H = the time I left Singapore
At H minus 14hours, this was what happen when I reached my work place in the morning:
Boss: "Why are you at work?"
Me: "You did not say I dont have to come to work today."
Boss: "You still have so many days of leave left. Do you want to clear some this week? You can go now if you want to."
Me: "Since I am already here today, it's ok. Maybe next time."
Boss: "Ok, why not you go on leave starting from tomorrow till the end of the week?"
Me: "Are you serious?"
Boss: "Yes."
Me: "Ok then."
At H minus 6 hours: I was checking the internet for the cheapest way to get to Bangkok. Was considering land crossing but realised that an air ticket was just as cheap. Wanted to book the very next flight but cant do it online as it was too last minute. Had to go down to the airport to get the ticket instead.
At H minus 2 hours: Left for airport.
At H minus 1 hour: Arrive at airport, bought a one way ticket, check in.
At H hour: All stations prepare for take off........
At H + 2 and a half hours: SAWADEE KHRAP!!!
Crazy isn't? Although I had done some
overland ride on my motorcycle from Singapore to Thailand, never did I travel in such a short notice. And to add on to the craziness, I did it just because I want to get some cheap books in Phnom Penh. Crazy enough? Sure it is. To think about it, I do not even have a return ticket. This trip is definately going to be full of uncertainty. However, isnt life full of uncertainties too? 今天不知明天事。As such, I guess it is just going to be another day.
I touched down at the new Bangkok airport. I was quite surprise that they have a whole row of handphone shops which sells prepaid sim cards to people like me in the airport. It does makes life abit easier for us, and ofcourse easier income for them.
I took the airport express and went straight to the Hualumphong train station. Got there at about 11pm. My plan is to sleep at the train station and take the first train at 5.55am over to the border (6hrs), cross the border into cambodia and then take another 6 hrs bus ride to Phnom Penh. But to my surpirse, what I saw was an empty train station. I thought that the station will not close at night or at least there will be benches for me too sleep on. But I was wrong. So, I had no choice but to check into one of the guesthouse near the station for that few hours. It was pretty rundown. Guess not alot of people will want to stay there but I am fine with it.
The way in.
The room.
Day 2: Thailand-CambodiaDidnt really sleep well last night. Woke up every half an hour. Left the guesthouse at 5.15am. and board the first train. This is the first time out of the 5 times that I took the Thai Rail that it actually left on time(Thai rail is famous for not running on time).
Slept on and off on the train. The ding ding ding sound from the train conductor's ticket puncher woke me up every there and then.
Landscapes were mostly flat.
Lunch on the train.
Finally, after a 6 hours ride, I arrived at the small border town. Met 3 other backpackers there. We were all heading towards the same direction. Great!! So we shared a tuktuk to the border. But first, we need to get our Cambodia visa done at the visa house not far away from the border.
After filling up all the forms then I realised that as a Singaporean, we do not need a visa to get into Cambodia. So I just waited for them to get their Visa.
After which we got back to the tuktuk, and was dropped off at the border. Walk across the border by foot,
and here we are... The Kingdom of Cambodia.
After we had cleared the custom. The next time to do is to get a bus. But since there is four of us, it was a better choice that we share a cab. And since they were all heading for Siem Reap, I joined them. I never thought that I would go and see the Angkor Wat on this trip. But it seems like I am going to do so.
In the cab.
Views along the way. Flat and...
Dusty...
One of the driver's friend's car broke down along the way. And he stopped to help.
While he was doing so, I took some photos
The driver also stop somewhere else to buys something to eat. But What food did he buy?
Fried Grasshoppers!!!!
After a bumpy 6 hours ride, we arrived at Siem Reap just in time for the free sunset. The thing about Angkor Wat is this. It closes at 6pm everyday. But if you come and buy your next day ticket between 5pm-5.30pm on the day before, you will be allow an free entry into Angkor Wat on the day before to see the beautiful sunset which happens around 7pm. Other then that, if you want to see the sunset on the same day, you will have to get a seperate ticket.
