Travelogue - Phnom Penh/ Kampong Thom
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Where did the party go?
So I am going to squeeze in 6 days of Khmer adventures into one post because it was less exciting than the recent Indonesia trip.
My travelling partner this time is Jiayu, the first friend I travelled with on a long holiday. We had a great time in Australia and then Thailand and now we were off to Cambodia!
We flew to Phnom Penh on Tigerair. Honestly, much of the stuff we wanted to see were in Siem Reap (think Angkor Wat) but tickets to PP were a whole lot cheaper so now choice. We flew to PP and then travelled to SR by land.
Touched down in PP and got a tuktuk to bring us to one of the bus stations. It was not convenient the way all the bus stations were spread out all over the city. It meant that you had to do your research to know which companies had what buses and at what timings. We went with Capitol which I think mainly catered to the locals? We didn't see any foreigers on our bus trip.
Anyway, we were pretty early so we wandered the streets and chanced upon this alley which sold food. And then I found this.
First Khmer meal! The auntie, who speaks chinese, called it 粿条, but in Singapore we call it beehoon. And it was seriously food! Cambodian food is so underated!! The soup was so flavouful and the beehoon was perfect!
Started off the trip with a happy happy stomach!
The bus came and off we went on a almost 5 hour ride to Kampong Thom. We decided to rest at Kampong Thom as it seemed like a nice place to visit and it was on the way from PP to SR. A 7-8 hour long bus ride can be quite intimidating. Along the way, the bus will stop quite a few times for people to eat or go to the toilet. Vehicles there drive dangerously but I think it was still alright on the bus.
We stayed at Sambor Village Resort at Kampong Thom.
Pretty near place with a pool. As it was a little distance away from the market, they had free bicycles for us to borrow to cucle around the area.
Arranged for a bike tour the next morning to Sambor Prei Kuk to visit some pre-Angkor-ian temples. Jiayu was going to just suntan in our resort.
In the evening we cycled out to the market for dinner. It was a little horrifying because there seemed to be no rules on the road except maybe just don't knock anyone down.
Ate by the streets despite being warned that there is a high possibility of coming down with diarrhea. Had best bread ever!!
And curry noodles. No menu, just a lot of pointing going on.
Happy is us with good food! After dinner it started drizzling so I went to grab some oranges because I like to buy fruits when I visit foreign lands and eat in the hotel and JY went for an alcoholic beverage.
Hotel was awesome but electricity is really not stable. It went dark as I was bathing and it can be so challenging bathing in the dark. We are city girls!! Life in the city is never never dark. But thank god for flashlights in iPhone. Please dont ever ever ever remove that Apple.
Sambor Village Resort serves really great breakfast.
Although because there was no electricity that had to cook with gas and that took a little while. It might look like very little but I was very very satisfied after that. I even finished the tomatoes which I don't usually eat. The hash brown potato cake thing really is the best. I suspect they fried it with the bacon fat to make it so delicious and crispy!
There is only one plate and no one on the opposite of me because.. I am on my own for this morning! Even for breakfast, which was a little sad. But what to do, I have to eat!
From the hotel it is about maybe 40mins ride to Sambor Prei Kuk. It rained in the morning so certain parts of the road was muddy and I got splashed, everywhere in mud. Seriously, so fml. I seem to get into these situations when I travel alone. But the people there were really nice about it even though they were all laughing at me.
I got a local guide to being me around because I was too lazy to read up properly on it. But it was okay, I understood quite a bit of it. The place was so quiet, me and the guide were the only ones around.
Our walk in the jungle. I think one of the best parts was getting to see wold hornbills! My guide also said that there were rabbits and deers sometimes but no such luck that day.
The temples were really interesting and I really can't imagine how it must be like for people who used to built and live there in ancient times. Visiting ruins is sometimes quite overwhelming because you know what in 200 years time people will be looking back on maybe our HDB flats and the playgrounds and thinking how were we living our lives too.
Then it was back to meet JY and we were off to Siem Reap!
Turns out I have quite a bit to say. So it is not possible to squeeze all into one post. I was too ambitious!
