Siem Reap: Journey through the Ancient Architecture

We visited Siem Reap in October 2017. Mainly to see Angkor Wat and then to give some hard experience to our girls, considering this was their first trip to a least developed country. Travel ain’t always comfortable and rosy while we look for fun, it has unhappiness or difficulty sometime. High alert needed.

Well, in this trip here, grateful for safe and happy journey. #journeythroughtheancientarchitecture

My IG @_miscjoys_

The reality was, our girls (and mother-in-law) were forced to wake up at 4am to see the ruined temples yet people attempted to protect or repair every piece of the structure and many of us (so many!) came from different part of the world to see it. Also, the fact that it was hard to reject some innocent eyes looking at me to beg me buy their merchandise. They were very persistent in persuading me to buy the postcards, shawl or scarf, lower and lower further price, so much so the girls asked me why not I just simply help them? In and out from the Angkor temples, the girls observed the rustic and green environment, looked very much like our kampungs in Malaysia- unsophisticated houses, small narrow roads, though drivers drove on different side of the road than us. On top of that, all kind of plantation, cows, chickens or ducks (or goose) were seen, suggesting abundance of food source and children running amok along roadside, implying carefree happy childhood… did they go school? Anyway, many we met were down to earth, hardworking people, and they preferred US dollar (USD) rather than their own Cambodian Riel (KHR). Not to mention the spiky hot weather had no mercy to anyone. It was unbearably hot. 

Here's sharing our travel dairy for anyone keen to visit Siem Reap. Please note that, this travel diary is not a pre-planned itinerary, it is purely for your reference and we wouldn't be responsible for any part of your travel plan. Few highlights:

§    Visited Elma English School: To understand a little bit more of "half of the population is illiterate and living in or near poverty". We also wanted to see how we can help them. Brought the girls closer to real issue of poverty and wanted them to get involved, alas I was the only one reading stories to the kids there. My girls were stunned, or maybe needed to take a little longer time to adapt the environment. 

       We've donated USD90 to them. Hope they has good use with the money.


      You can consider to visit Tonle Sap lake, where you will be seeing most fascinating glimpse of the local living by the water.  

§    I only did booking for two accommodations, two-night stay each:

a.   Green Empire Resort Hotel: SGD135.++ (via Agoda) for Family Suite (consist of two bedrooms) | More pictures in my IG.

b.   FCC Angkor: USD359.++ (for two standard room (facing garden, no pool view) | More pictures in my IG.

§    We didn’t engaged guided tour (to Angkor temples) or driver. My husband thought that we read so much about it and shall just visit the temples at our own pace. Mr Seng was engaged by Green Empire to pick us up from airport, and I was just conveniently engaged him continuously to Angkor temples (full day service from 4.30am = USD45) as well as to FCC and to Elma English School in Sambour (another full day service USD35). When I was checking on where or how far is Sambour Village, Mr Seng initiated to call Elma to learn more (they don’t use digital map like us) even before I confirmed to hire him.

But I would suggest you to engage a tour guide to walk you through and learn quick about the heritage site.  

§    Places that we had our meals were purely randomly picked as and when we were around the area. If you want more (better) reference, Mummy Ed has good recommendation.

§    During our flight to Siem Reap, I happened to read from Jetstar's magazine that, Siem Reap has 4 local markets recommended for tourist, but I would recommend you just the first two below

a.   Old Market (Psar Chas): local wet market as well as tourist attraction selling souvenirs and what not;

b.   Made in Cambodia Market: uber chic open-air market to cater for tourist;

c.   Siem Reap Art Center Market: quiet art and craft market and seems being forgotten;

d.     Original Angkor Night Market: Similarly, quiet market and contradict ambiance to the Pub Street. 

§    We learnt from Mr Seng that "Orh-kum" means thank you in Cambodian Language. and often, you can tell from the locals' response, that they appreciate it very much that we made little effort to learn their language.  

§    Overall expenses for the trip was SGD3500 (approx) for 3 adults and 2 kids, included flights, accommodation, donation to Elmas School, transportation, food and daily expenses and travel insurance. Cash wise, I exchanged for USD700 and another  KHR131,000 (=SGD50.00) for our use during the entire trip. 

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Trip to Siem Reap: 5D4N itinerary

Angkor wasn't just remarkably astonish, it was also about the smart water system built of that time and how it was not made known to the world for so long until Henri Mouhot's rediscovery. I don't think anyone should give Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom a miss. So feel free to let me know if further information needed to convince you a trip there.

Sharing with you a little about Khmer's past that I extracted from the book I read in FCC to round up this post:

Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, Indochina was ruled by one of the most powerful and productive dynasties in its history: the Khmer.

