Cambodia Travel Diary: Day 4 at Siem Reap

Day 4 was our last day in Cambodia! This day was a very relaxing one since we had no activity scheduled. It's our last chance to shop for souvenirs and some food to bring home from the supermarkets.
 

We walked around shops near the Old Market and saw a couple of interesting ones. I chanced upon a Tous les Jours store there and got curious on how different it was with the ones in Manila. The store itself had a similar look, but they have this cute fresh fruit cake we don't have here.

For our last lunch, we went back to The Brothers Bar & Restaurant! It's a new bar and restaurant in a traditional Khmer wooden house. They serve an extensive range of Asian, Western, and Khmer cuisine. They have free WIFI that actually works, and live music during the evening.

 

European Set II ($5.00)

Greek salad served with Samosas

Blue Fettuccini: Fettuccini pasta with creamy blue cheese sauce

Dessert of seasonal fruits platter

This time, I ordered a different European Set. Samosas weren't available, so they had me trade it with Royal Spring Roll (fried mixed vegetables and minced beef in rice wrapper with spicy sauce). I'm not complaining at all. :D The Royal Spring Roll was good, the pasta had a sharp cheese taste, and I also liked the fresh fruit platter. This meal costs just P236 when converted to PHP as of press time. OA sa sulit! ♥

Spanish omelet ($2.00)

Omelet with fried potatoes and onions served with bread
 

The rest of the dishes I wasn't able to note the names and prices, but everyone was happy with their orders.
 

Tall glasses of shakes range from $1.20 to $2.00 only.

The Brothers Restaurant
Telephone no.: 012-460097, 093-811810
Address: King’s Road Angkor, Old Market area
Open: 9:00AM - 12:00PM 
 

While walking around, Panda and I saw this Manulife clock and we just had to take a photo. I used to work for them before I went back to school this year.

 

Before heading back to the airport, we thought of having a quick dinner to combat hunger during our 3-hour flight. I remember Siem Reap International Airport having limited food choices, so we dropped by Pub Street again for the last time. Not everyone in our group has tried Khmer Family Restaurant, so we had dinner here. It was a wrong decision since their service was extremely slow, they got our orders mixed up, and the staff weren't even nice. Also, the WIFI was creeping at a glacial pace. After dining at The Brothers twice, this restaurant was already pushed towards the expensive category, since they don't give value for your money. It's the same price or even a bit pricier than my European Set meal above! Not recommended. So much for being our last dinner, we should have gone to The Brothers or Blue Pumpkin again instead. :/

 

Goodbye, Pub Street!
 

This trip has gave me a lot of realizations. Here are my honest feelings, and I don't mean to offend:

• I'm not really into temples/ruins. They're almost all the same to me. LOL
• Siem Reap is ideal only as a stopover during your Asian tour, 1-2 days tops.
• Four full days at Siem Reap is more than enough. It's the provincial side of Cambodia, so there's nothing much to do here. I've already seen what I intended to, so it's very unlikely that I'll go back there.
• During the trip, I've encountered few very kind people, particularly in host in King Boutique Hotel and the waiter in The Brother's Bar and Restaurant. Some were normal and okay, but there were a lot of shopkeepers whom I felt were rude and were just after my USDs. Once you ask the price, they'd assume you're going to buy and some would get angry when you don't purchase.
• Break your USDs into small denominations, so there will be less chance of you getting change in Cambodian Riel. It's very hard to use and manage because USD 1.00 = 4027.71 Cambodian Riel.
• There's nothing much to buy here. Case in point: Pashminas and scarves excited me while I was at Siem Reap, and I don't even care about here in Manila.
• Next time, I'll think before I book a plane ticket.
• I enjoyed last year's trip to Bangkok, Thailand last year more.
 

So this ends my Cambodia Travel Diary series. I've got #TopeTravelandTours to thank for arranging our trip and itinerary!

