The plan was for us to catch the sunrise on Day 3. However, as we were all worn out the previous day, we decided to push sunrise-catching on Day 4. We had a good night's rest before embarking on a close to, maybe more, 40-minute Tuk Tuk ride through the villages and paddy fields along the countryside to Banteay Srei. Kim had earlier mentioned to us that Banteay Srei meant 'city/citadel of the lady' -- it was a beautiful temple and the only one to be made of rocks in reddish hue, so we were looking forward to seeing it.
Upon arriving, Banteay Srei quickly became one of my favourite temples. One of the main reasons was the excellent facilities at the entryway. It was the first time we experienced a proper visitors' centre and clean decent toilets. The toilets were dark, but you'll be pleased to know that each cubicle had their own light switches! Talk about eco-friendly, or on the other side of the spectrum, they're in such poverty saving every bit of electricity really makes the difference in their economy.
And from the shine of my dear's photo, yup, the sun was blazing hot that day. In fact, there wasn't a single drop of rain during our 10 day stay Cambodia... and there we were so worried about the floods which plaque the country in early November 2011.
There was also huge pavilions housing exhibitions, a souvenir shop and a cafe. The exhibitions were on one side of the main route leading to the main temple, with Banteay Srei on the opposite side. Meaning, the exhibition was kinda out of the way. There was a huge load of reading at the exhibition area, and I was all psyched about exploring Banteay Srei. My dear on the other hand, was really trying to get as much info as she could so that she could better appreciate the temples. It wasn't just Banteay Srei that were on the exhibits but also of the other temples around Siem Reap.
A good place to start getting around would be to approach the information counter at the entrance. It was mended by 2 ladies who told us about the exhibition area and one of them explained to us there was 1 route to the temple, but could choose 2 routes on the way back. One of the return routes was shorter and was lined with flowers while the other had a gorgeous view of a lake, longer route though. She, of course, recommended the more "scenic" view of the lake.
Thinking back, I can't help but think to myself that it was a conspiracy. Yup, you heard me right. A conspiracy. When we were there, we thought to ourselves that it was merely a bad recommendation, but the events which took place after left that inkling of doubt in my mind. (I will elaborate later).
The 2 ladies at the counter were reluctant to give me their tourist map which they used to explain the area to us, saying that it was the last map they got. I don't mean to be evil, but Banteay Srei was our first stop that day. It was early in the morning, and it being one of the tourist hotspots in Cambodia, they actually ran out of maps? What a joke. I think it would be more of "can't be bothered to produce more maps since we're going to give them out to tourists either way, so lugi!!". But of course, we were understanding (I think) since the country was in such poverty it would be unreasonable for us to expect anything with extra cost from them.
All the paths around were simple dirt paths surrounded by short vegetation and to protect ourselves against the relentless sun that day, we "shined" ourselves up with sun block lotion before we started our exploration around Banteay Srei. Ok, I exaggerated. It sounds cool but there wasn't much to explore in Banteay Srei since the routes were well organised and the temple region was quite an open area. Compared to the temples like Ta Prohm, Banteay Srei was a walk in the park.
Banteay Srei was indeed beautiful, with ornate carvings on the pillars, doorways etc. My dear was less impressed because she felt it lacked the 'interactive' factor, she was more of the "ruins" type of person, but for me, anything which appeared more unique than the other, was well worth the trip down. The main draw of Banteay Srei was the intricately decorated conjoined shrines in the middle of the main courtyard. There was a barricade around them, and people were just standing around and taking pictures.
Banteay Srei was indeed beautiful, with ornate carvings on the pillars, doorways etc. My dear was less impressed because she felt it lacked the 'interactive' factor, she was more of the "ruins" type of person, but for me, anything which appeared more unique than the other, was well worth the trip down. The main draw of Banteay Srei was the intricately decorated conjoined shrines in the middle of the main courtyard. There was a barricade around them, and people were just standing around and taking pictures.
One could never get enough of the intricate details on the stone walls of the temples and for Banteay Srei, the highlight was the undecipherable Sanskrit/Hindi writings (first time we saw them, my definition of highlight...). I pretended to look learned by trying to analysis and appreciate the writings on the walls of the framed entrances but what they looked like to me were just lines of Tamil words (with no intention of racism implied).
