Cambodia: Siem Reap - Banteay Samre and Banteay Srei.

We took Airasia to Siem Reap, and the choice of flight time is limited, we had a mid night flight so when we reached Siem Reap, that was only 7am. 

We don't wanna waste a day, yet we don't wanna to walk a whole day in Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom, so i make remote temples to be our activity of the day, since we only visited 3 temples and we will spend 2 hours in car, we can take a quick nap before explore the place.

As i had mentioned in the last post, about how to find a driver or tuk tuk, we actually hired the one who send us to the hotel on our arrival. 

He asked for USD100 but we told him that we're not goin to tonle sap lake (aka the yellow water river and the water village) , Phnom Kulen (the waterfall) and the Kbal Spean (ancient Hindu pilgrimage site in jungle), we only want to see Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre, Bang Melea and some part of Rulous Group, so he charge us USD70 for rent his car, the road tax (i guess that is the toll money to Bang Melea) and let him drive us to the places, exclude guiding. 

We check into the hotel and had simple breakfast, then we departed to Banteay Samre around 9am. 

As Banteay Samre is the first temple that we visited in Siam Reap, we feel everything is nice and good, but shame that we didn't hire a guide, we didn't know the story of the temple.

But John is happy enough, as i said, he likes everything that bigger than him, haha. 

The driver drop us in an alley with temple controller guiding in the entrance. 

                             

Little child everywhere to ask you buy something. My advice is don't buy or give them money, this is encouraging them to quit from school and earn money in their earlier age. 

                            

The temple is in good maintenance, but some restoration work has been done.  

one of the corner

small door design to make people go in with their head down to show respect. 

I can never imagine how this art work been done by hand. 

where am seeing is what the people seeing in thousands year ago. 

We spent about an hour in Banteay Samree (the temple is not big, but John spent age to take a photo), then we went to Banteay Srei, the most beautiful wall carvings art work among all the temples, this is also one of our favourite temples. 

river surrounding the temple for defend from the enemy. 

the wall carvings is so detail that you cant believe this is done in thousand year ago. 

accurate distance, size and angles of the door, people done without measuring technology in the past time. 

the walk way from the front door to the gallery and library. 

One close up photo of the carving. 

tour guide of other visitor says this is about the story of temples.

some part closed down for restoration and maintenance. 

but the wall carves are all original 

this is the mini temples inside of Banteay Srei

with very detail deco. 

and they're standing here for thousand years already, how amazing?

We went to lunch before we go to Bang Melea, my most favourite temple in the place, and that will be in next post coz lots of photos. 

Oh about the lunch, the driver bring us to a road side restaurant without asking what we wanted to eat, we ordered a fried rice and fried noodle with the price of USD 5 of each, which is very expensive and the food is suck and small portion, but i guess there have no other choice if you hire a taxi. 

Alright stay tuned for my next post. See ya! 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

20130109, 1053am

Rach in goin to work soon mood. 

Cambodia: Siem Reap - Q&A about Siem Reap and how to plan the schedule?

I bet whenever you plan your Siem Reap, Cambodia plan, you must be wonder how many temples there and how many temples that worth to visit.

Before travel to Siem Reap, you'll probably ask:

1. How big is Siem Reap?

2. What are Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Remote Temples all about?

3. How big is the area? How many times do you need to explore?

4. How to hire a tour guide and driver?

I'm going to share my experience in this post. 

Q1. How big is Siem Reap?

In case the words are too small. Red circle is town, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Blue is the tonle sap lake and water village. Green is remote temples area. 

I make Siem Reap to 3 parts:

1. Town

2. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (People call it big circle and small circle)

3. Remote Temples (eg: Banteay Srei, Beng Mealea etc) & Tonle Sap Lake

And above 3 parts are all about Siem Reap, but these 3 parts are big enough to explore. 

Q2. What are Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Remote Temples all about?

All about temples.

Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are very developed tourist place, most of the temples has been restored, you can see temples are quite in one piece but our tour guide told us, 80% of the temples are "new", which mean restored by countries, eg Japan and German whoever show support to the World Heritage Site. 

If you have been doing the research, you probably found a lot of temples name like the link showed. 

http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/srtemples.htm

and you probably start to confuse and worry where are all these temples and how should you plan your shedule.

I tell you, just ignore those unfamiliar temples list (if you're not really fancy on temples and all these, you just wanna pay a visit), remember only 3 names.

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Remote Temples.

