Back to Siem Reap!

After a strange few days in Phnom Penh we are happily returning to the sleepy town of Siem Reap, via and overnight bus that leaves Phnom Penh tonight at 11pm, arriving in Siem Reap at 7am tomorrow morning. We will he staying at the same hostel as we did before. We have booked 2 nights stay, we will leave Siem Reap on Feb 1st to go back to Thailand (a trip we are both dreading!).

Over the past few days we have experienced the Toul Seng Genocide Museum, the Russian Market, Central Market and unfortunately many beggars, homeless people and children sleeping on the streets- hence why we are glad to be leaving. We did not account for the amount of money we would end up spending on helping these people survive. Although to us, it's only spare change. 

The genocide museum was really horrible to see, but helped us to understand what life was like here during the Khmer Rouge; a vision that neither of us will ever forget.

S-21 a.k.a Toul Seng is a former High School, converted into a torture house and prison during the Khmer Rouge (1970s-80s), when anybody that believed in God, had an education, looked foreign or had a high paying job were tortured and executed. During the Khmer Rouge over 2 million Cambodian people were executed.

After our trip to Toul Seng we took a short tuk tuk ride to the Russian Market; a huge indoor market famous for the Russian silk and cloth made and sold there. It was cool to look around but you could also literally buy anything there, from bags of glitter to tyres and powertools. Weird place! (And strangely not full of Russian as I expected).

Over the past few days we have just been chilling and buying cheap food and drink! By the best meal we had was last night at The Lost Room (in more detail below!).

Courtney's iced black coffee

$2 noodles!

Courtney refusing to use chopsticks^

Some weirdass Japanese desert consisting of ice, milk, beans and taro. We still don't know how we feel about it.

Our meal at The Lost Room yesterday is something neither of us will ever forget!

First of all I found two different addresses, for the same restaurant! So I showed the tuk tuk man and even he was confused; we got into the tuk tuk anyway and had a scary/interesting journey through the backstreets, searching for the so-called "2nd best restaurant in Phnom Penh", in the weirdest place you could imagine! Tucked away in the dingy back alley was a small, dimly lit restaurant, shielded by huge iron gates. We paid the tuk tuk driver and timidly entered The Lost Room; a decision none of us will ever forget! 

As we walked inside the gated doors we were promptly greeted by a tall slim Australian man, Derek, the owner and creator of the menu at The Lost Room. 

As the second customers of the night, we were happily lead to a table and were given menus, shortly before being introduced to the menu by Derek, who really knew a lot about his food! His idea for his menu was that the dishes should be shared between the diners, each dish brining a strong new flavour to the course. He even allowed us to order "half portions" to allow us to sample more food!

The menu was a little more expensive than our usual budget in this city, but we went all out nonetheless!

Our bill came to something like $50 for the two of us, which is about £33 for 6 small courses and two drinks, we were so amazed!!

The starters we ordered were blue and goats cheese parcels with mango dip and feta cheese dips with veg- both were so so good!

Our next two courses were seared kangaroo fillets and morrocan spiced duck, also both awesome dishes!

Lastly we enjoyed homemade white chocolate bark and a cheesecake stuffed poached apple!

That concluded our best (or contending) meal so far! Battling at a close second with the Barracuda and Pork in Koh Samui!

We will be arriving in Siem Reap tomorrow morning, staying until the 1st Feb and then crossing back over to Thailand on the 1st Feb in order to obtain our 15 day visa. We meet back up with Brandon (from USA), on the 2nd Feb and we will all travel to Chiang Mai together via a night train, staying in Chiang Mai for a minimum of 4 nights, bringing us to Feb 7th, when we will decide to either go back to Bangkok, or stay a few more days and then return to Bangkok, ready for the arrival of My (Luke's family) on the 12th Feb!

(This post has published on 30th Jan, I wrote it yesterday, before the horrible bus journey here during which I got no sleep at all and Courtney slept like a baby!)

Phnom Penh

At 6am this morning we arrived in the just awakening capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. After a strange night on the sleeper bus, we were hastily awoken by the bus lights as we pulled up to the Giant Ibis office. It was a strange feeling not knowing where we were and what awaited us outside the bus. Unsurprisingly we were greeted by a group of Tuk Tuk drivers hungry for fares. As we were sleepy and exhausted, we picked the first driver than asked, grabbed our bags and headed to our hostel.

We were dropped outside our small friendly hostel, after being weaved through the morning hustle of Phnom Penh; past cyclos and street vendors, we felt the difference from the sleepy ambience of Siem Reap. 

We walked into the hostel and asked how long before we could check-in, we were informed it would be until at least 12oclock. We sat in the lobby and ordered breakfast and waited... And waited and waited. We found out eventually that the guy who stayed in the room wasn't even in there! At 11.45 he rocked up, collected his bag and left! So we basically waited 5 hours for nothing, they could have cleaned his room and been done by 8am! What a clown.

But anyway the staff at the hostel are great, the owner is an Australian guy who is really helpful.

We slept from 12 til 8.30pm, we are now sitting on the river front eating some comfort food: pizza and chicken nuggets.

Tomorrow we will go to the Toul Sleng genocide museum (S-21) and Russian market. We have both been reading a book called "First They Killed my Father", written by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge communist takeover. We have both found it both fascinating and deeply disturbing. It has really inspired us to go to the genocide museum and we will also visit the Killing Fields in a few days too. 

(Google: Khmer Rouge Phnom Penh for background info). The events that took place here were horrific, however the Cambodian people still keep their welcoming and friendly charm; a credit to these people, whose streets were stripped of all character and thousands slaughtered at the hands of the Angkar.

I'm sure the next few days will be moving!