Cambodia | greenlaundry

10 Sep 13

Siem Reap 03

In Siem Reap, we stayed at a pretty cool hotel, so I took some photos to share with you guys here. It’s called Pippeli Pensione. There are only nine rooms which is great if you generally don’t like to see people-people-people first thing in the morning. And because it’s very reasonably priced, we booked the biggest nicest room! (Yet it still worked out to be cheaper than a regular room in a hotel-with-a-brand-name.)

Our room was on the top floor, on the right

We ate breakfast out here every morning

Easily the longest bath tub I’ve ever been in

Siem Reap is pretty touristy in my opinion. There isn’t much off-the-beaten-path paths to take, unless you know a local or something. So we pretty much ate all our lunches and dinners in Pub Street.

Riding in a tuk tuk

We played a round of mini golf

I won 😉

Meeting cats all over the world

Had lunch at FCC Angkor, fancy place, not so fancy food

Found a cute cafe where we played a game of Scrabble and ate too many cakes and drank too many lattes

Might I also add that Sugar Palm restaurant (famed for being on an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Great Escape) serves some seriously tasty Khmer food (Cambodian food). If you love to eat good food, it’s a must-go!

In real-life news – I’ve started taking driving lessons. I had my first practical lesson today! Only 36 modules more to go. Go me!

Siem Reap 02 – Bayon

Bayon Temple is my favourite ruin of all. It’s got faces everywhere! I went a little frantic trying to capture all of them.

I spent the whole of today finalizing our trip to Istanbul/Selcuk/Pamukkale. We’re going in October. The airbnb place we booked looks amazing. I’m in love! I can’t wait. It’s gonna be the first time I step on European soil too 😉

Siem Reap 01 – Angkor Wat

Me, I had some trouble understanding what Angkor Wat consisted of. Once you start doing your research, you quickly realize how many ruins/temples there are THERE! There’s Angkor Wat but there’s also a hundred others. Angkor Wat is the largest temple of all so it immediately gets main-attraction-status. I had no idea before this so I hope this gives anyone who’s planning to visit, a clearer picture.

First, this map is useful, save it. I wish I had it earlier than halfway through our day at the ruins. With the map, you clearly see where what is. The green ‘line’ is referred to as the Big Circuit. The red ‘line’ is the Small Circuit. And Angkor Wat plus Angkor Thom makes up the Grand Circuit. (For the record, we only did the Grand & Small Circuits.)

In my opinion, you can do all three circuits if you start your day really early at 4.30am. Catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat and proceed onto the other circuits. If you’re a regular guy or girl like me, hire a tuk tuk for the entire day. Some people rent bicycles and cycle. Gotta say the grounds are v–a–s–t though. It’s a lot to cover unless you have super quads/super lungs/super health/fitness… you get it.

We were one of the many early birds that arrived at 5ish a.m.. The skies were gloomy so we didn’t get much of a sunrise. In fact, we got drizzles! But dampen our spirits it did not, we welcomed daylight and forged on.