Siem Reap, Cambodia

24th June – 29th June 2018

After Kamnat had dropped us off at the bus office, we got on a mini bus to the main coach station. Once we arrived there, we were moved onto a bigger coach, to head towards Siem Reap. The journey lasted a few hours, with a short break half way through.

When we arrived in Siem Reap, we were dropped off at a different place to what we thought we would be. We got off the bus and were met by tuk tuk drivers, offering to take us to our hostel. We didn’t want to walk it, as it was about an hour away, so we agreed a very cheap price of $2 and we were on our way. The drivers offer such cheap prices for these rides as they want you to buy tours with them. As we had only just arrived in the city and had a few days in the area, we had no idea what we were doing, so didn’t want to agree to anything yet, although I did feel bad, a little.

Luckily, when we arrived at the hostel, we were allowed to check in straight away, which was handy, as check in shouldn’t have been until 3pm. We dropped our bags off and had a quick research of places where we could get lunch, before we went out. We hadn’t eaten all day, so we were so hungry, so chose a place quite close to the hostel.

When we arrived at the café, I could have ordered the whole menu. In the end, as I wanted to be traditional, I ordered a fish amok, which I regretted almost straight away. I also ordered a chocolate milkshake, which was a great decision. Joe ordered the beef lok lak, and when the food arrived, we swapped dishes, as I wasn’t keen on mine and Joe likes fish more than I do – he’s a star!

Once we had finished our food, we made our way back to the hostel to decide what to do with our day. We stopped off at the shop on the way to grab a few bits, before heading to the till and realising we had no cash left! It’s a good job we noticed before we tried to pay.

When we got back to the hostel, I wasn’t feeling the best, so ended up napping and before we knew it, the afternoon had passed us by. It was another muggy day, and we noticed that our air con wasn’t working. We popped to reception to ask them about it and someone came to fix it straight away. We were even given another room to rest in, while they fixed it, which was great service!

By the time we were ready and had found some energy to head out for dinner, it was about 6.30. We made our way to ‘Pub Street’ as we had heard it was good for cheap food and drinks, and we wanted to find somewhere to watch the England match and we thought that would be a great place to try.

We made it to Pub Street about five minutes before kick off and struggled to find somewhere with cheap drinks. We eventually settled in a bar, and decided to just get a drink and watch the first half of the game. At half time, I couldn’t watch anymore; I felt too sorry for the Panama team as they still didn’t have a goal to England’s many. We paid up and made our way to a different place for the second half.

For the second half, we decided to leave Pub Street, as we couldn’t find anywhere as cheap as what people were saying and we were getting hungry. We found a place off Pub Street with a TV showing the World Cup, and with cheap food and drinks. As I wasn’t feeling 100% still, I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, while Joe got a sweet and sour dish. We sat and ate, while watching the second half of the game, cheering loudly when Panama scored (although we were happy for England).

After the match, we paid up and went back to the hostel. When we got back, we chilled out, I did some blog work, and then we fell asleep around midnight.

The next morning, we didn’t have to get up early. We hadn’t planned to do anything, besides explore Siem Reap, and it isn’t very big, so we knew we didn’t need to leave too early. We got up and ready and Joe nipped to the shop to buy breakfast (the food we were meant to buy the day before, when we realised we had no cash).

Once we had eaten, we got ready at a leisurely pace before heading out. On the way out, we stopped off at reception to book a trip to Angkor Wat for the next day. We decided to book the sunrise tour, which meant a very early start, but we had heard that it was beautiful, so decided to go for it.

After booking the tour, we went out for the day. We were only walking around the area, seeing what Siem Reap had to offer. We walked north of the city, towards the Royal Gardens. We got there and we weren’t sure what the royal building was, but had a nice rest in the shade, watching the locals pass by.

Once we got moving again, we walked along the river towards the centre of Siem Reap. It was a nice, peaceful walk, with pretty views. We were heading for a market originally, before we found an ice cream shop, so nipped in there. I got an ice cream dish, while Joe got a milkshake float again. We sat in the café and enjoyed them for a while, before carrying on.

When we arrived at the market, it was my kind of market! There were rows and rows of souvenir stalls, which I love looking at. The annoying thing is the pestering from stall owners, but it’s their job, I guess. I was on the lookout for a patch and some Cambodian trousers. I knew I needed some to wear to the temples when we went to Angkor Wat, and although I had things that I could have worn, I like the Cambodian trousers, so it was a good excuse.

