A Journey to Cambodia (Part 1) ...
Date: 5 Dec '07, 9.30am (Phnom Penh)In about 10mins time, the airplane will be landing in Cambodia and that's where our holiday trip starts. The time here is 1 hour back the time in Singapore. Feeling abit bored though & worried. Is this trip really going to be fun? The people around don't seem to be friendly. Just hope that things will be ok. I know mum is very excited.
Now if I look out the window, there's a beautiful ox bow lake, something that I learned in sec sch but you don't get to see in Singapore. Cambodia seems to be a quiet place, with people living with their simple lifestyle.
Ok, landing now... Till then... (9.35am)
2.15pm: Back in hotel
After touching ground in Phnom Penh, we went straight to the 1st station, Wat Phnom (塔山寺). This is a beautiful temple housing a pretty big sitting buddha. From there, we went on for lunch. Along the way, our tour guide taught some simple common words in Khmer language (i.e. Cambodian language). It was quite fun and we make alot of jokes while learning this new language. We came to this place called Restaurant Sorya for our very 1st meal in Phnom Penh.
After lunch, we headed to our hotel for checking-in and deposit our luggages before continuing. According to the tour guide, our hotel (Cambodiana Hotel) is one of the more high class hotels in Phnom Penh. As Cambodia is not a well-developed country, there aren't much facilities around. Living pace here is rather slow. That's why we're bored now. Nothing to do, waiting for 2.30pm to come to continue our sight-sighting.
10.45pm: Back in hotel after massage
This afternoon, we went to a "previous sec. school" which was converted to a place for torturing the civilians during the Pol Pot Regime. It is now known as the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (最大恶人馆). 大家看了后心情都很沉重。真的是太残忍了。。。他们经历的，比世界第二战争时新加坡的老百姓经历的还残。简直是没人性！
After that, we went to another museum to look at the ornaments. The tour guide spoke in a very strong Cambodian accent. So everyone didn't really catch what she was saying. After which, we went to take a look at the Casino built by a joint venture of China & Malaysia companies. Some of the people in the tour group tried their luck and won abit.
Dinner was good!! We had steamboat at a place called "King Suki Soup". We dumped all the food into the pot and cooked in a mess but it was really delicious. I ate so much as if I haven't eaten for days... Oh dear... gonna put on alot of weight...
At night, under the tour guide's recommendation, a group of us went for full-body massage. I must say this is the 1st time I'm trying massage and they are really good. It's those Thai style massage and the lady "cracked" all my bones. Now I feel like a jellyfish... heex...
Ok, now back in hotel, so tired... tomoro stil got to wake up early at 6.30am!! Time to sleep... goodnight! (11.04pm)
Date: 6 Dec '07, 11.30pm (Phnom Penh)
This morning, I set the alarm clock wrongly. In the end, made mummy wake up at 4am instead. She almost killed me!! Ha ha... Breakfast was in the cafeteria beasides the hotel lobby. We also had 坚文 to join us at the table. It was quite funny though..
After breakfast, we proceeded on to a long tour in the Royal Palace (皇宫). It has a mixture in culture of the Western-Europe style, yet with the beauty of the Northern Asia (a tinge of Burma & Indian style). The main religions were Hinduism & Buddhism. So we visited the Silver Pagoda which is located in the Palace itself.
The next stop, the Russian Market or Psah Toul Tom Pong. It's like the very very old 珍珠巴刹, with very narrow walkways. At there, I bought 40 bamboo dragonflies as souvenirs for friends and colleagues. There weren't much things to buy afterall.
For lunch, we were brought to a restaurant called Tonle Bassac Restaurant. They served pretty nice buffet with wide variety of food, but mainly of Asian cuisine. Everyone had much fun eating and joking around.
After lunch, we went to complete our heritage tour which is the "万人坑", "Killing Fields" of Cheong Ek. 在那儿，满地尸骸。每一步都可能踏在人骨上，因为当地人只挖出了20%的尸体。心情又再一次沉重了下来。
Ok, enough of the sad stories, shopping time again. We went to Central Market & did quite alot of shopping here. Bought 2 Adidas dry-fit tops. Looks not bad, though not too sure if they're genuine. I don't think so bah.. it's just USD3.50 each!!!
A bonus for my group, we went to take a ride on a ferry touring the Mekong River, which joined to the Tonle Sap River. At there, we saw the beautiful sunset. Looking at the horizon where the sea meets the sky, my mind went blank... Wat's going on? I also dunno... I guess... it's just brought back some memories bah...
At night, we went to Hua Nam Restaurant, a Macau style restaurant. Pretty good food but had the electricity tripped twice... So we had candle light dinner for awhile. Ha ha..
After dinner, mummy & aunt slept soon after packing the luggage while I went to join the rest for drinking in Qbar & hala hala...
Borrowed 坚文's ipod to save me from the "symphony orchestra" by mummy & aunt thru the night. Ha ha...
Ok, that's all for today...
Date: 7 Dec '07, 9pm (Siem Reap)
This morning, we woke up very early at around 5.30am to prepare & pack luggage as we are moving on to Siem Reap. It was a very very long journey of 6 hours. Along the way, we stopped at 2 palces for toilet breaks. 1 of the uncles took photos with live hairy spiders...
At lunch, we bid farewell to our tour guide and welcomed our new tour guide in Siem Reap. Poor guy!! As he can't really speak Chinese fluently, he pronounce words in the wrong tone, and ended up making a fool of himself. Some of our tour members were very unhappy with him and requested to change a tour guide. Felt so sorry for him coz it's really obvious that he really really tried his very best already... Just hope that he won't lose a job becoz of what happened today...
Ok, next stop was the French Sculpture School. All the sculptures were carved by handicapped who are either speech-impaired or hearing-impaired. They are really skillful but too bad that the things are too expensive. So.... didn't buy any back...
Next, we went to view the Tonle Sap Lake. The journey there was rocky & the place was really really dusty. I felt like my whole lungs choked up with dust, need some washing & vacuuming... Ha ha... The sunset view was nice... but dunno why... I wasn't feeling happy again... Probably becoz of the mishap of our dragonboat team...
TO BE CONTINUED...
posted by 薇妮 = ωεϊŋΐ ™ @ 9:04:00 pm
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