On the way to Angkor Wat
Sofie, one of my fellow travelmate, telling the driver to get us to the best place to see the sunset.
And so the driver got us to the foot of one of the temple, Phnom Bakheng. You can either walk up to the temple or take an elephant ride up. We chose to walk.
There... Phnom Bakheng
There were already many people when we got there.
Among them, Monks.
The sky became darker.
and the sun begins to set,
casting its ray on the temple, turning the whole place into a orange setting.
The sky became more and more orange
and then it starts to turn red.
Below are different moments of the sunset.
Some enjoyed the sunset alone
While some enjoyed it with their love ones.
Day 3: Siem ReapBefore you proceed any further, here is
a link to the video of the history of Angkor Wat. It is best that you know something about the place before you actually visit it. That will add meaning to what you see and then you will appreciated it.
Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples around this area but it is the biggest of all. Just as you thought you were inside the main temple hall, you will then realise that you have just went through a very huge gate.
Long way in.
First gate.
Then, after the first gate, another long way in,
Small hall along the way.
Not there yet.
Horses in the huge garden.
Almost there.
The temples here are all made up of block like this and on these blocks you will see holes like that. It is actually for carrying of the blocks manually from a place to another. See the video in the link above for a clearer picture of how it is done.
Finally.
My travelmates praying in the temple.
The way out.
Although Angkor Wat is the main atraction out of so many temples here, I personnally feel that I prefer 2 other temples over Angkor Wat. One of them is BAYON. The temple with many different faces.
On the way to Bayon, we spotted some monkeys.
And 2 of them were doing their monkey business. hahaha....
ok, lets get back to the temple.
Group photo.
If you look carefully, all of these faces were of different expressions and were all made up of blocks stacked up together.
Are you looking at me or am I looking at you?
Besides the holes on these block, there are also numbers. These numbers are useful for those who are trying to restore the temples. Imgaine how big a piece of jigsaw puzzle this it.
Why do they have to piece it back? What happen in the first place? See the video in the link above for answer.
The next temeple we went to is the Ta Keo. This temple has really huge stairs leading up into the temple. It is to signify the difficult one has to go through to get to heaven. The steps are really huge. Dont believe me? Take a look.
Before we can make our climb, Sofie was being approached by a kid. There are many kids around the area begging for money, selling drinks, food and clothes etc. They are all so cute. But there is no way you can help them all. It was really hard to reject them.
Now back to the steps. See, two steps and it half the length of my body. OK. I know I am not that tall but still, it is a big step!!
Long way up.
Almost there.
Oh my. There are also some kids selling things up here?
Grab a photo with him.
Rested for while before we make our way down the steep stairs.
Then we make our way to the next temple. The TA PROHM. This is my favourite temple of all. It is the temple that got eaten up by the nature and by the jungle. It is a temple that showcased the power of nature vs mankind. It is a temple that got covered up by huge roots of trees. It is also the temple which Angelina Jolie's movie "Tomb Raider" was flimed.
To find out more about this temple, see the video in the link above. Hey, I had mentioned about the video more then enough. That proves that its really worth viewing. So, if you have not view it, its time to do so.
How does it looks like when the jungle covers up a building? Lets see.
There are quite a few interesting rooms within this temple. One of it is this. In here, when you hit your chest with your fist, a interesting sound will be produce with echo. But if you try to make any other noises, no echo will be hear.
I gave it a try.
Another interesting place in this temple. The walls of this place are full of holes which used to contain gems. ALOT of gems.
Is that a Xmas tree?
More pictures of the temple.
Angelina Jolie fell through a hole in her movie "Tomb Raider" in this temple when she pick up a flower BUT me, I did not fall. Instead, I did my signature shot, I flew. That's me flying!!
I am not doing much justice for the temples here with my photos. You really have to see it yourself. It is really great and the Cambodians are very proud of it. So proud of it that they are the only country that have the picture of the national temple on their national flag.