Although influenced by India, the Khmer succeeded in developing a distinctive culture that found its most vivid expression in temples. These unique buildings were made from long-lasting materials such as brick and stone to reflect their function as the abode of the immortal Lords of Heaven. Inspired by a cosmic symbolism whose purpose was to promote the fertility of the soil and the prosperity of the Kingdom, the palaces of the gods were built surrounded on all sides by canals connected by channels and fed by a complex water supply system – Characteristic Setting Heightened the Architectural and Decorative Beauty of the Temples.

Kota Kinabalu: Blue Sea, White River and Green Rainforest

We just came back from a trip to Kota Kinabalu (KK). The trip meant to be outdoor exploratory, adventurous, and risky, absolutely not like any other holiday trip that we made to before. The trip recruited young explorers as low as 5 years old. It was first time for our urbanised children to get so close to and cherishing the nature, so we were prepared to be a lot more patience, to coax and distract the worry little minds while enjoying ourselves tremendously.

This was also a trip that I did very little in terms of planning. CS, my friend did all the necessary bookings and planning prior to the trip. In essence, the trip consisted of snorkeling, water rafting and jungle trekking.

Day 1: Snorkeling, Sapi Island

According to YS, another friend joined us this trip, island hopping may be tiring and meaningless considering young children of ours. Leisurely spent half a day for snorkelling at the shore of Sapi Island was enough for them to have the optimum fun of the sea and the beach.

Kaohsiung: The Pier-2 Art Center

From Takao Railway Museum, you can also come to the Pier-2 Art Center - one that was transformed from a disused dockside warehouse. It was abandoned and faded away of its original purpose until a group of persistent artist who injected waves of creativity and inspiration into the spaces. The Pier-2 was then released and reborn and became a huge attraction to the local and tourist to enjoy fine art, contemporary art, to explore and to contemplate.  

We were half-recharged from Old Yancheng District and were not sure to call it a day or to continue our exploratory. The girls were pretty much up to their max, in term of exhaustion: from morning to almost evening, from the hotel in Gushan to Fengshan to Yancheng, almost equivalent to from the north to the east and the west of Kaohsiung. But since we could pick a route passing by Pier-2 to get a train back to hotel, why not? We pushed our limit and encouraged the girls too- to strike off the very last to-go-place for the day.

Kaohsiung: 書店喫茶 一二三亭(ヒフミテイ)

I wanted to visit one very peculiar cafe that I learnt from Selena, the writer.  So, from the Takao Railway Museum, we walked into the old Yancheng District of Kaohsiung. This part of Kaohsiung was modernized during the Japanese colonial period and many of which were still remain the same as old days. As it's very close to the harbour, as we walked, we saw some business very much related to shipping. 

With the address in hand, this particular cafe was not too difficult to be found, among the rows of old and new buildings. Once saw this very outstanding signage of "Takao Artistry Warehouse(打狗港都文化艺术仓库)", and an enlarged black and white photo of the above, with a cut-out in the middle hung on the wall, we had arrived!

However, as the entrance was kind of set-back from the building front and the cafe sign was humble to be seen, it would be missed.

Kaohsiung: Takao Railway Museum

Do you know that Kaohsiung was called Takao (打狗)? I didn't. After visited Takao Railway Museum, I learnt that, Kaohsiung was a small fishing village named Takao, meaning "bamboo forest" in local aboriginal name. The name was changed to Kaohsiung by the Japaneses, which was also pronounced "Takao" in Japanese, as they found the name of ta-kao (beating the dog)  to be vulgar.

The main building of the railway station was kept intact- the open counter, the maps and train schedule on the wall, the desks and the chairs of the workers, the stationery, the blackboard with white chalk, the waiting benches... (can see more from here)

And I thought, the museum was just the station building.

Kaohsiung: Fongyi Academy

I first learnt about this place was from a well-known Writer- Selena, through her blog. It was a place after years of restoration and renovation to retain and repair the Academy's origin and uniqueness. Those funny figures scattered around the Academy sure attracted me to put it into our itinerary. Good place to introduce a brief history of the ancient Chinese Education and its civil examination system to the girls, I thought.

First built in 1814, the 19th year of Qing emperor Jiaqing (嘉慶), the Fongyi Academy is considered a third-grade heritage site. It has 37 rooms and the academy's internal altars, as well as desks and chairs; it was a place where prospective examinees took the initial exams and the largest Confucian academy preserved in Taiwan. (source)

Bangkok: Eat and Shop

This was an impromptu trip. As in we were chatting about shopping and then decided to make a weekend trip to Bangkok 3 weeks prior.

