Malaysia trip: Day 5 (27 Mar)

Hey there everyone! I hope your adventures from today were as great as mine. If yesterday was all about random weirdness, today was mostly a perfect combination of storybook tourism.

Everything started at 8:30 AM when we left the hotel in search of breakfast. With just a quick walk over the bridge, by 8:45 AM we found ourselves at Heart and Lova Cafe.

While the outside dining experience was “okay,” this is probably not the spot I would recommend for most travelers. Our meal of 44 RM ($9.32 USD) consisted of a Hershey’s chocolate drink, a liquid egg, canned baked beans, a slightly stale croissant with a single slice of cold cut chicken garnished with spray can cheese and a medicinal tasting “juice”. Yes, or could have been worse, but there are clearly many better options available.

On the plus side, when we exited at 9:18 AM, we were able to walk immediately into the Malaysian Architecture Museum which was right next door. The cost per foreign adult was 5 RM ($1.06 USD).

The building itself, built sometime in the 1700’s was well cared for and there was abundant air conditioning throughout despite the doors remaining wide open and there being no attempt to close obvious open spaces around the windows. Separately, the exhibits themselves, while “attractive,” primarily consisted of well lit cardboard cutouts and models. It was of course incredibly educational.

At 10:24 AM we exited and walked up to the ruins of St. Paul’s church.

The views were nice, and there were various grave markers which were lining the walls, thus giving a bit of insight to the Dutch and English colonists who had been here before. Mostly, visitors treated this as a favorite site to get a good Instagram pic. Next walked over to the nearby, still fully functional Christ Church.

I couldn’t figure out the purpose of these structures.

The seating design was very practical for this climate. It was comfortable and had good air flow.

Right next door was the Melaka Art Gallery, which had a cost of 10 RM ($2.11 USD) per adult when we entered at 11:26 AM.

Fortunately, at 2:35 PM we found ourselves entering the non pretentiously named Jonker Street Chicken Rice Ball restaurant.

The ground floor was this very informative, but perhaps overly detailed chronicle of youth movements in Malaysia since the time of independence. Would the next floor be the same?

Woohoo, this was more along the lines of what we had expected.

This Allen Tan was clearly considered a big deal, with this entire hall dedicated to him. The temperature inside was very comfortable, and the polished parquet flooring was gorgeous. Yes, the dusty plastic flower arrangement in the corner seemed a bit out of place, but maybe that was intentional . . . some sort of contrast point to the paintings and polished wooden floor? No doubt they didn’t want to encourage sitting, so there were no benches here.

I noticed that much of the art was for sale, so why do they charge admission? I was just wondering . . . Anyways, onto other rooms.

Now this group of artists had the same parquet flooring, but in stark contrast to the previous room, a single simple wooden bench was right in the center of the room. Perhaps I was being overly analytical, but I once again found myself asking if there was some special artistic intention here?

Around the corner, another dusty fake flower arrangement served as a contrast point to a painting . . . Once again, coincidental or intentional?

While not everyone will find this relevant, I think it’s sometimes also worthwhile to report on the state of the restrooms.

No, there was no water on the floor. Rather, this seemed to be some sort of special flooring which at first glance always looks wet. My hotel room actually had the same thing, but with a different color.

A lot of the paintings seemed to be student work from the last twenty years. Maybe high schools could do this with really good work? I mean anyone who works in a school knows that lots of times students don’t want their creations at the end of the school year. However, I thought it was odd that none of the works by UTIM students listed the name of the creator; whereas, Koleksi Tetap which also had a lot of representation, always put the student names. Also none of the sculptures had any sort of information: creator, year, title?

At 12:46 we exited the museum, once more on our way to gather further cultural enlightenment.

The Cheng Ho cultural museum was high on the list of must-see sites, and we arrived at 1:09 PM. Some of you will already know about him since he’s a big deal explorer and cultural ambassador from China, but this was my first exposure. While I attempted to treat the visit with the solemnity and respect it deserved, I may at times have failed.

Don’t be fooled though. I did learn a lot. It turns out that in this part of the world, a lot of older mosques have strong Chinese architectural influences, and that’s because of the influence of Chinese Muslims. However, the model of Guamchang was at times incredibly comical with all the different sized figures and the inclusion of different artistic styles. It reminded me of Christmas nativity scene in Latin America when little kids help set things up with their toys.

The last exhibit hall was very eclectic. It seemed almost like a random collection of stuff from various grandmas. Many items weren’t even labeled.

Really, it was a bit of a marathon of learning, but at 2:35 PM we finally exited in search of something to eat for lunch.

Presumably this gentleman had also been doing a marathon of various museum visits.

Our meal for two was 70.9 RM ($14.99 USD). The food at Jonker street chicken rice ball restaurant  was decent, but not amazing. Still, I would feel comfortable recommending it to fellow travelers.

We continued here until 3:07 PM and then trekked off to our next obligatory Melaka destination, arriving at the nearby Baba & Nyonya heritage museum at 3:17 PM. Here the per adult entrance fee was 18 RM ($3.80 USD).

I wasn’t really sure why it was precisely 3 more RM than the last one, but I was sure there was a logical reason. Maybe it was the cost of the “self guide book” we were given to read while visiting?

The book actually did a very good job explaining things. But, I figured this out without the guidebook, the people who used to live in this house were seriously rich. This is just a family home which is no longer lived in by the younger family members. . . Presumably they prefer big city life. If you want the details of everything, you will have to visit on your own, or alternatively just read their website. Next we went upstairs.

Again, everything was very well laid out and very beautiful. It turns out that being super rich means that you have a beautiful home. Let’s see if it still continues like that when we go downstairs again.

So honestly, I really found this place to be very informative and even enjoyable. I learned so much about the Chinese immigrant community in Malaysia, or more precisely, the rich Chinese community. If in Melaka, go ahead and take the time to visit this place. Finally at 4:25 PM we were ready to head over to the Geographer’s cafe.

After a relaxing snack and coffee, at 6:00 PM it was time to once again check out sites on the street.

We wandered beyond the tourist district.

And then at 7:22 PM, down a wide side alley, we came across the amazing Capital Seafood food stall.

Our amazing food had a total cost of 62 RM ($13.10 USD) for two people and I was so satisfied with the entire delicious experience. Unless you are a vegetarian, if you only eat one place in Melaka, eat here. We finished up here at 8:23 PM and walked back towards the hotel.

Right in front of the hotel I decided to get one of these absurdly tall soft-serve ice cream cones for only 10 RM ($2.11 USD). The ice cream itself really wasn’t that tasty, but the whole idea of eating such a tall ice-cream cone was irresistible.

Despite the heat, there was so much water in it, the ice cream actually held up fairly well, but it was still a bit of a rush to finish it before it melted or worse, fell over. Still, I’m happy to report that I finished the whole thing, and no doubt because of the high water content did not even feel bad later on as a result of eating so much ice cream.

By 9:00 PM we were back in the room, but the nearby off key karaoke continued until 12:15 AM. The singing from the previous evening had been quite nice, but that was not so much the case this evening.

So friends, that was my first mega museum and culture day in Melaka. Let me know which part you liked the most in the comment section below.

Malaysia trip: Day 4 (26 Mar)

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today was a bit of an adventure as it was time to go to a new city called Melaka. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the area where we had planned to go is a World Heritage site, so some people think it’s pretty special.

The important events of the day started at 8:50 AM when I once again used Grab to summon a car from Mont Kiara to TBS station. The car arrived at 8:57, and by 9:37 we were pulling up in front of the station. The total cost of the 19 km ride was 22.5 RM ($4.77 USD).

The station was much larger than I had imagined, but it was also very organized. The day before I had used easybook.com to buy two direct bus tickets to Melaka for a total of $5.32 USD. After grabbing some snacks, I was quickly able to approach the appropriate counter and pick up my tickets. Except for the lack of any obvious security measures, there was a very airport vibe, and by 9:54 AM we were at the waiting area in front of our gate.

Just as the ticket had indicated, at 10:30 AM sharp we entered the comfortable bus and started on our way. The seat and the trip itself was very comfortable, and at 12:31 PM we pulled up outside the Melaka bus terminal.

My first impression was that it was very hot, but also a nice enough looking place. I once again got a Grab car at 12:37 PM, with the car arriving almost instantly.

At 12:58 PM I was paying 9 RM ($1.90 USD) fee for the 4 km trip. And that was when we had our first hiccup. The Heeren house lodging which I had booked for three nights ($150 USD) on booking.com appeared to be closed. When I was able to contact someone on the phone numbers posted outside, they said they had no record of our booking.

A bit of further investigation revealed that there are several hotels called Heeren, and we were at the wrong one. Fortunately, the right one was only about 15 meters away, so it was easy enough to walk right over to that one, Heeren by the River hotel. Unfortunately, that one was also closed. On the plus side, some random guest let us get in from the sun into the lobby, where we were finally able to get ahold of someone on the phone who told us to just stick our bags behind reception and to come back in about 45 minutes.

So at 1:28 PM, we left our bags and headed out walking. The sun was very strong and the heat relentless, but there were several interesting shops, including a place called a flea shop, which actually assisted appeared to just be a discount store, kind of like a “dollar store”.

Then at 2:35 PM we tried to get some food at the highly recommended Jonker 88, but there was no obvious way to order food and the staff were rather rude. So, we decided to head back towards a Mexican restaurant we had seen a couple of blocks earlier called Mamasita Melaka. This seemed like a bad idea, but we were hot and the place had nice decor.

Amazingly, the Mexican restaurant was surprisingly good. I’m not willing to say it was outstanding, but I would definitely recommend it. The food was decent, the decor nice, and the service good. The cost for two people was 88.6 RM ($18.78 USD). We stayed there until 3:24 PM and then walked back to the hotel, arriving two minutes later.

