Home Bound!

Mandy:

We started the day with packing everything we brought and bought in the last three weeks into our trusty 65+ litre bags. (The bags can fit a lot with some Tetris skills and compact air bags.) After the hotel breakfast we headed to the Angkor Shopping Centre. I thought it would be a western style mall with air conditioning and a food court so that we could hang out until the airport but it was a building the Chinese tour buses go -_- So we decided to go to the Old Market for another massage! A great way to spend our last day in south east Asia :) We went back to the same place as the night before - 1 hour massage + drink for $5! Then we had (bad) Cambodian food off pub street, ice cream sundae at Blue Pumpkin and headed to the airport! Luckily I checked our flight first thing in the morning to find out that our flight got cancelled and we were moved to a flight two hours earlier with no notification! It actually worked in our favour because the earlier flight made our layover in Bangkok long enough for us to go into the city! Unfortunately Platinum Mall was closed by the time we were in the area but Central World was open :) Also it made our day when we found out we could leave our luggage at the BKK airport! Otherwise it would've been a nightmare. We quickly bought some stuff at Uniqlo, grabbed food at a Japanese restaurant and headed back to the airport.

Should've known pub street food would be terrible

Mandy super excited to eat japanese pasta

Last meal in Bangkok

Party in Bangkok

(Side note: our taxi driver from the airport to the city centre scammed us $5! I knew his meter was going a bit too fast than normal. Oh well.)

Now we are at the HKG airport waiting for our flight home to Toronto. We have been in transit for 18.5 hours already and we have another 17 to go 0__0 We can't wait to go home!!

Exhausted and ready to go home

Ziplining

Norm:

We have an action-packed day today: we're going zip-lining! Woke up in the morning to head to the jungled area where Angkor Wat and all the other temples and ruins are located. This was Mandy and my first time ziplining, so I was kind of excited to see how it would go. We first climbed some stairs and when we were above the tree-line, the adventure began! Mandy was a little nervous, but some cute German kids went first (the youngest was probably only 5-6 years old) and they went across without a hitch! It was good first-time experience for zip-lining; the longest path we zip-line we went on was about 300m and it was cool to see the jungle from so high up. After about 10 zip-lines taking up the entire morning, we ended the tour at a restaurant close near Angkor Wat. The food wasn't very good there and we had plans to do lunch round 2, so we kept our stomachs slightly empty. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was around 3:00 pm already.

Bandanas not our thing 

Mandy was scared

Weeee!

Wobbly bridge

"Feet up, feet up!"

Repelling down

Flight of the Gibbon

After a short break, we returned to the Old Market (again). On the way, we went to a local pizza franchise called "The Pizza Company". What beckoned us to the restaurant was an ad that showed a "Cheese Lava" pizza, where you can dip the the pizza (with a stuffed crust) into a bowl of what appeared to be nacho cheese. Being a sucker for anything cheesy (jokes included), we had to go. We ordered the seafood pizza, and it was surprisingly not-bad. From then, we headed to the Old Market to finish up our last opportunity to shop in South-East Asia. Mandy bought a BUNCH of snacks (dehydrated fruit, tea, spices). Feeling kind of full, we decided to omit dinner, and just head to the Night Market. We checked out a few of the stands and Mandy and I bought a lot of scarves as souvenirs back. Thanks to Mandy's intense haggling, we got a really good price on them. From then, we had to try the Dr. Fish massages, where tiny fishies would come and eat the dead-skin off your feet. Not sure how effective the massage is at removing dead skin, but the fish seemed extremely attracted to my feet though @_@. Super ticklish, but I got over the feeling eventually. From then, we got another back massage, had some 1$ noodles at a stand and Tuk Tuk'd home. However, on the Tuk-Tuk home, we noticed that there was ANOTHER part of the Night Market we never checked out (the Night Art Market!). As such, after we got back to the hotel, we dropped off all our stuff and then walked back to this new-found market.

Cheese Lava or Lova =P

Are those snakes?

All the goodies I bought in the Old Market

Dinner time!

Hi!

Yummie street food for 1 dollar

Delicious

We were actually really glad to have caught this, there was some unique stores there, including one store which non-profit store whose proceeds were to help families escape the cycle of poverty and child exploitation. They actually had really unique things to sell as well, so we picked up a few items from there, along with other knick knacks we didn't see at the other stands. After thoroughly walking through this market, we finally walked back to our hotel, eager to come back to Canada. Only 1 more sleep and 30 hours of planes and lay-overs ahead of us.... can't wait!

Bye Bye Siem Reap!

Mandy is not a happy camper

Angkor W(h)at?!

Mandy:

We woke up at an astonishing 4am (or 4:45am for norm -_-) to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We met our Tuk Tuk driver in pitch dark. Luckily our phones have a flashlight app and our driver spoke good English! We discussed our plan for the day and off we went into the darkness! When we got to the Angkor Archaeological Park gates, there was already a line up. There were hundreds of people (mostly Asian) surrounding Angkor Wat for the perfect picture. We waited a good two hours until the sun came up and the people started to trickle off so that I could go to the front for a good picture. I probably took 50 pictures =P

Our passes

Hundreds of people snapping pictures

Fave photo

After the sunrise it was time to actually explore the temples. Angkor Wat is amazing from afar but it's not that great when you start exploring the insides. We really liked the Bayon temple. (I think that's where they filmed Tomb Raider.) Might be because we visited the Bayon temple after we went back to our hotel to eat lunch and took a nap. The nap was extremely necessary; by noon we were already out and about for 8 hours! We ate at a restaurant nearby our hotel and finally tried the Amok Fish dish which is a traditional Cambodian dish. It was very tasty :)

Angkor Wat!