Taking nice shots of the temples (in Cambodia generally) were really all up to nature. If it rains, you probably won't get a good shot of the temples. Where the sun shines from, that's where you'll get the best shots. Meaning that at different times of the day, different angles of the temple will look better than the other. So it's really all up to the time of the day when you check out the temples.
I walked around the barricaded square a couple of times hoping to get nice shots from different angles but the only good frame shot I got was where the sun was shining from. We spent a good 15 minutes just standing around checking out the multi-layered, double colored stone shrines with hues of orange and green. It wasn't an unfamiliar sight, yet, the openness of the compound and the barricades made it feel rather exclusive.
I walked around the barricaded square a couple of times hoping to get nice shots from different angles but the only good frame shot I got was where the sun was shining from. We spent a good 15 minutes just standing around checking out the multi-layered, double colored stone shrines with hues of orange and green. It wasn't an unfamiliar sight, yet, the openness of the compound and the barricades made it feel rather exclusive.
Banteay Srei looked like a golden temple due to the glow it emitted that day, thanks to the scorching sun. But I wasn't too turned off by the heat, in fact, I was "hyperly" snapping shots of every temple angle imaginable. Dunno what got over me, perhaps the sun fried my brain that day...
When we exited from the other side (bear in mind it's like a one way route), we came across a a T-junction. On one side, it was the "Botanical Garden" route, and on the other, the "Natural Path Visit" route. Guess which side we took? As recommended by the lady at the information counter, the Natural Path Visit route was the route with the gorgeous and beautiful lake.
But lo and behold, my dear was extremely disappointed to discover that the lake has been covered with vegetation, so there was really nothing much to see. In fact, it didn't even feel like there was even a lake there., just little shrubs growing on a vast field, it seems. Upon closer scrutiny, I believe I saw water underneath the "shrubs" or at least that was what I wanted to believe.We didn't try the other route, and since the grass is always greener on the other side, it did cross our minds that perhaps the botanical route would have given us a nicer view.
However, we did have a rather nice experience on the way. We were eating some bread that we bought from the local supermarket, I think was Lucky supermarket or another supermarket close to our villa which I kinda forgot the name. Anyways, there was a group of small boys and girls playing ahead of us at a bend in the path (close to the exit point). Suddenly, one of the boys (which my dear thought was rather cute), came dashing towards us. At that point, there were only 2 sentences which went through my mind... "Not again" and "This boy sure is desperate."
He pointed to the leftover sausage doughnut in my hand and of course, I gave it to him without much hesitation since it wasn't money they were asking for. He gave a huge smile and ran back to his gang, yup they looked like a gang and the way he ran back felt like he was returning from a triumph victory. His other friends wanted to approach us to but I told them to share the bread among themselves cos they already took the last of our bread with them. No candy, no money for those chaps. "Spread the love", I was trying to preach. ^^
Before we headed off, we had a meal at the cafe by the name of Banteay Srei Parvis Coffee. You won't miss the cafe cos it's very close to the route which we exited from, and bulls soaked in mud greeted us with yet another familiar smell - cowdung. It wasn't too overwhelming though, didn't spoil the experience one bit.
There's another decent cafe, which looked like a bar, closer to the exit which we skipped since it was a first sight first eat encounter (Parvis Coffee beat them to us). It was so comforting to eat at a place with a nice table setting, on even, clean and paved ground for a change after a long basking walk. There, I was able to relax and let my guard down. That said, the food didn't turn out to be that fantastic though. However, the presentation was a class higher than most other eateries and they had cute spiral shaped stirrers to go along with our smoothies (oh oh, remember, don't make the same mistake as us, no "ice blended" or "ice" drinks over there).
The staff were very friendly, and not surprising, one of them chat us up in English (they won't skip an opportunity to converse in English because practice makes perfect) and convinced us to look around the souvenir shop (part of the cafe) with their famous line, "Free to look". We looked, we touched, still free, but we didn't buy anything there. Over in Cambodia, you've got to be thick-skinned and must never fear saying "No." Cos no one there really gives a hoot about you even if you consider 2 hoots about them.
We "reunited" with Kimshay at the exit and headed to our next stop, East Mebon. We had initially plan to cover Pre Rup (just a huge stone's throw away from East Mebon) but Kimshay stopped us at the latter because it was more on the way (at the end of the T-junction from Banteay Srei back to the main temple area). We didn't hold it against him though, cos East Mebon was one really holey place. No typo there mind you.
