The longest bus ride: Phnom Penh to Siam Reap

After our visit to Tuol Sleng Genocide museum and Killing Field, we're drained by the heat and not willing to venture outdoor anymore. All that we want was air- conditioned place. And the only place that really saved our asses is Nagaworld, the casino.

We were not playing or placing any bets because the minimum bet is 20USD, a little over our budget. So we just roamed around enjoying the air condition and ermm trying to get free drinks from the waitress but they just ignored us ='=

In the end, we asked our driver to drive us to AEON Mall because 1) air condition 2) cheap supermarket food.

But first we stopped by Costa Coffee for drinks.

My green tea tasted way better than Starbucks green tea frappucino

I love their supermarket, it is so well stocked with food and daily supply that I forgot that I was in Cambodia. My favorite part of the supermarket is the food stalls. We tapau-ed some food for dinner and had some much fun eating and laughing in our hotel room.

Pizza

The only downside is still the hygiene problem. I spotted cockroaches crawling around the stall. Super disgusting!

These ice creams look yummy but I didn't get any.

By the way, Cambodia yogurt is super delicious. I'm serious, you have to try one if you visit Cambodia, just pick any flavor although pomegranate is highly recommended and enjoy it.

The next day we hopped on a bus and left for Siam Reap. I couldn't help but feel like being cheated by our hotel. We booked the bus ticket from our hotel counter and they recommended this bus for us as they said it is fast. We will arrive in Siam Reap after 4 hours. Truth is none of us do any research for the bus ride, so we just agreed.

It turned out to be the longest 8 hours drive in my life. The driver really drove super slow and the road condition was not good. What irked me up was that we kept stopping for passengers to alight and mount. From a comfortable ride, it turned into a super packed bus. Some passengers were sitting on make shift stools in the aisle. 

The longest 8 hours of my life and we prepared no food because we thought we would reach Siam Reap by lunch time. 

The view along the road

Luckily the bus did stopped at a R&R spot for toilet break and snack refill. 

Saw lots of people gathered around this stall so we got curious and took a peek too.

Turned out she was selling tarantula for snack

My lunch

Had to hastily finish the cup noodle because our driver was honking for us to get on the bus. We were quite annoyed because nobody could tell us how long will it takes to reach. Asked the assistant driver and he replied soon. 

His "soon" was 2-3 hours. ='=

Finally reach Siam Reap past 4 pm and we got super confused at the bus terminal. It is literally an empty building in the alley. Like seriously.

As if we haven't got enough of misfortune, our hotel pick up only send one tuk tuk for 6 persons plus luggages.

Yeah, Mekong Angkor Deluxe Hotel, you suck :(

We wasted close to one hour there waiting for another van to pick us up. Just like that a day passed and we spent it on the so called 4 hours bus ride and one hour of waiting for hotel pick up. But the next day turned out to be great because we visited the famous Angkor Wat which deserves a post on its own.

Cambodia's Travel Tips

When people around me found out that I'm going for a trip to Cambodia, they shot me a worried look. Why Cambodia? It is a post war country, it is a third world country. Is it even safe? These are some of the questions being asked to me.

Well, honestly I had no idea what to expect prior to the trip. Just like any other trips that I had had, I was excited. I mean, it is a new country and surely will warrant me new experience, something that I had been thirsting for.

And yes it delivered. So here are some tips for you guys if you're planning to visit Cambodia in the future.

At the street of Phnom Penh

Tips No 1: Bring your own masks and sunscreen.

Because you will need it. My very first impression of Phnom Penh was the land is very very dry and humid and dusty too. From the plane when we were about to land, everything look yellowish. The grass, the land and even the buildings. And the weather is extremely hot, it is mostly around 35 degree Celsius. So sunscreen is your best friend, the higher the SPF, the better.

Since you will use tuk tuk to get around town, getting your own masks beforehand is better. Because you will need it the moment you left the airport. In Phnom Penh, it is as if there is no traffic rules on the road. Everyone is driving everywhere in every directions. Like seriously.

The roads are normally congested due to the chaos and they honk all the time. Don't be surprise when you reach your destination and wipe your face with tissue, the tissue turns black. This is true story guys.

This is how we looked like for our whole tuk tuk journey

Talking about tuk tuk, here is my tips no 2.

Tips No 2: Always always always discuss your tuk tuk price beforehand with your driver before getting on his tuk tuk 

This is very crucial because tuk tuk drivers earn their money through tourists. You are their money tree because I didn't see much local using tuk tuk. We almost got conned when we got back from Central Market. The tuk tuk driver agreed for 3 USD per ride. We got on his tuk tuk and suddenly his friend said it is 1USD per pax. We're 6 by the way. We threaten to get off so he maintained the original price.

