Karaoke Night

Day 4 (10th March 2008)

We slept in and woke up late, it’s our rest day. We plan on just going around town.

I have been going on and on about the sights we’ve been to and what we did for the past few days but I haven’t even said something about the place we stayed at.

The town of Siem Reap is halved into two by the Siem Reap River, the other side is the Wat Bo area (where we visited the Butterfly Garden with its hundreds of various butterfly species and a koi pond, ang ganda ng ambiance ng lugar talaga) and the Taphul village area where the Old Market and the Old French Quarter are located, most of the sights can be found in this area. Our guesthouse, Mandalay Inn, is located about 2 blocks away from the Old Market (Psar Chas) and is within walking distance of all the ‘syalan’ restaurants and cafes, shops and of course, massage salons!
The exchange rate at the time is about 4000 riel = U$1 kaya diosmio feeling ko ang yaman-yaman ko! You can buy souvenir shirts for just 6000 riel (pero mas mura pa rin yung tshirts sa labas ng East Mebon kasi it was just 5000 riel!!!) and even books for just 15000 – 20000 riel (there are rip offs being sold in the market – you have to really check the pages kasi baka hindi maganda ang print).

Sobrang twins na talaga kami ni Ganda coz aside from having the same digital camera, Acer laptop, etc (as in bags, tsinelas, atbp) we bought the same laptop bag pa – of course, ja-peke sya na Samsonite that we bought for only U$13. Hehehe….. so much for Intellectual Property Rights….kiver!

We had another massage session before heading back to the guesthouse. As in promise, every day nagpapa-massage kami. Well, at U$5-7 for a full one hour Traditional Khmer massage, aba eh sino ang hindi maadiktos ever!

TinTin came to pick us up at about 7pm for our dinner. We decided to go to the Temple Club (a hip bar & resto in the middle of Pub Street) to watch the Apsara dance. We waited up for Ganda’s travbuddy, Eve, to show up (coincidentally, she’s also staying in the same guesthouse with us).

The Apsara is a traditional dance performance which can be described as a “dance drama” as it is really more of a choreographed dance conveying different stories. That night they performed the two popular dances, the Good Harvest dance and the Fishing dance. But the one I really liked more is the Classical dance as you can really see how they move their hands (as in curved talaga ang hands, the fingers really bend backwards!), their heads, and their feet. Tin whispered to me, “you know, the girls who dance the Apsara has to be a virgin”…..hehehe…naykupo, ang daming hindi puwede sumayaw kung ganun. They really have a lot of traditional booboos pero even them they will only perform the Theatrical Folk dances in public and will reserve the Ceremonial dances for traditional occasions.

They really are exerting much effort, both the government (especially the Royal family --- ung isang Princess nga is one of the world-famous Apsara dancer coz she was trained early in her childhood) and the people in making sure that they retain their culture and traditions.
Karaoke session

After dinner, we went back to the guesthouse (Eve elected to stay behind coz she says she still has some packing to do) and we joined Maung and their friends (the owners of the guesthouse) kasi punta pa kami to the Karaoke club --- special request ni Ganda.

Sabi kasi ni Maung, this is the best karaoke place in town. When we went inside, our eyebrows shot up (especially the wives, as in kinurot talaga ni TinTin si Maung) coz there were girls lined up in the lobby area --- mga singing hostesses kumabaga eh ang gaganda at ang papayat!!!

After 4 days, my affinity to Angkor beer is really getting comfy. Unlike other beers, masarap sya inumin although malakas din naman tama nya.

The night was fun. Birit to the max talaga kami ni Ganda, as in tinayuan at sinayawan pa!

Thanks Tin and Maung for our lovely stay. I hope to see you again soon and repay the favor.