Siem Reap: Day 2 - Pub Street

When someone say they are visiting a cultural place, they will try to experience it as close with the local as possible. We dropped by Old Market, just a stone throw away from Pub Street to check out their morning market. It is indeed a market, where locals get their daily food ingredients from. Some might not appreciate the pungent smell, but I found it acceptable. Not much for us to view though, as we are not buying anything to cook.

We have the whole morning to ourselves. Thus, I opened Google Maps and search is there any attraction nearby Old Market. Found a peaceful temple built within a busy town, and we decided to check it out. Wat Preah Prom Rath is its name, with amazing architechure and photo spots!

Then, we took a tuk-tuk to the only mall in Siem Reap - Lucky Mall. A tuk-tuk ride within the city average around 2 Dollars. Some may want to charge you 3 Dollars, but most of the time they will give in to 2 Dollars. But bear in mind, 2 Dollars is for a distance shorter than 5km. They are earning more than Uber drivers in Malaysia!

For a city without McDonalds, Lucky Mall have their own version called Lucky Burger, but the selling price of the burger sets were surprisingly expensive! Visited their book store and I am amazed with the display of their items, very vibrant and tidy!

We actually changed our accommodation to a 5-star hotel for our 2nd and 3rd night in Siem Reap. Requested the pickup to pick us up from our first hotel and they came right on time in a Hyundai Starex (remember I said something about sitting a car in Siem Reap is a luxury?), with the Assistant Manager welcoming us all the way to the hotel! 

The hotel is called Sumeru Boutique Hotel & Spa. We were pretty excited when we read almost all good reviews about them in Trip Advisor, and they definitely did not disappoint us!

We were greeted warmly from the gate of the hotel to the reception table, where we were served welcome drinks and light finger food. Additionally, cold towel was provided the moment we sat down, very appreciated in a hot place like Siem Reap. 

Check in was swift, and we were guided to our room. One qualm though, Agoda stated my room comes with a bathtub, but the actual room doesn't. I faced the same problem with Agoda repeatedly though with other hotels I booked via the website, Agoda seriously need to look into the amenities stated. 

The hotel will set up a essential oil burner in the washroom, where you can choose the flavour preferred. We chose the lemongrass flavour, which turns out to be an excellent choice! Can view flight details in the room too, how thoughtful!

Dinner time! One of the perks of staying in Sumeru is complimentary tuk-tuk ride out to the city daily 5pm-8pm, as it is situated slightly further away from the city centre (but nearer to Angkor Wat). We dropped off at Pub Street, and went to a Khmer BBQ restaurant along the main road. Nothing to shout about the meal, but we were given crocodile meat! He does not like the smell of it, but I found the meat to be chicken-like, maybe more chevy. 

We walked around Pub Street after our meal, with me seeking for more food due to the unsatisfactory dinner. Then we saw this! Bugs store, deep fried and waited for people to chew on them. The snake kinda look like rubber though, I wonder how to swallow...

Siem Reap river, the only river I saw in the city. Apart from the colourful lighting, not much worth checking out here. 

Tons of fruit juice stalls can be found along the main streets. However, I found this to be one of the most attractive, with all the fruits displayed tidily under well lighting! With only 1 Dollar per cup, guess how many cups I had for my 4 days stay in Siem Reap?

NEXT: Angkor Wat!

Siem Reap - Day 1: Touch Down & Angkor Night Market

Here I am again, waiting for my next adventure to begin. It has been all about temple this year. This time, it's the renowned Angkor Wat temple! 

This must be the most beautiful immigration card of all:

Before moment of landing, we were able to spot greens everywhere. Some green spots like algae populated lakes across the city. 

We were welcomed by our tuk-tuk driver, complimentary pick up arranged by our hotel. I believe it is consider a luxury if you get to ride in a car in Siem Reap, however the roads are not as well conditioned and maintained. Gravels, pothholes were everywhere. I think that's why many locals are using SUV like first generation Lexus RX, but Camrys were spotted as well. (The inner car enthusiast me took over for a while)

It will take a long way for automotive brands to grow here...

As our flight was delay, we actually arrived at our Kingfisher Angkor Hotel near dinner time. After a quick rest and shower, we headed out to search for our first spot to visit - Angkor Night Market. It was not as big nor as merry as I imagine, however this is just one out of two most happening streets in Siem Reap, apart from Pub Street. 

