Siem Reap Weekend!!

 Above is Dr. Fish Massage. Little fish eat the dead skin off your feet!!


What a weekend it has been and I still have the evening left!

Me and along with five other girls headed to Siem Reap for the weekend. We took a night bus that left at midnight and arrived in Siem Reap at 5am. It was quietttttt the ride. I will tell more about it when I am home safe tomorrow morning :-) The hotel arranged for someone to pick us up at the bus station and I was told he would be holding a sign with my name on it. Well, there was a man that said he was with the hotel, but of course, no sign and didn't know my name. I then proceed to call the hotel and they say they can't find my name in the reservations and they are all booked (reservations here consist of calling and leaving your first name. No deposit, phone number, or anything!). TO make a long story short, the man to pick us up was who he said he was and when we arrived at the hotel they were overbooked, but since it was their mistake we got to stay at their "upscale"hotel for the same price ($20 a night). SO 20 minutes of panic at 5am in the Siem Reap sketchy bus station worked out amazingly well, as I sit on their computer with free internet!

We slept at the hotel Saturday morning for a couple hours and then hit the town. Our hotel is within walking distance of shops and a few markets. We all laughed at how different it is in this town. It is so obvious how much more touristy it is here!! So many westerners! We were warned from our other friends that it was going to be much more tourist oriented and they were so right. Last night I actually felt like I wasn't in Cambodia for a minute, it was weird. Many people from around the world fly directly into Siem Reap just to visit Angkor and all the temples. Phnom Penh is completely different. Even without seeing all the "westerners" many more of the locals know English and they are suprised when we try to haggle for lower prices at the market. They say, "how do you know the prices?"

We went to a great dinner with a show of Traditional Khmer dancing. I have pictures attached that show some of the dancing and I also included a picture of the menu. Look at the prices! My meal was $3.50, the show was included and last two hours. After the show we walked around the night market and I got a $1 back massage.

After the most amazing night sleep (we had AIR CON!!!!) all six of us piled into a tuk tuk and went to the temples. We visited all the temples on the small circuit, which is about six. I will list all the exact names tomorrow as I only remember the main ones off the top of my head, which are Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. The temples were AMAZING. I loved them. It was like entering a different world or travelling back in time. Some of the temples had rooms that were so peaceful, where I could take a minute to myself. I took a million pictures, but here are a few for you to see. When we visited the last one I didn't want to leave. They were so impressive. For those of you that don't know, this group of temples is the largest religious area in the entire world. Some say they are one of the major man made wonders of the world.

Going to a Cambodian bbq tonight. I am going to try to be an adventurous eater, we will see...ostrich, python, kangaroo, crocodile, ect. I'll let you all know!

This computer is not working with me right now..will upload the other pictures I wanted to tomorrow!