Again, the door was locked, and we had to go through the whole process of calling and asking someone to help, but by 3:48 PM we were already in the room. Despite having already paid $150 USD on booking.com, we had to separately pay a 6 RM “heritage tax” in cash. It all seemed like a scam since the money went into the same register as everything else, but it was only the equivalent of $1.27 so I didn’t care.

The room looked alright and the bathroom was huge. Furthermore, once the air conditioner was going for a while it was a tolerable temperature. The room definitely should also have had a pedestal or table fan as well, since the air conditioner didn’t do a very good job of distributing the cooled air throughout the room. I decided to rest a bit until the day cooled down

At 7:05 PM it was fully dark and a bit cooler outside, so I decided to go out exploring.

At around 7:36 PM I had already walked through “little India” and then found myself in a strange mall called The Shore.

Contrary to the name, there was nothing electronic about this store.

At first I thought the issue was that it seemed to be mostly abandoned, but then I realized that the issue was not that there were no shops, but that there were almost no people. Most of the spots had the lights on, doors open and even plenty of merchandise, but there were just no people . . . Basically, it was like a movie set, but the actors and film crew had not yet arrived with any of the equipment. I considered calling out, but decided against it . . . What if someone answered and it wasn’t what I was wanting? Better to play it safe.

Anyways, I left the abandoned movie set at 7:44 and continued my walk.

Continuing with the theme of strange shopping centers, I then at 7:54 PM found myself in yet another one. 


























However, as can be seen, here the issue was that almost all the locales seemed to be either empty or shut up. All in all, this second one seemed less creepy than the first one. I did however start to wonder what was going on. Where were the people, and where were the stores? Was I unknowingly skipping through alternate shopping themed dimensions? 





On the whole though, inter-dimensional travel seemed unlikely, so I simply excited the shopping center and continued walking.





At 8:02 PM I breathed an easy sigh of relief as I turned a corner and saw a few people. There weren’t a lot, but there were several cars moving, and I could see what reasonably appeared to be humans in the distance. I seemed to now be in some sort of a night market.

























How was this a secondhand store?










Similar to the “flea shop” and earlier “e-mart” which only had convenience store items, some of the store names in the night market also seemed randomly assigned, like the “Secondhand store” which was only selling beans new shoes. Still nothing particularly nefarious seemed to be happening in the night market. There were just very few clients.





At 8:29 PM I finally exited the very organized and clean, yet still sort of depressing night market, once again determined to make it back to my familiar, reasonably populated shopping dimension. There were several nice night sites along the way, and I actually did make it back to my land of capitalistic success at 9:31 PM. 






























In celebration, I figured the most appropriate thing to do would be to get some dinner at McDonald’s. Scorn me if you will, but few places were open, and I’m not afraid to admit that living in India, I actually do miss the occasional beef hamburger from McDonald’s. In case you are wondering, yes, the food tasted exactly the same as in either the USA or Costa Rica. Furthermore, the price was right at only 16 RM ($3.42 USD) for a double cheeseburger, medium french fries, medium soft drink and a strawberry sundae!










At 9:52 PM, I then left to go walking back to my lodging, arriving back to the room at 10:08 PM. 




















While I will admit that the day was a bit odd, it was certainly interesting. I was also confident that my first full day in Melaka would be a textbook tourist experience with plenty of culture and classic historical sites. 





Anyways, for now I will close. I wonder, have any of you ever had hotel and “shopping” experiences like these while on vacation? If so, let me know about it in the comment section below.

	


	





	

		
Malaysia trip: Day 4 (26 Mar)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today was a bit of an adventure as it was time to go to a new city called Melaka. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the area where we had planned to go is a World Heritage site, so some people think it’s pretty special.





The important events of the day started at 8:50 AM when I once again used Grab to summon a car from Mont Kiara to TBS station. The car arrived at 8:57, and by 9:37 we were pulling up in front of the station. The total cost of the 19 km ride was 22.5 RM ($4.77 USD). 















The station was much larger than I had imagined, but it was also very organized. The day before I had used easybook.com to buy two direct bus tickets to Melaka for a total of $5.32 USD. After grabbing some snacks, I was quickly able to approach the appropriate counter and pick up my tickets. Except for the lack of any obvious security measures, there was a very airport vibe, and by 9:54 AM we were at the waiting area in front of our gate. 















Just as the ticket had indicated, at 10:30 AM sharp we entered the comfortable bus and started on our way. The seat and the trip itself was very comfortable, and at 12:31 PM we pulled up outside the Melaka bus terminal. 






























My first impression was that it was very hot, but also a nice enough looking place. I once again got a Grab car at 12:37 PM, with the car arriving almost instantly. 





At 12:58 PM I was paying 9 RM ($1.90 USD) fee for the 4 km trip. And that was when we had our first hiccup. The Heeren house lodging which I had booked for three nights ($150 USD) on booking.com appeared to be closed. When I was able to contact someone on the phone numbers posted outside, they said they had no record of our booking. 





A bit of further investigation revealed that there are several hotels called Heeren, and we were at the wrong one. Fortunately, the right one was only about 15 meters away, so it was easy enough to walk right over to that one, Heeren by the River hotel. Unfortunately, that one was also closed. On the plus side, some random guest let us get in from the sun into the lobby, where we were finally able to get ahold of someone on the phone who told us to just stick our bags behind reception and to come back in about 45 minutes. 















So at 1:28 PM, we left our bags and headed out walking. The sun was very strong and the heat relentless, but there were several interesting shops, including a place called a flea shop, which actually assisted appeared to just be a discount store, kind of like a “dollar store”.






























Then at 2:35 PM we tried to get some food at the highly recommended Jonker 88, but there was no obvious way to order food and the staff were rather rude. So, we decided to head back towards a Mexican restaurant we had seen a couple of blocks earlier called Mamasita Melaka. This seemed like a bad idea, but we were hot and the place had nice decor.

























Amazingly, the Mexican restaurant was surprisingly good. I’m not willing to say it was outstanding, but I would definitely recommend it. The food was decent, the decor nice, and the service good. The cost for two people was 88.6 RM ($18.78 USD). We stayed there until 3:24 PM and then walked back to the hotel, arriving two minutes later.




















Again, the door was locked, and we had to go through the whole process of calling and asking someone to help, but by 3:48 PM we were already in the room. Despite having already paid $150 USD on booking.com, we had to separately pay a 6 RM “heritage tax” in cash. It all seemed like a scam since the money went into the same register as everything else, but it was only the equivalent of $1.27 so I didn’t care. 




















The room looked alright and the bathroom was huge. Furthermore, once the air conditioner was going for a while it was a tolerable temperature. The room definitely should also have had a pedestal or table fan as well, since the air conditioner didn’t do a very good job of distributing the cooled air throughout the room. I decided to rest a bit until the day cooled down





At 7:05 PM it was fully dark and a bit cooler outside, so I decided to go out exploring. 






























At around 7:36 PM I had already walked through “little India” and then found myself in a strange mall called The Shore. 















Contrary to the name, there was nothing electronic about this store.

























At first I thought the issue was that it seemed to be mostly abandoned, but then I realized that the issue was not that there were no shops, but that there were almost no people. Most of the spots had the lights on, doors open and even plenty of merchandise, but there were just no people . . . Basically, it was like a movie set, but the actors and film crew had not yet arrived with any of the equipment. I considered calling out, but decided against it . . . What if someone answered and it wasn’t what I was wanting? Better to play it safe.





Anyways, I left the abandoned movie set at 7:44 and continued my walk.




















Continuing with the theme of strange shopping centers, I then at 7:54 PM found myself in yet another one. 






























However, as can be seen, here the issue was that almost all the locales seemed to be either empty or shut up. All in all, this second one seemed less creepy than the first one. I did however start to wonder what was going on. Where were the people, and where were the stores? Was I unknowingly skipping through alternate shopping themed dimensions? 





On the whole though, inter-dimensional travel seemed unlikely, so I simply excited the shopping center and continued walking.





At 8:02 PM I breathed an easy sigh of relief as I turned a corner and saw a few people. There weren’t a lot, but there were several cars moving, and I could see what reasonably appeared to be humans in the distance. I seemed to now be in some sort of a night market.

























How was this a secondhand store?










Similar to the “flea shop” and earlier “e-mart” which only had convenience store items, some of the store names in the night market also seemed randomly assigned, like the “Secondhand store” which was only selling beans new shoes. Still nothing particularly nefarious seemed to be happening in the night market. There were just very few clients.





At 8:29 PM I finally exited the very organized and clean, yet still sort of depressing night market, once again determined to make it back to my familiar, reasonably populated shopping dimension. There were several nice night sites along the way, and I actually did make it back to my land of capitalistic success at 9:31 PM. 






























In celebration, I figured the most appropriate thing to do would be to get some dinner at McDonald’s. Scorn me if you will, but few places were open, and I’m not afraid to admit that living in India, I actually do miss the occasional beef hamburger from McDonald’s. In case you are wondering, yes, the food tasted exactly the same as in either the USA or Costa Rica. Furthermore, the price was right at only 16 RM ($3.42 USD) for a double cheeseburger, medium french fries, medium soft drink and a strawberry sundae!










At 9:52 PM, I then left to go walking back to my lodging, arriving back to the room at 10:08 PM. 




















While I will admit that the day was a bit odd, it was certainly interesting. I was also confident that my first full day in Melaka would be a textbook tourist experience with plenty of culture and classic historical sites. 