While walking around the stalls, I saw a few things I liked, but nothing that I loved enough to buy. I eventually found a pattern and colour that I liked, so I tried them on. I then thought I would buy a t-shirt form the same lady, as I needed something to cover my shoulders, for the temple. I tried one on, before wanting to try another. The lady at the stall told me I wasn’t allowed as I was sweaty! She wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t think she would be so brutally honest. I decided to leave the t-shirt, but I really wanted the pants, so I got them. She then haggled with me and persuaded me to buy the t-shirt too for only $2 extra.

As we left the market, the rain started to fall. It poured and poured, so we stood under the shelter of the market for a while. When the rain eased slightly, we started to walk back towards the hostel, stopping in a café along the way, while the rain came back and then passed again. We got a little bit wet on the way back, but it wasn’t too bad.

We made it back for just after 4. We chilled out for an hour or so, having a little nap, before we got ready for the evening.

Our evening consisted of exploring more markets, and eating more food. We started off at the night markets, looking at the stalls. We didn’t stay very long though as the stall owners were extra pushy and I was feeling really tired. There looked to be some really beautiful things on the stalls too, but we weren’t really looking to buy.

For dinner, we ended up at a restaurant called Five Sons. We had passed it earlier in the day, and liked the look of the menu. When we got back to the hostel, we googled it and it had great reviews, so it had our vote, as it was so cheap! We both had curries, although different types and they were both so tasty. With our meals, we got a free draught beer or soft drink, and as I didn’t like beer, ordered the soft drink and a cocktail, willing to pay extra. When the bill came, it was $7 for both meals and three drinks – such a bargain for such tasty food!

Once we had paid up, we walked back to the hostel and got ourselves ready for bed. We were planning an early night, as we had an extra early start to get up and see the temples of Angkor Wat, the next day.

When the alarm went off at 4am, it was a struggle to get up. We did though, and we got ourselves ready, before heading out to the gate, where our tuk tuk driver was waiting for us. We got in and started to make our way to Angkor Wat. Along the way, we had to stop off at the ticket office and queue for our tickets. As the office didn’t open until 5, we had a little wait, but the time soon passed and the booths opened a little early anyway.

Once we had our tickets, it was back into the tuk tuk, to continue our ride to the temples. We arrived at Angkor Wat just in time for sunrise. We thought about crossing the bridge at first, but then decided it would be better to have a full view of the temple, so we found ourselves somewhere to sit.

As the sun slowly rose, the colours were beautiful and the temple looked really pretty. We sat for a while, and enjoyed the views, taking lots of photos along the way.

Once the sun had risen, we made our way inside the temple. It wasn’t as busy as we anticipated, so that was good. We walked along, but as we had no tour guide, we didn’t know much about what we were seeing. Joe had done some research the night before and found that Angkor Wat is the biggest religious building in the world. It was originally started as a Hindu temple, by one king, but when he died, the next king decided to change it to a Buddhist temple.

As we walked around the grounds, we took in the views, and stopped to eat our breakfast, before heading inside the main building. Inside, we looked at the structure, before queuing up in the middle section, to climb to the top part of the temple. The climb up was steep but it was really pretty up there. The views didn’t go much further than the courtyard that we were in, but we did get a glimpse of the main grounds and it looked even quieter than before.

After a few hours exploring Angkor Wat, we made our way back to the tuk tuk.

The next stop on our trip, was to Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom consisted of lots of different types of temples, which we wandered around.

The Bayon Temple was quite interesting, as it had lots of different faces in the brick-work. Within Angkor Thom, we also looked at other temples which were also very beautiful and well preserved, before we went back to the tuk tuk.

When we got back to the tuk tuk, we set off again to the next stop. We had been told that we would only see three stops, which we were fine with, but the next stop was one we weren’t aware of. We got out of the tuk tuk anyway and climbed to the top of the steep and narrow steps.

Ta Prohm was the next stop. I think this was my favourite temple of the whole visit, as it was very beautiful. The way the trees grew over the buildings was fascinating, I couldn’t stop taking photos. There was a lot of building work going on to restore the temple though, so that took away from the natural feeling a bit, but it was still beautiful.

Ta Prohm is the temple where parts of Tomb Raider was filmed. Apparently they used this tree to jump up from, but none of the original temple was destroyed during the filming.

Surprisingly, we still had another stop on the way back. Our last stop was to see two temples: Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang. Banteay Kdei was similar to the other temples that we had seen throughout the day, but Sras Srang was a water temple. It was very pretty and a nice change from the others we had seen. Although they were all nice to look at, they were all very similar.

