Why this trip
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