Cambodia- Siem Reap

I mentioned in one of my entry that I will be going to Cambodia with a few friends of mine. Remember? Well... I did. Went with four of my friends last last weekend (11-13/10). It was a 3days/2nights holiday from "Airasia Holiday Package" which includes the return air tickets + accommodation. As for the ground arrangement like airport transfers and sight-seeing tours, we booked separately through a Cambodian friend. Our flight for Cambodia (Siem Reap) was due for departure at 7am. Therefore, we need to start our journey from Kluang as early as 2am, barely 2 hours past midnight. We gathered at Chaire's house prior to our departure from Kluang and took advantage of her newly acquired 15-seater celebrity MPV...

Together with her driver, Aziz, we started our journey at 1:15am, from Kluang to the LCCT airport in Sepang.We tried to catch some beauty sleep through the 3+ hours drive.

We touched down in Siem Reap right on schedule. There were no hiccups going thru the imigrations too.

Once out of the airport, we were greeted and welcomed by the hotel staff together with our tour guide, Mr Sip Cham Nan. We checked into our hotel, freshen up a little before our tour of Siem Reap begin!

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Our first destination, a silk farm!

Learnt a lot on how silk is actually produced and why it is so expensive.

Next, is the Jewellery Shop (no photos allow inside). We get to learn more about different kind of gemstones. As we all knew, Cambodia is one of the country that produces many different kind of gemstones. Here, we were taught how to differentiate the real thing from the fake ones, and of course the gems are for sale too. I didnt buy any but got an early birthday present from Tenny, a beautiful yellow gemstone surrounded with sparkling white stone ring. It was a good bargain. From USD200.00 to USD20.00. You'll be surprised at how they actually marked-up the prices. The discounts offered went as much as 80%. So bear this in mind if you are going for Cambodian gemstone. Next on our itinerary was the floating village. There were plenty of boat houses, (look at that little girl on the boat, think she is bearly 5yrs old) ...

...floating schools and churches...

...and even a crocodile farm.

While we were at the crocodile farm, our friend Chaire accidentaly dropped her very expensive sunglasses into the crocodile's enclosure and our tourguide Mr Sip have to fish it out for her. Here, we can actually buy the crocodie and have them cook it for you.

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After the excursion, we went for our 1hr free massage which was included in the ground package. By the time we are done, it was already dinner time. We had crocodie meat, not as nice as we thought it would be.

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We went to the night market after dinner and bought some souvenirs. In Cambodia, USD is their main currency even if a withdrawal is made through an ATM machine. That end the 1st day of our trip to Siem Reap.