I had to pen this down immediately before I forget all my crazy encounters. Siem Reap has been a place of mixed feelings for me. It just feels so complicated on the inside.
On the first day, I was so upset that I chose this place. I wanted a retreat kind of holiday and do stuff like immersing into the culture, do some people seeing kinda stuff, you know? Well, I was only devastated to find this place as another tourist centered city. Everything around here were made for tourists, nothing authentic.
I had a complimentary tuk tuk ride from the airport to the hostel. The place I stayed was One Stop Hostel. I highly recommend this place. Clean, comfortable, and it's the best place to make friends. I got the 6 bedded female dorm for only 8usd per night. I got to know a Taiwanese, a Dutch and a Greek girl in the room, whom I also hung out with the next day.
So how touristy was this city? Let's just say all the businesses existed to earn from (read rob) the foreigners and they'd use the word "authentic" to lure you. Alcohol and parties were found at every corner.
And oh! There were a bunch of souvenir shops claiming to be doing charity but they really don't. At least that's what my new friends whom has been back packing for months told me.
But inspite all these, I had so many new experiences and unforgettable memories in this trip. So here it goes.
1. Sunrise at Angkor Wat.
I love sunrises. I used to wake up at 5am and drove to Penang with a friend to catch the sunrise by the sea. The sun rise at Angkor Wat was magnificent, but also overly crowded. I went on a tour organized by the hostel with 2 other girls - Lynn from UK/US and Mahjung from Netherlands(my roommate and her name is pronounced as Mahyung, not our Chinese Mahjung game). So we shared the cost which was only 6usd each. The ticket cost 20usd for a day pass and 40usd for the 3 days pass. Got the 1 day pass cause I didn't thought I wanna be seeing temples and ruins only my entire trip.
2. Tried to conquer the fear of heights.
The tour included a few other temples in Siem Reap. One of them had these steep and tall steps. Man, I wanted to cry! I stood there for a while seeing how people went up and down. It was scary! But but.... Really? Am I gonna wake up at 4am, took the freezing tuk tuk ride all the way here just to be defeated by heights? I figured not. So....... I. WENT. FOR. IT.
Half way climbing up, I stopped and rested at the side, which freaked me out even more. I then figured I need to get out of this the soonest possible so I forced myself to keep going up. Well, I made it to see yet another ruined temple(which looked pretty the same as others), but feeling like a champion on the inside. How did I get down you ask? That was easy. The sitting way which I went down each step with my butt. I'm sure you know what I mean.
3. Exchanged stories with travelers from all around the world.
The tour was from 5am to 12pm+, about 7hours. We went back, found another 2 more girls
- Dorothea (Greek from my room) and Dominique (from Germany). Before heading out I also met a China guy whom asked me if I want to join him and another girl from Denmark to Beng Mealea the next day cause they have 1 more empty slot. I said yes on the spot.
I didn't manage to get a picture with the girls, but the stories exchanged were so amazing. I learnt so much about the South East Asia from them and got tickled by their funny experiences too. And of course, tons of tips about backpacking.
So what did I learn? Laos is a super amazing place. They stayed there for weeks. Their tip was to go up north and stay in the local villages. Pai in Thailand was pretty recommended by them too. Dorothea hated durian but she loved rambutan. Lynn was really upset by all the child exploitation here.
In exchange, I gave them some inside story (actually just culture) of the Middle East!
4. Annoyed yet tickled by the tuk-tuk drivers and street vendors.
The moment you step out was about to open the glass door of the hostel, there'll be tuk-tuk drivers waving at you. As you reply them "no thank you" they would ask you "tomorrow?" They're everywhere so I was harassed offered a million times in 4 days! Some of them knew they were trying too hard they laughed at themselves too!
Other than the tuk-tuks, we were really sad to see kids selling stuff around, I'll talk about that later. What amazed us was the foreign languages that they speak! There was this girl who wanted to sell us cold drinks after we came out from the temple and she was shouting to us from across the street saying "姐姐漂亮，哥哥帅！" which directly translates into "sister pretty, brother handsome". Trust me, we really got tickled and fell for that. We chose her shop over all the others. She continued to strike a conversation with us as we drank too. Very very amazed!
5. Lara Croft moments.
No, I did not queue to take a photo at the window which Angelina Jolie posed in the Tomb Raider movie. Instead, I did the "real thing". Heeh. Remember the China guy and Denmark girl? The girl was sick and she couldn't make it in the morning. So it was just me and China guy. This dude has got too much adrenaline in him and was basically crazy. He suggested for us to secretly climb into those places where the man made stairs would not reach.
See those rocks back there? We climbed those, went up and down and adventured around. We had to hide or run when we saw someone coming. Got caught a few times as well as pointed back to the original route. It's not illegal I guess. Tourists would climb up and pose for pictures. We just.. Well.. Went further. Hehe.
I used to be very flexible with these kind of climbings. There was a waterfall behind my house in Taiping. But as age catches up, all the fears came in. The fear of heights, fear of tripping etc. And I slowed down quite a lot too. This adventure made me regain the courage, fearless attitude and a little bit more of agility too.
We started with this. The goal was to reach the end. I turned back half way cause I was afraid of heights. China guy gave me the "are you serious" kind of look -_-
So yeah, I mustered some courage and got myself a couple of cuts and bruises and tanner skin for Chinese New Year and forgot that I'm a cabin crew (no scars allowed on hands and legs) but I also fulfilled a childhood dream to be Lara Croft! So worth it!
