Siem Reap Wins My Heart... Again

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We arrived in Siem Reap and our transfer was waiting for us... Arriving at our hotel we were gobsmacked... the hotel was BEAUTIFUL and such a bargain at $55 a night! We had booked last minute at the Tara Angkor Hotel and were so glad to have found the hotel. Our stay there was just amazing.... Even though it was early morning, they had our room ready within 10 minutes of arriving and once we had settled in the hotel room, we had a look around the hotel, before deciding to head into town for some food... We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed towards Pub Street... When we were almost there, I saw a funky little cafe on the side of the road overlooking the river so we stopped and headed back to check it out... We discovered Sister Srey Cafe and LOVED it... it became our regular little haunt over the next few days. We sat at a bench table facing out towards the road and people watched while we ate. The food was fantastic, the coffee beautiful and the menus were served in little Golden Books.. very cute. The Cafe is definitely worth checking out if you are in Siem Reap.. it is run by two young Aussie sisters who were backpacking on their way to England and fell in love with Siem Reap so they stopped and settled there.

The Cafe is linked to a charity and as their facebook site describes it "Our vision at Sister Srey Cafe is to support young Khmer students who struggle to keep a balance between study and supporting their family. We believe that by giving these beautiful people a flexible roster, fair pay and continuous training, we are little by little helping build a brighter future for these young people. Our team at the cafe are like family to us and each have their own story and beautiful personality"



After we ate lunch, we headed to the markets for a look around before heading back to the hotel to spend the afternoon lazing by the pool. At one stage a couple of handsome European men lazed by the pool and made it extremely uncomfortable for us when one of them decided to sit in the water facing us right where we were laying... his face was basically in our crotches... less than a metre away! Luckily we waxed lol... Awkward.



We eventually headed back into town and had dinner at Viva Mexican ..... my favourite restaurant in Siem Reap before I convinced Lynn to have a massage. Lynn is not a fan of massages despite spending alot of time in Asia but she had a sore neck/shoulders so she gave in and went for a shoulder/head massage... I stuck with a foot massage and had to laugh when an hour later, Lynn walked out from the back room looking extremely unimpressed. Oops! We then went for a walk down Pub Street before heading back to the hotel for an early night...



The following day we started early hiring Marom the tuktuk driver to take us out to Beng Melea Temple Complex. Marom was recommended by friends way back in 2006 and I hired him on my first trip in 2007. My partner and I had spent 2 days with "Marom"and absolutely loved him until Cathy (friend who recommended him) saw his photo and was like "ummmmm thats not Marom" lol wtf... turns out that Marom was busy so sent a friend/cousin instead who pretended to be Marom rather than tell us he was replacing Marom... funny but this trip we finally got Marom!



The trip out to Beng Melea was about 2 hours in the slow little tuktuk but very picturesque and once we got to Beng Melea we agreed the trip was totally worth it... Beng Melea is STUNNING. We had a lady approach us wearing an official guide uniform and offer to show us around. She didn't ask for payment at all and we spend the next hour or two exploring the complex. We were so glad to use her. She was so lovely and she had us crawling in and over all parts of the temple that other tourists werent going to... We gave her a nice tip at the end and then headed back to Siem Reap. On the way back, Marom stopped at a small village and introduced us to his family and then dropped us to Sister Srey Cafe.



We had lunch at Sister Srey then did a quick shop at the markets before heading back to the hotel to laze by the pool again. That night we headed to HAVEN training restaurant for dinner. When we arrived we were informed you actually needed a booking! A booking in an restaurant in Asia?! really?? lol luckily though they told us they had one table left as someone had not turned up so we were the lucky ones.... the ambience of the restaurant was lovely, the prices reasonable and the food was stunning.



The restaurant describes themselves : "HAVEN is a non-religious social enterprise that opened its gate in December 2011 and is a training restaurant for vulnerable young adults from orphanages* and safe shelters, as well as underprivileged young adults from very rural poor areas. By teaching them quality work skills as well as important life skills, we support these young people in their transition from institution to real world as well as giving them a chance to step out of the poverty cycle.

In addition to the work training and the life skills workshops we also take financial responsibility of all our trainees and provide them with protected and guided shared housing, meals, medical care and a monthly training allowance. Furthermore we offer them English and computer lessons.

The training runs for one year and when it is finished, we help our students to find permanent positions. By doing this we empower them to create a safe future for themselves."

Back in 2011 I met a guy, Dave online on TravBuddy website.. its basically a travel website for people to put in dates/places they are travelling to and they can meet up with other people that are there at the same time for drinks/travelling etc together.. We were meant to catch up in Siem Reap on the 2011 trip but it never happened for various reasons... A few months prior to this trip I saw on Facebook that Dave was going to be in Cambodia this time around the same time so we arranged to meet up... I had spoken to him earlier that day and the plan was to meet after dinner but I was exhausted so was going to cancel... in the end I said to him that we would walk home via pub street and if he was there and saw us, to stop us and I would have a drink....



Halfway up Pub Street Dave turned up out of nowhere... well actually out of the Angkor Wat? Bar so we ended up inside Angkor Wat? drinking and finally catching up two years later! Great guy who I hit it off with immediately and after one too many drinks we called it a night and promised to catch up again the next day... Lynn and I had a big day the next day heading to Battambang for the day to see Kai and deliver Cambodian Children's Trust the 26kg of childrens clothing we had bought from Australia... it was a 2-3 hr drive one way....

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Comments

[Lynn]

Paradise
Good read...best thing is, it includes me =) finally after reading ur blogs for years. Thanx Reety for my latest adventures xox

[Touristang-pinoy]

Your blog presented another angle of Siem Reap and the Angkor. Likes the Sister Srey Cafe'. As a whole, blog and pictures are very informative.