I know I haven't blogged for the longest time ever – I am a lazy girl. Under the persuasion of kim, I have decided that I shall blog about my recent trip. I have to admit that I am starting to fall in love with Asia. It is a place with so much culture; so much history and things are CHEAP! Hahahaha..
19th Dec 2009
Flying in to Phnom Penh on a Saturday morning, we started off by getting hungry and stranded at the International Airport. Our hostel was supposed to pick us up but I don't see anyone there. Great… I'm starting to get worried.. I do not know how to speak the Khmer language! Since that's the case, just get a transport to my hostel. As long as the tuk tuk can bring me there safely (and correctly), money is not a problem. (Actually, the hostel would have charged me the same price).
First experience with the tuk tuk concludes my current hatred for it. You have to understand that with so many vehicles discharging harmful waste into the air, and me breathing in the air while sitting in a tuk tuk beside them is NOT a good combination. But heck..as long as the tuk tuk can bring me to my hostel safely, I DON'T CARE. First impression of Me Mates is not fantastic. It's tucked in an ulu alley and seems like a normal hostel. I have to admit that the rooms are pretty clean and the bathroom is quite impressive. It would have been better if we were given a room with window – I would definitely love it more.
Point to note: Request with Ricky for a window room when you're there. He's a real friendly guy with a fantastic command of English – just a little off on the pronunciation sometimes. =)
After settling down in Me Mates Place, we were hungry. I mean like, SUPER hungry. Time seems to move slower here (probably due to the negligible 1 hr difference). It's not yet noon, but I'm so going for lunch. We walked to the Wat Phnom near our hostel before finding a nice place for food. It's just a normal temple, but to stay so near and not visit is 实在说不过去.
Found this nice place which is newly opened. New like, today. This lady speaks pretty good English and she was even able to explain to us what each dish is like - very friendly and helpful. Considering how hungry we were, this shall be it! I was so hungry; I didn't even bother taking pictures of the food. TUCK IN!
It's the first and the last time I ate this bread thingy. The lady mentioned that it's a local food, but it's really just like ham sandwich to me (with a twist). The vegetables that goes with it is not the normal vegetables that we add in our sandwich (think Subway). It's more like 腌菜.. Combined with the crunchy bread (a little like sourdough bread), it's yummy! Kim refused, because of the weird veggies in it.
With just a map that I zapped from Lonely Planet, we began our adventure around Phnom Penh. First stop: Central Market. At first sight, it's like a shopping paradise. Tons of backpacks which made Kim go, 'I should have just brought 2 plastic bags here and buy a bag home'. Budget and space constraints stopped us from buying a bag, although it's SO DAMN CHEAP! There's another 9 days of travelling to go, and having extra baggage on us just doesn't seem very wise. Walking along, I bought a tee shirt and Kim bought a belt for him mom. Super nice, quality is good, VERY VERY bling - perfect for him mom. Total damage: USD18. One of the record buys during the whole trip. We didn't buy much at the Central Market, as we're going to the Russian Market the next day! That would be the battleground for haggling of prices, and thus we shall reserve out energy for tomorrow.
Next stop: National Museum.
We wanted to take a walking tour around Phnom Penh, as suggested by Lonely Planet. (Ok, I wanted to walk. Kim just wants to slack or maybe take a tuk tuk). But it's not a good idea to be walking under the sun between the times of 12-2, as we later learned. It's super hot, it drains you of your energy. But we managed to find National Museum, after buying a bottle of water (which cost only USD 25 cents) on the way. Royal Palace doesn't open until 2, which leaves us wandering around. Entrance fee to National Museum is USD3, and it didn't match up to our level of interest. So we took pictures to prove that we've 到此一游.
Most of the sculptures here have either lost their hands or their head (as shown in the above picture). We were told that the damages were made during the war. It really is a pity, as most of the sculptures that I have seen are incomplete. We regretted not visiting the National Museum when we were at Angkor Wat. Apparently, the sculptures we saw at the temples around Angkor Wat are replacements and the originals are placed at this museum. Then again, I wouldn't have appreciated them unless I have already been to Angkor Wat.
A building beside Royal Palace. I have no idea what it is, but there are A LOT of pigeons residing on the roof.
Next up: Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.
These 2 are the one of the main attractions in Phnom Penh. Do make a trip here if you can. The entrance fees are approx USD6 per pax, but it covers both sites. (Do not trust the rates mentioned in Lonely Planet – they might be outdated already). Another error is that the opening hours for the afternoon is from 2pm and not 230pm. Do watch your attire as shorts and sleeveless tops are not allowed into the Royal Palace. (However, I'm not sure how strictly do they enforce this. Apparently slippers are not allowed too but I wore slippers in.)
