The bus to Siem Reap was uneventful and we arrived just after 6pm at the station about 10 minutes walk from the hostel I had booked.  I picked the white rabbit hostel because it looked nice, was still pretty cheap ($6/night), had a pool and I knew someone that had checked in there the day before.

One thing of note about Cambodia vs other countries is that instead of buses departing from a central bus station in town, each tour company departed and arrived at their shop, so depending on who you booked with determined where the bus station would be.  This actually ended up being a bit more convenient because in Lao and Vietnam the central bus stations tended to be a bit out of town.

After checking into the hostel it was time to find some food.  Andrei had arrived a few hours before and Will who I had seen a few times along the way were interesting in joining.  We headed to a Khmer restaurant recommended us by a German guy who Andrei was talking to at his hostel.  Turns out it was a guy I had met at the Kerfuffle party in Otres Beach a few days prior. He had already eaten so the three of us went.

Will had gotten up early a few days in a row (he went to the airport a day early for an early morning flight out of Thailand) so was crashing pretty quickly.  Andrei and I were down to hang out tht evening so had suggested getting a 3L beer tower at dinner, but Will was too tired.  We decided on a pitcher instead but the waitress was obviously confused because a 3L beer tower arrived instead.

Will tapped out after one glass, so Andrei and I ended up splitting it.  My only plan for the night was to go to the brew pub in town which Andrei was down to join me for.  From dinner we walked along the river to the brew pub.

They had 6 beers on tap and all were available in taster size, so I got all 6.  They had a Blonde, Golden, wheat, saison, IPA, and a dark ale.  In general the beers were pretty decent and pretty flavorful.  They followed the styles as described and were overall decent.

After finishing up at the brew pub we decided to check out pub street where we had to stop several times for .50 draft beers to go to the bathroom, although with each bathroom break we ended up with more beer in our system which ended up causing more bathroom stops.  We wandered around, went to a night market where I bought another tank top (I never wear tank tops but it is really hot there and it seems to be pretty common, so I got a second one, plus they are small)

we also got this random korean drink from the convinience store (14% ABV) which really got the night going.  We ended up deciding to go dancing, which pub street provided ample choices.

I ended up dancing well into the evening, which was incredibly fun!  I coasted the rest of the night which meant it was cheaper and less problematic in the morning.

The next morning I slept in a little bit and basically just hung out by the pool.  In the early afternoon I started chatting with a girl from Waterloo Region Canada (I am pretty sure her name was Megan)and another person from the US (Alex from San Francisco) joined us in talking.  We eventually decided that we wanted to take a tuk tuk out of the city that day and were suggested to go to a temple outside of town situated on a hill and a good opportunity for a sunset view.

At around 4pm we jumped in a Tuk Tuk and headed about 15km outside of town to Phnom Krom Pagoda.  This temple complex was part of the Angkor admissions ticket which cost $37 per day and I was not planning on going until the next day, so didn’t have a ticket.  However, we were told that after 5:30pm the security leaves and you can go to the temple without a ticket after that time.  We tried our luck around 4:45pm but were instructed that we had to wait.

The toll place was up the hill though, so we found a spot with a view and chilled for 45 minutes chatting about travel and enjoying the beer we had brought with us.  Alex and Megan were both at the beginning of their travels and so many of our conversations surrounded my tips, suggestions and stories surrounding my travels over the past 2 months.  This conversation really put into perspective just how much I have seen and done in the last 2 months.  I really enjoyed this reflection as well as helping them out in planning the rest of their trip.  Megan had actually never really traveled before at all, so she was very quickly gathering a lot of new experiences.

When 5:15 rolled around we walked up the hill to the temple and the security guard let us go.  The temple was another one one of the stone block crumbly ones similar to the two I had seen in Battambang but we had really come for the view beyond the temple.  On the western edge of the cliff there were plenty of places to sit and enjoy the sunset.  Despite being a bit cloudy, it was still very chill and colorful.  There was a guy playing boy band music including the likes of Nsync and Backstreet boys, so that really set the mood.

When we returned to town, I had booked a ticket for the circus for that night so we parted ways and I took a tuk tuk to pick up Will and go to the circus.  The show was a bit on the pricey side at $18 for an hour show, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t too bad.  It was in a typical big top tent, but very intimate.  A bit smaller than the traveling cirque du solet show I saw a few years ago.

There wasn’t really a bad seat in the house.  This particular show was called Khmer Metal and basically depicts what it is like to survive as a young adult in Cambodia.  It took place in a bar and tried to tell a bit of a story while performing circus acts.  The circus tricks were pretty good, but obviously not to cirque standards and the acting was pretty bad, but the music was fantastic.

The entertainment value of the whole experience was pretty great as I found the hour show fly by.  There was a tight rope walker, various strength and balance demonstrations, juggling, aerial hoop, silks and cheer leading type moves. Will had met a few people who met us at the circus and afterwards we decided to head back to pub street to see what trouble we could get into.