More pictures around the temple.
There were some kids swimming naked.
They are so funny and cute. The moment they see us taking photos of them, one of the kid, a boy, quickly got out of the water and get dressed.
While the girl stayed in the water waiting for the boy to bring her her clothes. She even put on her clothes in the water without getting out. Thus wetting her clothes.
Oh my, they must be thinking that we are perverts taking photos of them naked. But we are not. we just find them cute. we must had scared them.
Our driver. He brought us around Angkor Wat area for the whole day. No way you can walk. It takes ages.
Day 4: Siem Reap - Phnom PenhWoke up pretty early to catch a 6 hours bus ride to Phnom Penh. As it rained last night, what was soil road before had became muddy and wet. This makes travelling alittle difficult irregardless if you are on foot, bus or bike. For your info, soil road makes up most of the road in Cambodia.
The bus company.
The timetable of the bus trips available.
The bus ride was ok. Had a break every 2 hours and even screened movies like Ong Bak. The picture below was taken at one of the stops.
Then, at another stop, there was a rally going on. Looks like they are going to have an election soon.
The moment we got off the bus when it arrived at Phnom Penh, we were surrounded by lots of touts. We could hear lots of "hello sir", "taxi sir" and "hotel sir". Not only were they shouting out at us, trying to get our attention, they also tried to grab us. The grabbing annoyed two policeman around us and without a second thought, the police took out their baton and started whacking these people like noones business. I was kind of shock when they did that.
When these ended, Sofie took out her map and tried to figure our current location.
She then approached the policeman, asked for directions and later told us that she would like to be on her own from here on. Well, which means to say, its time to say good bye. May we see her again.
After splitting our way, Yukio, Linnea and me went to look for a reasonable guesthouse and after which we went out to explore the town. Here are some pictures taken in the town.
Birds for setting free for a price. But DONT do it. You set the birds free on this side, the birds catcher will be catching the birds back again on the other side. So you are actually not doing any good for the birds. If there is no demand, there will be no supply. It is only then the birds will really be free.
More rallys.
We also went to a huge market which sells everything that you want to find. Look at the number of sewing machines.
Also, you can build a motorcycle here from scratch. They have everything you need. From tires,
to engines,
to body,
to stickers.
We ended our little exploration at a bar by the lake with some nice cold beer and chat our way through the night.
and ofcourse, burgers to ease the hunger.
Day 5: Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)Yukio and Linnea had lefted for Vietnam on the first bus in the morning. I did not join them as I wanted to visit the TOUL SLENG GENOCIDE MUSEUM (A FORMER KHMER ROUGE S-21 PRISON) and THE KILLING FIELDS.
But before that, I want to talk abit about the Cambodians. My room window is only slightly more than a metre away from the doorsteps of a Cambodian household.
and from what I can see, they are pretty much influence by the Chinese. Well, it is not surprising as they are part of the IndoChina. This is a common corrider shared by the guesthouse and the Cambodian residents. From here, you can see that they even worship the same chinese gods as the chinese in china.
Well, the first thing I do after I left my guesthouse is to look for a money changer that takes in Singapore currency inexchange for US dollars. US dollars is widely being used here. I had ran out of USD and not many places takes in Singapore dollars here. I do not want to use the ATM as they might not dispense USD. I do not want to end up with Cambodia Riels.
It seems that luck is on my side as I chanced into this bank.
Unfamiliar? Take a look again.
HAHA.. It is a Singapore Bank. They have to take in Singapore dollars dont they? After I had money changed, I made my way to the former S21 prison, which was converted from a school.
Unlike in Angkor Wat where every tourist were smiling away and taking photographs happily, here not a single soul is smiling. It is a really sad place to visit as these happenings happended not long ago and it was really unfortunate that it did happened. People captured, tortured and then KILLED!!! It was a really sad piece of the Cambodian history.