Because, almost all the temples are inside these 3 areas.

If you cant imagine, let me describe a little. 

Firstly, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are surrounded by wall and river, the old people take this as the way to defend themselves from the enemy. 

As what you see in the map above. 

And where the hell is all these unfamiliar temples?

All inside Angkore Wat, Thom and Remote Temples.

To make it simple, imagine Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are zoo, and all those temples in the list are animal cage. 

Basically when you enter to the 4 square castle (which mean Angkor la), you'll not see only one temples, but a lot of temples. 

Understand now? 

Ok now what is remote temples?

Those are less develop tourist place because of they are not in the town area, thats why people call it remote temples.

Remotes temple including Banteay Srei, Banteay Seram, Beng Mealea, Rolour Group and etc.

And they are all 4 different temples and located in different area.

My opinion, although you've to rent a taxi and spend whole day to visit those temples, but its more worthy to visit, because it is very original, especially Beng Mealea, no restoration has been done so far.

Well i will blog out the detail later.

Q3. How big is the area? How many times do you need to explore?

I don't know how big is the area, but we spend 3 days to visit Angkor Wat (one day), Angkor Thom (one day) and Remote Temple (one day).

And we're not fans of history, John admire anything that bigger than him, that's why. Haha.

If you're actually worry about your physical, that's not that tiring, because tuk tuk can be drove into the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the driver will drop you in the temple, so you don't need to walk from one temple to another temple. 

So if you're not ready to see every inch of the temple, you can give up the one week pass, and get 3 days past like us, or one day pass.

I suggest you to hire a guide and tuk tuk, so they knew where to bring you and what worth to see, well i will explain to you later.

But most importantly was the tour guide will bring you to apply the pass for free (the counter isn't near the temples)

3 day pass = UD40
One week pass = USD60

One day pass counter

3 days pass counter.

John's pass. Picture, date of entry and expiry stated. 

You're not allow to share the pass, because every pass has your face printed on.

You don't need to bring photo for the pass, they took it with the cam when you're apply the pass.

Every entrance of temples guided by controller, they check your pass very detail, so better pay and get your own pass, afterall the money go to the restoration fees of the temples.

Ok back to town now.

Red circle is the main town. Almost all the famous restaurant like Khamer Kitchen, Dragon Soup are all in the same area.

Town is small, one main street and alley from the street, that's all.

Of course there are some local resident areas but its not wide, local and foreigner mostly found in old town, aka pub street.

Except restaurant, pub, and hotel, old town has 2 or 3 markets of souvenir, you can get pretty cheap scarf there.

Q4. How to hire a tour guide and driver?

Walk to the street and ask any tuk tuk driver, even thought you want a taxi not a tuk tuk, because they have contact. 

For Remote Temples, you need a taxi, because there are 60 to 80km away from the town, you may take bike or tuk tuk but your ass will defo get pain, because rocky road all the way to the place.

So we got a taxi + driver for one day remote temple trip = USD70 (including USD5 road tax). 

What i read from internet is USD50, but the driver say that is imposible and finally we make the deal by USD70 (he ask for USD100 at first).

About tuk tuk, driver and guide rent in the 2nd and 3rd days to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the charge as below:

Tuk tuk + Driver / day = USD15 (including 12 bottles of mineral water, you have to ask or they never give!)
Tour guide / day = USD20

My suggestion in hire tuk tuk / taxi / guide:
1. Compare price if you find on the street (trust me, a lot of ppl will come and ask you, don't need to book in advance)
2. Don't book with hotel because they will charge extra, of course if you're unhappy with the driver or tour guide, you've someone to find and complaint.
3. Check the license of tour guide, snap the picture just in case they serve you bad, you can make complaint to the tourism ministry.
4. Let them help you plan the route because they know better, but let them know you have done research before (eg: famous temples and price), so they dare not to rip you off too.

Last but not least, i'm going to share my plan here.

16/6 (Saturday)
KUL -> SR -> Remote Temples
650am: Reach SR, find tuk tuk ($7) to Frangipani Villa Hotel
8am: Reach Hotel, check in / left luggage
9am: Breakfast and get 3 days pass ticket
10am: Remote Temples (Banteay Srei & Kbal Spean / Beng Melea) 
2pm: Lunch in town / nearby
4pm: Remote Temples (Banteay Samre & Pre Rup sunset) 
7pm: Khemer Kitchen for dinner. 

