We were brought to this big white mansion. There were few ladies standing in front of the building and seeing our van pulling in, they quickly went in. (pic stolen from Emily)

I heard bout ‘special’ massage in Thailand but unsure if there are such service in Cambodia. No taking any chances, I told Sat that NO SPECIAL SPECIAL AH, and he told me don’t worry about it. Lol!

We were greeted, rather coldly. Eh, wait. Were we greeted? All I know is we went in,and there was this lady behind the cashier who gestured us to sit at the rattan chair. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were foreigners where they couldn’t speak to us because the universal language is English or because there were girls in the group? I dismissed the second thought.

Then the ladies came with plastic hand basin of half filled water, a wash brush, and a towel. They placed the wash basin on the floor, hand signalled us to lift up our feet and placed them onto the washbasin. Then they started washing and brushing our feet!

It was one hell of gelicious (ticklish) moment, making me felt like laughing out loud! But it was a quick wash. Just when I began to enjoy the foot wash, the ordeal finished. The lady wiped cleanly my feet with the towel she brought and then gestured us to the room upstairs.

We were separated into 2 rooms situated just opposite of each other. In the room, there are 4 mattresses and 4 sets of pyjamas!

Initially I thought we have to be naked! Thank god for the pyjamas! Haha. We changed into the pyjamas and took a picture of ourselves in PJ!

Then the ladies came in. And the nightmare begannn…

It started with the feet massage… and I remember laughing and giggling nonstop! Well, not only me who was laughing, but the rest too. Soon, the ticklish became bearable and the laughters stopped and we started talking to each other.

Not only us talking, the lady massagers talked too, to themselves. Haha.

I can still remember, there’s this one pose she did on me, which was like mind-blowing.. BUT after she did that, my back felt very good! *ahh.. I’m so in  need of a Cambodian massage now*

No, there are no oil applied on the body. Just massage and krakkkk!

After nearly an hour, the massage session finished… again just when I began to enjoy the massage. Real potongstim-ness!

The ladies left the room and we quickly changed. We met with the guys on the way down, and their faces looked very pale – which was rather surprising. Then Sat told me, “wait. I got something to tell u in the van.“

Which made me VERY VERY CURIOUS!!! And the rest HORRRRRRR! at him.

We thanked them for their massage, bid goodbye . On the way out, my slippers broke and I walked like a crab from the entrance to the van. –”

The initial plan was supposed to send us back to lodge after the massage session. However, we asked Mr. Siya to sugest us a nice place to hang around at night.

That’s when Mr. Siya mentioned the word – Pub street!

Done negotiating with the van driver, our van made its way to the famous street. Sensing the atmosphere in the van was rather weird, I asked Sat what happened in the room earlier.

He then said, “Oh. The ladies asked us (the guys) if we want extra.“

I was like WTFISHHHH? Like seriously? The rest of the girls were dumbstucked too.

Everyone went quiet.

Then I continued, “then? what happen?“

“We say ‘don’t want’ and nothing happened.“

Nobody spoke. Realising the odd silent, Sat said, seriously! Nothing happened!!! and the rest of the guys laughed.

I almost stranggled Sat, but we reached our destination when I was about to do so. We got off the van, thank Mr Siya for his good care for the past 3 days. Knowing that we couldn’t see him again the next morning, we bid goodbye bitterly.

Seeing the van went off, we walked towards the famous Pub Street. The place is super duper bopper happening! There are rows of restaurants, pubs, bars, cafes and shops!

I was having difficulty in walking since my slippers broke. Sat and I went around looking around for slippers while the rest scouting for restaurant. Found a stall, but the guy wouldn’t sell me one for the price less than USD3.

Me on the other hand, wouldn’t pay USD3 for a thin-looking-woven-slippers.

So, I told Sat – It’s okay. Worst come to worst, I’ll rather walk barefooted if the slippers couldn’t support anymore. We then joined the rest in scouting place to eat.

Price on this street is slightly expensive than other place, but who cares? It was the last night on Cambodia, and paying more for the last dinner meal after few days of dirt cheap food is acceptable. Afterall, it’s a holiday trip, not some camp trip.

A very minor dispute, again if not mistaken. But hunger overcame it all and we ended up sitting in a cosy looking restaurant, Khmer Family Restaurant which serves Cambodian food.

Menu came. Sat and I decided to order their set for 2. For the last time, we ordered Angkor Beer!

LeeMay’s set.

Aaron’s – if not mistaken.

Didn’t take picture of the rest as it was farrrr from my reach. LOL.

We had a very satisfying meal, far satisfied and delicious than the first meal we had in Phnom Penh.

Since it was still early, we walked around the place, just to see what Pub Street’s offers to us. The initial plan is to sit in one of the pub, ting tong-ing. But the plan turned out to be  books scouting!

Ohya, I found a pair of slippers while walking around. It costed me USD2.5 though. (And the slippers is still at home, but the bottom rubber part has got thinner LOL! ).

There’s queerness about the bookstore. Something that I can’t explain why as I can’t really remember. But the bookstore gave such a strong impact on my mind. Was it because of the abundance of books, or was it because of the angmoh that sat behind a stall in front of the store? Or was it about the Cambodian lady, who is the owner of the bookstore itself? I just can’t figure out what. Hmm…

Nevermind about it. We left the bookstore and walked past by this store selling branded bags. Boldly, May, Emily and I walked in and checked out the goods there. We touched few bags – but again, I’ve forgotten about the remarks we made there. (That’s why I must quickly finish this post and write about Indonesia!) We then went to their mini-market where Ailing and Emily bought some cheap souvenirs for friends.

