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Cambodia Trip

Last Dec, a group of silly gals gleefully booked the free tickets from AirAsia to Cambodia thinking wah..so cheap its a steal man! not knowing, subsequently, Jetstar operated in Sg & making us feel like silly bargainers who didnt get a good deal :/

Well, its an adventure nonetheless, starting with a van ride from Sg to LCC, we arrived in a resort-like airport terminal in Siem Reap & what greeted us was refreshing...2 tuk tuks to ferry us to our accomm!! we ate dust most of the time as the dirt road was churning with sand with each passing vehicle.

Of course, we did catch Angkor Wat at sunset & sunrise..alongside with many many other tourists..one thing that struck me was that this historical site was not beautifully restored as it should be, crumbling ruins & stones structures laid side by side...

We basically did nothing much except eat & eat & sleep...eat a lot actually, fav pastime there is to read LP and check out the restaurants..

Cambodia is really poor, tugged at our heartstrings at every turn of the corner. Kids were used as tools of begging & these children just stick to u like glue & whined their way til u part with your money. We were a bit fatigued with them & the touting tuk tuk drivers at the end of the trip.

Went to see floating village, had a little misadventure as our tuk tuk nearly landed in the River with us in it :O ...we attracted quite a lot of onlookers & cameras/videos..and everyone cheered when the tuk tuk managed to veer back to the road with Roy & a kind onlooker's help.

Then there's this sweet little girl, who couldnt fight with the bigger kids for candies from us, she went to a corner & sobbed! Von manage to dig out 1 sweet & gave her..she smiled :)

NGOs were plentiful in Cambodia,their job is really meaningful & deserving of our support, majority of them engage in empowering the villagers some skills in sewing, crafting or in hospitality or other manufacturing industries. Check out villageworks or some others if u are keen to support their cause. Villageworks is started by a Singaporean & the Girls Brigade.

Phnom Penh - not nearly as interested as Siem Reap..busy roads/more traffic, poverty not so apparent here...we basically again eat, sleep, eat, sleep..barely walked to burn off the food we ate. Visited the Tonle Sap Lake which looks like a huge reservoir of teh tarik... The only visit worth is to Toul Sleng Museum...which captures the horror of Khmer Rouge and i think every Cambodia bears witness or at least knew of 1 relative or friend who have suffered or died during the Pol Pot's Rrgime... its so so sad..felt so lucky we were born in Singapore which kept us sheltered from civil war, hunger, poverty & hardship...

One last exciting thing happened to us on our way back from KL to Sg. We stopped by a R&R as our driver & companion went to eat...deciding there were time, von, kmin & me went to the toilet, telling Roy to be careful,cos he was alone & sleeping in the van. he grunted and we got down...AFter peeing, we went back to the van & it was just empty slot..eehh...so we searched along the slip road, at the petrol station..SHIT, dun hv! furthermore, we dun hv a single ringgit on us & no HPS!!! we gotta borrow a guy's hp & call a sleepy Roy who was shocked to hear his wife's voice on the other line....all in all, we were an hour behind schedule as the van have to take a big loop to come back for us.

Well, been an interesting & enlightening trip :)

posted by Ling @ 4:05 pm