When we reach our hotel which is just 10 minutes away, he asked for 1USD per pax. We got angry, gave him 3USD and ran off into the hotel afterward wtf.  Lucky he didn't chase us down.

Tips No 3: Never give money to beggars

This one is my personal opinion. We had beggars from children, senior citizen and disabled people approached us. They are very persistent, one old lady followed us for the whole street for money but we ignored her. I never agree with the act of asking money from strangers, be it using your kids or yourself.

The kids do not go to school and begging on the street with their mother.

Tips No 4: Same as tips no 2 but for massage. Settle on the price that you willing to pay before let them massage you.

We searched around our hotel area for cheap foot massage at night and found one that offered 4USD instead of 5USD. We agreed and walked in. Lied down on the mattress and waiting for our massage ladies. They came in and started the massage as usual without oil/cream.

Foot massage usually using oil and body massage is not. So we confirmed again with the ladies that we wanted foot massage and they said it is full body massage wtf. We argues and stressed "Foot Massage Only" They gave in but wanted to charge us 5USD.

Walao wei...at the counter we already said foot massage 4USD and they agreed. Now that we lied down already straight marked up to 5USD. They even show us menu so we had no choice but to carry on.

Turned out the massage was good. But they could have told us it is 5USD from the very beginning instead of making us feel like getting cheated.

Tips No 5: Must take care of your belonging especially during massage. 

During one of my massage in Siam Reap, my massage lady stole money from my bag pocket. I put some crumpled dollar notes in the front pocket so that I could pay anything easily. When I'm done massage and wanted to pay her, my money was gone wtf.

I suspected she did it when she massaged my back because she was behind me the whole time and my bag was right next to her.

In my 8 hours bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siam Reap

Tips No 6: Check your receipt. They tend to sneakily adding items and overcharged you.

This happened when we were having lunch in a cafe in Pub Street. We each ordered whatever we like and paid accordingly. But our money was short if compared to the receipt that the waitress shown us. So we thought someone must have count their food wrongly.

We checked with menu and nobody counted wrong.

Turned out, they added one coke in our receipt. We told them it was wrong. The waitress looked annoyed and unwillingly change the receipt.

They didn't even apologize wtf.

This is the cheater restaurant

The food was mediocre too.

The last tip is to check your food.

Yes, you should in fact check every cafes/restaurant/pubs that you walked in to whether the food is clean or not. Cambodians are not known for they hygiene. The kids even played barefoot on the road and peed there too.

We got a few surprise visits from cockroaches when we were in Temple Club. The cockroaches were crawling on our table wtf. We screamed and the waitress came and smacked it with the menu. And asked us to resume as if nothing happened wtf. And they overcharged us too ='= the price on the menu was different from what the waiter asked us to pay.

When we asked for receipt, he just walked away and ignored us. Rude much eh!


So these are some of my tips for Cambodia. Not all Cambodians are rude and ruthless. We did encountered some good ones but I'll say do keep an open mind when you visit Cambodia and put up your guard to the highest. I'm sure you will enjoy Cambodia like I did.

Phnom Penh Day 2: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum & Killing Field

Not exactly my favorite part of my visit to Phnom Penh was the trip to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Killing Field. Before I went there, I was excited to go there and to see for myself the left over of the Khmer Rouge. Cruel and inhuman was all I could think about after the visit. How could they kill an innocent live without a blink of an eye? How could they inflict pain and torture their victims without feeling guilty? 

I just couldn't understand it.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was initially a school but turned into prison when Khmer Rouge took over. We did asked our tour guide at Angkor Wat what was the purpose of Khmer Rouge. He explained it was to abolish classes such as the rich and the poor in the society. They want everyone to be equal and classless. You can read more about it here. It is a very interesting read. 

The purpose is good but executed with such an extreme methods. It kills the purpose, guys.

As we walked into the school yard, there were some veterans sitting under shade with posters and books behind them. My guess they are probably the survivors of Khmer Rouge or someone related to Khmer Rouge victims. 

I was not paying much attention as it was really hot that I can feel the sun burning my skin. Plus, we were in a hurry to catch a documentary about Khmer Rouge in one of the old classroom. 

Some of the victims that killed or died at Tuol Sleng were buried there.