Anyways, for now I will close. I wonder, have any of you ever had hotel and “shopping” experiences like these while on vacation? If so, let me know about it in the comment section below.

	


	





	

		
Malaysia trip: Day 3 (25 Mar)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hey there everyone. I hope you are enjoying my most recent travels. I certainly am! So anyways, here’s what happened on day 3.





At 10:29 AM I again ordered a Grab car. I feel like I should also try some other ride hailing service, but so far this one is working well, and since I’m only here for a week, I figure it’s probably better to just stick with what works. The car arrived at 10:35 AM, and we were on our way from Mont Kiara to Chinatown.





After a short, comfortable ride, at 10:52 AM we arrived and I paid the bill of 14 RM ($2.97 USD). I understood that there were plenty of things around here to see, so with no particular expectations, we set off walking.





Keeping in mind the name of the neighborhood,  I was happy to quickly come across the Guan Di temple. It wasn’t particularly fancy, but if you are in the area, may as well check it out. 






























We were here for about 15 minutes and then at 11:18 AM, right across the street I saw that there was also the Sri Maha Mariamman temple. As I live in India, I felt a bit silly checking out an obviously Hindu temple in another country, but I was actually glad that I did. This looked very different from what I’ve become accustomed to in both Maharashtra and Karnataka. 






























There weren’t too many people, but there was a lot going on, so I stayed here until 11:54 AM. They were still playing ceremonial music when I left, but I thought I had seen and heard enough. I mean without too much effort, I can probably easily find something similar in Bengaluru. Following these two temple visits, I figured I should now just look around a bit. 






























The wandering was fine, but I wasn’t really keen on buying random stuff, so at 12:50 PM we decided to get a tasty lunch at Chef Ma BBQ. The food was reasonably priced, and while the ambiance wasn’t fancy, it was comfortable enough. We paid  a total of 77.5 RM ($16.24 USD) for two people.




















At 2:15 PM, we decided to exit the restaurant and go over to the nearby Central Market. 




















It was a leisurely stroll, and we arrived at 2:30 PM. If gift shopping is your thing, then you will love this place, but I suspect that you can get most items for cheaper prices elsewhere. It was certainly a comfortable place, but I was more than ready to leave at 3:13 PM. As Huixian was feeling a bit tired we decided to get some tea or coffee somewhere nearby.




















At 3:20 PM we decided to try our luck at Secret Recipe. It was a pleasant place to sit and chat, with attractive dessert items, but neither the cake nor the drinks were particularly impressive. As such, I felt that the bill of 24.35 RM ($5.15 USD) was a bit much, but then I guess we weren’t really paying for the food or drinks, but rather for the setting. 




















At 4:11 PM it was time to walk towards Merbaka Square. It was a good spot to take pictures and just rest a bit, but I would have liked to be able to look inside some of the buildings. 



































When the afternoon rains started at 4:53 PM, there was fortunately a sheltered spot to sit right across the street, next to the river. 




















I couldn’t really figure out the intended purpose of this shelter, but it was perfect for a small group of people to get away from the downpour. Maybe it was actually made just for this reason, since I understand that it rains like this almost everyday, and people do need a protected spot. However, I’m not sure.





Right at 5:35 PM the rain stopped, so we figured that we should try to do a bit more exploring.






























 Nothing was particularly amazing, but this nearby neighborhood seemed to have a more down to earth character than other places I had so far seen in Kuala Lumpur. As we were a bit far from Mont Kiara and it was starting to get dark, at 6:13 PM I once again activated my trusty Grab app, and at 6:33 PM was back in a comfortable car headed towards Mont Kiara 163 retail park.





We arrived at 7:04 PM, paying 26 MR ($5.51 USD) for the transport, and then browsed the shops and restaurants before choosing QingHeGu Korean BBQ at 7:52 PM. 



































Even though our meal of Pork shoulder for two was a bit pricey with a cost of 104.9 RM ($22.10 USD), I felt that it was completely worth it. Besides, when on vacation, it’s important to indulge a bit unless one is really counting pennies. 






























At 9:05 PM we were done at the restaurant and it was just a short walk back to the apartment. All in all, it was a great day, and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s trip as well. As for you, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope you are also making the most out of every moment! Finally, as always, if you have any questions, just drop a note in the comments below. 






	


	





	

		
Malaysia trip: Day 2 (24 Mar)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hey there friends, I know that yesterday’s entry wasn’t all that exciting, so if you are still reading along, I promise that today had much better traditional tourism activities to get you excited about visiting Kuala Lumpur.





We went ahead and headed out of the house at 9:30 AM here in Mont Kiara. Just a cross the road. There’s a rather fancy restaurant called Kanteen, but then to be fair, almost everything in Mont Kiara seems to be a bit fancy. The ambiance was nice, and our breakfast for two had a cost of 66 RM ($14.06 USD).















We finished up at 10:12 AM, and I used Grab to ask for a car to take us to The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. The very pleasant sedan arrived at 10:22 AM, and for the modest sum of 11 RM ($2.32 USD) for a 9 km trip, we were pulling up in front of the museum at 10:37 AM. Having come in from India just the night before I was really impressed with how nice the roads were and how it seemed that everyone on the road was being very respectful; in general there didn’t seem to be a lot of cars, but that might just be because it was so orderly.





The cost per adult to enter was 20 RM ($4.22 USD). As the building is very elegant, I had very high hopes. We started out our visit with a temporary exhibit which highlighted more recent creations.






























I was intrigued by a lot of this, because much of it was a bit different than what I had come to expect from Islamic art. I think though that this is positive, because it shows that like everything else, it is evolving over time. Around 11:05 PM we headed up a floor to the second special exhibit hall and then on to the permanent collections.




















I was rather surprised to see the section dedicated to Chinese Muslim art, since I had no idea how developed this was.










There was quite a lot to see, and I probably did not really do justice to the museum. While I appreciate art galleries and museums, even under the best of circumstances, I tend to find it hard to stay focused for too long. Ideally, I feel like most of these places should be visited with a good guide, several times, with each visit taking no longer than 90 minutes. However that’s not to say it wasn’t impressive.

























These weird light blue ones in the background are evidently tear catchers; who knew that was even a thing?





At 1:14 PM we decided to depart for our next destination, which was about 1 km away on foot. The heat and humidity was terrible, but by staying in the shade as much as possible, we managed alright.










There was almost no traffic on the road.





While it had not been our original intent to eat again so soon, upon arriving at the Hornbill Cafe at 1:38 PM, we thought it would be best to have something else to eat asking with a cool drink before tackling the KL Bird Park. This was clearly a bit of a tourist trap, but the food was admittedly very nice, as was the general atmosphere of the place despite being an open air restaurant/cafe. For two people the bill was 126.9 RM ($26.79 USD).















Connected to the Cafe is a gift shop where one can pay and directly enter the park. The cost per adult was 85 RM ($17.94 USD). We paid and entered at 2:32 PM.





No these aren’t birds, but they were still cool to look at.










Guests receive a surprisingly useful brochure which basically just repeats the information on this map. We decided to just keep going left until we had completed the circuit.

























While we were wandering we saw that there was a bird show at 3:30 PM which we decided to check out. Still pictures don’t really do it justice; it really was a nice addition to the visit.






























We then finished up our visit over in zone 2 of the park.



































As to be expected, there was another gift shop at the exit.





While we probably could have spent at least 30-60 more minutes at the park, we heard a lot of thunder in the distance, so decided to exit at 5:05 PM. The entire 2 hours and 45 minutes we were at the park was time greatly enjoyed.





I once again used the Grab app to hail a car, and by 5:31 PM we were back at Mont Kiara, having paid the same amount as before.





So in summary, while I personally found the museum a bit tiring, I would still recommend it. And as you have probably guessed, I think the Bird park is a must see destination in Kuala Lumpur. 





As always, thanks for reading along, and please put any questions or comments in the space indicated below. Of course, If you are interested in what I got up to on day three, then you will just have to keep following along. 





See you then!






	


	





	

		
Malaysia trip: Day 1 (23 Mar)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hey there readers, I hope you are doing well. I know it’s been some time since I last wrote and also know that I left you hanging on the rest of my recent trip to China in December-January. I do still however have plenty of notes and pictures from that trip.





The food was so good in China!





So, I may still get around to writing some more about that soon. However, it’s now time to look forward to Malaysia.





I’m not really sure what I will do once I’m there, but I’m sure I will have a great time since I’m once again visiting with a good friend. Before I get too far into my writing, I’ve actually had a recent hiccup already, because I didn’t do my research ahead of time. Evidently it is now a requirement for almost all visitors to Malaysia to register for the Malaysian Digital Arrival Card before arriving. The process itself is simple, but it doesn’t seem to be instantaneous.





I filled out my application two hours before departure, but when I boarded the plane had still not received either a confirmation nor the document itself. I even tried it with two different emails. Anyways, I’m writing this while on the plane, and will see what happens once I arrive. I’m not too worried though since I’m traveling with my USA passport, and the Malaysian airlines staff told me before boarding that it shouldn’t be a problem even though the official website seems to indicate otherwise. I guess worst case scenario I’ll get sent back to India or maybe even USA? 





So like most of these trips departing from Bengaluru, I once again opted to use BluSmart car services to get to the airport. As in the past, the service was punctual, the driver courteous, and the car comfortable and the price reasonable. Do note that it’s generally better to book the car between 24 and 48 hours when you need it since the fleet is limited. The cost today was 759 INR ($9.08 USD). With the entire 25 km trip taking 38 minutes. My only complaint would be that the seat coverings are a bit uncomfortable.





While easy to clean, the lack of breathable fabric can get uncomfortable.





