Holiday at Cambodia!

Bayon
Originally uploaded by Selinz.

Cambodia was full of surprises. Its history so tragic yet its people recover with great strength and optimism.

We toured Bayon, Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat. All three temples were different and special in its own ways. Bayon is the one many Buddha heads on its towers. Ta Prohm is the one where Tomb Raider was filmed, where u see lots of trees with its roots covering the ruins and Angkor Wat is the famous one where even Cambodia’s flag has a picture of it.

I hope that my photo album is able to tell its own story on how beautiful and charming Cambodia was. Words just cannot describe it, or rather, I have no time to go at great lengths about it :P

It involved a lot of walking in the streaking hot sun, but it was well worth it. People of Cambodia are so friendly and just love to have their pictures taken. They would smile at the camera for you and some even ask to have their pictures taken! I had the most fun taking pictures of people there.

Siem Reap, where the Angkor temples were, is a very small town. Kinda like Seremban. There are lots of bicycles, tuk tuk’s and motorcycles. Tuk tuk is the cheapest way to get around in Siem Reap for tourist ( I understand you can hire a tuk tuk for a day for USD 10 and they will take you anywhere you want) but the dust from the streets will get to you! Its not vehicle fumes but dust from the road as a result of the red soil that’s dried up. We were in a van and even that I could feel my lips were sandy!

Food in Siem Reap was fantastic!! SO delicious. Eating was not a problem because they have a lot of fish and seafood dishes, although pork and frog legs are aplenty on the menu. But seriously they have things like vege curry in a coconut, fish soup in a coconut and shrimp cooked in so many ways. Their deserts are kinda like in Malaysia. They have pengat pisang with sago, red bean soup, flour rolled in a shape of a small ball with crushed peanuts in it (the Chinese will know this well, it is served in a syrup) and of course lots of fruits.

I need not elaborate on the shopping! Everyone knows that shopping in Cambodia is cheap. There is just too many things to buy, of course there were lots of those silk handbags. You pay at most USD 7 for one. Then there are things like cushion covers, which I paid USD 3 for each. There are lots of those stone carvings of Buddha and things, I would have loved to get some, but we can’t have any sort of idols in the house, so, tak bole beli.

Oh and books there are cheap. People sell it by the road side. Books such as Lonely Planet on Cambodia, history on Cambodia, readings on the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot etc… are dead cheap. I checked out Kinokuniya before I left for the trip as I wanted to read more on the history of Cambodia before I went, it cost around RM200 for a book by David Chandler (apparently a famous historian). Other titles costs no less than RM 100. I managed to find them at the Angkor temples, by the road side, peddled by the locals at no more than USD 5 each!!! Bargain or what! They are actually copies. They reproduced them and they are in paperbacks too! The pages are not aligned too well, but heck, they are readable!

All in all, Cambodia is HIGHLY recommended.

(hehe… what was meant to be a short and brief post looks like now quite a long one)