Massage shops were everywhere. I was dragged and pulled by a woman masseur, asking me to visit her for a 'massage'! Maybe it was because I was wearing a singlet and looks kinda sexy hahaha! We were famished, and desperately looking for a restaurant which serves any kind of food. Fruit juice and fried ice cream stalls were all over the place. Some tasted authentic, some were just purely food flavouring or overly sweet...

The night market street was actually quite short. After viewing some locally made souvenirs and bought some personalised keychains for our colleagues, we headed back to the hotel for a good night sleep...

NEXT: Day 2, of the city & Pub Street

Yogyakarta Day 3 - Yogyakarta City

Started the great day with a great companion and a refreshing drink. It's coconut juice with tender coconut meat mixed with palm sugar, satisfying for a sweet tooth like me :)

After bidding farewell to my friend, I headed to Prambanan Temple (remember I bought a combined ticket for Borobudur and Prambanan which valid for 2 days only?) with Grab. From my research, Prambanan is best visit during sunset time, but since the weather was always bad around evening, I don't want to take my chance and might waste my ticket as well. 

There are actually few Candi located in the Prambanan's compund. I would say Candi Sewu, which located the furthest from Prambanan, looks the most interesting. It's about a 15mins walk, but I would suggest to take the free tram (FOC if you purchased the foreigner's ticket) which will give you a ride all the way to Candi Sewu, and even gave us 5 mins of photo op when we arrived at Candi Sewu!

The exit of Prambanan was about 15mins walk from the nearest bus station. A sudden downpour caused me to take shelter and wait for the rain to stop. By the time the rain stopped and reached the bus station, I was famished! Time to fulfill my 'dream', which is to try at least one McDonald's in every country! So, I travelled all the way to Malioboro Mall by using Trans-Jogja, just for its McDonald's! Still, after trying out few countries', I still feel that Malaysia's is still the best!

Took another Grab to Taman Sari, also known as the Water Castle. One of the most well preserved areas was the bathing area, where it used to be an area where the concubines bath, while the Sultan observe and choose one!

It was soon time for dinner and a local young chap was nice enough to bring me to some nice food. We went for Mie Ayam, which means mee with chicken, topped with crispy keropok and bakso meatballs! It was a random shop by the roadside but it tasted quite good!

After the satisfying meal, we hopped on to his motorcycle and headed to Alun-alun Kidul. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't know that Alun-alun Kidul is so happening at night! Visitors can rent a car, or more precise, bicycles powered 'car', wrapped with LEDs which glow brightly at night! What a beautiful sight!

Riding in Jogja is a little horrifying, when everyone rode so near to each other!

If you happen to visit Jogja, you must buy Chocolate Monggo, a locally made chocolate brand, as souvenirs! One of the branches is situated in the same location as Lotus Mio in Jalan Tirtodipuran, the street is located just opposite of Jalan Prawirotaman. Its chocolates are good, and you can believe me as I am a fan of chocolate! Visited here on my last day in Jogja.

Since my flight is at 5pm, I made use of my spare time to visit the Keraton again. This time around, I arrived in the morning and made it into the Keraton. It's a big place, with live 'wayang kulit' to entertain the visitors.

I had my lunch in the Warung Bu Ageng in Jalan Tirtodipuran, just opposite of the Chocolate Monggo shop I visited in the morning! Seriously, it was the best meal I had in my whole Yogyakarta trip! I will come back again if I happen to visit Jogja again! 

Yogyakarta Day 2 - Borobudur Temple & Jalan Prawirotaman

Waking up 6 in the morning with a sense of excitement. Partly is because I seldom have the chance to wake up so early to see a grand, 9-century Buddhist temple - the Borobudur Temple. Had a quick brush of teeth, don on a collar shirt and jeans and I was ready to go - till I realised the sky is cloudy. The homestay owner advised me to bring along an umbrella, just in case... 

I'm glad that the homestay is just a 5-mins walk from the gate of Borobudur. Few mins walk later there was a counter for foreigners, where foreigners can buy entrance tickets which are much more expensive than the local. I purchased the combined ticket of Borobudur and Prambanan, which valid for 2 days from the day of purchase. It costed me a whooping IDR416,000!

