2007-01-05
2867
3
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作者：自由鸟
23rd Nov Singapore – Phnom Penh
My flight from Singapore touched down in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia at about 8:00pm. There wasn’t much problem with the Visa-On-Arrival, settled with US$20 and five minutes. But it took me slightly longer time compare to other travelers at the VOA counter and then the immigration counter, guess might because of the People’s Republic of China written on the passport cover again.
A few taxi touts bothered me after I came out from the arrival hall. But I think they are still easier to be ignored than the ones in China. A motorbike was waiting for me while I bargained with the taxi touts, and he offered $2, I just got on the bike without much hesitation.
It was basically an uneventful journey to my guesthouse, only that the non-English speaking motor driver didn’t know his way around very well and had to stop a few times to ask other tuk tuk or motor drivers for the direction. I showed him my itinerary with a list of guest houses and pointed to the 1st one as the one I wanted to go. And he took me to the 2nd on my list. I could have settled for that one as well, but still insisted to go to the one I wanted. I could see he was trying pretty hard by asking around, and I even felt a bit apologetic for doing so much work for just $2.
Checked in DV8, a guesthouse near the river front with a bar at downstairs. I suspected the whole row of waitress at the small bar were actually prostitutes. I was shocked when they all turned and staring at me as I stepped into the bar. I was not in the mood and shape of going anywhere else, went straight to my room and watched CCTV1 in my room. It’s amazing that many Cambodia guesthouses have TV channels from all over the world, CCTV from China, French TV5, some German and Russian channels, needless to mention the worldwide BBC, CNN or ESPN.
Cost:
$20 Visa
$2 Motorbike
$5 Guesthouse
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$27 Total
24th Nov Phnom Penh – Sihanoukville
Since the place I stayed was not far from the central market (Phsar Thmey), I decided to walk there. That took me only about 10 minutes. But I turned to a wrong street as the coach station was on the Charles De Gaulle Street. I ended up walked all the way back to somewhere near the river again, without finding the Coach station. As it was exhausting and hot to walk with a big backpack under the sun, I had to compromise and got a motorbike. Only then I realized the coach station was only 50m away from where I turned…
The bus trip took about 4-5 hours from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, with one resting stop on the way.
All the motorbike touts were trying to convince me to go Ochheuteal Beach in the south, but I insisted to go for Victory Beach in the north, where it used to be a backpacker’s area.
I rented a bike after checked in guesthouse, and started my bicycle tour to the small town. Felt really cool when I am going down slope, but I felt really stupid for not renting a motor bike for just 1 or 2 dollars more when I’m exhausting all my strength trying to paddle upslope, while the 11 year old kids were hovering pass by me with motor bikes.
I then spent some time on Ochheuteal Beach (aka Serendipity Beach) with Jo and Nick, the friends I met on the bus earlier. And I realized this place is indeed much better and more happening then the Victory Beach, so I decided to move over the next day.
Cost:
2000riel ($0.5) Motorbike to bus station
$3.75 Bus ticket
$1 Motorbike to Victory Beach
$1 Bicycle rental
$3 Guesthouse
500 riel postcard
$3.5 (about) food, fruits, water and snacks
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$13 Total
25th Nov Sihanoukville
After a morning walk along the Victory Beach and surrounding area, I checked out and took a motorbike to GST guesthouse near the Ochheuteal Beach.
I then spent the rest of my day on the beach, being bothered with aunties selling all kinds of food, kids selling souvenirs and fruits, handicapped selling books and postcards and ladies offering massages. The lobster is indeed nice, doesn’t look very hygienic though. But as a matter of fact, nothing in Cambodia look hygienic.
Cost:
3500r Motorbike from Victory Beach to Ochheuteal Beach
$5 Guesthouse
2000r stamps
$3.5 booked bus ticket back to Phnom Penh
$11.5 food, fruits, beer
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$21.25 total
26th Nov Sihaunoukville—Phnom Penh
I booked the 8:15am bus back to Phnom Penh the day before. The whole journey was smooth and uneventful.
I walked to another guesthouse nearer to the central market in Phnom Penh and settled down, started my walking tour around the capital city of Cambodia.
The markets were dark and stinky, with flies flying around with the exposed meat and fishes. Basically was just walking around the city, from central market to independence monument, pass by the royal palace and went up to Wat Phnom in the north, without any real sightseeing.
Cost:
3000r Motorbike from GST guesthouse to Sihanoukville downtown.
$5 guesthouse in Phnom Penh
500r postcard
$3.6 food, fruits
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$9.65 total
27th Nov Phnom Penh
I walked to the S-21 prison in the morning, a place used to imprison and torture people by the Khmer Rouge. It was really a depressing place and I decided not to go for the killing field any more.
