… He offered 5 usd and I got angry again since I paid for 5 hours more than 200km way for 10usd. Although within a few seconds price was 3 usd, I didn’t accept and thinking to walk that way and there was another tuktuk driver accepted 2 usd for get there and I got in because of I was tired and sleepy.
Though after couple of minutes I reached my hostel, I didn’t enter and talked with my intern friends. I came to know they were in Pub Street which was just 5 minutes walking from my hostel. Thus, before going in to my hostel I went to meet with my friends. I could find Pub Street and my friends easily by using map application at phone(Thanks to Google Maps again). We talked for half an hour about what they and I have done so far then we returned back to our hostels, I was staying Mad Monkey, they were Bou Savy Guest House (Bed and Breakfast). My hostel was closer to Pub Street and I left them on the way. When I came to hostel, the receptionist was sleeping, I woke him up and said I stay here tonight I have booked it already. He didn’t believe and checked the records and couldn’t see my name there. I showed the e-mail to him about my booking. It was so bad because I just noticed I did my booking for one day later than my arrival . He said there’s no booking for tonight but I can give you a bed. I accepted and requested to take my whole 3 days booking to one day earlier. He said no problem and I moved my room and slept soon to wake up very early in next day.
Next day… 1st of October… I woke up at early morning, 6 am and called my friends(actually only one more guy had Cambodian number) but no answer. Then I was getting angry since we had talked about we will travel around together in Angkor Watt region. Thus, I walked thru their hostel and I found some of them there, at the hotel restaurant. We had pretty nice breakfast together at their hostel and arranged one minivan for all of us, 7 people in total. We paid 55 USD for minivan in total, actually we could pay much less but I was not at bargaining side.. Anyway..
Our first destination was Landmine Museum. They show some of the landmines found after Khmer Rouge and photos of them in that museum. These landmines were used at borders in order to obstruct people to escape other countries. It was told huge number of landmines were cleaned from land and there’s still long way to go.

Here is the our group photo (we have only one photo together since Eddie, just left of me, left us to catch his flight back to Singapore):

Later we moved to one place which Clyde, t-short with Same Same in the picture, suggested to go. We reached there after half an hour but there was not any real temple, only carvings in the water called Kbol Spean.

After spending an hour in that river and fountain (there’s one indeed), we walked back to our minivan for 20 minutes. But we had a problem that Indian guy, can be seen in the previous photo, slipped down in the water and broke his arm. He couldn’t walk well and there was one local guy helped him to follow us. Nevertheless, we didn’t have so much time to wait for him and he probably will need to go back to city to go hospital. Thus, we asked him what we should do and we decided to leave him by taking 5usd for short-time trip with us. Then we left him (actually all of the guys in the photo were my intern friends from Singapore, except this guy).
Here is the our third stop point, Banteay Srei:

This temple was first old temple I have ever seen in Siem Reap, but not last of course.
Following, we went to have our lunch at nearest food court. I ate fish as always I have done if I can’t be sure whether it is halal or not (religional worries). I paid 3 usd for this food and coke.

Our next destination had really nice entrance way we loved to walk.

Here is the temple which was built like inside water.

Here is our 3rd temple, the entrance door of the it:

Yes this big construction is just a door of temple. A few photos of the temple are here:

When we were visiting this temple, it was time to go back to city. We returned our hostels and agreed to meet for 8 pm.
All of us ate Amok(traditional food) at one of the restaurant at the Hospital Street, close to Pub Street. It was not so good Amok, I tried better ones you’ll read it soon  After our food we went to Khmer massage all together. It was one of the massage places at Hospital Street. We didn’t like it so much since massagers were inexperienced. Nonetheless, it was just 6 usd.
After that place I went to Temple Club in Pub Street which looks so nice for foreigners, music and people inside. I enjoyed with music for an hour and left there to go to my hostel. I fell asleep within short-time.

By the way, I do have very strange matter about that club. When I was at toilet, I saw there’s a sentence at the wall written “There was no Turk”. Huhh I didn’t have enough battery so unfortunately I couldn’t capture any photo 
Next day, 2 of Oct, didn’t start too early for us. I woke up at 8:30 and went to my friends’ hostel to have breakfast together. After breakfast we started our trip.
This is rice with some sugary dried fruits, called rice stick (I am not sure). We paid 1 usd for one stick.

I remember only a few things about this temple. It has 4 entrance, very hard to walk inside because of deconstruction on Khmer rouge time.

We moved our next temple (I don’t remember the name of it) as seen in the figure:

After this pretty small and modest temple, we moved Bakong temple.

There was one small temple so close to it, photo from that one:

This temple was the last one we planned to visit for this day. We returned back and had rest for an hour. Later we met to had dinner and ate Amok again but at different restaurant by paying 5 usd per each just for Amok. After dinner, we went to the circus.
A few photos from circus:

It was the circus show they do it different parts of Cambodia in different times of year. We were lucky to catch them in Siem Reap since I liked that show so much. They did pretty nice show!
By the way, we found Clyde’s lost twin at circus.

The show ended up at almost 9 pm and we went our hostels to sleep. My friend, Clyde, suggested to me to stay with him in his room by paying 7 usd instead of paying 5 at dorm. It was logical choice and I would like to move and talked with receptionist. Since my booking was 3 days, he didn’t let me leave hostel in 2 days. I bargained to pay half price and luckily he accepted. I stayed at Clyde’s room with quite nice bath inside the room.
Next day, we divided our 4 people group to 2. Me and Ilija rent a bikes and rode them in Angkor Wat region. Although it rained so much at that day and we got wet, fortunately we didn’t get sick. In this day, we rode bikes without our t-shirts most of the time and some people captured our photos…
We visited Angkor Wat, which is the most well-known and sign of this region. Entrance door of it:

It is the Angkor Wat!

Inside photo:

All of the figures on the walls have some meanings. I suggest you to travel there with group of people and have one guides to introduce you about the figures.

After this wonderful temple, we moved best temple for me.. what an amazing day!
This is Bayon!

Though my battery died, fortunately Ilija could take some photos and sent them to me

After riding a bike whole rainy day, we went back. I took my laundry which I gave before starting to ride. I paid 3 usd for 1 kg and she even ironed my clothes.. They offered us from their food as well and we ate some stick with rice and some fruits (banana I only remember). Although they didn’t request any money for food, we paid 2 usd for it too. Anyway.. we went our rooms and had rest again for going out in the night.
We went to eat Amok again. This time was better, at least more fish in it. We paid most in this luxury restaurant too, about 7 usd.

After finishing food, we went massage all together and paid 6 for 1 hour massage, 9 for with oil. On the way I captured one photo which is the food local people eat so much and most foreigners are afraid to even see them.

This is the crocodile my friends shared after eating Amok:

They said it’s taste is almost same as chicken. They paid about 10 usd for this one.
We went sleep after all.. It was our last night in Siem Reap. Chingwen was going back to Singapore, Ilija was going to island in the south of Cambodia. Me and Clyde were heading to Battambang next day morning.
Next day was Friday and I found a mosque in the Sieam Reap to go for Friday prayer. Fortunately our bus to Battambang was starting to move at 1:30 pm and I could go to mosque before it. So I did! Mosque was south west of the Pub Street. If you search from Google Maps when you are there, it will show to you. Mosque was half-full, probably 100 people were inside.
After I did my prayer, I walked to the bus station and met with Clyde there. This one was just opposite of the waiting point of bus:

It was all for Siem Reap, I went Battambang from Siem Reap by bus with Clyde!