If you had already seen the video in the link above, you would have known what actually happened. To read the wordings on the below photos, feel free to click on any of it to enlarge it.
The graves of the victims.
The harsh rules of the prison.
The first building - use for torturing.
See discription.
Photo of the victim
Photo of the victim
Photo of the victim
Another form of torure - The Gallows
See discription
The next building documents the photos of the victims which includes the torturing process, their final moments etc.
A final letter.
Look at the date. It happened not too long ago. It happened during our times.
More photos around the former prison.
The cells.
BLOOD STAIN still remain on the floor!!!!
Some torturing methods.
The torturing chair.
Zoom in.
How it works. Notice the long needle that pierced through the head?
A closer look at the buildings.
Zooming in again.
The whole building had been wired up to prevent the prisoners from escaping.
Took a last look at the place before I lefted. It is all quiet and peaceful now. May things remain this way.
Then I made my way to THE KILLING FIELDS on the usual dirt road in Cambodia.
The first thing that you will see in the killing fields is the tower of skulls.
No matter what religion you are, you will definately want to pay your respect to them.
Inside the tower of skulls.
A walk in the killing field. All is beautiful now. I cant imgaine how it was last time.
Trying to imgaine the screamings and the killings that happened here.
Tried to imgaine the walk to their death.
This is a massive killing ground, as well as a massive graveyard.
More bones being dug up.
Clothes from children lefted behind.
Look at all the holes. These were the places where the bones and skulls were dug up from.
My initial plan was to head back to thailand from here. But after surfing the internet for awhile, looking for cheap flights to get back to Singapore, I realised that it would be cheaper to fly back home from Vietnam. And so I made my way to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
Bought a bus ticket from a local travel agency.
Cambodia is a very poor country. So if you care for the people here, the children for example, you could make your trip here alittle special by doing some volunteer work.
On the way to way to Vietnam, we passed by more beggers.
An interesting river crossing on the bus along the way to vietnam.
Views along the way
The border crossing between Cambodia and Veitnam was quite interesting. On the Combodian side, the bus driver took all our passport and asked all of us to alight. Then the custom officer took our passport and start calling out our names. once your name has been called, you can go back to the bus.
Then at the Vietnam side, things are about the same but they have a better building. The vietnam customs stamps all our passport first before calling out our name. They dont even need to see our face before stamping our passport. It was something like taking attendances during primary school days. But the wait was quite long. So I ended up chatting with some other travellers from Instanbul and Spain.
The lady from Spain was in Cambodia to do some charity work. We ended up looking for guesthouse together and after which we had our long awaited dinner at a roadside stall in HCMC.
While going for our dinner, we saw an interesting sign. Every backpackers know that the lonely planet is a travellers' bible and that we wouldn't leave home without one. As such, the person who came out with the idea and designed this signboard is really creative.
Day 6: Ho Chi Minh CityI joined a day tour to the famous CuChi tunnel - A must visit sight if you are in HCMC. My tour guide was really good and funny. Later I found out that he was one of the best guide around. Lucky me.
We stopped by a handicraft shop on the way to the tunnel.
At the CuChi Tunnel. A place where war took place between the Vietnamese and Americans. The Americans were tough but the Vietnamese were tougher!! If you have interest in these tunnels, there is a similiar one in Thailand, also built by the communist. Everything is the same and it is just not as touristy as the CuChi Tunnels. It makes explorations much more easier as there are much fewer people.
It's called the Piyamit Tunnels situated in Betong, South Thailand. Take a look.
Here are the pictures taken in tunnel areas. My tour guide giving a brief of situation.
This place is still under the Military ruling, not under tourism but its open to public for a fee.
Look at how small the enterance of the tunnel is.
Traps to surprise the enemies.
Some other enterance.
Replica of woman fighters.
A real America tank left behind after the war.
You can even shot AK47 and some other weapons here. You just need to pay for the bullets.
The shooting range.
