Siem Reap : Buckets of Excitement and the Majestic Angkor

I finally get a chance to continue my travel notes again, kinda afraid the notes just end up in Saigon.
After spending 6 days in Saigon, we finally continue the journey to the next point. After hours of deliberating, we decided to chose Siem Reap, Cambodia, as the second stop. I was more to scared than excited about the next destination. Hearing Cambodia, there's nothing more than Khmer Rouge, genocide, crimes, and all the bad things. For me, it's like Africa in South East Asia. With only Wikitravel-knowledge, we continue the journey to Cambodia, the Kingdom of Wonders.

It took about 6,5 hours from Saigon to Phnom Penh (we transit here and change the transportation to Siem Reap) by bus continued 6 hours traveling by minibus. The excitement was still rushing through my blood. "Damn, I'm in Cambodia and I don't know any shit about this country.But oh, well.. the journey is still ongoing." I had no imagination about the country nor its cities. Kinda imagined Siem Reap is just like Magelang and Borobudur. Really have no idea how Siem Reap was until we get there by evening.



The capital of Angkor impressed me a lot. The village image in my mind has suddenly vanished by the Siem Reap River, numbers of fancy hotels, museums, cafes, restaurants, and various travelers. We hit Pub Street for the first time for dinner. Once again, I was stunned by the numbers of bars, restaurants, pubs, guest houses, and amazing travelers around the world. Pub Street, the central area for backpackers here, was so lively. This is the place where the hype of music, great foods, and amazing people collide. We hit Angkor What? Bar for a couple of beers and try to absorb the atmosphere of the town. I was feeling good. I felt like a real traveler here (hey, I'm in the middle of Cambodia where nobody in Indo knows any shit about this country). The people, both the locals and travelers were so amazing. I didn't need any efforts to get along with people here. Just sit back, lit my cigarette, and enjoy myself then people will come to you and ask, "What kinda cigarette are you smoking?" then one thing led to another.
I nailed it. An English ask me the question, smoked my cigarette, and the conversation begun after we dragged our table to Tom (the English) and friend's table. Meeting other travelers always been amazing for me. We had so much fun, we talked, we shared stories, and we did stupid stuff. Couple of beers turned out to couple of buckets of liquors, and sitting at the bar had turned out to be partying in a club.

The night was getting crazier. We move from Angkor What? to the club (forgot the name). We're kinda high because of the beer and the buckets but we didn't want to miss the birthday cake. We suddenly forgot about our tomorrow's plans (wake up early morning to catch sunrise in Angkor Wat) and party hard. I feel like we're a bunch of monkeys came out of their cage. We lost our minds and just had fun before went back to the guesthouse in the morning and died.

We canceled the Angkor sunrise plan and chose to wake up in the afternoon. The day in Siem Reap was so silent due to the Buddhist celebration. Stores were closed, only a few of restaurants were still open. Maybe it was silent because many of travelers were outside the city for trekking and stuff while the other were maybe just like us, too "tired" to wake up. Since we changed the plans, we had to reorganize our plans here. We planned to go to floating village in Tonle Sap Lake in the afternoon, continued by shopping souvenirs for friends and family in night market, the morning after we'll go to Angkor and we leave for Sihanoukville in the evening.... and the planned was changed again...



We went to Tonle Sap lake to see the floating village. The lake was HUGE. For a person who have never been to Danau Toba, Tonle Sap was very large. Filled with deltas, swamps, mangroves, and wide horizon. For a zillion times, I was stunned by the lake. Not to mention the village, the people live here traditionally. The lake is inhabited by the Khmer, Vietnamese, and small numbers of Lao. Kinda reminded me of "orang perahu". We continue the activity by shopping at the night market for souvenir. After we bought some kroma, t-shirts, and stuff, --again-- we ended up in Angkor What? bar. We promised ourselves that we won't drink too much cause we had to wake up early in the morning to catch the sunrise in Angkor Wat. We had no more days here, so no more other options. We kept our promise, to wake up early in the morning for Angkor...... with some "adjustments", but we couldn't keep our promise to have only a couple of beers and one bucket to.... liters of beers and uncountable buckets..



