We took our first meal at this cafe after we reached Siem Reap. After our 6 hours' journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, we felt so hungry. This cafe was situated a stone's throw distance from our hostel. Our hostel did have a cafe but it was closed at 9 p.m. So we went to this cafe to eat first before we strolled casually around the area of pub street and night market. All of these places were very near to our hostel. It just took us less than two minutes to reach these places. The hostel was located at a very strategic place. 

This cafe had lots of special food and drinks. For instance,  food like fish amok and Lok Lak. At first I planned to order fish amok but I changed my mind..*you know...I always have diarrhea.* I really wish I could try all the food here but it was too bad that we were broke. It was our first day at Siem Reap so we were very concern about our budget. My friend and I spent too much at the night market. *girlsbeinggirls*  xD 

1.  Lart Cha-Vegetarian Khmer Short Rice noodle = 1.5 USD

2. Fresh passion fruit juice =1.5 USD 

There are several things that you need to know before you want to visit the temples at Angkor Archaeological Park. People always say that "I want to visit Angkor Wat at Cambodia." "Angkor Wat is very nice!" Little do they know that actually Angkor Wat is just one of the 50 plus temples at Angkor Archaeological Park. Angkor in Siem Reap is 'larger than life.' Lol. I didn't expect it to be so big!!!!!! It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the park is stretching over 400 square kilometres. The travel distance from one temple to another temple is quite far. Therefore, you have to plan properly before you visit the temples.

1. Things to bring 

More than 2000 people there. What a crowd! We woke up so early and we didn't even have time to have our breakfast at our hostel. After we arrived there, we accompanied our friend to buy breakfast at one of the food truck near the Angkor Wat area. Two of us didn't eat because it's so early to have breakfast. *Actually we were very excited and we were afraid that we couldn't watch the sunrise-Lol C'mon..* 

Gosh. Tourists everywhere! Sorry, I was one of them too. XD  Aiyo, so many people blocked the view. How to take nice photos? How to take the beautiful reflection photo of Angkor Wat that I always scroll on the Instagram feed? I tried to walk in front to take a closer shot of it.

Urgh...Sad case for me because I was short.

Argh...I was so frustrated

and 

tada

monopod came to the rescue!!!

I pulled out my monopod to the longest length and *clicked* managed to snap a few photos of Angkor Wat without any tourists photobombed my photos.

                        (Camera: Casio EX-ZR3600)                     ( mobile phone )

Bring a camera if you have one. If you have DSLR then this place is for you to take lots of nice photos. Sometimes I don't like to use mobile phone because the pixels is not that nice. Besides that I like to zoom my photos and I dislike grainy photos. So, I used a camera.

Why? Just in case your camera's battery died. You can also use your mobile phone to post your insta story, make a live Facebook video, and upload your photos instantly. However you have to have internet connection :P 

It's really hot in Cambodia especially during the dry season which starts from December to April. Before you visit the temples it is advisable to have your breakfast at your hotel or hostel. There were some stalls selling food and drinks at the temples. However the food was so expensive! The food and drink that were sold near the Angkor Wat temple were pricey. There was a boy offered us 7USD for a plate of fried rice. After several attempts, we managed to bargain the price and I ordered a plate of  2USD fried rice. Kinda disappointing with the food of a particular stall. They put so many carrots in my fried rice. It's not that I dislike carrots but the carrots were not diced.  So if you are a budget traveler, bring your own food like bread or biscuits. Our tuk tuk driver did provide us with lots of free bottled drinking water. At first I didn't want to take any drinking water from strangers for safety purpose. Luckily I was not travelling alone so I just took the all bottled water. We were really thirsty and there were three of us so we didn't think too much. For your information, Angkor is very big. Some places and some roads were quite isolated from the crowds. Thus, it's better for girls who travel solo to bring their own water.

There's very little shades at Angkor Wat and other temples too. Bring a cap to protect you from the scorching sun.

Level up and bring an umbrella. However you have to close your umbrella when you enter some temples because the doors are very small. It's very rare to see people bringing their umbrella into the temples. It's very annoying because you need to close it when you want to climb the stairs. It's also very frustrating to open the umbrella and close it for so many times. So it depends on you.

Apply some sunscreen before you visit the temples.

The places were very dusty so I wore a face mask when I was on any tuk tuk rides. Another perk of wearing a face mask was it kept me safe and sound. People couldn't really identify that whether I was a local or a tourist when my face was covered by a face mask. Just have to be cautious and I don't want to targetted by bad people even though I was not travelling alone.

You can wear sunglasses anywhere. However, you have to take off your sunglasses when you want to climb the tower at Angkor Wat.

2. Ticket 

1 day $20
3 days $40
7 days $60

Don't lose your ticket! They will always check your ticket at every temples.

3. Transport




4. Tips

-------------------

Day 1

Visit: 1 hour

Let's hi 5 the world 

 Suddenly we felt like we were in Malaysia.

 The chairs were so comfortable.

