Cambodia - Siam Reap Day 2

Time for Part 2 of my trip in Cambodia - Siam Reap.

Remember the previous post I posted about Cambodia - Siam Reap ?? That's just basically my first day that I arrived in Siam Reap. Also remember I've mention the very next day morning I'm going to visit AngKor Wat Temple ?

I am to share more about it with you on Angkor Wat temple and other temple that I have visited on my second day in Siam Reap.

Let's Go....

After taking breakfast in the morning, we went to the hotel waiting area and wait for the driver to come and pick us up to our day tour at Angkor Wat and few other Temples.

This is my very first time visiting Angkor Wat last time only happen to see how it look like on TV shows and to be honest I never thought that I will be going there one day.

Angkor Wat is the largest and heritage temple in Siam Reap that exhibits the most unique religious architecture in the world and is one of the attraction that everyone will visit when they're in Siam Reap even the located taxi driver, hotel staff or tour agency will recommend, so you will not only see the local people there but also lots of tourist.

Picture of Angkor Wat

Before entering to Angkor Wat you'll need to buy a pass which cost USD $20.00,

( Little note : In cambodia they use USD, their local currency will be use as their small change most of the time. So please change more USD. )

Entrance pass for Angkor Wat is so different from other entrance ticket or pass I have seen in other place or country that I have visited before. For the Angkor Wat pass, is like a normal ticket but with your passport size picture on it they will require you to take it on the spot when you buy the ticket.

We are standing at the entrance of Angkor Wat taking picture of our Angkor Pass.

From the picture above you can see that's how the Angkor Wat pass look like with your picture on it. Also as I mention above this pass cost USD $20.00 as it's shown in the picture above and it also states the date of entry & date of expiry because they have more than just a day pass you can buy for two days but we didn't choose it because we have other plans for the rest of the days in Siam Reap.

I'm trying to take a picture nearer to the first entrance. Look at this picture this is what I meant by the place being filled up with tourist. Even when you're trying to take a nicer picture with the entrance, You will inevitably include a photobomb in your picture. 

Let's take a picture together before we proceed further.

Let's begin the journey with me in Angkor wat temple. Where you see me standing in the above picture is where the first entrance is after a long walk from the passage way.

Inside or outside of Angkor Wat you will get to see lots of different hidden structure from different angles.

The locals will sit at the corner and rest and so happen I saw this little boy standing there so I did the same thing. Haha

Look at those structure like I mention earlier when you step into Angkor Wat you will get to see different kind of structure at the different angle and this is one of them.

After visiting Angkor Wat we move on to the next temple.. the next temple is quite a distance from the first so our driver have to drive us there. Half way through we arrived at this gateway.

So the driver told us that we can alight and slowly walk over and take some picture at the same time while he will drive to meet us ahead shortly.

Take a closer look all this brick or I should say stone. It is very old but is still quite strong after so many years. All this structure is hand crafted bit by bit, day by day for the locals living there during that era does not have the luxury of modern machineries like we do. 

From this picture you should know which temple I'm heading to right?

If you have guess it correctly, I'm heading towards Bayon Temple but this is not Bayon this is just the gate I've mention earlier the car have to driver pass this gate to be able to bring us to another temple. From the picture you can see its only a one way road so even the elephant going pass this gate have to stop and give way to temple just like normal traffic vehicles from the other side have to give way to the oncoming traffic.

I remember at that point of time there's 5 or 6 elephant walking through this gate and when I saw it I quickly took out my camera and snap it and ask my bf to take picture for me and the elephant walking. Haha.. Yes I know its an elephant nothing special but when you're over there is different kind of feeling and you see the way they trying to walk through the small gate with other vehicle waiting behind. 

 

Their elephant also look different from what we see in Singapore Zoo. 

Okay back to the top on Bayon Temple.

Bayon is one of the largest Mahayana Buddhist temples in Angkor complex, was built in the heart of Angkor Thom. Bayon's most distinctive feature is the stone faces that grace its many towers.

The overview of Bayon temple.
How to go up to the top of it to have a closer look of the feature stone face?

Saw this stairs ? Yes this is the only way up there to the top and the only way down from the top.

Don't just base on the picture and think that the step is easy to walk up infact the step is small and narrow. 

Yeah We're up there. 

