spunky little panda

Once we finally made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia, we ended up staying at this place called Mandalay Inn which wasn’t too far from the main downtown area. Siem Reap is a pretty small little town and overwhelmingly people just come there to see the Angkor Wat temples, which was why we were there.  Angkor served as the seat of the Khmer empire which flourished from the 9th to 15th centuries, and is made up of hundreds of unique temples.  The downtown area of Siem Reap is suuuper touristy and reminds me of this area of Quito in Ecuador called “Gringolandia.” There is a street called Pub Street which just has a bunch of big bars and restaurants geared towards tourists.  Apparently Siem Reap has changed a lot in the last ten years or so and has only gotten so touristy (and in turn lost some of its charm) in response to the public’s demand for and interest in the temples.

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I just realized how behind I am on my updates!! Here’s a bit more about Bangkok and our trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia…

After our eventful first night in Bangkok, we spent the following two days doing mainly shopping and exploring the city during the days and the first night we went to a muay thai boxing match, and the second night we went to a drag show called Calypso Cabaret. We found Bangkok pretty difficult to navigate and overall very confusing (not to mention the fact that people were STILL having water fights everywhere), so we ended up taking a lot of taxis and tuk-tuks to get around as opposed to public transportation.

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Even though it feels like Bangkok was months ago, I guess it was just a little over a week. Here’s what happened when we got there…

So we arrived in Bangkok by plane on the second-to-last night of the water festival celebrating Songkran (the Thai new year) where people dump, spray, and shoot water at you at all hours of the day. Though the festival is only celebrated for a few days in some places, Bangkok celebrates for SEVEN days and SEVEN nights. We got a taxi from the airport and told the driver the name of our hotel and that it’s not too far from Khao San Road, which is the main touristy crazy area. As we neared our hotel, things got progressively crazier and crazier, until we were being tossed out on the sidewalk, bags and all. The taxi driver said something about being unable to drop us too close to the hotel because of the festival, and we could see that roads were blocked so we took his word for it. When he stopped, he just started unloading our bags onto the sidewalk, which was wet and covered in baby powder. I ran out to grab the plastic garbage bag I had brought with me to start putting it over the top of my bag, while Dylan did the same inside the cab, trying to waterproof his bag. He paid the driver, and in the flurry of everything, we didn’t ask the driver which way it was to the hotel. [Note to anyone going to Bangkok: Lamphu Tree House Hotel is a great hotel, but beware of staying there because no cab driver in the city knows where it is, and they will constantly confuse it for Lamphu House, located on Khao San Road, which is what happened in this case.]

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Wanted to take a moment to post a quick update about what’s been going on with me in Southeast Asia! [note: I wrote this a few days ago but didn’t have time to post it so it’s a couple days off]

Today is the last of four days spent in Singapore, which has been our first stopping point, our gateway to Asia. I freaking loved Singapore! I think it will be very different from most of the other places we’ll go, which is very exciting and cool. I love how well the city is planned out, how clean and organized it is, and how the city incorporates so much green space into its landscape.

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