My Very First Blog

It was our last day in Siem Reap.

After 3 days of temples, temples and more temples in Siem Reap, I was looking forward to 3 non-temples days in Phnom Penh. But then again, all these amazing temples had inspired me to visit the ancient pyramids of Egypt with its history and architectural wonders. Perhaps I should start planning for a nice Egypt holidays soon!

Jam, his friend and I would be boarding the bus to Phnom Penh in the afternoon. After visiting Artisans d'Angkor in the morning, there was still some time left so we decided to have an early lunch.

We opted to go to Khmer Kitchen at Pub Street Alley again. If you recall, we went there for dinner on our first day in Siem Reap - read the post HERE.

Before I blog about our lunch, here are some pictures I took along the streets of Siem Reap. This is the Tourist Information Centre which is located very near to Angkor Friendship Inn where we stayed for 3 nights.



This is Mandalay Inn which had a notice hanging on the top floor. Can you read it? No?



Let me magnify for you. Now can you read it?



Here is another guesthouse called Ei8htRooms which I thought was rather nice.



All these inns and guesthouses, including the one were were staying in, are within walking distance to each other. If you plan to visit Siem Reap, you might want to check them out as they are in the best location.

Can you guess what is inside each of these bottles?



No, they are not for drinking. It's actually petrol! I remember seeing petrol sold in bottles in Bali too - you can read about it HERE.

Oh! I learnt something new in Cambodia! Look at these bricks. Can you see they are hollow? Well, guess what? Hollow bricks are used in almost all buildings in Cambodia to save cost!



OK, so what did we eat at Khmer Kitchen Restaurant? I was thirsty and ordered this Khmer iced coffee. It was refreshing!



I had actually forgotten the names of the dishes we ordered so I would just give each dish a general name. This is spicy Khmer soup which contains mixed vegetables and meat. I could not remember whether the meat was pork or beef. This picture may not look yummy to you, but I assure you it was very delicious!



Next we had a type of Khmer curry which contains mainly meat (again not sure whether it was pork or beef) and vegetables. The curry was very delicious as coconut cream was added to it.



Lastly, we had Chicken Lok Lak - a popular Cambodian dish that is made up of stir fried chicken served on a bed of cucumbers, lettuces, tomatoes and egg. There was also a bowl of dipping sauce made with lime and pepper.



All three dishes cost USD3 each. My glass of iced coffee cost USD1. I thought the price was most reasonable! I have to say I enjoyed the food at this restaurant. If I ever return to Siem Reap in the future, I will surely visit this restaurant again!



After lunch, we quickly went back to Angkor Friendship Inn to check out. On the way, I snapped a picture of this huge tree. I wondered why I did that! Just for fun I guess haha!



I wondered how long it would take for the bus to reach Phnom Penh from Siem Reap. I don't really like to sit in buses for too long. Well, you will soon find that out in my next post, so stay tuned.

On our 4th day in Cambodia, Jam, his friend and I left Siem Reap for Phnom Penh by bus in the afternoon. We had some free time in the morning so we decided to visit Artisans d'Angkor, a workshop that is famous for its woodworking, stone carving, lacquering and silk painting.

This workshop is located at Stung Thmey Street and is within walking distance from Angkor Friendship Inn where we stayed.



Artisans d'Angkor was originally a professional training school by the name of Chantiers-Écoles to train unschooled rural youth to make a living from handicraft production. In 1998, Artisan d' Angkor was established with financial support from the European Union.



Today, it is completely self-financed, having trained young Cambodians in recreating the arts of their cultural heritage and at the same time offering them the opportunity to earn income for their families.



Entrance to the workshop is free. They also provided us with a free tour guide but we opted to tour on our own so that we could take our time and also without the hassle of being pressured to buy anything.



It was interesting to see the skillful workers carving woods. I think one needs to be highly skilled to be able to cut and shape the wood to turn them into beautiful sculptures.





A crouching elephant carving

Stone carving is an art dating back to the ancient Khmer empire with the magnificent Angkorian temples as fine examples of this art. Just like the Angkorian temples, stone carvings are mostly carved from sandstone.


Buddha heads?


