Kyle here -- We spent 5 days in Siem Reap, the city closest to the temples at Angkor (So many damn temples!) Essentially, Katy made me wake up at 4 fucking am on a vacation to see sunrise over Ankor Wat, on a fucking morning with fog/pollution so thick we couldn’t fucking see the sunrise. Yeah, we saw Angkor Wat and all of the surrounding temples, including the one featured in the movie ‘Tomb Raider’. It was fascinating, but without extensive knowledge of the history it was difficult to understand the context of the temples due to limited information. Also, and not to appear xenophobic or hateful -- just reporting the facts, people -- but every Chinese tourist needed at least 20 selfies and/or instagram photos in bottle-neck locations.
We also went to a museum where Khmer Rouge-planted mine fields once existed. This was a fascinating/morbid museum full of artifacts and descriptions of the war. One main display revolved around how ‘secret’ US bombings in Cambodia led to increased Khmer Rouge recruitment of soldiers. Also surprising was the fact that more bombs were dropped in Cambodia than in Vietnam during the war. If interested see- http://www.warmuseumcambodia.com/
Katy again — Our first night in Siem Reap we happened to overlap with Brian, Kate, and Brianna Clark on their final night in town. How strange to run into familiar faces we haven’t seen in ages halfway around the world! We met up for an amazing meal at Haven, a training restaurant for local youth and then cocktails at Miss Wong’s.
A few other highlights: a street food tour our last night. A little pricey but we got to eat foods we’d be too scared to try otherwise (or unable to figure out). Cheap massages and spas were all over the place as in Thailand but special to Siem Reap was the fish pedicure (“Dr. Fish”). For $3 you can put your feet into a tank full of fish who will eat the dead skin from your toes and heels. I asked the attendant how long our $3 lasted and he replied, “as long as you want.” We didn’t stay long enough to emerge with smooth feet partly because it was so strange a sensation but also because a small fire broke out around the corner — due to poor wiring that’s common in the city — and we had to join the crowd gawking as it was put out.
