Cambodia: Episode I - Journey to a new world

Have finally uploaded some pics from half d Cambodia Trip!! And can finally blog it!!

Twas a very interesting trip!! Not a single dull moment to spare... from the moment we arrive at the airport.


We took a cab to our guest house and look at d traffic in Phnom Penh!!!

and we thought Malaysia was bad???

There, there's no such thing as a one way street, every piece of land is an all-way street. Traffic was pretty much in a total chaos all d way till we reached our "hotel". It was a back-packers' guest house.




We got a room with a balcony!! :-)
Not that it was much of a view but still balcony balcony!!



We, meaning my trustee roommate Zwui and me!

We were roommates through out the trip as we have specifically requested it so to our beloved mother hen aka Mei Kee. After we unpacked and got settled in, we went out for dinner. Foooooood!!!


Me eating some pork pau. Yum!! And coming from someone who tak suka makan pork!


This was the restaurant we ate in, Orussey Restaurant


Main course, beef noodle
Actually this taste very Malaysian. I still prefer Seremban's... hehehe

After dinner, we took a stroll along the street where we had dinner and saw some stalls selling food. Some looked funny so we didn't try them at the time... except for this stall selling sausages with pickled vegetables.

Cambodian Satay???
The sausages are abit chewy, I think it's full of pork intestines and other pig insides, yuck! But the pickled vegetables were yummy!! So I just had d vege and left d yucky sausage behind. After that, we took tuk-tuks to the river front.


taking pics of each other's tuk-tuks


Da riverfront
It's quite a dirty area. Although it was already dark and we couldn't see the yucky coloured water, we could still see the big fat rats running about near the waterbank. Actually, the whole town has a very enchanting feel to it despite the mess and dirt. It feels kinda like what I imagine Thailand would've been like several decades ago. Nothing metropolitan, no 7-eleven, no McDonalds, no Citibank towers... just all Phnom Penh things and all Phnom Penh people.


Lotsa Cambodian people lepak along the riverside


Balancing act!

The next morning, we had to be up early to catch a bus to Siem Reap. Mana tau, dunno why both my roomie and I got the time wrong and we were both late. Lucky we didn't miss da bus!


The bus journey was about 6 hours but of course there were stops in between.

We had some Cambodian "bak chang" as snacks!


Mother Hen (in yellow) distributing goodies to her chickies


Lunch venue...


Fried rice saje... not much different from the Malaysian kind.


But their stray mongrels ARE cuter than Malaysian ones.

When we arrived in Siem Reap, we were harassed greeted by a whole crowd of tuk-tuk cab drivers. But the one from our guest house was smart enough to hold up a big signage for us! :-)


Zwui and I in da tuk tuk


Our guesthouse: Skyway Guest House

It was quite a decent place. The owner speaks Mandarin. Made communication so much easier for us.


Me in da room. Zwui and I take turns to take each other's photo... we syok sendiri...heheh

Later that day, we head out to Tonle Sap.

along the way was a long charming rural roads with many rumah kampung...
These are REAL kampungs ok? Kampung Attap, Kampung Pandan, itu tak main!


We got on to one of their kampung boat.
Look at the little kid, he's really young but working real hard already. At that age, we were probably playing our game of teng-teng, getah or batu seremban still, not knowing what is the meaning of "work".


The houses on d water. There's a whole village!


A little boy comes a begging.
Our kind hearted Mother Hen gave him a pack of chocolate. Suddenly we see a few others pedalling ASAP towards our boat. We gave out all the snacks we had. I really wonder if these kids have ever tasted chocolate? Kesian kan?


Da gang at d front of da boat


They also brought us to da place d rear crocs...eeeww


More water village people


They even rear Iggy piggy on water!

After Tonle Sap, we went out for some grub. Some authentic Khmer grub...

Me, Zwui & pIggy


The view from d restaurant... on the 1st floor only. No tall buildings there


Green curry... like Thailand's! Yum!



Actually, Malaysians should be all fine and dandy with Khmer food as it is very typical South East Asian, spicy, full-flavoured, coconut milk... Yummy!!!

Coming up...
Angkor Wat
Massage
Shooting with a live M16!!!