The second night was as awesome as the first. We met some of the guys from yesterday and met new people. Again, we had amazing times with the Canadian yeye girls, and Summer. There's a funny story about her. We met her at Angkor What? and she was excited when she knew we're from Indo. We found out that she's an American who teach in AIS in Jakarta. Turns out, she was my students' teacher (I used to work as academic tutor). And turns out, she lives in Pejaten. What a small world were living in.
Anyway, the night is getting crazier as the crowd were getting more exited. We finished many beer towers, and uncountable communal buckets. Randy, Dian, and I was so drunk that night, but we didn't give any damn about everything. All we did was mumbling, self-disclosing, and did pointless talk. We went back home in the morning, again. I have to say, I was so fucked up. I usually drink a lot and always be driven, so I never been fucked up before. But that night was overwhelming. I reached my point, and I have to admit that I was totally drunk. I ended up the night by throwing up in the front of my room at 3am in the morning. Seriously, I've never been so fucked up before, and then I was throwing out all the things in my stomach. But oh, well first time being fucked up in the middle of nowhere in Cambodia was AWESOME.


I dragged myself out of my room at 5.30 to tuktuk, catching up the sunrise. I still have the hangover. I felt like my head as big as Big Ben, my eyes were burning, but i have no more time to skip Angkor. Well, the effort showed a great result. Angkor Wat is Majestic! it's beautiful. with the Baray (lake) and all the temples. Angkor is massive, great, unlike typical candi in Indo. The sunrise was amazingly beautiful with the bright blue skies after it. It was thrilling me. Still trying to make myself look okay, I was stunned by all the things i saw. Watching the sunrise while you were still under influence of alcohol was the best hangover I've ever had. After watching the sunrise, we moved to other temples. Again, I was amazed by everything I saw here. Angkor was underrated, now I truly believe what people say about this historical site. I saw what I saw on National Geographic. It was awesome. I have to agree that Angkor named for The Kingdom of Wonder.

We didn't want to do anything after visiting Angkor except sleeping. We were so exhausted after everything we had done here. We really need to sleep before we leave for Sihanoukville in the evening. We had to forget our will to sleep cause when we were back to the guesthouse, Kosal (the owner of the guesthouse) invited us to come to his house in the countryside. We couldn't refuse it since it was Buddhist holiday that day and we thought we need to show some respect for him. We skip our sleep plan and went to Kosal's home in the country side, which is only 5 minutes away from the city (wtf! a countryside which is only minutes away from the city??!! gimme a break). He hosted us and Dave (the American guy who was also staying at his Guesthouse) at his "warung" with Khmer chicken barbecue and... cans of Angkor Beer and a bottle of local whiskey. Oh God!! I am so done with the drinks! But I drank it to appreciate him (yearright!) we had great conversation there at his place.



The day hadn't over yet before Dave invited us to continue the conversation at his "penthouse". The penthouse he mentioned was the rooftop of the guesthouse. There was a regulation for people here in Siem Reap to build no more than 4-stories building. the rooftop was on the 4,5 floor, so it was the highest point of Siem Reap. We can see the city view of Siem Reap in 360 by standing on the rooftop. We gladly accepted the invitation and -AGAIN- we changed the plan by canceling the night bus and move to Sihanoukville the day after. We went back to the guest house and going to the top of the building. Turned out, the "penthouse" was the base of BTS tower, it was definitely the top of the building. It only fits for 7 people, it has no fences. So if you fell off, you'll end up in the grave yard. The view was great, though we just only saw small town, it was kinda awesome since we were on the top of Siem Reap. Pub streets and the temples can be seen here. The conversation continued, so did the whiskeys. Dave bought us bottles of local whiskey, and I was like shit. I hadn't done with my hangover yet and then I had to sip another whiskey? I feel my liver was gonna blow up. We were on a high, literally and figuratively, and struggled to stay in the middle of the tower so that we won't fall. It was definitely awesome. Note: being drunk on the top of BTS tower is not cool at all.
After struggling to get sober, we ended up the day by having dinner and sleep.

Siem Reap was AMAZING for me in every ways. I love it here and I have to say this is one of my favorite place during my trip. I definitely will go back there..


Take a look at what I saw here

Saigon Story : Welcome to Uncle Ho's Land

I really had no idea what brought me to Saigon. Just bought the fight tix and thought, "This place is sounds cool." Never browse this place on the internet until 2 weeks before the departure. All I know about this country are: the ruins of the war, communist-socialist country, underdeveloped, John Rambo. I share the same impressions with other Indonesians. It appeared when I was interviewed by the Immigration officer for the passport proposal. He joked, "You're helping Rambo against the Vietcong, eh? hahahaha". Yeah right, everybody doesn't know any shit about this country except the war and suffering stuff, which i think it's exotic.



With the lonely-planet-wikitravel-knowledge, i packed my bag and finally stepped my feet on Uncle Ho's land. This country was underrated. Never thought that Tan Son Nhat Airport could be this modern. Ann, our host in Saigon, told me this airport was rebuilt 3 years ago. Ah, no wonder this could be modern.



