CAMBODIA
SIEM REAP - ANGKOR WAT
Cambodia is a truly amazing place. I know that's a big statement, considering we only spent one full day there, only seeing parts of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, but I can confidently recommend a visit to anyone with plans to travel Southeast Asia! All of the people we came across seemed to be extremely polite and friendly, the weather was warm and humid, and one of their main forms of currency is the US dollar. We started our sightseeing early in the morning, because we knew we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The temple is a short drive away from the main part of the city, with the ticket counters opening at 5am just down the street from the main entrance. I was shocked at how packed this place was at 5am! I mean, I was expecting to see other tourists, but not THAT many tourists. I have no other time of day to compare it to, but it seemed as though going at sunrise might be the busiest time to see Angkor Wat. It is definitely worth going early though, because the sunrise is gorgeous. For some reason, all the tourists stopped and gathered at the lake right past the main entrance to watch the sunrise in a squishy little tourist cluster. Hunter and I walked right around everyone to the other side of the lake and the other side of the temple, and we were practically alone with just as good of a sunrise and even better lighting for photos.
From here, we asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us to Ta Prohm, the old temple with trees growing on top of it that you see in all of the photos of Cambodia. I thought this place was much cooler than the main temple at Angkor Wat, and we hardly ran into any other tourists. It almost seemed like something out of Indiana Jones, and I was half expecting to run into a giant snake around every corner. It was a really beautiful place. We asked our tuk-tuk driver if there was anything else nearby that we should see, and so he drove us to a few more temple ruins, all of which were very beautiful. You could definitely spend all day temple-hopping around that area if that's the sort of thing you enjoy! We certainly loved everything we had seen, but it was time for us to move one. For 5 hours of this tuk-tuk driver driving us around and waiting for us everywhere we went, the grand total came out to a whopping $25.
We ventured out from our hotel to have breakfast at an Australian owned restaurant called Sisters Srey for something on the healthier side, and then spent some time at the hotel swimming in the pouring rain.
We didn't have a plan for the evening, but we knew we wanted to start out at our hotel's nice outdoor bar for a cognac and cigar. That's where we happened to meet the hotel's manager. We had a great time chatting with him, he bought us our drinks, and he recommended a killer restaurant down the street called Mie Cafe with a young Cambodian chef who specializes in Cambodian food with a western twist. This place was amazing! Some of the dishes we tried included beef carpaccio topped with red ants and their larvae, frog's legs, and a classic Cambodian dish called fish amok. Everything was delicious, the service was fantastic and fast, and the chef even came out at the end to say hi.
From here, we headed over to check out Pub Street. To me, pub street seemed like Siem Reap's version of Bourbon St.- fun, but dirty. It was extremely lively and colorful, with each bar blaring louder music than the last with beers costing only 50 cents. The streets were lined with street food and each bar offered their own version of a pub crawl. We also walked over to check out the local night market, which, for any of you who have been to the many night markets in Southeast Asia, it was same same, but different.
