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Published: April 16th 2010
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Cambodia has been one of the highlights of my trip. Siem Reap is a great little town and gateway to Angkor Wat and many many other temples. I stayed at a guest house called Eight rooms, it came as a recommendation and was really great. The room was nice, it was in a great location close to the old market and the highlight was free movies and a dvd player in your room, yippee. Of course, I had to watch tomb raider to get ready for my temple tours.
I spent the first day just hanging out in town. Walked through the old market, had a amazing egg sandwich (little did I know that I would crave this one egg sandwich so much, it might become a staple of my diet. They served it on a fresh french bread roll with baby bell cheese and tomato, cucumber and lettuce) and of course I had to get a massage.
The old market is probably one of my favorite markets in Asia if not my favorite. They have a great combination of souvenirs, art, spices, teas and of course the checkered scarf which everyone in Cambodia seems to where to wipe
Sugar Cane Juice Stand
Looks like a good idea for the Iowa State Fair... away sweat. It was 40 degrees everyday which is about 101F. Once I arrived I learned that April is the hottest month of the year. The wet season comes in May to help cool down the summer but everything was so incredibly dry, even the ponds around all of the temples had completely dried up. They have to fill the pond in front of Angkor Wat manually so you can still get the great picture with the reflection of the temple at sunrise.
I decided to spend two days visiting the temples. The first day I was way too aggressive and got pretty templed out. Did sunrise at Angkor Wat, which was really a wonderful experience that I would recommend to anyone, and Sunset at Pre Rup, it was just okay. The sun was behind clouds so it was pretty anticlimactic.
I hired a tuk tuk and an English speaking guide for the day, it was nice to have the guide but his English wasn’t good enough to answer a lot of my questions about culture, religion, etc. so the next day I saved the money and just hired a driver. I found that I prefer to
do the temples without a guide because I like to breeze through some and not look in every corner.
My three favorite temples were: Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm. There is so much history that I will not even attempt it but they were all amazing sites that should not be missed. I did what they call the Grand tour and small tour and saw about 13 temples. One thing that I was very surprised about was that the civil war in the early 70’s took place all around the temples and there are actually bullet holes in Angkor Wat. The “Tomb Raider” temple is Ta Prohm and the Banyan Trees are really incredible.
During temple trekking you will run into a lot of kids trying to sell bracelets, post cards, water, etc. I had heard about the selling skills some of these kids had but never experienced it for myself until I walked out of Angkor Wat and found one of the best little sales people out there. She asked where I was from and I said the US and then she went into her pitch “Your capital is Washington DC, you have 300 million people,
your president is Barack Obama, his wife is Michele and he has two daughters Sasha and Malia…” If I wouldn’t have stopped her I think she would have gone on for a while because she started in on the states and capitals. I ran into a few more kids like this and decided to have a little bit of fun with them to test their knowledge. I learned that when you say you are from Canada the response is “your capital Ottawa” and then they walk away, I guess studying up on the US is a little more fun or monetarily rewarding.
My stay in Cambodia was great. In addition to the lovely market, great massages and history I also came across two fantastic restaurants.
Khmer Kitchen, best curry of my life. Khmer Curry is coconut based with pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and chicken (had it twice). Regretted not having time to take a cooking class to learn how to make this recipe. Will have to try and attempt it at home sometime.
Blue Pumpkin, great atmosphere and AC!! Incredible fresh shrimp spring rolls and best banana shake (also had it twice) .
After eating in
Happy Dancers
The only carvings to show their teeth when smiling at Angkor Wat Cambodia I got even more excited for the food in Vietnam, I love all of the fresh ingredients and the French influence. Bon Appetit.
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Erica D
non-member comment
Cambodia
I love the pictures - they bring back such great memories. Siem Reap is incredible and Blue Pumpkin is quite the Oasis. I have really enjoyed following your trip so far...have an amazing time in Vietnam.