17/6 (Sunday)
Angkor Thom
5am: Depart to Srah Srang for sunrise.
8am: Angkor Thom (Bayon, Phimeanakes, Tommanon, Prasats Suor Prat, Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of the elephants.)
1pm: Town for lunch
3pm: Angkor Thom (Ta Keo, Ta Prohm)
5pm: Phnom Bakheng for sunset. 
7pm: Dinner. 

18/6 (Monday)
Angkor Wat 
9am: Angkor Wat
1pm: Town for lunch
3pm: Spa / Massage 
7pm: Temple Club / Any restaurant with right feeling for dinner

19/6 (Tuesday)
Town
9am: Breakfast
10am: Psar Chaa
12am: Lunch in town
2pm: Killing field
3pm: Tea at Red Piano
4pm: Spa / Massage
6pm: Steamboat / BBQ for dinner
8pm: Night market. 

20/6 (Wednesday)
6am: Wake up and prepare to check out.

Accommodation:
Frangipani Villa Hotel II: $63 (per person for 4 nights)

Transportation:
Day 1: $20 (car per 1 person)
Day 2 & 3: $20 (2 days Tuk tuk per 1 person) 
town transport: $15 (whole trip tuk tuk per 1 person)

Others:
Tour guide: $15 (per day per person)
Entrance pass: $50 (per person for whole trip)

Meals:
8 lunches: $ 40 per person
8 dinners: $ 60 per person 

==============================

Accommodation: $63
Transportation: $55
Others: $65
Meals: $100
Total: $283 (x 3.1 = RM 877.30) per person

You may actually ignore the budget part, some cost (eg car rent and guide) is actually more expensive than i expected.

And eventually we didn't follow 100% of the plan above because we're flexible, we skip some temples because we had enough in the 1st 2 days hahahaha, we actually spend more time to chill in the hotel. 

Oh yea we skip Tonle Sap too, because i don't want to hire a car to see yellow river that i can see everywhere in Malaysia. 

We rather to visit more remote temples. 

Alright so the preparation and Q&A about Siem Reap is done, next post will be the temples we like the most, Beng Mealea!

Stay tuned!





Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20121223, 1003pm
Rach in wanna some chocolate mood.

Cambodia: Siem Reap - Frangipani Villa Hotel Review

Hi everyone, i just got back from 2 weeks trip in Nepal, and i got sick in the last day in Kathmandu, serious bacteria infection and diarrhoea, =(

But that is a very rewarding trip, John and I went for 5 days trekking in Everest Based Camp trail, then Kathmandu and Pokhara. 

So yea, you can expect the post about Nepal.... after Cambodia and Pai posts. :P

With this post, let's start my journey to the mystery city, Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is not in my list, but John. 

He always wanted to see the world heritage site, he admired every world heritage sites ever since he touched the Egypt pyramid few years back.

For this year birthday, he makes a wish to go Angkor Wat with me, there i gave my Laos solo trip up (was too close with his birthday), and planned the 5 days birthday trip for John.

To kick start the Siem Reap post, lets start my all time favourite, the hotel review.

If you're my blog's follower, you should know the few things that concern the most when choosing a hotel or guest house. 

To recap, things that i concern the most about hotel as following:

1. not in the city centre yet not too far from there

2. convenience to go everywhere

3. handy  

3. bright room

So my choice is Frangipani Villa Hotel II.

The not very obvious hotel entrance. 

The hotel has fulfilled all of my concern, except the bright room with more natural sunlight.

I booked the room from Agoda with about RM100 per night (with discount, not sure about the normal price) for 4 nights standard double room.

Everything on the photos seems nice, reviews are good, yet when we get into our room, we realise our room's only window is facing the hotel's another building, mean limited sunlight.

And the warm light make the room even darker (well some ppl defined it as romantic).

Except than the lighting problem, everything of the hotel is so great and worth the money.

Pros of Frangipani Villa Hotel II:
1. Nice hotel deco and breakfast in the pool side.
2. Quiet although located on the main road side.
3. Convenience store, laundry and restaurant around the hotel.
4. Tuk tuk to the city centre (pub street) is less than 5 minutes, or 20 minutes very very slow walking distance.
5. Always has tuk tuk / taxi waiting in front of the hotel.
6. Very friendly staff with tour, taxi, spa, massage, laundry service. Attached with restaurant and pub.
7. Traditional music performance (as you can hear in the below video) by evening.

