We landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia, passed through immigrations, purchased SIM cards, met our hostel-provided tuk tuk and arrived at The Siem Reap Hostel all in a blur.
With heads still spinning from the Full Moon Party, we barely made it to our beds before we were all in a deep sleep.
I spent this past March in Cambodia, and although during this portion of our travels I would be playing tour guide I felt that it would be a shame for Caroline, Brad and Jennifer to visit the region and miss the breathtaking Temples of Angkor Wat or the emotional Killing Fields of Phnom Penh.
This trip, I spent less than a week in the country, but was very glad that our movement from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and then onto Saigon, Vietnam was without major interruptions or delays, though we did have some interesting modes of transportation.
I was lucky enough to use the time during their touring to catch up with my dear friends Caitlin and Laura, and spend the downtime updating my blog and journal.
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| Paintings in the Old Market |
On our first day in Siem Reap we slept until late morning, walked around the city in the blistering heat, visited the local market in the Old City, and decided around happy hour that it was time to get happy. Our adventure lead us to Happy Special Pizza and after a few beers and two very happy pizzas, we were on the express route to extreme happiness. The night ended in an attempt to be social at the hostel's infamous Happy Hour, but after realizing we were contented with one another as company we headed upstairs to our dorm style accommodations, laughed about life, and headed to sleep.
The next morning our little group was off to watch the sunrise at the Angkor Wat Temple compound, which left me with the arduous task of sleeping in and finding coffee on my own.
That night we took the night bus to Phnom Penh and arrived at The Mad Monkey Hostel around 8 AM. Our tuk tuk driver from the bus stop waited for us to eat breakfast at Brown Cafe and get some morning caffeine before he swept my travel companions away to visit the infamous and heartbreaking Killing Fields.
As previously stated, this left me with time to myself which I initially thought would be spent at the Vietnamese embassy applying for our visas, but The Mad Monkey staff handled all of our visas for us for the price of $2 each, a fee we were grateful to pay to avoid any communication issues.
The rest of the day was spent, as was the following one, exploring Phnom Penh and tasting as many Cambodian dishes as we could. It was fun to re-visit the city and be able to share some information and insight with my friends, while also exploring new areas of town and learning from their observations and findings.
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| Playing dress up in Phnom Penh |
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