Here’s some of the photos of the night market.

Angkor Night Market

My travel mate, Voon Fei

There are plenty of information on the night market on the internet. Just a simple google of keyword “Siem Reap night market” will get you healthy amount of information about the place.

If you are asking for my opinion on this place, I would recommend you to pay a visit to this place. This is one of the popular spots in Siem Reap town where tourists will flock in during the night.

Other than the night market, the Pub Street has been expanding over the years thanks to booming tourism industry. It is located not too far away from the night market. Many people come here for dinner or a drink.

Pub Street

Links:

Angkor Night Market Official Site

Related posts:

1. Cultural Village, War Museum and sunset at Angkor
2. Getting to the land of temples
3. Floating Village, Landmine Museum

the founder of the landmine museum

Landmine museum is located just a few minutes away by tuk-tuk from the Lady Temple. It is founded by a local to help mines victim. There is a few houses just behind the museum where all the victims stay. Outsiders are not allowed to visit them as part of protecting their privacy.

There are basically 2 exhibition rooms in the museum. In the museum, you will time-tunnel through the invasion of the Khmer regime. I’m not into history so if you want to find out more, search the net.

Next: Floating village >>

The floating village of Chong Khneas is located about 45 minutes from the town of Siem Reap by tuk-tuk. You do not want to cycle your way to there obviously! It was extremely dusty at near the end of the journey as you can see in the photo on your left (The idea of “Oh shit, I should have taken a taxi” will fly through your brain). At the time I was there, there was road construction being carried out.

above: On the way to the jetty. It was very dusty due to the awful road condition.

right: This is where we boarded our boat.

The ticket price for renting a boat has risen over the years and it’s not as stated in the Lonely Planet’s guide due to the unrealistic fuel hike. Off-the-topic, Cambodian government does not subsidies on fuel. The rate I saw was 5500R per liter. You do your own calculation on how expensive fuel is relative to your local price.

Fish rearing cage

Child with a snake as pet!

A Chinese family!

If you see a dog in Cyberjaya, you call it “Cyberdog”. So, I see a cat at floating village, can I call it as… floating cat??

Sorry for ending this post with a lame statement.

and many many more photos at the photo album

Coming up next! Siem Reap night market

Related posts:

1. Cultural Village, War Museum and sunset at Angkor
2. Getting to the land of temples
3. Angkor Night Market, Pub Street Siem Reap

and we went from temple to temple and another temple again and again… we went to countless temples and I can hardly recall some of their names now except for those famous one like Angkor Throm, Bayon and Angkor Wat. That’s all that I can recall.

Later, we went to the Ladies temple (can’t recall its actual name). It’s a temple built and craved by women. The temple emphasizes on its detailed fine craving unlike others. Most temples are with rocks stacking over one and other forming the structure, but this is whole new sight worth seeing. This temple is about 40 minutes away by tuk-tuk from where all other temples are mostly concentrated.

We kept our visit short and sweet for this temple partly because of its much smaller size compared to others. It was around 1pm and it was very hot as well!

We left for the Mines Museum. The Mines Museum is just 5-10 minutes away from this temple. (Want to know more about Mines museum? Stay tuned to Hugo Channel!)

After seeing so much of rocks, we skipped some other temples visit and prolonged time spent on each temple to give a break to our exhausting body. We had been climbing up and down and walking a lot.

Due to extreme boringness looking at stones all day long, we begun to do stupid stuff…

Funny stuff like sticking your hands out while making a jump or you can act like distorted superman trying to fly up the sky.

Or you can do some Mortal Combat Asia Edition action here also!

Powah!!!!! Lucky he didn’t break his pant. phewwww….

Mind your “under”

Later at sunset time, we went back to Angkor Wat to try our luck on getting a good sunset photo. But…..

We were denied entry into the temple area. Reason provided that time was because of our ticket expiry. We were asked by the official to buy a night time pass ticket at some sky-high price tag which was not worth the pass at all.

So, fine, then I tried to snap photos outside the area. The paid pass area is bounded by the rope around the temple.

