Back in Bangkok we stayed at my teacher Tiengs place again, and in the evening he took us out for dinner at an outdoor buffet which is very popular among the locals. The food was really great, and we had a good time.

Chatuchak Market
On Sunday me, Adaora and our French friend Lulu went to the Chatuchak weekend market in the north part of town. We had heard that the market would be crammed, so we got up extra early to avoid as many other tourists as possible. Getting there was easy, and the area was huge, so even though not all of the shops were open when we arrived (around 9 o´clock) there was still a lot to see.

A button collection..

The market is actually divided into different areas depending on the stuff they sell, and you can basically find anything here..

But there aren´t all the parts of the market that I liked that much. It just hurts me to see dogs caged up like that, and the market actually has a whole area where they sell pets, all of them placed in uncomfortably small cages. It made me feel sick just to watch them like that.

But there was also some entertainment in the market, beside all the tourists and stores. Here is a funny-looking guy who had a little dance-show going on..

He looked veery pretty.. Indeed.. :p

We never got the chance to take an air-balloon trip in Cambodia, so this was the closest we got to "the real thing"..

Not to much to say about the weather though, it was pretty bad during our whole stay in Thailand, both the first time and also the second time.

Statues inside Ankor Wat

Since we were traveling on a tight budged we decided to go by the cheapest bus available, a bus that only costed 6 dollars per person, and after another 5-6 hours on the road we arrived in Siem Reap.
Our impression of Phnom Penh had not been too good, but with Siem Reap Cambodia´s image improved for the both of us. The city was small, but the surrounding areas were clean and pretty, with small parks and statues along the road.
Of course it might be pointed out that Siem Reap is more of a tourist city, mainly built up around the ruins of Ankor Wat, which also contributes to a higher standard than for instance that of the Cambodian capital.

The ladies dancing in traditional Cambodian attire

A picture from the buffet

Anyway, for our first evening in Siem Reap we decided to have a finer dinner (all our dinners in Cambodia so far had costed us around 1 US dollar each time), so this evening we went to a place called Koulen Restaurant, where they had buffet combined with a traditional cambodian dance show.
The dance show and the dinner was quite alright, and I´m pretty sure we hadn´t eaten that much since our days in Taiwan.. Haha..
After the dance show we decided to go back to the hotel and take an early night, since we had great plans for the coming day: We wanted to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

First glimpse of Angkor Wat

We woke up at a quarter to five in the morning, and hurried out to the waiting tuk-tuk we had ordered a day in advance.  The trip to Angkor Wat did not take to long, but arriving at the entrance to the area we had to stand in line for a while before finally getting the tickets to get in. The security is quite strict; you get your photo taken which gets printed on the entrance ticket, and you have to show the ticket with your photo on it every time you enter a new temple. Not to mention the price to get in is 20 dollars for a one-day ticket so it is not exactly cheap. But Angkor Wat is a must-see, so I guess there is nothing to do about that..
After entering the area itself we spent another 5 minutes or so until the tuk-tuk stopped and we finally got of. From there it was a short walk across a stone bridge, interesting enough since we almost couldn´t see anything at all.
Even though the clock was not more than around 5:30 there were still a lot of people lined up to see the sunrise.
We were a bit unfortunate with the weather; it was a bit cloudy this morning so by the time we could see the sun it had already risen quite high.

A carving by one of the doors

After seeing the sunrise it was time to take a closer look at Angkor Wat itself, and we found both the beautiful architecture and the carvings in the walls quite interesting.

• All blogposts from Cambodia
• Exploring Asia: Cambodia - Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields
• Label: Asia Backpacking Trip 2011

Golden Temple Residence

Borei Angkor Resort & Spa

Sarai Resort and  Spa

Hotel Somadevi Angkor Resort & Spa

Phnom Penh´s Independent Monument

We left Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam heading for Cambodia´s capital Phnom Penh by bus early in the morning on the 22nd. The bus trip took about six hours, so we arrived at our destination the same afternoon. The bus trip was alright, and passing the border went well without any further problems.

Arriving in Phnom Pehn we had just enough time to check out some of the city´s monuments before the sun went down. Our first impression of the city was not too good though; although they have some nice buildings and stuff to look at, many of the locals (read: tuk-tuk-drivers) are annoying; even when you tell them you don´t need their services they seem to think that if they only keep bugging you long enough eventually you will accept their offer.
Some of the tuk-tuk drivers even stalked us around a couple of blocks before they finally realized that we intended to walk rather than go by tuk-tuk. *Sigh*

A Cambodian monk walking by the walls of the Royal Palace.

And that is also one of the best things about Phnom Penh: everything can be reached by foot so you don´t really need a tuk-tuk if you´re only staying in the city! The capital is in fact more like a village than a capital, and not to mention that all of the streets are marked by numbers so it is really easy to find your way around!

Volunteers from Friends Orphanage

On our walk around the city we stumbled across some volunteers from a group called Friends Orphanage. They asked us if we wanted contribute by working a day or two as volunteers too, but unfortunately we only had one more day to spend in Phnom Penh and there was still a lot left to see.
However, I thought that there might be some others out there wanting to do some volunteer work, and that it might be a good idea at least to share their information on my blog.
In addition to the work at the orphanage, where over 50 children live, the volunteers also helps the community in a lot of other ways too. So if you are interested in working as a volunteer in Cambodia you could always check out their web page for more information. Unlike some volunteer programs you don´t pay anything to participate here, and a place to sleep is provided too. The group seemed serious about their work, and I would definitely have wanted to help out if we had stayed in Phnom Penh for a longer time.