You can't see the Borobudur Temple from outside of the gate or even from the ticketing counters, as it required another 5 mins walk from the latter to the temple. However, along the way, I was greeted with much greenery, and 6 something in the morning has not many visitors flocking the temple. So it felt very calm and serene there :)

There it was... The vast Borobudur Temple, it doesn't look as mesmerising as it looks from this photo, but maybe you need to be there to feel it yourself! That's something much older than the renowned Angkor Wat and it is still well preserved! 

My homestay owner, who is a local, suggested me to climb all the way to the top first once I reached the base of the temple. Then, slowly descent level by level and explore clockwise. This is actually opposed to what guides in the Internet, where we should walk clockwise and ascend every level from the bottom. 

Once I climbed to the top, I turned myself with my front facing the surrounding of the temple. I was flabbergasted with the magnificent view below. The view of giant, uniquely shaped stupas together with trees and fog surrounded the environment, it was so picturesque but it was best appreciated with our naked eyes. 

Most of the stupas have a Buddha statue in it, but mostly with the head missing.

Keen observers will notice that human has made some efforts to preserve the temple from been destroyed by the nature and human ourselves. Rain guides were installed in specific area so that water doesn't drip and corrode parts of the temple. Wooden stairs were built to protect the original stone made stairs from visitors' shoes etc.

By the time I explored the temple and started my descent, few groups of secondary school students filled the compound to its brim. They were doing their English assignment where they were split into groups to interview visitors or foreigners. I'm just glad that I was there a step earlier!

There is a museum near the exit, where all the stones which are not used to restore the temple are stored. 

It was just in time for breakfast in my homestay, and I met two girls from China who were impressed with Malaysia on our proficiency in few languages. That made me proud that I'm a Malaysian, because I can speak to them in Mandarin, speak Malay and English to my homestay owner, and Cantonese if we happen to bump into any Hong Kongers. 

Since it was early and the sky is clear at that moment, I checked out early and my homestay owner had actually fetched me to the Borobudur bus terminal using his motorcycle! This was when I realised there was an even more affordable mode of transport, much more cheaper than the Damri bus I took!

It was a local bus, albeit the condition of the bus was terrible, the price from Borobudur to Jombor bus station in Yogyakarta city only cost around IDR15,000! It really gave me an experience like a local, boarding an old bus passing through all the kampung areas. Saw an eye opening scene where a group of two youngsters or jobless will board the bus for free at one junction, sing a song for us when riding in the bus, hoping for some contributions in terms of money, and egress at the next junction. 

From Jombor bus station, paid just IDR3,500 for a Trans-Jogja bus ticket and you are free to travel to any bus station in the city, regardless of distance! After changing a bus and travelled for almost an hour, I have arrived at my hotel in Prawirotaman Street.

I made a booking online where it says even an Economy Room has air conditioning, but it turned out to be fan only! Talked to the receptionists but they couldn't do anything to compensate for me. I should've smack on the table and asked for the manager... Not only that, the room was dirty, ants were crawling on the bed, the cupboard has some foul smell, the ceiling has mold etc... 

I told myself that I spend lesser time in the room than exploring the city, and to chill myself, I left the room to a cafe in the same street to have my lunch! Again, the cafe here sold their food at relatively reasonable price! 

After the lunch, it was time to take a walk since the sun is still shining. I took a bus and got down at Jalan Malioboro, a street famous for souvenirs and some street food. Tourists can hop onto a trishaw or a horse-drawn cart to travelling around the city. Personally I am not a fan of this place, as it looks filthy with litters all over the place and the smell of horse dung... 

I walked all the way to the Keraton of Yogyakarta, which is the castle, but apparently it is closed since 2pm! It is weird for a tourist attraction to close so early. No choice, I walked further to Jalan Wijilan, which is the street of Gudeg, a local delicacy. It is made of unripe jackfruit boiled in palm sugar and coconut milk, mixed with rice and have the option of having it with chicken meat and boiled egg. 

Tried mine in Gudeg Yu Djum, one of the more famous stores, but I'm not really a fan of it, maybe because it was too filing and spicy for me. I expected it to be more sweet than spicy. Another thing I find interesting is quite many stores here like to use the portrait of a person on their stores' signage!

Since I have no plan for that night, I met up with a Taiwanese friend who happened to be staying around the same area too. I'm glad to have someone to accompany me for a while in the lonely trip. We had a simple supper together, where I ordered the local food which we called as Pisang Goreng in Malaysia.