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
