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Cambodia Part 4 - Phnom Penh

Tuesday

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After we done with Siem Reap, we adjourned to Phnom Penh — the cap­i­tal of Cambodia.

The city of Phnom Penh viewed from the Mekong River.

We took an express bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The jour­ney took us 6 hours. We departed at noon and we reached Phnom Penh in the evening.

From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.

We stayed at Sophea’s house for 3 days. Really appre­ci­ate the hos­pi­tal­ity she and her fam­ily provided.

Her fam­ily was so accom­moda­tive they really made us felt at home.

Home-cook din­ner by Sophea’s mother.

And not for­get­ting to men­tion that Sophea’s mother can really cook.

The dishes were so nice we fin­ished every­thing till the last drop every meal.

Home-cooked Khmer food.

Phnom Penh City

The next day, we went around Phnom Penh and vis­ited some pop­u­lar tourist attractions.

Monks on the street and Cambodia’s tallest building.

Before I go fur­ther, I have to men­tion that the food in Phnom Penh was sim­ply awesome!

Espe­cially the beef noo­dle I had. No beef noo­dle in Malaysia can beat that.

Deli­cious beef noo­dles for breakfast.

Pagoda viewed through the gate.

Cam­bo­dia National Museum

We vis­ited the National Museum. Not very big but it’s def­i­nitely a good place to know more about the his­tory of Cam­bo­dia and the ancient Khmer Empire.

In front of the Cam­bo­dia National Museum.

Sil­ver Pagoda

The Sil­ver Pagoda is a tem­ple which the entire floor is cov­ered with over 5,000 sil­ver tiles and each of them weighs over 1kg.

The Sil­ver Pagoda.

Ah Miaow in action.

Food again. And it was as deli­cious as any other meals we had in Cam­bo­dia. Really miss the food there.

Cam­bo­dian “mixed rice” for lunch.

Choe­ung Ek the Killing Field

Ok this is a bit of a long story. In a nut­shell, it’s a place to com­mem­o­rate at least 1,386,734 vic­tims being killed and buried at this place by the Khmer Rouge regime.

Read more about the story about the Killing Field at Wikipedia.

Choe­ung Ek the Killing Fields.

Saw a very nice scene while we were trav­el­ling and stopped to take pictures.

A girl car­ry­ing fire­woods back to the house above water.

Mekong River Cruise

At evening, we went for river cruise at the Mekong River to enjoy the cool breeze and to see the city from far.

Camwhore on Mekong River dur­ing our river cruise.

It was def­i­nitely a good day trip. Expe­ri­ence is always bet­ter than lis­ten. As the Chi­nese proverb says,

Rather to walk a thou­sand miles than to read a mil­lion books.

It means that it’s bet­ter to go out and see the world with your own eyes than to read about the world through the books.

This is very true because if I were to read about Cam­bo­dia through books or online only, I will never know how the fried crick­ets taste like in real.

Fried crick­ets for snacks.

Cam­bo­dia Series

Tuesday

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Cambodia trailer

Wednesday

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In case you missed it on my Twit­ter or Face­book, I have cre­ated a trailer for my Cam­bo­dia trip video with iMovie ’11.

I’m really impressed by the ease of use of iMovie’s trailer fea­ture and the result is indeed amazing.

Given the busy sched­ule for this and next month, I think I will have a hard time in keep­ing my words to release the full video by Christmas.

So in the mean time, enjoy the trailer.

P/S: If you have not seen my Hong Kong video, you should. It’s really nice :)

Cam­bo­dia Series

Wednesday

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Cambodia Part 3 - Tonle Sap

Sunday

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Long long ago, on a lake far far away, there are some Viet­namese who live on water. They call it the float­ing vil­lage of Tonle Sap.

Float­ing Vil­lage at Tonle Sap.

Tonle Sap is the largest fresh­wa­ter lake in South East Asia. These peo­ple live on float­ing houses and they catches fish to make a living.

A black and white por­trait of a kid.

They move their houses from place to place accord­ing to the water level of the lake dur­ing dif­fer­ent season.

Ah Miao and Sophea.

We went for a tour around the float­ing vil­lage and it was undoubt­edly, “eye-opening”.

Me sit­ting in-front of the boat while tour­ing the Float­ing Village.

These peo­ple do every­thing from eat­ing to sleep­ing on their small lit­tle float­ing house.

A float­ing house with kids play­ing around.

Yes every­thing. From wash­ing clothes…

A lady wash­ing clothes on a float­ing house.

… to prepar­ing food.

A lady prepar­ing food on a float­ing house

And you might be think­ing, how bout, you know, doing “business”?

Well, you guess it right. It’s on the float­ing house too! And into the same water where they use it to wash clothes and pre­pare food!

A kid shit­ting on a float­ing house.

Eye-opening isn’t it?

With­out basic ameni­ties, these peo­ple still have to find their way to live their life.

Kids approach­ing tourists to beg for money.

Life is dif­fi­cult. After see­ing this, I promise I won’t com­plaint about my air-cond not cold enough anymore.

But wait, their sit­u­a­tion wasn’t the worst after­all. Although they do not have the basic ameni­ties, but they have other things, like a float­ing restaurant.

A float­ing restaurant.

And also float­ing gro­cery store!

A float­ing gro­cery store.

And guess what, they have float­ing school as well!

A float­ing school.

Not bad at all right? But I think they are lack­ing of some­thing impor­tant, which is entertainment.

Only if they can have a float­ing night club, I gau­ran­tee it will become one of the tourist attrac­tions in no time.

Cam­bo­dia Series

Sunday

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