Departure on Friday after work and return on Sunday night. Practically, we only had 1 full day in Bangkok. So, it was just SHOP [verb: visit one or more shops to buy goods.]

Though it was only the three of us. (Previous trip had more friends joined)

Carrbridge, The Kitchen and Carr-Bridge

On the last day of our amazing adventure in Scotland. we continued our journey, via A9 down south from Drumnadrochit/Inverness. It was a beautiful sunny day, we needed to head back to Edinburgh to catch our sleeper train back to London.

After an hour drive, I thought we were bypassing an ordinary quiet town and will be picking a regular cafe for a brunch. The town itself has an unique name- Carrbridge, the cafe that we walked into had a very common name on its front wall- The Kitchen.

Edinburgh: The Elephant House

Right before we head to National Museum of Scotland, we stumbled upon the Elephant House- the birthplace of Harry Potter. Even we were not sure from far, it was confirmed when we approached closer to the cafe frontage, in English and Chinese! We went in and had an impromptu brunch here.

When J. K. Rowling was writing her series of Harry Potter at the beginning, she was in a needy stage, that she found it cheaper to buy a cup of coffee and wrote in the cafe the whole day than paying heater bill at home. 

Legoland @ Windsor Resort

Usually, Legoland @ Windsor has special offer if you book through its website in advance. When I decided to squeeze one day for spoiling the girls with Legoland fun, I popped over to the website to do a budget calculation. At that time, it was April/May and 25% discount was offered to any advance booking for Summer season.

Published Gate Price on the day for 1 adult: £48.00 / 1 child: £43.80 

I remember clearly that, if I went ahead with the tickets booking of 2 Adults and 2 Children, I would get an after-discount price of £137.70 for a family of 4 like us.

Very expensive, still!

I pondered for a long while. 

KK, a very old friend of SC who is now residing in London, recommended us London 2for1 attractions, with the requirement that, we need to travel by train to Windsor. Why? Simply because it is an offer by National Rail and ATOC.

There are many 2for1 Offer via National Rail to attractions in and around London, by the way.

And so, we traveled by train and retain the train tickets, then present the train tickets upon purchasing the park tickets at the counter of Legoland Park @ Windsor. To make sure we did the right thing from the very beginning, we asked at Hackbridge Station, upon our departure, if the train tickets are valid for the 2for1 Offer. [Note: Any National Rail train ticket is applicable for the 2for1 Offer]

The train (from Hackbridge) took us to Claphan Junction, then we changed to another platform for another train to Windsor & Eton Riverside Station. The girls were very excited and looked forward to another Legoland fun. The journey was bit long though, 2 hours plus waiting time and we left our lodging late. As it was out last day in London, the girls enjoyed the scenery with more green and less building outside the train, didn't complain a word. Lastly, we took shuttle bus directly to the Legoland Park. [Note, don't doze off during the bus ride, it will pass by Windsor Castle and the town]

Scotland: RedBurn Cafe

During our road trip in Scotland, we took our chances in getting a pit-stop. I didn't do much research and decide ahead where to stop for a short break from the car ride. Despite the idyllic scenery along the way, there were many places for drivers/travelers to pull over. Some gave us good experience, some not so. For example, stopping by Eilean Donan Castle was because of the need for toilet and coffee, lest on the Castle;p. And it was a great surprise.

However, stopping by Tyndrum (from Callander to Fort William) for the big sign of "Best Fish & Chips" at The Real Food gave me stomach-churning memory. SC and I didn't like the over-oily battered fish. Big Girl didn't have any issue though (Little Bomber slept through and skipped the meal). Of course, there were also times we wanted to stop, but because of the idleness of the premise, we drove further and took longer time to find our pit-stop, especially in Isle of Skye. The girls were bored and hungry.

So, be prepared with some finger food in car, if you need to.

Redburn Cafe was kind of fall into our lap, during our drive from Skye to Inverness. It was another long drive after checked-out from Broadford Youth Hostel in Skye and everyone seemed need a toilet break.

I remember there was a huge sign of the cafe along the Road attracted us, the red facade of the little house gave me homely feeling pulled my attention more. Once our car drove close to the cafe, we were intrigued by the pockets of green mushrooming on the roof.

Inverness, in Brief...

Inverness is often called the capital of the Highlands, Scotland. It is an ancient settlement, even before Medieval began. 

My husband and I fell in love with this place, charming and peaceful, urbanised yet low density, conserving the historical structures and beautiful riverside with green and breeze. Despite its cold weather, we spent a great afternoon wandering the city. Small part though, as we enjoyed ourselves very much that we’ve forgotten about time passed us by too quickly.

We parked our car in Eastgate Shopping Centre, had our quick lunch and thought, walk the city randomly- without any firm plan in mind.

