Siem Reap, Cambodia

After spending a week waiting to be reassigned and basically living as a road wife in Pattaya, I took a week of vacation and planned a trip with Angela. Angela is my coworker's wife who travels and takes some really sweet pictures with her expensive camera. In fact, most of the pictures you see in all my albums from Thailand are from her. So, Thanks Angela!

Ok, we flew into Siem Reap on Tuesday and lazily watched "Just One of the Guys," on tv. You know that really horrible 80's movie where the main character cuts her hair and pretends to be a man in high school to research for her newspaper? Well, by this point Angela and I realized that we travel well together because neither of us have any sort of agenda to stick to. Besides, we came to Cambodia on one day's notice with nothing planned and 4 days to do it in.

Siem Reap, Cambodia Pictures - I haven't quite finished sorting through all of these yet, but I have posted some.

I suppose many of you don't know, as I didn't until talking to Angela, but Siem Reap is the city nearby some old Buddhist temples at Angkor.

Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom


Bayon is the temple portrayed in Tomb Raider...people say...I haven't seen it. We woke up for sunrise at Angkor Wat, but of course it was a cloudy day, pictured below.





We also visited Ta Prohm, famous for its winding tree and giant roots growing out of rocks, below.



I really liked Cambodia. I can see why Angelina Jolie stole so many kids from there - they were really cute begging for money. There were a lot of restaurant choices in Siem Reap on Pub Street, which also had a good night life. The food was similar to Thai food but less spicy, which is good for me. I like to avoid basement fires if at all possible. Also one really nice thing was how cheap the vacation was. We stayed in a nice hotel and bought a ton of souvenirs from the night market. They predominantly use the US Dollar, so I didn't have to convert anything in my head; plus you can bargain for everything. We got T-shirts bargained down below $2. They throw one price at you, and you counter with something insultingly low (Angela is especially good). Then walk away and they agree. It's beautiful. But it really was weird to get US currency out of an ATM on the other side of the world.

Lastly, in the back corner of the night market was a sign for a fish pedicure. Angela had heard about this before, and apparently somewhere in NY offers this for a ridiculous price, but it is fairly common in SE Asia. These 'doctor' fish don't have teeth and they eat the dead skin off your feet. For the hefty price of $3 (I think), Angela and I treated outselves. It tickles...a lot.

Fish Pedicure


Do you like my jean shorts? Back to work in Thailand.