Cambodia, I'm in love (Part 2) - Phnom Penh
Day 3 - 30 April 2017 (Sunday)
So, I woke up very early in the morning when the bus stopped. I thought the driver was just taking a break coz I haven't done with my sweet dreams but....unfortunately, we've reached to the destination. Oh, dear. I need my sleep back. Nooooo!
So, I woke up very early in the morning when the bus stopped. I thought the driver was just taking a break coz I haven't done with my sweet dreams but....unfortunately, we've reached to the destination. Oh, dear. I need my sleep back. Nooooo!
I took my phone and tried to look at the clock. Alahai, baru pukul 5.30am. It is still very early! I thought it was supposed to reach there at around 6am or 6 something, you know. I mean, it was a very good sleep on the double-decker top bed, with the lights off and thin blanket, enjoying the cold air conditioned.
Whatever it is, I was fully awake after a few minutes and packed all the things before taking off the bus. Didn't manage to snap the photo inside the bus because I was soo sleepy at night and it was still dark in the morning. Nampak minah-minah dengan mat-mat saleh kat belakang tu takmau bangun lagi. Mungkin semua tak percaya dah sampai. Never thought how good it is to sleep inside the bus.
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| Giant Ibis Bus. |
The ticket could be bought online thru Giant Ibis website where you can choose your seat/bed and pay online using credit card. The price is USD15 for the trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. You'll be given a bottle of complimentary mineral water. Note that, bed is only for the night trip.
Turun bas, terus blur taktau nak buat apa sebab terlalu pagi. Nak check-in for sure takde bilik lagi sebab semua orang nyenyak tidur. So, ambil beg and menempek dekat kerusi-kerusi yang ada depan Pejabat Giant Ibis.
Tengah termenung, suddenly someone asked me, 'Are you from Malaysia?'
I was like.... 'Yes.' Dengan muka yang terkejut.
Rupanya local guy, bawa Tuktuk tunggu customer. Katanya dia cam Malaysian girl sebab cara pakai tudung most of the time, the same. Hehehehe. Besides, dia selalu bawa Malaysian tourist. Nama dia Rocky and he volunteered to be our driver during our stay in Phnom Penh. But actually we already planned to do more walking here since most of the places are near to each other, according to the map. Since he approached us and try to convince us on his service, we asked him to send us to the hotel, which is only less than 10 minutes journey from the bus station. It costs us USD2. Actually his price is USD5 for that very short distance. Huhuhu.
Sampai hotel, we put our stuff and lepak depan lobi while waiting for the sun to rise so that we can check-in the room. Obviously its gonna take hours since the check-in time is supposed to be at 2pm. However, the hotel staff were so helpful to inform us that they will check on any available rooms for our early check-in. I slept for a few minutes (maybe almost an hour) on the sofa at the lobby area while charging my phone and reading my RAM novel. Terlelap sebenarnya. Hahaha. Tak puas tidur. Sedih betul.
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| Muka tak puas tidur |
I can't remember what exactly the time when I was fully awake and ordered a hot water from the hotel bar. Siap serve lagi... Punya lah tip top servis dekat hotel tu. Nama hotel, City Centre Hotel betul-betul dekat pekan Phnom Penh yang sangat walking distance daripada Night Market & Riverside. Dalam 10 ke 15 minit berjalan kaki. Hotel ni tak mahal, lebih kurang RM70 ++, book through Agoda.com. Bilik tak besar but selesa. Toilet & wardrobe besar. Ada la ruang untuk solat. Dan....TV dia banyak giler channel..! RTM pun ada. Tapi, masuk bilik tidur je pun sebab dah penat. Hehehe.
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| Berpuluh-puluh channel |
Eh, belum habis cerita tadi. Got my hot plain water kan...so, I prepared a cup of hot milo for my breakfast to be paired with chipsmore biscuit. Very early breakfast sebab lapar sangat. Dah agak-agak cerah kat luar, baru bangun refreshed myself, sembur-sembur sikit bagi wangi dan keluar cari kedai boleh sarapan. I kept the bag at the counter and it was safe.
Senang cerita, dekat Southeast Asia ni, servis-servis macamni memang boleh dijangka bagus. Tambah-tambah di negara yang bergantung kepada industri pelancongan. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia dan sekarang, Cambodia...kalau ikutkan pengalaman I yang suka travel ke negara-negara ni, servis memang bagus. Kadang-kadang rezeki juga. Kena rajin baca review dan tengok rating hotel sebelum book.
