Second day of the Cambodia trip, planned to visit the palace grounds.
As in Bangkok, here also the place grounds means only a part of temples
within the palace is open for public. Took a Moto to the Royal Palace. Walked around to visit all buildings within the compound. There is a
very good miniature of the Ankor Wat temple within the compound (below)
Yesterday, I booked a seat in a bus to go to Siem Reap through the Hotel. It costs 11 USD. My bus starts at 2.15pm and so I had to return to hotel to get picked up by the bus company. At 2pm, they picked me up in a minivan to go to the bus company from where the bus starts (Makong Express). It is not the most luxurious bus but good enough with A/c and nice seats. On board, they supplied water bottle and some snacks. English announcements were made when we start, break and when we reach Siem Reap. Along the way, they asked everyone whether anybody is coming to pickup at Siem Reap and if not they offered tuk-tuk service to get into the city (of course for a fee). This, I think a good service (though seems simple, no such services elsewhere like when I traveled from Vientine to Luang Prabang in Laos). What was more interesting is that when we reached Siem Reap, they park the bus within their campus, closed the main door, made sure that all people who came to receive the guests are met and then opened the door. This is because of many tuk-tuk drivers waiting right outside the door.
First feel-good thing when I arrived at Siem Reap is that they brought a 15 seater mini-bus just to receive a single passenger to the bus company. Also, they hold a name board (which I am used to in an Airport but not in a bus company where only our bus arrived at that time and my bus was half empty). This time the hotel I booked was right at the heart of Siem Reap's happening spots (Pub street, night markets). By the time I reached the hotel, it was already 9pm. So walked out to have my dinner and was sitting at one of the pubs at pub street well beyond 12 midnight. It gave an immediate pulse of how the night scene is. There are more and more tourists flooding into the street and slowly the crowd started reducing after 12.
First feel-good thing when I arrived at Siem Reap is that they brought a 15 seater mini-bus just to receive a single passenger to the bus company. Also, they hold a name board (which I am used to in an Airport but not in a bus company where only our bus arrived at that time and my bus was half empty). This time the hotel I booked was right at the heart of Siem Reap's happening spots (Pub street, night markets). By the time I reached the hotel, it was already 9pm. So walked out to have my dinner and was sitting at one of the pubs at pub street well beyond 12 midnight. It gave an immediate pulse of how the night scene is. There are more and more tourists flooding into the street and slowly the crowd started reducing after 12. 
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