Beautifully sculptured kneeling statue



Carvings of three Apsara dancers



A masterpiece of intricate carvings


Sandstone cut and carved according to the drawing



Completed sculptures and carvings on the shelf



Different colours of sandstones

After the wood and stone carving workshops, we entered the polychromy, lacquering and gilding workshop. Polychromy involves several layers of chalk being applied on the wood carvings. Lacquer which protects the wood, is then applied to the layers of chalk. The lacquer also smoothen out the surface of the wood or stone to make colouring them easier. Copper leaf is then used during gilding to create the ‘golden’ effect on the statues.

Below are a few photos of workers busy lacquering and gilding.









Can you differentiate between the lacquered and unlacquered pieces below?




I saw a worker busy with these tiny carvings.



They turned out to be elephant carvings! Aren't they cute?





A few statues in the corner of the workshop room

Next, we visited the silk painting workshop. The silk is produced at a silk farm about 16km from Siem Reap. There is actually a shuttle bus to bring you to the silk farm but we did not have time for that!



After the silk medium is set on a frame of predetermined size, motifs are drawn on it and colours using natural pigment are applied onto the motifs. Most silk paintings here are done by mute and deaf artisans.



Outside the workshop building is the courtyard of Artisans d'Angkor, where many impressive looking stone carvings and statues can be found.


Artistic statue of a Goddess inspired by Indian art?



Totem of the four faced Buddha?



Elephant deity Ganesha



Bayon face


Linga-yoni structure

We ended our tour of Artisans d'Angkor with a visit to the souvenir shop. This is not your ordinary souvenir shop found in the market place but is actually a high quality retail shop with air conditioning. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the shop.

I only managed to take a photo of the shop's entrance.



The products sold inside were wood and stone carvings, lacquer wares and silk items from the fine workmanship of the artisans in Artisans d'Angkor. They were of the highest quality, very beautiful and very expensive too!!

I ended up buying a T-shirt (forgot the price!) and the beautiful linga-yoni sandstone like the one in one of the photos above but in miniature size. Measuring about 3.5 inches in length and width and 5.5 inches in height, this linga-yoni sandstone was priced at USD29. You can see the picture of my linga-yoni sandstone HERE.

Now this linga-yoni sandstone is being proudly displayed in my home : )


Elephant of Mebon guarding outside the shop's entrance



View of Elephant of Mebon from the top


Carvings of devas and asuras pulling the Naga on a wall outside the souvenir shop

Artisans d'Angkor is definitely worth a visit so make sure this place is part of your itinerary should you travel to Siem Reap.

Coming Up Next : Walking The Streets Of Siem Reap

Something happened during my last night in Siem Reap. I was involved in an accident!

Right after we returned from our Tonle Sap cruise, Jam, his friend and I went out for dinner. We had BBQ Steamboat at a stall by the road side not far from our hotel.



After the pretty good meal, we went to the Siem Reap Night Market. There were really nothing much to shop there as most of the things there could also be found at the Old Market (Phsar Chas).



Since it was almost 10.30pm, we decided to go for a two-hour massage at one of the massage outlets in the night market. The massage was not fantastic but it was good enough to soothe our tired bodies after a whole day out.

Besides, it rained heavily halfway and it was so nice to hear the sound of heavy rain while being massaged that I dozed off. By the time the massage was over at around 12.30am, I was all refreshed. But the rain continued to pour outside and although our hotel was not very far away, it was quite impossible to walk back to our hotel in the pouring rain!

Luckily, the massage lady helped us get a tuk-tuk driver. We had agreed on the price, which was USD2. This is how a tuk-tuk looks like - basically it's a two-wheeled carriage pulled by a motorbike.


Image courtesy of Cambodia Uncovered

Because of the rain, the driver had covered all four sides of the tuk-tuk to prevent us from getting wet inside. So there we were, inside the tuk-tuk, happily discussing about our massage experience just a moment ago.

Jam and his friend was sitting next to each other directly opposite me. My back was facing the motorbike driver in front. And then it happened.

I did not even know what hit me! It was over within seconds! I found myself lying on top of Jam and his friend. I remember thinking, what the hell happened? Where am I? What am I doing here on top of my friends?