Okay, where am I now?
Cari breakfast, kan? It's a bit tricky because it's our first day in Phnom Penh and I have to admit that we didn't google much on the places to eat there. So we just talk our brisk walk using google map. The roads are still empty. Lengang. We can only see few folks walking and jogging and a lot of dogs by the roadside. We still walk confidently depending 100% on the google map. I think it's almost a half-an-hour walk before we reached to Cafe Malaya for our breakfast. It's only 10 to 13 mins walk according to the map but nope..it took us more than that. Sesat bagai. Huhu.
I had roti canai (a good one, I must say) and a cup of Kopi O. Having roti canai outside Malaysia feels like dancing in the blue sky even though the price is kinda expensive. I think it's almost RM10 for a piece of roti canai and guess what? I ordered 2 pieces because I'm too hungry. The chicken curry is also good...yummeh I may say.
So, okay. Breakfast done and off we go. We went jalan-jalan while waiting for the hotel to call for our early check-in. Nothing much there. Berpeluh je lebih. It's an empty street, by the way. Besides, it is still early in the morning. So, ends up...we walked back to the hotel.
**************************
I think I had a long sleep.
Woke up when it's already noon. I was late to our tour. My bad, I'm a bit not punctual sometimes (read: most of the times). Well, creative people are. Can't deny it.
Rocky's brother, the Tuk Tuk driver was waiting with my colleague. Unfortunately, Rocky wasn't able to make it with us because he needed to send his kid to the hospital somewhere in Vietnam; if I'm not mistaken. They said the hospital there in Phnom Penh is expensive so they have to go to Vietnam for a better and cheaper service. Sometimes, the poor need to only depends on the traditional medicine because they can't afford the hospital bills. Sad, I must say. We have to be grateful to be born and live in Malaysia.
Okay, let's not divert that far. Our tour started with the Choeung Ek Killing Field, a must visit place. You can walk through the mass graves of about 17,000 civilians who were killed during Khmer regime by the well known Pol Pot. It is situated about 15km from the city centre of Phnom Penh and it is the largest Killing Field in Cambodia. Each of the graveyard will tell you stories of the very tragic history of the people in Cambodia.
It was almost dark when we walked out from the Killing Field. So, we decided to go straight to the riverside for some sight seeing and dinner hunting. It is also the top tourist spot and it was not that far from our hotel. So, we asked our Tuk Tuk to drop us there. I would say there's nothing much over there except for a lot of people and cafes.
Of course you have to go there because it's the Mekong river you would wanna see. Besides, it was quite happening at night. There's a night market situated nearby the huge field where you can see a lot of local people had their late-picnic over there. There's few street foods available - they looked yummy but I was a bit reluctant on the Halal status. So, I just admired them from far. Hahaha.
We finally found a place to eat. We were lucky because it was just nearby the main attraction place and it was definitely delicious. Super delicious...! It served Khmer Muslim Foods and the shop name (if I'm not mistaken) is Halal Restaurant. The foods were superb and the coffee was even better (crying). I missed the coffee, seriously.
Well, actually we repeated there the next day for our lunch before we head back home. I could still remember the taste of the foods.... but honestly, I can't recall the menu. A bit STML (read : Short Term Memory Loss) lately. The coffee...ohhh the coffee....
Boleh feel aroma dia. I did buy a pack of ground coffee tapi nak bancuh sesedap itu... entahlah. Maybe I'm not gifted in making coffee. Haha.
We went back to the Hotel after dinner. Banyak sangat kupu-kupu malam di sepanjang jalan dan lorong nak ke hotel tu. Kesian. Ada kids terpaksa temankan mak bekerja while the mat saleh duk kendong the ladies kiri kanan. So many pub as well sebab kat sana memang murah. Orang kata, boleh minum sampai mabuk dan mabuk lagi.
Walaupun jalan dekat lorong macamtu at night, I think I felt safe. Tak ada triggered pun nak takut ke apa ke.... I'm not sure about the crime rate kat situ. I was being extra cautious but apparently, it feels safe. Maybe there were still so many people or maybe it's a never ending night life over there.
Sampai bilik, pack barang and tidur bagai tiada hari esok. The bed was oh-so-good.
