Day 197

Happy New Years Eve! We headed out to pub street early to watch the festivities.

Again the sunset in Siem Reap did not disappoint. We headed over to the river to watch the sunset for a while. Lots of people were already out and about for NYE festivities.

We landed at Beatnik which is an American style retro bar. we had delicious drinks and some great snacks while we began the countdown to midnight.

Pubstreet was packed side to side as far as you could see. We enjoyed the evening but not so much on the crowd. We had pizza as a late night snack and then headed back to the AirBnb.

Day 198

We are 13 hours ahead of home so we watch the ball drop in NYC at noon on the internet.

Yummy food we forgot (but remembered too late) to take pictures of today. We’re having so much interesting food that we have never had before, we want to take more pictures of it so that we can be better about remembering what all the delicious things were.

We are loving these sunsets. We are excited to go see Angkor Wat at sunset this week.

Day 199

We noticed something today, sometimes when going through an intersection people just honk. This mama didn’t do it but the bike before her did. The honk basically sounds like, “I’m not stopping so I hope you do…”

More missing socks today. This is obviously our favorite place in Siem Reap. They also have the best Loc Lak which is Cam’s favorite Cambodian food.

Day 200

We tried a local brewery today. As we sipped our beers and waited for our food we watched this gentleman in the brewing process. As he made the beer barefoot we realized what a small operation this was. We also noticed a book about “How to Brew” on the table nearby. He didn’t refer to it but it made us wonder how long he had been brewing.

We went back towards Pubstreet for a more refreshing beverage before heading to Angkor Wat.

So we have a tour planned tomorrow but we read if you buy your tickets the night before you can get in to see sunset. We bought the tickets and enjoyed the sign in the restroom at the ticket office.

Our sunset dreams were dashed by too much cloud cover. But we still enjoyed getting to see Angkor Wat for the first time. We were a little too late to actually go in but it was neat to see the grounds before our tour.

We had noodle takeout for dinner before calling it an early night because we have an early morning tomorrow to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. After tonights sunset we were a little unsure about waking up so early, especially if nothing was going to come of it.

Day 201

Uhhhggg we woke up early this morning. We were picked up at the AirBnb at 4:00 AM. We headed to the ticket office so that anyone who hadn’t already gotten them could buy them.

When we got to Angkor Wat it was pitch black. Our guide led us with a flashflight across the bridge that we saw yesterday at sunset. We walked into the Angkor Wat complex and waited for a while. There are two “ponds” (pools of water) in front of Angkor Wat. The left one was a lot more crowded so we mostly stayed on the right side.

There are also a lot of vendors over on the left side of the ponds. There were also animals around. Lots of birds and cats, as well as a horse. Our guide told us that the horse belongs to someone and that you have to pay money to take pictures with it.

We took a million pictures at Angkor Wat. Half of all of the pictures that we took are below. We had such an amazing time being able to go up into the top of the towers. The view above the trees was amazing.

With the sun up we could see the water as we walked across the bridge and we could see these beautiful flowers in the water. After Angkor Wat we stopped for breakfast before going to the next temple.

Ta Promh was our second stop. This is the temple from Tomb Raider. Seeing the trees growing out from the rock and around the bricks and statues was amazing. There were so many carvings throughout the site. One of the carvings that our guided pointed out looked like a brontosaurus. Check out the pics below to see some of the incredible things from this temple.

We walked through the temple and the bus met us on the other side. There were also tons of tuk tuks waiting for people that were inside the temple. Many of the drivers had hammocks hung up, which Katie was jealous of.

We stopped at a restroom on the way to the next temple. Our guide also kept giving us waters and wet wipes which was hugely appreciated. On the way to the last temple we stopped at the Naga Bridge and some smaller temples.

Bayon Temple was our last temple of the day. Our guide had some fun picture spots to show us with moving panos. We enjoyed the history a lot. It was getting warm out and some members of our group were definitely over it.

Day 202

Yesterday was exhausting so we took today as a chill day and didn’t do much.

Day 203

Today we made a furry friend as we were exiting the AirBnb. Our neighbor has a new kitten. More wildlife on our short walk to the main street included chickens. Then we saw some guys herding cattle on the road on bikes. It was quite the eventful walk.

We signed up for another cooking class today. First we walked through the market and learned about the spices and foods that we would be cooking. We were able to choose what we wanted to make. I made Amok and Cam made Lok Lac both were very good. We also made spring rolls and sticky rice with coconut.

More from Cambodia and back to Thailand next week!

Cambodia