Today, we had a chance to rest our feet after what had been a day of intensive walking yesterday in Angkor. We both slept well and awoke in our hotel to quickly pack up our stuff and get downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast. This is the off-season in the SouthEast (too hot, too humid) and the hotel is empty and the restaurant all ours.
Breakfast in Siem Reap:Like all hotel buffets, there was a lot to pick up—stations for a full Chinese meal, if you are so incl ined, with noodles and vegetables, chicken and beef. For a more Westernized breakfast, there was bread (you could make your own toast), bread rolls, a selection of jams (including dragon fruit jam), meats (sausages, salami), cheese. There was also a fish congee station (of course, I had that for starters) and an egg station where a lovely young lady made eggs to order. Llew had his eggs over easy, I had a vegetable omelette. With baked beans and roast potatoes, it was enough to fuel us up for the entire day. There were also juices (I had passion fruit juice), but no decaf coffee. As in India, so too here, decaff seems to be a foreign thing! Good job I always carry our own when we travel.
Bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh:Our guide and driver were waiting in the lobby when we got there at 8.30 am after breakfast, as decided. There was a survey form to fill out—we gave both of them a Thumbs Up! Then, we had our backpacks piled into their van and off we went, saying goodbye to our hotel and the old town of Siem Reap.
The van ride to the bus stop took us around the newer, hipper, part of town. We passed by well-laid out roads with beautifully landscaped islands, as well as the immense grounds of the Angkor National Museum with its modern twin towers. I was not too sorry we did not see it as we will be visiting the National Museum of Cambodia tomorrow in Phnom Penh where the greatest treasures derived from Angkor are kept. We also passed by the Royal Residence of the Royal Family (the current king is Sihanouk) with its landscaped gardens and heavy security.
Then we were leaving the commercial part of Siem Reap behind us and making our way into the rural hinterland of the country where the dominant shade is green. Green, as in endless paddy fields, water-lily ponds, ice-apple and coconut palms. I pulled out my iPad with its detachable keyboard (its what I use when traveling because it is so much lighter than a laptop) and caught up on my blog. The bus was incredibly modern with WiFi that actually worked—we were able to keep ourselves busy on our phones for the entire 5 hour long journey. There were twin charging stations on every two-seaters and we were able to keep our devices fully charged. I was able to blog quite easily as the pace was slow. The road was not too bad or too bumpy and I was able to type without much difficulty although I did not have adequate arm-room. The journey was the perfect way to write my travelog as I had found absolutely no time prior to this. It also allowed us to rest our feet after all the walking of yesterday. So, really, overall, this bit of our trip has been perfectly planned. There are rests in our mad sightseeing segments.
En route, the bus stopped three times to give us restroom breaks and pick up snacks. The longest (half hour) stop was for lunch, We actually had a steward on the bus (first time I have ever seen such a thing) who provided us with sweet buns, bottles of water and took our orders for lunch. He would the phone in the lunch order to the restaurant where we stopped for a meal. As Llew and I had such a huge breakfast, we did not order lunch—-instead we munched on the energy bars I always carry when we travel as we never know when hunger pangs will annoy us. These snacks kept us going until we arrived at our destination. The lunch spot was really well chosen as it overlooked water-Lilly ponds and the cool quietness of distance hills.
Arrival in Phnom Penh:We arrived in Phnom Penh safely and on schedule. Our bags (in the hold) had been carefully tagged in Siem Reap and based on those tags, they were returned to us after they had been loaded into the bus station office (we traveled by Giant Ibis). Needless to say, being an air-conditioned bus, it had provided a most comfortable journey and we alighted from a long road trip feeling fresh as daisies. We found a representative waiting to receive us with one of those name placards—he introduced himself to us as Pissat. He placed our bags into his car and were introduced our driver—Mr Chandook.
In just a few minutes, we arrived at our hotel (I had actually seen it from the bus when we were approaching the bus station). It is one of those spacious hotels you find in the Far East, including China, which have these huge lobbies with no one in them! Checking in formalities were completed while we sipped on our passion fruit welcome drink. We were given breakfast coupons as well as coupons for a free drink in the rooftop bar. Despite having paid in full for our hotel, the Reception wanted a deposit of $100 that they would keep with them. As we were not carrying so much cash and they did not take credit cards, they took our passports instead. This was a good arrangement as it would also keep our passports safely locked away in their care—they gave us a receipt for them. When we went up to our room—really large with an attached bath with a fabulous rain shower head—we found that we had a little balcony and that we overlooked a river (the Tonle Sal River). This made it easy for us to direct our tuktuk driver to our hotel at the end of our long walk on our own.