A statue of a golden bird close to the palace.

After our short walk we went back to the hostel just as the sun went down. Phnom Penh did not really seem like a safe city to walk around in after dark, but then again we were getting up early the next day so we took an early night instead.
Luckily we had found ourselves a good driver when we arrived in Phnom Penh, and in the morning we got the people in the reception to call him, and he picked us up shortly after.

Going out of the city by Tuk-Tuk.

We were going to Choeung Ek which lies about 17 km south of Phnom Penh. Though the place used to be a peaceful Chinese graveyard this image was turned upside down in the years between 1975 and 1976 when the Khmer Rouge regime used this place to massacre their own people and giving Choeung Ek the name its more known under: the Killing Fields.
In Choeung Ek there is also a small museum where they show pictures, letters and stories from the Khmer Rouge regime, and they also has a short documentary being shown every hour. It was horrifying to see the brutality of this regime, but at the same time I felt the importance of keeping this piece of history available for us so that we all can learn from the past.


Back in the city our tuk-tuk driver first dropped us of at the Central Market where we spent a couple of minutes. Our driver was surprised at how fast we came back to the tuk-tuk, but I guess we weren´t exactly in shopping mode after the trip to the Killing Fields..

On our city tour we also stopped by the old temple Wat Phnom ("Temple of the Mountains") which lays north in the city. Unfortunately they were doing some construction work at the site, so we did not get to see all of the place (it is not that big, so only a little bit of construction work can ruin a lot of the experience there). Besides the temple itself we also got to see some monkeys playing in the park surrounding the temple, and it is also possible to ride elephants there.

Not to mention the building next to the Royal Palace: The beautiful National Museum!

The National Museum

All in all we spent one afternoon + one day in Phnom Penh. By my opinion this is just enough time to see what there is to see in the city, unless you want to spend some more time there and perhaps work a day or two (or even more) as a volunteer. The city is nice, at least around the palace area. The rest of it is a little bit dirty and chaotic; unfortunately the annoying tuk-tuk drivers left us with a slightly bad image of the city.
On the positive side the city is not that big, you can walk anywhere you want and it is easy to navigate. And one important thing: The food is ridiculously cheap; we paid around 1 dollar for dinner.!
Cambodia has had a rough history, and it is therefore quite understandable that there are big potentials for improvement. But if I could re-choose our destinations I still would have chosen Cambodia and Phnom Penh as one of our destinations.

• All blogposts from Cambodia
• Sightseeing in Cambodia: Siem Reap and sunrise over Angkor Wat
• Label: Asia Backpacking Trip 2011

SUN & MOON Urban Hotel

Okay Boutique  Hotel

White  Mansion

Velkommen Backpackers

 After a 3 hours long bus trip our first stop was My Tho, where we changed to a local motor boat and headed for the smaller islands.

The harbor of My Tho

Picture taken inside the river boat, just as the guide is talking about the places we were going to visit.

 Our first stop was the so-called Unicorn Island where we got to try some locally produced honey wine. Here you can see our guide along with some of the bees that produces the honey here.

But they did not only have bees to show of at the small honey farm. They also sold some alcoholic beverages with other local specialities (?!) inside as well.

 And they also had an available pet-snake that some of us were lucky enough to hold for a while. With that said, Adaora asked me to state in the blog that she kept a good distance from the snake.

 They did not only have a big pet-snake, but they also had some dead ones they used to make yet another kind of funny drink for the tourists. Of course I could not resist the temptation to try out one shot of it, and to be honest it did not taste that much.

 I did not think much more about it, I mean, snakes are kind of creepy but it is not really that bad. We even had snake-soup while in Taiwan.. It was not until our guide revealed that there was another animal inside the bottle - a dead crow - that I started to feel it in my stomach. On the upper left side of the bottle you can actually see the beak of the bird. YUK!

Besides other tourists and some locals, the only thing to see is the nature.

 After a short boat trip to another island, our next thing to try out was a trip with a a local rowing boat.


 On the small river going through the delta. Although this seems to be mainly based on tourists it is a fun experience with nice and quiet surroundings and locals passing by us in their boats probably on their way to pick up new tourists (and some of them keep on asking for money as they pass you.)

Back on open water again

Me and Adaora at one of the islands where they are making coconut-candy. Thanks to our new friends from the Philippines who took the photo:)!

 Not to mention that we had another short delta trip, this time by a bigger motor boat.
Then it was time for lunch. The lunch was so-so, but they had a menu there too so for those who wants more food it was possible to order more.
After lunch there was only a few things to do left on the program, and none of them was too impressive to be honest. First we got the opportunity to take a bicycle  trip around the island we had lunch. But the bicycles were in such a bad condition that some of them was nearly impossible to use. Most of them did not have brakes and so on.. :p
After that the last thing on the program was to hear some locals sing and play on some interesting Vietnamese instruments. It was alright, though the best thing about it was that we got served fruit while listening! Haha:)

 In older days people used to be afraid of crocodiles in the river, and for this reason they painted eyes on the front of their boats to scare the crocodiles and thereby avoid being attacked by them.

The trip was really fun at start, but both me and Adaora felt that it kind of dabbed off after the lunch. The price of the tour was 210.000 Vietnamese Dongs pr. person, so at least it was cheap and we did have some interesting experiences too, so I still would not hesitate to recommend this trip to others.

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