Cambodia 2007, Siem Reap

2007-1-10 to 14

Golden Temple Villa

We came to Seam Reap from Kuala Lumpur by AirAsia. When we got to the city from the airport, the taxi driver turned into a dusty small alley, and I was concerned what kind of guest house he was going to take us to. I asked him that question, and he told us that he selected this one because he had received a lot of good recommendations from his clients. We like the Golden Temple Villa as soon we stepped out of the taxi. It was clean, tidy and quiet. It also had a free internet service. The appearance of so many foreigners made Ching feel relax, and all fears she had for coming here disappeared.  

Food stall in the market

We rested and went to the market not far away to buy some fruits. Many of them came from Thailand and therefore were not cheap. The only local fruit in season was nangka, pomelo and banana. We bought some and they were very good and cheap. There was a restaurant in the villa, and they provided tea and banana free of charge. I told the waiter that the banana they had in the restaurant was for feeding the animals in the zoo. At least this was true in Bukit Tinggi in Indonesia. I liked to get one full pot of tea to take to my room and save the trouble of having to fetch some when I wanted to. We also learned that the currency exchange in the airport was charging 10% less than what we would get in the stores.

We ordered some Khmer foods for dinner. They served them in containers made of banana leaves. It was really a very good idea. The foods had a lot of vegetables and we like them. They cooked the food fresh for each order. I went to peep into the kitchen, and it was very clean, and they were slicing the meat for the food that I had ordered. There was no doubt that everything was fresh, and for that we had to wait for a long time for our order. We learned the lesson and next time we would order our meals as soon as we were back to the villa, and then went up stair to our room for cleaning. All dishes were only for a few dollars.

The street in the city would probably flooded every raining season, and left a lot of red clay dust everywhere. Fortunately, it was not windy when we were there, otherwise, the dust would be unbearable. Everywhere I went, it reminded me a lot of what I saw in Dhaka. The only different was I didn’t hear any prayer call from a mosque here.

There was a night market nearby and there were many stalls selling mostly barbequed meat cooked at the spot. Many working families didn’t cook any more and bought ready cooked food from the market.

On the road, I saw motorbikes carrying pigs tied on the platform secured in the back seat. I saw up to three pigs were carried in this way; I don’t know if there was any Guineas Record on this; this is the country that will keep the animal activist busy.

We enjoyed our visit very much, and Ching had no fear to travel to other places. Therefore, we decided to go to Phnom Penh, and then to Vietnam.

More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.