Iblawg Visits Cambodia

Our flight took only 2 hours to reach Siem Reap International Airport. Didn’t have the time and opportunity to visit Phnom Penh.

Of course, the first thing that we experienced was the traffic.

We made it a point to experience first-hand the local culture and lifestyle. In order to do this, we must go to the places where the locals go, and eat what they eat.

This is a roadside ice-cream stall:

The standard of living was generally low, where the majority of the locals are deprived of a proper home, food and education.

We visited the Tonle Sap Lake, one of the largest lakes in the world. It was impossible to see the whole lake, so what we saw was like a horizon. A lake. But we saw the horizon.

There was a village on this lake, which reminded me of the movie Water World, starring Kevin Costner. The villagers here do not enjoy proper sanitation, and do everything from the same water source – the lake. Notice the colour of the water?

Almost everywhere we went, there were children asking for money, or selling souvenirs. At times, we sympathized and bought some items, but we just couldn’t buy from every one of them. It was so heartbreaking to see their desperation. Here’s a Korean restaurant on the Tonle Sap Lake:

Businesses like this cater to mostly tourists, of course.

It is a must to visit the many ancient temples in Cambodia, most of which required good stamina to climb because the stairs were all super-high and super-steep!

All buildings in Siem Reap were not allowed to be taller than the Angkor Wat. There were two places where we could watch the beautiful sunrise and sunset, one of which was Angkor Wat itself.

All the temples built in Cambodia date back to hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Most of the statues’ heads were removed and the temples were partially destroyed. The reason for this remains a mystery until today.

Check out those huge roots. They’ve grown so large over the walls of this temple – just imagine how many decades have this temple been here. One of them was where the movie Tomb Raider was shot.

Don’t visit Cambodia if you’re expecting a relaxing holiday getaway. We spent about RM500 for this 4D3N trip. The hotel (guesthouse, actually) only cost USD11 per room, per night. It’s an interesting place to visit, overall.