Tiredness began to set in, resulting in stopping 2 tuk tuks back to Jasmine Lodge. Knowing it was my final time in riding a tuk tuk in Cambodia as I know I won’t be going there again anytime soon making me cherished the ride even more despite having sand coming into my eyes.

However when we reached Jasmine Lodge, the tuk tuk drivers asked for double the amount we agreed earlier. This made us very furious as we felt cheated. Can’t believe it happened on the last night of our trip as everything went on so smoothly! So the guys quickly argued on them not staying true to their words, and Sat quickly asked us girls to walk in first for safety reason. We walked to considerably safe distance (where we can shout for help should anything happen) and waited there. From far, we seen that the tuk tuk drivers finally agreed on the initial price as the guys handled over the money to them.

Everyone washed up, pre-packed backpacks and dozed off. The next day, we woke up super early as our flight is at 7am and we need to be at the airport 2 hours before departure. We had actually pre-ordered our breakfast the night before, but because of minor dispute again in the kitchen, we had to tapao our breakfast and ate at the airport! Haha! When our van came, Mr Kunn (the owner of Jasmine Lodge) personally sent us off and we can’t thank him enough for comfy bed, clean shower water and deliciously, healthy breakfast! All of us got into the van and I turned back to look at Jasmine Lodge for the last time.

I was feeling blue on the way to the airport. But the blues were gone by the time we reached the airport! LOL!

We thank Mr Van driver for being such a good driver, checked in our backpacks and ate our packed breakfast!

Then we paid the departure tax, and waited at the departure hall for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia.

And that wraps up the entire 6D5N trip to Cambodia on 14th-19th January 2009.

Not far from our lodge, we saw winter jackets and clothings on blue plastic mat and the clothes hanger stand by the road side. As it was quite chilly that night, I was tempted to walk over and get myself one but was too hungry to do so. Haha. I was far behind the troop because of ‘no’ energy to walk. Ops.

Finally, roughly 15 minutes later, we saw few restaurants! We then finally settled for Neak Pean Restaurant. And we were thankful that the restaurant owner speaks ‘understandable’ English, making our order wayyyy easier as some of the terms on the menu are rather hard to understand.

Don’t believe me? Tell me what’s sao mao then? Bleks.

The food came quite fast too. I ordered fried rice lok lak with pork. If you’re wondering which is mine, check out the lower left of the picture below.

As you can see, there’s a can of beer in the picture below. That’s because drinking beer is just like drinking water. A can of beer costs as ‘much’ (or probably cheaper) as the drinks we ordered. If not mistaken, that can of beer costs USD1. So go figure!

As for the answer to my question earlier, sao mao is rambutan. We know what sao mao is through the owner of the restaurant. He purposely went to the kitchen, grabbed the fruit and showed it – where all of us went “OH, RAMBUTAN!”

We finished our dinner, paid and continued exploring the area. We passed by this shop which I can’t remember the name but is similar to our local shoes shop, Vincci. Emily, May and I walked in immediately to check out the price. Indeed, it is WAYYYYYY cheaper – but we didn’t get anything there. Lol!

While walking, we passed by this massage parlour/local shop where this cute dog guarded the entrance of the shop. It may look filthy but it do look cute to me. I felt like giving him a pat on the head that time.

Soon, we reached this big greyish building where it houses many stalls. It was when we left the place only I knew the name of the building – the Central Market. We walked in to check out the good, souvenirs, clothes – and I ended up buying 2 scarf for USD2 each.  Emily got herself an elephant bag at a very cheap price! – which I regretted not getting one too. Ailing and B got printed Cambodian shirts while the rest got souvenirs for friends.

We lingered there until the place closed. Then we walked back to our lodge. By the time we reached our lodge, some were hungry, so off we went searching for supper.

Those yang hungry, ordered; while those who’s not (like me), sat at the side with heavy eyelids.

I have to talk about the food in the lower right picture (above). B and Emily ordered something like mix fruit dessert to try. I guess the unique name got their interests, but afraid that it will turn out weird, they ordered one to share. When it came, both of them were kinda disappointed. It’s actually shaved ice with cut fruit of dragonfruit, papaya, mango topped with condensed milk and cocoa powder. Asking if the dessert is nice, they said it tastes weird. Lol!

After filling up tummies for some, we went back to our room and have a good night sleep.

The next day, I woke up at 6.09 in the morning as I couldn’t bear the cold temperature in the room. I wore jacket to sleep and yet I was shivering! In cold, I tiptoed to the bathroom and quickly wash up and showered. As much I want to warm myself with hot shower, but the water wasn’t heated up yet as the lodge uses solar power for water heater. May woke up after I finished showering. We packed our bags as we were going to change room later.

At the lodge, breakfast starts at 7 in the morning (if not mistaken). The night before, we agreed to meet up at 8, so we only have our breakfast an hour later. We managed to get the long table, and were ordered our breakfast off the menu given to us. The breakfast is considered lavish as we didn’t expect to get such a good and healthy breakfast in any of our backpacking trip. So thumbs up to Jasmine Lodge!

Breads in Cambodia are harder than any of our bread in Malaysia, but we gratefully finished them up! Gosh, I yearn for that breakfast now. Haha.

After breakfast, some did last minute toilet break while the rest gathered at the stone table at the entrance of the lodge. A van waited for us, along with our tour guide, Ya. Mr Kunn introduced Ya to us, told us to have fun and bid goodbye to us as our van moved away from Jasmine Lodge.

Our destination in next post :

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