Hello, Siem Reap!

I've been planning a trip to Cambodia (and India, Nepal, Maldives, EASTER ISLAND...and the list goes on. LOL) for the longest time.  I've always wanted to see the temples in Siem Reap - especially Ta Phrom where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed.  After reading countless posts on travel blogs and sites on educational trips to Siem Reap, we decided that we should finally make those travel plans a reality this year. 

sleeping at the airport

Usually people do an Asian tour (Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand) but we decided to just concentrate on Siem Reap for now.  I also wanted a really relaxed  trip.  Our adventure started in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the airport to be exact) where we waited 12 hours for our flight.  There were no direct flights yet at the time of our trip but I just heard that Cebu Pacific now offers this route.  Erman was able to sleep on the benches but sadly it was not the same case for meow.  It was a bit uncomfortable for me so I kept my self amused by reading e-mail, browsing the internet and going around taking photos.

Yes, we are in Kuala Lumpur :D

And we are finally in Siem Reap!  We hired a tuktuk (driver was recommended by a friend) for the day ($15).  Our driver picked us up from the airport and drove us to Pub Street for lunch.

Our tuktuk

Pub Street in the morning

fried noodles

I was looking for a Khmer restaurant but the two shops that I spotted were both closed so we just decided to have lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant called Soup dragon.  I was so sleepy but suddenly felt awake when I heard a faint "meow".  I looked under our table and guess what!?  There was a kitty!    

Welcome to Cambodia, meow!

After a nice leisurely lunch we asked Narim (our driver) to drop us off at the hotel.  I looked at several hotels online and picked Tara Angkor since they had a lot of good reviews in terms of price, service and location. 

Our home for the next 5 days

And I was very happy with my decision since the hotel was really nice!  We were given lemongrass tea and cold towels while we were waiting for our turn to check in.

Lemongrass tea with bamboo straw

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the bed :D   Thankfully I was able to wake up before Narim arrived to drive us to Phnom Bakheng Temple to watch the sunset.  More on that on my next post :)