My Cambodia trip

Arrived at 11:30 am, checked in to the nice little La Villa Lotti hotel. It only has 8 rooms, small, quiet and surrounded by greens. The staffs were very nice, humble and friendly. I am glad that we checked in to this quiet cozy balinese style guest house.

We spent the first day lepaking around Siem Reap town, visited Old Market, Central Market, Angkor Shopping Mall ( we tot it is a shopping mall, entah it is just a multi-storey shops selling souvenirs only). AR and myself went for foot massage, hmm , not up to our standard, thus decided not to waste money on body massage liow. The weather there was hot & humid, and roads were so dusty. We were happy to find the ONLY free wi-fi cafe in old market - it is the Blue Pumpkin bakery cafe ...the lemon tart there was very very yummy

At night, we went for a cultural dance and dinner show. The food and dance weren't that great either ...

Day 2, woke up at 4:45 am, met our local tour guide - the legendary Pon Heary. She's a petite strong woman, speaks softly, and very patriotic to her country, doing many things to help the poor children, as well as doing her part to preserve the temples...Both AR and myself have heard many good comment on her, we were glad to be guided by her. While she was telling us her stories, I thought of Habibi too, both of them are proud of their country, doing what they could to represent their country :)

We visited Angkor Wat for Sunrise, too bad it was too cloudy, couldn't get a good sunrise. Then, visited Ta Phrom - the temple in the jungle, Tomb Raider was flimed here. We prefer this temple, this temple was abandoned for a while and the strong bayon tree roots ruined the temple since then. Next, visited Angkor Thomb, then Bayon temple. Then, climbed up high to Bakheng temple for sunset, again, it was too cloudy, we didn't get sunset too :( , but it was OK, we have seen the temples .... Then, dinner with my PG's friends, yeah, great to meet my friends here , and had a sumptious dinner @ Old Market. Bahija cycled about 2 kilometers to the restaurant at Old Market - it was exciting for me, as I had never cycled so far in a busy car road leh , was nervous all the way - but it was fun cycling around town in the cool breeze , collecting dust on my face too , hehehe , and a bit of exercise too.

Day 3 - woke up late at 9 am, had a nice eggs and bacon breakfast, relaxed - and then said sayonaro to the nice hotel staffs, and headed home ....

My comment is that Angkor Wat as a World Wonder is not as magnificent as I'd thought. I would prefer Egyptian or China's civilization. It's great to be able to visit this third world country, and see how poor this country is, there are many young kids/children who have no education, life is generally difficult for majority of the population. But on the other hand, there are many corruption and the rich is getting more wealthier ...... sad to see this, a lot of hospitals, schools, facilities are 100% built, sponsored by the foreigners, temples are preserved by foreign countries ( including Msia ) , whereas those rich Cambodians did nothing or less to help their own country .....