East Mebon had the usual orange shrines, but upon a closer look, it looked as if all the shrines were "infested with termites". Ok, that's a gross description, but it does appear that way. Don't worry though, there weren't tiny white creatures crawling out of the stone shrines, but the massive number of "polka dots" on each shrine kinda made the shrines looked more feminine (and attractive). There were the usual lions and elephant statues situated at the stairway (lions) and at the corners of the squarish compound (elephants). In fact, they were so usual, it felt unusual. I didn't recall seeing a temple compound with a mix of the animal structures. It was like a place for a harmonious animal gathering.
We quickly moved on (after photo whoring) to Ta Som, characteristic of one famous giant tree at the end of the path. Ta Som reminded me of a mixture of what we had seen... we were greeted with a smiling-Buddha-faced entrance, a ruined insides, literally, and a majestic tree to distract us from the ever so preserving efforts of the local children suffering in poverty. There, we met one of the most impressive "sales girl/girls" in Cambodia.
They laid in wait for any passing tourist, and when we were in sight, and within "reach", they started reciting the numbers 1-10 in all the different languages thinkable. So far, we had encountered many such children, reciting the numbers in redundancy in Japanese, Spanish, English, Chinese. But to say the children are uneducated over in Cambodia is an overstatement.
The tree at the end is one of the more famous tree that appears in most drawings by the local artists. It was unique in a sense that it grew around an entrance/exit. However, we didn't soak in its grandeur because of all the distraction from the kids. I'm not blaming them, I only have myself to blame...
Our next stop was Neak Pean. And OMG!! Neak Pean, though the temple at the end was cordoned off and out of bounds for tourists, it was one of the better temple experiences I had in Cambodia. The guy whom I took a photo with is one of the usual guys who would check our ticket at the entrance of each temple attraction. We had to walk this long dirt path, about 300 metres long, and a fairly narrow wooden-planked walkway about 600 metres long before reaching the end, where a small ruined temple-like structure surrounded by water awaited us. It wasn't the start or end which blew me away, but the walk there, which felt dangerously scary yet tranquil. The waters all around, kinda like still clean waters in a swampy-like setting gave a very peaceful feel. Yup, from my explanation, it was scary and peaceful, ah, the irony.
The brackish waters glowed in the sunlight and there was a part of the walkway where both sides of the planked path wasn't blocked by vegetation, allowing us to absorb the tranquility of the surroundings. The end of the route was rather disappointing, with a fenced up area with only a walkway of less than a 3-metre width. There wasn't much to "explore" at the end, and we didn't spend much time there. Still, we did manage to catch a couple of interesting points from a tour guide over there - about how animal structures surrounded and were partially submerged in the waters. I think there was a horse and a snake etc. Couldn't quite decipher the animal structures with the naked eye though, and our zoom lens weren't that "mightiful."
We made our way back through the same route and it was the first time I donated to a group of landmine victims. Their little hut was on water which made the setting more interesting than the others.
Our final stop was Preah Khan, supposedly the biggest of the temples we've been for the day so far. Preah Khan felt like any other ruined temples, the only difference is that there's a long, and I mean real long straight path from one end to another. You can stop by any of the openings to check out the sides but eventually, you'll end up walking the middle path again. There were more interesting color combis at Preah Khan, ranging from black to dark brown (color of stones), to green and red (color of mosses). Walking space was quite limited if you venture off to the sides and fairly dangerous so we stayed on the more spacious middle route. There was more to see in the middle also.
I realised I made a mistake actually... The dark corners and the guy who conned a tourist into climbing on top of the stone structures to see a huge giant tree was actually there in Preah Khan (previous post). Sorry to Ta Prohm, on second thought, actually I'm not that apologetic since every temple there had their own "cons" lurking around.
It was like a long road with a good 3-4 different settings along the way. Other than that, there was nothing too outstanding about the place. Nothing we haven't seen already. However, Preah Khan really did feel like a "summary" of the temples in Cambodia. It was like an open museum of Cambodia temples. One could see most of the interesting structures over there, ruins, colors, trees, naga snakes etc. We reached the end (a flat open area lined with stones), chilled out a little and watched a little show by a group of tourists pretending to be rangers/explorers by slashing their way out from the vegetation using a borrowed machete. It was quite a funny sight and an innovative idea.
On our way back, we came across an open area with stone structures of different heights. Climbed one such structure to get an aerial view and it was well worth it despite the steep steps. The flight of steps weren't that long compared to most so I would suggest climbing them to get a better view of the entire place.
