Knyom Soksabay Awkun

Day One (afternoon): Arrival in Cambodia and exploring a part of Siem Reap

Left the new LCCT in KLIA (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) on board Air Asia flight AK846 at approx 1015 Wed 16 Aug 2006 and arrived in Siem Reap International Airport at approx 1130 local time. It was a 2-hour flight but there' s a 1 hour time difference between Malaysia and Cambodia.

My friend Sean, and I were met at the aiport by this tuk-tuk driver 'Luck' who drove us to our guesthouse. The free airport transfer was arranged by Rosy guesthouse where we were putting up for the next three days. The half hour journey was an eye-opener but I had a hard time keeping my eyes open as the roads were very dusty and dusts were all over my eyes.


Upon arrival at the guesthouse, we were met up by the owner Simon (who by the way is an English lad); he helped carry our bags to our rooms on the 3rd floor. The room was a small backpackers' room which costs approx USD 5 per night. It was quite hot and stuffy in there but very clean and basic; which was sufficient for me coz I wasn't planning to coop myself in the room the whole day while I'm in Cambodia.

Phsa Chas (Old market), Siem Reap

Anyway, we decided to venture out to Phsa Chas for lunch. We were told that it takes approx 20 minutes to walk from the guesthouse to Phsa Chas (Old Market) and our tuk-tuk driver offered to take us there for free. We opted to walk... which eventually we did at all other occasions. After browsing through the market for a while. We sat down at a shop for lunch. Rice was served together with 3 other dishes (fried fish, Cambodian sausages and young eggplant in minced meat) which cost us both rl 7,000. I called for a large bottle of Angkor Beer which costs me rl 6,000. I think its reasonable... not too bad for the first day. Continued browsing the old market an found some eye-catching things; there were lots of preserved fish arranged in very ornamental shapes:


Here's another picture, dig this:


Yet another one:


I even bought two white-fleshed dragonfruits for rl 3,000 which was about RM 1.50 each. They were big and sweet. After the short tour of the Phsa Chas area, we headed back to the guesthouse for a bath as we already had an arrangement with our tuk-tuk driver to take us to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset for USD 3.

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posted by Hanson @ 8:14 PM