Cambodia

Happy weekend everyone !


Last two weeks I have been busy trying to avoid processing the fact that it's back to work again and another two months to go ! 45 work days to be accurate.

Friday, first day of tet. We had a car ordered to drive us from Hai Phong to the airport in Hanoi. There were four of us so the private car was worth the money, about 1 million VND. The ride was actually fun, and we got to use the new highway between Hai Phong and Hanoi so it was really quick as well.

Happily to Cambodia, greeted by a heatwave at the entrance of the airport, along with our tuk tuk. We dumped our bags into the room and headed out to explore the pub street. First taste of traditional Cambodia curry; amok. Super yummy.

Next morning we united with some more friends at the national history museum and continued our way towards the Angkor Thom temple group. A three day pass to the Angkor temples costs 40 USD. Monkeys, ancient temples, go pro, pictures. Afterwards super yummy food, some drinks, card games and united with a few more of our friends ! Don't want to bore you with further details, everything was amazing, I love Cambodian food and the city, all the temples, are so worth seeing with your own eyes! The night market was awesome, Cambodian people are nice to haggle with.

I ate a scorpion. It was indeed crunchy like everyone keeps on saying! Then I ate a snake. It was very chewy and tasted quite odd. Definitely had more flavour than the scorpion. My friends ate some tarantulas as well but I didn't dare. Until the final night, when I feasted one after all - it was disgusting. The torso was huge and tasted like a pate gone off, there were some nasty white eggs inside it. Took a long island ice tea to flush that taste out of my mouth.

Second day of temples started at 4.30 am when we headed to the Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise raise behind its towers. It was rather chilly and pitch black dark. A crowd of people on the path to the inner temple lighting the way with torches. It was magical, making me feel like I was part of an ancient religious ritual. The sunrise was worth waking up at 4.30. We explored the temple before heading back to town for a nap.

Side note: the word 'wat' means a temple. All the temples together are called Angkor, Angkor Wat is the name for the main temple which appears in most of the tourist pictures.

The six of us headed for the temples together on our final day. We had planned a day trip to two temples that were nearly an hour drive away from the city; Pre rup and Banteay Srei. This was my favourite day of the holiday. The weather and company were amazing ! The temples were stunning and the scenery on the tuk tuk ride there was fabulous. The ride was rather long but we entertained ourselves with silly games. Precisely what I would describe as a perfect day.

Good dinner and some wine on our last night, final run through the markets and then a pleasant sleep. In the morning, we had our first proper breakfast, purchased some art and met up for a good bye lunch. Cambodian food is the best I have tried in South East Asia, the flavours and spices suit my taste perfectly, and finding vegetarian food was not tricky at all.

Then off to Laos! More about that in the next post, on Monday I think haha.

Love,


Mira

Sitting on the wall of Angkor Wat. Happy life !