siem reap: day 2

i was looking back at some of my posts, and realized that i've only posted day 1 from my siem reap trip more than 1 year ago! kakaka... so here goes day 2. hopefully can still remember the details.

6.00am

despite waking up so early, the sky outside had already discarded its dawn cloak and the sun was already shining brightly. it felt more like 8am than 6am! we excitedly jumped out of bed and prepared for a full day of adventure with some serious wat (temples) to see!!

7.45am

breakfast bright and early at the Boosters Cafe...

see, the streets were still empty!

my menu choice, Tropica Muesli = USD3.00

N's breakfast: Sausages & Eggs (comes with a basket of buns) = USD3.25

8.30am

arrived at the main gate of the angkor ruins complex...

3-day entry pass = USD40 per pax

ok lar... i won't bore everyone with descriptions of all the different wat we saw... to tell you the truth, i myself also forgot the names of the wat and the story behind them! now when i look thru all the pics, they're just one stone wat after another! need to refer to our guide books only i'll remember... :P

but from what we saw, we can tell that these amazing structures will not last long. thousands and millions of tourists come here each year, and yet the cambodian gov is doing little to preserve them. all the preservation efforts we saw when we were there were by foreign associations or organizations. and it's sad to see many parts in most of the structures crumbling or lying in ruins... at the rate they're going, it could all be gone from the face of the earth in a little less than 20 years!

the Baphuon site is being restored by the French gov

Baphuon is so dilapidated that they cordoned off the whole structure

old and new... the parts that were restored

were easily recognizable from the original

11.00am

taking a rest in one of the many huts

with fresh coconuts... 2 coconuts = USD0.50

N with our tuk-tuk driver, Saman

2.30pm

the sun is really out for the kill!

we went to see a few more wat... until our legs

couldn't take it anymore and were screaming in protest!

btw, that's N at the top of the steep and narrow stairs...

3.30pm

initially we had wanted to spend the whole day seeing the wat, but our bodies thot otherwise. we were beat! so we decided to just see the more famous sites and forego the smaller ones.

on the way back to town, N's guidebook fell from the tuk-tuk. here,

she's running back to the tuk-tuk after retrieving her book! keke...

N, nearly reaching the tuk-tuk, sempat lagi take pic of me.

see, even Saman can't tahan us and is laughing at us! :P

in my previous post, i posted a pic of their roadside petrol station...

that was in the rural area lar. in town,

they do have modern and proper petrol stations.

4.00pm

finally we reached the old market place, bid Saman goodbye and went to look for food! have not had anything since breakfast!

craving for some 'normal' food... something we're familiar with!

so decided to try out this italian place...

my choice, creamy fettucine with shrimp = USD3.20

+ can of coke = USD0.75

N's lunch, fish fillet in yogurt = USD4.20 + coke = USD0.75

5.30pm

well, even tho' we were dead tired, but how can we just go back to our guesthouse to rest, right? we need to make full use of our time here mar! so we enquired ard for a tuk-tuk to bring us to the silk farm.

worker boiling the cocoons and extracting the silk strands...

silk dyed in different colour, some

using natural dyes from tree barks, leaves, flowers etc.

workers spinning silk...

half of the cocoons at the farm were left to mature and the pupae

to turn into butterflies for the production of more silk worms!

silk worm... no, that's NOT my hand! nor N's, for that matter...

6.30pm

the silk farm is kinda far... took us abt 45min on the tuk-tuk to get back to the old market place. on the way...

rush hour cambodian style! this sepia version

made the place looked very rustic hor?

the roads were very pot-holed and filled with water, that we don't really know how deep the holes were until one of the tuk-tuk wheels went into it. more than a few times, we were worried our tuk-tuk would overturn!

along the way, we saw many interesting things... one was a family of three on a motorbike. the dad was at the wheel, the mom behind and the child terkepit in the middle. the interesting part was, the kid had his/her head in bandages and the mom was holding on to an IV drip pole, with the tube attached to the kid!

this is how pigs are transfered in cambodia!

7.00pm

moving around the town of siem reap, we noticed a lot of korean establishments around, esp korean restaurants. both of us being korean food lovers, we can't help but salivate at the thot of bibeembab! keke...

yums... so happy to be eating korean food!

long wait......

finally! their bibeembab is quite nice lar... only thing is that they substitute some of the vege with local vege, and it was kinda weird

8.00pm

when we got back to our guesthouse, we discovered that there was a power failure in the area... no lights, no water heater, no air-cond... so we decided to go out again, to the old market place. the whole place was running on generators...

and we met N's friend! imagine, of all the places to meet ur friends...

we shopped and walked ard for another hour or two before calling it a day.


read also:
siem reap: day 1
weekend trips, mini holidays & vacations
snippets: siem reap trip
next stop: siem reap