This is the last post of our Siem Reap trip. Our lunches were mainly simple fare arranged by Beyond Unique Escape at a eating place near the sites, or tingkat which Lin has brought along for us. After the tiring days exploring the temples, DH and I decided that we wanted to treat ourselves to nice relaxing dinners. So besides the first night when we ate at Grill Steak Cake at our hotel Memoire d’Angkor, the rest of our 3 nights we went to 3 other different restaurants in Siem Reap.

Cafe Indochine

After our very long tiring day at Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, we decided to eat somewhere nearby. Cafe Indochine was just a short walk from our hotel and the exterior of the restaurant looks nice. So we decided to check it out.

We order the set menu for 2 which included a Pomelo Salad, a lobster soup, stir fried chicken with Kampot Black Pepper, Traditional Amok Fish, and all these served with white rice. Dessert was mango ice cream with an apple liqueur.

The set meal was at USD17 per person and together with our drinks of a coke and a local draft beer, our total bill came to USD42. I did not really like the food. The dishes were too salty too.

Pou Restaurant

After our dismay experience at Cafe Indochine, we asked Alan if he had any place to recommend for a good dinner and he recommend a small restaurant called Pou Restaurant. Alan says that the chef and owner at Pou has won cooking competitions and had gone around several cities within South East Asia to experience the food and has incorporated these flavourful into his dishes. So we decided to check it out. It was a little further from our hotel so we took a Tuk Tuk.

Pou is a small restaurant. There is no air conditioning what they had fan to cool the place. We started our meal with some drinks. As usual, DH had a beer while I decided on an Ice Lime Soda. The soda was very refreshing and was just what I needed to this hot evening.

We had the garlic and chili beef for our appetizer. It was grilled beef marinated with crushed garlic and chili and served with green mango salad. We loved it!

For my main course, I decided on the special for the day, the Grilled Chicken served with curry and sweet potato. This was so good too. The curry was served at the side for dipping. So not your usual curry chicken.

DH went for the Pork Belly Noodle. It was a similar to our noodles that we have in Singapore. He said it was nice but nothing special. Unlike my chicken

I couldn’t decide what to have for dessert, and Chef Mengly recommenced that I try the Ginger pudding. It was ginger with sago (tapioca pearl balls) in milk, cream & palm sugar. It was very nice. I loved it. First time I have eaten such dessert with ginger. It is usual with in South East Asia to have sago dessert in cream and palm sugar, but never have I had it with ginger tooZ

It was definitely a wonderful meal. So much enjoyed after our dismay experience at Cafe Indochine the night before. Our bill came up to only USD24.25. And that is after DH added a glass of red wine. This was really value for money and such an enjoyable meal with interesting flavors. High recommended. A must try when in Siew Reap!

Chef Mengly was so kind as to pose for a photo for me too!

Damnak Lounge

On our last night in Siew Reap, we decided to treat ourselves to fine dining. We had our hotel help us make a reservation at Damnak Lounge, at the Lotus Blanc Resort. The restaurant actually provides complimentary pick up for us at our hotel. Well, it is all in the price we are going to pay for dinner, I suppose .

We decided to go for the degustation menu. DH took the one with wine pairing (USD45), while I went within wine (USD35).

As with all fine dining, we were served with a small complimentary starter, Amuse Bouche.

First course was Beef Carpaccio, served with a light salad, lemon oil, shaved Parmesan and capers.

Next came the soup. It was an asparagus soup with crab meat ravioli, vegetables and herbs.

For our main course, we had a choice of sea bass or beef. DH and I both went for the beef medallions served with a zucchini lasagna, garlic roasted potatoes and topped with a pot wine sauce. The beef was done nicely medium rare and very tender.

And finally dessert. It was tiramisu served with a fruit salad. So sinful but so good!

Service throughout the evening was excellent. The waiter was fun and attentive. At the end of our meal, Damnak Longe arranged for us a complimentary Tuk Tuk ride back to our hotel too.

It was definitely the most expensive meal we had in Siem Reap, but we would not have been able to have such a dinner at this price back home. It was the last night of our vacation and so worth the splurge.

