..8-days trip to Indochina..

YEYYYY !!!! The day I've been waiting for months is finally here, the Indochina trip with Ge & Ati.

Leaving from Jakarta on 24th May to Ho Chi Minh, and we had to spend 1 nite here as there's no night bus to Siam Reap (unlike Pantura buses that operates mostly at night).

Our original plan was sleeping at the airport (yes, you read it right, SLEEPING AT AIRPORT), yet after Ge met this Mas Eko, and suggested us to go to downtown as the buses are gonna depart from there in the morning, then we changed our mind.

On the following day, we took the bus at 6:15 AM and for more than 12 hours, we spent our times only on the bus. Well, it stopped every 2 hours, but still, considering my flat butt, it's quite killing me :)) Arriving in Siam Reap at 8 PM, getting to our hotel, negotiation the tuk-tuk price for Angkor then off to bed.

On 26th, woke up at 4 AM to catch the sunrise. Leaving at 4:40 with tuk-tuk & got to Angkor Wat 30 mins later. We must pay $20 to enter the temple's complex.

Unfortunately, there ain't no sunrise like we expected, as the sky just turn so bright at 6:30 AM. So we decided to take a tour around the Angkor Wat, had a little b'fast afterward and continued the trip til 2PM. We met Yuji, Ken and the Carribean people again today. It was really nice meeting them, friendly people. Later in the evening, we went to Old Market for some souvenir shopping and had dinner at Angkor Mondial as we wanted to see the Apsara Dances where we met friendly-with-marketing soul-Ted & his anonymous Spanish friend (we didn't catch his name). We finished the day at 10ish and went back to the hotel.
 

The next day, we started it in the descent time, 9 AM. Still temple hopping, but this time it's quite a long ride, almost take 1,5 hours by tuk-tuk to reach it. After the 2nd temple, we decided to go back to hotel as the rain poured heavily. Around 5PM, we took a walk around the city, hung out near the river, watching Cambodians passing by & ended in Raja Angkor for the dinner. We decided not to go to the Night Market since we had a morning bus to go back to Phnom Penh.

My impression of this city, it is a nice small city, and regardless the heat (almost 34 degrees), I like it here, and I like the trip..

Before going back to Ho Chi Minh, we stopped at Phnom Penh and stayed there for 2 nights.

  

We took the 6:30 bus again so we could be in Phnom Penh when the sun still shines. Got to the city around 1 and Yannak, the smiley tuk tuk driver whom I met the other day when our bus to Siam Reap transit in Phnom Penh was there. He took us to the hotel, which is by the Tonle Sap river. We asked him to go back to the hotel at 4PM as we wanted to see Russian Market. We checked in, rested for a while, had lunch, showered and headed to the market. 5 mins inside the market, I felt like I was in sauna and lost 15 lbs, as it was sooooo hot, I even could feel the sweat came out from my scalp.

Back to the hotel, watched American Idol rerun (yes, we couldn't leave without it), then we went out for dinner. Turned out our hotel is 2 mins-walking distance to the night market, so we went there to see some stuff. And man, it was hilarious seeing those SIM phone cards seller. 

Ipang, my Indonesian friend who happened to live & work in Phnom Penh for 2 years, came 10 mins later and took us to FCC, a nice resto with a nice view and a nice-big portion of food. It was great meeting your friend who lives in other country. We took off at 11, walking back to the hotel.

On the next day, Yannak picked us at 8:30 for city tour. First stop was Royal Palace, because it's close in the afternoon. Ironically, the king doesn't live at the palace, he is in France. After the Palace, we went straight to Choeung Ek Genocidal Center a.k.a Killing Field. It was OK until we went inside the memorial monument, seeing 17 storeys of skulls from different age, especially with the background music they played, nobody will escape from having their goosebumps. An incident in this place, when Ati lost her cellphone. It happened so fast, only 5 mins. (whoever stole her cell, may it be used in a proper way, and Ati, may you get your new cell now).

From Killing Field, we went to S-21 Prison. Honestly, I felt the horror in this place, rather than in the field. Perhaps because this is the prison, where people are waiting desperately to come out alive, yet on the contrary, they are sentenced to death.

After the prison, we went to Wat Thom Temple. We just sat in the yard, watching people passed by, monkeys playing in the park, eating our Lotus and see the Monks spending their afternoon. It was a nice afternoon for us, then we headed back to the hotel.

Later at nite, we went out for a dinner at Warung Bali, which is owned by 2 Sundanese guys :). The food were all tasty, and we just in silent when the dinner was served. Everybody was busy with their own food. After dinner, as this is our last night in Phnom Penh, Ipang took us to Pon Toon, a club by the river. What we planned for an hour of staying there, we ended up leaving around midnite :) We felt like we were in Bali, seriously..

Regardless we had to leave quite early in the morning, but shaking our body and got sweat before off to bed was a great thing to do in ending the trip.. 

 

This is the final stop of my 8 days trip with Ge & Ati exploring Indochina.

Arriving at 3PM by bus, we went straight to the hotel to cool off a bit. The hotel was nice, and we in fact, chose the much better hotel for our last night. It's so close to Ben Tanh and other objects.

Around 5PM, we all went out. Ge went to the church for Sunday's service while me & Ati went to market for lil shopping. Then we went to the Cathedral, hung out with Ipang a bit (yes, it's the same Ipang in Phnom Penh. He picked up his friend who "likes" to get lost) then off to see the Vietnamese water puppet show. Although we didn't know any single word they said, but we found it funny from the way these puppets move.

Later at night, we went out for dinner and the 1st time ever in my life, I was rejected by a taxi and advised to take a walk since the place we wanted to go to was in a walking-distance (crap!).

My energy was used up and had no spare at all to get into the night activity, so after dinner, we walked back to the hotel.

In the following day, which is our last day, we went to Renaissance Palace & Ben Tanh (again!). We actually wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh Museum, but unfortunately, they were closed on Monday (bummer!). No, we didn't go to Cu Chi Tunnel because it's quite far from the city and besides, Ati & Ge wouldn't wanna try entering the tunnel, so why waste the time. Since the weather is getting hotter, we decided to go to the airport earlier.

I like this city so much. I in fact like it here much more than Jakarta.. There are many parks that we could just sit with no street seller could go inside and annoy us to buy-whatever-they-are-selling, no wastes, follow the rules (regardless thousand bikes on the street, but they are truly obedience), and we could walk at night in the street feeling so safe. Those are things that you would never find in Jakarta.

I found this communist city is much more capitalist than the democratic country I visited 5 days ago. 

 

Sadly that we have to end the trip, but we need to go back to the J-Town and continue our routine life. For sure, it's a memorable trip with my travel buddies, so many great things we've shared along the trip and I definitely wanna experience it again, either going back to the same place or find another spot to go to.

..8-days trip to Indochina..