Then I took a motorbike to the Royal Palace, spent my whole afternoon there.
Walked some more around the city, had a Khmer dinner near the river front with $4.75.
Cost:
$5 Guesthouse
$2 S-21 prison
$3 Royal Palace
$2 hair cut
$1 motorbike from S-21 to Royal Palace
2200r stamps
$7.5 food
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$20.75 total
28th Nov Phnom Penh – Bangkok
The motorbike driver agreed with $1.5 to airport before we left the guesthouse, but he only gave me 12000 riel back as I only had $5 note. But I didn’t really bother as $2 for such a distance is quite fair, I guess.
The Cambodia airport tax, ahhhh…the most expensive around the world…
The one hour flight brought me to a whole different world, from one of the most poverty country to a busy metropolitan, a food paradise.
I took the airport express shuttle from the new Suvarnabhumi airport to Khao San Road, where lots of backpackers are concentrated. I walked to the Wat Phra Kaew with the famous Emerald Buddha, Grand Palace, and the Wat Pho, thus completed the most major 2 tourist spots in my first afternoon in Bangkok.
At sunset, I took a tuktuk with a few Taiwanese aunties to the railway station and took a walk in the Chinatown area, followed by a bus back to Khao San road.
Cost:
US$2 motorbike to PP airport
US$25 airport tax
1000Baht Thai visa
150B airport shuttle
140B guesthouse in Bangkok
250B Wat Phra Kaew + Grand Palace
50B Wat Pho
8B bus from Chinatown to Khao San
xxB food, food and foooooooooood
29th Nov Bangkok
This was a long day, in terms of time and distance.
I first walked up north in the city to the Dusit district, spent almost the whole day in the Dusit park, visiting all the museums and the Vimanmek mansion there. That was really an amazing place, which is included in the 250B ticket to the grand palace. I only planned a few hours there but still couldn’t get enough after the whole day. The only little “accident” was that I should have been able to save 20B by putting my bags and camera in a free locker at any other museums instead of the one at Vimanmek mansion. Felt kind of cheated by the staff there..
After the closure of the park, I walked to the river and took a boat from Sangh all the way to the central pier. 16 stops in between, about 40 minutes journey. A wonderful experience it was.
I wanted to take a sky train from the central pier to the national stadium, but as it was the after office peak hour, I decided to walk a bit in the silom & patpong district. Did some shopping in that area and walked all the way till Sala Daeng. The skytrain took me from there to Siam, a big modern shopping mall with a huge exhibition hall on top of the Siam Paragon.
As I was taking a rest on the top floor among many people, I asked for my way back to Khao San from a mister. He showed me the way and we started to carry out friendly chats, asking things like where I am from and where I’ve been to. And he was telling me the people here are going for a concert by Sherbet, an Australian rock band, a big shot in the 70s-80s. Few minutes later, someone came to him and handed him 2 concert tickets and said something in Thai. He then introduced me and said to me they have an extra ticket, ask me if I would like to go for the concert as well. I say why not, and 3 minutes later, I found myself in the front row of the huge exhibition hall. And later I found out my ticket worth 2000Baht. It was really a great concert, I enjoyed very much.
Cost:
140B Guesthouse
20B locker
5B postcard
12B stamp
13B boat
15B sky train
xxB shopping, food and foooooooooooood
30th Nov Bangkok—Singapore
As my last day of the trip, I had almost drained all my energy from the previous days of walking. I only walked from Khao San Road to the democracy monument, early in the morning, then to Golden mount and then passed by the city pillar shrine and sanam luang, spent sometime in the amulet market and back to Khao San at about 12pm.
I then did some more shopping for food and stuff near the Khao San area, ate as much as possibly could, and took but 56 at 2pm to the airport. I expected some waiting time for the bus, some traffic jams on the way, which would total up to about 2 hours for the journey to the airport. However, the whole journey was extremely smooth and made me to the airport before 3pm. It might be better off for me any way, as I now had exhausted my energy and Thai baht.
There was a 500B airport tax to be paid, and only in Thai baht cash. All I had at that time was 200 Thai Baht, 6USD, 2 SGD and 12000 Cambodia riels. As I calculated, I would have enough money for the airport tax if I change everything into thai baht. But the bank teller told me they have no exchange rate with riel, thus could only change the USD and SGD for me. I knew it wouldn’t be enough for me, but she told me it would be 326B all together. So I happily signed on the receipt and took the 326B away. Only then I saw it was written as 6USD and 5SGD on the receipt. The bank teller just gave me 3SGD.
With that, I finished my Cambodia + Bangkok trip, returned back to Singapore safely at 11:00pm.
Cost:
35B Bus 56 to airport
500B Thai airport tax
xxB shopping, food and foooooooood