Let's take a picture together with the face " Say Cheese " 

I find that Bayon is nicer than Angkor Wat maybe is because of the way they build this temple, mentioning of building this temple is actually build as a square, which have North South East & West. Oh if you notice the faces is all Smiling face no matter you look at which side of it is all smiling face. There's actually smaller tower surrounding Bayon and each of them have 4 sided face too. 

When you walk town from the top, you will get to see two long walls with all the different hand craft on it and each of them has it own meaning. 

 Look at it how details it is and can you believe that all this was hand craft on bit by bit in the olden days. Can you imagine how much effort the local use to do all this and stack up the stone one by one. 

You will see this in the center of Bayon which you will see the local sitting down doing their offerings and prayers. After walking at Bayon, its lunch time! We have to walk out of Bayon while we were walking out, we saw some monkey nearby playing among themselves.

Now let's go for lunch and continue our temple journey after that.  

The restaurant we went to was rather popular with tourist. I believe they are commission based.

we enjoyed the tranquil setting furnished with local Cambodian interior.

 It was love at first sight when they served my noodles, my first impression was of our local Mince Meat Noodle which we call it " Mee Pok " but this tasted so much different. One thing I always notice when I travel is that their food that I have ate always have lots of vegetables to compliment the meat so it gave us a more holistic diet.

Look at the portion of the food, its a lot and I can't finish it but i think that I can share it with one more person because for me I'm not a big eater. But its delicious!.. We also order something that look like chicken chop but sadly I can't remember the name of it anymore.

Oh I still remember when our food came, a fellow tourist diner which sat next to us saw what we're eating and they asked us what did we order and they ordered the same food as us.

After our lunch, we when to this temple that was chosen as a movie setting for a film, Jerome showed it to me on youtube then I realise it. Haha..

Any Ideal yet ???

Yes, Next temple we were visiting is Ta Prohm. I believe those that watch this movie " Tomb raider " inside there's a scene was film over there.

The Journey begins here at Ta Prohm.

But before you're able to reach this area you have to walk a long way inside before reaching this area and of cause before that you need to know the rules and regulations of Ta Prohm.

Ta Prohm is a mysterious temple. A temple with lots of tree growing naturally on top and around it.

This big tree you will see it when you first walk in and I remember one of the tour group leader use this as a drum and made music out of it for his tour group. I try to hit on it after the group left and when you hit on it, it feels hollow.

After that when you walk in further you will see this picture shown below

Each stone is carved with an intricate pattern.  If you notice most of the temple have a sort of little craft on it and as I mention each artwork represents something.

See that's what I mean by the tree growing naturally out of the roof, on top of the temple and its almost every where. During the time when they build this temple they never cut down any trees. Until now the trees are still growing.

We hiked further in to see what other thing we can see. But when walking there please be careful and I will advise to wear a shoes instead of slipper. The algae footpath is slippery!

Look at all this stones that fell naturally centuries after it was abandoned.

After walking up till here we completed half our Ta prohm tour.

About to walk out of Ta Prohm before that let's take a selfie together .

After that we walk out to find the driver and send us back to the hotel. BUT we walk the wrong direction I saw the signage showing a shortcut and I thought it was really a shorter way out but the shorter way exit is not where our driver is waiting for us so at the end we still have to walk back in the other direction. Haha And is a long walk.

After back at hotel we rest for awhile around early evening at 6.30pm Cambodia time we head out for our dinner at the night market and at the same time have a walk at the night market.

We ate at the road side stall and the food is super appetizing. Yummy..
As I mention after dinner we have a short walk at the night market after that head back to hotel to have an early night because the next day we will be heading out for motorcycle tour. Woohoo. Motorcycle tour...

Stay tune for more on my motorcycle tour experience in Siam Reap. Will post it soon to share with all of you. ( :

New Year Activity

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!

So fast the calendar has hit 2016. How does all of you spend your New Year ?

Let me share with you about how I start off with my New Year.

Basically on the very first day of new year itself is I didn't do anything special just normal going out etc etc.. But I did some outdoor activity on the 2nd day of New Year.

I went to Treetop Walk and on that day itself rain heavily and yet I still went. Took a bus and alighted at the bus stop that is nearer to Singapore Country Club because that will be a nearer route to treetop walk compare to walking from MacRitchie Reservior.

