2 Weeks Out: The Secrets of Phnom Penh

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Khmer people enjoying the afternoon at the Grand Palace grounds.

I was extremely tired from the whole day’s tour of the Angkor Wat complex. I wanted to stay for another day to rest but I could not afford the time for it. It was a delight though to find out what a Cambodian Hotel bus was.

I hopped on the bus and it was kind of weird. There were no seats, not even recliners. It was like a dorm with bunk beds left and right. The weirdest part was if you are traveling alone, you will have to share a bed with a complete stranger!

I was too tired though to think about being picky, so I searched for my slot and settled. Since I was first on the bunk, I had the chance to take the window side. I shoved all of my things between me and the window wall to secure them. I turned my back to the aisle so I didn’t have to see the face of my bunkmate if I was gonna have any. If you are a solo female traveler, I would not recommend booking a hotel bus. Stick with the regular buses.

As I lay, trying to be comfortable with a stranger beside me, the bus slowly departed the stop. It was a slow night bus, so I tried to get some sleep. I was secure hugging my bags against the window.

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2 WEEKS OUT: WHAT IS THE ANGKOR WAT

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A couple of beers later, I headed back to my hostel for some shut-eye. I was honestly amazed at myself how I managed to wake up after just a few hours of sleep. Today is one of the biggest days of my trip. Today, I get to see the Angkor Wat. It was the central temple of the city of Angkor. To get there though from the town center of Seam Reap where I am staying, you will have to rent a tuktuk that will also take you around the complex. The Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples and structures you can see in the Angkor Complex.

I booked a tuktuk driver that I met the day before, while I was biking around the city. I wanted to go around the Angkor Wat complex from sunrise to sunset. Literally.

Som, my tuktuk driver didn’t arrive on time. Which was fine since the ticketing office doesn’t open until later. So I called him up and I guess he lives near enough to appear by the hotel gates in a jiffy. One trivial thing I learned while researching about this three-wheeled Cambodian vehicle is that they aren’t actually tuktuks! They’re remorques, Which is French for trailers! See tuktuks are unibody tricycles while remorques are, like the name suggests, small trailers that are attached at the back of a motorcylce.

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2 WEEKS OUT: SIEM REAP CAMBODIA (NOT ANGKOR WAT)

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I slept pretty nicely with the air conditioning running pretty good. I woke up early and went straight to the sitting area near the lobby. There wasn’t really really a restaurant but they do serve good coffee which was all that I needed. I spent the morning lounging by the pool. Everyone was still sleeping so the pool was empty. It is nice and relaxing but the water kinda burns my eyes. I was just taking my time to rest.

By noontime, I mustered the will to move from my comfy bed and took a shower. My roommates aren’t bad, but they aren’t the best as well. The room smelled fine but the bathroom was quite a different story. Soaps were everywhere and towels were hanging in every corner. Anyways I survived, at least the room wasn’t disgusting.

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2 WEEKS OUT: ARRIVING IN SIEM REAP

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The air conditioner was at full blast. I was freezing when I woke up after about an hour of deep sleep. I checked the map on my phone to see where we were and it appeared that we were almost there.

As the bus stopped the conducted yelled on the aisle announcing that we’ve arrived in Siem Reap. I quickly gathered my things, double-checked, then got off. My big backpack was unloaded from the compartment as I stood on the sidewalk.

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2 WEEKS OUT: FIRST TIME CROSSING A BORDER BY LAND (THAILAND TO CAMBODIA)

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It was one big gamble for me to push through with this Pattaya route. There was not much information on the internet on how to get to the border town from there. But I thought that there must be someway.

I’ve already given up searching for a cheap way to travel from Pattaya the night before. I asked for help from the hostel owner, but even he would only reference google for options available. I’ve already packed my things and was about to check out. Thank God that it was May who was at the reception counter. She looked puzzled why am I checking out so early, yeah that was like 7 AM. She looked at me as if I was about to waste a perfect day and a lot of time as I told her that I was to travel back to Bangkok and get on a bus to Aranyaprathet as it was cheaper rather than taking a commercial bus from Pattaya. Continue Reading →

Project 2 Weeks Out: The Pattaya Route (Part 3)

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Dear blog, I am terribly sorry. It has been almost a year and I’ve neglected this blog. A lot of things has gotten on my way in publishing something on this blog. See this blog is special to me. It is so special that I invest a humongous amount of emotional energy when I write. You are special to me. So blog, I deeply and sincerely apologize.

