jaurinata journal

Here are the tips if you only have 1 day in Siem Reap:
1/2 a day on day 1: Sept 9, 2006 evening

-- You check in the hotel, have lunch which is about 5 USD, then hop on the tuk tuk to get to the War Museum. Spend 3USD for the entrance. You take lots of pictures... you get sad. Then get it over with because you are about to see a sadder scene later on.

-- Hop on the tuk tuk again and go to the Killing Field. This is a MUST trip since Cambodia is part of the world history. You gotta see the evidence of Pol Pot's brutality. And imagine! This just happened in the 75's !!! I was already a year old that time running around and having a great time in Medan - meanwhile they are suffering from the revolution. No fee here but be sure if you get a tour guide that you give him tip.
-- Finish the Killing field, you go to Pschar Cas, DON"T BUY things there! Way too expensive.. if let say you are going down to Phnom Penh like we did, buy souvenirs in Phnom Penh. If not, then .... spend your cash in Siem Reap then.

-- From there you go the Park, where all the Wats (or temples.. or Candi - buat orang Indonesia) are. Be patient to wait until 5 pm to buy the tickets for the next day. If you buy at this hour, you are then allowed to see the sunset from the ... "Hill" (believe me! this is the name they told me, but there is a great Wat there too. I am so sure the old Khmer people did not name it the Hill)
-- You got your ticket, it is 20USD per day. If you want to go for 3 days (which is also great because then you have a lot of time to explore every single Wats there) will be 40 USD- then with your tuk tuk go to the hill

-- To climb the hill, you have 2 options, by foot, nice climbing, strongly recommended (as Rachma walked up the hill, some Khmer musicians were playing traditional music... it was Sooooooo nice!) OR, you can take the elephant ride for 15USD per person

As you get to the top, you will be speechless to see the view. You will wish to be with your soul mate! Definitely prepare camera and from my experience, you can feel the warmth all the way into your heart...

But yeah, Esti and I were more in our silly mood. Hee hee..

-- As you finish that, you can go to see a free concert. A Swedish doctor who play the Cello, try to raise fund for Cambodian children. Collaborating closely with the hospital (bring sweater, the nice auditorium was freezing cold!) . The location is at this (I think) Art Hall called... I will find out later for you, I forgot..

-- From there, go straight to Pscar Cas again for dinner. Any restaurant cost about the same. I tried the Angkor Famous Retsaurant - great Spring roll, Ginger chicken, and Mushroom. Definitely the HOT TEA as always. One dinner like what they had cost about 5.30 USD - good deal, eh? But there is a resaturant next to the one we had that also had the Cambodian traditional dance show. No Fee

- you only have to eat there.
From Pshar Cas you can go back to the hotel and chat up to 2 am... like Esti and me! HA ha... but be sure you can get up at 4 am to get ready to see the sunrise.

Tuk tuk fee for the first day was 8 USD 1/2 a day on day 1:Sept 10, 2006 morning

-- Wake up early in the morning, also wake the tuk tuk driver if let say he's still sleeping. Get your buss ticket from the hotel guy, 5 USD each, then just checked out from the hotel.

As you get to

Angkor Wat, find a good spot to see the sunrise. It is totally a different experience compared to the sunset at the Hill. Once the sun is all out, explore Angkor Wat. It is humaguous! Take lots of pictures! You'll be sorry if you dont. We met some Cambodian kids who decided to take pictures with each of us. Then we explore the inside of the Angkore Wat, climbing to the top and were just amazed by the architecture.

-- You finish Angkor Wat, you can go to Bayon Wat (or we call it the faces). This Wat is cool! Definitely! Cigil told me that the faces are supposedly taken from the face of the king at that time - who knows! - we did not have any tour guide with us, and Cigil is no historian guy! ... Anyway, when I was there we took pioctures with two little monks - it was nice, we gave them little "uang jajan" and Rachma gave him her email address since he was asking to correspondence. (Funny, it was like Mars communication, "lady, lady, internet number..." --Rachma was confused but then "Ooohh,.. yeah, you want your picture to be emailed? Sure what is your email address?" -- Little monk gave a paper with Cambodian characters -- Nah lo! Bingung dah gua! -- So Rachma decided to give her email address and try it from there. Belive it or not, just yesterday Rachma received an email from the little monk! Great ha? Yeah! Coolness..)

-- When we got to the site, we drank hot tea for 1USD each. We met a nice kid who kep bargaining her merchandise to us, buddha statue, postcard... "Hi.. foreign lady.. you buy me statue pliisss... my baby buddha pliiiss... oh, foreign lady! or you buy me poska' pliiss only fo a dollaah.... lady pliisss... oh - i know, you give me three dollah, for tea and poska' and I will tell you the capital of Indonisi...." (shhh.. pronounce it like the Cambodian.. it's cute!)

-- Snap shots at Bayon - you will have time to relax a bit. Then from here go to

Ta Prom Wat, where the big old trees just grow over the Wat ruins... it's so mysterious in there... but cool.

-- Remember not to throw away your ticket, they will check it as you enter each Wat

-- This will be the last Wat then you have to go back to any restaurant, we picked a restaurant at Pscar Cas again, for lunch. We paid 9 USD for lunch. Tuk tuk fee again is 8 USD. Then from there go to the bus station. The bus leave twice a day, one at 7 am and the one we took at 12.30 pm

-- Spend the time at the bus looking at the country side, transitting at local bus stations, watch the Cambodian girls buy some snacks... and as for Rachma and Esti, they were offered the deep fried SPIDER!!!! (No, thank you, we are full.. ha ha)

So those are the tips adn trick.. now back to my story with the chick from Surabaya