Destination #2: Siem Reap, Cambodia

After a wonderful week in Koh Samui, Thailand, this afternoon we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our week on the island was so great.  We spent a lot of the time relaxing and reading by the pools or on the beautiful beach.  We spent one day on a boat tour to Angthong National Marine Park, where we went snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, and hiking amongst the small islands that make up the park.  The beauty of everything we saw was simply incredible.  Taking in so much sun and heat the first week of March was pretty cool too, though we both got a little more sun than we had planned to!

We will spend the next couple of days in Siem Reap before taking a bus south to Phnom Penh on Tuesday.  Tomorrow our day will start before the sun as we have a tour guide scheduled to pick us up from our hotel and take us to Angkor Wat for the sunrise.  We will spend all day tomorrow touring some of the temples with a guide and Monday probably touring some of the other temples on our own.  Already we have seen Cambodia is very different than any where we have been to before.  As we were having dinner outside this evening I had to constantly remind Eric that, sadly, he can't give something to every child we see since if you give to one you will immediately be bombarded by a hundred.  This will be a different kind of week for sure, but we are very excited to see and learn more about these places.

Something interesting we already learned on our way from the airport to our hotel is that there is a large Korean population living in Siem Reap and we got so excited when we saw a couple of store names written in Korean!  There is even a North Korean restaurant not far from our hotel that we hope to go to before we leave.  Eric also informed me as we got off the plane this afternoon that we are officially the farthest we will probably ever be from a McDonald's.  I don't think that really matters too much but he thinks it's a pretty interesting fact!

It feels hotter here in Cambodia than it was in Thailand.  I don't think either of us will be too sad to return the Pacific Northwest rain in about 8 days!