A few weekends ago we took a weekend trip to Seim Reap, Cambodia. It was our last weekend before our new term, so we decided to get away one last time before returning to the madness. We spent our time there relaxing, enjoying the sites, and meeting up with friends. It was a great way to give our batteries an extra boost for this semester.
We arrived to Siem Reap in the evening, so we didn’t do very much the first night. We had a quick dinner in town at the Blue Pumpkin, a great little café that has a few locations in Cambodia. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to rest up for the next day.
In the morning….really early morning, we took a tuk tuk to the temple complex to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. At 5 a.m. there were hundreds of people waiting in anticipation for the breathtaking event. The stars were shining bright in the dark sky as we set up to watch the show. Slowly the sky started to get lighter as the sun crept up behind the enormous towers. After about 45 minutes the sun made it’s debut and we all sighed as we witnessed such a magical occasion. For anyone that ever plans to come to Cambodia, this is the one and only thing that you MUST do. Trust us, if we are willing to crawl out of bed at such a god-awful hour, it must be pretty damn special! We spent the remainder of the day temple hopping, and even got a chance to explore the city of Bayon in the same way that the ancient Kings did, by elephant. We rode on an elephant named Chewy. She is a healthy, well taken care of, 34 year old elephant. She loves her caretaker, especially because he feeds her 200 kilos of bananas a day!
That same afternoon, after a mid-day snooze, we wandered downtown to have a look around the area and to find a place to have dinner. We ended up eating at a restaurant on the infamous pub street. We enjoyed people watching and reflecting on our day. After dinner, we watched an Apsara dancing show. It was really cool to see the men and women perform the traditional dances. We sat at a table with three medical students from South Africa. They were all really friendly and were great company for the show.
The next day we rented bicycles and rode around a bit. Since we ride our bikes every day around Phnom Penh for work, our muscles were ready to take on a ride. We found that riding in Siem Reap is much less stressful since there are far fewer cars. We stopped at a coffee shop for smoothies and to use their wifi for a bit. Then we walked around the market where we bought some fresh pineapple and mangoes (Man-ous and Svai in Khmer). We decided to eat our snack on a covered bridge over the Siem Reap River. It was really a beautiful and relaxing way to spend our morning. After finishing up, we headed back to the market for a little shopping and then for a ride around the rest of the city. We came across a beautiful park and decided to park our bikes for a bit. It ended up being next to a gorgeous 5 star hotel, so we thought it would be fun to poke around a bit and see what the hotel had to offer. We decided to stay and have tea, which turned into cocktail hour with free appetizers…SCORE!
After enjoying a few treats we left the hotel to meet up with our friend Jenny, her family, and her boyfriend who were visiting from Long Beach, California. It was really wonderful to spend time with all of them. Jenny’s parents were both born in Cambodia and moved to the United States when Pol Pot and his followers were in control of the country. Jenny attended Cal State Long Beach, where I met her while working in the Health Science Department. She has been a great friend and we were so grateful to spend time with her during her stay in Cambodia.
After a few great days in Siem Reap, we got back on the bus for our 6 hour journey back to Phnom Penh. The weekend trip was a success, but it was time to get back and face reality. Here are some photos from our trip. Enjoy!
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