Hermes' Travelogue

Back in Singapore!

2007-08-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

Back in Singapore finally! The plane touched down at Changi Airport's budget airline terminal on the National Day at 11.40am. We did not get to see the National Day's celebration. But I guess we will see the same celebration years afer years, so missing one or two does not make any difference. Anyway, this is the first time I am making use of this terminal. Well, I think it is just a functional terminal without any character or style....

This year trip to Cambodia and Vietnam has been an exciting and interesting one! Wow, I cannot imagine myself to have survived this backpacking trip initially ('cos of the potential dangers, different languages, malaria ....), but I have made it!!! And yes, I will make another trip back to Vietnam, maybe next year? And this time, we plan to visit the north, concentrating on the Sapa Valley and Halong Bay (another UNESCO heritage site).

Angkor What?????

2007-07-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am in Siem Reap now! The gateway to Angkor Wat! Upon arriving at the Siem Reap airport, we engage a taxi driver to bring us to the town area.

As mentioned in travel guides, they will always try to sell you a "hotel". Indeed, he recommends us to stay in the Golden Temple Villa. After much "discussion" with my friend, we decided to take a look. This guesthouse seems ok (US$18/night with aircon and satellite TV). In addition, the taxi driver also try to persuade us to engage his service for the Angkor Wat trip. And we agreed to engage him for 2 days at US$20/day.

After the free breakfast (errr, only the coffee and banana are free) at the guesthouse, we head for Angkor Wat. Cambodia is expensive as everything is in USD. Entrance fee to Angkor Wat will cost US$20 per day or US$40 for 3 days. We opt for the latter as we will be staying in Siem Reap for 2 days.

Around 8.30 am, we head for Angkor Wat - a Khmer temple complex built in the early 12th century. The Angkor region is designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. This is supposed to be a magnificent temple complex. But maybe it is extremely bright and hot this morning, I do not feel much for this temple until I enter the interior.

The temple's interior is named Preah Poan or the "Thousand Buddhas". In an elaborate network of hallways richly decorated with patterns and sculptures, one will tend to wonder how magnificent this temple once used to be? Perhaps in the cool of the shades, I also begin to marvel at the gargantuan efforts and resources required to build such a monument.

Other than the heat, the other thing I dislike about Angkor Wat is the loads of tourists swarming the Angkor Wat. If they were not here, I think I can really enjoy the tranquility of this temple in the heat of the day. That is why the travel guidebooks always recommend one to visit Angkor Wat really really early in the morning.

Next comes the surprise of Angkor Wat! On photos or even in documentaries, I will expect Angkor Wat just to be a huge temple complex. But I will never expect myself to climb up a 4 to 5 storeys high height to reach the top of the temple at the center of the complex!!! Do note that at the base of this climb, the local authority has put up a "Climb at Your Own Risk" sign! Luckily, I am not acrophobic but I think I climb up really really slowly.

If climbing up is challenging, then climbing down would be daunting! They have provided a railing at the side but I feel that this railing make the descend more petrifying as the railing is not tightly anchored.

Next, we set off for the last and most enduring capital city of the ancient Khmer empire, Angkor Thom. In order to enter Angkor Thom, you have to make use of the entrance gates. This is the South Gate (see the picture on the left). Take note of the face-towers at center as well as naga-carrying giant figures at both sides of the road. This is the typical Bayon style.

To tell you the truth, I have only heard of Angkor Wat before I came to Cambodia. And personally I prefer the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom to Angkor Wat.

Bayon temple, located at the southeast of Angkor Thom, has a very different style compared to Angkor Wat. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the massive stone face-towers.

An interesting thing that I have noticed is the fluency of the langauges spoken by the tour guides. My friend likes to follow them as we can get free information. From our taxi driver, we get to know that there are tons of Koreans in Angkor Wat/Thom.

Siem Reap! Here I come!

2007-07-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

In a few hours time, I will be flying off to Siem Reap - the Gateway to Angkor Wat. This trip has been a rush one. My friend simply told me a week plus ago that he has two weeks of leaves and he is wondering whether am I joining him for an oversea trip?

Initially, we were thinking of Taiwan plus free HongKong on a package tour but we finally decided on backpacking in Cambodia and Vietnam. With some help from his colleague, we plan the following itinernary:

29th & 30th Jul
Visit Angkor Wat (Unesco Heritage Site) near Siem Reap
31st Jul
Boat Ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh plus Tuol Sleng Museum (S21)
1st Aug
Bus Ride from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City
2nd Aug
Visit Reunifcation Palace plus shopping in Ho Chi Minh City
3rd Aug
Visit Cu Chi Tunnel and Chao Dai Temple (Outside Ho Chi Minh City)
Take Night Train to Nha Trang
4th Aug
Day Tour in Nha Trang and head off to HoiAn in the late afternoon
5th Aug
Visit My Son (Champa Culture, Unesco Heritage Site) from Hoi An
6th Aug
Take a Walk in the Old Town of HoiAn (Unesco Heritage Site) in the morning. Bus Ride to Hue in the afternoon
7th Aug
Boat Ride along the Perfume River in Hue
8th Aug
Morning Market plus Visit to Hue Imperial City (Unesco Heritage Site)
Catch a Train in the late afternoon to Hanoi (16 hours)
9th Aug
Visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Ngoc Son Temple (Lake) in Hanoi
Catch a flight in the evening back to Singapore

The above look packed and I guess we have a lots to do once we reach our destination. One of the interesting things is that it seems that it is actually cheaper to book individual ticket on the Tiger Airways as we found out that it costs like an additional 10 USD to book 2 tickets compared to 2 individual tickets. I wonder why is this so?