There will have to be several posts just to get all the pictures loaded from the time we have had in Siem Reap. This is one of the places I highly recommend getting to at some point in your life. We arrived on Tuesday after a 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. This bus ride was note worthy for the following:
1. It was cheap- $11 with a company called Mekong Express- very good company to book with.
2. It was bizarre- the whole trip was spent listening to the driver honk the horn every few minutes at something in the road- which was quite loud on a bus. There was a tour guide who at random times would start to give you some information on what you were seeing- he did this all in Cambodian and then translated in to English. To add to this, there is a TV on the bus playing THE WORST karaoke videos you can imagine- horribly written songs, which thank goodness you can barely hear in the background- but reading the lyrics was painful. And the videos are all of one woman in a horrible 80's business casual outfit looking up in to the sky longingly. That's if the song is a love song. If her man cheated on her or left her, she's frolicking through the fields and doing ballet stretches on tractors in her business casual outfit. It was like a train wreck- you couldn't look away. We had a rest stop about half way through and then when we got back on the bus we got to watch Mr. Bean for the last couple hours.
We arrived in Siem Reap in the afternoon and our driver, Mr. Seng, was waiting at the station to take us to the hotel we had booked. Now I think that the hotel deserves a mention on it's own as well. We had originally tried to book at The Villa Siem Reap, but they did not have enough availability, so they offered for us to book at their new resort called Sojourn. The resort is a 5 star resort by all standards that I can tell, and the rooms are normally $200/night. We got a killer deal at $40 a night. It just opened in January, so I think they are trying to build a clientele, and we were more than happy to participate. :) I didn't really take any pics there so I am linking the website to this post for you to look at- it was amazing. There are 12 private bungalows- which were very big and had huge beds, a sitting area, and the bathrooms- wow- this is how you know you're in a 5 star resort- they were bigger than some rooms we've had and there was no spray hose by the toilet- only toilet paper. :) There was a huge bathtub with a waterfall faucet- so the water poured down one side of the tub to fill it, a separate shower and then a separate outdoor private shower. There is a pool with a swim up bar and the restaurant serves excellent food. So we splurged for a few nights- and it was so worth it. The staff was fantastic too! I cannot recommend this place enough if you can afford to stay there. It's out of the main city- out in the country and it's so nice and quite. Our first night there was an amazing lightening storm in the clouds we sat and watched during dinner. There are frogs and lizards on our porch at night, and the sounds of birds and cicadas all the time. Amazing.
We've spent the past few days doing tours with the Villa, so I will post those individually as I can- I've taken about 800 pictures in the past 3.5 days- so unless you've got a separate bank account that funds film development a digital is a must here.
http://www.sojournsiemreap.com/
1. It was cheap- $11 with a company called Mekong Express- very good company to book with.
2. It was bizarre- the whole trip was spent listening to the driver honk the horn every few minutes at something in the road- which was quite loud on a bus. There was a tour guide who at random times would start to give you some information on what you were seeing- he did this all in Cambodian and then translated in to English. To add to this, there is a TV on the bus playing THE WORST karaoke videos you can imagine- horribly written songs, which thank goodness you can barely hear in the background- but reading the lyrics was painful. And the videos are all of one woman in a horrible 80's business casual outfit looking up in to the sky longingly. That's if the song is a love song. If her man cheated on her or left her, she's frolicking through the fields and doing ballet stretches on tractors in her business casual outfit. It was like a train wreck- you couldn't look away. We had a rest stop about half way through and then when we got back on the bus we got to watch Mr. Bean for the last couple hours.
We arrived in Siem Reap in the afternoon and our driver, Mr. Seng, was waiting at the station to take us to the hotel we had booked. Now I think that the hotel deserves a mention on it's own as well. We had originally tried to book at The Villa Siem Reap, but they did not have enough availability, so they offered for us to book at their new resort called Sojourn. The resort is a 5 star resort by all standards that I can tell, and the rooms are normally $200/night. We got a killer deal at $40 a night. It just opened in January, so I think they are trying to build a clientele, and we were more than happy to participate. :) I didn't really take any pics there so I am linking the website to this post for you to look at- it was amazing. There are 12 private bungalows- which were very big and had huge beds, a sitting area, and the bathrooms- wow- this is how you know you're in a 5 star resort- they were bigger than some rooms we've had and there was no spray hose by the toilet- only toilet paper. :) There was a huge bathtub with a waterfall faucet- so the water poured down one side of the tub to fill it, a separate shower and then a separate outdoor private shower. There is a pool with a swim up bar and the restaurant serves excellent food. So we splurged for a few nights- and it was so worth it. The staff was fantastic too! I cannot recommend this place enough if you can afford to stay there. It's out of the main city- out in the country and it's so nice and quite. Our first night there was an amazing lightening storm in the clouds we sat and watched during dinner. There are frogs and lizards on our porch at night, and the sounds of birds and cicadas all the time. Amazing.
We've spent the past few days doing tours with the Villa, so I will post those individually as I can- I've taken about 800 pictures in the past 3.5 days- so unless you've got a separate bank account that funds film development a digital is a must here.
http://www.sojournsiemreap.com/
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1 comment:
I am so jealous!
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