Siem Reap is great. A really cute city. I especially liked "Pub Street", a great little walking street with lots of restaurants, pubs, cafes and shops. Siem Reap also has a really great night market, and lots of good shopping!
Cambodia is really cheap. Everything is paid for in US Dollars. It is weird for me to think about everything in dollars again instead of Baht. I am in real trouble here because everything seems so cheap. Nice meals are $2-3, a tuk-tuk into town $2, scarves and souvenirs $1. Its crazy. I'm in real trouble when I go back home to the States because everything will be so expensive!
We hired a tuk-tuk driver for three days to tour Angkor Wat. Our driver, Mr. Na, was awesome. The first day we toured a lot of the smaller temples and ended the day with sunset at the top of the mountain of Phnam Bakhen temple. Day two we woke up super early to see sunrise over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately it was cloudy as it had rained the night before. Bummer. Angkor Wat was stunning nonetheless. We hit the major temples including Bayon temple which is famous for the faces carved into the rock and Ta Prahm temple famous for the ruins that look like they are being swallowed by tree roots. Both were amazing. I really can't get over how ornate and detailed everything is. On the third day we went to a few of the older temples. We went to Banteray Srey and a few others located about an hour outside the city. It was really interesting to see how the architecture evolved from the older temples to the more "modern" ones. It was wonderful to be able to spend three days touring ruins!
As much as I loved Siem Reap and Angkor, there were a few downsides. I had a really hard time with the kids at Angkor. As soon as I arrived at a temple I was bombarded with little kids trying to sell trinkets and sourveniors and begging for money and candy. These kids were little too. "Just one dolla ladyyy" they would repeat as they followed us around. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable because I could actually very much afford to give this kid a dollar in exchange for a scarf, but I know that it would just encourage the kids to keep begging and perpetuate the problem. The kids were so cute and it was really hard to say no. Breaks my heart.
As friendly as the people here seem, it feels like it all comes down to money. Even our driver would stop at his "friends restaurant" even though we weren't hungry or stop at touristy places along the way and tell us we should buy something. They seemed very offended when we said no we didn't want to buy anything. I got really sick of the vendors yelling at me "Please ladyyyy, buy something". I understand that Cambodia is still incredibly poor and trying to rebuild, but I got pretty frustrated with so many people asking me for money.
My overall experience in Cambodia was great. I am so glad that I was able to learn so much about the country and its history and visit one of the most incredible places on earth. I feel so lucky to have been able to visit Cambodia on this trip and I learned a lot from my time here. A week in Cambodia went by so fast and I can't believe its already time to head off to Vietnam!
I took SO many pictures at Angkor Wat. I posted a few randoms until I get a chance to really look through them.
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