Also like all my trips the last several years, I once again opted to use an ESIM service. While I used to blindly recommend Airalo, I now do some quick comparison shopping beforehand. Similar to my recent trip to China, this time Nomad seemed to be the best option for my needs. As a minimum though, I suggest you always compare Airalo, Nomad and Holafly before choosing. I did however have a problem purchasing the ESIM this time. This seems to be an India only problem, but I thought that Nomad wasn’t affected. Yes, I was able to open the app, choose the plan and even add payment options, I couldn’t pay using my phone in India. I tried two Indian issued cards, a Costa Rican card and then PayPal. I also tried using a VPN even with GPS spoofing, but no.





As a last resort I tried to purchase using my PC, without a VPN, while in India, using an Indian credit card, and this time I had no problem. Does it make sense? No, but if you get stuck, the same trick might also work for you. I bought a 30 day 10 GB data ESIM through Nomad for only $12.75 USD. I had been a little worried that there might be a problem installing the ESIM on my Google Pixel 7 since I had bought it through the PC, but when I scanned the code on my computer screen, the installation went as smoothly as always. I’ve written a lot about ESIMs before, so won’t repeat too much again. Suffice to say, this is the best option for international connectivity when traveling to most destinations and it’s easy to check online ahead of time to see whether or not your device is compatible. These days, most flagship devices are, and it’s even becoming common with midrange phones.





Going to the airport was in some ways a different experience for me this time around since I usually have horrible travel times which require me to either depart very late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. This time around however, I was able to score a direct flight on Malaysian Airlines with a scheduled departure time of 12:00 PM. The round trip price was only about $275 USD with both flights getting direct! So anyways, what was it like traveling at this time.










For the most part when traveling out of terminal 2 in Bengaluru, I’ve had very good experiences, but I had been worried that this time around might be more difficult due to the more convenient travel time. However, that was not the case. From the time I arrived at the drop off point, It only took me a total of 27 minutes . . . Even with having a bag to check! Now I know that a lot of you are no doubt gasping to hear that I was traveling with a checked bag; I normally do trips all around the world with a single piece of 7 kg hand luggage. No, I haven’t gone over to the dark side. It’s just that I really love a lot of Southeast and East Asian food which is either very hard or impossible to find in India. So, since my short work trip to Bangkok in September, every time I head this way I try to buy a bunch of foodstuffs to take back; I especially love all the dried meats. So if any of you want to surprise me with something special, you know what to get!










Anyways, even though I really wasn’t hungry, once I was in the departure terminal at 9:35 AM I headed straight to the 080 lounge armed with my recently upgraded Regalia Gold card from HDFC. As most of my Indian readers know, lounge access on Indian cards has been cut back drastically in the last year. Similarly, airport lounge service, while still a nice perk, seems to have greatly decreased over the past two years. The 080 lounge in Bengaluru airport terminal 2 has always had a more exclusive level of access, so I was hoping that it would also be a step up from my recent experiences. Wow! It definitely was.




















Don’t get me wrong, as most people will say, terminal 2 already has a very pleasant general ambiance which I hope will not decrease as it becomes more and more utilised. But the 080 lounge really accomplishes it’s goal of being a place of gentle relaxation and rest. The pictures really don’t do it justice. The decor, comfort and general atmosphere was a breath of fresh air. Furthermore, while I didn’t use them, my lounge access even included two standard alcoholic drink vouchers. Finally, the food variety was also very good with a nice selection of both Indian and continental dishes including a mound of pork bacon! Did I eat way too much? You be the judge. . .















So, do I feel a bit elitist writing about my fancy lounge access? Yes, I do. However, it’s taken me a long time to get here. Furthermore, if you are going to charge for a lounge program, whether it be to the individual traveller or through a group Bank card access program, the 080 lounge in terminal 2 does it the way it should be, and other lounges in India should take note. 





So I stayed in the lounge as long as I thought it was safe, going down at 11:15 AM to wait for the boarding call of my 12:00 PM flight. It turns out that I could have stayed up there longer and maybe enjoyed one of those drink vouchers, since the flight was delayed. We didn’t actually board the plane until 12:13, with the actual liftoff happening just under one hour later. 





I would have liked adjustable headrests on the plane, a B737-800. However, the inflight entertainment options were decent and the food service decent.















It had been awhile since I had seen these on a plane.










The movie I chose was a bit of a disappointment, the latest Aquaman, but that was my own foolish choice. There were plenty of other great looking recent releases available, but I decided to opt for something lighter . . . Unfortunately, it was just dumb. Aquaman lovers please don’t spam me with your hate comments unless you also bring me back some tasty dried meat snacks from your next trip to this part of the world. 





So it’s 4:13 PM India time (6:43 PM Malaysia time) and, they just announced the beginning of our descent into Kuala Lumpur. Up until now it’s been a good flight, with my only complaint being that it’s been a tad bit too warm for my liking. Supposedly we will touch down at 7:31 PM Malaysia time. The actual touchdown time was 7:26 PM Malaysia time, with being parked at 7:34 PM. So far so good. However, upon connecting to  my Nomad esim I saw that the MDAC still had not arrived. 





7:42 PM getting off the plane. While it is possible to understand the signage, it’s kind of confusing because they have you all out in the same area as both the transfers and as far as I can tell, maybe even people that are taking off, so it’s a bit difficult to tell where you’re supposed to go. You eventually get to the end of a hall, and then you have to wait to take a bus.




















 Like I said, it’s doable, i but a bit unsettling. To be certain, when I saw the bus at 7:50 PM, I actually thought that I had made a mistake and started to turn around; fortunately there was a worker there and seeing that I was hesitating, she told me that this was the right way.





7:59 PM the bus arrived at the next building. This one seemed a bit easier to navigate, but once again it wasn’t clear where I was supposed to go. There was a sign with the USA flag pointing to the right along with about 7 other flags, but when I went there they said that was wrong. The earlier sign had said autogate eligible this way, but I’m not sure what it means. Regardless, the official kindly told me it was the wrong place.





8:27 PM I finally got to the immigration office and they didn’t ask for the MDAC, which of course I didn’t have haha. The baggage claim was right there. At 8:31 PM I already had my bag.










8:41 PM I was on the KLIA Ekspres to KL Sentral. It was easy to buy the 55 RM ($11.61 USD) using tap to pay with my international card. I didn’t see any in the airport and I didn’t have any local currency. The train itself was clean, quiet and comfortable.





At 9:16 PM I arrived at the station, got out and was happy to see three ATM machines. Right there I also saw a taxi counter where I was able to pre-pay a ticket to Mont Kiara for just 30 RM ($6.33 USD). One copy is for the driver and the other copy is the customer receipt.










Within 15 minutes I was at my friend’s place in Mont Kiara.










Visiting good friends always makes for a great trip!





So anyways, I know today was a bit boring, but the travel itself is also an important part of the voyage. I know that this entry was rushed, but I also know that if I spend too much time on it, then I will never get it out, so in advance please excuse any egregious errors. As always thanks for reading along and I hope to offer some good tips on your next trip to Malaysia.

	


	





	

		
Fujian province trip December 2023 to January 2024: Initial advice based on week 1.
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		






Hello there to my loyal readers and to those who are only just now discovering my travels . . .





These Fujian province entries will be a bit different from my normal travel logs, since this trip is more about visiting an old friend and former colleague than it is about discovering Fujian province itself. Also, unlike other similar trips such as when I went to Phuket to visit with my good friend Elisabet, here in Fujian province, especially away from a major city, I am almost entirely dependant on my former colleague, Huixian. 





Since Huixian and other Chinese people I have met outside of China all speak quite good English, and I also knew that English was a required subject in school, I had just assumed that all reasonably educated people knew English. As a minimum, I figured they would be able to read without too much effort. Let me be clear right off, that is NOT the case, at least not in Fujian province away from the main city of Xiamen. So, if you do not know some basic Chinese, including being able to read, I don’t think that I can recommend that solo travellers attempt a trip to China away from very major cities. As I know English, Spanish and French quite well, this is the first time in more than twenty-five years that I have felt almost entirely lost when on my own. 





Furthermore, all signs and notice boards are only in Chinese, usually only with Chinese characters (no Pinyin) and apps which you have come to rely on outside of China such as Google maps don’t really work here. Yes, there are high quality local equivalents, but they are only available in Chinese. In short, this is not a location for the inexperienced or meek solo traveller. Again, in my case things have been great, since Huixian has made sure that I am always taken care of, but on my own it would be incredibly difficult. No doubt tour groups have a different experience, because then there is someone hired to make sure you are always cared for and shuttled around from place to place. 










Furthermore, most of us outside of China have come to rely on our debit and credit cards; good luck with that in Fujian province (and I suspect in most of the rest of China away from the mega cities). Unless you only go to very expensive places, almost nowhere here accepts cards for payment. Supposedly everywhere has to accept cash, but many travellers report that while shops and smaller vendors are in theory happy to accept cash, they never have change, since here almost everyone pays with either WeChat or Alipay. 





WeChat is the local equivalent of WhatsApp or iMessage and is by far the preferred option of the two major payment platforms used on a daily basis in China. Like WhatsApp, people use it for messaging, but it also has a payment option built in which is similar to Apple Pay, Google Pay or in the case of India (where I live most of the year), UPI payments. The first hurdle many will encounter, especially if coming in from India such as I did, is how to get a WeChat or Alipay account; again, I recommend WeChat since it seems to be more universally preferred here in China. 