We stayed at Ann's place for the first 3 days. Ann's house is just 3 km away from the airport. It's in the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (the other name of this city, widely used now but I prefer Saigon), in the suburb. It took only 15 minutes to get here from the airport. In the Vinasun cab I was thinking, "Hey, I'm not in Java Island anymore. Here I am in mainland Asia". I was too excited to be there. On the way to Ann's place, I saw a very identical city view here and Jakarta. Lobak said, "Seriously, this is exactly just like Mangga Besar. The people are Chinese looking but they speak completely different language." Yes, some parts of this city are identical with Jakarta. No wonder it's not that different, it's still in the Southeast Asia. Finally we arrived at Ann's place. We got settled and had mouth-watering homemade Vietnamese dinner, and had nice chit-chat before we went to bed.



In the first morning, I was surprised on what I saw in front of Ann's house. The streets in the neighborhood was fulfilled with street vendors, breakfast street-food sellers, and zillions of motorbikes. The streets was like a river with motorbikes flowing on the street. For a person who is living in a crazy-traffic city, I even consider the traffic was insane. You can't even walk across an alley during rush hours. You can find this kind of situation in every street of the city in the dusk and dawn.



After waited for the rain to stop. We went to the city in the afternoon by bus. It took 20 minutes from Ann's to Ben Thanh market, the city central. Again and again, I underrated this city. Unlike my imaginations, everything that catches my eyes was a surprising thing for me. Everything is beautiful as a city, never thought that this country could have such an order city, like Saigon. The city central was fulfilled with French-colonial art deco buildings. Hotels, restaurants, shopping arcade, coffee shops (try Trung Nguyen, pronounced Chung-ngyen, are heavenly good) are in hundred years old building. Not to forget to mention the sidewalks, they're completely wide and clean, no street vendors. This is completely different than Jakarta. When the night came, the city has its own beauty with the city lights, splendid. And oh, almost forgot the parks, there's a park at least one in every block greened by big trees, statues, pavements, and people who are enjoying their time. I really love it with all my heart. Never been to Europe, but I feel I was somewhere in Europe. So nice, so well-cultured. It is understandable if the city is well-preserved because back in the war times, it was occupied by the US Army. Only the northern part, which is occupied by the Vietcong, was devastated because of the war.



Besides the city, I also got the chance to see Mekong Delta. I don't like join the tour but that's the only way I can do to get there. Mekong river was BIG. Maybe for Indonesian Mekong is overrated cause we have big rivers here but for me who only know Ciliwung as the river, it's great. Went cruising along the river, visited islands in the middle of the river, tried the local food and culture were pleasant enough for me.

One thing I found in this city, or maybe this country, is: Ho Chi Minh is everywhere. He's on the Billboards, on the streets, on every ammount of the currency, in the museums, in the heroic stories, and maybe in the Vietnamese's hearts. I was wondering, "Where are the other national heroes? Did he fight by himself? or is he just being narcissistic?" Well, maybe because they're still pretty much communist, there's only one man for the country just like Mao for China or Castro for Cuba. The only thing about this city, or maybe this country (damn! I should've traveled to other cities here..) is it's all about the war stuff, the history, the war suffering, and the hatred of Vietnamese towards the Americans or French (it's debatable). It's pretty obvious when you are in touristic areas. They sell the history lot more than culture. That's what I'm feeling about tourism here.




Gastronomic experience here is amazing. Everything in Vietnam taste so goddamn great. From the all Vietnamese homemade food I tried in Ann's, the restaurants, cafes, until the street food had been mouthwatering and all-time craving for me. I don't mind eating pork so I tried lots of kinds of food here. The Banh Mi -Vietnamese sandwich-, Banh Seo, Pho Bo, Pho Ga, and other hard-to-remember-the-name foods taste heavenly. I could even eat a rock covered by mud here and it tastes really good. It is obvious that their cuisine are strongly influenced by Chinese and French delicacy. Vietnamese food is a very great combination between the meat, carbo, and vegetables. Eating is one of my major activities here. I love eating in everywhere, even eating in the street food in front of Vietnamese schools had become a very great experience. Apart from the enormous usage of basil, I love Vietnamese food.