We spent the next hour or so taking naps, calling my Dad in Bombay to wish him for Father’s Day and generally relaxing as we had the entire rest of the day at leisure.
Walking Tour of Phnom Penh:Since I knew we had the afternoon and evening free, I had photocopied pages from Lonely Planet that laid out a walking tour for us on our first day in Phnom Penh. It would allow us to orient ourselves and give us a taste of this big crazy city. Good Job we are now located in Bombay and do not bat an eyelid at heavy traffic that comes within an inch of us because that was exactly what we found on the street right outside our hotel.
Using our photocopied pages, we first made our way to the Ta Phreun Wat or Temple which was a fifteen minute walk along the river front from our hotel. This quite spectacular modern temple, funnily enough, had all the features we had seen in the 1000-year old temples at Angkor: two nagas or serpents ran the length of the staircase leading up a hill (the only hill in the city) on which the temple was perched. The temple itself is a red and gold structure in the pagoda style. There was a dollar charge per head for foreigners to enter, but since we were merely doing a walking tour, we did not go inside. There was also a giant model of a rabbit, somewhat inexplicably, in the front.
We did not enter the Temple but we circumnavigated it entirely through the beautifully laid out oasis of a garden that was a delightful bit of green in the midst of a busy traffic island. Just past it, was the grand brand-new edifice of the US Embassy denoted by its Stars and Stripes flying proudly over the fortress-like building with its high walls and black railing.
Pushing further on, we passed by several official government buildings such as the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, etc. Each of them is beautifully maintained, very spiffy and sports a large-size portrait of the King or Queen or both. This is very similar to what I had seen in Thailand when I had visited during the Golden Jubilee of the late King Adulyadej.
We moved on as we looked for the Hotel Le Royale which is now part of the Raffles Group of Hotels in Singapore. It was also laid out in a lovely landscaped garden.This part of town is very luxe and is cluttered with corporate office skyscrapers that had designer showrooms on the ground floor. We pressed on towards the main road or boulevard which then led us towards the Grand main Railway Station.
By this time, darkness had fallen over the city an we had been walking for about two miles. It was nice to get a taste of a city that is busy and on the way towards 21st century modernity in every possible way.
We could have walked back, but decided to conserve our energy for another day of sight seeing tomorrow—so we hailed a passing tuktuk (it would be our first ride in one on this trip) and told the driver (who spoke a tiny bit of English) to take us back to our hotel (after we showed him an envelope from the hotel that carried its address). He put the address into his GPS (how modern is that) and off we went! About ten minutes later, we were back at our hotel, freshening up in our room before hitting the bar for that free drink and for dinner. It was to be a Father’s Day treat from Chriselle who had already sent Llew gift money in advance so that we could have a lovely meal in Cambodia on Father’s Day.
Drinks and Dinner in our Hotel:And so we took the elevator up to the 9th floor to the restaurant which doubled up as a bar and presented our free coupons This entitled us to a Beer each—other spirits and cocktails were half-price. Seated under a fan (funnily enough, the rooms are the only air-conditioned part of these hotels—the lobby and other public areas are not cooled except with fans or room coolers). With complimentary peanuts for snacks, we ordered our meal. It was Tom Kha Ghai for both of us (Chicken Soup in a Coconut Milk Broth—one of my favorite Oriental soups) and a Cambodian speciality called Beef Lok Lak. This was a dish, similar to the Malaysian Beef Rendang, which I had eaten in the Philippines and loved. It is small cubes of beef marinated and then barbecued and served in a really flavorful brown sauce. The sauce was just delicious. It is served with a cake of rice, salad and a fried egg on the top. However, the quality of the beef was terrible and since it was so stringy, w did not really enjoy the dish. Still, it was good to be able to have dinner in our hotel instead of going out to look for it.
All that was left was for us to return to our room for cool showers and bed after what had been a great introductory day to the adventures that awaited us in Cambodia’s capital.
Until tomorrow…
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