Cambodia - Part II - All about Phnom Penh!

I'm hoping you have read this before you read this post. After 4 days of pure fun, lots of knowledge on the Angkor Wat temples and some amazing memories, the hubby and I were all set to leave SR to head to the capital city of Phnom Penh(Read: Nom Pen). We took a bus from SR to PP - roughly takes about 6 hours with an hour break in between for lunch. We travelled in the Giant Ibis bus service, supposed to be the best of the lot. Well I had no complaints. Was very comfy. We finally reached PP in the evening around 7pm.

First impressions? 

While SR was more tourist friendly, PP was commercial and very business like. Its fast, its dirty, its congested like most other capital cities. 

Where we stayed? 

We stayed at the Hotel Blue Lime, which is again situated in the heart of the city although probably not the nicest part of the town. I was very apprehensive about the place as we were nearing it in our tuk tuk. But once we stepped in, I realized my fears were unnecessary. The hotel was super clean and the staff were very polite. The rooms were again not too big, just right for 2 of us. Breakfast every morning was by the pool side, was very very relaxing! 

What we did? 

1. Killing Fields : Couple of must see's at PP are the Killing fields of the Pol Pot regime - the journey through the killing fields is sort of eerie - each spot is explained in detail in the audio guide, it is absolutely terrifying to think of what those guys went through during this genocide.  Read here to understand more about what exactly happened - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Fields

The memorial at Cheung Ek Killing Fields

2. The Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda: The other place to visit is the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. We visited in the morning when the sun was out and it was a clear blue sky.. The result? A lovely picture with a beautiful backdrop! 

The Silver Pagoda is located in the same complex as the Royal Palace. The main attraction  is the famous "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia which is housed here. Unfortunately we are not allowed to click pictures inside the Silver Pagoda :-( However, it is simply stunning! There are various other golden Buddha statues that were equally beautiful and the tiles inside the Pagoda are all made of silver. 

3. Tuong Sleng Genocide Museum: Umm this isn't a real fun place to be... it is full of painful memories of their genocide, with some pretty horrific pictures and sights. However, it is worth a visit to understand the kind of pain they went through in the Pol Pot regime. Will skip posting the pictures, kinda gory!! 

Where we ate? 

Just like SR, PP is full of road side, cheap and fun restaurants. The one thing K & I enjoyed at Cambodia was their food. We were so so apprehensive, considering we are vegetarians. However, I must admit we were so wrong! We loved eating at this small restaurant called , The Vegetarian. Small portions but so satisfying! We alternated between eating at the Shisha place where we had yummy hummus, pita breads and hookah to having Khmer food which is noodles, egg and veggies steamed or tossed together in a sauce and yup we couldn't resist eating at an Indian joint one night as well! Hahaha. 

Takeaways? 

1. You will need to use US dollars everywhere - carry lots of small change. Reason being their local currency is not used that much. If I am not wrong, 1 USD = 4000 Riels!! Whoa! I know :) 

2. Try and experiment food as much as possible - we had a wild time trying out different things every day - great fun! 

3. The Angkor temple complex is hugeee and has so much information. I would strongly recommend a good guide to take you around and show you the lovely temples. And yes at least 2 days is required! 

4. The weather plays a very vital role, hence plan your trip during the nicer times of the year - October is a good time, so is January to March. It tends to get super hot during the day, so beware. I am from Chennai so I felt at home :) 

Will post soon about my second half of the trip, to Hong Kong!! 

Cambodia - Part 1(Siem Reap)

The hubs and I took off on a vacation this October. I was hell bent on doing at least 2 countries this time around and the hubs agreed(reluctantly, of course). So all our bags were packed and we took off on the 18th October. We flew Malaysian Airlines(ok ok choice) and landed at Siem Reap, Cambodia on the 19th afternoon.

Siem Reap 
Where we stayed? - The Soria Moria Boutique Hotel. Great choice! The staff were friendly, rooms were clean, service was great and best of all close to the 2 main sights at SR - the Angkor Wat complex and the Pub Street :D Trip Advisor gave good reviews and I would rate it very good as well.

