Siem Reap Last Day Diary

Some photos from my last day in Siem Reap.

I had lunch at Blue Pumpkin

Cambodian fried rice ($5.00)

Macarons!

Blue Pumpkin is pretty neat. Great place to hang out!

I also saw a Batman tuktuk!

Cooking Khmer-style

When I was in Siem Reap, I enrolled myself to a Cambodian cooking class at Le Tigre de Papier restaurant in Pub Street. It was only $13.00 for a four-hour class that includes making your choice of appetizer, main entree and dessert. You also get to eat everything you cook after the class. Super worth it!

Before starting, our teacher Sam-An took us to the old market (which is very close to Pub Street). It practically looks the same as the wet markets here in the Philippines so it was not very new to me. It was interesting, though, seeing my American classmate Jen's reactions when she saw certain foodstuffs for the first time.

For the appetizer, I chose to make Cambodian green mango salad.

dressing for the Cambodian green mango salad

For the main entree, I made shrimp amok. Did I ever mention how much I like Cambodian amok? It's basically like curry with coconut milk. The interesting thing about the amok I made in this cooking class is that I did not use curry or amok powder. The spices used (galanggal, finger root, turmeric, etc.) were fresh! The turmeric actually left my fingers with a yellow-orange color for a day lol.

For dessert, we had mango sticky rice. It's basically a Cambodian version of the Filipino biko topped with mango slices.

Top: my classmate Jen made pumpkin soup and chicken curry
Right: the mango sticky rice

Writing this post makes me crave for Cambodian food!

Apsara Dancers in Cambodia

I spent my last night in Siem Reap doing one of the common activities there: watching Apsara Dancers while having dinner in one of the restaurants along Pub Street.

I say, with the show, the dinner was actually worth it.

Wintermelon soup for dinner ($6.25)

After the show, I stuck around Pub Street a bit more and looked for a place to have dessert. I ended up with chocolate mint ice cream and a passionfruit cheesecake (which was too sour for my taste lol).

$3.00 dessert

Temple Photodump

I spent my third day in Siem Reap visiting the Angkor temples again. This time, aside from my former ICE co-instructor Harold, I also shared the tuktuk with two people we met at the guesthouse: Babke from Amsterdam and Killian from Nova Scotia, Canada. Traveling with new friends is fun, don't you think?

Prea Khan

Neak Pean

Ta Som

Western Mebon

Banteay Samre

Banteay Srei

Pre Roup

Phnom Bakheng, our last stop. We had to trek to the temple. It was tiring but I really enjoyed it especially since it was cloudy so it wasn't very hot.

There are elephants below that can take you up if you don't want to trek (for a hefty price, of course). I kind of don't know how to feel about these elephants, though.

Anyway, if you're gonna trek and you're worried that you'd be walking beside huge elephants, don't-- the elephants use a different trail from humans.

They say Phnom Bakheng is famous for viewing the sunset. Unfortunately, we were there at around 3pm and it wasn't wise to wait there until sunset. There were dark clouds too so thinking that it might rain, we didn't stay long. And we were right, it did rain VERY hard as we headed back to the guesthouse. However, despite not being able to see the sunset, I still enjoyed the great view from Phnom Bakheng.

Another amazing thing about Phnom Bakheng is that you will be able to see Angkor Wat from there!

Siem Reap Lazy Day Diary

Because my whole body was aching from exploring temples the previous day, I decided that my second day in Siem Reap would be a day for relaxing.

I started the day by walking from the hostel to the Angkor National Museum. It was quite a long walk (and the sun was scorching hot too) but I'm used to walking so it's alright.

After a couple of hours in the museum, I went to Pub Street to eat lunch.

lunch for $4.00

I explored Pub Street a bit more and then went back to the hostel to rest. I was supposed to go back to Pub Street again that evening but it rained really hard so I decided to have dinner at the hostel instead.

This photo makes me hungry. Meep.

Spectacular Siem Reap

Last June, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

On the first day, I went to visit the famous temples with Sir Harold (a former ICE co-faculty) and Allan (a fellow UP alumnus whom Harold met during the flight). I had wanted to take my friend's advice to visit the museum first to learn more about history, architecture, culture and all that before going to the temples but since I had companions, I preferred to go with them.

First stop: Angkor Wat. Sadly, we didn't witness the sunrise because the tuktuk driver who was supposed to pick us up didn't show up. I even woke up at 4am for that! It was a waste... but oh well. We ended up asking for another tuktuk driver to take us to the temples.

Bayon Temple.

Baphuon.

Ta Keo temple. This one was MOST intense. The stairs were so steep (making around a 70-degree angle with respect to the horizontal) and really scary and I only realized this midway when I started trembling! It was pretty dangerous, actually. And going down was another story. Don't forget the midday heat too! Nevertheless, I'm proud that I was able to go up (and down) this temple and that I didn't let my clumsiness get in the way.

Ta Prohm, the temple famous for being the set for the movie Tomb Raider.

In the evening, we went to the famous Pub Street. We had dinner at Blue Pumpkin where I ate Loklak.

We also met up with Coli, another UP almuna whom Harold met during the flight. Coli is an archaeologist who was doing research in Siem Reap. We had some beer and it was fun.

That day was overwhelming-- new places, new experiences, new friends!