Day 3, Saturday. We woke up late around 9-ish just before the breakfast period ended. I had a banana pancake. It was so delicious like when I'm writing this I am drooling right now. That's how delicious it was. The other guys came upstairs (where the breakfast is being ready) just after we finished our breakfast. Decided to put our feet into the fish spa thing there while they are having breakfast. We don't know exactly what to do that day, so just hang around for awhile until around 11-ish. We decided to cycle around the town until lunch time, lunch at a different muslim restaurant then Tonle Sap lake.
Really love that the guesthouse provide free bicycle. We started the journey from the Guesthouse and cycle to the busy road of Siem Reap. I think it was a highway. Full of motorcycle, yet it was relaxing ride.
The map we cycled. Didn't realised it was in square shape.
We stopped at a silk shop near to the Siem Reap river bridge. I couldn't find the name of the shop by googling it even with Google Street View. I do think the shop was still new at that time. Anyway, have a look at the shop. I don't know whether the price is reasonable or not. My friends bought a passport cover which costs around USD30. Tried to haggle but only got little discount from them. Paid for it, put in the bicycle basket and we continued our journey. We stopped yet again at Kantha Bopha Academy for Pediatrics which we thought it was a performing art centre but it wasn't because there was a banner showing art performance. Anyway, decided to stop because attracted to its perimeter fencing. A few pictures, cycle to our guesthouse to get ready for lunch.
Futsal court
As soon as we reached guesthouse, get ready for lunch and Tonle Sap trip. Our TukTuk drivers always been ready for us, provided that we tell them earlier our plans.
We had our lunch at the same area as yesterday but different restaurant. The restaurant is called Muslim Family Kitchen Restaurant. We had some seafood, soups and other things I couldn't recall. We enjoyed our lunch there for one hour plus. Before we head to Tonle Sap, we stopped at Masjid An Neakmah for Zohor prayer, a masjid in Siem Reap. It is located a few meters away from the restaurant. There is also an islamic school behind of the masjid which schooling about 100 students with only 2 classes and only 2 ustaz are the teachers there.
We grabbed some attention from the kids there, they were playing with our female friends inside of the Tuktuk, nevertheless there were cute kids. Kids are being kids. So after the prayers we headed to Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. The journey took about less than 1 hour by tuktuk. All along the journey to the jetty, it was refreshing to see the scenery. The Tonle Sap jetty was under construction, so expect dust and sand flying everywhere. We boarded on 8 seater sampan, guided by 18 year old local which speaks good English. From jetty to the floating village it took about 30 minutes to reach there. The view was amazing, but the water was murky like teh tarik drink back home in Malaysia.
The floating village is like a normal village, they have pig farm, cats and dogs, schools, church, clinic, etc. expect that its all on the boat! I was told that since they are living on the boat, the government wont collect land tax, or whatever tax there is. We saw a lady inside of the lake towing the sampan with her child in the boat. The depth can be less than 1 meter during dry season but can go up to 10 meter during rainy season.
They brought us to a crocodile cage. They said once there were a lot of crocodiles around but now there are only inside of the cage. That was relief but pity at the same time. Then they took us to the shop for us to buy some food or water for the villagers as donations. It's like a forced-donation to us because we had no choice, they keep bugging us to buy something. We decided to buy instant noodles. So they brought us to the school, stopped there for awhile, had tour around school. There were 3 class rooms... and we saw a lot of rice the cooked and uncook one in the kitchen. But its okay they are in need of help after all with those condition.
Then we head back to the jetty after 2 hours tour of floating village. The sky is getting dark and we went back to our hotel.
Funny thing happened though, one of our tuktuk was knocked by a car in Night Market area. I dont know how they settle the thing but it was brief and so quick.
Arrived at the hotel, went back out for dinner, look for some merchandise and went back to hotel. Recharging for tomorrow..
....to be continued
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