After taking our last few photos, we went back to the tuk tuk for the final time. We drove back to our hostel, which took around half an hour, getting us back for 12.

Once we had arrived back at the hostel, we decided to go out for some lunch, before we got too settled. As we knew it, we went back to the lunch place that we went on the first day. We shared a baguette and some sweet potato fries, which were delicious!

When we got back to the hostel, we had a chilled afternoon. We lounged by the pool, having a dip and playing some cards. It was a nice afternoon in the sun, after having such an early start to see the sunrise.

After finishing the afternoon off with a nap, we then got ready to go out for dinner. We set off just after 6, and planned on eating at the night markets, as we had seen a sign for a street food market. However, when we got there, there were only ice cream stands, and while I love ice cream, it isn’t the best option for tea, so we decided to head back to Five Sons, as we loved it so much the first time.

On the way, we stopped in a bakery to get some breakfast and lunch for the next day, as they have a 50% off offer on, after 6pm. We managed to get a huge baguette for breakfast and then a sandwich and pizza bread for lunch, and it cost us $3!

For dinner, we both ordered different things to eat, and the bill came to only $6 this time, as I didn’t get an extra drink, it was such a bargain, with tasty food.

After paying up, we made our way back to the hostel for a chilled evening, watching a film, before falling asleep.

We had a little lie in again the next day. We had asked our tuk tuk driver from Angkor Wat to come back for us and take us to a lake that I had read about. He wasn’t collecting us until 10, but we were up just after 8 to get ready and have some breakfast. We ate by the pool, which was a nice start to the day.

At 10, we made our way to the gate, where our driver was waiting for us. We got in the tuk tuk and made our way to West Baray Lake. It took us about half an hour to get there, and when we arrived, we were dropped off at the bottom of the hill, as the tuk tuk wouldn’t make it up apparently.

Once we were dropped off, we went up the hill and then back down again, to the beach area around the lake. We were the only tourists around, and there weren’t even many locals. We got pestered a little bit by the locals that were there, but we just politely declined and walked by.

After walking along the beach a little way, we decided to stop, where it was quiet. There were lots of flies following us, but not the ordinary annoying flies, these were like dragonflies, but equally annoying. We stood on the beach and contemplated what to do, as we had food with us and we didn’t want it to attract more flies.

In the end, we wrapped the food bag up in my sarong and got in the water. The water was much cleaner than the Kamping Puoy Dam that we went to with Kamnat and it was really warm. We stood in the water and chatted for a while, before getting out.

When we got out, we sat on the beach and played some cards. When we weren’t moving, the flies left us alone, so we just sat still and it was fine. Once we had dried off, we got quite hot again, so decided to go for another swim.

The second swim was much shorter, and when we got out the second time, we decided that we would leave soon. We sat and dried off and really enjoyed it there, as it was so peaceful, but there wasn’t any shade and it was getting quite sunny. It was also quite difficult to get comfy too, so just after 1.30, we went back to the tuk tuk. It was good of the driver to wait for us, as it meant that we didn’t have to faff around trying to find a lift back.

After about half an hour, we made it back to the hostel again. We had a couple of hours chilling out by the pool and enjoying the rest. As we had an evening out, we started to get ready at about 4, as we had to go for an early tea.

Just after 5, we set off for dinner. We didn’t even need to debate where to go anymore, and as much as we wanted to try other places, we knew that Five Sons was cheap and tasty, so we just agreed to try different things. As we sat down, the rain started to come down.

While we ate, it poured and poured and poured, and it didn’t look like it was going to let up at all. Luckily, as we paid up, the rain eased off. We nipped across the road to the bakery for our breakfast and lunch for the next day, before heading back to the hostel to drop it off, as it was on the way to the circus.

When we got back, I noticed that my sarong was trailing on the wet floor, so I went to pick it up. As I lifted it, there was a frog sat underneath, which I nearly touched! I freaked out a little, but Joe got rid of it for me. We dropped the food off in the room and set back out again.

The circus was about twenty minutes away and as we were in open seating, we wanted to be there early to get good seats. We knew that the doors didn’t open until 7.30, but I had read that people queue before.

When we arrived at about 6.45, we were the first there! We didn’t mind though, as we would rather be early to get a good seat. We had time to look around the shop and then went into the courtyard where there were lots of food stalls. We got an ice cream to share and by the time we had finished that, it was time to line up, as a queue was forming.