Goofed around a bit and took our time to really check out the place since we rushed a little on our previous stops since Kim recommended us to do so as Preah Khan was a huge place.
As it was still bright when we set off from Preah Khan, we requested Kim to bring us to Angkor Watt to check out the sunset. We wanted to laze around on the seats at the moat but didn't hang around for long because the skies were too cloudy to catch any glimmer of sunset.
That night, we went for another round at the nearby night markets. We had our dinner at Noon Night Market, at a food stall by the name of BBQ Specialist Cambodian Kitchen. Weirdly, the signboard reads otherwise "Cambodian People's Party". I think either the ruling party of Cambodia owned the place or they were endorsing/supporting it and vice versa. It also did look like it was a family business (from our conversation with the staff over there, we realised it's just a group of like-minded people gathering to run the stall).
There were so many things happening concurrently that we didn't know where to look. Everyone was so busy and involved in making dinner for us (we ordered quite a bit, close to a feast). We ordered Loc Lac (gravied beef, with salt and pepper sauces), BBQ chicken slices, mixed veggies, fish/chicken amok (can't remember the meat) and 2 smoothies (*kachink* another iced drink).
It was a very relaxing 30 minutes because we had a good view of a big screen (meant for the customers of the foot massage which was a documentary about the temples in Cambodia. However, note that it was a relaxing 30 mins not 40 mins even thought the massage was 40 mins long because the last 10 minutes required us to move too much. There were lotsa twists and turns, cracks and holds (characteristic of Khmer body massage). Sitting down and simply moving your legs up and down definitely beats sitting upright and twisting and
turning your body around, contorting your hands in weird positions etc.
However, overall, I did enjoy the massage because it was so value for money. One can never get that price in Singapore!
Our final stop was yet at another roadside stall selling dessert. It's one of the many "no signboard roadstalls" (the irony to Singapore's novelty "No Signboard Restaurant"). I ordered the dessert and it turned out to be a rather eggy ice kachang. Everything I ate in the dessert bowl which I have ordered, which I had absolutely no idea what they were, all tasted eggy. There were like different degrees of egg tastes, from strong eggy to mild eggy. Then, from another table, I saw a family ordering a plate with a good 6-8 eggs stacked up like a pyramid.
It didn't make sense to me that they were half boiled eggs, and especially not so when they started cracking their shells and digging up what looked blackish. I asked them what eggs there were and they said "duck eggs". At the point of time, I didn't know they were called Baluts, fertilised duck embryo and is a delicacy in Philipines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. I've seen Andrew Zimmern eat it on his travel documentary "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" and never thought I would ever get the chance to eat it one day.
He pointed to the leftover sausage doughnut in my hand and of course, I gave it to him without much hesitation since it wasn't money they were asking for. He gave a huge smile and ran back to his gang, yup they looked like a gang and the way he ran back felt like he was returning from a triumph victory. His other friends wanted to approach us to but I told them to share the bread among themselves cos they already took the last of our bread with them. No candy, no money for those chaps. "Spread the love", I was trying to preach. ^^
Before we headed off, we had a meal at the cafe by the name of Banteay Srei Parvis Coffee. You won't miss the cafe cos it's very close to the route which we exited from, and bulls soaked in mud greeted us with yet another familiar smell - cowdung. It wasn't too overwhelming though, didn't spoil the experience one bit.
We "reunited" with Kimshay at the exit and headed to our next stop, East Mebon. We had initially plan to cover Pre Rup (just a huge stone's throw away from East Mebon) but Kimshay stopped us at the latter because it was more on the way (at the end of the T-junction from Banteay Srei back to the main temple area). We didn't hold it against him though, cos East Mebon was one really holey place. No typo there mind you.
East Mebon had the usual orange shrines, but upon a closer look, it looked as if all the shrines were "infested with termites". Ok, that's a gross description, but it does appear that way. Don't worry though, there weren't tiny white creatures crawling out of the stone shrines, but the massive number of "polka dots" on each shrine kinda made the shrines looked more feminine (and attractive). There were the usual lions and elephant statues situated at the stairway (lions) and at the corners of the squarish compound (elephants). In fact, they were so usual, it felt unusual. I didn't recall seeing a temple compound with a mix of the animal structures. It was like a place for a harmonious animal gathering.
