Cambodia is a place where many friends who like to travel must be very familiar with, Cambodia in fact, the cost does not seem to be high, is that our ordinary people can go to play, only many friends feel too far away to go to the inconvenience, but also for fear of being pitched, then this editorial will talk to you about it.
Cambodia travel expensiveI would like to make some suggestions to friends who want to go to Cambodia, find a favorable air ticket to fly directly! Do not need to think so long, if you do not have enough time, stay in Siem Reap to see the size of Angkor, shopping bar street, do Spa, find a coffee shop in the afternoon to drink an afternoon coffee, read a good book, enjoy the slow pace of Angkor. Spending here is very small, 200 yuan can stay in a very good hotel, per capita 6 U.S. dollars can eat a big meal. Fruit to eat until full are only a little money. So, when you meet the airfare discount, fly to Angkor, visa on arrival is very convenient. Angkor Wat across a thousand years waiting for you to come, if you come, you will find that everything is worth it.
The idea of going to Cambodia has been a long time coming, so when Vera asked me if I wanted to go to Angkor for a weekend, I answered in seconds, yes! Our outing was happily scheduled.
Thursday night we took a flight from Shanghai to Siem Reap, the plane was 2 hours late, we arrived in Siem Reap at 23:00 late at night, when we got to the hotel, when I was washing up and ready to sleep, Vera was still listening to Jiang Xun's explanation of the "Beauty of Angkor", what a serious girl she is!
When I got up in the morning, I found out that the hotel's swimming pool is super big and there are two of them, I checked on booking and found out that the room costs less than 150 RMB. After breakfast, set off to Great Angkor Wat to visit the Khmer Smile. Details are in the previous post, Cambodia: The Khmer Smile.
The mention of Angkor Wat my mind will come back to the movie "Flowery Night" inside, Tony Leung told his heart to a tree hole in Angkor Wat, all the heart is about you, there you are the home of love. If I had one more ticket, would you come with me.
In the dark stone corridors of Angkor Wat, penetrating in the warm afternoon sun, mixed with cool wind, my heart screamed these words "If I have one more ticket, will you come with me."
All of my emotions melted into these words and stayed in the cave of Angkor Wat.
After coming out of Big Angkor and having lunch, we set off to a Thai-Cambodian border town in Battambang province. We were told that a Korean casino in the town had financed our travel expenses, except for airfare, in order to tap into the Chinese clientele.
It's a four-hour bus ride from Siem Reap, and along the way, we listened to our Chinese guide explain the current situation in Cambodia.
Cambodia has three main problems:
expensive medical care, expensive gasoline and expensive electricity.
It is said that if they are sick, it costs about 500 RMB to go to the hospital. Cambodia's per capita monthly income is only 800 RMB per month, so just registering accounts for two-thirds of their income, not to mention treatment.
Gasoline is expensive, so their tour company's car routes are all set, and they have a record of how much gas they use every day. It seems like their gasoline is about CNY9/liter.
Electricity is expensive, so there is basically no street light at night. I felt so happy to be living in China, in the new socialist China.
The car was halfway there when the air conditioner broke down. So we waited at a service station for the car to be repaired. In Cambodia in early August, the temperature was about the same as Shanghai, around 35 degrees. We ordered a chilled coconut for a dollar, which was surprisingly sweet. Being born in Hainan, I found that the coconuts in Southeast Asia are, indeed, sweeter than the coconut water in Hainan.
The wait was two hours, in which we had taken in the idyllic scenery of the service station, tasted all kinds of beverages, and found the freshly squeezed juices to be superb, and for the foodie in me, the wait was worth it.
Finally changing to an air-conditioned bus, it was 6pm when we drove to the border town. I came to the casino where I stayed, and found that the casino equipment is indeed too outdated, the game machines are still there, many of which I could see in China when I was a child. The company's business is a very important part of the company's business, and it's a very important part of its business.
After checking in, I realized that the hotel does not even have an elevator, the room is really bad, the TV is still the same kind of brick in the 90's, the color of the bed sheet is yellow, the bath towel is hairy. This kind of accommodation, in the end is to play, or to suffer.
It is said that this experience group is the first time into the line, I believe that absolutely do not do up, because this condition is really not available, let the Chinese customers to pay out of pocket to play two.
The next morning, when we were ready to cross the border to the Thai side of the bazaar, we were told that there was no communication, could not pass, and had to cancel.
