Siem Reap Escapade!

Goodbye land of hot young men and hello reality. I'm still in denial that I am now back in Malaysia. My heart is still having fun with the HOT laddies in Siem Reap. Dang! I envy my own heart.

Anyways, contrary to our initial plans, major changes happened. Some was not so good but heck we overcame all adversity and had a blast anyways. As for the rest, they were all experiences that no amount of money can buy.

So what happened? Well... after the "unspoken incident", we all ended up staying here:

Angkor Voyage Villa Guesthouse

It was a last minute decision but probably one of the best that we made throughout our time there. A huge thanks to our van driver, Sarat, for showing us the place. For only USD22 we got a huge room with 3 double beds, a/c, hot water and a TV with probably a gazillion satellite channels. I even found an Albanian channel on there. Definitely a bargain! And the cook makes a mean omelet and baguette toast. I'm drooling even thinking about it. Although I probably wouldn't recommend this place for the weak-hearted. Because guess what we got for a view?

53 live crocs!

Angkor Wat was the agenda for day 2. All the temples there was totally amazing. Thanks to Sheena, our leader who planned the trip superbly, we managed to visit all of the major temples in one whole day. Although if we were to stay an hour longer we probably wouldn't be able to look at another stone temple for the rest of our lives. All of the temples were gorgeous but my favourite would probably the temple where they filmed the Lara Croft movie, The Temple of the Trees.

Isn't it amazing how that big tree could actually grow on top of the temple wall.

This lady was found on every temple wall. The Cambodian ideal of how the prefect lady should look like, all lush and curvy. Like Midge and me :P

This place was totally worth the USD20 entrance fee because not only did we get to see one of the wonders of the ancient worlds but we also managed to crash a Cambodian wedding! Congratulations to the bride and groom (whose names were really hard to pronounce) and thank you so much for welcoming 5 sweaty Malaysian girls to your wedding celebration. It was probably one of the best experience we had there. I think crashing a local wedding would be permanent on our travel agenda from now on. So future brides and grooms throughout the world, be on the look out for 5 crazy Malaysian gals.

Check out the cute bride and groom!

We also checked out the Old Market and Center Market, but didn't do as much shopping as we would've liked. It'll be a different matter if I were from the States but with RM3.70 for every USD1 a shopping spree was made impossible. So no offence to all who didn't get a souvenir. I'm just a poor part-time lecturer who is not working this short semester. There was definitely a silver lining to all that though, no extra luggage to lug around on the flight back. Whew!

I only bought one of those pretty dresses. Still have no clue to what occasion I should wear it too.

Now one of the main attractions of Siem Reap was the food. The local food there was good but they weren't that unusual since they resemble Thai and Malay food. But I had fun trying to pronounce their names. And the Cambodians had fun laughing at me when I tried. So we all went on the hunt for their "specialty" food. Unfortunately for us, tarantula was not in season but luckily we found fried crickets instead!

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine eating one of these things. I was pretty grossed out by how it looked so I only had half a cricket. Surprisingly it tasted rather good. I think they were mixed together with curry paste. Although you may have to watch out for the legs. They get stuck in between your teeth and takes ages to come out.

And we definitely didn't forget about Happy Pizza! Although, it was probably more hype than anything else. The pizza itself was good but there was only a few sprinkling of the "happy herb". Although we weren't as happy as we thought we would be but we were happy that we had good pizza.

Can you see the "happy herb"?

One of the things-to-do in Siem Reap was to go on boat tour of Tonle Sap. Originally we were supposed to take a tour on the Tara Boat. But because of the "unspoken incident", there was a change of plans and we ended up going on a much better albeit smallet boat tour. Way cheaper too. We were in the care of a 14 year old boy who probably had a major crush on Midge. No suprises there since she is a Cambodian ideal.

It was amazing to see how these people could actually survive living in a small boat hut, in the middle of a vast lake. It's a hard life but they all seem happy. We even visited a floating school and after not-so-subtle hints, we made a small contribution in the form of books and stationaries.

Yes, even on my very first day of floating school I was deemed naughty by the principle. That's Chien (green t-shirt), our boat guide by the way.

Another must do when in Cambodia is to catch a live Apsara dance performance. And we found a place that has it every night for free!! Although, it was in a classy kind of restaurant so we decided to order a drink each just in case they decided to kick us out. And just when things were getting really good, my camera died on me. So I had to rely on my trusty Nokia for pictures.

These girls are probably no older than 15 and yet they're all pros. I want those lentik fingers dammit!

So there you are in brief my escapades in Siem Reap. Would I ever go back to Siem Reap? Heck yes. There's still loads of things I want to explore. Sides, the guys there are HOT enough to convince me to stay :P But the next time I go, I'm making sure that money will not be a problem.

So what's next on the agenda? Thiruchirapalli!!