Arriving at Siem Reap...

After 2 hours of flights, We (a friend who is crazy enough to come along with me) arrived in Siem Reap. The flight was pleasant enough. by the way, I bough Airasia XpressBoarding and guess what? It does give you the priority!! I bought it just to see whether it really works or whether I still have to push my way to the aircraft. To my surprised, my name was called during boarding and were instructed to queue on another lane and board through another gate. Will I buy the priority pass again? Most probably not, too expensive ok.

The airport was pretty new and clean. I was expecting some run down building... but I was wrong. The immigration was quick as well. I read in forum that the immigration officer may ask money form you and I was expecting some "tough" time, but the worry was unnecessary.

We met our tuk tuk driver outside the terminal. He looks like a very nice person but his English post a challenge. Since we didn't plan much before coming here, we asked for his recommendations on what to do for the next 3 days.

So on the first day, we went straight to the floating village if Chong Kneas to see how the locals live. The boat ride cost USD12 per person. The people living in the floating village is nothing new to me. I have seen it in Bangkok and my hometown have a small scale of this phenomenon. However what I didn't expect was how bad the conditions were here. Along the boat ride, the children kept approached our boat either begging for money or trying to sell drinks to us. However the one that really stuck to my head was a boy with only one arm. He sat on a what looked like a big pot (fit for one person) and using his one arm to paddle. He of course came for money. It was really hard to ignore him. We ended up giving him so mentos, blue berry flavor.

Our boat guides are two brothers. The elder would steer and navigate the boat while the younger brother would introduce the places to us along the ride. Well, not much of a tour guide, his limited English could only manage to tell us "school", "restaurant"," church". Yea that's pretty much everything. Oh and also lastly, "do you tip guide?"... For the 1 hour and 15 minutes ride accompany with the limited English, he asked for USD5. I know the life is tough over there, but USD5 is way too much for me. I ended up giving him and brother USD2.

Overall the floating village trip was a good experience. When the boat arrived at the Tonle Sap lake, it was pretty amazing. The lake is huge and it seems like you are in the middle of the sea.