Day 4 - 1st May 2017 (Monday)
It's shopping time. We had our breakfast in the room je. Makan segala bekal yang ada. Then, we went for shopping at the famous Central Market. Ada another shopping place sebenarnya, which is the Russian Market tapi tak berkesampaian. Pengaruh Rusia sangat kuat di Cambodia. Kebanyakkan tradisi kat situ pun ada pengaruh dari negara Rusia.
Went to the Central Market jalan kaki je. Takdelah jauh sangat tapi penat la jugak sebab jalan, kan. Lebih kurang 10 ke 15 minit, sampai. Start shopping campur tolak bargain, gaduh-gaduh manja dengan penjual...dapat lah borong few kain cambodia silk untuk Mak, diri sendiri & future MIL. Hahaha. Lepas tu beli Silk shawl untuk the girlfriends, some small souvenirs and finally dapat juga my long necklace made of coconut shell. Cantik giler!
Seronok shopping kat situ sampai tak ingat dunia. Nak juga try beli batu cincin kat situ tapi tak yakin. Risau dapat yang fake. Besides, I'm not an expert nak differentiate between the original stone and the fake one. Baik tak payah ambil risiko. Dapat borong Silk dia pun dah best. Serious cantik dan affordable. Macam nak sama dengan Vietnam Silk tapi tekstur lain sikit kot. Kalau nak kata sama pun boleh juga sebab negara tu kan berjiran. Cuma, dah pergi Cambodia, jadi lah Cambodian Silk. Hehe.
On the way back to the hotel, ada jumpa one small Mobile Coffee kiosk tepi jalan. I stopped by and bought a cup of Iced Coffee.
Oh My God...!
OMG OMG! It was soooooo goood. I cannot..... (crying). I can still remember the taste of it. Punyalah sedap kopi kat Cambodia ni. Why? I ni dah la coffee hopper..pi mana-mana mesti nak cari coffee walaupun takde lah pandai sangat the art of it...but I can tell the different between the good one, and the Awesome one.
Terus tiba-tiba rasa nak buka bisnes macam Mobile Coffee tu dekat Langkawi. Sempat berangan kejap barang seminit dua sambil berjalan-jalan kaki balik ke hotel. Sampai je hotel, dah agak lewat. Luckily, I've done part of my packing. So, sampai bilik mandi & bersiap. Lepas solat zohor, terus keluar pergi lunch kedai yang sedap malam tu.
Then, our TukTuk driver pun dah tunggu... Off we go...!
Sampai airport, ambil gambar dengan Abang Tuk Tuk before we check-in.
I was a bit sad. Really. Tak puas...! I need to explore more. I wish I had more time and money.
Goodbye, Phnom Penh. It is as much broken-hearted as leaving Siem Reap is. Both (especially Siem Reap) gave me a good type of exposure and vibes....an eye opener for me to live as a good human being and citizen to my country. I still missed 'em.
As I'm writing, I managed to capture each and every moment there even though I lost most of the photos there, thanks to my broken handphone 😞
But well...life goes on. But lemme conclude the whole trip over here if I could...
Day 1 : Siem Reap
- Airport to Oasis Capsule Hostels (near town & tourist spot)
- Lunch at Halal Backpackers
- Visit Artisan Angkor
- Night Market - Window Shopping, Pedicure & Foot Massage
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Pub Street
Day 2 : Siem Reap - Phnom Penh
- Visit all the Temples as early as 5am - Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom
- Visit Killing Field
- Late Lunch at Muslim Kitchen
- Drop by Senteur's d' Angkor Workshop
- Dinner (Maggi) at the hotel
- Wait for Giant Ibis Bus to Phnom Penh
- Goodbye, Siem Reap
Day 3 : Phnom Penh
- Reached PP as early as 6am
- Put bag at City Centre Hotel
- Breakfast at Cafe Malaya
- Check-in
- Visit Choeung Ek Killing Field
- Walk at Riverside
- Dinner at Halal Restaurant
Day 4 : Phnom Penh - KL
- Shopping at the Central Market
- Lunch at Halal Restaurant
- Airport
- Goodbye, Phnom Penh
I can't recall how much I spent there but it was really worth it. The moments that money can't buy.
