Oct/12/2009
With just only less than an hour of sleep, we went to Hua Lamphong Railway Station at around 5am to catch the first train (5:55am) to Aranyaphratet, Thailand. (Actually, Brian and JM didn't sleep at all. Ate ohsie slept the longest but for some reason she still keeps on dozing off the entire trip. hehehe) We opted to take the earliest train because the next one is scheduled at 1:30pm, which is very late considering the train ride would take about 5-6 hours.
We rode a third class train-no airconditioning. There are also buses that ply this route but we wanted to be more adventurous and immerse ourselves with the culture.
In Aranyaphratet,the tuktuk drivers brought us to the "consular office of Cambodia." An over-friendly man greeted us and led us to their office. He even greeted us in Filipino, "kamusta?".
They told us that we're at the border-Poipet,Cambodia! To make it more believable, the walls were decorated with maps of cambodia, flags and there's even a blackboard with a note written in chalk, "Welcome to Cambodia!" nyahahaha All the landmarks that we expected to see wren't there so we became really suspicious. Moreover, we were the only foreigners in that office so that adds up to our suspicion but still they incessantly insist that we're in Poipet.
They took our passports and filled out the immigration cards for us. They also asked us to give them passport photos. JM was asked to pay 100 baht since he doesn't have a photo. They said they will just scan his passport photo. After that, they asked us to pay 300 baht for processing!!! We said we won't pay and this is just not right. JM scrambled to call up his friends who had been to Cambodia before. I think this frightened them. They eventually gave up, returned our passports and just siad that we should make sure that we'll pay at the border. (so that means, we aren't at the border yet!!!)
At the border, it was just a breeze. The whole process in the immigration was finished in minutes and we didn't have to pay anything.
There's a free shuttle service from the border to the terminal, where we are going to get a cab for Siem Reap. The cab costs $12/person for a 2-3 hour travel to Siem Reap.
It was raining so hard during that time that we started to worry on how we're going to enjoy our Angkor Wat tour if this rain won't stop. Thankfully, the rain is just focused near the border and as we move farther away we can see the sun again. Actually, the temperature became so high outside that we high that we can see a mirage on the road. Talk about weird weather..
We arrive at Siem Reap bus station at around 4pm and from there we were picked up by our hotel's tuktuk. In Siem Reap we stayed Earthwakers' at
http://www.earthwalkers.no/ The staffs there are very friendly and accomodating. Our room is really nice and big.
We planned to use the hotel's swimming pool. Unfortunately, the swimming pool is under repair because it has been damaged by the typhoon Ketsana.
We had our superlate breakfast and lunch at a restaurant nearby. We feasted on several Cambodian dishes. The food was a bit pricey though but what the heck! We haven't eaten real food for the whole day. The only thing that kept us from fainting is the sugar from all the donuts, bread and mint we have ingested.
We went back to the hotel to rest for about 2 hours and then we went to the night market for dinner and to shop. We had our dinner at a food stall on the sidewalk. We ate some grilled shrimps and beef. The food was delicious and very affordable. Then, we went around the market and bought some stuffs.
We also decided to get a foot massage for our stressed-out feet. For just $5, we experienced heaven for 1 hour!
Oct/13/2009
In order to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, we woke up very early. This is the
highlight of our trip so we better enjoy it to the fullest. Angkor Wat is truly magnificent. We can't believe we're already there! The whole Angkor Archaeological Park is so marvelous. We were able to hire a really cool tourist guide for the one day tour of the 10 main temples of Angkor. The day was really tiring. We walked and climbed all day. We were literally dripping with sweat but it's all good. We had so much fun..fun..FUN! We enjoyed every moment. The view atop the temple is so breathtaking!
After the whole day tour, our guide brought us to a Filipino restaurant that offers
halo-halo. This is exactly what we need! This was a welcome treat for after a very long sweaty day.
Also, we felt relieved that we can talk to some of our kababayans there. They gave us tips for our next stop-Phnom Penh and reminded us that we should always haggle for the best price when shopping at the Russian market. It feels great that we can talk Tagalog to somebody in a foreign land. I can't explain it but it feels different..even just watching Filipino shows on TFC is a delight.
i miss this moment! 
