Cambodia - Siem Reap
3 Days in Cambodia
From April 3 to April 7, 2023, we visited Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Day 1ish: Today we were on our way to Cambodia from Seoul, South Korea. We first flew from Seoul to Bangkok, which was a little over 6 hours. While on our plane ride, we sat next to this guy from LA, Alan, who was visiting his girlfriend Pan in Bangkok. Alan helped us when we arrived at the Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok airport. We went thru customs, picked up our bags, and then I realized we had to go to the other Bangkok Airport, Don Mueang, to catch a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We bought some food from the airport and thought we should catch a shuttle from BKK to DMK. Alan said he could bring us there so with all of our luggage, Alan showed us a little of the city thru the airport link train. It was a nice preview of Bangkok. We met Pan and they drove us to DMK. We checked into AirAsia. Going to Cambodia, we paid between $200-$300 for our baggage kilo overage and our baggage coming back. Once we arrived in Cambodia, there was no customs line and because I did online visas for us both, it was smooth going thru it all. We had a driver waiting for us to bring us to the hotel. He spoke some broken English and tried to explain some things about Cambodia. It was a little hard to converse with him but he was really nice. Once we got to our hotel, Hari Residence & Spa, they gave us a little drink and a piece of chocolate cake while getting our room situated. They actually upgraded us to a bigger room. It was a really nice hotel located in a pretty central area. Chad put in a quick workout at the hotel gym and I showered and relaxed in the room.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Day 1: Today was our first full day in Cambodia. It was an early morning for us to go to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We had a private tour, which was really nice. We could go at our own pace and basically do what we wanted. Our tour guide’s name was Lucky. We went to Angkor Wat, ate some lunch at an over priced restaurant that was part of the company our tour guide worked for, and then visited more temples. Some of the temples we visited were Ta Prohm Temple, also known as Tomb Raider Temple, Angkor Thom, Terrace of the Leper King, Baphuon Temple, and the Bayon Temple. There were so many temples that we didn’t get a chance to look at but we were so exhausted and I was getting a little dehydrated. The weather in Cambodia was extremely hot all the days we were there. Chad made some friends with the monkeys at one of the temples. They literally just take the food out of your hands and can even unwrap candy wrappers. After our tour, we got back to the hotel. I went to the pool and Chad went to the gym and the hotel. We had a food tour with Angkor Street Eats later that evening. Our tour guide was Sophat. He was a great guide that introduced us to so many foods we weren’t at all familiar with. We ate so much food!
Angkor Street Eats
AHHA YEANG
Fried Noodles with Shrimp and Pork
Khmer Pancake
Fresh & Deep Fried Spring Rolls
Baby Duck Egg
Sweet Cake in Baby Cup
Free-Range Chicken Egg
Fried Rice with Garlic
Steamed and deep fried inside cow with fresh vegetables and strong sauce
Khmer Duck Salad
Fried Duck with hot chili
Fresh Shrimp with hot chili sauce
Duck Soup
Tarantula in rice wine
Khmer traditional herbal whisky
Second Stop: The restaurant No Name
Roast Beef with Green Papaya Salad
Steamed Fish Amok with green leaves and coconut milk in banana leaf
Shrimp salad with noodles
Khmer Pancake
Dessert made of sticky rice, coconut milk and palm sugars
Third Stop: Food Truck
Fried Noodle no meat with leek cake
Roasting Tofu with spicy chili sauce
Passion Fruit with banana and coconut milk shake
Fourth Stop:
Beef BBQ with tofu sauce
Fried Beef with Red Ants
Deep fried silk worms, crickets, beetles, paddy frogs
Mixed desserts made of sticky rice, taro, potatoes with coconut milk and palm sugar
Fresh tropical fruits
Thursday, April 6, 2023
Day 2: Today we woke up early again to go on a fishing village tour with our tour guide Chap. It was a really cool experience. We went to a village that only locals go to and were able to see how locals survived day to day in a fishing village. After the fishing village, we were able to have breakfast at our hotel! They had a breakfast buffet and even had some noodle soup for breakfast. We caught a tuk-tuk to go to the Old Market and bought some things to bring back home. We made sure not to eat too much because we had a dinner reservation at the Embassy Restaurant. We had a wonderful experience eating a 9-course meal. It was an amazing experience that only cost a little over $200 together. We’d never be able to have a course dinner at home for that amount of money. The service was also exceptional. This was a restaurant owned by two sisters and the entire restaurant only hired women. After our dinner, we strolled around Pub Street where the beers are only $1. Chad wanted to get a drink from every bar on the street but we only made maybe 6 stops until we called it a night. We got to try out a fish spa and drink a beer at the same time. They were all cichlids in the tanks and while we were getting our feet cleaned, the electricity went out on the whole street. It was only out briefly and the night went on. When I noticed Chad was getting a little more than drunk, I told him it was time to go back to the hotel. We stopped at 7/11, he bought some food at a food truck right outside and then noticed the bar he really wanted to go to was right above 7/11. Sooo…we went to one last bar before heading back to the hotel. There weren’t much people and so we had a couple beers and played beer pong against each other. Some locals gave us a few beers they hadn’t finished and we ended up taking a couple shots with a guy named Alex from Russia. And then we finally headed home.
Friday, April 7, 2023
Day 3: It was our last day in Cambodia. So we decided to get a four hands massage at Lemon Grass Garden Beauty & Massage. We arrived a little early at the massage parlor and couldn’t get in so we went to go grab some food at Amun for some boat noodle. It was really good. After the great massage, we were hungry again so we stopped off at Burger King to grab a burger and fries. We walked around a little more thru pub street. It was a little different during the day and not as lively. We had a banana split at a restaurant just so we could use the bathroom. After resting a little more at the hotel and packing up all our things, we ate at the hotel’s restaurant before leaving for the airport. Chad had some fish and I ate carbonara. Then it was off to the airport. While we were checking in our bags for our AirAsia flight, we found out that when making a reservation thru AirAsia, you have to make sure to book luggage when you’re booking your ticket or you will have to pay about $25 per extra kilo over the amount allotted. So if you bought a check in of 20kg, but your bag weighed 25kg, then you’d have to pay $25 per extra kg…thus $25x5 = $125. It was ridiculous. I think that we were over maybe like 10-15kg. We’d have to pay $250-$375 additional. We both looked at each other in panic and then the ticket agent said her boss would let us go this one time. Let’s just say, we learned our lesson and got lucky we didn’t have to pay extra for it. We went thru customs to get out of the country and Chad got stopped for the second time in Cambodia. We were informed that it was because of his last name, “Williams.” Chad does not look like a “Williams.” We took our late night flight out to BKK and when we arrived, a driver sent to us by our AirBnB person picked us up. We finally got to the Lebua State Tower, and let me tell you, it has a beautiful view of Bangkok! We had a great time in Cambodia and I would like to go back someday to stay longer.