When the doors opened at 7.30, we managed to get the best seats in our section. We were as close to the centre as we could be, and on the second row back, which is what the ticket man recommended to us, so it was well worth getting there early.

The show began at 8pm, and it was amazing! It was another inspirational story about Cambodians, as all of the actors and actresses came from underprivileged backgrounds and learnt their circus skills at a free school (similar to AKD). The performers were amazing, as they told the story of a young man who was rejected by his village because of his disfigured face. The man prayed to the gods and was changed into a beautiful woman who taught the villagers a lesson.

The performance was done with humour though, and the end was amazing, as they all showed off their amazing skills. They have so much strength and flexibility. It was a show well worth the money and definitely something we were glad that we did.

Amazing performers

Such an amazing end!

When the show finished at about 9.30, we were able to go onto the stage to meet the actors and talk to them and have some photos. After we had done this, we started our walk back to our hostel.

Back at the hostel, we were on high watch for frogs. It was just my luck, that there was one sat right on our door step – it’s like it knew! Joe got rid of it again, before I could go inside. We got ready for bed and played some cards, before falling asleep just after 11.

Our final full day in Cambodia was used to plan and organise ourselves, as well as chill out. We got up just after 9, and Joe nipped out to get a drink and another croissant, as we had only bought one the night before, as we thought we had some baguette left, but it was too hard to eat.

As the shop was only five minutes away, I got a little worried, when he had been gone for half an hour, so I went out looking for him. He wasn’t in the shop where I thought he had gone, so I thought it was best to walk back to the hostel, to see if he had returned, which he had, luckily!

We ate our breakfast by the pool, before moving to the sunbeds with the laptop, iPad and phone, ready for some planning time. As Thailand was the last country we were going to, it was always the one that I hadn’t thought about, as I never thought it would come around so quickly, so we didn’t really have any idea of what to do, or where to go, so we needed to do lots of googling.

In between planning, we had breaks to get in the pool and cool off. We had chosen a gorgeous day to spend by the pool, as the sun was out for the majority of the day and it was nice to have the pool to just jump in to.

By mid-afternoon, we had a rough plan of things we wanted to see, on the dates we wanted to go. We didn’t book anything though, as we know how easily plans can change when traveling but we also knew we didn’t want to waste any time, so the basic plan was needed for my peace of mind.

At about 4, after multiple swims and lots of planning, we started to get ready for the evening. We had showers and packed our bags, ready to leave, before heading out. There was another market that I had seen, that I wanted to look at, so we went there first.

When we got to the market, it was much more up-market than the others we had seen, so we just had a quick look around, before leaving. We had another wander through the Old Market on the way back, so that I could get my patch, before we went for dinner.

As I wasn’t too hungry at this point, we stopped in a different bar first, for a drink, but the staff in there were not friendly at all, so we were glad we weren’t staying for food. Once we had finished our drinks, we nipped to the bakery for our final breakfast and lunch bargains, before going back to Five Sons, for the final time.

As it was our last night, we both ordered the curry that we had eaten the first night, as we enjoyed it so much.  I had a cocktail too as it was the last night and we needed to get rid of our Khmer pesos.

Once we had paid up, we walked back to the hostel, to finish packing and get ready for another early start. We played some cards, where I managed to win a round, straight from the deal! We also watched a film and had a chilled evening, before falling asleep at about 11.

The next morning, the alarm went off at 5.30, but as I had woken up so many times in the night, I didn’t want to get up. We eventually dragged ourselves out of bed and got ready. We packed our final bits into our bags, before meeting our tuk tuk driver at the gate at 6am.

We drove to the airport, ready to say goodbye to Cambodia. We paid our driver and went inside, where we had to wait for the check-in desks to open.

Once we had checked in, we made our way through passport control, and security, and went and sat by our gate, ready for the boarding call.

Siem Reap was better than I expected it to be. We had heard a few things about it, saying it wasn’t very good, but it was nice for us to be able to spend time chilling out and do the things that we wanted to at a leisurely pace. Some chilled out days were needed too, and we needed time to plan, so it all worked out nicely for us.

Cambodia overall has touched our hearts in many ways. We fell in love with the kind and gentle nature of the people and became intrigued in their history, which is still massively affecting them today. Our time at AKD was amazing, and it feels good for me to know that Joe enjoyed it just as much as I did. After such a long trip, the time has come for us to enter the final country before we fly home!

To travel is to live, Katie x