We left Bangkok at 6.30am on Sunday, December 21 and headed for Cambodia. We were excited, but still tired from our long travel days and flurry of activity in Bangkok so we slept a good bit on the bus ride.

We crossed into Cambodia from Thailand at Poi Pet, which I later learned is famed for being a lengthy and annoying process. Dyka had us give all of our luggage to a local who piled the bags into a cart. We all watched a bit nervously, but  Dyka insisted the man was completely trustworthy. We didn’t have any options, so we had to trust that this was just the way things were done here. 

We had to go through Thailand’s immigration first and there was quite a line, in a big room with no air-conditioning. I wasn’t miserable, but more in complete disbelief at the locals who were wearing jackets, hats and scarves. I know it was their “cooler” season, but it was still at least 85 degrees outside!

Once we left Thailand, we had to stop by a little tent to declare that we were healthy before we could enter Cambodia. The Cambodian immigration office at Poi Pet was a tiny little room with moldy ceilings. We all crammed in, but soon there was a line out the door and the line went very slowly. As we moved closer, we saw that they were not only painstakingly inspecting passports, but also taking fingerprints. That was new for me – I’d never been fingerprinted as part of immigration before. Yikes. 

Once I got through, I met up with others from our group under a tent that also appeared to be an outdoor convenience store. Sean and I had some Angkor beer, which was not too far beyond water in taste but satisfied our thirst. The cans were pull-tab and some of them were “winners” – one of our tabs revealed that we won another beer. Nice!

We boarded the bus, which DID have all of our luggage, and headed into Cambodia on a barely-paved/dirt-covered, two-lane road…with lanes entirely optional. We stopped in a small village for lunch, Sean had a green curry and I had a red curry. Mine came with bell peppers, chicken, these tiny green eggplants that looked like large peas, and a light-green squash with dark green seeds. (Pics are in the gallery at the bottom of the post)

We finally arrived at our hotel 11 and a half hours after departing Bangkok. Whew. The bus ride was meant to save money over flying, but I’m not sure losing an entire day was worth it. We decided this was all part of our experience and adventure and just rolled with it.

Our hotel was lovely. Clean, bright and landscaped with lush vegetation, it was a welcome sight after a long day. Siem Reap in general has tree-lined streets and wide sidewalks, making it very easy to walk around and take in the pretty architecture.

 We headed to the famous Pub Street for dinner. It was a much, much more relaxed version of Khao San Road but still very touristy.

The highlight of our group dinner was definitely the plate of crickets, fish, cockroaches and snake that we had. Sean had the fish, crickets and snake, and I tried the crickets. Actually not bad – mostly just crunchy and salty.

After dinner, we walked over to the Night Market. We took in the endless lines of stalls selling jewelry, souvenirs, scarves, luggage, etc. We saw a sign for foot massages and then did a double-take at the price. We went for it and both dozed off a little during our 30-minutes of relaxation. We headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep for our tour of Angkor Wat the next day. (I’ll cover our time in Angkor Wat in a separate post)

 We spent December 22 and the first part of December 23 exploring temples around Angkor Wat. On December 23, Sean and I opted out of some other tours for free time to explore a bit more of Siem Reap. I don’t like having every minute planned for me and having a day to just wander around and see what happens is a great way to get to know a place, in my opinion.

We started by walking near our hotel and the river, before coming to a park filled with beautiful plants and blooms.

We wandered a bit further down a few quiet streets before stumbling across a beautiful resort that was named after me!

We ended up on a very busy main road and we stopped in a few shops but mostly just walked, taking in the pace of the city and observing the locals running their businesses.

I’d researched several restaurants in Siem Reap, but had been told that one of them was far from the hotel. Well, we stumbled across it on our walk and decided to have lunch there. Nest Angkor Cafe was an outdoor restaurant, but covered with layers of white canopies and filled with beds and oversized lounge chairs, along with tables for dining. We had a very decadent lunch for only $35: banana blossom salad, sushi, wok-friend noodles with pork and crispy basil, mango sticky rice and a pitcher of Angkor beer. This would have cost double in the US! The food was fresh and delicious, and we had a wonderful time trying all the different flavors.

We continued our walk after lunch, not knowing where we were headed but ending up going through an alley that had kids playing in it. I noticed that the babies weren’t wearing diapers – they just go bare-bottomed. Also, car seats are non-existent. Babies, toddlers, kids all ride with their parents on the motorbikes. At first I was pretty freaked out by this, but this is what they know and what they have. Our child-safety car laws can seem quite excessive by comparison.

We found ourselves on a street we’d only been on at night and saw that, during the day, there was a beautiful temple complex that had its gates open. These complexes are well-maintained and are a peaceful respite from the noise and traffic just outside the walls.

We walked past a small spa and went in for massages. I had a relexation massage with oils and Sean had a traditional Thai massage. They rinsed our feet off, then we were taken to a room with mats on the floor separated with curtains. We were given tea after our massages. So relaxing and so inexpensive – our two together were just over $30 for an hour. We were loving it!

Next, we did some shopping. I get overwhelmed quite easily in the markets, so it’s best if I know exactly what I want before I get into them. For browsing, we found some lovely little side streets that were quaint and filled with adorable boutiques and cafes. I found some nice items for myself and others, and Sean and I also found our gifts for the White Elephant gift exchange our tour group was having on Christmas Day.

We eventually made our way over to the market, then needed to rest for a bit and did so at a local cafe. We sat at the bar and chatted to the Canadian bartender over more Angkor beer. He had many interesting tales of his years in Southeast Asia that he had no trouble sharing with us. We were, of course, fascinated and loved every minute of it! It’s these little encounters with people that make travel so interesting and rewarding.

In the early evening, we went to pick up our clothes from the local laundry service and dropped them off at the hotel. We did some searching on Yelp to find a place for dinner and settled on a vegetarian restaurant called the Peace Cafe. It was several blocks from our hotel so we walked along the river before finding it just off a side street. The service was awful, by far the worst we’d encountered on the trip so far – we watched the servers wait on other tables (which were filled with Westerners as well) but we had to order at the bar. 

The food was surprisingly delicious, though. We started with an eggplant dip that was a milder version of a baba ganoush, then had a chickpea curry that was filled with fresh vegetables a light, mild sauce. We also shared sweet and sour cauliflower, with the cauliflower being hand-breaded and mixed with stir-fried vegetables then topped with the cafe’s own sweet and sour sauce. It was SO good. We didn’t get pictures of any of this, unfortunately. It was dark outside and the lighting was poor. You’ll just have to trust me that it was fresh and yummy!

We walked some more after dinner, this time to a beautiful section of town that was filled with hanging lights. We crossed a lighted bridge over the river and saw more lights on the water in the shape of lanterns. Very pretty!

We loved Siem Reap and could have easily spent twice as much time there as we did, if not more. One of the reasons we wanted to come to Cambodia was to visit cities that were not the huge metropolises like Bangkok and Singapore; places where we could walk around and get a real feel for the city. Siem Reap delivered that for us and more. 

Here are additional photos!