Angkor Essentials - Farewell Siem Reap ...

Day III : Siem Reap - Singapore

Yes, FINALLY DAY THREE *grins* We ended yesterday with a full body oil massage to help our aching bodies relax so we had a good sleep that night and all set for our last day. Our flight was at about 4 plus in the afternoon so we had the morning and lunch before we headed to the airport.

Our first stop was to the Artisans d'Angkor. I was a little hesitant about going there initially because I read that it was the usual touristy place with prices that are ridiculously high. But am glad I did go and learnt more about the place. It's a programme that trains young people in the traditional Cambodian handicraft such as silk painting, lacquer work, wood and stone carving. This was a collaboration between Chantier-Ecoles and the Provincial Office of Education, Youth and Sport. Not anyone can participate in this programme, but rather have to be selected and invited. Am not sure on the selection process through.

There will be a guide there who will take you around to explain the different workshops and also explain the different process in creating the various products. We, unfortunately, had a guide who was simply wanted to finish the tour quickly so it wasn't as informative. Above, a lady is working on some lacquer art piece. Below, one of the guys in the workshop working on a stone carving.

We then zoomed to the next workshop (photograph below) which was the wood carving area which was pretty cool. Obviously, it will take a while for the students to learn the skills but it gives them an opportunity to learn a skill and earn money to support themselves and their families.

We kinda broke away from the guide to take some photographs. Found the head (see below) that's work in progress intriguing but didn't see the matching body around.

Then saw this wood carving below and took this shot but wasn't too happy with the 'distractions' around in the background. I remember I was frowning away thinking that I wanted a shot, dunno what shot, but definitely wanted a shot of this statue but didn't want to touch anything around in case I damage anything. The place was a little messy and there were chairs scattered around. And there was the tour guide who was waiting impatiently too *laughs* yeah, I get stressed out over the silliest things!

Had to make a decision to either forget about the shot or do something quickly. So walked around some tables and chairs, finally got to the front and took this shot below. It's not great but sure beats the one above and I am pleased with how it turned out.

A few more shots of other items in the room and we were done. Guide could go back to chatting with his other guide friends and we went to the Artisan d'Angkor to shop. Yes, the items there were expensive but we also realised that quality wise, it was also much better than those we saw at the markets. So for cheap souveniors, get from the markets. But for the special people (including yourself), you may want to get them gifts from here. We got quite a few things from here and left feeling very pleased with ourselves.

When Mr Chenla picked us up at the hotel after breakfast, he had good news for us. For the last two days, we have been asking about taking the balloon ride but the weather was suitable for that. But thankfully, on our last day, the weather was okay for the balloon ride so we did a detour for that before heading to the next item on the itinerary.

The Angkor Balloon (see above), which was a tethered helium balloon, gave us a bird's eye view of the Angor Heritage site. The balloon is attached to a 'cage' (see below) that allows visitors to walk around when up in the sky.

We went up to about 180 metres and stayed up for about 10 minutes (yeah, way too short!). Depending on the weather, you can see the Angkor Temple, Phnom Bakheng Temple, area of Bayon Temple, West Barray Lake and Angkor City (according to the pamphlet). But to see all these things, you need several things - good clear weather, binoculours, good camera that allows you to zoom real far and a guide/guidebook to tell you exactly where all those places are!

Mag had her binos so that came in handy. But we couldn't get good shots from our compact camera. And the weather was also cloudy so we only could see the temples clearly when we were descending and the clouds were clearing. Anyways, I still think we were pretty lucky to have had the chance to go up on the balloon so we'll take whatever we can.

If you try and look real hard (photograph above), you may be able to make out the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat (check the photograph below).

Not very clear below but that's actually the area that we climbed up to go to Phnom Bakheng on Day II to see the sunset.

For USD15, you get to 'fly' for 10 mins and it's quite an awesome experience even though the sky was rather cloudy. But a must have experience. If you can afford it, another thing you might want to try is a helicopter ride. That was just a bit off our budget so we settled for the balloon instead.

In Siem Reap, the best way to get around would be the local version of the Tuk Tuk (see below). Very comfortable but you just have to beat with the smoke, fumes, dust and the reckless driving by the tuk tuk drivers. But it's cheap (remember to bargain) way to move around.

Our next stop was the Floating Village at Tonlé Sap Lake. Wiki-ed some about the lake and found some interesting information about this lake. It is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. It is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.

The Tonlé Sap is unusual for two reasons. Firstly, its flow changes direction twice a year, and secondly, the portion that forms the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons. From November to May, Cambodia's dry season, the Tonlé Sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. However, when the year's heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé Sap backs up to form an enormous lake. Pretty cool because the houses on stilts also adjustable depending on the water level. Guess made sense of many of the houses to be floating to accomodate the changes in water level *grins*

Have to admit here that I expected something similar to the one in Bangkok but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. It's not as 'exciting' and 'busy' but at the floating village, you will witness the people carrying out their day to day routine, without any care of the many tourists going by in their boats (like the one below that we were on).

Below is our boat guy who took us around the floating village.

We saw several variations. There were people who had floating houses with their sampan to take them from one place to another (as in photograph below). There were others who lived on a boat house.

And if you see wooden cage like attachments to the house (some were below the house) those were the farms (see photograph below).