We saw something interesting happened that time. Two angmo-s (s as postfix as its plural, more than one! :P ) arguing with the officers for stopping them from taking photos. They have been arguing for more than 15 minutes. The officer in blue just stood in front of the camera blocking the camera like some ngong koi!. After 15 minutes of argument, the angmo-s gave up and stepped outside the “paid zone”. BUT, the two donkeys still denying them, insisting that you need to buy ticket in order to snap a photo. I joined them for the argument too as I got blocked no thanks to them. The higher-ranked guy which came in later speak very little English and stubborn. Its either he does not understand English or just being plain stubborn stupid. We were outside the “paid-zone” and they still want to mind our business.

Photo on the left is the best I managed to get with my pathetic Canon 55-250mm from at least 200 meters away.

Come on man, you are not helping at all, who the heck will want to visit your country again for you forcing us to buy the 10++ dollars ticket. Cambodia’s image is at stake mannn… Think think… please think in bigger picture.Yo, Mr Officer, if you happen to read this or someone happen to see him again, tell him to “fuck off!”

End of temples, I’m sick of them.

Coming up next… floating village, mines museum! Stay tuned to Hugo Channel!

Hugo Vocab:

ngong koi = idiot

ang mo = mainly used to describe a westerner / white people

Related posts:

1. Temples exploration day
2. Cultural Village, War Museum and sunset at Angkor
3. Getting to the land of temples

It’s all started with full of excitement and curiosity. Man, I’m visiting the 8th wonder of the day. This is something gross!!!

It begins with the visit to Angkor Wat, the main temple, the biggest of all!

The photo on the right is taken with 3 exposures combined at -2, 0 and 2. It is then combined using Photomatix.

We spent about 2 hours at Angkor Wat alone because of its enormous size. We didn’t manage to cover the whole temple in the end of 2 hours though.

Next stop….

Bayan trom houses more than 2000 (or even more) statues. If you are relying on me to get all the historical bits, please don’t. I hate history. I enjoy looking at them but not into studying them. :D

This is the most chubby cute girl I ever seen around Angkor temples. She is Malaysian!! Jajajaja (Ooooops, off topic)

Tomb Raider Hugo Edition! The bloody tree conquered the temple and it manages to absorb water not by using its root, its by its skin/leaves! Powah!!

Korean tour group! Everyone hate Korean in Cambodia including the locals. They are rude, arrogant and lack of manner. Its the same with the untie scolding people with saliva all over people’s face in k-drama. They do not care a shit about you. Not even a nod on head to show sign of apology when they accidentally(intentionally also) hit on you.

Korean companies have invested heavily in Cambodia, you can see Korean hotels/restaurants all over Cambodia. Tourists from Korea come and go spending on Korean’s. Locals benefit little from them. That’s another reason why the local don’t like them.

Stay tuned for Temples exploration day part 2!

Related posts:

1. Temples exploration day part 2
2. Getting to the land of temples
3. Panoramic Cambodia

Preface: Its very easy to create HDR photos, it is NOT possible to produce HDR photo right out from your camera as the range is pretty limited. In order to produce a HDR photo, you need to take the same picture thrice at compensation level -2, 0 and +2. You can google up for more info on creating HDR.

Photos shown in this album are all taken using Canon 10-22mm. I’m loving this lens very much. When its come to landscape or architecture, it simply takes your breath away!

Enjoy the photos and I always welcome criticism. Do help me improve my photographing skills by providing constructive comment. :)

Enjoy!

PS: I hope you got yourself a new wallpaper!

Related posts:

1. Panoramic Cambodia
2. Sungai Palas Boh Tea Field
3. Redang HDR

After I checked into the guesthouse, we went to the War Museum. According to Lonely Planet, there is another new war museum but its not as attractive as the old one which I am going talk about here.

Here, it showcases tankers, weapons and other military gadgets used during Cambodian wartime. The entrance fee is about USD3 if not mistaken.