Inside Angkor Wat

Forgot which temple this was.. oops

The trees are oldddd

Much needed lunch

Very delicious amok fish

Other than visiting the Bayon temple in the afternoon we went to another temple for the sunset. The line up was huge because they limit the number of people up the temple. We made it but the sunset was nothing compared to the sunrise. Also we were exhausted. It was the most physically draining day of our trip but it was very fun.

Bayon

Really cool structures

It was hot hot hot

Our fave temple

Temple Run

Another temple

Sunset

After a long day out we freshened up and headed to the night market. We had traditional Cambodian food at a dai pah dong near the night market. Despite them taking forever to make our food it was very delicious. Most of our best meals were at dai pah dongs. Then of course we had to get a foot massage after a bit of shopping at the night market :)

Dinner at the night market

BBQ ribs

Last Stop

Norm:

Today is the second last airport day of our trip. Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we spent the last day in Phnom Penh walking along the river where the National Palace and Museum were located. We stopped by ToTo ice cream again to get some treat to balance out the heat from hanging out in the sun. After a short stroll along the oh-so-familiar tourist street, we hopped into a taxi and headed to the airport.

Delicious!

Hehe

Riverfront

A short time later, we arrived at our final destination: Siem Reap! This city is best known for the beautiful temples and ruins just north of the city. Because we arrived fairly late in the evening, we spent the evening checking out the Old Market and the Night Market, which were right beside each other. The markets sold more or less the same things that the other markets in Cambodia sold: silk scarves, T-Shirts, spices/snacks/food, and various souvenirs. We went to check out the night market first to see what kind of wares the merchants were selling and then had dinner at nearby Cambodian restaurant. The food was meh, the restaurant was located near a touristy area (Pub Street) and I ordered the Lok Lak beef (pretty average). From then, we went to the Night Market. We were there fairly early as the stalls were just starting to open up. Mandy bought a few souvenir T-shirts and I just took in the sights and sounds. Siem Reap's night market is actually quite pretty in the evening: they have a lot of lights set up around the booths and it stands out starkly. However, we didn't feel like waiting for all the stands to open and we had an early day tomorrow (we were planning to go to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise), so we went back home and retired early. Tomorrow we have to wake up at 4:00 am!

Yes those are menus

Old Market dinner

Pub Street

Night Market

No Tuk Tuk Today

Mandy:

I was very excited to visit the Russian Market because I read on blogs that a lot of original brand named clothing that are made in Cambodia are sold at a fraction of the price since they have minor flaws. Of course when we got there the market is super crammed and hot and I couldn't really tell what was fake or real. Good thing we went first thing in the morning. The afternoon weather must be unbearable. We didn't end up getting any discount name brand clothes. However we did find some souvenirs that are made in Cambodia such as silk scarves and sea shell/bamboo items. I had to practice my bargaining skills. I basically got everything for half of the original selling price... But I probably could've talked it down even more. All in all the market is very interesting. We were planning to eat there for lunch but we weren't hungry. Also it was too chaotic for me to order food. There were meat and fish stands right beside clothing stands...

After that we took a Tuk Tuk to the Toul Sleng Musuem which is the Khmer Rouge genocide museum. It was a prison where the city folk and intellectuals were tortured in the mid 1970's. It's a very sad place to visit but the sunshine made it less gloomy. One of the reasons why I chose to come to Phnom Penh is to visit and learn more about the genocide. It's crazy to know that it happened not so long ago. My parents were in their early 20's and in a country not too far away from Cambodia. Hard to tell what Cambodia would be like today if the genocide didn't take place. It's difficult to rebuild a nation when all of the educated were murdered :(

Graves of the 12 victims found alive

After a very educational visit we went to the central market for shopping round 2. Unfortunately this market did not have anything we were looking for. I was also starving and lost all energy so we grabbed a snack at KFC (sad I know). Shopping in Vietnam and Cambodia makes me really miss the shopping in Thailand. If only I could go back to Platinum Mall in Bangkok =(

Central Market

Since the Royal Palace was closed yesterday we went back again today. I made sure I covered my knees and shoulders but that meant I was covered in sweat in the smoldering heat. The Royal Palace reminded me of Thailand, I'm not sure why. But it was very serene and that's why we spent a long time there taking pictures.

Royal Palace

(Korean girls know how to take pictures)

Took forever to get this shot right -_-

Since we had a full day of walking out and about we got foot massages. Actually we're getting them right now as I am typing. (Side note: massages in Vietnam are the worse. Thailand and Cambodia have much better massages.) We are nearing the end of our 3 week trip and I am exhausted! I think this is the most tiring trip I've had to date. The flights and always waking up at 530 or 630 for our day tours were extremely draining. Can't wait to go home! Although from what I hear, the weather is terrible in Toronto and I think my parents place hasn't had power for over 24 hours :S

Happy hour round 3

Dessert time!