We quickly moved on (after photo whoring) to Ta Som, characteristic of one famous giant tree at the end of the path. Ta Som reminded me of a mixture of what we had seen... we were greeted with a smiling-Buddha-faced entrance, a ruined insides, literally, and a majestic tree to distract us from the ever so preserving efforts of the local children suffering in poverty. There, we met one of the most impressive "sales girl/girls" in Cambodia.
Behold, the child "prodigies" at Ta Prom, children who could recite the numbers in Japanese, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew (I think) and possibly Korean. Whatever nationality tourists you can think of, chances are, the kids would be able to say 1-10 in that language.
I can't help but wonder who taught them that? (duh) Foolish tourists thinking that they would make a difference in the children's lives by teaching them their language, just so that they can gain sympathy from others and learn their languages... a vicious cycle which goes on and on and on and on and on..... To really help the kids, buying textbooks for them or buying stuff from them ain't going to land them in the local schools cos it's free. Yup, it's FREE for them (we were told by Kimshay). They only had to pay for their uniforms and textbooks. It's a choice for them to study. They chose not to, but to sell "souvenirs" to tourists instead.
Before I continue rattling on about them, perhaps I should continue with our nicer experience over there... and before my dear complains about how I always complain. ^^
Bottomline is, I did buy souvenirs from one of the girls there, very persevering and persuasive girl who said that she needs money to buy textbooks so that she can study. At that time, I actually believed her cos I asked her 3 times and told her not to lie to me. I was suckered in.
The tree at the end is one of the more famous tree that appears in most drawings by the local artists. It was unique in a sense that it grew around an entrance/exit. However, we didn't soak in its grandeur because of all the distraction from the kids. I'm not blaming them, I only have myself to blame...
Our next stop was Neak Pean. And OMG!! Neak Pean, though the temple at the end was cordoned off and out of bounds for tourists, it was one of the better temple experiences I had in Cambodia. The guy whom I took a photo with is one of the usual guys who would check our ticket at the entrance of each temple attraction. We had to walk this long dirt path, about 300 metres long, and a fairly narrow wooden-planked walkway about 600 metres long before reaching the end, where a small ruined temple-like structure surrounded by water awaited us. It wasn't the start or end which blew me away, but the walk there, which felt dangerously scary yet tranquil. The waters all around, kinda like still clean waters in a swampy-like setting gave a very peaceful feel. Yup, from my explanation, it was scary and peaceful, ah, the irony.
The brackish waters glowed in the sunlight and there was a part of the walkway where both sides of the planked path wasn't blocked by vegetation, allowing us to absorb the tranquility of the surroundings. The end of the route was rather disappointing, with a fenced up area with only a walkway of less than a 3-metre width. There wasn't much to "explore" at the end, and we didn't spend much time there. Still, we did manage to catch a couple of interesting points from a tour guide over there - about how animal structures surrounded and were partially submerged in the waters. I think there was a horse and a snake etc. Couldn't quite decipher the animal structures with the naked eye though, and our zoom lens weren't that "mightiful."
Our final stop was Preah Khan, supposedly the biggest of the temples we've been for the day so far. Preah Khan felt like any other ruined temples, the only difference is that there's a long, and I mean real long straight path from one end to another. You can stop by any of the openings to check out the sides but eventually, you'll end up walking the middle path again. There were more interesting color combis at Preah Khan, ranging from black to dark brown (color of stones), to green and red (color of mosses). Walking space was quite limited if you venture off to the sides and fairly dangerous so we stayed on the more spacious middle route. There was more to see in the middle also.
I realised I made a mistake actually... The dark corners and the guy who conned a tourist into climbing on top of the stone structures to see a huge giant tree was actually there in Preah Khan (previous post). Sorry to Ta Prohm, on second thought, actually I'm not that apologetic since every temple there had their own "cons" lurking around.
It was like a long road with a good 3-4 different settings along the way. Other than that, there was nothing too outstanding about the place. Nothing we haven't seen already. However, Preah Khan really did feel like a "summary" of the temples in Cambodia. It was like an open museum of Cambodia temples. One could see most of the interesting structures over there, ruins, colors, trees, naga snakes etc. We reached the end (a flat open area lined with stones), chilled out a little and watched a little show by a group of tourists pretending to be rangers/explorers by slashing their way out from the vegetation using a borrowed machete. It was quite a funny sight and an innovative idea.
