October Travels: Cambodia

Siem Reap

We hit the ground running out first day in Siem Reap. Our hotel made us a boxed breakfast and we were picked up by our Tuk Tuk driver at 4:30 AM. He then took us to the Angkor Wat office to buy our day passes. We arrived at Angkor Wat around 5 AM and found our spots to watch the sunrise. We bought a guide book to help guide us through exactly what we were seeing throughout the day. 

Here is a list of the temples that we visited:

Angkor Wat 

Angkor Thom

The Bayon

Bapuon

Elephant Terrace

Leper King Terrace

Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace

Thommanon

Chao Say Tevoda

Ta Nei

Ta Keo

Ta Prohm

Banteay Kdei

Srah Srang

Pre Rup
Banteay Srei

My favorite was by far Banteay Srei. It was beautifully red and ornate in ways that all of the others were not. While we definitely did the fast track of Angkor Wat by doing it all in one day, we truly saw as much as we could in a short period of time. 

On our second day we slept in (finally!!) and explored the city in the morning. We found a Mexican restaurant for lunch (don't judge me, I've been in Asia for 4 moths!) with a cute boutique jewelry shop next door. We shopped around for a bit before heading back to the hotel for a quick nap. At 3 we were picked up for our cooking class. There was another set of Americans (brothers from New York and Pennsylvania) who were fun to chat with. Chris showed us around the local market answering our questions about foods we didn't recognize and proving just how cheap everything is here. Once back at the cooking school, Darwin walked us through the preparation of our meal. We made mango salad with chicken, red curry with chicken, and bananas in coconut cream. It was TO DIE FOR and I would recommend this experience to everyone! 

On our third day we left early in the morning to visit the Landmine Museum which was 45 minutes by Tuk Tuk from our hotel. We learned about how there are millions of active landmines still in Cambodia and how one man, Akira, is doing is part in getting rid of them. To our surprise Akira was actually at the museum as we were leaving to meet with a group of journalists. Super cool! We headed back to Siem Reap, ate lunch, and were picked up in the van to take us the 5 hour drive to Phnom Penh. 

Phnom Penh 

For our first day in Phnom Penh we slept in and ate breakfast at our hotel. We are staying across the street from the national museum so we walked across the street to spend a few hours there in the morning. We then found a place that had a gluten free menu for lunch. I had GLUTEN FREE PIZZA and it was incredible. After my life changing pizza, we walked to the Cambodia Vietnam Friendship Monument, Statue of Late King Norodom Sihanouk, and Independence Monument. We rested in the room for an hour or so before before heading around the corner to the Royal Palace. We decided to get a guide to walk us through the palace and Bonsai was great! His English was phenomenal and he answered so many of our questions! 

The second day we woke up early to grab breakfast and then hired a Tuk Tuk for the day to take us to the S21 genocide museum and the Killing Fields. It was a somber day (and also Friday the 13th), but it felt important to dedicate some of our time to learn more about what happened. In the afternoon we visited a local shop that sells handmade clothes and jewelry. We then met our boat for a sunset cruise and glass of wine around the river. Finally, we walked to the night market for some papaya salad, ginger mint lemonade/mango shakes, and coconut ice cream. What a perfect end to our week in Cambodia!