Love,
Helen
 

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Cambodia Travel Diary: Day 0 at Siem Reap

My first international travel destination for 2016 was Siem Reap, Cambodia! I wouldn't say that it's part of my bucket list; it was more of an impulsive plane ticket purchase, but I was also curious with Angkor Wat. I went there with Panda, my sister, and three friends. We were able to get our tickets at a very affordable price thanks to Cebu Pacific's seat sale, but tickets like that usually have a not so nice time slot. Our flight was scheduled 7:45PM; the flight was 3 hours and since Cambodia's time is GMT+7, we got there around 9:30PM.

This post is marked Day 0 in my Cambodia Travel Diary since there's hardly any time left to do anything but to eat and rest having arrived late at night. I'll show you where we stayed!

We booked several rooms at King Boutique Hotel. King Boutique Hotel offers complementary pick up service from airport/bus station to and from the hotel. The place had mostly positive and a bit of mixed reviews, but we didn't need a super fancy place to stay, since we're out most of the day anyway. The personnel here in the hotel were very kind, probably the kindest people we've encountered in our trip to Siem Reap.

Bienvenido!

Directly to the right of the door was the bathroom. It's nothing special but I'm thankful it's clean. If you're planning to use the tub, better bring Lysol just to be sure. Throughout my 5-day stay I never saw any creepy crawlers in the room and bathroom which was good.

They also provided complimentary toiletries such as toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and tissue paper rolls.

The room was simple, but it had aircon and WIFI so we're good. The room was spacious enough. Outside the room was a shared balcony for the guests to hang out. In front of the hotel was a nice clean pool, which I got to see and appreciate the next day. Also, the hotel had complimentary bottled water if you ask, so don't hoard them from the convenience store like we did.

The best thing about King Boutique Hotel is its proximity to touristy spots such as Central market, Old market, Night markets, famous Pub Street and other major attractions. There are also ATMs, banks, and convenience stores nearby. It's 15 minutes away from the Siem Reap International Airport, and 10 minutes away from Angkor Wat. Before sleeping, we got hungry so we walked to Pub Street for some midnight snack dinner. 

We got there on a Tuesday night, and Pub Street was alive and brimming with lights and energy. Our first foray into Cambodian cuisine was in Khmer Family Restaurant. It's a Khmer run business and we were curious about their specialty that is the amok (usually a steamed curry dish cooked in banana leaves).

Tip: The main currency used in Cambodia are USD bills. They don't accept USD coins, and they will give you Cambodian Riel bills and coins as change. @_@ Try your best to spend whole dollar amounts so you don't end up with their currency. It's very hard to manage and use because 1 USD = 4,027.71 Cambodian Riel as of press time.

The interiors were nice but the WIFI here was very slow.

Khmer Amok ($5.25)

Pieces of fillet, fish, beef, shrimp, chicken, or pork with fresh coconut cream, onion, cauliflower leaf, egg, and traditional mixed Khmer spices served with steamed jasmine rice

Tom Yum Soup ($5.00)

Your choice of pork, beef, chicken, fish, or shrimp with tomato, mushroom, coconut cream with tom yum paste and served with steamed jasmine rice

Khmer Curry ($5.25)

Traditional Khmer curry with your choice of chicken, beef, fish, pork, or shrimp cooked with carrot, onion, long bean, potato, and fresh coconut cream served with steamed jasmine rice

Fried Mixed Vegetables ($4.50)

Fried mixed vegetable served with steamed jasmine rice
 

I've been to Thailand last year and was so amazed with their cuisine, so I expected the same with their dishes (since Thailand and Cambodia are neighbors), but they're just okay for me. Most of them tasted similar to each other. The coconut milk drowns out the curry's kick, so the dishes end up tasting okay but not WOW. Prices of the dishes in Pub Street were also a bit on the pricey side since it's a touristy place. But still, I was excited to discover more of what this country offered. Stay tuned for my next Cambodian Travel Diary post - it's a 5-part series! :D

Love,
Helen

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