This snack at the train station represented my first struggle with payment in China. I had already added my Indian card to Alipay before departure, but then I couldn’t get it to work. After 35 minutes I was finally able to pay using WeChat pay . . . But later on my Indian bank blocked my card 😥





In India, the WeChat app is blocked on both the Google and Apple stores, so you will have to sideload the same. This is a fairly easy process for Android devices, but I believe it is significantly more difficult for Apple users. Once installed, you will not be able to activate your account with an Indian number, but it shouldn’t be too difficult for most other countries. This is not because WeChat nor China refuses to verify Indian numbers but rather because India blocks the process. In my case I was able to verify my WeChat account using my Costa Rican number. However, initial verification is only half of the battle, because you will then need a mainland Chinese friend to complete the second half of the verification process. Probably if you have already decided to travel to China, you will have someone available to help you with the second part of account verification, even if it is just your tour guide, but if you don’t, then you can’t use the non-Chinese language version of the app. It may be easier to do if you get a local SIM card, but like many countries, this is a rather onerous process, so most international travellers will prefer to either use an eSIM (my recommendation is Nomad esims but Airalo is also a decent but more expensive option). Of course, eSIM will only work for you if you have an eSIM enabled telephone . . . while this is increasingly common, it is still not a given for most budget or mid-tier devices . . . So, let me go back to before my trip started and give my step-by-step advice for those who are interested in doing a trip to China.





First, unless you have a good local friend who is waiting to receive and take care of you, this could even be an experienced local expat, you might not want to attempt to do this trip as a solo traveller. Linguistically and financially, it can clearly be very challenging. My friend Huixian has told me that it is much less of a problem in a mega city like Shanghai or even Beijing, but it would still be quite frustrating. I assume though that reputable group tours will be just fine. 





Second, it is extremely likely that you will need to get a travel visa. This may take several days or even weeks to get. For me, this was quite new since I generally travel with my United States passport, which means I mostly enjoy either visa free or visa on arrival travel. As far as I could tell, the process for getting a Chinese visa is similar to the process for getting a visa to either the United States of America or to most European countries. So, if you are experienced with that sort of situation, you will find it to be annoying, but familiar. For me however it was a first-time experience, so it was very stressful. In summary, don’t expect this to be easy and don’t leave it for the last moment. I would say that you should probably at least start the process of figuring out what you will need to do no later than three months in advance, even though in your particular case it may be theoretically possible to do everything in less than a month. 





I know that some of you are already thinking that you can’t be bothered to take on the challenge, but there is such great food, and an incredible variety of the same. 





Third (this is a big one), prepare ahead of time for how you are going to stay connected with friends and family outside of China while you are visiting. Do NOT assume that your previously used methods will work flawlessly. Both iMessage and WhatsApp currently seem to work in China for text messaging. iMessage seems to be fully featured in China but features such as video and voice call and sharing videos/pictures are blocked on WhatsApp. So, for Android users, I suggest you also get Skype ahead of time for your friends, family and of course yourself. While I assume this is not that big of a deal for the average tourist, do NOT assume that ANY of these are either properly encrypted or private while using in China. For your personal use with friends and family, I would say there is no concern, but assume that government entities can see any of your communications. 





I didn’t attempt to buy a high-speed train ticket on my own, but Huixian assured me that more official places such as this would surely be able to accept CNY cash. She also seemed to think that I would not have a problem making them understand where I needed to travel. The problem though is that once you are in the train, again, all the announcements are only in Chinese . . . so missing your stop is a very real possibility. Also note that when more than one person buys a ticket, it is very common for them to not be seated next to each other. Assuming that one is able to get past all those hurdles, the trains are incredibly comfortable, fast and generally on time. 





For those who are interested in going beyond basic communications, you will need to explore VPN options. You will need this if you intend to access MANY common foreign websites and services such as Google services, Facebook, Instagram etc . . . or even to see many basic websites in other countries. Again, there are Chinese versions of all of these services, and they are GOOD options, but they will not be much help when trying to communicate with those outside of China. Furthermore, most of the Chinese options are only available in Chinese. For the common tourist who simply intends to use their smartphone, by far the easiest option is to get an eSIM ahead of time from Nomad or Airalo. These eSIMs use an automatic VPN which will allow you to easily access all of the services which you are accustomed to when outside of China. Buy MORE data than you think you will need, since I understand that you will NOT be permitted to top up your plan while in China. However, even though the Nomad eSIM option in particular for China is affordable, you may want to consider a plan B.





Plan B means actually paying for a separate VPN service. I already had Surfshark which supposedly usually works in China, so I thought I would be covered. Spoiler alert, NO, it did not work. Through my nomad eSIM with the already built in VPN, I bought a month of ExpressVPN, which according to almost everywhere on the internet is the best option for China . . .once again, NO, it did not work. Finally, in an obscure post on Reddit (which of course I could only access using by Nomad eSIM) I found out about a Chinese VPN provider called LetsVPN; this is a reasonably affordable option, and it seems to work fairly well on all the Chinese networks where I have tried. I assume that my communications are not actually protected from being monitored by government entities while using it, but as I definitely have no nefarious intentions, I really do not care. To be clear, like most of you, I simply want to back up my photos and videos to Google photos, post to Instagram, Facebook and here on WordPad, and maybe see a bit of Netflix. Notably, there is another VERY expensive VPN provider called Astrill which many recommend, but I cannot speak to the same. Once more, for ANY of these, if you do get lucky and find that they work for you, assume that they are perfectly good for personal use including having more secure banking when on a public network, but do NOT assume that they are secure from possible monitoring by law enforcement agencies. Still, if you are a simple, honest tourist like me, this really should not bother you. 





Moving along to the fourth point, I will assume that you took my advice to get a Nomad eSIM. With that in mind, make sure to turn off background update and backup services ahead of time so that you do not burn through your valuable data. I myself made the mistake of not turning off my daily WhatsApp chat backups and ended up wasting 9 gigas of my 20 gigas of data over a period of four days. I did however want to do daily cellular data backup of my photos before I got LetsVPN activated. If you are REALLY looking to economize your data use, turn off ALL background updates and back up services except for on wifi, and assume that your wifi backups will be blocked (when not on a VPN) with the noted exceptions of anything to OneDrive or iCloud. 





Did I already mention the food?!





Fifth, if you don’t already know Chinese, in which case you probably will not be reading this blog entry, get very familiar with a translator app that you are comfortable with BEFORE embarking on your trip. Also save yourself some headaches by advance downloading any languages you think you might need to use. For China, one of these would be “simplified Chinese” and the other would be whatever you feel most comfortable using. The good news is that Microsoft translator actually works extremely well with Chinese, and since Microsoft services are not blocked, even if you have to use an internet only feature, you will have full access. Google translate also works quite well with Chinese, but remember that it will be blocked if you aren’t using a VPN and need any network only features. In a pinch, I think I could completely manage my actual “needs” with just Microsoft translator, but it would make for a potentially lonely trip if doing solo travel. While you will figure this out on your own, the audio translate features of both of these are good, but only if there is not much background noise and the speaker enunciates well. Also, it does take a bit of patience to have a conversation this way, sort of like doing a walkie-talkie conversation. 





So, should you come to travel around China on your own? If you are fully aware of these challenges, and are still interested, then stick along with me for the next few entries. Again, my first experience has been VERY protected due to the incredible support of my friend Huixian, but I am already fully convinced that I now want to try another trip on my own, and I think that my experiences could help you to do the same, while also convincing you that it is worth the effort!





As always, thank you for reading along, and feel free to put any questions in the comments section below, and stay tuned for more details about some lesser-known amazing sites in southern Fujian provinces that you might want to visit. 





In case you are still wondering about why you might want to travel outside of the major cities . . .

	


	





	

		
Siem Reap trip: Day 6 (17 Nov)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hi there readers. For those of you who read Day 6, you know that today I didn’t have anything planned until the evening. As such, I didn’t set me alarm. 





However, as I was well-rested, I still got up reasonably early, ate some cashews and canned tuna which I had bought earlier and wanted to finish up before leaving tomorrow, and then once more headed out to a local gym, this time choosing Angkor fitness, where I arrived at 9:55 AM. Similar to Gold Gym where I had gone a couple of days earlier, the cost of a day pass was $5 USD. However, despite the lack of a pool here, which I had no interest in using anyways, I thought this was the nicer of the two gym options.  No doubt much of this was due to the time of the day, but I also found the temperature much more tolerable here than in Gold Gym. Finally, while it was not a huge difference, the resistance training area seemed to be slightly better.





I finished up at the gym at 12:16 PM and went out walking with no particular destination in mind. 










Along the way I came across this shop with rather beautiful wooden carved statues. I didn’t enter to look at anything closer, since I had no intention of even considering purchasing anything, but from the street it looked impressive. Then at 12:46 PM I stopped in at a random restaurant which seemed to specialize in serving only dishes with duck. From what I could understand, at this time of the day there were only two options: duck with noodles or duck with rice. I opted for the rice dish which arrived at 12:48 PM. 










The food was simple but pleasant, and with a price of only 10,000 Riel ($2.43 USD) there was certainly no reason to complain. By 1:21 PM I had finished and then walked back to the apartment, arriving at 1:35 PM. As I did not have anything planned until 8:00 PM in the evening, I decided that I should try to still do something else nearby here in town in order to not “waste the day”. 





On day 1 it had originally been my intent to go to the Angkor National Museum, but then I had just felt too tired to do it, so since it was rather close to where I was staying, it seemed reasonable to go there today. I took a quick shower, changed clothes, and then headed out walking from 2:00 PM, arriving at 2:18 PM.



