We went to Cultural Village next…

next…………

Cultural Village, Siem Reap

Cultural Village is located in between the airport and the town center. Its about 5 minutes away from the town and its not too far away from the War Museum. I do not recommend you to visit due to its expensive ticket. The ticket price is about 9 dollars (can’t recall the exact ticket price) and its increasing soon. Attractions inside do not worth your ticket!

Imitating Tom and Jerry is one of the popular attraction in Cultural Village. Obviously, I’m just joking around. There is about 5 events of more shows/performance planned throughout a day in the cultural village. For instance, traditional dance and Khmer traditional marriage. We went to the later one.

Khmer wedding

Hmmm, I think he is the narrator… he does look a little funny.

We left at around 430pm back to the guesthouse before departing to Angkor temples ticket counter to buy our tickets. Ticket for a day costs USD20. 3 days for USD 40. We can get inside after 530pm to see sunset before the day of our tickets become valid.

Up the hill we climbed to Phnom Bakheng which is famous for sunset. We didn’t get any spectacular nor breathtaking amazing sunset that day as it was very cloudy. :(

Tons of people with their gears set up got disappointed.

View from the top!

Next: Cambodia in HDR, Temples exploration day

Related posts:

1. Floating Village, Landmine Museum
2. Getting to the land of temples
3. Temples exploration day part 2

I have composed few panoramic view for Bayon temple, Angkor Wat and floating village. In order to make you go “WOW”, please view the image in full resolution. The thumbnails shown here simply won’t satisfy you.

HInt: Click on the label at each photo to access its full resolution version.

Stay tuned to Hugo Channel for more updates. Cambodia in HDR coming soon!

Related posts:

1. Redang
2. Imagestation to Shutterfly
3. Getting to the land of temples

Taking the flight

Its about 630 in the morning when we are waiting at gate T3 at LCCT, Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We are departing off to land of super-duper-lots-of temples.

Thanks to Keat Meng’s housemate for sending us to the airport. Sorry I can’t recall your name. I appreciate your help :)

Malaysia is one hour ahead of Cambodia! The flight took near 2 hours to reach Siem Reap International Airport. By the time we reached there, it was 820am Cambodia time! We were greeted by super-duper hot sunshine. Its surprising that we were allowed to camwhore around the taxiway and inside the immigration hall. You can’t possibly be doing that in USA. I was caught in LAX before for taking pics in the immigration hall and asked to delete those pictures taken inside there. :-S

Siem Reap

We paid 5 US dollars for a taxi to the Siem Reap town. Voon Fei told me that he saw someone got into a tuktuk at the airport which offers the cheaper alternative mean of transportation. Along the way to town, we can see rows of high-end hotels stretching its way to town. High-end stuff simply not for backpackers like us. So, off we go to the town center searching for cheap guesthouses.

Cambodia is extremely dusty! The road condition is not as good as Malaysia, they don’t have proper road barrier at the side of the road as well. Lots of sand and dust can be seen flying around. :( That’s one major minus point for those on tuktuk and motorcycles.

Accommodation

There are plenty of accommodation available around the town from a cheap 6 dollars to 300 dollars per night depending on your budget. We stayed at Golden Temple Villa guesthouse which offers aircon, hot water, TV and free Internet access. We did not opt for the air-con though. It costs us 12 dollars per night for three of us.

First Meal in Cambodia!

We went to Khmer Kitchen Restaurant as featured in the Lonely Planet guide. There are a few branches of this restaurant throughout the town. We went to the one opposite Old Market (Psar Chaa). [Click for the map of Siem Reap]

This restaurant serves Khmer dishes. Khmer ethnic forms the majority of Cambodia population.

Khmer Dishes

Coming up next: Cultural Village, War Museum, Phnom Bakheng temple for sunset

Stay tuned to Hugo channel :D

Related posts:

1. Floating Village, Landmine Museum
2. Cultural Village, War Museum and sunset at Angkor
3. Angkor Night Market, Pub Street Siem Reap

Angkor Wat, Cambodia (HDR)

I’m back home! I have lots to tell and share. Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Panoramic Cambodia
2. Temples exploration day
3. My home-made dinner