The thing about traveling is you can have opportunity to meet new people and try to absorb the city's atmosphere. I found the people here are quite nice. Hard to communicate with most of the locals since their English ability is no better than the Neanderthals. Since I don't speak Tieng Viet al all, I found it really hard to communicate with them when I was in shops, or restaurants. One day, when I was in a nice coffee shop near Ann's, I asked the waiter for an ashtray. Before I asked, she ran inside the coffee shop (I was in the terrace) and then she gave me the bill. I was laughing and I told her with my body language that I need ashtray. She nodded and went inside the coffee shop. Then she came out with a smile and.... a matches in her hand. She gave me the matches and I ran out of words of languages. I ended up wasting the ashes on the floor. One American man I met named Darren told me that compared to any other people in Indochina, Vietnamese are bitchier. They don't speak English but they seemed don't want to learn. When we talked to them, they easily angry cause they're frustrated they don't get what we said. Geez...




Apart from the bitchy Vietnamese, I met amazing people here. Met Darren, and American who is currently moving from Seoul to Saigon for a new living. Had inspiring all-night-long conversations and discussions with him about life. Met Collin, and Irish who owns an Irish Bar named Collin's and listened to his marriage stories with his Vietnamese wife and his stories about how hard to manage a bar in Vietnam. And of course, accidental meeting with Ivan is one of the interesting part of this city. I accidentally met him at KFC, he's Vietnamese-looking but I kinda notice that he's Indonesian from his Tokema T-shirt and Consina pants. He ended up being our "local guide" and brought us to nice places in Saigon.
What pleasant days in Uncle Ho's Land


If you have time, you can see more of the picture

Just Enough for a City

Lately I've been listening to Stevie's "Living for the city". I found it really great since I fond of his masterpieces. Knew it for the first time when somebody -forgot the name- brought it in American Idol.
From this song, Wonder can articulate his personal background and the social situation in America, esp. in the southern states, at that era. Living for the city..

I'm not trying to place on a par with Stevie but I found things in common with the words within the lyrics. I was born in Kramat Tunggak, the place where there used to be a red light district in the north of Jakarta. I was born there not because my mom was a prostitute or my dad was a pimp, because my dad's workplace hospital is located there. Never been living in that area but I think it's really tough there compared to any other part of this city. My dad was a man from the small town in Central Java, a truly Javanese, and mom came from the western part of the island.

My old man, he had a very tough life. His old man passed away 3 days after the celebration of his circumcision, when he was 9 or 10. He was a bright one in his town, brought his bundle of clothes to Jakarta. Started his life really tough as ojek driver in Kota, then being a teacher, and ended up as an accountant in the state-owned harbor company. He didn't dig a lot of gold but he bang his bones off his body for the family. It wasn't much but it's just enough for the city.
My mom had a better kinda situation than my dad's. Leave her hometown when she was a teenager, went to catholic schools and end up working for the government. Though she wasn't suffering, it was tough at that time to live away from her comfort zone and spend her young time with her brother and his demonic wife. She's not making a lot of cash till now, but she's squeezing her brain and juggling harder than the clown in the circus. It's not much, but it's just enough for the city.

I never found tough life here. Got everything I want. Not actually everything, at least the primary and secondary ones. But we could get things we want if we save more and work our ass harder. Yes, it's just like when we don't have an apple tree in our lemon tree garden. When we want an apple, we don't need to walk miles away from our garden to Eden. Just save some spaces of the land, put the apple seeds, pour some water, let them grow, and wait for the harvest time. It needs efforts, but we got the apples eventually.

So I never feel like a poor boy from Mumbay, but I never feel like an Upper East Sider either. But I can taste sweet stuff if I put some sugar in it. Just learn harder, then got into univ. Just learn less-harder to be a grade-A. Just work a bit and a little juggling and save some dimes to get fake apparels, nice social lubricants, and discover a little piece of this globe. It's not much, but the living just enough for he city.

Click here to hear the song

A boy is born in hard time Mississippi
Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty
His parents give him love and affection
To keep him strong moving in the right direction
Living just enough, just enough for the city...

His father works some days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar
His mother goes to scrub the floor for many
And you'd best believe she hardly gets a penny
Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah

His sister's black but she is sho 'nuff pretty
Her skirt is short but Lord her legs are sturdy
To walk to school she's got to get up early
Her clothes are old but never are they dirty
Living just enough, just enough for the city...um hum

Her brother's smart he's got more sense than many
His patience's long but soon he won't have any
To find a job is like a haystack needle
Cause where he lives they don't use colored people
Living just enough, just enough for the city...
Living just enough...
For the city...ooh,ooh
[repeat several times]

His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty
He spends his love walking the streets of New York City
He's almost dead from breathing on air pollution
He tried to vote but to him there's no solution
Living just enough, just enough for the city...yeah, yeah, yeah!

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don't change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, just enough for the city!!!!