The Angkor Wat temple complex is massive.. we had to split the tour into 2 days and even then I am sure we didn't do full justice to it. Here's how we went about it.. First of all, the passes are sold as a 1 day($20), 3 day($40) or 7 day($60) passes. We obviously took the 3 day pass. We had also booked a tour guide to take us around and explain the history and show us the best spots to take pictures. The first evening we went to the temple complex, bought our passes and went to Phnom Bhekang and watched  a nice sunset. It was a cloudy evening so the sunset wasn't spectacular. Post the sunset, we headed to our hotel and enjoyed a quiet meal in the hotel rooftop.
The next morning we woke up early(read 4am!!) and got ready to head to watch our first sunrise. The Peace of Angkor guide picked us up from the hotel and helped us pick a nice spot to watch the sunrise. I will let the pictures do the talking...

I felt so much at peace, just sitting there and watching the beautiful hues of the sun. Such a beautiful moment.. It is not everyday that you get the chance to sit in front a world famous monument and watch a lovely sunrise. Once the sun came out, we got started on our tour. The first temple which Kenit(our guide) recommended was the Bayon which was built by the King Jayavarman VII. Kenit did a great job by getting us to visit that temple first because we found no crowd and we had a great time clicking lots of pictures. On first sight, it looked like a pile of rubble. Once I went closer, I could see the lovely faces - yes this temple is full of faces(supposedly of Jayavarman himself), capturing various moods. It is absolutely beautiful!! Check this out -

Post spending time at Bayon, we headed to see the Preah Khan temple which had a lot of mythological carvings from the Ramayana and the Mahabaratha since Cambodia is largely influenced by Hindiuism and Buddhism.

Preah Khan Temple

 Later in the afternoon, we visited the very famous Ta Phrom temple(the hype was created by Tomb Raider, a  movie on the archealogist, Lara Croft featuring the uber talented, Angelina Jolie). The temple has trees growing out of the ruins and it was superb! It was green all around and it was huge! We kept walking and walking and walking. I'm glad we got to visit these temples at a time when I'm physically fit. Here are a few pictures from the Ta Phrom temple -

Mindless fun! 

We were pretty much over and done with temples for the day. All we wanted to do was to go back and get a nice foot spa. Surprise surprise.. We went back to the hotel and saw a board that said "Awesome massages available" - so we booked ourselves for a nice massage - I got the foot spa and the hubby wanted a back rub(obviously since they were cute looking masseuses!). It was very very relaxing after all that walking.
Day 2 at the Angkor complex started with a visit to the beautiful Banteay Srei temple which is about 30 minutes away from the hotel. It was a beautiful sunny day and K couldn't wait to click away!

Banteay Srei 

Banteay Srei had beautiful carvings from the Ramayana and I could hear the tour guides telling the firangs about the "monkey God, Hanuman" and they kept oohing and aahing. I couldn't stop giggling!
We went around visiting a few other smaller temples in the Angkor complex before we decided to head to see the main one - the Angkor Wat. Again, Kenit did a great job with the choice of timing - he ensured we went there in the mid afternoon(hot yes, but then so worth it) because there were hardly any people. This meant enough time to look closely at the walls, take pictures etc.
The Angkor Wat temple, the world's biggest Hindu temple complex, was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II. This temple was dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

Notice the reflection? 

Level 1 of the Angkor Wat temple had this fabulous picture of one of Vishnu's avatars - the Kurma avatar. I wished the picture was clearer!!

A graphic representation of Vishnu's Kurma avatar(the tortoise) 

Add caption

We also saw Buddhist monks all around the temple.. walking, talking on the cell phone, praying and what not.

What fun!!

Last view

In case you are wondering what else there is to do at SR, well almost nothing. Unless you consider shopping in the night market or drinking at Pub Street an activity! :D But do visit both places for sure - the night market is fabulous!! You will be tempted to buy stuff even if you don't plan to,which is what happened to me. There are fish pedicures offered all around downtown. I did not try it there because it looked super dirty to me! I mean imagine how many people would have dumped their dirty feet into it? Gross!!! 

The food in Cambodia was amazing - bland as hell but fresh veggies more than made up for it. We were so skeptical but I personally enjoyed it. Try the Khmer food - similar to Thai but nicer and more flavorful.

Part II coming soon!!