The standard cost to enter was $12 USD for adults and $6 USD for children ages 6-11. There was no mention made of special prices for residents vs foreigners. For those without cash, it was possible to pay with a bank/credit card. There is also an audio guide service which I decided to get for an additional cost of $5 USD, but in retrospect I really do not think it was particularly helpful, since it just seemed to generally restate the same information which could easily be read throughout the museum. While this was not a big deal, it was also the one place I encountered where it seemed to be a slight disadvantage to pay with local currency. My total was 71400 Riel ($17.34 USD). 





The museum is pleasantly designed with a spiral walkway going past a soothing pool of water as you head up to where the visit begins.



















Unlike many museums where you just sort of choose your own adventure, here they definitely want you to do things in a particular order, and there are abundant staff throughout who helpfully direct you along to the next prescribed area. As directed, my visit began with a short briefing video, and I was then pointed to the first Exhibit Hall, aptly named the 1000 Buddha gallery.





























I did use the audio guide throughout, but as mentioned earlier, if you actually read things, the English and Khmer explanations prominently placed throughout already do a very good job of explaining things. Some might argue that they do too well of a job explaining. In summary, this was a very educational museum, and I think it would have been much better for me to visit BEFORE my Angkor Wat visit, as had been my original intention. However, while it is very clean, informative, and well-organized, this is definitely not appropriate for most children nor a place for those who are not really very genuinely interested in a lot of the historic background of the ancient civilization around this area. 





At 2:57 PM I moved on to the next section which was specifically all about Khmer civilization, religion and the great Khmer kings.
























I felt like much of this museum would be extremely interesting for art students, but I will admit that it was hard for me to stay properly interested, even though the explanations were very well-done. For instance, I learned about how Khmer artists would use arches and intentional support structures to give their sculptures more strength and stability. However, similar to what happens in many museums, it could quickly become sculpture and history overload. 





























Again though, I did pick up quite a few bits of knowledge, such as the importance of door lintels in a lot of their traditional temple and palace architecture. Furthermore, I was surprised to tell that historians could ascertain the age of a building simply by looking at the design of the lintels. While this made sense to me, I also wondered why some architects didn’t ever decide to intentionally create a different type of a lintel or perhaps purposely copy a lintel style from the past?



















Even though it is hard to appreciate in the picture, I was particularly impressed by the carving of this final lintel which I saw. To think that such detail and depth had been carved into sandstone and that nothing had accidentally broken off was truly amazing. 










In case you are curious, pretty much everything on the lintel has easily understood meaning, and yes, I did learn about it, but no, I will not force you to also read about it. As I write that, I realize that maybe the audio guide DID have a bit more extra information than what was simply posted everywhere, but I think most visitors would still be fine without paying the extra $5 USD. 





Coming out of the rooms with the A-C exhibits there was a welcome display of Batik art, not so much because I thought it was particularly amazing Batik, but mostly because at least it wasn’t just more sculpture. 





At 4:30 PM I was in room D, which was all about Angkor Wat. Except for the recreation of sunrise on Angkor wat in this room, I was not particularly impressed, but that might simply be because I had already spent two full days at the real Angkor Wat ruins. 





At 10:49 AM the hallway which led to and then the next E room was full of Asura and Deva sculptures as well as many more of Buddha. I was once again struck by the similarities of the relationship between Asura (frequently translated as “giants” or “old gods” or even “demons”) and Deva (the new or “current” gods) and the similarities with other systems of religious mythology/tradition in Greece, Nordic countries, and other parts of the world. Unsurprisingly, the Asura seem to always be depicted as having sort of pouty faces; whereas, the Deva are serene. 



















There was plenty more to see and discover, but I confess that I was mostly historied out by this point. 












Believe it or not, in Khmer Hinduism, this is the second incarnation of Vishnu





These steles which I had also frequently seen at temples etc . . . are actually very important, since they served the role of modern dedication plaques. In other cases, they were just property markers, but with additional history.





The weird contraption above is supposed to have send sound to you, but only if you stand directly below it. However, none of them seemed to be working. 







The last G room was all about ancient clothing which could be seen in the sculptures, but as I said earlier, at this point I was no longer really paying attention, so lucky you, there are no pictures and no commentary on that room.





At 5:30 PM I exited the main museum and was unsurprisingly directed into a rather upscale gift shop. The museum itself only covers a period of about 1000 years when the Khmer empire was supposed to be the most influential and powerful, finishing up around the 13th century. As mentioned earlier, while it is well laid out and there are good explanations throughout, the place can get a bit tiring. Furthermore, the audio guide really is not necessary for most visitors, but I think it did have a BIT extra information; still, most would probably be happy to skip it. Finally, if you were thirsty, right after the gift shop there was a slightly overpriced, rather under inspiring cafe.  










At 5:43 PM I was outside the museum where I found the temperature was very pleasant. With that in mind, and even though it was a little under 4 km to walk there, at 6:09 PM I decided to start walking over to my final activity of the day, planning to stop for some food along the way. 







There were two different groups doing Zumba in the park.

















At 6:24 PM I stopped at Sros sokleap Restaurant to get fried frog, fresh spring rolls, fried mixed vegetables and an Angkor beer for 34000 Riel ($8.29 USD).
























The food was “nice” but I think I preferred the stuffed frog which I had eaten earlier in the trip. At 7:11 PM I was out walking once more. While this route still felt completely walkable for me, it definitely took me outside of the main pedestrian areas of the city, and I could see how some solitary travellers might think it was better to take a tuktuk.





Regardless, I arrived at 7:36 PM, and since I had bought my ticket online ahead of time, I was directed into the gift shop, which then allowed me to arrive to my seat along with my complimentary metal water bottle, already filled with chilled water, at 7:43 PM. Note, my entry experience was maybe a bit different than that of many others, since I had bought the most expensive VIP reserved seating ticket for a cost of $38 USD ($18 USD for children 5-11). For those really wanting to spend more, there is also the VIP + backstage pass which costs $63 USD which includes a 30-minute escorted tour before the show starts. On the other hand, adult tickets can be had for as little as $18 USD, and as long as you arrive a bit early, I think it is still a good experience for everyone, even some sections of the “cheap seats” are partially obstructed by poles and/or subtitle screens. 



















Pretty much every review you will read about the Phare Circus and everyone who has visited will tell you that you absolutely cannot miss this show when you are in Siem Reap. I will be no exception to that rule. The pictures do not begin to do it justice. My only complaint was that the seats were rather uncomfortable despite having thin cushions, but the show itself was just amazing, and pictures cannot begin to do it justice. 






















































As mentioned earlier, I was very happy that a coworker had strongly suggested that I leave this as my final evening activity in Siem Reap. Yes, like with many “artistic stories” whether they be in painting, music or dance, the obvious connection between the supposed story and the actual act was rather tenuous, but that in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the overall experience. By 9:16 PM I was out the door and once again walking back to my rented apartment for my final night’s sleep in Siem Reap.










As for the walk back, I probably would not recommend it for most solitary travellers. While the temperature was very pleasant, much of the walk was through rather poorly lit more “authentic” residential areas, and I could see how some people would not have felt safe. I was perfectly fine myself, but most people would probably prefer to either take a tuktuk or a taxi away from the circus at this time of night. 
























Nevertheless, I arrived back safely with no incidents to report at 9:51 PM, and that was my last full day in Siem Reap. I will confess that I was not exactly feeling melancholy, but I did wish that I had a bit more time. So far, this has definitely been a good vacation, and I guess that’s the way you want to feel at the end of a visit. If you are eager to go back home, then you probably did not have a very good time . . . 





My final view of the street food stalls which were set up each evening near where I was staying . . .

	


	





	

		
Siem Reap trip: Day 5 (16 Nov)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		

Hey there again readers! I hope you found some useful information in my Day 4 entry, and I also hope that Day 5 will help you make some better choices on your next trip to Siem Reap. 





Those of you who have been following along regularly already know that I did not get into bed until a bit late last night, so you will not be surprised to know that I did not set the alarm to go off until 11:AM today. I’m happy to say that I once more had slept extremely well in my highly recommended Airbnb apartment. 





I did not actually leave my apartment until 12:02 PM, but I did want to make sure I had enough time to have a leisurely lunch before getting together with my upcoming tour operator for the day. A couple of days ago while looking for somewhere to eat and had read an entry for an eatery called Arun restaurant. The Google review which popped up had specifically mentioned that the place was well-known for their frog legs, so I figured it would be something interesting to check out. 












Do you remember this guy from last night?












My leisurely walk finished at 12:22 AM when I arrived at the restaurant. While the sun was rather unforgiving, I had my trusty sun hat and even here in the city there was generally a nice breeze. So as long as I kept to the shadows whenever available, I did not find the heat to be overly oppressive. 





The menu was much more extensive than I had anticipated, and there were actually two different frog options: fried and stuffed. As I had never even heard of stuffed frog, I decided to give it a chance. I paired this with mixed vegetables, the obligatory bowl of white rice, and Ganzerberg beer which surprisingly had a pull tab! Yes, I know I was way too excited about the pull tab, but it has definitely been more than 30 years since I have actually seen one of those, 










I was extremely happy with this meal. I felt that both the meat and the vegetables were well-seasoned, and the stuffing was amazing; although, I couldn’t figure out what was actually in it. Similar to what you would do with a bird, the stuffing was in the chest of the frog. Also, for those familiar with quail, the majority of the bones seemed meant to also be eaten, or at any rate that was what I did without any bad effects afterwards. 





I let myself linger a bit longer than probably was prudent, paying the bill of 38000 Riel ($9.21 USD) at 1:16 PM and doing a VERY fast walk back to my apartment, where I arrived at 1:30 PM. This barely gave me enough time to grab a couple of things I meant to take with me today, and at 1:40 PM Saro was right outside my apartment building in a nice white van, waiting to pick me up. Today I would be going on a “floating village” tour.





