Phnom penh

after 3 nights at siem reap, after having a wonderful time visiting the temples we decided to take the temple break and started to plan on phnom penh. siem reap to phnom penh is a long journey. takes about 6 hours. there are buses but many of the travellers have suggested to travel on day time rather than take the night bus. coz the roads are scary and narrow and a lot of accidents happen.

travelling in a bus during day time tat too for about 6 - 8 hours...nah!!!!!
we were thinking of other options when our guide sprang up with the idea of going with our driver who is goin home .luckily he is a married guy and visits his wife once in a month kinda!!! so we grabbed the chance and paid him 60 dollars.

by bus it would be a mere 30 dollars..but this one was luxury. a Lexus SUV and he promised to take us around phnom pneh for the rest of the day..
so deal fixed.

 on the way we stopped to take some photographs....children having fun in the pond

 this young lady is selling steamed rice cakes with jaggery...yummmy it is!!!

our driver and a very good friend Rith ( in the middle)

the national monument at phnom penh
so we reached phnom penh in 6 hours , had a city tour, dined at a good restuarant and back to hotel.

temples Angkor wat

ANGKOR WAT

Angkor wat temple is the main temple in the angkor site which is probably the biggest temple in the worlds with hundreds of small temples .the temple is  used by bhudists today even though it is a vishnu temple.

400 sq.kms !!! thats what this temple streches to..whoa!!!

many ancient statues have been decapitated and their heads sold to private collectors ..says our guide

a private agency runs the tourism in angkor wat and they say he is even richer than the king .

and one last thing ..ankor wat temple was painted!!! but only few traces can be seen today.

 at sunset

 waiting for the sun to set :P

the reflection is so damn beautiful.

 all kinds of photo experiments :P

inside the temple..when light falls at around 5 pm.the temple  turns golden

the temple is huge ..and u can just run faster to see it all in a hours time...or you can come in the morning and be there till evening...yet this temple is bigger to see all in a day..perhaps a week..tahts waht my fellow travellers said :P

Siem Reap

We landed at the Siem Reap airport around 2 PM local time from Kuala Lumpur. We just walked to the terminal, no buses. small airport but neat and tidy. The first thing I noticed was the Khmer script is very similar to the Malayalam and Tamil script and the building reminded us of cochin international airport
We got into the terminal and the immigration was no fuss, with soldiers manning the station. Got our luggage and got some US dollars changed at the exchange booth just after the baggage carousel and instantly felt rich – for about  $1 we got nearly 4700 Riels.
we thought of renting a tuk tuk, but later came to know that cambodians doesnt like their 2 wheeler been called tuk tuk, instead they call it Remork’. its a moped atached to a wagon. fortunately or unfortunately we couldnt find one and we booked prepaid taxi to our hotel.
the driver knew bits and peices of english yet he and we managed
the drive was cool..the streets looked like india with paddy fields and small houses.

 siem reap airport..# small is beautiful#


After checking in at my home hotel we had lunch from the hotel itself. The food was good. AMOK – the dish was fantastic. After lunch we bought a packet of Marlboro cigarette – the first buy from Cambodia…it cost around 4900 riel…a dollar and a few cents…: P
Money is been calculated in dollar and riel. So if you buy something in dollar expect riel in balance. There were remorks around so late in the evening we decided to go night market. The ride cost us around 2 usd.
Night market is a good place to buy some cool tees and souvenirs. Bargaining is cool too…we bought some shawls which were pretty cool.
After exploring night market we proceeded to the pub street. Pub Street is a 100 meter long street with pubs on both sides, restaurants, bars and shops… foot massage and fish massage parlours are there ..worth a try.

pub street..just about 60 mts in total.but good nice pubs and restuarants.

fish spa...worth a try...fish eating the dead skin in between our toes..:P

THE TRAVEL PLAN

I have been thinking for quite a long time to travel to a destination which is cheaper, with beaches, nightlife, shopping and fun. Having travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, sri lanka I was researching on Bali when my friend mite suggested Cambodia. Cambodia or Kampuchea as our generation has studied over our social studies textbooks and the recent knowledge on killing fields… I knew nothing more about the so called kingdom of Cambodia.

Me imtiaz and Rajeev planned our flights via airasia. The itinerary was to travel from Cochin to kuala lumpur and from Kl to siem reap. Since airasia flew to 2 cities we thought of exploring both. From siem reap we thought of taking a bust to the capital Phnom Penh. And from Phnom Penh we booked return to kuala lumpur.

Months passed by, we did our research on Cambodia. Rajeev bought a lonely planet guide on Cambodia. Imti contacted some fellow travelers who had been there to Cambodia..I did my bit browsing through blogs and travel sites of Cambodia.

Finally we got equipped with 2 cameras, a canon 5d and canon 70d. Our luggage was minimal, just cabin baggage. We headed to Cochin by train. It was almost a year for me as the last international travel was during September 2013 to srilanka and I guess Rajeev’s and imtis travels were too during late 2012. Anyway our fun started once we boarded the train.

There was enough tension waiting for us as the visa photo stamped in Rajeev’s passport had a strangers photograph. The travel agent when contacted told us to keep cool…we laughed our hearts out whenever Rajeev used to check the visa

Alighted at aluva junction.. The usual last minute hurry burry…taking printouts of tickets and itinerary’s and after having street food we headed to Cochin international airport.

The check in was ok…the immigration was a bit tougher as the guys sitting and standing around wants to know so many details…government shuld give some kinda travelling allowances to these guys..Seriously…coz they cant stand seeing every tom dick and harry travel to foreign destinations.

We were a bit concerned when the immigrating officer checked Rajeev’s passport but thank god he was thru.

Since airasia flights did not have the on flight drinks facility…we were prepared to have our self service on liquor. Sample bottles were purchased and we boarded airasia.

The travel was ok with the boozed getting over all of us we slept off.

Airasia landed smoothly..I always admired the pilots of airasia..They always did a fantastic landing at KL.

we spend about 3-4 hours in the new klcc 2 terminal..just stunning tat s all i can say about this terminal which only accomodates budget flights.

 The massage chairs in Kl airport. 3 ringitss for 20 minutes..worth a try.

 me  and rajeev waiting with a co traveller who is travelling to india