Cambodia Excursion - PreTravel

I went to Cambodia in June 2012 with my brother, Sam. We decided to go from Delhi, India to Singapore to Cambodia. In Singapore we had a one night stop so we could do a little touring and shopping.

Sam had made all the booking for Siem Reap, Cambodia through a touring agency. It included hotel stay and tour around for 4 days. Siem Reap had all the main attractions including Angkor Wat - the biggest Hindu temple.

The best airlines to get to Cambodia was Singapore Airlines, which is also one of the best airlines to fly on. And it was! The cushions were silky, all the silverware for food was actually metal and not plastic. Very comfortable and good experience.

Singapore airport is also a tourist destination. One can easily spend 4-5 hours just touring around. We would do that later....We landed early afternoon and had the whole day to tour around. We took the hopping bus which goes around Singapore and stops at all the key points like the Singapore flyer, the hifi market street etc. This shuttle is sponsored by the Singapore airport.

So first we took the shuttle to Little India on Serangoon St. There are Indian shops everywhere; all people look like from South India; the temples are South Indian style and almost all the restaurants are also South Indian. We reached on a Sunday and the little India was crowded!! After checking into our hotel (Broadway), we went off to find the stop for the airport tour bus. It was a little tough, but eventually we found it. Oh and the vegetable shops we passed by were amazing! Such fresh vegetable.

We hopped on the tour bus and we were in business. Our first stop was the Singapore flyer - the huge ride that goes really slowly. The next bus would come in an hour so we had plenty of time to go on the ride. One capsule could hold 28 people. We got on! It was quite the ride. it went up slowly and one could see the entire city. And since the ride was so slow, we saw the night lights too. We caught the bus and rode through the city - the botanical garden, the bazaar on Orchard St. (all the glitzy shops were there!), Chinatown, the city....all beautiful.

Once we got back to Little India, it was dinner time. All restaurants were south Indian food and full! It turns out that all the people (mostly young men) were blue collar workers imported from India. We ate south Indian food also - very good! And then for shopping we found Mustafa - a bigger than Walmart kind of store. Oh my God, it was amazing!! There were so many things all of such good quality. Amazing! I was exhausted by now, but we still managed to see the whole store. Sadly, we did not have to buy much, but looking was entertaining! Came back by 11:30pm.

Next day we went a little shopping and then off to the airport. The route is lovely! Singapore is a pretty city. This time we also walked around the airport (Changi airport) - beautiful! There was the orchid garden, the bamboos, a place for just relaxation...lovely.