This was one that I almost had decided not to do. Despite the relative popularity of these tours in Siem Reap, there are also an incredibly large amount of very negative reviews of the experience. The most negative comments are connected to the following: it smells incredibly bad, the trips seem to be a scam to get you to donate additional food and bags of rice to dubious recipients, the trips themselves are incredibly exploitative “poverty tourism” of the local populations, and other providers such as boat operators, drivers and guides hassle you for more money once you are on the tour. So no, this was not looking like something I would generally recommend. 





However, there was no denying that it was popular, so I had earlier asked my high-quality guide Sah Yon from Day 3. He said that yes, much of the year, it smelled very bad, but that right now would be a good time to visit. He also agreed that many of the tours were basically scams, but he knew of at least one organization that did a really good job. Unfortunately, he could not remember the name of the operator, but he was sure I could find it if I just carefully searched for “responsible tourism” operators that organized “floating village” tours. I am not going to lie; this was NOT that easy to do, but I finally found the one which I suspected he had been referencing: Community First: Kompong Khleang Floating Village Tours. 





While they have a few private tour options, these are clearly meant for slightly more affluent travellers who are already travelling in a group. Regardless, from the beginning I had been primarily interested in their all-inclusive small group Kompong Khleang and Tonle Sap tour which had a cost of $35 USD per person, with a reduced price of $25 USD for children under 12. While this is quite a bit more expensive than most other providers which do these tours for around $21 USD, but as much as possible, I wanted to make sure that I was not promoting exploitative tourism, and frankly I also did not want to get guilt tripped to periodically shell out more money during the trip. So selecting this charitable organization was a win-win situation both for the projects which they support, and also for me as a tourist.





As always, the scenery as we were riding along outside Siem Reap city was beautiful, but it was not really until 2:15 PM that I would say that the actual “tour” began. Saro gave us some general background on his organization, all of which I would encourage you to read by referencing the earlier mentioned links, but he also shared some of his own background information, including the fact that his parents had been forced to marry by the Khmer Rouge, something which evidently had once been a common practice. 





At 2:38 PM we made our first stop right along the side of the road. It is hard to appreciate in the picture, but there are at 30 different roadside stalls, all selling the exact same thing: bamboo sticky rice.










As mentioned earlier, this was an all-inclusive tour, so no, this was not a ploy to get us to buy sticky rice. I am not sure if they always would stop at the same place or if they change it up each time. I have to say that I was actually far more impressed with the bamboo sticky rice than I had anticipated. It was only very mildly sweet, a rather pleasant afternoon snack. Evidently it is actually made in their homes, but then they bring it here to sell. Once made, it is good for two days. The fire is not to actually cook anything, but rather to keep the bamboo a bit warm and also to burn the hollow bamboo once the rice has been eaten. While I found that I actually liked the snack, I couldn’t help but think that it really did not make sense for them to all be selling the exact same thing, made with the exact same ingredients, but evidently, it’s a business model that works for them. 


































At 2:51 we were back in the car to continue along our way. At 3:00 PM we were passing through Dom Daiy community, which is evidently where people from the floating villages come to do most of their buying and selling. 



















At 3:02 PM we once again stopped at a local bakery. There we tried three different types of local treats which this family evidently sells wholesale to many other vendors in the region. The tiny little doughnut things were basically baby buñuelos, whereas the yellow chips were dried jackfruit chips. The ones which looked kind of like fingers were crunchy, slightly sweet, with a bit of garlic taste. According to Saro, this little shop actually makes and ships an average of 100 kg of the little doughnut things each day. I was wondering who actually eats so many of these snacks, but I thought it was nice that there were local, family business manufacturers evidently managing well instead of everything being multinational companies.  












































At 3:24 PM we were once more back in the van, with some intermittent light rain starting at 3:31 PM. As we continued, I noticed that many of the homes were already on stilts.







































Then we arrived to a stopping point at 3:37 PM where we were advised to use the bathroom. I think this is basically like a “boat stop” since it seemed like Saro was paying for our passage and then unsurprisingly, we were led onto our boat at 3:45 PM. For those concerned about practical matters, the bathrooms were reasonably clean and had western style toilets but no toilet paper. 
























The boat itself had rather comfortable seats which appeared to essentially be padded folding chairs. Maybe I was just being foolish, but I felt that it was a completely safe setup. As we were heading out, Saro told us that most of what we were riding on was actually rice fields, but at this time of the year they were completely flooded. Regardless, it was all very interesting to see as we traveled on the water. 

















































Then at 4:10 point we arrived at a dock which was right next to a Buddhist temple. Evidently this is “the capital” of the villages along the lake. We walked around a bit and he told us a bit about the water filtration system, the school which they support, and the upcoming local water festival which many in the community were currently preparing for. He said that a local fisherman here can reasonably earn as much as $25 USD a day, which I though sounded like quite a bit considering the way things looked, but maybe that was not taking into account daily expenses which might be quite high, or maybe they can only earn that a few months out of the year?

















































Then at 4:36 PM we were back on the boat for ten more minutes before arriving at the pre-primary school of Bridge of Life. This is evidently the main school they are currently working on supporting. 





























Getting into this place was the first time of the day that I felt a bit insecure. It is not pictured here, but going from the boat into the school was a bit precarious, and I could easily see how someone without sure footing would feel nervous. Yes, Saro did a good job of helping everyone, but I was thinking this might not be a good idea for people who have some minor issues with mobility. 





Despite being a “pre-school”, the students here are from 6-8 years old, and they currently have 45 students. Many people in this village do not actually start first grade until they are 12 or even 13. The hope with this pre-school is that they will be able to get younger kids into school earlier. Given the current number of students, and the space in the building which is actually dedicated to “classroom” this seemed like it would be an incredibly cramped place to give and receive lessons. They only have classes from 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, since the teacher goes out to do fishing in the afternoon. Surprisingly, the teacher also lives here, right inside the schoolhouse. Evidently, they used to also have sewing lessons in the afternoon, but they currently do not have a sewing teacher, so that part has been put on hold. Finally, this particular school has been operating since 2008. 





























At 5:15 PM we went back onto the boat, headed towards a conglomeration of “true houseboats” which float on the water year-round. Both most of the stilted homes and the houseboats get their water directly from the lake, using black sand and activated charcoal water filters. However, whereas most of the stilted homes have electricity from the main power grid, the true floating homes get all their electricity from solar panels. 
























On a side note, one bit of humanity that drew my attention throughout the entire daytrip was this late middle-aged French couple who held hands almost the entire trip. I wondered, is this how they go through all of life, or was it just because this was a special trip? Also, how many years have they been together, and will they still be like this in fifteen more years? 










While there was little to indicate it for the casual viewer, at 5:39 PM we were finally out on the actual lake of Tonle Sap. Supposedly this is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and it has approximately 50,000 people who either live on it in year-round floating boats or around it’s edges on stilted homes. It is an extremely productive and biodiverse lake, and recently steps have been taken to maintain the sustainable emphasis on artisanal fishing rather than more industrial methods. We hung out just looking around until 5:47 PM, ostensibly waiting for the possibility of seeing a sunset, but cloudy conditions put a wrench in the works. Still, it was very beautiful. 





























As we were heading back to our land transport, even at 5:52 PM it was already very dark on the water. Although it was hard to take night pictures on a moving boat, it was a very beautiful return to the dock, where we arrived back at 6:25 PM to get back in the same white van as before. 


































We had a quick bathroom break at the same place as before at 6:36 PM and we arrived right outside my apartment at 8:00 PM. I decided to shower and have a quick rest before walking out at 9:38 PM to explore some of the restaurants in a different area near where I was staying. There were actually quite a lot of nice-looking places, but these were clearly meant to be places for larger groups of people.  My food which had a cost of $9.95 USD was perfectly adequate, but I think it would have been much better to have had a traditional Khmer barbeque with a small group . . . one of the issues of solo travel.














At 10:05 PM I headed back home, arriving about five minutes later. I quickly got in bed, and gave myself to sleep without any alarm, since I had not planned anything for Day 6 until much later in the evening.





So, I know that today was rather laid back, but I am still happy to report that it was a very good day. I am glad that I went out to see the “floating villages” and also glad that I did it with a much more responsible tour operator. The whole day had more of a family trip in the car feel to it than many tours, and that was not actually a bad thing. No, it didn’t smell bad at all during the entire trip, and while there were some very poor communities, I did not feel that our visit was at all exploitative. So, if you are in the area and are thinking about doing something similar, first make sure as I did that things will not smell bad during that time of the year, and then make sure to go with a very reputable tour operator like the one I used. 





Thank you for continuing to follow along, and please let me know about some of your adventures as well. Until next time, may all of your experiences be as fulfilling as mine have been over the last few days. 






	


	





	

		
Siem Reap trip: Day 4 (15 Nov)
	


	
			

				
			


			
	

		






Hey everyone, as you have already no doubt guessed, elephants are a big theme for day 4 of my recent Siem Reap, but there are also some interesting cultural elements which came up later in the day.





I first found out about the possibility of visiting an elephant center on Get Your Guide when looking for activities to do in and around Siem Reap city. However, as the cost which appeared was a bit expensive ($128 USD for a 5-hour experience) I kept looking around until I found the same thing on AirBnB for 8238 INR ($98.86 USD); AirBnB was where I actually booked it, but had I been a bit cleverer, I would have booked directly with Kulen Elephant Forest and would have only paid $90 USD for exactly the same experience. Evidently it is possible to get this for as little as $80 USD for bookings made at some hostels in the area, but I cannot officially confirm that. Regardless, no, it was not cheap; in fact, this was easily the most expensive thing I did on my trip, but visits to responsibly run elephant preserves/conservation/rescue centers tend to be expensive anywhere in the world. That is because these places usually subsist entirely on the money they charge tourists, and if they are doing it responsibly, they generally can’t have many people visit per day. Whether or not you think it is a fair amount to pay is really up to you.