Cons of Frangipani Villa Hotel II:
1. Some dark standard room (window facing Hotel I)
2. A bit pricy compare to other hotel in Siem Reap.

Suggestion: 
1. Pay some extra to get a balcony room for better sunlight.
2. Choose Frangipani Villa Hotel II rathen then I.
(I and II building is side by side, but II is newer and room is bigger. Some II balcony rooms facing pool, resturant where customer has breakfast is in II, while pub is in front of I.)
3. Do not take tour from the hotel, cost is 10% to 20% higher than outside. (i will explain the cost tuk tuk, entrance fees and plan in next post)

I'm really happy with the location of the hotel.

FYI, Siem Reap is not a big town, the city centre aka pub street is like the golden triangle area of KL (of course don't expect tall and fancy building, i mean the area ONLY), maybe smaller, just 3 to 4 streets actually. Of course this is not included the local hub area eg the local morning market and resident area la.

One of the simplest town that i had ever been. Green is airport, red is hotel and pub street, purple is temples, yellow is sunrise watching platform.

As i mentioned in the Pros, hotel is less then 5 minutes tuk tuk ride away from the tourist hub (tuk tuk driver will ask for $3, don't give a damn, i pay only $1 everytime, tell them you know the price and you know how near the place is).

Alternatively, walk from hotel to Pub Street is only 20 minutes (very very super slow walk).

In fact, walking along the river is quite enjoy, so you may take tuk tuk in the 1st one or two day to familiar the road, then later by walking to save your transport cost, or purely for killing your time (because except Angkor Wat, you've absolutely nothing to do in Siem Reap)

red is pub street aka hub

So now come back to the hotel outlook and internal deco.

I dunno what is their style of deco, if you want my description, that will be simple and clean.

From the roadside

Lounge / pub of the hotel

Mix with Europe style

Not to forget the issue of Cambodia.

In I building

Very comfy lobby, as good as sitting here with nothing to do and enjoy the traditional music performance by evening.

Sorry we didn't get much photos of the hotel, yet i found a video clip that taken by me, from the entrance to our room (room was too dark to be recorded though).

So take a look to give you a brief idea of the hotel. 

And below are the photos that didn't recorded in the video clip, the pool side and restaurant aka breakfast dinning room.

Although the pool is small, but if you only got 3 days temple visit and one whole free day for relax and shopping, the pool can defo refresh your from the damn hot sun. 

We never dine in the restaurant except the complimentary breakfast for 2 provided daily, but we gone through the menu, they serve western and traditional local foods, the price isn't really expensive (but of course still expensive than outside la), but surely they've great atmosphere and quiet dining environment. 

The breakfast served by order, several choice of breakfast set with bread buffet, you can take as many different kinds of breads and jam as you like.

Although breakfast is in order basic, but if you want more egg, bacon, sausage or anything else, you can let them bring you more.

John always order a big breakfast set with a plate (yes, a plate) of extra crispy bacons, and they always serve you with the wide smile that can melt your heart. 

Airy and bright design

Breakfast by the pool side every morning

yet protect the privacy of ppl who are swimming by the tree wall

nice color setting

even you don't order extra, one set portion is big enough

night view, lots of tuk tuk waiting outside. So don't worry about the transport. P/s: left is I building, and right is II building.

In one fine evening, John and I decided to find a good place for drink and read, we don't want to stay in the hub because of the noise, then we decided to go back to our hotel's lounge. 

one of the corner

free nuts.

They serve the best fruit punch that i ever had, and absolutely nice and quiet environment although the hotel is located at the road side, yet hidden behind the trees the planted by the owner for more privacy.

Overall, Frangipani will likely to be my first choice but i will defo pay more for the deluxe room or request a room that facing outside but not building. 

So next post will be my plan, the cost and how to look for a guide and tuk tuk driver. Stay tuned.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20121212, 1012pm

Rach in allergy mood.

South Korea: Seoul - Sinchon, Ehwa University and YongShan Spa

I was experiencing a super duper busy in the past month, and that's the main reason why i left this for long. 

The second reason was my lappy's keyboard is broke, "n", "b" and some few others buttons have no respond, but the biggest faulty is the space bar, i cant type without a space. 

And due to the busy-ness of the past month, i got no time to send it for repair. I'm currently working with my netbook, which i dislike to use it because of the smaller keyboard and slow respond. 

So sorry for those that waiting for my Korea post. Here we come to the last post. 

