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