Love,
.....NKay
Somewhere over the rainbow during free times
Senang cerita, dekat Southeast Asia ni, servis-servis macamni memang boleh dijangka bagus. Tambah-tambah di negara yang bergantung kepada industri pelancongan. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia dan sekarang, Cambodia...kalau ikutkan pengalaman I yang suka travel ke negara-negara ni, servis memang bagus. Kadang-kadang rezeki juga. Kena rajin baca review dan tengok rating hotel sebelum book.
Okay, where am I now?
Cari breakfast, kan? It's a bit tricky because it's our first day in Phnom Penh and I have to admit that we didn't google much on the places to eat there. So we just talk our brisk walk using google map. The roads are still empty. Lengang. We can only see few folks walking and jogging and a lot of dogs by the roadside. We still walk confidently depending 100% on the google map. I think it's almost a half-an-hour walk before we reached to Cafe Malaya for our breakfast. It's only 10 to 13 mins walk according to the map but nope..it took us more than that. Sesat bagai. Huhu.
I had roti canai (a good one, I must say) and a cup of Kopi O. Having roti canai outside Malaysia feels like dancing in the blue sky even though the price is kinda expensive. I think it's almost RM10 for a piece of roti canai and guess what? I ordered 2 pieces because I'm too hungry. The chicken curry is also good...yummeh I may say.
So, okay. Breakfast done and off we go. We went jalan-jalan while waiting for the hotel to call for our early check-in. Nothing much there. Berpeluh je lebih. It's an empty street, by the way. Besides, it is still early in the morning. So, ends up...we walked back to the hotel.
**************************
I think I had a long sleep.
Woke up when it's already noon. I was late to our tour. My bad, I'm a bit not punctual sometimes (read: most of the times). Well, creative people are. Can't deny it.
Rocky's brother, the Tuk Tuk driver was waiting with my colleague. Unfortunately, Rocky wasn't able to make it with us because he needed to send his kid to the hospital somewhere in Vietnam; if I'm not mistaken. They said the hospital there in Phnom Penh is expensive so they have to go to Vietnam for a better and cheaper service. Sometimes, the poor need to only depends on the traditional medicine because they can't afford the hospital bills. Sad, I must say. We have to be grateful to be born and live in Malaysia.
Okay, let's not divert that far. Our tour started with the Choeung Ek Killing Field, a must visit place. You can walk through the mass graves of about 17,000 civilians who were killed during Khmer regime by the well known Pol Pot. It is situated about 15km from the city centre of Phnom Penh and it is the largest Killing Field in Cambodia. Each of the graveyard will tell you stories of the very tragic history of the people in Cambodia.
It was almost dark when we walked out from the Killing Field. So, we decided to go straight to the riverside for some sight seeing and dinner hunting. It is also the top tourist spot and it was not that far from our hotel. So, we asked our Tuk Tuk to drop us there. I would say there's nothing much over there except for a lot of people and cafes.
Of course you have to go there because it's the Mekong river you would wanna see. Besides, it was quite happening at night. There's a night market situated nearby the huge field where you can see a lot of local people had their late-picnic over there. There's few street foods available - they looked yummy but I was a bit reluctant on the Halal status. So, I just admired them from far. Hahaha.
We finally found a place to eat. We were lucky because it was just nearby the main attraction place and it was definitely delicious. Super delicious...! It served Khmer Muslim Foods and the shop name (if I'm not mistaken) is Halal Restaurant. The foods were superb and the coffee was even better (crying). I missed the coffee, seriously.
Well, actually we repeated there the next day for our lunch before we head back home. I could still remember the taste of the foods.... but honestly, I can't recall the menu. A bit STML (read : Short Term Memory Loss) lately. The coffee...ohhh the coffee....
Boleh feel aroma dia. I did buy a pack of ground coffee tapi nak bancuh sesedap itu... entahlah. Maybe I'm not gifted in making coffee. Haha.
We went back to the Hotel after dinner. Banyak sangat kupu-kupu malam di sepanjang jalan dan lorong nak ke hotel tu. Kesian. Ada kids terpaksa temankan mak bekerja while the mat saleh duk kendong the ladies kiri kanan. So many pub as well sebab kat sana memang murah. Orang kata, boleh minum sampai mabuk dan mabuk lagi.
Walaupun jalan dekat lorong macamtu at night, I think I felt safe. Tak ada triggered pun nak takut ke apa ke.... I'm not sure about the crime rate kat situ. I was being extra cautious but apparently, it feels safe. Maybe there were still so many people or maybe it's a never ending night life over there.
