Welcome to Siem Reap!

DAY ONE/TWO:

We arrived at the Vilada Angkor Boutique around 10pm so we weren’t really interested in doing anything other than going straight to bed. When we arrived, we were awe-struck at the beauty of the sweet, little boutique. It was definitely surprising how posh and modern it was! We were greeted genuinely and happily by the owner who offered us refreshing towels and a welcome drink on arrival. The drink was SO good that I drank most of Bernard’s while he was settling the check-in and arranging our pick up for our Angkor Wat temple guided tours over the next few days!

There’s not much to say other than we were pleasantly surprised at our friendly and happy greeting. It was refreshing and much needed after an irritable plane ride and a not so satisfactory stop in Hanoi. We quickly went to bed, slept like kings, and got up bright and early at 6am the next morning for a leisurely breakfast and a kick start to the temple tours!

Breakfast was "a la carte" and it was prepared beautifully! The owner cooked and served the breakfast (it was a really small hotel) and the presentation? Omg, it was so cute. He cut the tomatoes into sweet little hearts and curled the sausages so they looked like twisty candies… which sounds weird, but it was pretty.

After breakfast, we had little time to relax before our guide, Sokkun, came and took us straight to Angkor Wat. The temples weren’t super close to our hotel so every day we learned a lot about our guide, Sokkun. He told us about the history of Cambodia and a little bit about his family. He was very sweet and definitely tailored the tour to us completely. He bypassed the giant tour groups and took us to smaller less popular temples to beat the crowds. He explained the architecture and history in detail knowing that we were serious history buffs (Bernard is, but I definitely appreciated it and take my tours seriously!)

In short, the temples were breathtaking. I mean, all of them were astounding. Bernard took approximately 800 photos of Angkor Wat alone! It’s really hard to put into words this magnificent group of temples. You really do need to see it to believe it and bask in its glory.

So it’s a really small world and we happened to be in Cambodia for a similar 24 hour duration as our friends back in Shanghai, so we met up with them at a fancy French influenced restaurant called Georges and spent the night eating, drinking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s stories about the temples and travel. I love slowing down and having the time to just chill. No internet, no technology even, no interruptions, no watches or timelines, no work deadlines… it was bliss!

So one of the things that I both love and am very uncomfortable with about Cambodia is the tuktuks. A tuktuk is like an open cab and there are tuktuk drivers all over Siem Reap – all over South East Asia really, but let’s focus on Siem Reap. Not only were they friendly and smiley even though they were carting around people in the windy and sandy weather all day long, but they also waited for you! So here’s the story: We asked the owner of the hotel to call us a tuktuk to take us to dinner to meet friends. He asked how long we would be and we said, “I don’t know, maybe 3-4 hours. So 7:00-11:00pm?” He said okay and apparently told that to the tuktuk driver. We assumed the driver would drive around and do his thing and be back at 11pm, but NO! He just chilled. He literally put his feet up and waited for us for four hours! Bernard felt so bad! He tipped him extra but the guy wouldn’t take it. How sweet and yet as a privileged ass North American, I felt really bad. Never would I be expected to just wait for someone for 4 hours without at least a book to read!

When we arrived back at the hotel after hanging out at Georges, it was almost midnight and the owner was sitting at the front desk almost asleep waiting for us! “Welcome home!” he said and as soon as we came into the hotel, he rushed to bed. The next morning, we had to be up at 6am again, and he was up even earlier cooking us our beautiful breakfasts to order. I couldn’t believe the hospitality and customer devotion! Cambodia really was a place of beautiful, warm people.