We looked at the town that we could see at a glance and estimated that we would be done in a quarter of an hour. We sat on the couch and stared, not knowing what to do.
Battambang City TourFinally, the tour guide decided to show their apologies by treating us to lunch in Battambang City.
Two hours later, we arrived in downtown Battambang and had an authentic Cambodian meal. Cambodian food is slightly saltier than Chinese food, but still delicious. I was told that due to Cambodia's relative poverty, there are fewer dishes on the table, so a little extra salt allows for more rice and fewer dishes so that a family can have enough to eat.
Cambodian rice is the famous jasmine-scented rice, the taste is still good, 70 countries around the world to import Cambodian rice.
It is said that Battambang province is the second largest city in Cambodia, and it is the place where Chinese nationals live. The Chinese nationals account for 3% of Cambodia's population, but they hold 70% of the wealth of the whole country.
Battambang is a French colony, the city retains a lot of colonial French buildings, the shadow of the sycamore on the roadside, along the street cafes have foreigners sipping coffee, all this is like the picture in the old movie, both gorgeous and deserted.
White Horse TempleWe wandered along the road to a small temple of the White Horse Temple, how Southeast Asian temples are so similar! After grabbing a couple of random photos and circling around the small temple, we walked out with a sense of humor.
Vera played her powerful action, found the local most net red Spa store, Vera and I spent 10 dollars each, beautiful enjoy an hour of Cambodian massage, the other three companions, drinking tea in the Spa, waiting for us. Because we had to get back to the border town within the time limit. Otherwise, we wanted to experience all the Spa programs for 240 minutes, didn't have enough fun. This is the disadvantage of following a tour group, you can't have a good time when you meet your favorite program.
After returning to the town for dinner, the 5 of us kicked into treasure-hunting mode, and Vera and I spent 100 RMB to exchange 40,000 riel with our guide, determined to spend it.
We spent 13,000 riel to open a durian, I have not eaten such a delicious durian, I feel that there is no durian stench. Mangosteen is big and sweet, equivalent to 50 cents a piece, eat until you are full.
Saw a little man buying roast suckling pig with a very big smile, we bought 20,000 riel of roast suckling pig meat, and then took a picture with him, when he knew that we were going to take a picture with him, he showed a coy smile. It struck me then that as backward as this place is, the smiles on everyone's faces are so simple and zero pollution. We ordered a grilled shrimp at a late-night snack restaurant and spent not only all of our own riels, but also 13,000 riels on Wang Xiao. We ate until we were bursting at the seams before heading to the hotel.
We found the only Thai massage parlor in town, and we couldn't get enough of it in the afternoon, so we decided to have another Thai Spa, and finally went back to the hotel to sleep with our hearts contented after the mah jongg was over.
After waking up and having breakfast, we headed back to Siem Reap, after a four-hour journey, to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.
Outside the Chinese restaurant, there were a lot of little kids begging, and the kids all looked like they were stunted and skinny. I gave them chicken legs from the table, and watched them hold them in their hands, gagging, unable to eat them, with a pang of sorrow in my heart.
I heard that Cambodia is 20 years behind Vietnam, in Southeast Asia 10 countries, the penultimate poor, the poorest Southeast Asian countries is Laos, may Cambodia can economic development, children can eat, and preferably can have books.
Two hours after the meal, the small Angkor tour. The last half day was free time. Our first call was to the biggest duty free mall in Siem Reap so that they could arrange for a kuku car to pick us up and go shopping.
The duty free mall was having a 50% discount on the entire trip. When we arrived at the duty free store, we heard all Chinese, and I guess 80% of the entire duty free store was filled with Chinese people who were crazy about shopping. After we finished shopping, we asked the mall to arrange a kuku car to take us directly to Lao Wai Street.
Restaurant once visited by BeckhamAfter shopping around, we decided to eat at a restaurant once patronized by Beckham. It is said that you can have a very rich meal in Siem Reap for $6 per person, and this meal cost the four of us $17 per person. During the meal, we had the restaurant arrange a one-hour Cambodian spa, and after the meal, Vera and I proceeded to the spa while they continued shopping.
After the spa, we went to the airport, and the trip to Siem Reap was over, Vera said, we didn't have a good time, and would like to come back again, so we spent the whole day in Angkor to see the rocks, stroll around the bar street to eat food, do spa, and enjoy the slow life.