Then slowly it dawned on me - Oh my God! Our tuk-tuk had overturned! It's incredible that I had no recollection whatsoever of that moment when the tuk-tuk flipped over. One moment I was chatting with my friends, the next moment I was on the ground!

And then I remember asking how to get out? How to get out of this thing? Help!

Slowly I crawled out. There were some local people helping us. The driver came to us and kept saying sorry. Once outside and standing on the wet ground in the rain, we saw exactly what had happened. The tuk-tuk had ran into an oncoming motorbike in the opposite direction. The motorcyclist was still sitting on the ground, groaning in pain.

I think I was still in a daze. I checked my backpack to see if everything was still intact. I hoped I did not break my camera. Please no! Luckily, my camera was inside the backpack at that time.

Then the most funny thing happened. It was the most hilarious thing that happened, according to Jam and his friend. After the local people helped the motorcyclist back on his feet and helped get the tuk-tuk back up, I quickly handed USD2 to the driver. I thought he was about to leave and so I paid him.

But guess what? We have not even reached our hotel yet so what the hell was I doing paying him the money? Much later, Jam and his friend told me they were shocked by my action. In fact, Jam had even thought of not paying the driver at all after what he did to us!

I did not know why but at that time, I thought we had already arrived in front of our hotel! But the fact is, we were only halfway there. The driver then proceeded to take us to our hotel on his tuk-tuk. It must be quite a miracle that his tuk-tuk could still carry us after what happened! Up to this day, I still do not know why I thought we were in front of our hotel. I must have been suffering from some kind of post-accident trauma!

Jam was bruised below his right knee and his friend slightly injured his toes. I was left relatively unscathed. Probably because I was lying on top of them haha! Anyway, thank God all of us were safe!

Thinking back, we had been very lucky to hit a motorbike. Had we hit a car instead, I am quite sure the outcome would have been much, much worse!

Coming Up Soon : The Case Of The Missing Slippers in Phnom Penh (A Ghost Story)

Continued from Part 1

After seeing all those floating houses, we soon reached a platform somewhere in the middle of Tonle Sap Lake.



We soon found out that this platform is actually two big floating houses connected to each other. You would need to walk on that wooden plank to get across from one floating house to the other. Do not slip or miss a step or you would end up in the water!



I actually took a boat paddle and dipped it into the water to see how deep it was - surprisingly it was only as deep as an adult human height! We were told that Tonle Sap Lake is around 1 metre deep during the dry season but could be as deep as 9 metres during the wet season!

This floating structure is actually meant for tourists like us. There were souvenir shops and snack shops, and there was even a mini crocodile farm!



Don't worry - the area is fenced up so even though you watch the crocodiles from above, you will not be in danger of falling down and become crocodile's dinner! Unless of course, you decide to climb over the fence and jump down!



Besides crocodiles, they also had a python on display!



I wonder which one is more lethal - crocodile or python?

Do you know what this is?



What about this?



If I'm not mistaken, the first picture is an anchor.

And if you have read Part 1, you will have no problem guessing what the second picture is. Well, I don't know what you call that structure, but the people living there tie their floating houses to it to prevent their houses from floating away with the water currents!

From where we stood, we could see steps going up to a higher platform, where people, mainly tourists, were enjoying the view of the lake.



We went up to the higher platform. It was very windy! See those ripples on the surface of the lake? I felt as if I was in the middle of the ocean!



We stood here enjoying the wind and waiting for the sunset.



After waiting for some time, we caught the beautiful sunset.



Here are some more pictures of the sunset.





Soon, it was time to depart back to the mainland. On the way back, I took a few more photos.



It had been quite an experience seeing the floating houses and the sunset on this Tonle Sap cruise. When we reached the mainland, our driver Xiao He drove us back to our hotel.



It would be our last time seeing Xiao He as we would be leaving Siem Reap the next day. No, we would not be flying back to Malaysia. Not so soon!



After spending three days in Siem Reap, we were ready to leave the magnificent Angkorian temples and the memorable Tonle Sap Lake and move on to Phnom Penh - the capital city of Cambodia.

But something happened later that night - something unexpected that could have threatened all our plans. Stay tuned for more...