Travel Stories : Siem Reap (Day 3 of 5)

Write up by Sir Cheapskate.

To be honest, Day 3 is a bit dull. This might be the effect of the full force 2nd day formula that I practice, coming in backfiring us all.

As compared to Day 2 where we visited the amazing Angkor Heritage Park (you can read that post here), this 3rd day is of slower pace and more guided. Mustafa picked us up from the hostel some time around 9am and we were off to a location further out from central Siem Reap.

Ever heard of the Tonle Sap? I read about it during high school for history lessons. From what I understood, the Tonle Sap is the largest lake in South East Asia and from this lake the branch goes to the south city which is Phnom Penh and later merge with Mekong river which enters Vietnam.

Tuktuk ride from Siem Reap city is about 45 minutes. Again, we settled for Mustafa's USD15 per day fee.

One weakness of having a guide to bring you around is that you don't learn much about where things are located geographically. I'm not sure where exactly the jetty was of which we took our boat ride from.

The jetty.

But I do remember that while waiting for that boat, we went to a stall nearby to have some instant noodles. I'm pretty sure guides don't bring tourists to this kind of stalls. It's clearly for locals and only locals go there. We love the ambiance; lazy chairs, ice coffee, old TV showing local news and elderly men as customers.

Best thing about food here is the condiments. Chili sauce, chili oil etc. Come on an make my food spicier than it already is. A numb tongue is a happy tongue, a gassy tummy is a happy toilet.

Tonle Sap Lake

Boat arrived and we are off to the great Tonle Sap lake. We passed along some settlements on the banks of what I think is the Siem Reap river and see kids playing in the water. Oh wait, I think we took this boat from somewhere the in south of Siem Reap, since the lake is located to its south.

About 15 minutes later we emerged out of the river into the lake. Holy cow, it's so vast that it can be easily mistaken as the ocean. One could easily have that Jason Statham moment at the end of the movie Spy.

This point onwards, it gets more touristy. Mustafa explained a little bit about the life of the people in the area. They basically live in floating structures and boats. There is a floating school, floating church, floating restaurants. It's a whole floating village. We stopped at a floating restaurant where they breed crocodiles and export the meat and skin to be made into leather products.

Goodness Crocs!

There was also a souvenir shop on this floating structure but we are not fans of buying souvenirs like these. So we spent an hour on that floating restaurant to relax and play card. It was also a really hot day.

By the way, I could not recall the cost for this whole Tonle Sap trip but I can say that the price includes the boat tickets and visit to this floating restaurant.

We head back to the boat and then back along the same river up to the jetty. It was already 1pm by this time so we went back to the city and have lunch and relax a little bit before we go to our final pit stop for the day in the late afternoon.

Siem Reap War Museum

It was already 5pm when we visit this place which is almost closing time. Admission for foreigners is USD 5 and you will get free tour guide but it's recommended to leave tips for them.

Honestly, this is the first time I have ever heard of the Khmer Rouge first hand. Our guide, Prem Lim is a young guide but he had his share and experience of the Civil War and the aftermath.

What to expect here? Well, this is where they display remnants of the war; Hand grenades, small arms, landmines, mortars and a range of war machines such as anti-aircraft artilleries, tanks and even choppers.

Just your normal day shopping for weapon. Like in the States. Ok byeeeee

If you look properly, there's even a piece of bone there.

There's no restrictions on photography and you can even touch and handle the riffles (without bullet, of course). You can climb into the tanks with care so you can experience what it has been like. The war machines are in the condition of damaged from the war but good for display.

You can find out more about the war museum here.

Coffee Time

It was already sunset when we arrived at our final pit stop for the day - a coffee shop.

We requested that Mustafa bring us to find a coffee shop. At first he brought us to this kind of international and Starbucks-like chain shop. We weren't interested.

So we rephrased our request so that he would bring us to coffee shops that he would have gone to.

That was the best rephrasing ever.

He brought us to a coffee shop with lazy chairs arranged in line and oriented to face 3 TV screens on one wall, each showing different shows. The shop is dimly lit and we can't find any foreigners around, only local elderly. Can't even identify the name of the shop, it's all written in Cambodian.

I loved the vibe there, so simple and no pretentious feel. The coffee? Well, this one is even more life-changing. For 75 cents, I got to taste the best Ice Coffee with Milk ever. Khmer ice coffee is indeed in the top 5 coffee I've ever had so far in my life, but also because all other coffee in this planet tastes the same, I ain't gonna lie and pretend they don't. They just have fancy names and those who think they are coffee-literate and have sensitive taste buds are just victims of this made-up coffee branding.

Khmer ice coffee with milk really tastes different.

We bid goodbye to Mustafa. You can find him on his Facebook page Mustafa Angkor Transport.

END OF DAY 3 OF 5.

-Sir Cheapskate