The photograph below shows a lady who lives in a boat house and has a little sampan. If you're wondering what she was doing, she was actually cooking on the sampan, thus the smoke.

There were many who were moving about in their boats. We even saw young children, probably 5 or 6 year olds, rowing their own sampans (usually one will bail water collected in the boat and the other will row or work the engine).

We also came across several schools, usually by foreign sponsors. The one below is a floating school for the Vietnamese children. Seems like there were quite a bit of Vietnamese and Chams living in the floating village.

We came across a floating church and mosque too. The mosque was probably for the Cham people, an ethnic group in South East Asia and form the core group of Muslims in Vietnam and Cambodia, and a small community lived in the floating village.

At same point, the boat driver will stop the boat at the centre of the lake and Mr Chenla went on to do same explaining about the lake. And you will notice sampans with motor engines speeding towards your boat and as they get closer to you, the adults on the sampans will start to row and there will be young children trying to sell you things. We had a small girl who tried to sell us a comb of bananas but we politely refused to buy anything. I remember reading online that for some boats, the drivers will pretend that the engine stalled and will remain stalled until somebody buys something.

We also had this little girl come to our boat in a tub begging for money. I was initially shocked because I thought she was rowing in the tub all the time.

But later saw her rowing towards a boat, got onto it and wait for the next tourist boat to come along (below). In there was an adult (the one who looks after the boat while she goes tubbing) who decided to take a nap while they waited. The choice is yours if you want to give them money or buy anything from them but don't feel that you HAVE to. We told our guide that we were good to go (before the next speed boat came our way, thought it was wiser for us to go). As much as I don't like having to deal with such situations, it's part and parcel of visiting any developing country.

On the way back, we stopped at a floating shop. Good for a toilet break if you need one (they have proper toilet bowls etc and relatively clean). They also have souveniors but be prepared to pay heaps for them.

Attached to the shop were two farms - fish and crocodile farms for tourists to have a closer look. Pretty nasty looking crocodiles and I was wondering how many had escaped and living along the shores of the Tonlé Sap.

The fish frenzy you see happening below was because the owner did a demo and threw in some fish feed and that got the fish all excited.

Both of us (below) at the pier after we got off the board. Lots to think about after the visit to the floating village.

What got me think were the children who at a very young age had to learn to survive. I saw a very young girl, maybe the same age as my nephew who is 3 years old, clinging on to the side of the boat with one hand, and the other hand trying to reach out to the water from the lake to wash her bummy (she probably just pooped and was cleaning herself). I remembered her hand shaking from the weight of supporting herself and straining to reach the water. Several minutes later, her mom saw what she was trying to do and went to help her by splashing water to her bummy while the girl remained dangling off the side of the boat. I was like panicking that the girl would fall into the water but I guess that's just life for them.

We left the floating village and were off for our last meal in Siem Reap. Along the way, we passed fields of beautiful water lilies and lotus flowers.

Again, constraint by what my compact camera could do, was feeling frustrated because it would have been really awesome to be able to take a shot of the field.

After lunch, Mr Chenla dropped us off at the Old Market. This was the market that I was asking the guide to take us too and I don't know why they waited till the last day to bring us here where we had a total of 20 minutes!!! Don't waste time at the Night Market people, head here instead where the good buys are and you have heaps of things to choose from.

Lots of gorgeous scarves (see below) at the Old Market, among many other lovely things. Not only do you find the souveniors to bring home, if you have time, you can also explore the wet market for the locals.

Saw quite a few stalls selling these lacquered pieces. Would have been nice to bring home one or two but unfortunately, we didn't have time to look around as we had one thing that we had to buy - our guidebook on Cambodia. We should have gotten it when we got there but we were just not in the mood to haggle prices with the many young children selling the books (and many other things).

We stumbled across this little shop that had a lady making some Cambodian Cookies (see below). It smelled yummy (taste yummy too) and upon closer look, these are like our love letters!!! Ingredients to make these Cambodian Cookies - fresh coconut milk, tapioca starch, palm sugar, eggs, salt and no preservatives.

Perfect gift for the family back home to try. For a box of 24 individually wrapped cookies costs USD15 and we managed to bargain it down to USD10 since we were getting total of 3 boxes.

With all our bags (as well as newly acquired items) we headed to the airport and bid farewell to Mr Chenla and the driver who spent 1.5 days with us. Remember to put aside USD25 per person for Airport Tax (International). You will need to pay upon departure after you check-in. We still had a lot of time and it was hot in airport so with drinks in hand, we settled down to read our recently acquired guidebook (yes, at the END of the trip) while we waited for the plane to come home.

It was a good weekend, a little tiring but I felt recharged after the trip and went back to work the next day all refreshed. It was great seeing Angkor Wat, Bayon and all the other temples in Siem Reap and I guess I don't have to go far to see such wonders when there are so many close to home. Maybe I should focus on travelling around the area for the next few years especially with the economy not picking up just yet. Where to next? Hmmm, Borobudur...I think the temple bugs bit me and I would love to see Borobudur and the other ancient temples nearby next! *grins* What do you think?

Update:
Found this website while surfing the net on shopping at Siem Reap. Wished I had found it earlier but honestly, with the weekend, we probably wouldn't have had time to see all the wonderful places mentioned in the website. But if you have time, check out it!