On from where I left off…. Continue Reading →

Project 2 Weeks Out: The Bangkok Life (Part 2)

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How do you recover from a hangover and still manage a full day of exploring. I guess I just have to find out. I remember downing a couple, or was it three? bottles of Singha before walking down with another cup of beer back to my hostel. It was an awesome night of drinking alone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being sarcastic here or anything. The introvert me did enjoy the night.

I had a full day of walking and eating planned for the day. But first, breakfast.

I walked around my hostel searching for food. But there was nothing open that early in the morning. I had the impression that Thais generally don’t start their days early like Filipinos. Are we the only ones who wake up five in the morning? Anyways, I walked a couple of blocks and saw these small carts but they didn’t seem to register as breakfast to my brain. I walked further and over the bridge and another block away and voila! I smell breakfast!

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Project 2 Weeks Out: The Bangkok Life (Part 1)

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Dead tired, I slept as soon as I was given a bed. I was too tired that I had no trouble sleeping even if it was sweltering hot. At last at 5 PM they turned the AC on. Ah thank God! I snoozed a bit for a few hours and woke up around 9PM.

Dang I slept! That was me regretting that I snoozed for a couple of hours. Hahaha! I really wanted to explore at least the area right away, but I was just too tired. I stood up immediately from the bed and checked on my gadgets that had been charging for the last few hours. I was so excited and hungry that I was soooo ready to eat! But then, my gadgets didn’t charge. It could have been because of the charging head or cable. I honestly don’ know. With the little battery life I had I took my vlogging cam with me and my other camera, got out of the hostel and just started walking around.

I deliberately tried to get lost and walk away from most of the foot traffic. I wanted to see something not so on the list for Bangkok. You know what I’m saying? Ugh. A few minutes, okay maybe about fifteen minutes into my walk  I think I saw what I was looking for. Something not touristy. It was a park by the banks of the Chao Praya river with a magnificent structure that may have been built as a fortification. I walked into the park and guess what, I found what I was looking for.

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Project 2 Weeks Out: Finding My Home

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Do you ever get that inexplicable feeling whenever you land in a place you have never been to? Me too! I had mixed emotions as the plane landed at the Bangkok airport. But one thing was for sure, I was confident that I am prepared or so I thought (that I was prepared). I’ll talk more about that later. Anyways, I know everyone was eager to get out of he plane after being stuck in that tube for hours. But hey, you know the doors ain’t open yet. Worst, you know that there’s gonna be a bunch of people standing on the aisle. All of them trying to get their bags from the overhead bins. You also know that you won’t get through to the door until everyone at the front rows gets off.  So peeps! Come on! Chillax!

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Project 2 Weeks Out: I’m Flying Out

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It was just a dream that became a plan, that became an adventure. For years, I’ve dreamed of seeing southeast Asia like I’ve never seen any other place before. Southeast Asia was a dream land for me. I would often day dream about walking along the streets of Saigon and just sit down at a random food stay in a corner. May be think of going on adventures with some stranger I met on the road and make memories. It was some sense of freedom that I was dreaming about. Much like how I felt the first time I moved out of my parents house.

This is it, here I come Indochina.

Planning took forever and it never felt that I was done planning until the day I left. I would keep on recomputing and rechecking on my itineraries, bus tickets and hostel reservations. There’s this  sense of uncertainty that made the trip seem to be more exciting. The feeling of unpredictability appealed so much to me, I was so ready for adventure!
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MEANDER TAIPEI (HOSTEL REVIEW)

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I rarely never go on birthday trips, so when I decided to go on one I made sure that it’s going to be a good one. So I booked my self a ticket to my favorite city (out of my country) Taipei and thought that I should give my self a treat and get good accommodation.

After sooo much research on where to stay with the kind of budget that I have I was able to find the best deal I could. The hostel was tucked right off Zhongxing Bridge near the Danshui river. It was the right amount of accessibility and peacefulness, this is the Meander Taipei Hostel.

I arrived at the hostel a bit two early for check in and it was a full house. So one of the staff -Wendy gave me a nice tour of the hostel and some more information on what to do around the hostel.

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