Siem Reap - Cambodia

Ever since I started working in Asia - I have wanted to go and visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap - Cambodia. Finally - the wish came true. We flew to Siem Reap by Jetstar from Singapore on 27th Sept. It was a short 3 days trip and it was just perfect. We selected a few crucial sites that we needed to see, and the rest of the time we just chilled out - enjoy good food, good wine & spa massages.

We stayed at the Pavillon Indochine Hotel where we got a family suite for 4. The room was nice and cosy, plumbing was a little questionable but everything else was fine. We started our first day with a visit to Angkor Thom and spent 2 hours wandering the ruins. We didnt manage to go to the Leper King Temple as it was high noon and we were too hungry to walk further. We called our driver and headed for some much needed food. Our first cambodian lunch was at The Dead Fish Tower Restaurant. It was a quirky place with lots of wooden decks and looked somewhat like an antique shop. We had our first taste of the national dish - Amok Fish - and we didnt quite like it.

After lunch we headed back to our hotel to take a much needed nap, had our massages and then we headed to the Raffles Hotel for pre-dinner drinks. Dinner was at Alliance Cafe. Service was excellent and we ate so much we couldn't walk anymore. After dinner, we jumped into a tuk tuk to take us back to the hotel. It was dark and the driver didnt really know where our hotel was, luckily - between the 4 of us, we managed to remember some landmarks and we go back to our hotel safe and sound.

The next day, we got up bright an early (5am to be exact) to catch sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was amazing walking the long corridor into Angkor. I am particularly fond of big monuments and even after seeing many amazing ruins - Angkor Wat didn't disappoint. If only the weather is a little better - we could have taken a much nicer photo.

The rest of day 2 was a relaxing day. We went for our 3 hour massages and had long lunch at the the ultra modern Blue Pumpkin Cafe. After feeding ourselves, we decide that we can walk a little more and headed to Ta Prohm Temple (aka Tomb Raider Temple). Ta Prohm was very different to the rest of the temples that we have seen and it was eery walking into the semi forest with all these big tree roots sticking out everywhere.

Our last dinner at Siem Reap was at Kama Sutra Fine Dining Indian Restaurant - it was surpringly good and our meal with 1 bottle of wine costs us USD 48 for 4 people. A bargain indeed. We went and did some last minute "meds" shopping - picked our tuk tuk driver and left Pub Street for the last time.

The group at Siem Reap - Mery, Lina, Cynthia and Me.