That’s the end of my sharing of our Siew Reap trip. Sorry again for the long lapse between the first post and the rest. Stay tuned for our next trip report tomorrow on our autumn trip to Hokkaido and Tokyo! Yes, we are back to Japan again!

The post Siem Reap Photographic Journey VIII – Eating in Siem Reap appeared first on Mums Travels.

DH only discovered in Jan that he has some Krisflyer miles expiring in Feb! We really did not want to waste it and since there was enough to redeem tickets to somewhere nearby, we decided to make a short trip instead paying to extend the miles.

We were deciding between Siem Reap and Yangon, but ultimately decided on Siem Reap as We will need more days to explore Myanmar and we didn’t really want to take a longer trip.

I had contacted Beyond Unique Escape some time back on a trip but we changed our plans. So I contacted them again to arrange for a 5 Days 4 Nights Photographic Trip. DH is into photography and is mainly only self thought. So he decided that he wanted some tips from a pro for this trip. Beyond Unique Escape not only arranged the tour and accommodation but was able to help as arrange for a pro to accompany us for 2 days of our trip to give DH some hands-on lessons.

Honestly, we did not need a travel agent to plan the trip, but it was last minute and I did not have time to plan. Also, I wanted a good guide who can explain to us what we were seeing and tell us the stories and history behind the temples and ruins. I felt that without that the trip will not be very meaningful and we will just be snapping photos without knowing what we were seeing. It was definitely much more expensive then if we were to DIY, but it was still affordable and I must say we had a great guide who spoke excellent English, was well read and well informed and we enjoyed our discussions on the life of Cambodians and the stories and histories that he told us. He is definitely among the best guides we have had on all our trips. I put him up in the same category together with our Iceland guide, Heimir.

A Typical Cambodian Village

We took an early morning SilkAir flight from Singapore to Siem Reap on 23 Feb 2018. Siem Reap is one hour behind Singapore, so when we touched down it was only sometime after 10am local time. We were promptly met by Lim, our tour guide. As it was still too early to check in, Lim took us to explore a local Cambodian village to snap some photos of village life.

We walked around the village as Lim tells us about how the villages go about their daily lifes. We even saw a family building their house. It was like they were having a party. The ladies and cooking big pots of food with the children playing around them. The men were working hard at the building site. It was the most busy day of the building schedule where the large beams were to be positioned. The extended family and friends have all come to lend a hand. It has a party atmosphere and the friendly family even invited us to join them for lunch. Such was the warm hospitality of the villages. Something that we will not encounter in our cities.

The most interesting place I came across in the village is the village gas station. It is literally a rack of recycled glass bottles filled with gasoline. Motorist buys a bottle at USD1 each to fill their motorcycles.

Water Blessings in a Temple

After our stroll through the village, Lim brought us to a temple where the monk performed a water blessing ritual for us. Lim had brought along some offerings of rice, candles etc for the monk. It was an interesting ritual where the monk sprinkled water at us. It is not just a trickle but many many generous sprinkles. In fact, we understand from Lim that locals go for the full ceremony which is when they are fully drenched!

The blessings ended with the monk tying a red string on our wrists. The men had theirs of the right wrist while I had mines tied on my left wrist. Lim advised that we are to keep the strong on for 3 days and after which we could cut it off and any bad luck will go away with it.

The water blessing is apparently not a pure Buddhist ritual but a combination of Hindu and Buddhist. Thus it is performed only by by monks, according to Lim.

The Temple also has a corner which is used as a resting place for the dead. People can buy a space on the temple grounds to build a stupa, in which ashes of family members can be placed. The colourful and bright stupas were a pretty sight.

After that we headed to town where we had our lunch before we checked into our hotel. The afternoon was at leisure.

Next Up: Sunrise @ Angkor Wat

The post Siem Reap Photographic Journey 2018 (I) – A Typical Cambodian Village appeared first on Mums Travels.