(Nothing romantic happened if you're wondering -_-)
6. Screw Self-consciousness.
The travelers I met taught me how to be less self-conscious. I really admired the free spirit they had. They'd sit with their legs up on the chair in public, wear a top that has half of their assets showing and not bothered about people's opinion, and do basically whatever they want. I, on the other hand, was worried if my shorts was too short, am I behaving properly etc. All I worried about was what other people would think. Not that I wish to dress sexily or what, I just admire the free spirit they have. I love their mentality that their body is not them. It's like a machine that allows them to experience all the fun things in life. So don't fret revealing fatty arms, just wear a singlet if you're feeling hot, just make sure you're comfortable. Then opinion of others about your arms or your belly or your hairstyle really isn't important at all.
7. It's easy to make friends. Very easy.
It's as easy as asking "So, where are you from?" Or saying "Hi, I'm so and so, and you?" The reason why we find it so hard is because we're worried what the other person would think of us. But think about it, when someone asks us those questions, what were you thinking about them? Nothing. And you'd gladly chit chat along feeling so happy that the person made the move. Isn't it? Traveling alone is lonely, so that gives us no choice but to come get out of our comfort zone and just connect. So yeah. I managed to make tons of friends being less self-conscious.
8. Child labour is heart breaking.
The amount of children selling stuff around here is crazy. It's sad to see them working instead of being in school. Imaging the amount of rejection they have to receive everyday from people who turn them down. What's scarier was the "education" they receive to "run the business".
Here are some of the scenarios we encountered.
Kid: Postcard 10 for 1$.
Us: No thank you, you need to go back to school.
Kid: School in the morning. (It was 10am. This kid obviously memorized a script)
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Kid: Bangles 10 for 1$.
Us: No thank you.
Kid: Thank you CANNOT EAT. (She stood there and we refused and she walked away giving us the "you suck!" stare.
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Kid: *something* for 1$. 1$ to you nothing, but to us many thing. We need money to go school.
I am out of words for these situations. I cannot imagine how they felt when their parents send (or sell) them out and they had to do all these. What kind of future lies ahead of them? There's so many shops selling souvenirs who claims that they're helping them but are they for real or are they another marketing gimmick?
There were also tours to the floating villages with activities that allows you to "serve" the community such as helping them plant a tree, sell some goods in the market, build a house etc. These tours charge a high fee but all that they provide was transport. I cannot help but suspect that these tours used the poor situation of the community to make money for their own pocket, leaving very little for the community and making us feel good about ourselves for serving the underprivileged.
9. Cheap massages, hair services and mani pedi.
Massages are as cheap as 5usd per hour for a full body massage. I thought Thailand was cheap enough, well welcome to Cambodia! The day that I visited Angkor Wat, I came back all dirty and yucky to find that the electricity is down for that part of the city. Hence, no shower cause the water pressure depended on the water heater. So I went out for a hair wash. A good wash and blow with some head and neck massage was only 5usd. And on my very last day, I went to get my nails done for the Chinese New Year. I did a Classic Gel Manicure for 10usd and added 3usd for nail art. The same thing would cost some 45usd back in Malaysia. I also did a Spa Pedicure for 7usd. It was much needed to get rid of all the dirt stuck inside after traveling on the roads here.
10. Amazing food and cafes.
Whilst some of the restaurants existed for tourism (claiming to be authentic and serving a charity cause) and served some over priced and not delicious food, if you do a good research, you can find some really good ones. My favorite was Peace Cafe. Their vegetarian Amok was the best Amok I had here. And the surrounding and ambience? See for yourself! Just come here with a book and order a cup of drink and you'll have the best time of your life. They also provide chit chat sessions with the monks, meditation class and yoga/ Pilates classes.
*Night time*
Other than that, I also enjoyed Sister Srey's Egg Benelicious so much! The poached eggs were perfect, bacons were crispy and well done and the hollandise sauce was great too. The cafe was more of a hipster type.
Another one I like would be The Singing Bird, love their Peanut Butter Yum Yum which is a milkshake. Didn't take picture.
Gelato Lab has great ice-creams and it's the best place for people watching.
Blue Pumpkin plays awesome music, serves delicious pumpkin soup and spring rolls too. Ice-cream was not bad neither. The branch across the river is less packed and more comfortable.
11. Street food!
There's plenty of stalls but most of them selling the same stuff. For instance, there would be 100 fresh juice stalls, 80 pancake stalls and 50 fried noodles stalls. I personally loved the fried I stand noodles and the caramel brûlée pancake (only 1 stall sold this, other pancake stalls basically sold flavored roti canai.)
12. New Stuff.
I made it a point to join the Yoga class organized by Peace Cafe. They have one session at 0830 and another one at 1830. I obviously slept in an joined the 1830 one. The class was 6usd. I never thought I'd do something as random as this so it's pretty new and fun for me. Siem Reap has lots of new things for people to try such as a cooking class and pottery class. Would really love to try their cooking class some day.
How was Yoga? Unbelievable!
I never did any exercise so challenging yet relaxing at the same time before! Again, I had to forget about everyone else's opinion and just do it as much as I can. The other participants looked so professional! I understood better what it meant to be "being" rather than "doing". I just had to be myself and forget about the moves that I weren't able to do.
So, what have I gained from this trip? I guess the biggest lesson I've learnt is to enjoy the moment. As Asians, we often love to plan ahead. There's a Chinese proverb that we have been taught since young - 未雨绸缪. It simply means to prepare an umbrella before the rain comes. While having plans are good, sometimes we spent all of our energy preparing for the rain we forgot to enjoy the sunshine that moment. For example, I came into the airlines and the next thing I did was to save up and plan for the life when I quit. Not that I didn't enjoy, I did, but my focus was working on the life after that I neglected the life now. So I spent this trip enjoying one activity after another. Not rushing myself in the first one just so that I can make it for the second one. So my plannings for the next activity was impromptu and flexible.
This, made my trip the best trip ever ;)
