I was still feeling very groggy and tired, due to the effect of the medicine taken in the morning. I was down with fever and cold for the past 2 days, taken 2 days of sick leave but only managed to utilize one. I was still working on Friday. And the break on Thursday was bombarded by calls from colleagues; even to my hotel room to wake me up to take a look at an email.
But soon my unwellness was cured by the chatty taxi driver. I normally dislike talkative taxi driver as I prefer to have a quiet ride. But this time, I welcomed the upbeat tone the taxi driver had, who kept my spirit high for this anticipated trip. He knew I was heading for Cambodia, and he assured me that a city-boy like me would find it memorable.
As the taxi slowly crawled along Clementi Ave 4, I saw my 2 backpack-buddies-to-be; CCY and Ken, both had been with me to Tibet in 2005, and had been my longest friends.
"Yo, Ho Seh Bo! (in Hokkien)" I greeted them. When was the last time I saw them? Must been months. Nothing much has changed from them. CCY with his thick hair and specs still looks like William Su and Ken, as usual cheerful like a kid.
During the ride to the airport, we did some quick catch up, mainly on my crazy life in HK. Then I broke the news that I had resigned.
"You mad!! Everywhere is in recession and people are losing job, and yet you QUIT!" Both CCY and Ken could not believe my decision, like many other colleagues and friends who heard the news. But there is a limit which one can work, and I certainly have passed that threshold and could not work for money anymore. What is left is to exit, to escape.
Despite this piece of news, it didn't spoil our mood for this adventurous trip. Being very old friends, they soon accepted my decision and felt glad that I can be happy at last.
Soon we reached Changi Airport, the most familiar place in Singapore I known over the past months. I once told someone that since I travel so much for work, I most likely would lose the excitment of being at the airport ready to go on a vacation. Glad that it didn't have that effect now. I am super high and ecstatic!
Our flight, SilkAir MI633 was not a direct flight to Siem Reap. It actually stopped over at Siem Reap and continued on to Da Nang Vietnam later. On the plane, I tried to focus on reading the travel guide about Angkor I bought in HK. But soon, I knocked out unknowningly. Guess I was still too tired. It had been less than 24hrs since I was last on a plane as I just arrived back in SIN last night.
Siem Reap airport was a little shabbier than I thought.
Of course I do not expect a world-class airport like Changi, but being a popular tourist attraction, I thought it would be bigger. Small it might be, it was very clean and had a traditional hut-like structure. It looked more like a chalet resort than an airport. At the arrival hall, we were unsure if we needed visa, and felt a bit confused. But since SIN is part of ASEAN, I guess we do not need a visa. True enough, we passed the custom easily.
Prior to coming to Siem Reap, we had not gave serious thought on the accommodation. I had 2 recommendations, Happy Guest House (thanks to Than Ha) and Molly Malone (thanks to SH). In the end we chose Happy Guest House, which was cheaper but it was a distance away from the town.
We hired a van for 7USD and the driver was very friendly. Along the way, he told us about what to see in Siem Reap, about the government, the fighting at the borders and how it had affected toursim. Indeed, there were not many tourists around. Many fear that if war broke out, they will be trapped in Cambodia and cannot return. Well, I hoped that would happen, so that I don't have to return to HK, haha.
The locals here are mainly Cambodians, dark skin, like the Malays we see in SIN. There are some Chinese as well, who can speak Teochew, Mandarin and Cambodian. I once had an acquaintance with a teenage Cambodian Chinese in France who invited me to his house and treated me with his mum's home-cook food.
The guest house was situated in a very layback neighbourhood. In fact, Siem Reap was less developed than I thought, with dusty or muddy roads, dilapidated houses, kids with dirty faces collecting trash; a symptom of corruption and poor governance.
As all the big rooms were full, we got a small one, and had trouble to squeeze an additional mattress. But it was not a problem for us, we had survived harsher conditions in Tibet. Besides, there was aircon, and we were promised that tomorrow, we would get a bigger room.
After settling down, we slowly made our way to the town on foot. There were no pedestrian crossing or traffic lights most of the time, but it did not pose a problem for us crossing the road because the traffic was quite slow. The motorcycles, cars, and Tuk Tuks were all going about at a leisurely pace, safe enough for us to cross as we wished.
It was not difficult to find the town, even without a map, thanks to the great navigation skill of CCY.
"Just walk along the river la!"
The town was bustling with tourists, mostly Caucasians, and there were a lot of restaurants, pubs and massage parlours. Despite all these activities, it was still considered pretty quiet. We picked a restaurant at random and tried their traditional Cambodian food. Speaking about food, while walking to the town, I stopped by a peddler and bought their local snack.
"Can I have a hotdog please?" I asked sheepishly, because I was not sure if that thing was a hotdog. It was like a baguette kind of snack, with pickles and pieces of meat. 1200riels, which is about 25 cents. Cheap and tasty but maybe not very hygienic.
The restaurant we picked was rather mediocre, in fact it was not the best Khmer restaurant we had. But we had a first taste of what Khmer food is like. It tasted like Thai food, some spice and sour but not hot at all. The spicy part has been replaced by sweetness instead. The most famous dish would be Amok, and different restaurants would prepare it differently. It is a mixture of Khmer spices, onion, eggs and your choice of meat; fish, pork, chicken or beef. And their soups, whatever kind, always taste very appetizing, the sweet version of Tom Yam. There were traces of Vietnamese cuisine as well, especially true in their spring rolls, either the fried or fresh ones.
We had 2 long hours of dinner, and it was barely 9pm only. Life here definitely is very relaxing and slow-paced. We strolled back to the guesthouse under the guidance of very dimly lit streetlights. Being still in a sick state, I washed up first and concussed on the bed immediately, while the 2 stayed up to watch football. Hopefully my form will be better tomorrow, for Angkor Wat.
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