On our way back, we came across an open area with stone structures of different heights. Climbed one such structure to get an aerial view and it was well worth it despite the steep steps. The flight of steps weren't that long compared to most so I would suggest climbing them to get a better view of the entire place.
Goofed around a bit and took our time to really check out the place since we rushed a little on our previous stops since Kim recommended us to do so as Preah Khan was a huge place.
As it was still bright when we set off from Preah Khan, we requested Kim to bring us to Angkor Watt to check out the sunset. We wanted to laze around on the seats at the moat but didn't hang around for long because the skies were too cloudy to catch any glimmer of sunset.
It was the one of the cleanest (context of roadside stalls) most intimate food experiences one can have in Cambodia. Everything was in the stall. Of course, you would think, that's the same as Singapore, but the difference between a Singapore food stall and a Cambodian one is that it's a more open concept for Cambodia. There were like little "stations" in the small stall, one station was BBQing, the other was in charge of frying (looked like the Mum), another was in charge of preparing, and the another station in charge of the drinks. It was messy in an organised way.
There were so many things happening concurrently that we didn't know where to look. Everyone was so busy and involved in making dinner for us (we ordered quite a bit, close to a feast). We ordered Loc Lac (gravied beef, with salt and pepper sauces), BBQ chicken slices, mixed veggies, fish/chicken amok (can't remember the meat) and 2 smoothies (*kachink* another iced drink).
I think we paid about $10 for the both of us, and it was like a mini buffet. Definitely well worth it, and the food tasted real good. The amok, however, wasn't as fantastic as the one we tried at the food stall near Ta Prohm (I'm saying on behalf of my dear) but I thought it was one of the best food deals we had in Cambodia, cheap and good.
After dinner, we finally decided to try a Khmer massage. For only about $3 each, we went for a 40-minute Khmer massage which consist of about 30 minutes of foot massage and 10 minutes of shoulder and head massage. The one we went, by the name of Wealthy House Souvenir (yup, that's the name, no relation to message whatsoever and name of shop really "Huat Ah") was actually pretty good. Wouldn't say the same for my dear since she told me after that her masseuse was rather noobish (she was wearing a different uniform from the rest). So it kinda depends on luck really, unless you don't mind offending them by selecting a masseuse you think would do a better job than another.
It was a very relaxing 30 minutes because we had a good view of a big screen (meant for the customers of the foot massage which was a documentary about the temples in Cambodia. However, note that it was a relaxing 30 mins not 40 mins even thought the massage was 40 mins long because the last 10 minutes required us to move too much. There were lotsa twists and turns, cracks and holds (characteristic of Khmer body massage). Sitting down and simply moving your legs up and down definitely beats sitting upright and twisting and
turning your body around, contorting your hands in weird positions etc.
However, overall, I did enjoy the massage because it was so value for money. One can never get that price in Singapore!
Our final stop was yet at another roadside stall selling dessert. It's one of the many "no signboard roadstalls" (the irony to Singapore's novelty "No Signboard Restaurant"). I ordered the dessert and it turned out to be a rather eggy ice kachang. Everything I ate in the dessert bowl which I have ordered, which I had absolutely no idea what they were, all tasted eggy. There were like different degrees of egg tastes, from strong eggy to mild eggy. Then, from another table, I saw a family ordering a plate with a good 6-8 eggs stacked up like a pyramid.
It didn't make sense to me that they were half boiled eggs, and especially not so when they started cracking their shells and digging up what looked blackish. I asked them what eggs there were and they said "duck eggs". At the point of time, I didn't know they were called Baluts, fertilised duck embryo and is a delicacy in Philipines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. I've seen Andrew Zimmern eat it on his travel documentary "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" and never thought I would ever get the chance to eat it one day.
Being the curious and willing-to-give-anything-a-go type, I decided to order a Balut to try it out despite my dear's attempts to convince me that's it's extremely sick and disgusting to eat that.
My dear got her wish when the owner told me it was sold out. Imagine how "gianz" I was after that!! I was initially rather neutral about eating it but because I couldn't experience what a Balut would taste like that night, I was more determined to give it another shot the next day.
No Balut that night but it was "Balut Kampung" that night since we had to wake up very early the next morning to catch the sunrise at Angkor Watt. Very early probably doesn't quite explain it... we had to wake up during the wee hours of the morning to experience one of must-do things in Siem Reap. I wasn't too excited about waking up at 4am the next morning but thought to myself since we're there, why not?
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