Photographs are generally not allowed inside the buildings (especially Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda), so I can only take pictures from the outside.
The seven-headed snake is commonly seen around Cambodia. The name is Naga, and can come with heads of 3, 5, 7, or 9 (You get the idea, it has to have odd-numbered heads). Our guide in Siem Reap told us its significance, but I can't really remember. According to Wiki, Nāgas were symbols of water and figured in the myths of origin for the Khmer people. Many stories surrounded the Naga, and one of it was the Mucalinda (Serpent King) who shielded Buddha as he sat in meditation.
If you think that the only places to see are the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, you are wrong. This is a HUGE place, and you can easily get lost if you head off in the wrong direction. The correct thing to do is to think like a Singaporean - go where the crowd goes. It saved us! We followed where the people went and found ourselves heading towards Silver Pagoda (yes they are pretty far apart).
Entering into the vicinity of Silver Pagoda, there are drawings on the walls with tons of 岁月痕迹. It's a long stretch of drawings depicting a story (which I have no idea what it is).
Silver Pagoda gets its name from the silver flooring in the temple's interior. However, due to wear and tear, they have carpet over the silver tiles. While I was there, there was a section with no carpets that was cordoned off. We assumed that restoration works are going on. Thanks to that, I managed to sneak my feet over the silver tiles and touched it. Haha.. it felt very cooling, and we were left wondering if the tiles were made from real silver (think 925 Sterling Silver). No pictures as cameras are not allowed inside the Pagoda.
I've since fallen in love with blue blue skies as backdrop for all my photos. Look at my blue blue sky!!!!!
Yay!!!!! Blue blue sky ends off my visit to Royal Palace + Silver Pagoda on a good note! It's now only 4+, and the trip took us less than 2 hours. You don't need a long time to tour the whole place unless you're scouting for good photo locations. The sky starts to get dark around 6 to 630pm (which is really around the same time for Singapore, considering the fact that Cambodia is 1 hour ahead of Singapore). After walking around the whole day, we decided to get a tuk tuk back to Me Mates even though it's rather close by.
Lesson 2: Everything can be bargained for a better price here. From an initial quote of USD2, the price was bargained to the USD1 that I was willing to pay.
We went back to Me Mates, rested for awhile and I changed out of my jeans. I would have changed out of it a long time ago, if not for the fact that shorts was not allowed in the Royal Palace. Since we had lunch at close to noon, we're pretty hungry by then. So…off to find dinner places!
We were just wandering around as we have no idea where are the dinner places. There's a stretch of restaurants and pubs along Tonle Sap River, which is just 3 minutes' walk from Me Mates. So we just walked along and guess what we saw?
People exercising along the river! They were doing exercises which looked awfully like the Great Singapore Workout. I was tempted to join them but Kim looked like he was gonna kill me himself if I did. So, no…dinner first.
Point to note: Traffic in Cambodia is very daunting. We were trying very hard not to cross roads unnecessarily as there were so many vehicles and no traffic lights or zebra crossings. Scary…
Further down the road a little, we found 路边摊!! Its really just 串烧 look-a-like, and was not dirt cheap to begin with. However, look at the sides it came with!!! All the veggies made the price suddenly seem worth it.
Lesson 1: Things are never what it seemed in Cambodia. When you think that it's too expensive, they surprise you with free veggies!
The 2 small 串烧 are insufficient in filling our stomachs up, and we carried on with our quest for more food. Restaurants and pubs are really aplenty here, but they seemed to cater to foreigners. We wanted something local, and at the same time safe-looking (aka no stomachache after dinner). And we found a pasar malam lookalike! So much food!!!! but all selling the same things. We settled on a stall with a rather steady flow of business and chose the food we want (sorry, too hungry to remember taking photos). They have mats in the middle of the clearing, with the food stalls forming the perimeter. You just pick your food, and sit down on the mat. They will serve your food when it's ready. One thing which impresses me a lot in Cambodia is that they provide tissue at ALL eateries. It's like a must-have. So friendly lor…
And the food is here!!!! I think this whole meal cost us less than USD5. And we couldn't finish everything, there's too much. The plate of veggies at the top is complementary. I think they give that when you order 串烧? We didn't get that when we ordered mains.
After a whole day of walking around, we were tired. Decided to find a nice pub and settle down for a drink. Beers are around USD1 here, and cocktails are about USD3-4. We found a pub which overlooks the Tonle Sap River. We found it more expensive initially, with cocktails at USD4. That was before we realized that cocktails are 1 for 1 during their Happy Hour (before 8pm). So we've got 2 glasses of very nice Long Island Tea. I mean, VERY nice. Might easily be the nicest I've ever had.
Its gonna be a long day tomorrow. Better rest early….
