Just a side note before I start - some of these photos are of pretty average quality because I was using the good old iPhone 4S camera in low lighting - sorry! Most of them are from an actual point and shoot camera, so hopefully they make up for it.
Our one weekend in Siem Reap was incredibly eventful! This weekend, we jammed in everything that we wanted to do that would take the whole day, as during the week we were teaching. We started off with a bang, heading out to Temple Bar and Angkor What? to farewell some of our fellow volunteers. Temple Bar does great food, and at 7:30 every night there is a show of the traditional Khmer dancing - it pays to get there on time so you can get good seats! We danced the night away at both locations. A note on drinking in other countries - it's so important to be careful with what you consume! Angkor What? and Temple Bar are both very touristy though, but ask people who have been there before if they were okay afterwards just in case.
We stopped off for a quick fish foot massage during the night - would not recommend it at all! A very weird experience and I couldn't keep my feet in for long. Some of our friends who were in Cambodia at the same time as us said their tour guide had advised against it - apparently there is a risk of catching diseases but we were okay after ours. Jade, our friend who we headed to the fish massage with, really seemed to enjoy it, but I think all three of us found it a bit weird!
On Saturday, we headed up to Kulen Mountain, a beautiful mountain in a huge national park. The mini bus ride took about 2 hours, with everyone napping after a late night before. At the mountain, we went to see the reclining Buddah, the 1000 Lingas, (I'll leave you to discover what that means!) and swam in a beautiful waterfall. We also saw a temple, and a fresh spring which some of the local children washed our arms in.
Swimming in the waterfall was probably a top 3 moment of my life so far. It was absolutely freezing, but seriously such a memorable experience. Splashing around with some people you've known for a week but now consider fantastic friends, as well as with one of your best friends from home; fish nibbling at your toes; all while a huge waterfall dumps litres of water near you: a pretty incredible afternoon. For dinner that night, we ate at our guesthouse, before Sarah and I headed out to the night markets for a spot of shopping and a foot massage! We also visited Blue Pumpkin for some ice cream - yum!
On the Sunday, we woke up at 4:30am and headed out to a day at Angkor, where the temples, including the famous Angkor Wat, are. We saw the sunrise over Angkor Wat which was a pretty amazing experience. So many tourists but if you get there early enough, you should be able to get a decent enough spot to take photos. We also visited Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Thom. All absolutely beautiful temples, my favourite being Ta Prohm - the jungle temple that Tomb Raider was famously filmed at.
In the afternoon, we met up with some of our friends from home, and had a wonderful time with them at Blue Pumpkin (fantastic ice cream shop near Pub Street) as well as the Old Markets.
That evening, we headed out to town for a lovely dinner at Father's Restaurant with some of the other volunteers - fantastic food and great company (including the lovely waiter who practised his great English with us). I ate the macaroni cheese (I missed mum's cooking a bit!) and it was fantastic, although there was a great choice of other Western and local dishes.
Tips:
1. Bring a jacket if you are going to the sunrise at the temples. We didn't, and boy did we regret this! It was freezing cold, especially on the tuk tuks.
2. Avoid Angkor Wat straight after the sunrise, and instead head to some of the smaller, lesser known temples. This way, you get them mostly to yourself, while avoiding all of the tourist groups.
3. Bring food with you to the temples as the restaurants at Angkor are expensive, as well as few and far between. Plus, that way you don't need to stop your temple adventures - crack open some M&Ms and Pringles on the tuk tuk and you'll be good to go.
4. Beware: one way roads! We didn't realise that we were heading down a one way street until we noticed the funny looks and everyone heading in the opposite direction to us…we did the "push of shame" of our bikes down the street until a roundabout, where the road changed into a two directional path.
Thanks for reading!
Laura
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