The higher floor of the building was wired to prevent the prisoners from jumping off. They were tortured with all methods that you could imagine and rather commit suicide than being left to suffer till their last breathe.

We didn't stay long there. The place seems so eerie and haunting to me. The peeling paint on the wall, the rusty metal bed and the stench make it even more scarier. The surrounding atmosphere was quiet as tourists flocking the area kept their voices down as a sign of respect to the victims.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Musuem

Street 113, Boeng Keng Kang

Phnom Penh

Entrance fee: $2

Next, we got on our van and heading to Killing Field which was quite a journey too. It takes around 45 minutes to reach. The Killing Field is located at Choeung Ek village and the location where the prisoners from Tuol Sleng were sent to be executed. 

By looking at the tower in the picture, you will never guess what are stored inside. Thousands of skulls of the victims are stored in there. The skulls of the victims are arranged accordingly to age categories. Same as the genocide museum, we didn't buy the audio guide as it is quite pricey, $6 if I'm not mistaken.

Same as the genocide museum, everyone was quiet and mostly walking around with headphone as they were listening to the audio guide. Although it will be great to be brief about what incident happened at a certain spot, I don't think I can handle the brutality. I'm glad I went without the audio guide.

Signs like this are placed at certain essential spot so you won't be completely lost and not knowing what happened there 40 years ago.

I can't find the word to exactly describe how I feel after visiting the important places in Cambodia history but I glad I went because it is an absolute eye opener about Cambodia dark past. The haunting experience at Tuol Sleng and Killing Field is not my standard normal tourist experience. It was my first time visiting history spots with such gruesome background.

Even writing about it give me goosebumps.

I strongly suggest you to visit these places if you ever set foot in Phnom Penh, for its importance history and reflection of the past.

Phnom Penh Day 2: Wat Phnom & Khmer Surin Restaurant

Our second day in Phnom Penh was packed with activities to visit places that play significant role to Cambodia. We crammed all the visiting into 1 day only as we wanted to save on the driver. Hiring driver for 2 days is too expensive and besides, all those places can be visited in a day if you plan your itinerary carefully.

So far, we have visited The Royal Palace, National Museum & Central Market. Our next destination is Wat Phnom, the famous temple set on a hill that plays a significant role in the beginning of Phnom Penh.

The entrance fee to Wat Phnom is $2 and we're not sure if guide is available at the ticket counter as we seek refuge at shaded spot from the hot sun while one of our friend purchased the tickets. Therefore, we were clueless about the significance of Wat Phnom. All that we know is it is rated as a must visit spot in Phnom Penh. Fail tourist we are, I know.

Well, I did a little research when drafting this post and the legend has it that it is tied to the beginning of Phnom Penh. Back in 1372, Lady Penh (Yea Penh) fished a floating koki out of the river and 4 Buddha statues were found inside the tree. She built a hill (Phnom) and a small temple (Wat) which is how Wat Phnom got it name, source here. In Khmer tradition, lady has higher power if compared to man. Our tour guide in Angkor Wat told us that Phnom Penh if translated from Khmer language stand for Lady of the Mountain. 

Wat Phnom is the busiest temple in the capital.Local and tourists roamed the temple for prayers and visit. They offer the release of bird for a small fee if you're interested to release one. And you can buy flowers as offerings and incense to light at the shrine.

During our visit, a prayer was going on. It was interesting to see them playing the music instruments which are very similar to Iban instruments.

Wat Phnom

St 96, Norodom Boulevard

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

By the time we were done with our visit at Wat Phnom, it was around lunch time. Our driver took us to a decent Khmer restaurant as we were craving for a decent meal which translated into rice. Yes, we Asian can't live without our rice. Not sure if our driver is affiliated with the restaurant or not, but it was a good place with decent food for a fair price.

The only downside were they refused to turn on the air conditioner for us, we were seated on the second floor with windows opened. It was a really hot day :( and their wifi did not work.

The restaurant is called Khmer Surin. The claim about relaxing surrounding in the menu is true except that I wish they had turned on the AC to make it more relaxing for us, considering that we were the only patrons besides some businessmen/businesswomen having meeting in their private room there.

I had the fried rice with shrimp paste and 3 layered pork, mango and omelette as sides. It set me back for $5.5 and fresh coconut for $2.5. Others opted for pineapple fried rice and we had chicken amuk too.

While waiting for our food

Coconut, you are a life saver during the hot days. I think I had at least one everyday when we were in Phnom Penh.

Khmer Surin Restaurant

House #9, Street 57,

Phnom Penh

xoxo

Till my next Cambodia post