Some tourist happily shooting away.
Typical Communist shoes made from tyres.
Now its our turn to take a walk in the tunnel.
It is really cramp inside.
After a short walk, I am already sweating like hell. I cant imgaine how they lived in there for months.
They even cook inside the tunnel. This is the airvent for the smoke to escape.
After the tour at the CuChi Tunnel, I opt to take a ride back to the city by ferry.
Met quite a few people onboard and had a good chat. The guy in black is from the land of kangaroos. The guy on the right is from Canada. He is a cook and is here in south east asia to taste the local food so that he can publish his book on S.E.A cuisine.
I also met some ladies from Philippines. It was fun talking to them.
Some other activities going onboard.
Whitehair pucking.
More views along the way.
Vietnamese soldier training.
It was already evening by the time I got back to the city. So its dinner time. I took the infamous local "suck money" transport and went to have my dinner.
Ok, I had a really interesting dinner. First I had the normal stuff.
Then I challenge my tastebud to some pretty interesting eggs - The Hale Hatched Duck Eggs, aka Duck Foetus Eggs.
As the name suggested, each of these eggs contains an unborn or unhatched vertebrate in the later stages of development showing the main recognizable features of a duck. It is a duck in the early stages of development before it is born or hatched.
Does it sounds gross to you or does it sounds like an exotic food to try? Without much consideration, I decided to challenge my taste bud!!!
After boiling the egg, it was served to me.
Let's peel off the shell and see what's inside.
Revealing more....
and more....
Now, the whole egg has been unshelled.
What an ugly looking egg, isn't it? At this point of time, I was trying to figure out where is the head and tail of the duck; And after staring hard at it for awhile, I picked it up, dipped the egg into the sauce, took a bite and let my senses do the thinking.
Hmm...... The taste is not as bad as it looks... Now, Picked up some vegetable and took another bite.....
Trust me... It really taste ok... No funny taste at all... HEY, the duck foetus has finally show itself...
Took another bite.... Is that the brain??
Took another bite.... Oh my god.. I am tearing the foetus apart with my teeth....
After having eaten half of the egg, the most disgusting part of this duck foetus egg is finally revealed... I guessed this is the body, leg, brain, eye and everything....
And for your information, I managed to finish everything. WAHAHA....
So if you are in vietnam and if you happen to be craving for some eggs, why not give this exotic egg a try. Otherwise, if you are not into this, please becareful when u order eggs in vietnam.
This world is full of amazing things and people. Travelling really opens up my eyes (and increases my taste bud's knowledge). I want to see more of this world, therefore I travel.
After my AWESOME dinner, I went to explore the city. There was a huge concert going on and everyone was watching it on their motorcycle.
Saw a old couple exercising in the park. The Vietnamese really love to exercise.
Check out my North Vietnam Ride and you will see why I said so.
I took my time to capture some nice moments. Here's one of it:
A woman working hard.
My favourite:
Lost. What would you do if you were surrounded by all but not your kind?
Day 7: Ho Chi Minh City - SingaporeTook a walk at the old army market where they sells things left over from the war. And then I made my way to the airprot for my flight back home.
HCMC is a place full of motorcycle.
The traffic can be compared to that of INDIA.
Picture taken from all over:
The streets
My guesthouse
The owner sleeps on the bench everynight.
A tour agency where I gathered some infomations.
Well, didn,t I said that life was full of uncertainties? I always thought that I would visit the Angkor Wat by motorcycle. I did not expect to end up in Vietnam. No matter what happens, it happens for a reason. So we dont have to worry about it.
and oh yes... I did managed to get the books.
Here, I wish Yukio, Linnea, Sofie, Lidialinde and Miss Mai all the best in whatever they do. It was great to have meet you all.Cheers.
For my other travels, look for the links under "ZeeVinCeZ Travel" on the right hand side of this page
For my other rides, look for the links under "ZeeVinCeZ Past Rides" on the right hand side of this page.