Sunrise @ Angkor Wat

We wanted to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat as we have seen beautiful sunrise photos of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our guide, Lim, suggested leaving our hotel at 4.30am and arriving at Angkor Wat just before it opens at 5am.

We were already waiting at the entrance of Angkor Wat just before it opens. Lim knew exactly where to stand and we were the first through the gate. When everyone was heading to the bridge over the moat, Lim brought us to the right just across the pond in front of Angkor Wat. We were the first at the spot and DH was able to set up his tripod at the best spot. Sunrise was not until just after 6am so we had a good one hour to wait. DH took his time to adjust his equipment. Soon more people stared gathering around us. At the time we went, this was a better spot to take photos compared to the bridge which is recommended by guidebooks and TripAdvisor because there was some restoration works being done at Angkor Wat and you see that clearly form the bridge. Over here, the scaffolds are blocked by the trees.

Alan, the pro photographer who will be accompanying us for 2 days arrive around 5.45am. He guided DH on how to set his camera and the various techniques and how to frame his photos.

Then the moment when we were all waiting for – Sunrise! By now there was a whole crowd gathered beside and behind us. People have moved from the bridge to our position as well. All waiting to catch the beautiful sunrise at Angkor Wat. But this was what we got….

Yes, the sun was shy and hid behind the clouds I simply have no luck with sunrise. It was the same at Borobudur. Oh well, at least we tried.

But these are the photos which I took with my Point-and-Shoot Sony RX100, not DH’s sophisticated Nikon. He captured some better shots.

Then we moved off and Alan started showing DH how to capture some arty shots. We explored the corridors and while Alan coaching DH on his photography, Lim was telling me the stories of the carvings along the corridors.

If you wish to get blessings from the monk, it is available in the temple. We also witnessed an initiation ceremony of some sort of a little boy.

To go up the tower of Angkor Wat, one needs to climb up a fight of very steep stairs. Also visitors need to be properly attired with pants or skirts length go below the knee and no exposed shoulders. This is simple respect for a place of worship as well as the monks who are still going about the temple doing their rituals. The queue to go up to the tower is very long by the time we got there around 8.30am. Lim estimated that it will take at least an hour wait in the queue. So we decided not to go up but to explore the courtyard below. The plan was to come back on another day around lunch time when most of the visitors would have left.

We left Angkor Wat close to 9am and got back to our hotel for a late breakfast.

Only DH went back to Angkor Wat on our fourth day in Siem Reap as I was just too lazy. By then, I had enough temples to last me for a long time. They went back around 12 noon and there was no queue to go up to the top of the tower. The mid day sun was blazing hot and most tour groups had gone off for their lunch. DH managed to capture some photos without the crowd which was great!

Next up : Exploring Angkor Thom – Bayon & Ta Prohm

The post Siem Reap Photographic Journey 2018 (II) – Sunrise @ Angkor Wat appeared first on Mums Travels.

After our sunrise visit to Angkor Wat, we returned to our hotel for a late breakfast. After breakfast and a short rest. We headed out to Angkor Thom, the old Angkor City.

The entrance to the ancient city of Angkor Thom is via a bridge across a moat, typical of the ancient city defense. Along the bridge are stone carved figurines.

Within the city of Angkor Thom are many temples and palaces. One of the must See temple is Bayon.

Bayon Temple

The Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.

Baphuon & the Palace

Next temple was Baphuon temple. The Baphuon is the state temple of King Udayadityavarman II. The sandstone monument that is dedicated to Shiva is in the shape of a stepped pyramid.

Lin walked us through a wooden area with several small temple ruins in the palace area. The place was quiet and rustic, perfect backdrop for a fashion spread! Alan have DH some tips with me as a model. It was fun.

Ta Prohm

We had deliberately planned our visit to Ta Prohm in the late afternoon to capture the evening light for best photography.

Ta Prohm is the site where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. Trees have grown over the temple and Ta Prohm’s state of ruin is what makes it mystical and beautiful. It has been left untouched by archaeologists except for the clearing of a path for visitors and structural strengthening to stave of further deterioration.