"You What?!!"

After an overnight train ride from Edinburgh back to London, we reached Euston. From Euston, we lugged with two huge luggage, took train to Victoria Station and then back to Hackbridge, where we could walked back to our friend’s house, cum our temporary lodge in London.

When we boarded the train in Victoria Station, we were at the cart #9 or #10 (or #11) of the train- the very tail end of the train, literally. However, most of the platforms in the suburbs are shorter, that included the platform in Hackbridge. It was shorter (as in only 7 or 8 train-cart length), getting ready and walk forward before the train stops (at least 1 minute prior the train stopping) was required. But we were slow, too slow. The train doors shut-off while SC and I were still walking, lugging two huge luggage through the narrow aisle inside the train. The girls were already out and waiting for us at the platform. Once the train moved on slowly, I saw both shocked faces through the glass door of the train. This made my blood run cold!

Scotland Scenic Drive

According to my husband, road trip is the best way to see a country. In this case, gloomy Scotland.

“The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton 

We knew nothing of Scotland. Now we do.

And we are glad that we have discovered more of Scotland from a road trip. Let me walk you through some of the amazing views we captured, albeit sombre but like my friend was saying, we had a taste of the true Scottish weather- rain and rain and prevailing wind. The Road was typically forlorn. I think we were lucky. In a way.

I'll let the pictures speak...

Pulled over at the roadside of A84, towards Tydrum.
I imagined Harry's Hogwart Express soon to pass by the bridge.

This was taken in between Tyndrum and Onich.

Whilst this was from between Onich and Dornie.

Isle of Skye was a tab more beautiful, dull-coloured still and cold. Very cold, as if the Isle was unwelcoming us, rejecting us.

Broadford Youth Hostel, Isle of Skye

Accordingly, we came to the forth 'pit stop' of our adventure in Scotland- Isle of Skye, after Edinburgh, Callander and Onich/For William.

My search for accommodation led me to one of the YHA(Youth Hostels Association)'s hostel in Isle of Skye.

This was the first youth hostel we had been to, after becoming parents of ourselves. Well, we had been to backpackers' hostel with the girls, not YHA's kind of hostel. (There is slight difference between both)

A Taste of Living in a Cold Chalet

Fort William/ Onich was our next stop after we left Callander or to be precise, the region of Stirling.

Together with Lochaber, Fort William are well known as 'Outdoor Capital of the UK'! and this was the day we arrived the Highlands of Scotland- which is very different from Lowlands, culturally and historically. When we were approaching the place, we gathered some information from Tourist Information Centre and learnt about Ben Nevis. Regrettably, it was more damp, gloomy and cold than when we just left Bracklinn Falls in the morning that day, we had to scrap the idea of having any outdoor fun.

Inevitably, I have equally fogging impression of Fort William, the Great Glen and the Lochs. All I can remember is the gloomy skyline and cold atmosphere.

Scotland: Eilean Donan Castle

Come to think about it, Eilean Donan Castle probably was the only castle we got to get so close in Scotland.

We were on A87 road, on our way to Isle of Skye, from Fort William. All of us needed a loo break after stuck in the car for almost 2 hours.

Jun 2015: Beautiful Moment with You

Capturing the smiles of my first-born during the trip to UK.

Credits: Template from Sahlin Studio, Designs by Anita, P & Co.

Time flies, she is ten years old. I used to worry on her a lot and did scrapbook about her to console myself, so to speak. I am, still worry on her, but I have not done a page for a long time. No wonder it has been frustration and conflicting and distancing...

Ten years of motherhood, doesn't mean I get better.

Bracklinn Falls, Callander

After a nice sleep and a full Scottish breakfast at the Waverley Hotel, we had a impromptu visit to the Bracklinn Falls. Simply because, the daddy took the leaflet "Callander Geodiversity Trail" from the one of the Information centres we popped by. He wanted the family to have some bear-hunt woodland adventure.

Apparently, it is a very popular beauty spot in Highlands.

Callander: The Hotel, the Main Street and the Meadow

Prior to the visit, I did not know anything about Callander. We were here because my dear husband suggested me to have a pit-stop somewhere near Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Not very helpful, because it could mean we stay a night in the freezing forest park. 

[You can check (click in to zoom in) my map below, Callander was the first pit-stop we had after we left Edinburgh. Isle of Skye was our ultimate direction to head to] 

Source: Google Map

So I looked around the region of Stirling. For a very long while, I satisfied with my finding of one rated-8.1/10 accommodation in Callander via Booking.com. Despite the rating and the pricing of the accommodation, Callander was less than 2 hours drive from Edinburgh or just another less-than-an-hour drive from Falkirk Wheel, for our case.