Labels: cambodia, kampong thom, phnom penh, Travelogue
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Travelogue - Phnom Penh/ Kampong Thom
Where did the party go?
So I am going to squeeze in 6 days of Khmer adventures into one post because it was less exciting than the recent Indonesia trip.
My travelling partner this time is Jiayu, the first friend I travelled with on a long holiday. We had a great time in Australia and then Thailand and now we were off to Cambodia!
We flew to Phnom Penh on Tigerair. Honestly, much of the stuff we wanted to see were in Siem Reap (think Angkor Wat) but tickets to PP were a whole lot cheaper so now choice. We flew to PP and then travelled to SR by land.
Touched down in PP and got a tuktuk to bring us to one of the bus stations. It was not convenient the way all the bus stations were spread out all over the city. It meant that you had to do your research to know which companies had what buses and at what timings. We went with Capitol which I think mainly catered to the locals? We didn't see any foreigers on our bus trip.
Anyway, we were pretty early so we wandered the streets and chanced upon this alley which sold food. And then I found this.
First Khmer meal! The auntie, who speaks chinese, called it 粿条, but in Singapore we call it beehoon. And it was seriously food! Cambodian food is so underated!! The soup was so flavouful and the beehoon was perfect!
Started off the trip with a happy happy stomach!
The bus came and off we went on a almost 5 hour ride to Kampong Thom. We decided to rest at Kampong Thom as it seemed like a nice place to visit and it was on the way from PP to SR. A 7-8 hour long bus ride can be quite intimidating. Along the way, the bus will stop quite a few times for people to eat or go to the toilet. Vehicles there drive dangerously but I think it was still alright on the bus.
We stayed at Sambor Village Resort at Kampong Thom.
Pretty near place with a pool. As it was a little distance away from the market, they had free bicycles for us to borrow to cucle around the area.
Arranged for a bike tour the next morning to Sambor Prei Kuk to visit some pre-Angkor-ian temples. Jiayu was going to just suntan in our resort.
In the evening we cycled out to the market for dinner. It was a little horrifying because there seemed to be no rules on the road except maybe just don't knock anyone down.
Ate by the streets despite being warned that there is a high possibility of coming down with diarrhea. Had best bread ever!!
And curry noodles. No menu, just a lot of pointing going on.
Happy is us with good food! After dinner it started drizzling so I went to grab some oranges because I like to buy fruits when I visit foreign lands and eat in the hotel and JY went for an alcoholic beverage.
Hotel was awesome but electricity is really not stable. It went dark as I was bathing and it can be so challenging bathing in the dark. We are city girls!! Life in the city is never never dark. But thank god for flashlights in iPhone. Please dont ever ever ever remove that Apple.
Sambor Village Resort serves really great breakfast.
Although because there was no electricity that had to cook with gas and that took a little while. It might look like very little but I was very very satisfied after that. I even finished the tomatoes which I don't usually eat. The hash brown potato cake thing really is the best. I suspect they fried it with the bacon fat to make it so delicious and crispy!
There is only one plate and no one on the opposite of me because.. I am on my own for this morning! Even for breakfast, which was a little sad. But what to do, I have to eat!
From the hotel it is about maybe 40mins ride to Sambor Prei Kuk. It rained in the morning so certain parts of the road was muddy and I got splashed, everywhere in mud. Seriously, so fml. I seem to get into these situations when I travel alone. But the people there were really nice about it even though they were all laughing at me.
I got a local guide to being me around because I was too lazy to read up properly on it. But it was okay, I understood quite a bit of it. The place was so quiet, me and the guide were the only ones around.
Our walk in the jungle. I think one of the best parts was getting to see wold hornbills! My guide also said that there were rabbits and deers sometimes but no such luck that day.
The temples were really interesting and I really can't imagine how it must be like for people who used to built and live there in ancient times. Visiting ruins is sometimes quite overwhelming because you know what in 200 years time people will be looking back on maybe our HDB flats and the playgrounds and thinking how were we living our lives too.
Then it was back to meet JY and we were off to Siem Reap!
Turns out I have quite a bit to say. So it is not possible to squeeze all into one post. I was too ambitious!
Labels: cambodia, kampong thom, phnom penh, Travelogue
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