Lim brought us to the quiet sections of Ta Prohm brought us to a quite and peaceful courtyard away from the crowds. The courtyard presented beautiful photo ops. Alan guides our cameras to capture the reflection of light on the temple walls. Wow!

The evening lighting gave a soft glow to the temple. So glad that we came at this time of the day. It is beautiful and wrapped up a great day of temple exploration for us.

Next up : Tonle Sap & the Floating Village Community

The post Siem Reap Photographic Journey III – Exploring Angkor Thom – Bayon & Ta Prohm appeared first on Mums Travels.

DH only discovered in Jan that he has some Krisflyer miles expiring in Feb! We really did not want to waste it and since there was enough to redeem tickets to somewhere nearby, we decided to make a short trip instead paying to extend the miles.

We were deciding between Siem Reap and Yangon, but ultimately decided on Siem Reap as We will need more days to explore Myanmar and we didn’t really want to take a longer trip.

I had contacted Beyond Unique Escape some time back on a trip but we changed our plans. So I contacted them again to arrange for a 5 Days 4 Nights Photographic Trip. DH is into photography and is mainly only self thought. So he decided that he wanted some tips from a pro for this trip. Beyond Unique Escape not only arranged the tour and accommodation but was able to help as arrange for a pro to accompany us for 2 days of our trip to give DH some hands-on lessons.

Honestly, we did not need a travel agent to plan the trip, but it was last minute and I did not have time to plan. Also, I wanted a good guide who can explain to us what we were seeing and tell us the stories and history behind the temples and ruins. I felt that without that the trip will not be very meaningful and we will just be snapping photos without knowing what we were seeing. It was definitely much more expensive then if we were to DIY, but it was still affordable and I must say we had a great guide who spoke excellent English, was well read and well informed and we enjoyed our discussions on the life of Cambodians and the stories and histories that he told us. He is definitely among the best guides we have had on all our trips. I put him up in the same category together with our Iceland guide, Heimir.

A Typical Cambodian Village

We took an early morning SilkAir flight from Singapore to Siem Reap on 23 Feb 2018. Siem Reap is one hour behind Singapore, so when we touched down it was only sometime after 10am local time. We were promptly met by Lim, our tour guide. As it was still too early to check in, Lim took us to explore a local Cambodian village to snap some photos of village life.

We walked around the village as Lim tells us about how the villages go about their daily lifes. We even saw a family building their house. It was like they were having a party. The ladies and cooking big pots of food with the children playing around them. The men were working hard at the building site. It was the most busy day of the building schedule where the large beams were to be positioned. The extended family and friends have all come to lend a hand. It has a party atmosphere and the friendly family even invited us to join them for lunch. Such was the warm hospitality of the villages. Something that we will not encounter in our cities.

The most interesting place I came across in the village is the village gas station. It is literally a rack of recycled glass bottles filled with gasoline. Motorist buys a bottle at USD1 each to fill their motorcycles.

Water Blessings in a Temple

After our stroll through the village, Lim brought us to a temple where the monk performed a water blessing ritual for us. Lim had brought along some offerings of rice, candles etc for the monk. It was an interesting ritual where the monk sprinkled water at us. It is not just a trickle but many many generous sprinkles. In fact, we understand from Lim that locals go for the full ceremony which is when they are fully drenched!

The blessings ended with the monk tying a red string on our wrists. The men had theirs of the right wrist while I had mines tied on my left wrist. Lim advised that we are to keep the strong on for 3 days and after which we could cut it off and any bad luck will go away with it.

The water blessing is apparently not a pure Buddhist ritual but a combination of Hindu and Buddhist. Thus it is performed only by by monks, according to Lim.

The Temple also has a corner which is used as a resting place for the dead. People can buy a space on the temple grounds to build a stupa, in which ashes of family members can be placed. The colourful and bright stupas were a pretty sight.

After that we headed to town where we had our lunch before we checked into our hotel. The afternoon was at leisure.

Next Up: Sunrise @ Angkor Wat

The post Siem Reap Photographic Journey 2018 (I) – A Typical Cambodian Village appeared first on Mums Travels.