Cambodia - Day 5
Our final day in Siem Reap was finally here. After days of trekking and temple viewing, we decided to end the trip with a day of nua-ing, slowing down our paces. We woke up a little later after a night out of drinking. Had a late breakfast and then sat by the restaurant and watched the world pacing by.
We headed to a bicycle rental shop to complete a friend's desire to cycle around. We tried to cycle to this horse range farm but sort of losing our way, so half way through, we u-turned back to town. After more than 3 hours of cycling under the hot and humid weather, our tshirt was drenched with sweat. And very very dusty.
Did our final shopping at the old market for any souvenirs. Was at this place buying the last souvenirs when we saw this parade of vehicles by a political party for their election next month. Then head back to the guest house to clean up, preparing to attend a cambodia wedding. Got invited by the driver, asking us to go to his friend's wedding party. Only I went in the end. The rest did not feel quite "alright" with it.
This was probably the 1st time and the last time I got to attending a cambodia wedding. It was also the cheapest angpao I had ever given, and most under-dressed. Everyone dressed formerly. The men were mostly in shirts and pants and the ladies in what looked like their traditional wear of gown. I was in jeans and tshirt! Hey, I'm on vacation! It was quite an experience. They did not wait for everyone to arrive to start the dinner. Once the table was filled up, it would start on its own, so when everyone was done, they would leave. The bride and bridegroom were standing at the entrance the entired night. There were cans of soft drinks, beer and bottles of mineral water on the table, so guests could just drink whatever they wanted. Freeflow of all those drinks. There was even a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label on every table! There were waitresses walking around, filling up the glasses with ice cube.
One did not prepared with the angpao. There were envelopes available on individual tables and each guest would then take out their wallets at the end of the dinner and put the moolah into it and dropped it into a box when the guests left. Even the bridemaids and brothers (I presumed) would stand at the entrance with the couple. When there was no guests arriving or departing, they would sit down.
Its a 7 dishes course dinner. The dishes however are geared more towards chinese style. Their tibits before the dinner consist of cashew nuts and this dried cuttlefish lookalike that tasted like pork floss. Nothing much fanciful for the food though their rice comes in the flavor of chinese style fried rice and plain rice. The rice was served together with a steamboat of chicken soup. For a moment, I was kind of surprised to see steamboat at a wedding. It truly was an experiences, a totally different kind of wedding from what I had seen in Sillypore.
After that, met the rest back at the guesthouse before heading to the Angkor Wat night market. Its a spot open specially to target tourist. Pricing was jacked up, which was to be expected. The whole place look like a very modern village, something that I had seen in Sillypore. Something like...errr.. let me try to recount... Asian village at Sentosa? After a quick look at the place, we walked back to the main old market streets and had a 2 hours long foot massage. I had a hard time trying not to doze off. Had an early flight to catch the next day.
Bye bye Angkor Wat. Bye bye Siem Reap. Bye bye Cambodia.
We headed to a bicycle rental shop to complete a friend's desire to cycle around. We tried to cycle to this horse range farm but sort of losing our way, so half way through, we u-turned back to town. After more than 3 hours of cycling under the hot and humid weather, our tshirt was drenched with sweat. And very very dusty.
Did our final shopping at the old market for any souvenirs. Was at this place buying the last souvenirs when we saw this parade of vehicles by a political party for their election next month. Then head back to the guest house to clean up, preparing to attend a cambodia wedding. Got invited by the driver, asking us to go to his friend's wedding party. Only I went in the end. The rest did not feel quite "alright" with it.
This was probably the 1st time and the last time I got to attending a cambodia wedding. It was also the cheapest angpao I had ever given, and most under-dressed. Everyone dressed formerly. The men were mostly in shirts and pants and the ladies in what looked like their traditional wear of gown. I was in jeans and tshirt! Hey, I'm on vacation! It was quite an experience. They did not wait for everyone to arrive to start the dinner. Once the table was filled up, it would start on its own, so when everyone was done, they would leave. The bride and bridegroom were standing at the entrance the entired night. There were cans of soft drinks, beer and bottles of mineral water on the table, so guests could just drink whatever they wanted. Freeflow of all those drinks. There was even a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label on every table! There were waitresses walking around, filling up the glasses with ice cube.
One did not prepared with the angpao. There were envelopes available on individual tables and each guest would then take out their wallets at the end of the dinner and put the moolah into it and dropped it into a box when the guests left. Even the bridemaids and brothers (I presumed) would stand at the entrance with the couple. When there was no guests arriving or departing, they would sit down.
Its a 7 dishes course dinner. The dishes however are geared more towards chinese style. Their tibits before the dinner consist of cashew nuts and this dried cuttlefish lookalike that tasted like pork floss. Nothing much fanciful for the food though their rice comes in the flavor of chinese style fried rice and plain rice. The rice was served together with a steamboat of chicken soup. For a moment, I was kind of surprised to see steamboat at a wedding. It truly was an experiences, a totally different kind of wedding from what I had seen in Sillypore.
After that, met the rest back at the guesthouse before heading to the Angkor Wat night market. Its a spot open specially to target tourist. Pricing was jacked up, which was to be expected. The whole place look like a very modern village, something that I had seen in Sillypore. Something like...errr.. let me try to recount... Asian village at Sentosa? After a quick look at the place, we walked back to the main old market streets and had a 2 hours long foot massage. I had a hard time trying not to doze off. Had an early flight to catch the next day.
Bye bye Angkor Wat. Bye bye Siem Reap. Bye bye Cambodia.
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