As I had the chosen the morning visit option, I was once again up early, and headed out walking from the apartment at 6:52 AM. The meeting site was a bit further away, so I had the opportunity to see some pretty views along the way.
























At 7:19 AM I arrived at the office from where I had been told I had to be NO LATER than 7:45 AM sharp, but there was nobody there yet, so I backtracked a bit to get breakfast at a nearby small restaurant called Tevy’s Place. I ordered the Beef Lok for $4 USD. 










The food was pleasant enough, but I unfortunately didn’t really get to enjoy it, since it did not arrive until 7:34 AM, and I was very worried about arriving late. So, I gulped down my food and was back outside the nearby office at 7:45 AM sharp. At 7:47 AM the guide/chaperone, Seth, arrived but it was not until 8:01 AM that the car finally arrived, and then not until 8:03 AM that we actually got into the car. While this was not a huge wait time, I was quite annoyed, since I had been repeatedly told that if I were not there at 7:45 AM sharp, I would miss the transport. To be fair, most of my annoyance was because I had not had time to properly enjoy my breakfast, but that would also have been easily resolved had I simply left the apartment fifteen minutes earlier. 





Regardless, we five tourists were in the minivan at 8:03 AM, finally departing at 8:05 AM. There was not a lot of information given, but Seth did tell us that there were ten elephants at the sanctuary, nine adult females and one adult male. However, he said that the male was never there on tours, since he was too aggressive. The vehicle itself was comfortable and the drive had plenty of nice scenery. 
























At 9:08 AM we arrived at the entrance where they already had some small cups of coffee waiting for us. 
























We kitchen area was comfortable, and we sat there visiting until 9:38 AM when things really got started. Seth gave us some background about the center, including the fact that they had opened in 2018 as a sanctuary for elephants which had previously been used for tourist rides. As far as I could tell, elephant rides are now illegal in Cambodia, but I may have misunderstood that. Seth also told us that Cambodia only has between 400 and 600 elephants left in the wild, with another 70 in captivity, including the 10 at this local sanctuary. I don’t know if this is true or not, but he said that most elephants which were previously used in the tourism or logging industry cannot be reintroduced to the wild. Next, as I had guessed, he told us that maintaining elephants was quite expensive since each adult eats about 250 kg of food per day, and they also need quite a bit of space in order to wander around and get a reasonable amount of exercise. Finally, we learned that the elephants here were all between 38 and 55 years old. 





Once we had received the introduction, we were sent to thoroughly wash our hands before helping make a small number of elephant treats out of sticky rice, tamarind, rice bran, banana, and a tiny bit of salt. 







That’s Seth explaining why these ingredients are used and how to make the snacks.





Most were very excited about preparing the treats, but I just made two in order to say that I had done it. Clearly this is just an activity to make the tourists feel like they did something useful.







At 10:02 we finally went down to see the elephants, also feeding them whole bananas, pieces of sugar cane and of course the aforementioned treats. It was funny to see that most of the elephants were clearly not that interested in the sugar cane, since they would take it and then throw it on the ground before reaching for something else. 
























After the feeding was done, we went for a short walk in the nearby forest.


































At 11:29 we walked back with the elephants to their pond area where we watched them a bit more.
























At 11:44 AM it was time to head back to the seating area for a simple but pleasant lunch which was served family style; this was also included in the cost of the tour.



















At 12:29 PM it was time to head back to the bus. With a short walk we were back in the vehicle at 12:32 and once more on our way back to Siem Reap. 





I know that some of you will object to me participating in this activity, but I really do think that it was done ethically. Yes, tourists were allowed to both feed and touch some of the elephants, but we definitely did not ride them or bathe them. Furthermore, this center not only cares for these aged elephants, but also provides work for many local community members. In an ideal world, there would be enough government money or simple private donations to take care of these animals, but that is generally not the case. I feel like this sanctuary has struck an appropriate balance of providing responsible care for the elephants while also giving tourists a once in a lifetime opportunity to be up close with these amazing creatures. So, if you can afford it, yes, I recommend that you visit Kulen Elephant Forest in Siem Reap.
























At 1:35 PM we were back at the office where we had started, and everything was done.





I had earlier been on the fence about going to an Apsara show, since most of them take place in very large buffet halls where diners more or less ignore the dancers, but with a bit of investigation I had discovered that the Apsara Theatre, while still pairing a dinner experience with a show, was considered to be a much smaller, more serious venue where audience members were much more respectful. However, it was not possible to buy tickets online, so when I noticed that the same office which managed the elephant tours also could help with Apsara theatre reservations, I figured I would give it a try.





Due to another even that I had earlier scheduled, my only possibility to see the show would be tonight. As such, I was very sad when they told me that there was no more availability for night. I expressed sadness that I would miss it, since it was my only chance, and was ready to head out, but then one of the attendants in the office asked if I could wait for a minute while she called to check. Fortunately for me, one of the attendees who had earlier reserved had called in just an hour earlier to report that she was not feeling well, and could give up her spot, so I was able to get the last seat available. I paid $31 USD for the Khmer tapas package which included a lite dinner and of course the show. I probably would have opted for the slightly more expensive “traditional Khmer” dinner, but it had shrimp, and I am allergic. Yes, this was more expensive than other Apsara show options in Siem Reap, but I figured I was paying a premium to get a better viewing experience. 





From there I once again headed out walking from the office back to my apartment. At 2:03 PM it started raining rather heavily, but I was able to duck under an awning, and believe it or not, but 2:06 PM it had already completely stopped raining. This sort of mini downpour happened several times while I was in Siem Reap. 










I was back at my lodging by 2:20 PM, and as I was feeling fully rested, I decided to make use of the gym gear I had brought along, once again heading out on foot at 2:34 PM. There are quite a few gyms in Siem Reap city, and evidently most of them have day passes available with a cost of between $1 and $5 USD. As luck would have it, the one closes to me, Gold Fitness, had a cost of $5 USD.





I arrived at the gym at 2:44 PM. The place was alright, but $5 USD seemed a bit much for someone only planning on using the weight room. As other reviewers had written, this was a HOT place to work out, but there was plenty of space with good equipment, including a decent looking pool, fully adequate free weights section, a very complete weight machine area, as well as some spaces for group classes. The daily visit fee also includes locker rental and two towels. I worked out there until 5:05 PM, then once more walking back to the apartment, arriving at 5:22 PM.





I showered and took advantage of the apartment’s washing machine and included detergent and fabric softener to do a big load of laundry which I was able to put up to dry before once more walking out the door at 6:50 PM as I headed to the theatre where I arrived at 7:22 PM. In all honesty, I had my doubts about this whole Apsara show thing, since it all seemed excessively touristy, but I also wanted to see what it was all about, and definitely did not want to miss out on the opportunity to experience something unique. 
























The theatre itself was quite cozy yet elegant, and the food was MUCH nicer than what I had expected. Getting the “tapas” menu was definitely more than sufficient and did not at all make me feel like I had a downgraded experience.





























I didn’t actually count people, but I think the maximum capacity of the theatre is probably around 125 with most people seated family style at long tables where the food was served by elegantly dressed workers. As an unexpected plus, I was seated with a very pleasant group of people from Grace Fellowship who very kindly included me in their conversation. Given that I was greatly enjoying the company, I forgot to note down times, but the amount of time allowed for eating and visiting before the show was just perfect. As a result, everyone was completely quiet and focused on the dancers when it was their turn to perform. 





They did six different performances with a short intermission during which time dessert was served. 

















































Like many reviewers have commented, these sorts of shows can be “a bit slow” but I felt that it was worth it. Furthermore, whereas I had been very skeptical about the entire dinner theatre concept, I found that at least here it was handled extremely well. All in all, I was very happy that I was able to get a spot. I am not sure if I would go again by myself, but I would definitely happily accompany another fellow traveler who wanted to have the experience. 





At 9:49 PM as I was exiting, I heard three women talking about a drag show at a nearby bar called Barcode which evidently had started at 9:30 PM. Since I was already out in the area, I figured I may as well check it out, especially since it was only a three-minute walk from the theatre, and I would have passed it on the way back home anyways. 





While there was no cover fee at the bar, the drinks were quite expensive by Siem Reap standards. Pretty much, any drink had a cost of $5 USD a drink, be it a beer or a standard cocktail, and this was the only place I entered the entire time I was in Siem Reap which accepted credit cards. The bar itself was actually very small, and the service was excellent. Furthermore, while elegant may be an exaggeration, there certainly had been an effort to decorate the place in a more upscale fashion. Furthermore, the presentations themselves were rather cultured, even if the presenters themselves were not always incredibly accomplished. In total, there were perhaps maximum 20 clients in the establishment, but it did not feel empty. 


































Especially given that I had not even planned to do this, I felt that it was a very nice way to end the day. Do I think that this is a “must do” part of a Siem Reap trip? No. However, I was happy to stay until 12:26 AM when the shows ended and then I did a meandering walk back to the apartment, arriving at 1:25 AM.





So, how do you think Day 4 compared to Day 3? If you had to choose one over the other, which would you do? Fortunately, as I had planned for six full days in Siem Reap, I didn’t have to choose; I was happily able to do both. And yes, there is more to come in Day 5, so I hope you will keep reading. 





As always, thank you for your time, and do let me know in the comment section below if you have any questions or even if you just want to share your thoughts.