My Cambodia Diary Part 1-2

Continued from Day 1...

Sophal drove Rachel and I to Phnom Bakeng to see the sunset. It's a popular place even for locals as we encounter several of them climbing up the slope with us... it's not really that steep, in fact, it does remind me a little of Bukit Timah Hill... but that's just the slope up the hill part. Along the way, we listened to some musicians strumming away on their traditional instruments. They weren't ordinary musicians, but survivors of the war or victims of landmines attacks...so most of them had a limb missing...and once again, I'm reminded of how fortunate we are over here. They also sells their CDs for about USD10, but donations are always appreciated.

The stairways up the temple...well is like I mentioned earlier, really steep. We had to walk sideways to climb up the steps.

We met some Chinese-speaking Cambodians there, who expressed keen interest in becoming our guides...but they were a little dodgy (esp. when they kept asking if we understood Hakka) so we just tried to ignore them.

We had to wait about almost an hour and by then, it's so crowded I was concerned if anyone might accidentally get pushed off the temple (which I think is about...erm...12 storeys high?) But the wait was worth it... (hold your breath for these)

One word of caution though... after seeing the sunset, do not linger around for far too long... or else going down the steps will be a nightmare!

That night, we headed to Golden Temple Villa's restaurant where they have a free traditional Khmer dance performance. Of course, when they say free, it also means you are suppose to order a drink or some food there... The thing is, the restaurant, though a subsidiary of our guesthouse, is like 300metres away, so we had to walk along the unfamiliar streets of Cambodia looking for the way. Luckily, Cambodia being a tourist hot spot now, is pretty safe and aside from TUKTUK drivers who asked us if we needed a ride, we were pretty much left alone.

Cambodia food is very much like Thai food actually, just minus the usual terms of Tom Yum and Phat Thai... we had their Khmer fried rice, which is very much like pineapple fried rice, and their coconut shake is really yummy... but I felt quite bloated after that, it's like I had 3 bowls of chendol in a row.

And if you think Cambodia is just villages with huts and rats, you are so wrong! Many foreigners are actually opening up restaurants and pubs to cater to the tourists there, so expect loads of cheap beer, free pool and even wide TV screens showing football matches or movies!

(We think he's the boss of the restaurant, as he gamely posed for a picture just when he saw us snapping away)

We wandered around somemore and I ended up with a book on Khmer language for USD2. We also bought some pastries from this cool confectionary called Blue Pumpkin. (We happened to see another branch at the Airport on the day we left) They have 50% off for all pastries after 6pm and it's darn crowded.

By 9pm or so, Rachel and I were so tired we just headed for our guesthouse and dozed off within minutes... after all, we had to be up by 5am (Singapore time 6am) the next day to witness the famous sun rise in Cambodia!