This post is to introduce some places that worth to be know, like BBQ buffet, cheap clothes shopping street and spa.

1. Korea BBQ Buffet in SinChon （新村）

Korea BBQ is world famous, but meat in Korea is darn expensive (i don't know why), so if you want to have BBQ meat until you drop, go to the university hub of Seoul, Sinchon. 

Sinchon has a lot of Korea BBQ buffet with very very reasonable price, like less than RM30 per person. 

If you're interested, sorry that i couldn't provide you the infor because i don't know how to go :S, we lost and the local student actually bring us there. 

But i got the picture, see if this help.

In the street. Very happening in the night time coz full of cheap bar and pub for student.

This is the one we go, you can choose any one as BBQ buffet restaurants are in the same street.

Very simple restaurant but full of university students, hehe.

We reached bout 6 and restaurant is half full 

People say, don't expect good meat served, but for me this is pretty good already

5 of us.

BBQ buffet served only few kinds of meat, i forget to take picture on the meat bar. That might not the best meat but all fresh.

They serve rice, soup, salad and some fruit in the side bar too, eat all you like.

2. Ewha University.... shopping street! （梨花大学区）

Sinchon and Ewha is in the same area, so i recommend to shop in the day time, and BBQ buffet dinner in the evening.

If you're budget traveller like me, and shopping is part of your life, university area always got thing cheaper, including clothes.

The streets around Ewha University are full with boutique and you can shop till you drop. I'm not fancy on shopping too i got some really good stuff in the street with super low price that i thought i was in Thailand.

Elaine is totally losing her mind, she got about 10 pieces of clothes and blouse and dress in a single shop.

Because, they're selling in price of RM20 to RM30, and all make in korea. Those that you seen in the magazine type of clothes.

Ok lets see photos of the university first.

By the way, Ewha WOMEN University (yes, girls uni) rank the most beautiful university in Seoul (or maybe korea?)

The Ehwa (梨花)

Owww korea drama!

Huge walk way in the university

To go the place, take subway to Ehwa Uni station, walk out of the station to the main street, the university is in the dead end road.

If you can see any nice shop on the main street, don't worry, all those cheap clothes and bags shop hide in the alley. If you're shopping expert, you need at least 2 hours here.

The main street to the uni. 

Lots of student too.

And yes i didn't get much photos as i busy shopping and carrying bags XD.

Photos above was taken before fighting!!!

3. Korea Spa (HanJeungMak，汗蒸幕)

I didn't go, because Elaine has very sensitive skin prob while i was having period that time.

But the boys go, so you won't see me in the below photos.

The research shown YongShan （龙山汗蒸幕）has best review, so Elaine and I bring the boys to the place we went to shopping :D

Korea spa is not purely a spa, but a lot of entertainment in there too, such as Karaoke and common area for you to sleep or roll on the floor with nothing to do.

The best part is the spa mostly is 24 hours and some with time limit (eg 12 hours) and some didn't.

So for budget traveller, if your flight in odd hours and you don't wanna rent a room, this is the place for you to kill your time.

And a lot of people did that, so don't worry you're the only one.

The entrance fee come in package of massage and spa or purely spa (you can use the common area, swimming pool for free).

I suggest just take the spa entrance fee, like less than RM20 or even 10. Massage package is super expensive.

Just take subway to YongShan station, walk down to the stair and the place is on your right hand side, just cross the road.

Thats the place

Walk way to the place

We 4, sui hangover and stayed in hostel hahahahah

Entrance

Pay and they will give you a locker and key, you don't need to bring anything inside even you want to dine in there (canteen and restaurant available), you pay when you left.

Key

Sauna, the hot

Sauna, the cold

Few others sauna

Vending machine and food stall, wave your bracelet and pay later

Common area, watch tv or lie until you drop

Karaoke, if you know korea. 

Here my korea post goes to the end, i was trying to blog out all the info and interesting experience that i gained in this country, if you have further question, you're welcome to leave comment to see if i could help.

Well next post is the start of my Combodia trip (which is happened in this June =.=), sorry for the super slow update, just because i wanna blog as detail as i can. 

And i don't know when will that next post coming up and i'm leaving Malaysia for 2 weeks to the country that i admire, Nepal... and EVEREST!

You might think i'm crazy, but i decided to do the Everest Base Camp trail.

So, stay tuned! 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20121117, 1037am
Rach in hungry mood.