 We sat here while waiting for my friend to top up credit for his mobile phone.

Then, my friend brought us to his all-time-favourite coffee shop which named Brown Café. We were very hungry for the past few days so we were really craving for a nice meal at Phnom Penh. The price displayed on the menu was expensive but we decided to spend our money there. This was because we were going to board a plane back to Malaysia soon and we had a few bucks left in our pocket. Thus, we ordered food and drink without any hesitations. Actually we didn’t plan to order any drinks but thank God we ordered the drinks. Why? This was because the drinks were so nice!

Brown Cafe is truly a nice place to chill after walking under the scorching sun. When we were waiting for our food and drinks, we saw many rich Cambodian kids here. I felt so sad when I compared these rich kids with the poor kids that I saw at the temples. The poor kids at Siem Reap were busy selling postcards whereas these rich kids were busy selfie in the cafe. *I'm sorry to say but I was quite annoyed by these rich kids* Then my Cambodian friend told me that 'This is life.' Then I realized that the gap between rich and poor in my country is not that bad. I really had a nice conversation with my Cambodia friend about life, politics and economic inequality. I gained lots of insights from him because he studied law and political studies at his university. I felt great for the sharing sessions because this young lad definitely knew many things than me.

 My friends ordered Soya Vanilla Strawberry Frappe and Iced Caramel Macchiato.

Price: 

Soya Vanilla Strawberry Frappe -(regular) - 2.95USD

Iced Caramel Macchiato (regular) -  2.75USD

 I ordered a cup of Caramel Macchiato. (regular)

Price: 2.70 USD 

The food that I ordered was Carbonara Spaghetti (regular). 

Price: 4.25 USD

We had a mouth-watering lunch before we went back to Malaysia.

Do check out this cafe's menu here.

                                                                    Let's hi 5 the world

Angkor Grand Circuit Tour 

1. Preah Khan

2. Neak Pean

3. Ta Som

4. East Mebon

5. Banteay Samre

6. Pre Rup

7. Srah Srang

8. Banteay Kdei

9. Ta Prohm (Went to this temple on Day2)

10. Ta Keo

Angkor Small Circuit Tour

1. Angkor Wat

2. Ta Prohm Kel

3. Phnom Bakheng (Went to this temple on the first day)

4. Bayon

5. Angkor Thom

6. Elephant Terrace

7. Leper King Terrace

8. Phimeanakas & The Royal Palace

9. Preah Palilay

10. Tep Pranam

11. Bapuon

Read my Angkor Temple Guide if you plan to visit Angkor Archaeological Park.

Hi, I'm so excited to tell you that I just came back from CAMBODIA! I couldn't believe that I could go to Cambodia. I read about Angkor Wat from history book when I was in secondary school. I didn't know that I was able to see the grand Angkor Wat in real life!!!! I was so excited I couldn't sleep for so many days before my departure date. Besides that, I also ticked off one of my bucket list which is to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat!!! Apart from that, I also watched the sunset at the other temple which is called the Phnom Bakheng. Feeling so surreal and now I'm going to share with you how much it costed for me to go to Cambodia. I saved very hard and I also purchased a new camera because of this trip. I know I'm insane but I just can't bear with bad quality photos. However, I think that it's truly worth the price because I can show my readers the magnificent views of Angkor city. All photos that I shoot are raw photos and have no-filter because every nook and cranny of the Angkor city is so beautiful! Apart from that, please pay attention to some of my photos and you will notice that the skies at Angkor city are so BLUE. I was overwhelmed. *cough* Not only Siem Reap but Phnom Penh city has nice skies either.

7. Total spend

Some expenses were jotted down in MYR which indicated the money that I spent in Malaysia before I go to Cambodia. I will count how much I spend at Cambodia first, then I will add the MYR in my overall expenses.

It's really over my budget because my initial budget was RM1000, I think I spent too much on shopping. xD I just couldn't resist to purchase all the things there. From the calculation, you can see that I didn't spend so much on food. I didn't eat much at Cambodia because I'm not a foodie person. Even though I didn't eat street food, I still had diarrhea everyday. I didn't know why. Therefore, most of the time we dined at restaurant which costed us lots of money. Actually I could save more if I tried the street food but I just didn't dare to take the risk. This was because some of my friends told me that they were admitted to hospital because of food poisoning during their stay at Cambodia. So, I was very cautious when I took my meals at Cambodia. Besides that, I drank bottled mineral water only. Luckily most of the places that we went had free bottled water so we saved some money. For instance van, hostel, tuk tuk rides, restaurant and hotel did provide free drinking water to us. 

I'm more into sight-seeings and photography when I'm abroad. Hence, this budget is just a reference only. It may not suit every person's travel style. If you have any questions, please leave your comments here. I will be more than happy to help you and share my travel experiences.

Stay tuned for my next blog post → 5 days and 4 nights' trip to Siem Reap & Phnom Penh, Cambodia-Itinerary

My travel video.