Siem Reap in March 2010

Q : Why does AirAsia have to time its flights for take-off so superbly early in the morning?
A : So people can fork out a hefty surcharge for cab fare to LCCT or maybe stay the night at TuneHotel, and then arrive at LCCT even before Starbucks has opened, and then join the long queue to check-in luggage when we've already web-checked in ourselves the night before, and stare forlornly at the "normal check-in" queue which is non-existent.

But doesn't matter. Getting up at 3.45am for a holiday is still a holiday.

And it's nice that these days AirAsia has assigned seats - no more rushing like kiasu-maniacs onto the plane.

So we got onto the plane, and tried to sleep, but couldn't, because some ang moh guy in the row behind us was trying to make clever conversation with the ang moh girl seated one seat away. Pity the poor ang moh guy in the middle between them. And pity us in our sleep-deprived state.

Luckily, the Siem Reap airport is quite civilized. Sorry no pictures, too early in the morning. And at 8am (Siem Reap time), the immigration officers didn't seem to have had their coffee yet. Slow line. Small but better airport than say, Yogyakarta's. Lots of stones and wood and solid natural materials. I liked the feel. And I liked the dry toilets.

Collected baggage and walked out. There was a civilized taxi counter. Where we got a civilized looking young man to be our cab driver. He calls himself Tea, as in "coffee or tea". Speaks good English. Drove like an old man all the way to our hotel - apparently because the country's road laws are that way (20km/hr or something like that).

Our beautiful hotel The Angkor Riviera was quite nice. Lobby was large and clean, new and modern. Unfortunately our rooms were not ready. We left our luggage with the bellboy, and Tea offered to drop us off at the Old Market area (about 5 minutes' walk away).

Roamed the Old Market. It's a real market, sells all kinds of stuff you expect in a market - and alot more stuff which you usually see in Thai souvenir markets. Then we trudged back to our hotel an hour later.

The room was lovely. Or maybe it's just because we were tired. We freshened up, and walked out AGAIN to the old market area for lunch. Went to Khmer Kitchen. Great food. I love Khmer food - it's like Thai without the chilli. Popped by The Blue Pumpkin (great bakery) and then trudged back to hotel room for a bath and nap before our sunset tour.

View of the hotel pool / courtyard from our room window

KF taking a picture of the hotel - I took this from the lobby through the big picture window which I really liked ... and I love the pandan leaves!

Tea picked us up at 4.30pm for our Tonle Sap sunset tour. On the way, we passed this really big water-lily plantation.

Water-lily plantation

The entrance fee to Tonle Sap was quite expensive - US$20 per person, I think. It includes the boat fare.

Boats departing from the jetty for the water village on Tonle Sap

The 2 young boys manning our boat

Close-up view of some boathouses we passed

The boathouse village

Where crocodiles live with people

Sunset at Tonle Sap was awesome

Little kids with no mode of transport have to paddle round in wash-basins to get to their friends' boathouses for play time

Sunset at Tonle Sap was a good experience

Tonle Sap was the most memorable experience in Siem Reap, for me. After sunset, all the boats raced back to the jetty about 30-minutes away, trying to beat the darkness. And because silt (or something) occasionally gets stuck in the boat engines, the 2 young boys manning our boat always had to get down into the water to fix the problem. Happened to other boats as well. I wondered if any of the $20 we gave earlier reaches these boys - they did an awesome job bringing us to and fro.

When we arrived at the jetty, Tea told us that he'd dropped his key in the toilet, and he only had his remote with him. In the dark, somehow or other with the help of some other locals, after about 30 minutes when the entire place was really dark and already devoid of tourists, he managed to get his car started. Phew. I can't imagine what we'd do as this was a secluded location with no cabs nor tuk-tuks (which I don't relish the idea of on the dark road all the way back to town). So anyway, Tea dropped us safely back in town.

We had a really good dinner at the Dead Fish Tower, with live band and natural timber surroundings and all. Then walked around town - the Pub Street was closed off to traffic and was really happening, plenty of ang moh around, enjoying their 50cents draft beer. Then because we were quite tired, and tomorrow was an early start again, we went back to the hotel quite early.

The next morning, the hotel packed us a breakfast box each, because we left at 5.30am, before the buffet line was opened. Tea brought us to Angkor Wat where we purchased tickets (they take photos of you for your ticket which is very modern-looking). Then we walked in with the rest to wait for the sunrise.

Waiting for the sunrise ...

... which rose behind the clouds.

Still, the obligatory picture. I don't like my flat hair.

The large group of tourists waiting for the sunrise, mostly made up of Japanese

My cute Superman juggling his gear

The Apsara dancers

The steps we did not climb - it wasn't opened till 8 am

I liked how the light fell on this - no Photoshop wan ok!

More Apsara carvings

The very serene moat outside Angkor Wat

I really liked the way the haze and morning sun casts a dusty curtain on everything

The well-trodden tapak kaki of a hard-working elephant

Angkor Thom South Gate

Angkor Thom

One of the faces in Angkor Thom

Finding inspiration and serenity amongst the old stones

The Elephant Terrace

By the time we were done with the Elephant Terrace, we were dead beat. And it was only 10am. Tea decided to send us back to the hotel. We slept till lunch, or not exactly, can't remember. The hotel's tv has got like 80 cable tv channels! Went to Chivit Thai for lunch. Slept again till 3.30pm, when Tea came to pick us up for the highlight of Angkor - Ta Phrom, where Tomb Raider was shot. I've got no more pictures here onwards because I didn't bring my camera. But KF's got some lovely shots, so wait for his.

After tomb-raiding, we went back to Angkor Wat for sunset. Didn't want to climb the steep steps on Phnom Bakheng. Sunset in Tonle Sap still beat the one in Angkor Wat, maybe because I'm a water person. Still pretty awesome though.

We had Happy Herb Pizza for dinner - with extra happy. But we weren't feeling the happy. Ah well. We roamed around the night market - which is an excellent place for souvenirs, if you haven't been to the Thai markets. Had awesome ham baguette somewhere near Hotel de la Paix. Then it was late, and so we went back to pack for the next morning, which would be another early one.

We checked out at 6am, had breakfast at the hotel's buffet line which was really good. Tea picked us up at 6.30am to go to the airport. And a couple of hours later we were home in KL. And that is what I call a great whirlwind weekend.