Cambodia Day 5 Part 3

We had a very tasty lunch at Khmer Kitchen near the Old Market and headed to Cambodian Cultural Village. The entrance fee is US$9 and we spent the whole afternoon there.

River and artificial floating village


The scenery and us

There were miniature structures of the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, as well as the Central Market, and the National Museum.

Miniature Royal Palace

There was a station where we can play archery and we decided to give it a shot. It only costs US$1 per 10 sticks. It was Team Derrick+Meibin vs Team Terence+Gun. The team with 'gun' in it won of course, ha..... Having remember some tactics of archery which was taught to me a very long time ago, i was the teacher to the 3 of them by correcting their posture and handling of the bow and arrow. I was given a can of soft drink by the staff there as i hit the bullseye.

Archers alert!

We then walked around the large complex and stumbled into the ghost cave by accident. We had entered from the exit and came out from the entrance. An admission fee is required for entrance into the ghost cave and we had saved the money.

In the ghost cave, there is constantly screeching, wailing, ghostlike sounds and there were fake skeletons and other objects pouncing out of nowhere. All of a sudden, there was a human scream and i saw a ghostly figurine approach me. I lept out of its path and snapped a shot of it as it moved past me. The fast moving figure did rattle some nerves and i was shocked for a moment when it approached me. There was a bit of motor sound when it moved past and i think it was a ghostly figurine moving on a motor by the hanging wires.

Snapped a picture of the ghostly figurine

While shooting some random pictures inside the cave, there were exceptionally many 'spiritual orbs' photographed inside.

Eerie photo?

The ghost cave also displayed the punishments in hell for sins like throwing away food of monks, committing adultery, fishing beyond limit, robbing and killing people, etc.

Punishment for making sport of animal fighting


Punishment for robbing and killing people

We left the ghost cave after some time and visited the Chinese Village next and waited a while for the performance. There were chinese troupe performers and they were practising stunts like balancing porcelain plates, do acrobats, etc. We left before the performance ended as there were too many people and we have definitely seen the similar kind of performance before.

Chinese Village performance

We headed to Kroeung Village next and there were lots of people there as well. All the seats have been occupied and we were thinking Cambodians seem to be as kiasu as Singaporeans. We were at the bottom of a wooden stilted house overlooking the performance as even the standing crowds hadblocked our views.

Before the performance was about to start, 2 of the performers wanted to take a photo with me. Ha... I was surprised that a stranger would walk up and take a photo together. Some Cambodians are naturally friendly indeed.

Me and 2 of the performers

We left the crowded village after a short while and headed to Khmer Village next. There were a lot of people there even though the performance was due to start in 20 minutes.

Khmer Village

There were people walking on tightropes during the skit and i wasn't rather interested in watching the performance after some time. We jointly decided to stay for the final grand performance although i would have preferred going to another temple in Angkor Archaelogical Park for sunset. Nevertheless, the sunset is quite nice at Cambodian Cultural Village.

Sunset @ Cambodian Cultural Village

We headed to the grand auditorium where thousands of people are seated there. It was only 6.15 pm and the show was only starting at 7 pm. We were seated at the corner despite the fact that we were 45 minutes early. After waiting for a seemingly long time (as the seats had no backrest and the lighting was very dim), the show finally started. It was much better than the mediocre performances at the various villages but i can't help myself dozing off several times during the performance as we woke up very early the past 2 days.

Apsara dancing


Giant props and sets

We left after the final performance and headed back to Siem Reap. We went to Viva!, a Mexican restaurant and we had a taste of authentic Mexican food which i have never tried before. It was a fulfilling and satisfying meal and we headed back to Golden Temple Villa where we will be spending our last night in Siem Reap.

End of Part 3 (2 pm to 11 pm)