Most people were feeling pretty low key so we went to a less popular place that had a pool table and good cocktails.  The crew was made up of an American, two Canadians and 3 Brits.  We played some pool, watched some french guys get into a big drunken argument several times and enjoyed a cocktail but eventually tired quickly and we headed home.

Megan and Alex had both gotten 3 day Angkor passes and Alex agreed to accompany me to the temples the next morning.  It is very popular to wake up at the crack of dawn and catch sunrise over the Angkor Wat temple.  From everything I read, the sunrise is usually hazy and there are a lot of people that have the same idea so you end up getting crowded and most people are doing the same loop and therefore crowds will just be with you the entire time.  I didn’t care all that much about the sunrise so decided to just go to some of the more popular temples earlier so most of the crowds either hadn’t arrived or were still at Angkor Wat for the sunrise.  We decided to hit the road at 6:30am which would give us a pretty early start to the day while not being ridiculously early like 4am or something.

Alex was going to try and find the same tuk tuk driver that she had used on her first visit to Angkor Wat, but was unsuccessful so I found one on the street and he agreed to take us to where we wanted to go for $15.  We set off towards the visitor centre to get a ticket.  Tickets are a little pricey but gives you access to the complete temple complex.  One day passes are $37 and 3 day passes are $67.  I get templed out pretty quick and did not feel like I really needed more than one day, so I opted for the 1 day pass.  If you really want to see all of the temples or explore every inch of the ones you visit, then getting a 3 day pass is worth it.  If you want to get the gist of the place and see 4-5 temples then a one day pass is enough.

I was letting Alex drive because she had been there before and had a better idea of what she wanted to see on her second day anyways.  We decided to make our first stop, the Tomb Raider temples, which was featured in one of the tomb raider movies.  It was really cool because there were trees growing amongst the stone with big roots intertwining themselves into the rock.  It was beutiful and really cool looking.  Alex mentioned that when she had gone to this temple last time it was completelty packed with chinese and korean tour groups and was actually pretty annoying. This time there were only a few people and she said it was way better.

We then headed to a few other temples all with various designs.  The Tomb Raider temple was Ta Prohm, then there was a large sprawling one called preah Khan and then of course the main attraction Angkor Wat.  WE stopped in at a few small ones along the way but I didn’t check into them on swarm so I can]t remember what they are called.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but in general the whole complex was massive and there were soooo many temples.  Each one was built for a specific purpose such as to honor a king]s mom or to honor a kings birthday.  There seemed to be plenty of random reasons to build a temple and thus there are a lot in the area.  There were a lot of tourists, but I think in general they were pretty respectful and did not go around climbing on places that they weren’t supposed to climb on or touching things they aren’t supposed to touch.  Overall the day was pretty great, check out the photos.

Once we were mostly templed out around 1pm, we headed back to the hostel for some recharge time.  I needed to do a long run at some point in the time frame so I decided to run back to Angkor Wat for sunset.  It was supposed to be about 7-8km to get there so I figured I would get in around 20km or so.  I aimed to go in the back entrance as then I might be able to catch the sun setting over the temple, but at 5:30pm the entrances all close and I arrived around 5:45 so had to run around the mote to the front which added some more KMs.

I got my photo with my EBBR shirt from afar and then headed back towards town.  At that point it looked like I was going to hit about 20km so ended up running through the neighborhood at the end to get the full 21.1km half marathon.  There are 2 half marathons that run through Angkor Wat every year, so I called this one the Seliske Angkor Wat half.  I actually felt great and maintained a pretty good pace.  I have been complaining about speed recently and so this gave me some confidence that I might still have it in me.

After the run, I jumped in the pool, played a game of beer pong then showered and changed in time for dinner.  The Circus gang was at it again and it turns out some of them were craving burgers and had found a burger place with really good reviews  We headed there and we all ordered burgers and I got a margaritta as it was the days special and looked delicious (it was more of a margarita slushy).  The burger was delicious (although a bit pricey) and with some beer and margaritta in me, was feeling pretty great!  We headed to pub street for some .50 drafts, although that’s pretty much where the night ended because almost all of us hit a wall and decided to call it fairly early.

The next morning was a noon flight, so I got up had breakfast then headed to the airport.  Luckily Siem Reap has a Priority PAss lounge so I got to lounge in style for about an hour or so.  Bonus, because I was there for the transition between breakfast type food and lunch, so I had some breakfast food then 45 minutes later lunch food!

Initially I was just going to go to Bangkok for a few days before flying out, but since I had 7 days, I decided to spend 3 days in Chiang Mai as I heard really good things about it.  The flight was a bit more expensive than I would have wished but for to not spend a week in Bangkok, I think it was worth it.  My flight connected through Bangkok which also had a lounge, so the layover was pretty nice.  And just like that I was in Chiang Mai Thailand, which is country number 5!!!!

Keep an eye out for the Chiang Mai post dropping soon.