So long Siem Reap.
With nearly every team that has come to work with us in Cambodia, we have ended our time with them by spending two days in Siem Reap, a growing tourist destination in northern Cambodia. It allows the teams some down time to reflect on their experience, get a break from having rice for 3 meals a day, visit Angkor Wat, ride in tuk-tuk's, and finally get to have things like ice, fresh veggies, and dairy :)
It's the little things in life...
Josh and I have often joked throughout our time here about our plan to move to Siem Reap and base teams out of there rather than Phnom Penh. It just makes sense! There is an airport, excellent Mexican food, and we would of course reside at the "modest" Cozyna Hotel for a reasonable daily fee that would include breakfast, a swimming pool, cable TV, and a hotel staff who all believe my husband's name to be "John."
(He finally just went with it, thus fulfilling every young man's dream of having an alias...)
We love this place. It loves us. And they give you a complimentary glass of juice as you enter. Who could ask for anything more??
Sadly, we could never convince anyone but ourselves of the sheer genius of this plan.
This trip to Siem Reap with the team from Snohomish marked our last time at a number of our favorite spots...including:
The Blue Pumpkin.
Does the name make sense? No.
Are the cute little coasters too expensive to justify as a souvenir? Yes.
Do they have the best iced coffee in all of Siem Reap? Yes. (and for the record that is liquid sugar I'm holding in my hand....to alleviate any confusions or concern..)
Do they have comfy couches, dizzying artwork and the only air conditioned upstairs restaurant on Pub Street? Definitely.
We had our last dinner at The Soup Dragon with the team which included plenty of pizza, as well as everyone's favorite risky meal, "Macaroni with Harm and Cheese." It's a popular one, along with "Meal Lovets Pizza." Not a lot of menu editing going on at the Soup Dragon, despite them having new menus this last visit.
The Soup Dragon also included plenty of views of the city.....
and by views of the city I mean views of The Blue Pumpkin, UCare Pharmacy, other restaurants on our same street, and yes of course, everyone's favorite...fish massage!
That's right friends, Siem Reap is prime location for that age old skin care remedy we all lovingly refer to worldwide as the Fish Massage.
As if the sign isn't entirely inviting and self-explanatory in its own right, I will go a step further to explain that you simply put both of your feet into a large pool teeming with tiny fish who quickly and gently come to gnaw on your naked foot flesh eating away at skin, bacteria, and potentially portions of your small toe (though the eye-witness reports remain unconfirmed at this point).
And now I can't imagine a better way to segue into more restaurant hot spots the husband and I hit while in Siem Reap!
We visited our favorite Mexican restaurant, Viva! for $1 tacos, authentic Mona Lisa paintings (don't spoil it for us), and a large screen TV featuring our favorite sport, Soccer!!
Well, maybe I should clarify that we are aspiring soccer fans because we are moving back to Seattle, where soccer is apparently becoming quite popular. And we love things that are popular. Like Super Nintendo, Full House, and Arsenio Hall.
We also went to our very favorite ice cream spot with its claim that "Happiness Never Melts."
Your ice cream will though, even in the air conditioning.
And friends, it was amazing.
Safety first kids.
"Happy Special Pizza".
"Happy Herb Pizza."
And any restaurant including the words "Happy," "Ecstatic," "Herb," or any combination of these....
It's the little things in life...
Josh and I have often joked throughout our time here about our plan to move to Siem Reap and base teams out of there rather than Phnom Penh. It just makes sense! There is an airport, excellent Mexican food, and we would of course reside at the "modest" Cozyna Hotel for a reasonable daily fee that would include breakfast, a swimming pool, cable TV, and a hotel staff who all believe my husband's name to be "John."
(He finally just went with it, thus fulfilling every young man's dream of having an alias...)
We love this place. It loves us. And they give you a complimentary glass of juice as you enter. Who could ask for anything more??
Sadly, we could never convince anyone but ourselves of the sheer genius of this plan.
This trip to Siem Reap with the team from Snohomish marked our last time at a number of our favorite spots...including:
The Blue Pumpkin.
Does the name make sense? No.
Are the cute little coasters too expensive to justify as a souvenir? Yes.
Do they have the best iced coffee in all of Siem Reap? Yes. (and for the record that is liquid sugar I'm holding in my hand....to alleviate any confusions or concern..)
Do they have comfy couches, dizzying artwork and the only air conditioned upstairs restaurant on Pub Street? Definitely.
We had our last dinner at The Soup Dragon with the team which included plenty of pizza, as well as everyone's favorite risky meal, "Macaroni with Harm and Cheese." It's a popular one, along with "Meal Lovets Pizza." Not a lot of menu editing going on at the Soup Dragon, despite them having new menus this last visit.
The Soup Dragon also included plenty of views of the city.....
and by views of the city I mean views of The Blue Pumpkin, UCare Pharmacy, other restaurants on our same street, and yes of course, everyone's favorite...fish massage!
That's right friends, Siem Reap is prime location for that age old skin care remedy we all lovingly refer to worldwide as the Fish Massage.
As if the sign isn't entirely inviting and self-explanatory in its own right, I will go a step further to explain that you simply put both of your feet into a large pool teeming with tiny fish who quickly and gently come to gnaw on your naked foot flesh eating away at skin, bacteria, and potentially portions of your small toe (though the eye-witness reports remain unconfirmed at this point).
And now I can't imagine a better way to segue into more restaurant hot spots the husband and I hit while in Siem Reap!
We visited our favorite Mexican restaurant, Viva! for $1 tacos, authentic Mona Lisa paintings (don't spoil it for us), and a large screen TV featuring our favorite sport, Soccer!!
Well, maybe I should clarify that we are aspiring soccer fans because we are moving back to Seattle, where soccer is apparently becoming quite popular. And we love things that are popular. Like Super Nintendo, Full House, and Arsenio Hall.
We also went to our very favorite ice cream spot with its claim that "Happiness Never Melts."
Your ice cream will though, even in the air conditioning.
Something new for us in our last few weeks here has been a newfound desire to shop in the markets.
Normally we only go to the markets out of necessity or to take teams there, but we've made a few purchases for home and in the midst of our shopping after all this time of living in Cambodia ventured out to the Night Market in Siem Reap.
And friends, it was amazing.
Truly.
If you are ever in Siem Reap, we most likely won't be with you, so we will suggest via this blog to check out the night market. It is deceptively spacious, beautifully lit, allows for cooler nighttime temperature, and YES there are multiple Fish Massage pools set up.
The only thing it does not contain is a guy who willingly jumps through a hoop of fire knives.
The good news?? We found him elsewhere. And for $.50 he let us take his picture.
Safety first kids.
Just kidding.
Places we did not go during our time in Siem Reap include...
"Happy Special Pizza".
"Happy Herb Pizza."
And any restaurant including the words "Happy," "Ecstatic," "Herb," or any combination of these....
It's for the best, really.
We also did not go to Dr. Feet.
Thanks anyway Dr. Feet, but I think I'll go ahead and stick with good old Dr. Garra Rufa, more commonly referred to in the prestigious aquatic realm of the medical field as "Dr. Fish" for all of my footcare needs.
So peace for now Siem Reap. We will miss you old friend. It's been good. And we will miss our "Uncle" Naret, the tuk tuk driver (and his crew) we would enlist for every visit.
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