I have never been to Treetop Walk before and on the 2nd day of New Year I decided to go and have a walk in Treetop walk with family member.  I believe most of you have been there but on that day I went is not a very good day because of the weather the rain is pouring heavily BUT is a different kind of experience which I always like to try out different thing and gain different kind of experience.

Sign showing way to treetop walk.

This is how the way look like from the start but when you continue walking it will be different. Some part will be muddy especially on a rainy day.

 Yeah, on our way up to the treetop.

On the way you will get to see all the monkey. So beware of them they will snatch your food from you. Hahaha..

As you can see from the picture this show you how many KM more to reach to all this place.
Everyone that go there will target to reach Ranger Station first because there's toilet and you can take a short break over there before continue walking any further. Same goes for me (:

continue to walk up to Treetop Walk but I think from the picture you can tell I'm actually a bit tired. Haha we didn't really stop at the Ranger for long just for few minutes toilet break.

 

Finally arrive at the top of Treetop Walk.

 After a while the rain start to pour again lucky we bring our own umbrella.

I guess the umbrella is not big enough but better nothing. We still have to walk down quickly to find a shelter and there's a lot of people waiting at the shelter but we waited for the rain to be smaller then we continue to walk down but while we walk down the rain pour again. At that point of time we didn't bother much anymore we just walk slowly with our umbrella all the way out and by the time we're out we are already half drain, shoes become muddy and dirty too. Haha..

But is a nice experience to walk in the rain like this. Hopefully the next time round we go the sun will shine instead. ( :

Carrot Cupcake

Hello Everybody, this time round I'm going to share my Carrot Cupcake.

Carrot cake is very common to find at the bakery shop out there but I notice not much bakery shop selling it like cupcake unless you go to those cupcake store but also not most of them selling it or I should say carrot cake most of the time will be sold in either a slice in triangle shape or a whole round of it.

So one day when I'm at home out of the blue I go online and search for Carrot cake recipe and try baking it but for the first try I already started to use the cupcake cup instead of the normal cake tray to bake it. At the same time I want to try something different.

Although I know some of the cupcake shop out there might sell it too but yet I still want to try it.

I didn't follow exactly the amount of ingredients for example for sugar if they stated 1cup I will normally cut it into half cup or I will cut a little depend on what I'm baking and what is the is the ingredients. But most of the time I will definitely cut in sugar because I don't like to eat to sweet. ( :

For my very first attempt in baking this carrot cupcake, turn out quite good and nice and I was so happy.

For the cream, I use Butter cream instead of cheese cream, you may choose to use cheese cream also this is on your person preference. During that time I choose to use butter cream is because my partner like to eat butter cream that's why I made with butter cream. Even up till today if somebody order from me or tell me they want carrot cupcake I will still use butter cream.

Recently my friend ordered some cupcake from me for her wedding and one of her choice is this carrot cupcake but I use a different and slightly smaller cup.

From the above 3 picture you can see the cupcake I used compare to the previous want is slightly smaller also at the same time you saw the other two design of cupcakes in the picture the want with the cute little flower on top is our Vanilla flavor with butter cream, 2nd want is our Carrot cake the want with the cute little carrot on top which I think is very obvious. Last but not least the want with the brown powder on top is our Banana cupcake ( the brown powder on top of the banana cake is walnut just that I make it into powder. )

Will have more other cupcake flavor real soon. So do stay tune and find out more if you're interested in ordering my cake or cookies just feel free do drop me an email or you have any quires want to find out more about what other cupcakes or cookies I made do feel free to let me know. ( :

Cambodia - Siam Reap

It's been long time since my last post. Now I'm back again. ( :

Remember my last post is about my 2nd staycation in SG at D'Kranji Farm ( you may refer to the link shown : http://linnes.blogspot.sg/2015_05_01_archive.html ) and my last adventure post is about my Nepal Trip in Kathmandu ( http://linnes.blogspot.sg/2014_10_01_archive.html ) for this time round I'm going to share about my experience in Cambodia ( Siam Reap ). 

Yes this time round I went to Cambodia - Siam Reap.
Is a different kind of experience from Nepal. First of all Nepal need a long flight distance where as Siam Reap only need 2 hour flight, is so much nearer compare to Kathmandu.
But there's something similar which is both people you met in this two different country is very friendly.

