siem reap, cambodia

(Alert: This is a massive post with tons of pics because I couldn’t help myself. You have been warned!)

A lot of people didn’t even know that when we went to Thailand, we also went to Cambodia for a couple of days. It might be partly my fault since we added Cambodia later in the game. When I was planning the trip, the original plan was to do Thailand and on the way back to the US, we were going to stop in Tokyo for a couple of days since that's where our layover was going to be. But one of my friends (hi Erika!) told me that Cambodia was a must see and since I was going to be so close to it, it would be a shame to miss it. So Tokyo was left for another trip and Siem Reap, Cambodia was added to the itinerary. And I am oh-so-happy that we did.

We took a direct flight from Bangkok (read about it here and here) to Siem Reap. It was super quick - not even 2 hours! My kind of flight. When we arrived at the airport, we had arranged for someone from the hotel to pick us up. We were expecting a van or small car, but were very surprised when we realized that a tuk tuk was going to be the ride to our hotel. I'm still amazed that our bags didn't fall out of the tuk tuk. It was some sort of small miracle.

When we arrived to our hotel (Golden Temple Hotel) we felt so welcome and taken care of. Cambodians are the nicest people! They checked us in really quick and gave us drinks and snacks to take to our room. That day we took it easy. We had woken up super early to catch our flight so we decided to take a nap and then walk around town.

 

The next day, we were picked up by our private tour guide for the next 2 days. His name was Mr. Veasna from Happy Angkor Wat Tour. I know what you are thinking. Private tour guide? Damn, girl! So before you think that we travel like the Kardashians, let me tell you that a private guide in Cambodia is dirt cheap. I am talking $250 cheap for 2 full days.

On our first day with the guide, he took us to a temple called Beng Melea that was a 1.5 hr drive from Siem Reap. On the drive there we passed several villages. We learned that a lot of the peeps that live in these villages don't know how to write or read. And on top of that, they don't have electricity or running water. Can you imagine? Matt said he could totally live like that for a while. Me on the other hand, not so much. It was hard enough not to have internet access 24-7. I have problems. I know.

I really wish we could have gone inside one of these houses. Oh well. Next trip.

So once we made it to Beng Melea, we were in awe.  It’s hard to explain how amazing it was, so I hope these pictures do it some justice.

After that, we went to visit the floating village of Kampong Kleang. These people live in a flooded area ALL YEAR ROUND. All of their houses are built on stilts and everything that they do has to be on a boat. Talk about a different way of life.

The following day, we woke up super early and went to see the sunrise and explore Angkor Wat.

I love that last picture. I look like such an explorer. haha. (Our fabulous tour guide is the man on the left. In case you were wondering.)

After that we explored a bunch of different temples that are in the Angkor complex. We saw so many that I can't remember which temple was which. Nevertheless, they were all amazing.

And that is pretty much our Cambodia experience. If you end up coming to Siem Reap, I highly recommend the Golden Temple Hotel. The employees are super nice. The hotel is beautiful. And the price was very reasonable. We paid $300 total for 3 nights and that included: free buffet breakfast, one free dinner, one free lunch and a free massage. It was a steal.