Dinner, massage and a tuk tuk ride

The previous post in this series is here..

After the Wat Phra Singh temple, Joy told us that he would drop us off at Raj Darbar, the most popular Indian restaurant in the area among his clients. After dinner it was a 5 minute walk to the night market. We could hang out there and get a Tuk Tuk to go to our hotel. Our hotel was a good 30+ minute walk at least from this area but a 4 minute Tuk Tuk ride along the same road.

We had a really nice dinner at the restaurant. The waiter was too nice and courteous. Came and checked on us every 10 minutes.

Walked around the night market and after 30 minutes decided to go for a massage at Cloud Massage. It was a full body Thai massage for 10 USD. The place was small but nice and the people were super nice. San and me both enjoyed the massage.. Was worried at one point that the full dinner was a bad idea before the massage.. but nothing bad happened. Would definitely recommend this place if you have an hour plus for a massage. Will also recommend you go before dinner..

We walked some more and San made a mental note of things she has to eat before leaving this place. There was no more room in the tummy for that evening. Got a tuk tuk and went back to our hotel. Given how we had started the day in a pharmacy, we were both feeling great. The herbal lozenges did wonders!

Here is a short video highlights reel..

The next morning we told him to just get me enough miini croissants and orange juice boxes and we are happy. We were to leave at 6:45 to a place that was 2 hour drive.

An evening to remember in Siem Reap City

The previous post in this series is here..

It had been a long day. We had woken up at 3:45AM to leave the hotel at 4AM and had made 6 stops by noon. Had eaten parts of the packed breakfast (San could eat a lot more than me given the allergies) and some energy bars and kept going. By 1PM when we came back to the hotel we were exhausted. After a 3 hour nap and some Wagh Bakri chai, we decided to go enjoy golden hour along the river.

The plan was to walk along the river, cross over to the night market restaurant area, eat dinner and walk back to the hotel. It was just a 20-25 minute walk. The river walk was beautiful. Then we walked to the same area where we had found dinner and decided to go to a different restaurant. I thought the writing was in Telugu from a distance.. turns it out was in the local language. The food was decent. We both were developing a sore throat. So we stuck to simple safe items. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was still early.

Enjoyed the food and walked back.. Saw a cat restaurant on the way back and was missing the little one. She loves cats. I am told that one day I will be a Crampa (cat grandpa).. and that is all the pa I will get.. but given I am allergic to most cats, that privilege will be lost on me.

A video highlights reel..

We got back to the hotel by 7 and it was lights out. Our driver had promised one more sunrise, this time we would actually get to see the sun come out over the forests atop another temple on the hill. We were to leave the hotel by 4:30AM.. again. San was in two minds and said she will decide at 4AM, but I begged her to join me in the morning and we dozed off.

Siem Reap river park, dinner and a tuk-tuk ride

The previous post in this series is here..

Believe it or not, this is the 10th stop for day 3 of our trip. Our first day of sightseeing in Cambodia that started before 7AM and ended at 6:30 PM.

Our driver stopped near the river park that was just beautiful. Given the traffic we ran across to catch the view and came back to the car. We found that we could actually walk to this place from our hotel. Made a mental note to do that the following day. After this our driver showed us around the night market area and the central square with all the restaurants. He told us it would be a 15 minute walk to our hotel after our dinner or we could take a tuk tuk back for 1 to 1.5$.

It was a choice between Modiji’s Indian restaurant or Lotus Indian restaurant. We picked Lotus. The food and service was awesome. We did feel that the yogurt was interesting. Later we learned that yoghurt in Cambodia was made from milk powder. Dairy is not a concept there and cows are only eaten. Was thinking “little wonder then that all the temples are in ruins”.

Here is a video highlights reel..

After dinner we decided to take the tuk tuk to the hotel. We were going to be picked up by our driver at 4:30 AM the next morning to see the sunrise..

It was an exhausting day with 10 stops and non stop sightseeing, a fall that ended in a bruised leg that still had not been attended to.. just went back to the hotel, took two tylenol and crashed. The next day was going to be busy as well!