This time round I went for 6 days 5 nights and I think is more than enough to travel in Siam Reap.
For singaporean we do not need to apply for a tourist visa. How do I find out is upon our arrival at the airport we went to queue up at the tourist visa application counter and when it's our turn the staff over there at the counter told me that Singapore passport don't need to apply for tourist visa and that's how I find out. Once clear the custom we went to this counter outside the airport for taxi service to get a taxi to our hotel so as usual tell them where are you heading and they will tell you the price and pay them on the spot they don't charge by meter. This taxi we board, the driver is warm enough to welcome us and asked us where we want to go so we show him the map and his not to sure where is it because our hotel that we book is only a year old so not much driver know the exact location of the hotel so he make a call to the hotel to ask where is the exact or correct location.
Once we arrive our hotel before we alight the driver ask us if we're interested to let him be our 1 day driver for the next day or the next few days we're in siam reap and he will bring us to different places and temple and we agreed to let him drive us around for our next day tour. Where did he bring us too I will share more about it with all of you soon.

So as you can see the picture below that's the hotel entrance the hotel doesn't look like normal hotel in fate it like a resort in siam reap most of their hotel is resort style and is so beautiful. Even their airport design also look like resort.

When we're checking in the staff is nice enough to give us some welcome drinks and the room we book is not ready so she spend sometime to explain to us and show us some map and introduce us where we should visit in siam reap.

So about 45 mins later our room is ready and she show us the way to our room and even tell us where is the toilet , safe box etc etc

this view taken outside from our room 

This is how the room look like so spacious.

After setting down in the room we rest for awhile as usual before heading out. So around 4 or 5 plus in the evening we headed out for an early dinner at their night market and we took their locate tuktuk out. In Siam Reap, tuktuk is just like their 2nd transport that they use. It's so amazing that their tuktuk just a simple motorcycle and behind just hook a carriage for the passenger to sit and they can sit up till 4 person in the carriage. Don't you find it amazing just a simple vehicle but is helping the locate there to use to help them to earn income for leaving.

Our hotel provide free 3 times tuktuk service for those tourist that stay more than 3 nights. So during the very first day we already used up 1 time because we're going to the night market for dinner. So we just tell the tuktuk uncle which I name the uncle number 08 uncle because of the tuktuk number is 08 each tuktuk over there have their own number so you can easily remember them by the number. The uncle alighted us at this street call : ( PUB Street ) Pub Street is a street where there's a lot of restaurants that service food and beer, some even come with live band perform so basically is a street with lots of different type of pub and restaurants.

 went into one of the alley and decided to walk in and have a look at what food they have inside, from the picture above you can tell actually there's quite a number of restaurants and finally we have decided on one and sit down for our dinner.

So we order one of their famous dish in Cambodia which is : AH MOK  

Ah Mok is a type of Curry dish is Cambodia that's quite similar to Thai green curry.

Ah Mok is not spicy, not milky, not to thick, not to sweet or salty. In fact they cook with thicker coconut cream, lot of vegetables etc etc .. other then ah mok we did order another dish also the dish is a kind of fish soup with some coconut milk, white carrot in slice, lot of vegetables too.

As you can see in the picture there's two different dish which I mention on the above.
( Sorry for the blur picture )
After our dinner we when we have a walk around the night market in siam reap their night market is actually walking distance so from pub street you can walk to Art centre night market. Before that while I'm walking there on the way walking from pub street I saw them selling fried worms, spider all kind of insects and I was like omg I don't dare to eat it man..

Look at it.. All fried insects they sell. But I don't see much people buying it maybe few of their locate people? After that continue walking down to Art centre night market.

 

Art centre night market is where you can find a lot of craft for those people that like craft I will recommend them to go there. Not only that some of the store over there sell some t-shirt, pants etc etc too so you can find not only craft but clothing there too. But of cause for clothing wise I will still say Bangkok is better. Haha..

This is inside of art centre night market
After few hour of shopping we decided to go back hotel and rest early because the next day we have to wake up very early in the morning for our out day tour at Angkor Wat Temple.

Stay tune for more adventure trip with me in Cambodia Siam Reap ( Angkor Wat ) on my next post.
Enjoy reading ( :