Sampai bilik, pack barang and tidur bagai tiada hari esok. The bed was oh-so-good.
Day 4 - 1st May 2017 (Monday)
It's shopping time. We had our breakfast in the room je. Makan segala bekal yang ada. Then, we went for shopping at the famous Central Market. Ada another shopping place sebenarnya, which is the Russian Market tapi tak berkesampaian. Pengaruh Rusia sangat kuat di Cambodia. Kebanyakkan tradisi kat situ pun ada pengaruh dari negara Rusia.
Went to the Central Market jalan kaki je. Takdelah jauh sangat tapi penat la jugak sebab jalan, kan. Lebih kurang 10 ke 15 minit, sampai. Start shopping campur tolak bargain, gaduh-gaduh manja dengan penjual...dapat lah borong few kain cambodia silk untuk Mak, diri sendiri & future MIL. Hahaha. Lepas tu beli Silk shawl untuk the girlfriends, some small souvenirs and finally dapat juga my long necklace made of coconut shell. Cantik giler!
Seronok shopping kat situ sampai tak ingat dunia. Nak juga try beli batu cincin kat situ tapi tak yakin. Risau dapat yang fake. Besides, I'm not an expert nak differentiate between the original stone and the fake one. Baik tak payah ambil risiko. Dapat borong Silk dia pun dah best. Serious cantik dan affordable. Macam nak sama dengan Vietnam Silk tapi tekstur lain sikit kot. Kalau nak kata sama pun boleh juga sebab negara tu kan berjiran. Cuma, dah pergi Cambodia, jadi lah Cambodian Silk. Hehe.
On the way back to the hotel, ada jumpa one small Mobile Coffee kiosk tepi jalan. I stopped by and bought a cup of Iced Coffee.
Oh My God...!
OMG OMG! It was soooooo goood. I cannot..... (crying). I can still remember the taste of it. Punyalah sedap kopi kat Cambodia ni. Why? I ni dah la coffee hopper..pi mana-mana mesti nak cari coffee walaupun takde lah pandai sangat the art of it...but I can tell the different between the good one, and the Awesome one.
Terus tiba-tiba rasa nak buka bisnes macam Mobile Coffee tu dekat Langkawi. Sempat berangan kejap barang seminit dua sambil berjalan-jalan kaki balik ke hotel. Sampai je hotel, dah agak lewat. Luckily, I've done part of my packing. So, sampai bilik mandi & bersiap. Lepas solat zohor, terus keluar pergi lunch kedai yang sedap malam tu.
Then, our TukTuk driver pun dah tunggu... Off we go...!
Sampai airport, ambil gambar dengan Abang Tuk Tuk before we check-in.
I was a bit sad. Really. Tak puas...! I need to explore more. I wish I had more time and money.
Goodbye, Phnom Penh. It is as much broken-hearted as leaving Siem Reap is. Both (especially Siem Reap) gave me a good type of exposure and vibes....an eye opener for me to live as a good human being and citizen to my country. I still missed 'em.
As I'm writing, I managed to capture each and every moment there even though I lost most of the photos there, thanks to my broken handphone 😞
But well...life goes on. But lemme conclude the whole trip over here if I could...
Day 1 : Siem Reap
- Airport to Oasis Capsule Hostels (near town & tourist spot)
- Lunch at Halal Backpackers
- Visit Artisan Angkor
- Night Market - Window Shopping, Pedicure & Foot Massage
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Pub Street
Day 2 : Siem Reap - Phnom Penh
- Visit all the Temples as early as 5am - Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom
- Visit Killing Field
- Late Lunch at Muslim Kitchen
- Drop by Senteur's d' Angkor Workshop
- Dinner (Maggi) at the hotel
- Wait for Giant Ibis Bus to Phnom Penh
- Goodbye, Siem Reap
Day 3 : Phnom Penh
- Reached PP as early as 6am
- Put bag at City Centre Hotel
- Breakfast at Cafe Malaya
- Check-in
- Visit Choeung Ek Killing Field
- Walk at Riverside
- Dinner at Halal Restaurant
Day 4 : Phnom Penh - KL
- Shopping at the Central Market
- Lunch at Halal Restaurant
- Airport
- Goodbye, Phnom Penh
I can't recall how much I spent there but it was really worth it. The moments that money can't buy.
Love,
.....NKay
Somewhere over the rainbow during free times
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